Merry Go Round

On a recent shopping trip, Eliza sweet talked her Aunt Kristen into buying her a ticket to ride "the dancing horses." Aunt Kristen is a totally softie and paid the $2 bucks for Eliza to ride.

I was a little worried that she might not like it, as new things are often a little scary for her but she loved it!

Show Night

Instead of doing a traditional recital, The Little Gym does a "show night" where the kids demonstrate everything they have learned during the semester and Eliza's big night was May 23rd. She was very excited to show everyone what she had learned.

Due to her broken arm, she was only able to due her beam routine in gymnastics and had to watch all her friends on the bars. She has always liked the beam but she still wants someone to hold her when she walks. . . not quite ready to let go yet.

Once she finished in gymnastics it was time to change into our tap shoes for her Mambo routine! She always tells me that she likes the tap and ballet part of her class better than the gymnastics part but I think that is just because she likes watching herself in the wall of mirrors!

Next up was the ballet portion . . . .an Irish jig???? The jumping part is my absolute favorite - they remind me of popcorn!

After the performances were over it was time for awards and pictures. I am so grateful to Miss Ashley, Miss Amanda and Miss Jennifer for all their patience and expertise. Eliza truly loved going to her class each week and can't wait for classes to start again in September!

Eliza was so impressed with her award and she was super excited that Grandpa came to watch. (Grandma wanted to come but she had eye surgery that day and needed to stay at home.)



We are all so proud of our little dancer!

Summer

I always think that I am going to get so much blogging done durning the summer

and as it turns out I hardly do any.

I guess that is because we are just too busy having a great time and trying to stay cool!

We have truly been enjoying our summer

(and our afternoon ice cream treats).

More updates to come . . . . . .

A Story with a Happy Ending

On a cold rainy Saturday in early March, Stephen was headed out the door to go to work when he saw that young black lab was sitting on our porch by the front door. She was wet, cold, hungry and had no collar or identification. Eliza and I took her to a local vet to be scanned, in the hope that she was micro chipped. No such luck. She was officially a lost dog. Being the dog lovers that we are, we knew that there was no way we could take her the SPCA, so we set off to find her family. Eliza decided that she needed a name and she started calling her Lucy. I don't why she picked the name Lucy, but it did seem to suit our new found friend.

We tried very hard to find her family . . . .signs in the neighborhood, calls to local vets, and a posting on Craig's List. It soon became very obvious that whomever once owned Lucy did not want to be found. Our focus then became finding Lucy a "new " family. We briefly toyed with the idea of keeping her, but in the end we knew two dogs was just too much for our family. I know that Bob is very grateful for this. He is much happier being the only dog.

After twice getting our hopes up that we had found Lucy a new home only to have things not work out, we finally made contact with a lab rescue organization that was willing to help us find her a home. The rescue group would pay for her to have all of her shots and be spayed and we agreed to continue fostering her until we went to be with her "forever family." She ended up staying with longer than we had expected but at the end of April we learned that Lucy would be leaving us (and Texas) to live with another foster family in Connecticut. (I am not exactly sure why a rescue organization in Texas would be the companion of a rescue organization in Connecticut.) However the Northeast was apparently where Lucy needed to be to find her new family.

Lucy now lives in Katonah, NY - a small peaceful town about 30 minutes outside of NYC - with her new "parents" and her older brother (also a lab rescue). This town is also the home of Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart - so perhaps Lucy will be wearing designer duds and snacking on gourmet treats.

Since I don't personally know Lucy's new family, I didn't feel comfortable putting their faces on the blog, but they do look like really nice people and we are thrilled that she has such a beautiful area to run around in. We truly hope that Lucy has a great life with her new family .

The Visit

In December, my grandfather decided to relocate to the Austin area. I know that it was a gut wrenching decision for him to leave the city he had lived in for over 60 years but I am so glad that he has moved closer to my family, as now we have so many more opportunities to see him and spend time with him. Recently, we were able to cash in on one of those opportunities and we spent the day him.

On the drive down there, Eliza talked nonstop about how she was going to see her Great Granddad. Eliza and my grandfather became pretty good pals while we were all at my mom's house during Christmas and she was so excited that she was getting to visit him at his new house.

My grandfather treated us to lunch at Red Robin and we were lucky enough to be joined by my cousin Stephanie and her sweet family.

(Side note - Did you know that kids eat free if you buy an adult meal at Red Robin? I did not. Thanks so much Stephanie and Andy for sharing this tidbit with us!)

I really enjoyed seeing Stephanie and her family. Megan and Trevor are great kids and they were super sweet to Eliza. Enjoying time with family is a great way to spend a Saturday. Eliza has been asking if we can go visit Great Granddad again, so I am sure we will be heading back that way soon.

Pinkalicious

Was there really any doubt as to what color Eliza would choose for her cast? She had about 10 colors to pick from, but no matter what color we suggested her answer remained , "No! I want pink!" Thankfully most of her clothes will match!


Our appointment with the orthopedist went very well. Our doctor is the husband of one of my co workers and he was super nice. Even though she broke both bones, she will only need to wear the cast for 3 weeks and then 2 weeks in a brace. The growth plate was not affected in the break and there is no need for surgery or physical therapy. Thank heavens!

The cast goes all the way up her arm but it certainly hasn't slowed her down. She is still just as active and crazy as ever!

3 Years 2 Months 1 Day

At 3 years 2 months and 1 day, Eliza experienced two firsts that every parent hopes and prays their children will never have to experience. On Monday May 16, 2011 Eliza made her first trip to the emergency room due to her first broken bone.

While playing outside at school, Eliza tripped (we are unclear as to what she tripped over) and fell landing on her wrist. As soon as I saw her arm, I knew that we were ER bound ASAP. It was obvious that she was in pain, but with her trusty dog, Coco by her side, she was able to put on her best brave face.

After getting changed into a gown, they brought the X ray machine to her and took her films right in the room. The X ray confirmed that she did indeed have a broken arm. She broke both her radius and ulna at the wrist.

The ER doctor put her arm in a splint and we will see a pediatric orthopedic specialist soon. In the meantime, we are all in awe of how extraordinarily well she is handling all of this. She is one tough little girl and her doctor at the ER said that she won the "cutest kid" award as well as the "toughest kid" award.

Since the break occurred on her left arm and she is right handed, she is still able to enjoy her new favorite hobby . . . . playing on the I Pad. After this traumatic experience, she was so happy to have some I Pad time that she didn't even seem to mind having the ice bag on her arm.

She hasn't been a big fan of her wearing her sling, so we went to Michael's to find some iron on decals to "girly"it up a bit. She picked the oh so girly pink ballet shoes for her sling.

You Dance a Dance Class

Last Thursday during Eliza's dance class, Miss Amanda began teaching the girls their routine for "show week." Getting a group of 3 and 4 year olds to anything in unison is truly a feat and Miss Amanda has the patience of a saint. Some of the girls were able to catch on and followed along, others were much more content to just do their own thing. As you might have guessed, my child was the one who was very content to just do whatever she felt moved to do. At one point , I am pretty sure I even saw her doing some John Travolta Saturday Night Fever moves! As I watched them, it made me think of a scene from the first season of Friends where the girls take a tap class . Eliza's approach to her routine was very "Phoebesque". I found the clip on YouTube but it wouldn't let me embed it. Here is the link if you're interested. http://youtu.be/ipsgYiyTpNc

Project Life: Week 12

Project Life: Week 12

March 19 -25, 2011

March 19, 2011: Eliza loves to play with her Uncle Richard and she especially loves it when he helps her build card houses.

March 20, 2011: This was the perfect day for Eliza to enjoy some time playing outside in her playhouse. (Thanks again Miss Pam and Miss Deidre . . . . this playhouse is a hit!)

March 21, 2011: Eliza is fascinated with the moon, so when her friends Greer, Harper and Sloane gave her a miniature moon model for her birthday she was so excited. Today she was teaching Coco about the phases of the moon.

March 22, 2011: No picture and I have no good reason for its absence.

March 23, 2011: Having a little I Pad time before bath and bed.

March 24, 2011: Eliza's favorite thing to do in gym is to do her bear crawl on these bars. She was actually going backwards in this picture. Therefore the crash that looks so immenent was indeed avoided.

March 25, 2011: I apparently forgot to take a picture of Daddy and Eliza movie night this week. The feature of the week was Beauty and the Beast.

Children's Festival

One of the things that I love best about living in Houston is the fact that there is always some kind of great event happening. Each each year during the spring, Houston hosts a plethora of festivals. . . . art, international, Greek etc. Today we took advantage of the incredible spring weather and headed downtown to the Children's Festival. This festival, which draws huge crowds, is held each year with the proceeds benefiting Child Advocates of Houston. This was our first trip to the festival but it won't be our last. Our first stop was the Ronald McDonald bounce house.

As we made our way from zone to zone, there were all kinds of great activities for kids. Eliza wanted to go to all the booths that had a prize wheel you could spin. She was all about spinning those wheels.

I think it might be law that you must have face painting at all carnivals and festivals and this one was no different. Eliza was very excited about having her face painted and she very quickly decided that she wanted one pink heart on her cheek.

After the face painting, we headed to the stage area so Eliza could see her "boyfriend" . . . . Diego. We didn't get any pictures of Dora and Diego because it was crazy crowded but she got to see them do the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. It was certainly a thrill for her.

As we were headed back to the gates to leave, we ran into Eliza's first love . . . . Elmo!

It was a great way to spend the day!