Dollhouse Birthday Present

Planning ahead?

I know what Lexie is getting for her birthday/Christmas this year!  I can make $10.00 payments on it, she's seen it and adores it, I just have to hide it for a while.  It's a dollhouse.  I also have to figure out where we are going to put it.  Might be a really good reason to clean out the office, yes, indeed I think that is a grand idea.  I always wanted my Grandmother's dollhouse, and this isn't the first time Lexie has shown an interest in one.  She can decide how much work she wants to put into it, or just play with it with all her toys.  My guess is that it will be a plaything for awhile, but that maybe eventually she will want to decorate it.  If she does lose interest in it, I'll ask her if I can take over.  Where am I going to keep it for half a year?  5' x 2' x 3'.

I found out what school Lexie will be going to next year.  I'm pretty excited about it.

Today I'm grateful for Lexie, Mom and Dad, my awesome friends at work, weekends, iPod, iTunes, books, and life.

My baby brother is a dinosaur

Lexie has been pretend playing for about a week now that she has a baby brother.  Her imaginary brother takes many forms, even sometimes invisible.  Yesterday at Albertson's we bought a two dollar toy that now is playing the role of baby brother.  The toy is one of those dinosaurs that grow (very, very, very slowly) in water, but the new spin on it is that it's inside what appears to be a genuine chicken egg.  I examined it very closely and it looks like the carefully split an egg, re-sealed it, poked three holes (one on narrow top, two on wide bottom) and painted it pink.  The instructions are to put it in a container of warm to hot water and watch as (12-24 hours later) the dinosaur grows and breaks out of his egg.  So, Lex has been watching this all last night, and it was the first thing she wanted to check on this morning.  As of last night, it was starting to show signs of stress and cracking.  This is much more fun than the other "add water will grow" creatures.  She has been so delighted to care for her new baby.

Odd morning car conversation

I'm trying really hard to spend my breaks at work blogging again.  We'll see if it works.

So, this morning in the car, I'm telling Lexie that we are going to start going to the gym again Tuesday's and Thursday's after school.  From her seat in the car I hear her say, "Ok, but this time I'm bringing my crap!"  I just started laughing hysterically.  Finally once I recovered, I told her that that word was this close (holding my thumb and pointer finger about half inch apart) to being a bad word.  She says, "Really?  Why?" and I tell her it's because it is another word for poop.  I'm looking at her in the rear-view mirror, her eyes are open really wide and she is silent.  Finally she asks, "Does that mean Mr. Krabs is poop?"  And I laugh hysterically again, realizing that she had really said she was bring her little stuffed animal beanie baby crab, Claude, with her when we go.  

Whew!

It has been a really, really long time, and we have been really, really busy.  Lexie and I both got the stomach flu three weeks ago, immediately followed by a cold.  Lexie's cold lasted until this week, when she caught another cold.  Mine turned into pneumonia, which I found out when Mom carted me to the ER Wednesday, April 2^nd at 4:00am.  Yesterday was my first full day back at work.  The Saturday before Easter we went with Grammy, and Tracy's family to the Easter egg hunt at Alpenrose dairy.  It was great.  Lexie won one of the big baskets. She still hasn't finished her candy.  Tracy's sister, Tawny, won a diamond necklace in the Mom's egg hunt. 

 

The next day, Easter, Lexie spent at her dad's and when I went to pick her up, she had puked all over his car, and had stomach flu.  I don't think I've been to work a full day since.  She did come into work with me that Tuesday, and spent half a day working with me at my desk.  That was pretty cool.

 

From there on out my health went downhill.  I'll spare everyone the details. 

 

We had an exciting Sunday last weekend.  Lexie was staying with her Dad, something that everyone I know, including her counselor and myself, have for a long time believed is not healthy for her.  I've been working with her counselor towards changing the visitation, but honestly, I've been too worried about her Dad's reaction, and the consequences.  We'll, thanks to God for understanding my fears, because Frank ended up doing it all by his self.  This is something I also always figured would eventually happen; it was just a matter of time.  Thanks goodness it happened earlier instead of later.  He has constantly been pestering Lexie that there is another "daddy" living with us, and forcing her to feel defensive when she is telling the truth.  He grills her and puts thoughts into her head, makes her feel guilty, and generally plays on all her emotions.  Sunday morning he called me ranting about false accusations against this imaginary "other man" he insists is living with us.  When I told him he was harassing me, and Lexie, and that I was going to call the police, and hung up, he called the CSD hotline.  From what I'm told, he called repeatedly, changing his story, and prompted the CSD to make a visit.  After they talked with Lexie (Frank wasn't there at the time) they came to visit me and determined that she was in a potentially harmful situation.  They took me with them to pick her up and created a no-contact order until they can do a thorough evaluation.  I've been instructed to modify the parenting plan to limit his contact to supervised visitation only and with a social worker type professional.  I'll go next week to set that up.  I want Lexie to have the opportunity to know her dad, and I can only hope that this "encourages" him to seek counseling.  I'm still scared that he may do something crazy, but at least I have the restraining order.  I feel so much more relaxed and hopeful now. 

 

Word(s) of the time frame: HOPE

 

Dad/Grandpa is doing well.  No Kidney cancer.  He has a procedure next week, but his spirits, as always, remain high.  He is one of my Rocks!  Mom/Grammy, is another!  She has taken such good care of me while I've been sickish.  I love you guys.  Happy belated to Justin, and congratulations on the upcoming marriage.

 

Lexie and I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks the other night, well two nights in a row really.  Funny cute movie.