A Special Announcement from Lindsey

Kidz Praise Christmas Concert

Austin, Lindsey, and Reece each were in different choirs for their Christmas concert. Austin had a speaking part this year and we would have to say that Kidz Praise is Reece's most favorite class at church. Here Reece is singing in this picture above. Lindsey is in the front row on the next picture. We mainly got Austin's speaking part on video this year. Janet helped with the 5 year old choir so it was a busy yet great evening.

Chemical Reactions

In Chemistry, recently, we did experiments with lemon juice, vinegar, milk, baking soda, and water. We had fun discovering that vinegar and lemon juice are similar kinds of molecules and that milk and baking soda are not similar. Also, even though lemon juice and vinegar are not identical, they behave in similar ways because they are similar kinds of molecules. As you can imagine, History and Science are some of our favorite subjects around here.

What? Another tooth?

Lindsey's First Lost Tooth

Here is a picture of Lindsey without her tooth!

Our Little Model

Lindsey just loves to show off her new clothes! (Thanks Aunt Nar!)

Lindsey "Makes" a Bear

It was Elliana's birthday, and Lindsey was invited to make a bear with her. What a pair!

Lindsey Loves Soccer

Today was Lindsey's first day of organized soccer. It's just a six week instructional league for five-year-olds, and she had a great time, playing with other girls and trying to kick the ball to who-knows-where!

Cast off Party

We were so relieved that Lindsey began walking again after her cast came off. It did take her a little while, but she finally got the confidence to start walking and now she's doing pretty well. While she had her cast on, we asked her what she would like to do to celebrate when it comes off. She wanted to have a little party with her new little friend Elliana. So they had a fun adventuresome day. They played so hard, they could hardly stand it.

Before & After

BEFORE...(photo by Austin Megilligan)
Four weeks is a long time to live with a four-year-old with a cast on her ankle. I know many people have it much worse, but it was still an adjustment to make--especially as spring showed up and we were ready to do a lot of outside things. We were able to borrow some strollers and get around a lot easier that way, and that was very helpful, but we just couldn't WAIT to get that cast off Lindsey's leg.

Finally the day came. Last Tuesday, Lindsey went to the doctor and had her cast removed. The initial excitement was short-lived as she could not bring herself to walk on her healing foot. Probably her tendons were still tight and a little sore and so she feared she wasn't all better--so for the next five long days she refused to walk. She wouldn't even put any weight on her foot. We tried every bribe we could think of, tried to help her by holding her hands, moving her feet ourselves, etc., etc.

Nothing worked.

We took the kids to the beach (future post coming on that), and still she would not try to walk a bit in the sand. We took the kids to the Y pool and she kicked and swam normally, just "walked" on her knees in the water. Then I stuck her on her bicycle. She loved it. Peddled and peddled. Clearly her leg/foot was fine--everything was mental.

Then Sunday morning, something happened between when she went to Sunday School and came home. She got the courage to try to take some steps. She held on to me or Janet or the wall or something, and limped gingerly on her little toes.

We were all ready to make an appointment with her on Monday for physical therapy. But now she's making sudden and real progress! So here we are, with Lindsey limping, but walking without holding on to anything, looking a bit like a pirate as she limps along, but happy and excited to be off the floor. So are mommy and daddy.

...AFTER

Breaking News (pun intended)

We're not sure how--and we're not even sure when, but sometime on Saturday, Lindsey suffered a broken ankle. Specifically the tibia just above the growth plate. We took her to the ER on Saturday night where her x-ray revealed a slight anomaly. She had bruising and swelling, plus she couldn't put any weight (all 34 lbs of her) on her leg.

She was a great patient, dutifully answering the doctors and nurses as they questioned her. Some real interesting answers and hypotheses came out of this little squirt. She's loving the attention and care that she's getting--totally eating it all up.

She got a splint at the hospital on Saturday and a cast today. Isn't that cool? She even got to pick the color of her cast. She's not allowed to get it wet or put any weight on it for four weeks. It is going to make our lives very interesting for a while. Janet is not looking forward to the next month!

Lindsey-isms

As a four-year-old, Lindsey is at the place in life where she's starting to put things together. The byproduct of greater understanding must be broader assertions and questions. At least I hope that is the measuring stick of learning. If it is, she's doing really well. Here are some recent questions and sayings over the last couple of weeks that have made us laugh.

• We have a tradition of replacing a lost tooth under the pillow with a dollar. I use the term "tradition" lightly because only Austin of our three kids has lost any teeth yet. However, very recently when he lost another tooth, he woke up in the morning to find a dollar under his pillow. (I believe he really thinks there is a tooth fairy). We generally let him spend his dollar(s, over the last few months) at the dollar store. That is a place that is pretty easy to understand for a kid. We decided this time around to let Lindsey have a dollar from her bank too so she wouldn't feel left out. As we were pulling away from our townhouse in the van Lindsey shouts out, "Wait! Mommy, I forgot my ticket!" "Ticket?" "Yes, my ticket for the dollar store." "You mean your dollar?" "Yeah, my ticket."
• Recently I was explaining to Austin why it's important to brush your teeth in front down below and above the gum line. When he asked why it was important I said (hope I was right) that sometimes little pieces of food get down in between your teeth and gums and it's important to brush them out before bacteria begins to grow. Lindsey, with the most serious look on her face asked "You mean little pieces of food like sprinkles?"
• Janet was reading her a book one day and Lindsey had to go to the bathroom. She asked, "Mommy, could you pause it so I can go potty?"
• Last night as we had the Olympics on, she watched with interest as the long ski jumpers were doing their thing. "Daddy," she asked, "Do you think sometime I could try that?" "Sure," I said.
• One more-- and I don't know how I forgot this one, but I'm adding it now after my original post. One evening we were watching the evening news and the weather forecaster was giving his predictions. When the segment was over, Lindsey said to me, "Daddy, that man kinda looked like you!" "He did?" I asked. He was African-American. "Yeah," she said. "He has that little hair around his mouth like you do--except his skin is brown."
  

Here is Lindsey all dressed up for a princess birthday party. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. She talked about it all week. I'll put some more Lindsey dress pictures on Flickr.