Kaylea The Budding Artist

As I mentioned before, Kaylea began taking an Art class back in March. She absolutely loves the class and can't wait for Thursday afternoons to arrive. Being the proud mom that I am, I wanted give her a virtual art gallery to display her works. So check it out. Who knows, she might just be the next van Gogh or Warhol.

This was the first project she did in the class. This was done with oil pastels. If you ask me, I think it is pretty good for a newbie.

This was her second piece. It was done with acrylics and the "whipped cream" was made with some type of putty, which makes makes is multi-dimension.

And finally, we have Kaylea's first attempt at Pop Art. She had a blast making this one and for some reason I feel she will be making many more like it. I think she enjoyed this particular type of art because there were no rules and she could do it however she wanted. Typical Kaylea!

I hope you enjoyed our tour through Kaylea's Gallery. Hopefully, we will be adding more pieces soon. Stay tuned!

Kaylea On Mother's Day

Kaylea is one of those children that gets very excited anytime a birthday, holiday or celebration comes rolling around. She doesn't believe in saving her gift(s) until the big day. She likes to begin the gift giving way in advance. I am proud to say that she approached Mother's Day with her usual zeal.

Last week, Kaylea began making me homemade Mother's Day cards. You know the ones; they are construction paper with cut-outs and doodles. All of them carried the same message, "Best Mom or #1 Mom" (Actually, she wrote "1# Mom" but I knew what she meant.) Her homemade cards are the BEST. I would much rather receive one of those than any store bought card. When she makes a card for me, I know that she is expressing her love for me in ways that a store bought card could never do.

Anyway, there was the constant stream of cards and then she began bringing Mother's Day projects home from church, Art and school. Each day I was receiving a new treasure that had been made with love from my little girl.

Once the weekend arrived, I felt like we had already celebrated, but I was wrong. Saturday, we went to a Mother's Day brunch at church. We had lots of goodies and then the girls interpretive dance ensemble performed for us. Also, the Children's Ministries Director helped the children perform a Mother's Day poem for us. It was all so touching and sweet.

Yesterday, I was awaken by the smell of coffee and the bustle of Bub and Kaylea in the kitchen. They were beginning the preparation for my Mother's Day lunch. Bub had taken Kaylea to the store on Saturday and they bought all of the food to prepare a nice meal for me. I was told to stay out of the kitchen and let them do the work. So, I obeyed my orders and just relaxed. After our yummy lunch (steak, baked potato, green beans, corn, rolls and homemade ice cream) I was presented with yet another Mother's Day card and gift. Kaylea had chosen to give me a silver key ring with a heart charm. It is beautiful and I will carry it with pride.

Overall, I couldn't ask for a more perfect day. I spent it with the man that gave me my child and my beautiful daughter; both of whom I love more than life itself. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Why Doesn't Anyone Want To Play With Us?

As you all know, Kaylea had the atypical case of chickenpox a few weeks ago. Well, if you remember, she had them for an entire week before I realized that they weren't bug bites and that I needed to take her to the Doctor. As it turned out she had, POTENTIALLY, passed the pox to her entire class. (I am happy to report that no one else came down with them though.)

Well guess what? This week Kaylea was sharing with her classmates again. Only this time it wasn't chicken pox. OOOOOOHHHHH, nnnnnoooooo, way better! Here, let me set the stage for you. Tuesday, I was at the school subbing and spent a lot of time out on the playground. While I was out there, so was Kaylea's class. They stayed out for an extended recess of about an hour. At the end of my day (2:00), Kaylea, all red faced, came up to me in the hall and showed me her arms. They were covered in welts and a red rash. At first, I thought it was from being out in the sun, but then she said her sides were starting to itch, again. I took her into the bathroom to check her over a little closer. When I lifted her shirt, I could see that she was beginning to get the rash on her torso, also. I decided not to be a slacker this time and rushed her to her doctor's office right then. When her doctor came in the exam room after a quick lookover we were told that Kaylea had Fifth Disease. I was unfamiliar with this particular illness, so naturally I asked what we needed to do to treat it. I was totally surprised with the response I got. The doctor said we didn't need to do anything. With Fifth Disease, once the child breaks out in the rash and has the "slapped cheek" look they are no longer contagious. It is the 7-10 days prior to the rash that they are contagious. Unfortunately, during those 7-10 days there were no symptoms indicating that she was sick. So wait, let me get this straight, ONCE AGAIN, my daughter has, POTENTIALLY, infected her entire class with a contagious disease. You have to be kidding me. This just can't be.

So friends, if you drive by the playground at Kaylea's school and see a lonely little girl standing by herself in the corner of the field with no one around to play with, well, that will be Kaylea. I am quite sure all of the kids' parents are telling them to stay away from her.

I promise we normally aren't a breeding ground for infectious diseases. She just seems to catch everything coming and going this year. I can't wait for summer to get here. Then we can get her away from all of the kid germs at school. Oh yea, but speaking of summer reminded me that I forgot to mention the best part about Fifth Disease. The welts and rash can reappear for 1-5 weeks following the outbreak; whenever the child gets hot or is exposed to the sun. Sounds like a fun beach trip for Kaylea. Whatchathink?

Kaylea Being........Well, Kaylea

Kaylea's Grammy had a humorous story about Kaylea that she shared with me yesterday. It was so good, I thought I would pass it along.

Last weekend, Kaylea was over at her Grammy's and Pappy's house getting in some quality time with the grandparents. They all worked in the yard planting flowers and spent a lot of time outside enjoying the pretty spring day. Kaylea decided that it was so pretty outside that she wanted to go swimming. Well, she has a little inflatable pool at their house so they told her she could go swimming if she would inflate the pool. Kaylea decided to accept the challenge and inflated the pool all by herself and then she filled it with water from the garden hose. While all of this was going on, Grammy and Pappy were continuing to do their outside chores. Not long after Kaylea got the pool filled and took her first dip, Grammy saw Kaylea get out of the pool and go into the house. Then she sees Kaylea come back outside with two large plastic cups. Kaylea walked over to the pool and poured the water from the cups into her pool. Then she went back into the house and repeated the process. Grammy watched Kaylea for awhile as Kaylea continued her go inside and return with the water filled cups. Finally, curiosity got the best of Grammy and she asked Kaylea what she was doing. Kaylea replied, "Well, Grammy, the water in the pool was really cold so I am adding hot water to warm it up."

Kaylea is probably the only kid in town with a heated inflatable pool. That's my girl - always using her noodle.

Everything Is Better With Music

I hope you enjoy the beach music. We are just doing our part to get everyone ready for summer. Look out Hilton Head, here we come - well, o.k. we have a few more weeks, but who's counting? OH YEA, we are; that's right!!!!!!!

Kaylea Is A Happy Beachcomber!

While Kaylea was home with her "pox" she did get some news that put a huge smile on her face. We got an e-mail letting us know that her FAVORITE cousin "SJ" will be joining us on our trip to Hilton Head this summer. Kaylea was so excited; she had to tell everyone!

****Just to fill in the family tree - SJ's mom is my first cousin, Cizzy. Cizzy's mom, Aunt Shashan, is my mother's oldest sister****

Cizzy is two years older than me and we were very close as kids and teens. Cizzy lived in Kentucky and I lived in Florida, so we were loyal pen pals (yes, I am dating us - this was way before e-mail) through Jr. High and High School. I always listened to Cizzy's advise and felt like she was a sister.

Cizzy has two beautiful daughters, K8 and SJ. K8 is almost 15 and SJ is 10. Bub and I spent a lot of time around K8 when she was small. She was more like a niece than a cousin. Then when SJ came along, Bub and I were really taking notes. You see, SJ is only 10 months older than Kaylea, so I would turn to Cizzy with all of my pregnancy and parenting questions. Cizzy was the best mom I knew and I wanted to do everything just like her.

Needless to say, SJ and Kaylea have kinda grown up together. Well, as together as they could, being 5 hours apart and only seeing each other about 3 times a year. Kaylea always wants to see "her cousins". I think she looks up to K8 and SJ the same way I did with Cizzy when I was younger.

When we began planning the trip to Hilton Head, we (Auntie M, Mr. Bob, Bub and I) decided that it would probably be more fun for Kaylea (and us) if she brought a friend along. When we told Kaylea she could invite someone, she immediately said she wanted to see if her cousins could come. Kaylea hasn't seen K8 and SJ in over a year and we all agreed this would be the perfect opportunity for them to get to spend some quality time together. Well, I guess K8 decided to forgo the trip, but luckily SJ was on board.

The girls should have a blast. We are planning a day in Charleston and a day in Savannah, but other than that, they will just be riding bikes, playing on the beach and swimming for the entire week. Auntie M. has even talked about us going crabbing, which could be fun, also. Especially, when we get to eat what we catch.

Luckily, we don't have that much longer - only about 5 weeks and 7 hours until we will be leaving. I think I am going to try to figure out how to install one of those countdown clocks on the Blog, so Kaylea can always know how much longer. (It will also keep me from going insane). Now, all we have to do is just wait - oh, and start making my lists! We don't want to forget anything!

Can You Say, Stir Crazy?

I'm not so sure which one of us (Kaylea or me) is crazier. But I think we both are doing our share of stirring. God love this child of mine, but she doesn't handle illness well. She cannot stand having to stay home from school (yes, it makes summers SOOOOOO much fun). She is beginning to work my last good nerve and I am seriously contemplating sending her back to school tomorrow, chicken pox or not. We live in a small town, there couldn't be that many kids infected by her, could there?

So far she has read an entire chapter book; caught up on all of her missed school work; watched way too much tv and built a fort (jail) in her room for her and Angel. We did venture out to Sonic today, just to get a change of scenery. The people probably thought we were stalkers seeing as we sat in their parking lot for almost an hour enjoying our little feast. But, alas, we are home again. Kaylea is now in the shower (yes, at 3:15 in the afternoon) just to kill some time.

All prayers and thoughts are appreciated by both of us.