Fisherwomans

Andres took the older girls to fish yesterday morning. Lorelei has been asking to go fishing again ever since her first expedition on her 6th birthday. It was Emma's first time fishing and they both had a lot of luck. Only time will tell if it is true luck or beginner's. In any event they each caught two fish (speculated to be from the same fish family) and Andres caught a turtle.

Emma was so excited that she came home and was just smiling from ear to ear (and being her expressive self) was just careening around spouting about the entire experience in a blow-by-blow fashion.  If fishing can teach Emma some much lacking patience I am for fishing every weekend (especially if it means special Daddy-daughter bonding time!)

Building a Waving Flag

One of the things that I had on my "Summer To Do" list was build things with the girls. What I really envisioned was using the 40 odd sample bottles of house paint to beautify some scrap wood and then practice driving nails into it. But putting a hammer in the hand of my middle child is a bit daunting, but my brother had a great suggestion - go to Lowe's! So we did.

It was perfect. Each girl got a packaged kit to make a waving flag for Independence Day (the same craft is done nationally) and a small hammer. I liked the little hammers so much that I wanted to buy one, but they don't sell them. If you ask me, they are missing out on a perfect business opportunity. We did buy a small and lightweight hammer, but it wasn't quite as miniature as what they used for the class.

With parental assistance (one reading the directions and one winging it), they were constructed. It was very thoughtful that the nail holes are not only marked, but drilled so the the nail stays in place without having to hold it while hammering away. 

On top of all the construction fun, they also got a Lowe's work apron and a patch for the specific craft that they did and a completion certificate.

So when we go back in two weeks to make tow trucks, the girls will take their aprons and I imagine get a second patch to adhere! So cool!

They were wearing these aprons around the whole rest of the day, although they did morph into waitress aprons. And yes, those are my fingerless, rhinestone studded elbow length gloves from high school that Lorelei was wearing and all but sleeps in.

Day 15 - Ahoy Matey!

(Emma, drawn heart, amo Ma[mi], amo papi)

I just about didn't leave the house on Friday. We were too busy embellishing the treasure chests and decorating pirates. The girls were a bit concerned at the outset because the pirates are designed as boys and of course they wanted girl pirates. I think they figured out how to customize.

Meanwhile Sabrina was working on using the skeleton keys to get out the front door. I am absolutely amazed at what her little mind figures out.

Sous Chef Sabrina

Sabrina, being the wonderfully sensitive child that she is, sensed that I needed help getting dinner together last night so she was on hand to help me out.

(A transcipt of this video includes Sabrina saying, "Hey, ya. Hola." At which point I repeat hola back to her.)

Day 14 - Treasure Chests

The girls, Lorelei in particular, in smitten with the new cartoon Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I don't know if it is the ever so tenuous tin-in to Tinkerbell and fairies in general that interests her or actually the pirate kids. As far as cartoons go, I don't object. It is for the youngest of kids and is all about teamwork and working toward a common goal. Hey I'm all for that! (Is Emma paying attention?)

Yesterday morning Lorelei (a.k.a. the alarm clock) woke me up and asked if I wanted to see her treasures. Of course I would love to see, I fibbed (not the wanting to see so much as at that very moment). She brought in her Easter basket which is a bucket and showed me all her stuff. She told me that she keeps it under her bed so that Sabrina can't get to it and put some of the smaller treasures in her mouth and die. Maybe, I suggested, you need a better place to put your treasures because actually Sabrina can very easily get into the bucket on the floor under your bed. So I triumphantly (because we were going to be using some "trash" item that I refused to let go to waste in the actual trash can) pulled out some beautifully strong boxes from Omaha Steaks. They worked away on those boxes for a good length of time and were disappointed that they had to wait for the paint to dry before doing MORE.

We were supposed to have the presentation from my fantasy landscape designer last night so I was running around trying to get the girls bathed and fed before she arrived (not really knowing how long it would last) and get the house cleaned up but the girls were making messes faster than I was cleaning them up. I believe that there was some screeching. I was a whole leg over the edge between sanity and full out crazy.

An hour and a half early, the designer stopped by to see if we could postpone until Sunday. I was disappointed to wait longer to see her vision, but relieved to take some pressure off the current situation. I did some breathing (while Emma hid under the radar for a few minutes) and I put myself back together. And just to be fair it wasn't all Emma. I think we each accounted for about 25% of the stress of what was going on.

A Side Note on Healthcare and Parental Rationalizations

Just months before Sabrina was born, Andres took a new job and we had to go without health insurance for 3 months. We could have continued coverage with Cobra but it was SO expensive. We gambled that whatever we might have to pay for straight out of pocket would be less than the cost of the insurance. Andres and the  girls could have had short term insurance, but not me. Maybe everyone else in the world already knew and understood that being pregnant meant having a "pre-existing condition". Seriously! I suddenly felt a great deal of empathy for everyone living and trying to manage any kind of disease or medical condition.

Anyway, at one point Emma hurt her arm and was crying and crying and holding her arm refusing to use it. We recognized the symptoms from our earlier visit to Urgent Care for nursemaid elbow (a stretched elbow ligament the allowed the radius to slip out of position pinching a nerve and general discomfort as well as inability to use properly (or frankly the desire). It was bath time. On a Sunday. I put an ice pack on her elbow and tried to convince her and myself that she could survive until the following morning so that we could go to her pediatrician and only have to pay the office visit cost. But of course Emma had other ideas about the urgency of the situation. I felt HORRIBLE trying to balance the obvious medical need of my child and the financial outlay of Urgent Care. I called to find out about discounts for the uninsured. None. Well how much would our visit cost, I wanted to know. I was informed that it would be $200 to walk through the door (payable to the clinic itself) and that the doctor's and pharmaceutical and radiological bills would all be separate and there was no way to know in advance what the cost would be. In short, we sucked it up, cursed, and went to Urgent Care.

Now fast forward. Emma spent a month on a low dose antibiotics to try and clear the fluid from her ears. Her prescription was for a let's say a  medium sized bottle of medicine and one refill. Apparently the medicine only comes in small or large bottles, so we ended up with a large one which lasted a long time. When we went for the refill we got 2 small bottles. One was mixed for immediate use while the other was paid for but stayed sealed. When it was needed we were to take the bottle back to Walgreens to have mixed. In the end the period of treatment ended before the medicine. I now have a sealed bottle of unmixed amoxycilin at my house.

When I saw the prescription for Sabrina's ear infection, I recognized that it was  the same potency as what I had at home. I was already calculating that I would just NOT fill Sabrina's prescription and save some dollars. But then I started doubting my rationalization. What if something was different? What if I made a mistake that could harm my no-longer but awfully close to being a baby, baby? So in the end I filled the prescription at a cost of $5. I don't regret the decision. If the prescription had been $35, I may have had buyer's remorse.

All in all I felt for a short time in a very small way what the un- and under insured parents struggle with all the time. Kids ALWAYS need to be seen for something! I hope that our government and country can find a way to take better care of it's citizens.

Day 13 - Appointment, Appointments, Appointments

At 9:00 we were at Ludlam Elementary for Lorelei's IQ test/ screening for the Gifted Program. While she was off hard at work, Emma, Sabrina and I were sweating it out on the playground. It was incredibly hot and sticky for so early in the day. Yes, summer finally has arrived (according to the calendar which is what Lorelei has been waiting for since March).

Forty-five minutes later the school psychologist said that Lorelei is a very hard working and bright child. Unfortunately, we won't get the results until school is back in session.

From there we went home for some air conditioning and cold water. While Sabrina napped, the other two went to work with the pink playdough. Then it was off to Sabrina's delayed because of a cold 1 year check-up.  So - drum roll please! - Sabrina's stats. Basically she is our peanut. Weighing in at 20 pounds 12 ounces (40th percentile) and standing a tall 29 1/2 inches (57th percentile) and her teeny tiny head at 17 1/4 (13th percentile), she is absolutely PERFECT!! Well almost perfect.Sshe has an ear infection (surprise!) so no vaccines and we will go back in 10 to 15 days for those. Thankfully we don't have to make an appointment for the vaccines. We can just show up and several hundreds of dollars later (that expensive plastic tray you know) we'll be up to date. She walks, she talks and she smiles. We are all smiles.

Home we went for naps (but not for Momma don't you know) and then it was an early dinner and off we went to visit a nursery down in the Redlands to select plants for our landscaping. By the time we finished all the 4 girls were in full out meltdown from hunger, exhaustion and mosquito bites. After a bite to eat we were strong enough to make the rest of the long trip back to South Miami. Andres highlighted how crazy it had been for just a few minutes while we searched for a place to eat and used that as an example of why I ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT drive to Iowa by myself and the three girls. I couldn't agree more.

Day 12 - Playdough and Tyko

Yesterday was another great day. Both Lorelei and Emma are great independent players, but I was starting to realize that Emma benefits from structured play opportunities. It really shouldn't have taken me so long to figure out since she is the definition of a child that does better with structure. When Sabrina went down for her morning nap, the girls and I sat at the dining room table and did school work for an hour. They each have a workbook of basic skills. I sat in between them and directed. It is no wonder that home-schooled children can be so well educated given the low teacher to student ratio (unless of course your  last name is Dugger). Then we made playdough. Can you believe that this was my first time? It was very easy and turned out great. Of course it was a longer process than if I had done it myself, but I got to teach them about reading the recipe (actually Lorelei read and translated it), the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon and the notations for them, how to "read" a liquid measuring cup, how to level flour, etc... All great fun. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to tell them that we were doing math or not. I'm still thinking that one over. (Lorelei has an incredible math mind already. She was frustrated by a math page about tallies because she had never seen them in kindergarten and didn't know what they were. I explained and she counts by 5s and counts on so easily that it was just immediately in her repertoire, ready to use. AND/BUT she had already announced to me some weeks ago that she didn't like math. I hope to teach my kids the difference between liking math and liking math class!) The girls opted for a pink batch of dough. Then they spent the rest of the morning playing with it contentedly.

(concentric-ish flowers)

The whole family: 5 Pfefferkorns and 4 grandparents (more in the making- playdough grandparents that is not more children)

After a delicious lunch of the girls requests (Lorelei: Ramen noodles, Emma: chicken nuggets) we went to the library. I had all kinds of photos already in my head of the afternoon trip - non of which happened. What did happen was my children just about exploded all over the place they were SO excited. They filled our little table top with books before I realized what was happening. I had to physically reel them in from pulling any more books off the shelf. Lorelei was disappointed because I wouldn't let her check out two High School Musical novels.The reading was frankly easy enough, but come on she is barely in elementary school!

It just so happened that we were checking out just as a Japanese drum show was about to begin. Big, loud aerobic drumming. Lorelei was on the floor in the back of the room reading about the drums (way to go librarians for having the books pulled and right at hand!) Emma spent some of the time looking at the book with Lorelei and some of the time pounding on the floor with me. Meanwhile, Sabrina was making the rounds getting to know everyone else in the crowd and investigating if they had any food tucked away in diaper bags or purses. She came away with a discarded granola bar wrapper. Nice and sticky, too.

Day 11 - Rainy Day Blues

Monday was rainy - in the morning and the afternoon again we had true downpours. No swimming or playing outside for us. Instead the girls went to town decorating papers and boxes with left over Easter foam stickers. Wow did Sabrina LOVE chewing on these things!

The older two also worked on a routine that was unveiled later that evening. I hope that the video of Lorelei salsa dancing comes through!