Emergency Room

So we made trip to the emergency room last night. So you are not kept in suspense, everyone is now fine. We were walking to the library for their last summer kids activity. Charlotte had decided she was thirsty and had slowed down to drink some water. When she ran to catch up she fell flat on her face and cut up her chin pretty bad. Since we had walked and were about half a mile from home, it took us a few minutes to sort out what to do. Some people a few houses down had been outside and were wonderful. The brought out a first aid kit to help stop the bleeding and to bandage her up. The wife sat down with Sammy and calmed her down while Peter ran home to get the car. The husband brought out a clean shirt for Charlotte (hers was drenched in blood), and then got Popsicles for the girls while we waited for Peter.
Understandably, both girls were pretty upset. Charlie cried for Daddy the whole time he was gone but calmed down considerably once we were in the car. I think while her chin really hurt, it was more the chaos that was frightening her. Sammy couldn't stand the sight of the blood and was upset that Charlotte was screaming and she didn't know if this was a minor thing or a major thing.
We got to the ER, and while it seemed like a long wait when my child had a gash in her chin, She had stopped bleeding and we probably only had to wait 10 minutes to see a nurse and another 5 or so to see the doctor. They didn't even need stitches. They have a glue called "dermabond" and glued the whole shut. Charlie had been calm, even cheerful, up until this point. But the strangeness of the situation and the doctor hovering over her were too much and she started bawling again, which of course had Sammy hiding in the curtain. But once the doctor left we all calmed down quickly and returned home. The doctor thought Charlie might end up with a black eye, but aside from her initial abrasions, she looked fine this morning. Whew.

"Duty is my new favorite word!"

In the past few days, Charlie Dot has fallen in love with the word "Duty". At first we thought she thought it was a funny way to refer to bathroom habits, but no, she just seems to like the word (as we have only used it in the sense of obligation). We have a collection of funny sounding words. My family will recognize that our list started with "rutabaga" and "kumquat". I don't think the girls exactly realize those are real words. Our list also includes "didgeridoo" and "heeby jeebies". Sammy at some point added "green dumpster". I think she just thought the list was arbitrary, but she still laughs when she hears the word. And now we have "duty". Peter told the girls a make-up story involving a man in the army (Johny) who was no good at anything (except marching... you can guess where that went), so he kept getting "duties" Kitchen duty, hole digging duty, hole filling duty... Charlie was delighted.
Charlotte also loves the song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", though of course has considerable trouble with the words. The interlude between verses includes some nonsense "humdeedle dee dee Hum diddle eye..." Since it was nonsense anyway, Charlie just stuck in the word "Duty" for the heck of it.

On a completely unrelated note, here it is almost midnight, and instead of going to bed here I am. I blame the summer. While I have classes starting at 8 over the summer, but not until nine usually during the year, we have been letting the girls stay up a bit later. Their schedules are not so rigid. So by the time they are down for the night, and I can pick up some work or knitting in peace, I really ought to be going to bed. But I need my kid free time to unwind! What'll I do when their bed-times are later just because they are older?

Church today was interesting. I was helping serve communion, when we ran out. That's right, we ran out of communion. Now, for those not familiar with communion in the Lutheran church there are two important features I should note. We take bread and wine, but the bread is supposed to be unleavened (flat) because that was what was eaten at the passover. Secondly, unlike in other protestant churches, the communion is not seen as a symbolic gesture, but rather the bread and wine become holy after being properly blessed. With about a dozen people to go, there was no more bread, and dwindling wine. Someone ran off to find bread while the rest of us stood there for what seemed like forever. I thought perhaps there was a supply of unleavened bread that we had. No, apparently it is made each week. We couldn't just grab a few slices of sandwich bread. So when the person returned it was with... wait for it... apricot pound cake ( I think, but some kind of shortbread). Then the pastor did the VERY abbreviated blessing over the pound cake, and the last few people had probably the tastiest communion of their lives. (And we just barely stretched the wine). Too bad we weren't working with loaves and fishes!

Hankey Doodle

Happly Fourth of July! We've been singing patriotic songs all week. Charlie Dot's favorite is "Hankey Doodle". :)

Garden of Constants

While I was at my conference at OSU, we took the girls to the "Garden of constants". The most promenant feature is these giant numbers scattered about. There are also imbedded in the walkway thinks like pi and boltzman's constants, but these are much less noticeable. At one point I had it in mind that I would take Sammy's picture by these numbers each summer. Then we moved to Kentucky, so it didn't happen. But I thought, as long as we're in the area!

Peter took the girls to Villlage to meet some old colleagues and to the Park of Roses. The Rose festival was not going on, but the flowers were in full bloom. He also wen't to Trader Joe's to stalk up on some of our favorite Chai Mix. Later we let them run around at the mall for a while because were were going to be in the car for a while.

I'm from China!

Sammy and Chalie have been playing a game all morning that they are now calling "China". It started as "house" while we were in PA. Sammy (the mom) sent Charlie Dot to school. She came into the bedroom with her lunchbox and announced "I'm from China!" She repeated this several times while "riding the bus" and "eating her lunch" and then "going home". Now the game is called china instead of house and the girls are wearing blankets like long skirts to get ready for a ball of some kind. I think Sammy is stretching Charlie Dot's patience a bit though. Plus, it is WAY past naptime!

Strawberry Picking

Erika Suggested we go strawberry picking. Apparently in KY, the season ends in late may, but we managed to find a few. The girls seemed to enjoy it, but what was more fun was eating the strawberry shortcake that night. I also made some jam. Yum!

Birthday Bash

Sammy had her birthday party last weekend. Sammy asked for Auntie Em to come and do some "cool" science stuff. We got some dry ice and Emily did all kinds of fun things with it. My favorite was when she made bubbles with the dry ice. They were all smoky and because carbon dioxide is heavier than air they did not act the way you expect bubbles to. We hooked the kids up with "lab coats" (large white button up shirts) and let them do a few experiments of their own. One of Sammy's favorites is the mentos/diet coke trick. I did that with a big soda bottle, then gave each of the kids some smarties and an individual diet coke. They also got to make ice cream with the dry ice. Because it carbonates the ice cream, it tastes a little like a float. We neutralized the acid a bit, so I liked it. Sammy wasn't a fan, so we pulled out some store bought stuff as well.

Random quote from Charlie: "I want my taco naked".

To keep taco filling from going everywhere, we have in the past put the girls' tacos in a sandwhich bag. They have recently be experimenting with just holding it in their hands with no bag, or "naked".