Bean went downstairs to watch "Martha Speaks" on TV while I sewed in my sewing room this morning. As she went down the stairs, Bean gushed, "I love it, mom...hearts come out of my eyes!"

No sooner than Lulu showed off her awesome spelling score on Tuesday evening, everything took a strange turn of events starting at her bedtime.

As I settled down to read Lulu the next chapter in her book we're reading aloud, she complained about how her stomach hurt. She couldn't sit up in bed (from lying down on her back) and she said her stomach had been hurting her since I'd dropped her off at Camp Fire that morning. If she stood or sat during the day, it caused her a lot of pain.

I asked her to pull her knee up to her chest while she lay in bed, and she said it hurt when she did that. I looked at the clock, it was 7:40 pm. The urgent care by our house took it's last patients for the night at 8 pm.

Lulu wanted me to take her to the doctor, and I wanted to do the prudent thing as well, not knowing what the issue may be. I threw on some clothes and we literally FLEW out the door to the car. Eddie hadn't been paying attention in bed next to us reading to Bean, and innocently asked me if I could get her fluroide tablet. "We're going to the urgent care for Lulu's stomach, I have to take her, NOW..." was all I said as we flew out her bedroom.

I made it to the urgent care with about 7 minutes to spare! There were quite a few folks in the waiting room already, but they called us back pretty quickly to do some preliminary check-in. The nurse was concerned about Lulu's description of her pain in her stomach and the fact it was very tender when the nurse pressed on it. She got a second opinion and said that the only way to tell for sure (if it might be appendicitis, which is sounded like it could be) was to do an ultrasound. They didn't have an ultrasound machine at the urgent care, and I'd have to go to a hospital emergency room for one.

Wow. Things sure did take a turn for the unexpected, in a 20 minute time span from hunkering down in my PJ's next to Lulu to read her a bedtime story that night.

I decided to take Lulu to the dedicated children's hospital down by the river and Bean's daycare. Farther away than the hospital close to our house, but I reasoned a children's hospital would be the better choice in this situation. I've never been to this hospital before, and had a difficult time navigating the roads to get there in the dark and the rain. I also had a few instances of being confused by traffic lights and road merging (I know I was rattled by the thought she might have appendicitis) and had a couple cars honking behind me as I sat at green lights on the way there. Those honking drivers, while I understand, didn't help my state of mind.

We checked Lulu in (once again) and then waited for about a half an hour until they called us back to a room. They put her in a bed to lay down after taking her vital signs and handed her a TV remote for the rooms TV. This was a bit of bliss for Lulu, as we have a current school year rule of no TV on school nights. Of course, even though the hospital had cable, there was nothing worth watching, and notably, appropriate for a kid, at 9:45 pm at night. The cartoon networks switched to adult cartoon programming, and Adult Swim is NOT appropriate cartoons for an 8 year old girl to be watching and listening to.

I made Lulu leave it on National Geographic at one point, only to have it be about testing a city guy in the wilderness with a crazy wilderness guide who strips down, buck naked (they fuzzed out his man bits, thankfully) and polar bears into the freezing cold river in the middle of nowhere, challenging city guy to do the same. (He did, his bits were fuzzed out too, much to Lulu's notice, and then wilderness guy steals city guys clothes save his boxers, and leaves him by the camp fire to fend for himself for the night while he watches in the woods from a safe distance.)

DAMN YOU NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC!!!

By this point, it's 10 pm and the woman whose to do the ultrasound pictures arrives. She asks if Lulu has had some pain medication and I tell her that the doctor and I discussed it but we agreed we'd try it without, first. Nope, ten minutes in, we had to get pain medication for Lulu so they could press down as hard as they needed to on her stomach to try to capture the pictures they needed. Fortunately, we didn't have to do a morphine IV, and instead they started with a nasal-inhaled liquid.

 

More ultrasound pictures were taken, and then we had to wait an hour for the radiologist to read them. In the meantime, we could now have a bathroom break, much to Lulu's relief. She'd had to pee since she got in the room but they wouldn't let her until after the ultrasound as they need a full bladder to do so.

Poor dear!

To add insult to injury, once she'd peed, we'd turned her specimen in to the nurses and settled back in her bed, Lulu was hungry and thirsty (it's about 11:15 pm by this point). It probably didn't help that we/she had settled on the Food Network on TV and we got sucked into the Chopped! television show. The nurses said no water or food, though, as if it came back as appendicitis, she had to be free of food and drink for 6 hours prior to surgery.

Finally, right before midnight, the doctor on call came in with the results so far. They couldn't see her appendix, but her white blood count in her urine was high. It looked like she had a bladder infection, which could be the cause of her stomach pain. There could also be the possibility that she had a bladder infection AND appendicitis. Appendicitis takes about 3 days to develop the symptoms, so they dosed her on her first antibiotics (for the bladder infection) handed me a prescription and told me to monitor her for the possible onset of appendicitis symptoms. [I should note that I still have my appendix, so this is all new to me...]

We left the hospital at midnight, and were home and in bed at 12:30 am. We were both so tired!

Since then, Lulu has continued to complain about her stomach still hurting, but she hasn't developed a fever or truly lost her appetite or decreased her moment from pain. We suspect she actually has a very bad bladder infection and the side effects of her medicine are not making her feel any better.

Poor dear, again!!

I was dead dog tired on Wednesday. We all over slept and I came in to work, late. Also, no shower, which always makes me really cranky as the day goes on. I got a few books at lunch time at Powell's for the girls, only to discover when back at my desk on the phone with a vendor, that I was missing a stone in my wedding ring.

OH NO!!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to accurately explain how horrible it was and felt, to look down and see the diamond missing in my band. It looked ugly, too, like a black hole of a missing tooth from an otherwise beautiful smile. I actually found myself falling into an instant depression, thinking, I'd never find the stone, and who knows how or where it had gotten lost? There was an awful sick feeling in my stomach. Just on a whim, I thought I'd look around the floor of my desk, on the off chance it had maybe, just maybe...fallen out in the last ten minute or so.

AND THERE IT WAS!!!

On the cement floor by my chair, a tiny, little rock caught my eye, and when I looked closer and moved it with my finger, it sparkled like crazy. Oh, relief!!! I took the stone, taped it securely to a card, put that in an envelope, then put that in my wallet so I could give it to my neighbor. Though Dan is a retired jeweler, he keeps a jewelry bench in his house and does all my jewelry repairs. He told me I was so lucky to have found the missing stone, as baguettes are very expensive these days. I gave him my engagement ring to check the stones on as well, too.

Whew! I need a vacation. Unfortunately, it will be a week before I get a mini-one, as Eddie leaves for Europe tomorrow on business, returning on our wedding anniversary. We are going, just the two of us, up to Seattle next weekend to celebrate the ten year anniversary milestone.

It can't get here fast enough!

After scoring 11/20's and 17/20's on her spelling tests since school started, she hit it out of the park today!

Grandma pulled out all the stops for a rainbow birthday cake with ponies, as per Bean's request! We also had Neapolitan ice cream, to keep with the rainbow theme.

Inside the cake was a rainbow, as well. Grandma continues to impress on the baked goods front. Additionally, she brought chocolate gold coins to complete the rainbow theme on the table.  My brother, somehow ate one of the star candles on his slice of cake. They do look like candy! Bean called him a "wax eater!" much to his chagrin.

A Hello Kitty nightgown from Grandma Mary and Bumpa. She loved it and wore it last night. 

So cute!

Lulu made Bean a picture for her birthday. She colored in the Princess Aurora picture for her and did an amazing job. Lulu has always been great about coloring inside the lines.

Grandma Mary and Bumpa also got bean this sweet pony with a carrying case. Of course Bean was thrilled! Not shown, was a super sweet, soft zebra stuffed animal Grandma Louise gave Bean, picked up on her trip this past summer to South Africa, along with a book on zebras. As anyone who knows Bean, knows, as far as she is concerned, she can never have enough ponies!

For her final present, from mom and dad, we had her sit and wait while Eddie brought it out to her:

Her very own, half-sized REAL guitar!!! Bean is our budding musician and shown a very big interest in Eddie's own guitar. She is also very respectful of his guitar and always puts his guitar picks back under the strings in the neck where he leaves them, when she's done.

Maybe Bean and Lulu will someday form a band?!

Dad also picked up a case that has backpack straps attached. She's ready to go busking downtown, now!

Love, love, love that little girl and her megawatt smile...

Bean turns 5 years old today. We are so excited!!!

Tonight she has requested her favorite, Top Ramen, for dinner and then grandma and Jeff come over for dessert with her birthday cake and to open presents. Bean already put in her cake request to grandma (the resident awesome family baker!) for a rainbow birthday cake with rainbow frosting and pony decorations on top.

Someone is all about rainbows right now.

She's always been about the ponies!

Here is a picture of me and my best little girl with her best pony, Comfy Horse from this past spring:

That some of my favorite furniture in the house (both these tables,  desk) were found at the side of the street and free. I've not fixed them up other than wipe them down because I like their shabby chic aesthetic. And anyone can put a beverage down without requiring a coaster.

That last one really counts as something huge in this stage of my life right now.

We could have spent all day here!!!

The stingrays were beautiful and mesmerizing to watch.

This particular stingray had a cheetah patterned exterior and a super, long tail!

Clyde, the albino crocodile, and only crocodile inhabitant in the swamp exhibit. He just floats around the swamp, barely moving. We originally though he was fake, but a docent shared he was just very old, for a crocodile. My mom remembered coming to the museum as a child and seeing LOTS of crocodiles in the swamp. She said it was a very memorable experience. The docent said that the crocodiles just got too vicious with each other, in the end, so there couldn't be more than one in the exhibit.

The museum still has the gorgeous seahorse wrought iron railing around the swamp exhibit, just like they did when my mom was little. 

Looking at the fish in the aquarium exhibit, which was ginormous. It was so cool! We were lucky when we were going through, there were not many people inside the museum, so we had no crowds to deal with.

Always a fan of the jellyfish at aquariums...

The roof of the museum was made to be a 'green' roof. It's energy efficient, renewable energy and good for the environment. It also deals well with any rain and water runoff, which gets recycled and reused.

This was a very interesting part of the museum, they have a self contained rain forest exhibit. Everything enclosed in the rain forest dome inside the building, is designed to co-exist with each other inside the space. (With a few notable exceptions of some tiny, brightly colored tree frogs, frogs and huge and dangerous spiders that make huge and super strong webs.) You enter the exhibit through a special doorway which keeps the temperature constant and controlled. Additionally, when you leave, you have to depart through special doors that help contain any butterflies that have decided to try to catch a ride on you or your clothing as you leave. Seriously...Here is one of the many species fluttering around and not shy about getting in your face. (You are NOT supposed to try to touch any of them, however!)