Nasty

Tonight we were playing with Alanna and at one point we'd finally reached the parental maximum allotment of "why questions" from her.  

We told her that there were enough "Whys" for one night (trust me there were ALOT!).  She naturally responded with, "Why?"

Daddy replied, "Because the last child we had that continued to ask why, we ate."

Alanna yelled at the top of her lungs, "BUT I TASTE NASTY!!!"

Guess we won't be eating her after all.

Surgery Schedule

Alanna's surgery is scheduled for Thursday, January 29th. We had the option of scheduling it for this Thursday but that's Alanna's first Kindergarten field trip, so we'll wait a week.

Honestly, I was surprised they're getting her in so soon, but I'm thankful. It makes the waiting a little easier.

Wishes

Tonight is a Mommy/Daughter night.  About once a month Jeb goes to game with his friends for a night.  

Earlier I asked Alanna what she wanted for supper.  She said, "Anything?"  I replied, "Well, what did you have in mind?"  She answered, "Shells and Cheese....and ice cream".  I said that would be fine.

She was so surprised and her eyes lit up. She exclaimed, "That's exactly what I was wishing for!!"

I need to remind myself to sometimes wish for just little things and be ecstatic when the wishes come true.

Surgery

Alanna had her appointment with Dr. Wood this morning. Over the years he's never been a proponent of surgery for her as long as the venous malformation stays about the same and doesn't change. This morning, he stated that he doesn't feel that way any longer. The malformation has changed and gotten larger as well as formed a more solid mass. He suggested that surgery rather than sclero treatments would be his suggested course of treatment.

We're waiting for the scheduling nurse to call and the surgery will likely be in the next month or two whenever they have availability.

It's not like we didn't know this would eventually be coming, but it's hard to hear. I think it makes it harder to know that we had just started to get comfortable with the watch and wait strategy and now have to switch our thinking over to being ok with surgery.

I do trust Dr. Wood and I know that she's in good hands, just wish I could trade places with her.

Corn Chowder

Today's menu item was corn chowder.  After we were finished Alanna declared, "It looks just like the picture in the book!!"  Whew!  We seem to be on the right track now for matching the pictures LOL.  Actually, this soup was really good and definitely hearty.  We made a double recipe which serves 16 so we'd have plenty of leftovers and be able to share with Aunt Lori.  We tweaked the recipe just slightly and here's what we came up with:

3 Cups Water

4 cups Frozen loose-pack shredded hash brown potatoes (we used Simply Potatoes)

4 medium carrots - peeled and diced

2 stalks celery - diced

2  10 3/4oz cans Condensed Cheese soup

1 15oz can cream style corn

1 small can corn

2 1/2 Cups Skim Milk

3 Cups diced cooked ham

Salt and Pepper to taste

Start by adding the water and vegetables (including hash browns) to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to Low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add in remaining ingredients and heat until warm--do not bring to boil.  Approximately 246 calories per serving.

Lasagna

Alanna decided that her New Year's resolution would be to help cook dinner.  She's always been quite the little helper in the kitchen, but in the past year has wanted to do more and more.  She even used some of her birthday money to buy the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cook Book.  

In light of the resolution, Mommy made a point to pick up the ingredients for several recipes in the cookbook.  Tonight she chose to make lasagna.

Ingredients:

12 ounces ground beef

2 1/2 Cups Spaghetti Sauce

6-8 Lasagna Noodles

1 1/2 Cups Cottage Cheese

1 1/2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella

2 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

Brown the hamburger.  Spoon 1 cup spaghetti sauce into the bottom of an 8x8 pan.  Then mix the remainder of the sauce with the hamburger.  Layer noodles, hamburger mixture, cottage cheese and mozzarella, then repeat three times.  Bake covered at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

We modified this slightly to include more mozzarella and used lean beef and fat free cottage cheese.  We also used a bit more parmesan.

Upsides:  Easy recipe and no boiling of the noodles required.  Also pretty filling for the 273 calories per serving (8 servings).

Downside:  Turned out a bit runny.  Next time I think we'll go a little easier on the spaghetti sauce.  Also seemed a little greasy.  I may actually have to rinse the hamburger next time too.  I normally don't like doing that because you lose some of the flavor and typically favor just draining off the grease instead, but it seems like we ended up with a greasy layer left or more baked out of it.

Alanna was so proud of herself after she'd done all of the layering and she declared it would be the best lasagna "in all of Minnesota!"  When it came out of the oven though she looked a little confused and remarked that it didn't look like the picture.  I think that's because it wasn't holding it's nice layered shape that traditionally defines lasagna and reducing some of the liquid next time should help.

My Special Bump

I've mentioned in the past that Alanna has a vascular malformation, specifically a venous malformation, on her right cheek. We've been under the care of Dr. Robert Wood since shortly after she was born and for now we've taken the observation route of care. She has another appointment with Dr. Wood next week and we'll discuss where we go from here.

We were very blessed in that Alanna's venous malformation is relatively small (about the size of a 50 cent piece) and is located on the side of her cheek so it is normally pretty unnoticeable. From her MRI a few years back, it is also very contained which makes her potentially a good candidate for surgery at some point.

The venous malformation does have a tendency during the cold snaps to turn a bright bruise-colored blue. This is the time that in the past years we run into questions like, "Oh, honey did you fall?" or "What's that bump on your cheek?" or occasionally the raised eyebrow like one of us smacked her across her face.

We've tried very hard to simply explain to Alanna that it's a bump she was born with and that we have a wonderful doctor who makes sure she's taken care of. We've also gotten a second opinion from the Boston Children's Hospital where there is a vascular anomalies conference. We keep an eye on it and check in with her to make sure it's not causing any pain.

Now that she's started school and it's currently bright blue, I've spoken with her teacher but knew the inevitable questions would start. So we talked about it earlier this week when it started turning color. She asked why it was blue sometimes and I told her it was a good question for us to ask Dr. Wood next week, but that the blue was the blood vessels showing through the skin and compared it to the veins in the back of my hand which are also blue.

Today she came home and told me that another teacher had asked about her "special bump". She told the teacher she was born with it and the teacher had responded, "but you didn't have it last week". My wonderful mature little girl informed her that "it changes color".

She and I talked about it tonight and I told her she'd done everything just right and that if people had additional questions she could tell them to talk to her teacher or to her mommy.

I know that teachers and other adults who inquire are simply concerned about her well-being and on some level I would certainly want them to ask if something were happening, but it still kills me just a little inside to know that others would not trust her answer or believe that Jeb or I hit her.

Some pictures from this week. It's hard to capture on film with good detail:

Christmas Cocoa

We decided on homemade gifts for the grandparents this year.  Alanna made Christmas Cocoa "all by herself".  Here are the photos of our efforts.

Alanna started by putting her handprint on each jar.  We used green acrylic paint (available from Michaels--Apple Barrel brand is normally what we get).  Acrylics are great for using on glass because once the paint is dry it won't wash off the glass, but it washes off skin well with some soap and water.

Then we gathered our ingredients multiplied by enough to make 24!! jars (12 large and 12 small--they ended up being great teacher gifts as well)

2 Cups Dry Milk

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 Cup Baking Cocoa

1/2 Cup Flavored Non-Dairy Creamer (the CoffeeMate creamers come in a lot of different flavors and worked great.  We ended up with Hazelnut, Vanilla Caramel, and our favorite Vanilla Cinnamon)

Dash of Salt

Mini Chocolate Chips

Mini Marshmallows

and LOTS of Love!

Alanna did all of the whisking herself once I measured in the ingredients.  We found a whisk actually worked better than a spoon to distribute the powders more evenly.

Once the ingredients were mixed the next step was layering the jars.  We used a cup to scoop with and a funnel to pour the powder into the jar.  

We added in a layer of mini chocolate chips followed by a layer of mini marshmallows about a third of the way up the jar, and then again near the top.  For the larger jars we had three layers, the smaller had two.

Of course we had to taste each flavor after we made a batch just for quality control purposes ;)

The finished product included a ribbon around the lid, a label on the top and was accompanied by a recipe sheet which included mini photos of the process so everyone could see how Alanna had made it just for them.

Some Pictures

For those of you who visit the Shutterfly site, these photos are ones you've likely seen. But as a quick photo update for others, here are some pictures from recent Alanna history:

Alanna at Halloween with her new baby cousin

Alanna and Santa

All I Want for Christmas are my Two Front Teeth

Camouflage

Last night Alanna asked if she could "pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassse" come in and snuggle in Mommy's bed. At the point she asked it was already about 30 minutes past her bedtime. I explained that no, she needed to stay in her bed but that we'd have lots of snuggle time in the coming days.

About 5 minutes later I went to use the bathroom and noticed on the floor of Alanna's bedroom a pink leopard printed blanket. Now this would not be so unusual were it not for the fact that it was covering a lump that looked about 2 feet tall. Again, could have been a large stuffed animal especially since Alanna's bedroom floor right now has many toys out and is due to be picked up. What caught my attention was that the pink leopard printed lump was stealthily moving towards the bedroom door.

I stood and observed the lump for a few seconds before stating, "Alanna, you really need to get in your bed and go to sleep now."

The lump stopped and there was no movement for a moment before it spoke, "But, Mommy! You can't see me! I'm CAMOUFLAGED!!"

Stop and Make the Snow Angels

We have a new rule in our house. No snow angels without snowpants on. Mommy's actually feeling a little bad about the rule only because there's something magical about what Alanna did yesterday that resulted in the rule....

Yesterday was the first day we sent snowpants to school. I packed them in her backpack with her shoes figuring that she wouldn't need them on the way to school and instead would put them on for recess. On the way out to the car yesterday morning, Jeb put the backpack and his things in the car then turned to get Alanna and *POOF* she'd rushed off to the yard. She flopped down in the snow, began making a snow angel, THEN looked at him and asked, "Can I make a snow angel, Daddy?" When she stood up there were even little piggy tail marks in the snow on the top of the snow angel's head.

When I picked up Alanna from daycare last night, I heard another story. When the bus pulls up to Nana's house, Nana stands right at the door while Alanna goes down the driveway to the bus. Well, it started out as planned....Alanna headed down the driveway, but then diverted into the front yard. Sure enough, she PLOPPED right down into the snow backpack and all and began making a snow angel. Nana was yelling at her from the doorway to get up and the bus driver was yelling her name from the open door of the bus. She continued to obliviously make her snow angel until she determined she was finished. She got up, covered head to toe in snow and happily headed off to school.

So the new rule has been implemented primarily to get her to school on time. Although, I do think that from time to time stopping to make the snow angels is probably a good thing. After all, as parents we commit to striving to keep our child happy, healthy, safe, and smart. If plopping in the snow to make a snow angel makes her happy then that's ok with me. If it's stopping to smell the roses when the weather is warm, maybe it should be stopping to make the snow angels in the winter.

Things Said

A few recent Alanna moments:

Alanna was telling her Grandma 'Nette about her new cousin, Andrew and declared "And he has a soft and fuzzy head!!"

We cooked a turkey and potatoes for dinner while Grandma and Grandpa were visiting. We all sat down for dinner and Alanna asked if it was Thanksgiving. I explained that it wasn't Thanksgiving yet and this was just practice. She looked crestfallen and asked quietly, "Can we eat it?"

Another Milestone

Looks like Alanna is about ready to lose her first tooth. She was thrilled this morning to show me her "wiggly" front bottom tooth. The new tooth has already started to erupt behind it (called shark's teeth) and I'm guessing from the amount Alanna was fiddling with the tooth this morning that the Tooth Fairy will be visiting perhaps before her birthday.

There's a tooth chart in her classroom and she can hardly wait to see her name on the chart not to mention the "big girl" factor involved in losing her first tooth. I think she was standing about a foot taller this morning from all the pride and excitement.

The tooth fairy had to make a visit to the bank today over lunch to pick up some of the new Presidential Dollar coins which is what daddy would like the fairy to leave for the teeth going forward. Mommy's going to make sure the fairy also leaves a crisp dollar bill too since I'm sure she'll actually want to spend it and then she can start collecting the dollar coins as she loses teeth. For the first tooth since it is extra special, the fairy is giving her a little pair of butterfly earrings.

Photo Site

I've created a new photo site with shutterfly which I update weekly with new Kindergarten artwork and pictures. Some I'll continue to place here as well.

If you're a faithful reader (and I know you) feel free to comment and I'll send you the link and password to the site.

Frogs

Alanna likes to relate stories about her cousins at random moments. This morning while getting ready, she declared that her cousin B likes to catch frogs and throw them on the road.

I responded that we don't do that because it's not nice to animals.

Her reply?

"And because we don't have frogs."

Good point.

Wisdom from a 5 Year Old

Yesterday morning Alanna overheard me talking to Jeb about an incident at work and she asked what we were talking about. I told her that Mommy works with someone who sometimes isn't very nice.

This is how the conversation continued:
A: I think you should just say nice things to her during the day like, "How are you feeling today?" and then she'll start to be nicer.

M: Honey, that's a very good idea. Mommy does try to be nice and will continue to keep that in mind.

A: And you should tell her we're all a part of a community and need to work together. (They're learning about communities at school.)

M: That's true.

A: (carrying "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein) And you can loan her my book for her to read.

Oh if only things were that easy. I'm pleased she's a kind, caring little girl and in a perfect world her strategy would work well. In my world at work though, I'm pretty sure the woman would rip me to shreads if I tried it ;)

Littlest Pet Shop Party

Here are sample templates from the party.  I don't have the original files any longer as it's been quite awhile (updating this post in 2012 and noticed several have asked for it in recent months).

Littlest Pet Shop Birthday Party Ideas

Alanna decided she'd like a Littlest Pet Shop birthday party this year for her 6th birthday. I scoured the web and racked my brain and I think we've come up with a pretty good plan. I thought I'd post it here so that others could use it if they'd like as well.

The activities below are meant to fill a total of 2 hours time. For this age, the party has to keep moving and I'm anticipating no more than 10 minutes doing any one thing other than maybe eating cake and opening gifts which will take 11 minutes ;)

Arrival Activities-
Temporary Tattoos - These can be purchased on ebay inexpensively. The seller I found also sold the large LPS stickers which we're going to give out as part of the goodie bags.

Make a name badge neclace - This actually is important for the goodie bag portion of the party. We purchased a 10 pack of LPS critters from Amazon.com for $20. I then scanned the picture from the back into the computer and cut them apart to make little name badge circles. The children will pick a name badge at the beginning of the party and as a surprise at the end the name badge they chose will determine the LPS critter they "adopt". I bought brightly colored lanyards at Michaels as well as the clips to put the little circles on the lanyard with (just punched a hole in the little picture circles to attach them). We also have assorted color pony beads to decorate their name badge necklaces with.

Sign Alanna’s poster to hang up - I made a large posterboard card for all of the guests to sign and decorated it with a large number 6, Alanna's name and various Littlest Pets that I drew.

Color if waiting for other children and have finished own activities - I printed off LPS mini coloring books by doing a search for free coloring pages and then formatting them to fit four pictures to a page, stapled and folded.

Games-
Simon Says with an animal theme (“Bark like a dog”, “Flap your wings like a chicken”, etc)

Pin the Tail on the Cat - I drew the little LPS tabby cat onto posterboard for this

Animal Charades - I printed LPS animals onto cardstock and cut apart ot use as cards since our guests are mostly non-readers

Musical Lily Pads - I cut out large lily pads from green cardstock and made an animal music cd to play for this game

Bean Bag Toss - We picked out animal fabrics and made little bean bags. We'll have the children try to toss them into dog bowls.

Animal Relay Races (Gallop like a Horse, Walk like a Monkey, Dog, Duck, Crab, Bunny, etc)

Dance Freeze Game using the animal music cd

Cat Cat Dog (Duck Duck Goose)


Cake and Presents

Departure Activities
Adopt Littlest Pet Shop Animals (each child gets an animal based on the nametag picture they chose)

Pick Sticker “Prizes” to take home - at this age we decided that everyone is a winner and all will get stickers and LPS rings (also available on ebay--search for cupcake rings)

Decorate a house for their pet (foamies, markers/crayons, and colorful Chinese To Go containers)

Visit the Pet Buffet (Various different pet “foods” they can pick to put in a to go container to take home. These include Scooby bone-shaped graham crackers for dogs, Bug shaped graham crackers for lizards, Gummy worms for fish, Rainbow goldfish crackers for the cats, Gummy spiders for the birds, Gummy strawberries for the hamsters, Yogos for the rabbits, Banana chips for the monkeys, Apple chips for the horses. All of the bowls the snacks will be served out of into the to go "doggie bags" have little labels I printed with the appropriate animal on them.

Take home a balloon animal - I used to make these years and years ago and figured out that apparently you don't forget how to do this so I'll be making balloon animals for the children as well as they leave.

*Whew!* Should be fun and I'll post pictures when it's all said and done.

Moments

I found this today and it really hit home. It's so easy to get caught up in the "to dos" that I sometimes find myself being a rushed mommy and forget that Alanna won't be little forever. I need to pause more to enjoy the moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-uXuvxDamg

The song is by Steven Chapman and called "Cinderella". The YouTube video includes his description of how he was inspired to write the song and as a parent I can totally relate!

All Around the Mulberry Bush

We have a very large mulberry bush (tree) at the side of our house. For approximately 2 weeks every summer, we get a LOT of berries which Alanna LOVES picking.

Some people have asked what a mulberry bush looks like, so I'm putting some pictures here. We've been making mulberry jam and mulberry/rhubarb crumble which are both wonderful!