Getting along

I knew last Thursday when I blogged about the bike wreck that I was hurt. I wasn't aware of how really injured I was. My elbow and knee had horrible swelling and bruising. So much so that on Thursday afternoon, I was back at the doctor's office asking for painkillers. They gave me a prescription of something that I thought was too strong. I didn't end up taking anything more than Tylenol and Advil. But I had to take those every three hours. I put ice packs on the injured areas frequently and mostly sat around looking pained for four miserable days.

After those four days, I felt like I could finally begin exercising again. I'm still astonished at how hurt I was. I thought I was just scraped up but the ugly scabs were the least of it all. I'm still healing and dealing with the after effects.

Kylie was incredibly sweet during the five-day ordeal. She was loving and tender with me. She took great care to not bump me too hard. She sympathized about my tetanus shots. She gave me several of her own special doctor's appointments.



She's doing really well at her Summer School. She gets to make lots of art, like this mask, which she enjoys. And she particularly likes her Soccer Shots class on Thursdays and Water Days on Fridays where she gets to play with sprinklers and slip-n-slides.


Her new favorite way to play at home is to take her Barbies, Little Ponies and Little Pet Shop toys and gather them in blankets. She wraps the blankets up and presents us with her presents.


Kylie is trying so hard to learn to skip. She's got the knee-up and hop-up on one leg but can't quite master the other leg. She also loves to hop around on one foot and count how many times she can do it. This kiddo makes me laugh every day.

Bicycle wreck

I had a bicycle wreck yesterday.

I went out for a fast 10-mile ride after swim practice yesterday. I had biked halfway and was heading home. I was on the right side of the road, going with the traffic, in my biking lane. There was a car in oncoming traffic. Without slowing her speed or signaling or anything, the woman darted her car in front of me to make a left-hand turn. If I had been a car, we surely would have crashed.

I braked really hard and for a moment I thought I was clear. Then my bike went into a skid and bam! I was down. The woman didn't even stop and I know she saw me fall.

I knew I was pretty banged up but I also knew that I hadn't broken anything. I checked my bike and it seemed fine other than my grip tape was completely shredded on the right side. So I shook it off and pedaled five miles home. By the time I got home, my wounds were throbbing.

I had really messed up right elbow (it may look like a smile but it's so fake. I was completely pissed at that driver),


had a scratched and bruised knee,


a goose egg on my side, a black-and-blue bruise on my right butt cheek and sore hands from where I squeezed the brakes with all my might.

Karen was working from home and helped me wash out the wounds and ice everything. We did the best we could in cleaning it (with me screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs) but we decided that I needed to go to the walk-in clinic near the house to make sure I got all the rock and grit out of my elbow. I also needed a tetanus shot since it had been over ten years since I had one. So Karen picked Kylie up from school while I went to the doctor.

The funny thing is that I was all excited to share my biking success with you at the end of the month in my monthly triathlete post. I went back to my bike shop to have them work on my fit. They moved my bike seat forward a very small amount...seriously, it was less than half an inch. But that slight adjustment made a huge difference. Last month on my rides, I was at an average of 12.5mph and my max speed was 15. After the bike fit adjustment, I had a 25 mile ride and my average speed was 14.5mph and my max speed was 17.5. I took 20 minutes off my 25 mile time! I was so dang thrilled.

So yesterday, when I made the turn to go home, I had a light tailwind and I told myself, "Let's get this speed up to 17 and see if you can hold it there until you get home."

So I was going 17mph when I went down.

I could have been so much worse. I keep reminding myself of this. I was so very lucky.

Here's a shot of the elbow this morning.


One last thing, scroll back up to the top picture and look at my left, uninjured wrist. You can barely see a black bracelet there. It's my Road ID. It has my name and emergency contact numbers. In case I'm out running or biking and I'm knocked unconscious, this id bracelet will tell emergency workers who I am. If you are a biker or runner (or just can't remember phone numbers when you are stressed like little ole me), you might want to get one.

Today

Today...it was so smoky that Kylie and the kids at her preschool couldn't go out to play on the playground. We've had weeks of smoky days and everything reeks of the smell.

Today...I took Kylie's little step out of the back of the car. She doesn't need it anymore to get into her car seat in our van.


Today...Kylie wanted to "play music" on this saxophone-shaped kazoo all day. I'm glad she loves it but by the end of the day, I was pretty tired of it.

Today...Kylie cleaned up all her playdough stuff without me asking.

Today...we read and answered three questions from this pack during dinner.


Today...she said "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo, catch a tiger by the toe" and so forth in order to pick who got to kiss her first at bedtime.


Today...she was a super hero. Her cape is her favorite Blues Clues blanket held together with a chip clip. She was a blur as she ran around making swishing/flying noises.


Today was a good day. I hope your was too!

What a cold!

I think the cold Kylie has had for the past four days is the worst she's ever had.

Usually when the kiddo is sick, she keeps playing and talking a mile a minute. For this cold, she just lay on the couch with a miserable look on her face. She took two naps a day. She hardly talked and she easily burst into tears.

She also let me cuddle and pet her way more than usual. I'm the type that just has to hug, pet and stroke. When Kylie is feeling great, she endures a quick pat and kiss and then she's on to other things. There were many times over the past few days where she wanted to sit in my lap or Momma Karen's lap and have us rock her for over an hour. She was so miserable with ear infections in both her ears, that she whimpered as we rocked her well past 10pm. I think we've read every book on her bookshelf and she's wanted to be right in my lap with her head against my chest as I read to her. She's let me cradle her hand in mine, let me stroke her forehead and back. It's been sweet but I wanted so much for her to feel better.

I had booked her well-baby pediatrician's visit last week for this past Tuesday. I was thrilled I already had an appointment because I was really worried about Kylie's health and all the lethargy.

Even sick as a dog, she was a trooper in the doctor's office. She passed her vision and hearing tests. I learned she's in the 50th percentile for height and weight. She had a good blood pressure and no fever.

Soooooo... they decided to go ahead and give her the three shots she was due. Yeesh! Those needles looked huge to me. Kylie braced the bunny her Aunt Amy gave her on her first birthday against her chest and held onto my hands. She didn't kick but she did scream and cry as she got two shots in her right arm and one in her left. So now she had a head cold, infected ears, and arms so sore she couldn't lift them. My poor sweet baby. Tuesday was a very long, hard day for all of us but especially for Kylie.

Then late yesterday afternoon, it was like a switch went off. She wanted to play! She started singing again. I didn't realize just how much I missed her sweet singing voice until she started singing again.

She's still recovering from everything but she's back to going 100 miles a minute. Thank goodness.

Here's a picture of the Band-Aid beauty

Sick day, paper chain and books

Over the weekend, we asked Kylie to sign her name on her Father's Day card to Grandpa. She struggled with the K and the Y (she has the L,I,E down). She was doing better at writing her name while at school which just shows me how quickly these skills can get rusty. In order to keep Kylie's writing skills fresh, Karen came up with this great idea to create a chain of 30 links. Each day, Kylie traces her name twice and writes it once on some handwriting paper we have here at the house. Kylie then gets to take down a link. When all the links are gone, she gets a prize (probably a Rapunzel doll she's been looking at lately or a horse stick pony or maybe a DVD).

Kylie thought this was an excellent idea. We quickly cut up some paper. Kylie decorated each strip with a sticker. And I stapled the links together. Kylie wanted to count the links each time we added one. She can count to 30 pretty well. She sometimes messes up the 13, 14, 15 (skipping one) but otherwise she counts great. And we did her name-writing exercise for the day.

Here is a picture of Kylie with her finished chain. She's in her nightgown because she's home sick today with a cold.


I'm not at all surprised Kylie got sick as she started a new preschool last week with new kids and new germs. Perhaps I knew a sick day was coming when I stopped at the library last Friday and picked up 20 library books for the kiddo. We had them all read before noon. Here are some of the favorites of the bunch.

My Hippie Grandmother. I laughed when I saw this one and immediately thought of my cool, hippy parents. I know I enjoyed this one more than Kylie but I just loved it.
My Hippie Grandmother


Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers
Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers


Chief Rhino to the Rescue. We've read this one twice today. The fire is actually birthday candles on a cake for 100 year old Great Granny Wrinkle. I think Kylie likes my "old lady" voice.
Chief Rhino to the Rescue! (Whoops-a-Daisy World)


From the library we got these three books by Jonathan London
What Do You Love?,
Froggy Eats Out. We've also read this one twice today. Kylie laughs at the "hamburgers and fries" line, the fact the little frog changes to "nice" clothes, even his underwear, to get ready to go the the restaurant and the fact that the frog eats spaghetti with giant slurps. This books got lots of giggles today.
Froggy Eats Out


Giving Thanks
This book is about a father and son taking a walk in the woods together. The father thanks all the creatures around them. I pretty much love any book that includes Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon. Kylie enjoyed seeing the animals and examining the brush strokes in the illustrations.
Giving Thanks


So consider picking these up at your local library. Please send Kylie your well wishes. I'm sure she'll be feeling better soon.

Horseback riding

Kylie went to a birthday party for her school chum Harper today. There was a cowboy theme and the kiddos got to pet horses and ride them. It was incredibly hot but Kylie had a great time.


And she got her first horseback ride.

Marathon

Today I registered for the Walt Disney World Marathon held on Sunday January 8, 2012.

26.2 Miles!

I think this quote says it all. Wish me luck!

School

Thank you to everyone who comments! Especially on the triathlete post; your comments are so encouraging. Reading them lifts me up throughout the day.

On Friday, May 27th Kylie had her last day of school at Discovery.


We got her last week of schoolwork. She's always so proud to show what she's done.


I was particularly impressed with her Handwriting Without Tears worksheets. She had done one of these a day for about a month now. She really puts her best effort in writing her letters correctly and then coloring her pages beautifully.




She brought home her final report card.




We were sad to learn that her lead teacher Ms. Pilar would not be returning next year. So Kylie will have a new teacher next Fall. Ms. Pilar sent pictures home with the last week's schoolwork.


Today, Kylie had her first day at Goddard School. She attended there last summer and loved it. I love the carefree drop-off (anytime after 7am), walking Kylie in and out of her classroom, chatting a few minutes with her teacher and the fabulous written description of her day. It's a wonderful school!

Here's the kiddo with her brand-new summer sneakers (size 8 1/2).