Oh Bailey

It is with sadness that I tell you all that Bailey the Betta Fish passed away this evening. He died peacefully in his bowl surrounded by family. He had just spent the afternoon playing with Allen and a Batman action figure, and then (likely after some trauma) relaxing while watching some television with Allen.

Allen is taking it well. Maybe a little too well. As we timidly explained to him that Bailey was no longer, he looked at the dead fish in Daddy's hand, picked it up, put it back, and said, "We'll have to go to PetSmart and get another one that looks like him." Then, as we went to say our goodbyes before the porcelain grave, he took Bailey out of Daddy's hand, threw him in the toilet, and flushed it. So much for that.

He did, however, sing a song to Bailey while playing in the bathtub tonight ...

xoxo,
AHC

My new obsession ...

I recently purchased this. I purchased it because I love letterpress, but I've ended up using the die-cutting feature more. Letterpress takes a lot of patience and precision, so it's been a bit slower. Anyway, this purchase has led me to a fabulous relationship with my girls at Carolina Stamper. It's also cost me a lot of money.

But, it's also enabled me to make some handmade gifts. For instance, for Teacher Appreciation Week, I made books of Allen's "Favorite Things" about his teachers. Ms. Avril (hers is the one in yellow tones) left us a message in tears. She loved it! I've also started making some cards that I'm going to sell in the shop if they're good enough. Wanna see what I've been up to?

I'll post more soon about Allen's antics.

xoxo,
AHC

Please don't hate me ...

for being so remiss with my posting. I'm sorry! It's been a busy couple of months, especially last month. Brian and I auxiliary pioneered and I'm happy to say that we made our time!

Onto some pictures ... last month D&H came to visit, and we went to Charleston for the day. Allen came home with this crazy getup ...

You know I had to try it on, too! More to come ...

International Noturno Aventura

This past Thursday night was International Night at Allen's school. We were away last year, so we had no idea what to expect, but we were very excited. Allen's been talking about Brazil for the last few weeks. Plus we were making Brazilian food!

Here's what we made:

Little Coconut Kisses

 Creamy Corn Cake (which we made as muffins, obviously)

Interestingly enough, both items were Gluten free (an experiment Brian and I are trying).

We arrived at the school, and Allen got a passport, which he was to get stamped in each country. The countries were: Brazil, Antarctica, Thailand, Ireland, Chile, Aruba, and India.  Here are some photo highlights ...

Annie the Anaconda. She's a life-size model -- 22 feet long! The kids stuffed her with recycled paper, and painted her. She was gorgeous!

 The Amazon Rainforest

 The children cut out different insects and animals from the Amazon and colored them. Then Ms. Avril and Ms. Jennifer stuck them onto the trees. You can also see part of Annie the Anaconda here.

 Chilling out with a snow cone in Antarctica (get it?)

 Ireland!

 The elementary students made a topographical map of India

 Allen's future bride, Amelia (according to Allen) showing off her henna.

 Ms. Amy decorating Allen's hand with Henna.

 Allen's passport. Which was stamped in every country!

You can see more pictures here, but these are the highlights. Allen's classroom was by far the best. Brazil had the most food, and the most creative decor. Overall we had a fantastic time!

Chefs' Feast

Update: For more information about the event, check out this article I wrote.

This should really be a  better post than what I am writing. But I'm tired. For those of you who don't know what Chefs' Feast is, it's a huge fundraiser that the Lowcountry Food Bank does every year to benefit their childhood programs. I'll try to post more detail when I'm not so tired. But in the meantime, tickets are $175 each, and we were given (yes, given) four tickets to the event because of the work we did with the Lowcountry Food Bank for the Farmers' Table.

It was an unbelievable event. Between 900 and 1,000 people were there. Twenty-nine chefs from throughout the Lowcountry were represented. It was amazing. When I'm not so tired, I'll share more statistics with you. But for the meantime, here is a picture of me and Brian. I hate this picture, but I've talked for so long about my five-inch heels and awesome dress that I have to post.

xoxo,
AHC

Making Beds and Cupcakes

It's President's Day, so Allen didn't have school (he's been home so many days this month, I'm beginning to wonder why we paid tuition). After a late start this morning (Mommy needed to sleep in after barely sleeping the two nights before), we got up and started our day.

Allen and I have made his bed together before, but today I asked him to do it himself. He was so proud! And I was extremely proud of myself for not "fixing" it. What do you think?

We went grocery shopping this afternoon. I was smart enough to avoid Wal-Mart, but even at Bi-Lo, there were toys at every turn. I'm proud to say that I was able to deflect most of Allen's toy requests. He did land a toy shovel, but at $2.99, I thought it was worth teaching him to help Daddy in the yard.

This evening, we made cupcakes. Allen helped mix the batter, and then helped decorate them. They were yummy!

How was your day? Were you off today, or did you work?

xoxo,
AHC

Brazil

International Montessori Week is coming up, and Allen's class is studying Brazil (remember, last year was Italy).

This evening, as we were waiting for our pizza, Allen kept repeating some word. And then he announces, "That's Porgucheese."

You mean, Portuguese, buddy?

xoxo,
AHC

PS Of course, once we laughed and corrected him, he kept saying, "Porgucheese Porgucheese."

Pneumonia

That's right. My sweet boy has Pneumonia! I don't know how he got it, and fortunately we got it early, but still ... When he woke up this morning, his fever was 104 degrees! That's the highest his temperature has ever been!

The nurse assured me that a temperature that high is OK. It means his body is doing what it should. It will not cause brain damage, but it could cause a Febrile Seizure. Apparently they are scary as all get-out to see, but don't do any damage. Grrreaaat ...

The doctor thought he might have the Flu as well -- even though he got the vaccine -- but fortunately, he doesn't. For about 10 minutes though, I was terrified, because he's been in close contact with both his great-grandmothers and a little baby in the past 48 hours. (A warning: about 5 cases out of 100 that Allen's practice has seen have been cases where the patients received the Flu vaccine. So there are strains out there that laugh at the vaccine).

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day at home, with Allen almost constantly touching me. We gave him some cough medicine that causes drowsiness at about 1:00 this afternoon. He fought sleep until about an hour before his next dose. Such will power he has!

Fever is still running pretty high, but we're armed with Tylenol, Amoxicillan, and Dimetapp. Mom and Allen will be home-bound for the next few days, so feel free to call us or email us or Facebook us or whatever. Mama's really bored!

xoxo,
AHC

New System

I almost forgot ... on the way home from Nana's tonight (and after a number of arguments with Gigi over whether or not Allen's lack of sock-wearing would cause illness), Allen told his Daddy, that ...
"In the new system, I won't be sick anymore. We need to tell Gigi that!"

How heartwarming! Maybe my little boy will give a witness to Gigi that will reach her heart.

xoxo,
AHC

Viking, David & Goliath

The other day Allen and I were at the big box store near our house. I was wandering around looking for something when I came across ... a How to Train Your Dragon Viking costume! I think I've mentioned that this is Allen's new favorite movie. Well, this costume was on clearance, so Mommy could not resist.

Allen was thrilled with it. He's been wearing it everywhere. We even convince Ms. A, his teacher, that he could bring it to school one day.

Here he is lounging at home ...

In the meantime, we have been listening to the Bible Stories on the iPod while in the car. Allen loves it. We have listened to the book probably five times through. Which means that Allen is very familiar with the stories.

We asked him what he wanted to do for Family Worship this week, and he said, "Talk about David and watch the David video." So we did. After the video we decided to re-enact the story of David and Goliath. With only minor prompting from Mom and Dad, this is how Allen performed (with Dad as Goliath) ...

 

This isn't the only story he knows. As he looks through the Bible Story book at meetings, he remembers most of the titles. Thursday afternoon, as we were listening to the Bible Stories on the way home from school, Allen heard the Introduction to one of the sections with Joseph, and he said, "That bad Joseph tried to force me to lay down with him!" That was a little strange ...

And today as Allen was watching television in my bed and I started the shower in my bathroom, he said, "Mommy, can you shut the door tight, like Jehovah shut the door of the ark?"

Allen and I are sick again. I gave him my cold, which has evolved in both of us into something different. I have a sinus infection. We'll find out tomorrow what Allen has. His fever got all the way up to 103.6 today, which was very scary for me.

After Gigi's and my doctor's appointments today, we all went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A. After Allen prayed, he noticed that Gigi was starting to eat without praying. He told her to say a prayer.

Then tonight, as Gigi was telling Allen (for the millionth time) to put on his socks so he wouldn't get sick, Allen explained that Mommy had given him this sickness.

"She did? I'll beat her up!" Gigi declared.

"DON'T YOU DARE!!" Allen replied.

Such a sweet boy. Now the three of us are in bed, with Allen determined to stay awake as long as he can.

So I'd better go. Maybe he'll go to sleep if I snuggle with him instead of feeding my online addictions ...

xoxo,

AHC

As I mentioned the other day, we had a situation with reference to Allen's school. Last Thursday night, I was unwinding after meeting by checking Facebook. In my news feed was a link to this article. Talk about upsetting! Not only were the allegations disturbing, but the fact that the school had not informed the parents of the incident was alarming. I immediately email the school's director.

The next morning, a rather generic email was sent to all parents by the school's board. It basically said that the situation had been "appropriately addressed" with no further explanation. So I sent another email to the Director and President of the Board expressing my grave concerns about both the safety of Allen and the other students as well as concern for the boys involved. I was invited to a meeting with the Director.

She immediately assured me that Allen has no contact with these children. Since the incident, they have adjusted the playground schedules so that only one class is on the playground at a time; thus providing more supervision. They have fenced off the tree, as it was a blind spot (obviously) on the playground. And the teachers have spent their last two In Service days reviewing protocol and procedures for incidents like these. But most importantly, the Director immediately notified three different divisions of DSS (Department of Social Services). Child Protective Services made a notation of it, and OHAN (Out-of-Home Abuse and Neglect) is investigating it.

I feel very reassured after speaking with the Director, though I wish that they had just share the above information in the first place. Preferably before we'd read about it in the newspaper (they had no idea the article was going to be published).

Have any of you moms out there ever had to deal with a situation like this? What did you do? What did the school do? Sadly, while I never want to have to face this again, I have a bad feeling this is not the last incident like this that Allen will be exposed to during his school career ....

xoxo,
AHC

It's been awhile

The above picture has nothing to do with anything ... I just feel bad posting without a picture of the boy (but in case you're curious, he was showing me his Orange TicTacs).

We have been busy. I'm finally healthy again. Mom and I went to Atlanta to Market last week. It was the quickest we've ever done it. We were only gone two nights. But we got some cool stuff.

Allen totally rocks. He's taken to calling his great grandmothers the "old girls." They love it. They came for dinner tonight (along with Nana and Papa), and Allen was in heaven. He loves his Gramma and Gigi.

Allen's been listening to the Bible Stories in the car lately. I think he's really benefiting. He's calling them to mind very easily, and bringing them up in conversation. We're very proud. Now if only he would put into practice what he's learning (we're still having a hard time obeying Mom & Dad).

Mom and Dad (me and Brian) are a little stressed out lately. A situation at Allen's school has come to our attention, and we're not happy with the way it's been handled. I'm meeting with the Director of the school tomorrow. I'm nervous ... I hope I can firmly express our stand.

I guess that's all for now. I'll let you know how things go tomorrow. And I'll try to get some more pics and stories together this week.

xoxo,
AHC

At least my hair looked good

For those of you who don't know, I've had a heck of a time the past couple months, health-wise. I caught Allen's sinus infection. Went on an antibiotic. Didn't get rid of the sinus infection and added a cough. Went on more antibiotics, Prednisone, and cough medicine. Caught Allen's stomach bug (wanted to die ... 11 hours straight of vomiting).

Then I started to feel better. We went to Chicago, and I started to feel run down again. I also became increasingly disillusioned with my hair, and decided to try a whole new salon. Went a bit blonder, got my hair shaped a little better. Wanna see?

 Oh wait ... that's not me! C'mon, I can't put pictures of me without the gorgeous boy, can I?

Then I promptly got sick again. The sinus infection returned AGAIN, plus I was also privileged enough to get Strep Throat! More antibiotics and more Prednisone. But, at least my hair was cute ...

I'm happy to say that I'm finally on the mend, and am armed with all kinds of immune-boosting supplements so that, hopefully, I will be healthy for at least a little while.

xoxo,
AHC

Splashes of Color

So, I've been bored with my house lately. Especially after visiting Kristen and Josh and watching her and Mom reorganize/restyle her house. It seems to me that I don't have enough color downstairs (remember what color my office is?). I want to repaint downstairs, but I thought that -- at least to get started -- I could pick out a tablecloth for my dining room table, and some new pillows ... What do you think?

 This picture has nothing to do with our decor ... but shows what our house looks like when Allen's on Winter Break ... all his toys migrate from his room downstairs to the living room. Here we are with everything ready to go back upstairs ...

Chicago in December

Is beautiful, but FREEZING! Not sure whose brilliant idea it was for us to visit this time of year, but we did it. And we had a great time. Sadly, I don't have too many pictures, but I did take a few on our outing to two museums ...

 Notice what we call the "Craig Tongue of Concentration" in the above pics. Daddy still does that sometimes ...

 Gigi bought him a video camera, and he brought it with him to the Shedd Aquarium. Here he was filming the sharks ... I should really upload the video, huh?

 Here he is zooming around the "grocery store" at the Kohl Children's Musuem ...

 Watching something cool with Dad in the Water area ...

 And examining a nice fake potato.

Back at the Aquarium, he got to hang out with the Sea Lion for a few minutes ... and gave him a name ...

All in all, we had a great time visiting Kristen and Josh (and the rest of the Saxes). But I think next time we should visit in the Spring ...

xoxo,
AHC

PS. Kristen's got some shots of the adults enjoying themselves over on her blog.