This and That

It's been a busy week at our house, and this next one is shaping up to be about the same! Let's see, Wednesday Grandpa was watching the girls and had a doctor's appointment that he couldn't change, so I left work early and drove to pick up my little one from preschool. Wednesday was beautiful here -- sunny, warm -- definitely Spring-like! When I arrived at my girl's preschool, I found her class outside taking a little walk in the sunshine. I was greeted by the sweetest little 3-year-old smiling and arms extended, yelling "Mommy!" Great break in the middle of the work day! My 9-year-old had a half-day of school that day, so we decided to make her day and drive over to school to pick her up -- saving her an hour ride on the "dreaded bus!" We went home and I made lunch for the three of us, and then Grandpa was back on duty and I went back to work.

Thursday, my husband and I both left work early to go to our girl's school for a parent-teacher conference. She is doing very well in school and we are thrilled with her teacher this year, so it is always a pleasure to talk to him. This is our girl's last year at her elementary school where she has spent the past 4 years (K-3), and her third grade teacher had great things to say about the teachers at her new middle (4-6) school. We are also very excited, because she gets to choose an instrument to play next year, and has the opportunity to play in the band or orchestra -- we're a big music family, and she is VERY excited! Narrowing her "first choices" down to just three is a bit of a trial for her... I think she's settled on flute, clarinet, violin as her top three.

Friday, my little one and I went to lunch with Grandpa and Great Gram which was a nice treat! When we were leaving, my girlie asked for a balloon, which she received, and then the two of us went over to take care of this week's grocery shopping. On the way in to the store, my girl desperately wanted to bring her balloon in, but I suggested that we leave it in the car. She had some compelling arguments ("PUH-LEEZE!!") and so I tied the balloon to her wrist and we went shopping. I spent the first half of the shopping trip getting hit in the head by the balloon -- because she was sitting in the back of the cart, and the balloon was right there and my head-level. That was fun! Then we got over to beverages, and all of a sudden, the balloon came loose from the string and floated up to the ceiling. She and I watched it almost as if it were in slow-motion but neither of us could grab it. It was easily 10 ft above my head, and my girl said, "Can you get it?" I reached my arm up in the air and said, "No, see, Mommy's arm is not long enough!" She remained surprisingly calm -- I think she was so taken aback by it coming off the string, she didn't know how to react. She had two little tears that squeezed out of her eyes, but no big hysterics -- bless her! I gave her big hugs and kisses and we went on shopping. A few aisles over, she said very matter-of-factly, "You should call the fighter-fighters. The fighter-fighters will come and get it!" (Um, that would be firefighters.) I said, "Oh, honey, I don't think they can come into the store and get it, I'm sorry!" But I thought it was so cute, that I grabbed my cell phone to call Grandpa and share it with him. She saw my phone and said, "Are you calling the fighter-fighters?" Too cute!

For the past two days, sadly, my husband and I have been (unbeknownst to the girls) on a "death watch" with one of our new fish! Our littlest girl's fish is not looking good... Very sluggish, very still. We did not think the fish was going to make it through the night, and my husband planned to run out to Petco for a replacement this morning, if necessary. Our little girlie was up early and she and I made it downstairs at the same time. She sweetly went over and said, "Good morning, fishy!" and then went off to play. I went over to peek at the fish, totally thought it was dead, and discreetly ran up to wake my husband. It actually is moving every once in a while, so we don't want to jump the gun, but we're not holding out much hope... I'll keep you posted!