Cause(s) for alarm

1) Annie hit her head against the wall in P.E. last week. The explanation they gave me was that Annie and her friend Bodhi were both chasing the same spongy ball; in the scuffle, Bodhi bumped Annie, and Annie slammed into the cinderblock wall. She had an enormous purple, swollen bump on her forehead for several days. Then her left eye blackened. Then her right eye blackened. I realized it was drainage from the forehead injury, not a second facial injury.
Poor girl. Poor bruised girl. (Note - this picture is sort of fish-eyed, and no, Annie's head is not actually pear-shaped, but I had to get up close to capture the bruises.)

Annie is self-conscious to begin with. This amplified all of her anxieties. She did not want people noticing. I actually let her take a sick day the next day because her head was hurting. But then I had to send her to school with a powder compact (to 'disguise' the bruises) the day after that.

"Mom, that powder did NOT cover it up like you said it would!" she told me at the end of the day. Gulp.

Of course we got a few "So, you're keeping your kids in line?" jokes from total strangers, accompanied by hitting gestures.


2) I own a pair of red love-inscribed pajama bottoms. Graham grabbed the camera the other night and starting taking pictures of me, the linoleum, the cat food bowl, a purple dress in the closet, and who knows what else ?!?!? He laughed most uproariously at the photo of my pants.

I know that I could stand to exercise, but still, it's a bit disconcerting to be such a source of amusement.

3) Graham loves to beat box, and has a hard time refraining from his beats and bops and clicks, even when he should be quiet, i.e. bedtime & church meetings. This noisy skill is not really a huge cause for alarm, but I wanted to include this picture because it so captures Graham in the midst of a beat. (Now who's laughing?)

Spooky dervish kite-claiming tree

I thought it deserved its own post.
Also, I forgot to upload this picture with the other post.

Marni and I could not stop laughing at Graham's kite, spinning and spinning in the tree. It did not need a person to fly it.

Graham was not amused.
Not amused by the kite and definitely not amused by us laughing at the kite.
"It's NOT funny!" he bellowed. (Graham is a bellower - I am not just using the verb to add variety. It's actually appropriate.)

A kind man helped Graham get it out of the tree. The string was ruined and the kite had no future, but still, it was very nice of him to help.

Jonathan gave Graham a kite-flying lesson.
"How come YOUR kite works?" Graham asked him, accusingly.
"I've been flying kites all my life," answered Jonathan.
I'm not sure if Graham made the connection.

North Texas kite flying

Windy day? Check.
Overcast sky? Check.
$1.00 kites? Of course!
Graham's Iron Man kite caught in tree within first ten minutes at park? Uh oh.
Graham distraught at his dervish kite, spinning itself madly in the branches? What do you think?
Annie on the monkey bars within first ten minutes at park? Yup.
Ellie worried that her Barbie kite will fly away? Oh dear...
Miles exploring happily in the field? Yes. Until he found the fire ant mound.
Fire ants in February? No way!
Erin prematurely aged by the wind? The pictures do not lie, I'm afraid.

Happy Birthday, Fred ... continued

Other celebrities with birthday cake on their minds this fine February day?


Jennifer Aniston

and Burt Reynolds,
who actually shares the same birth day and year with Fred!

Happy Birthday, Fred!

Sherry, my dad's sister, sent this wonderful birthday photo collage to my dad, and I thought it needed a post of its own, both to celebrate my dad and his sunglasses!

Recycled Books

Denton boasts a great used book store that Jonathan knew I would enjoy: Recycled Books.

With Annie & Ellie in tow, we had limited time to browse, but perhaps that was for the best. It took only ten minutes to find 15 books I would love to own!

I loved the homemade wooden shelves, the steep stairs, the hand-lettered signs ("No leaning on the stair rail please!"), the green shag carpeting, the whole vibe.

We have a Half-Price Books here, and I am a frequent visitor, but this had an even more 'independent' vibe. The salespeople had facial hair art OR multiple piercings OR funky glasses (or all three!), and were very helpful ("Are you an educator? If you are, I'll give you a 10% discount.")

My selections?
1. Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje - I loved The English Patient, and my friends Jennifer & Todd have recommended this book more than once. I've looked in multiple book stores, and this is the first time I've ever found a copy. Even Jennifer & Todd couldn't find their copy when they first made the recommendation. I was starting to think that this memoir of his family life in Sri Lanka did not exist. Yay!


2. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - If I'm not mistaken (and I hope I'm not because I keep spouting off this ranking), this was the New York Times' recommendation for best fiction of 2008. (I could doublecheck that, but oh well...)

Any novel that focuses on a niche group or subgroup of the larger population, whether it be spelling bee champions or goat rodeo riders, already has my interest. In this case, the subgroup is Trinidadian cricket players in New York City.

The dust jacket had me at 'Chuck Ramkissoon evokes The Great Gatsby.'
3.The Really Wicked Droning Wasp And Other Things That Bite and Sting for Graham. It's a DK book, and to me, that's all I need to see. I would check out Sewage: A Water Treatment Journey if it had that DK logo in the corner. But it doesn't hurt that Graham is fascinated/terrified by stinging, flying bugs.

I let Annie choose her book. It's called The Easter Bunny. Its cover is wrapped in pink faux fur. It does not have a Dorling Kindersley logo in the corner. No surprise - there's no image available.

And Jonathan found this for himself. Fun nightstand reading! :)

Sweet (?) dreams

Graham hasn't fully shed the cough that plagued him during the holiday season. He had bronchitis in December, and he's still coughing, off and on, at night.

Graham and Annie share a room, and for the most part, this works great. Stories at the same time, prayers at the same time, repeated requests for snacks at the same time. It's all three of us in there together!

But having a cougher in the same room makes it hard to go to sleep. The sounds are amplified to an unbearable volume level. Annie has had enough of his coughing at bedtime. (As I keep pointing out to her, he can't help it. That seems insignificant to her tired brain.)

When we visited the Yarringtons this weekend, Annie finally snapped. The three of us were sleeping on an air mattress (everyone gravitated toward the center - me - during the night, and ended up on the air mattress), and Graham started a coughing fit. Annie turned to me, mostly asleep but not happy, and said, "Graham, I can't even hear my dream, you're coughing so loud!" She then turned over and returned to her dream, I presume.

A good dream is a precious thing!

I recall a memorable dream when I was twelve - in the dream, we were leaving to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Twin Falls!!! - that was so vivid and believable that I wanted to pack my suitcase when I woke up. I really thought we were leaving that morning. I was sad when it turned out I had to go to school.