Mark and Victoria, their children: Isak, Elina, Anja and Julia. Visitors are advised that this site may contain extreme minutia and adoration involving four blond kids, mainly for the benefit of those poor grandparents and family an ocean away. If you are not them, you may experience boredom. You have been warned.
Isak got his cast removed today which revealed a very skinny left arm - and dirty! (But Isak refused to let me clean it). He felt very vulnerable and is a long way off from using it normally. He did get a nice brace to wear. And he cannot participate in sports for another three weeks! Sigh. Apparently, his arm is now more vulnerable than when it was in the cast. In 3 weeks his bone growth should be at adequate levels to where he can resume normal activity. The X-rays looked good, though, and we are certainly grateful for that.
"Awkward" (is what he says in the video)
The big reveal... of the very skinny arm
I asked to keep the cast pieces (the gross padding removed). I am thinking about wrapping the pieces up in a nice present to put under the Christmas tree. Especially in light of what happened just a few hours later. Let's just say Oct 25, 2011 will be remembered in the Fisher family...
I picked the kids up 30 minutes early from school so we could head out before the pick-up traffic got thick. Destination: Pumpkin Patch and Farm. The kids were super excited. This would include corn maze, animals, picking our pumpkins and riding ponies. I had packed a pic-nic 'dinner' and thrown the big blanket in the car. In Moore/S OKC we stopped to get some 'real food' at Crest Market (chicken tenders, in this case - love that store). Mark was due to meet us.
As I unload Julia and Anja, I hear a thump and Elina screams from behind the car! She is the kid least likely to cry in our family - at least from physical injuries. She's tough and wipes her tears quickly. But this time she just sat down next to the car, clutching her right arm and for a long time unable to tell me what happened. She'd tripped on her untied shoelaces (her mother may have mentioned something about tying them...) and taken an unbalanced fall to the unforgiving concrete, bracing her fall with her right arm. She was so shaken she wanted to ride in the grocery cart. Luckily Crest has not one, but two child seats, side-by-side, in their carts. So Anja and Julia sat in front and I lifted Elina into the cart. She cried for five minutes straight, at which point I said to Mark on the phone, "I think our outing is cancelled, because Elina may have a broken arm." She never cries more than 30 seconds for pain. Now, injustice, done to her or some innocent person/creature, can cause her tears to flow for longer, but it has undertones of rage that were not present today.
Elina kept being weepy, saying "I feel like all I want to do is sleep, or just sit and hold my guinea pig all day." "I cannot write with my hand, but I could probably ride a pony." The last utterance gave me some hope that the arm might just be very bruised. I asked her to move the arm and hand carefully in different directions and she had good range of motion, and the arm looked normal. But when Mark came we took Elina to the nearest Urgent Care and we ate our pic-nic food in the car, and Elina ate hers in the waiting room.
Sure enough. Broken arm (wrist). The radius bone right at the growth plate (which can be problematic for proper growth down the road). She has a splint now and will go in to get her cast on Thursday of all goes according to plan (same orthopedic surgeon as Isak - wonder if we can get a special family rate?). Since hers is the right arm, and she is right handed, she's in for a challenging month or so ahead.
And you know something else? In the car, on the way to Crest Market, Elina told me how a boy in her class had fallen at recess TODAY and broken his arm. What?? (The school nurse confirmed it, later.)
Elina brushing teeth with her left hand.
Isak showing off his new brace.
A good attitude - in spite of it all.
We're officially increasing our calcium intake.
Though looking at THIS I can see that they are hardly deficient.
Elina is nuts about animals. Actually, nuts doesn't cover it. She thinks about animals all the time. She loves, loves, loves animals. She has been this way since she could say a few words. The poor child should have been born on a farm, or at least had the privilege of having grandparents with a farm, like I did when I was growing up. One of her long-standing dreams is to get to milk a cow. (I know, her mother should arrange for this to happen). Elina (who doesn't really love math) will LOVE a math problem if it has to do with animals (If John has 14 piglets and Jane has 12 how many piglets do they have together?) She is all the time fantasizing about the many and what kinds of animals she will have when she grows up and has a farm. When she checks out library books at school it is always non-fiction about some animal or dog-breed. The first 'person' she seeks out after school is Sadie. Together they play outside for hours.
Lately she has been praying for a pig. A pig! She talks about how she will have a pig when she grows up. Oh, how she wants a pig!
Well, it got me thinking - she 'needs' another animal, besides the dog, to dote on. Well, I don't want to be the ogre parent that ruined the animal crazy girl's childhood by depriving her of the opportunity to care for a little critter. Not a pig. But, perhaps a Guinea Pig!
Well, I found one up for adoption on craigslist with all imaginable equipment and supplies, including a bunch of food and hay, indoor and outdoor cages, etc. In complete secrecy I brought her home and rearranged the furniture in the play-room to fit the large cage (while Mark took the kids to Sam's Club). The kids' astonishment was extraordinary. This was not just for Elina, of course, but for the whole family.
Elina just couldn't believe it. She was ecstatic, but kept asking how many days we would keep it (thinking we were pet-sitting). I repeated 3 or 4 times that she was ours before it sunk in. After learning all about guinea pigs we decided to get Mimmi a friend - they are happiest when they are not alone. Elina picked out the ugliest (in my mind) baby guinea pig because she was the bravest and most outgoing one. Her name is Maja.
These sweet critters receive no shortage of love. We now have to get a lock on the cage because Julia will open it and lift them out and hold them - not always so gently. I had not expected how tender Isak would be around these little ones. But I should have known. He was the same way when Anja and Julia were tiny babies. Supersweet.
Today we took them outside and let them eat some grass.
Innan detta kortet togs hade Julia hittats i mitt badrum med mascara i handen.
Hon hade tom på ögonfransarna, den spjuvern.
Hon säger "Nej, inte ma-fin, mamma, de e muuuus."
Elina lycklig med sina husdjur.
Marsvinen är inte det minsta rädda för Sadie.
Anja har plockat rabatt-blommor, som vanligt.
Elina och Mimmi.
Elina och Mimmi, Isak och Maja.
Vi lät dem springa ute också och Sadie ville väääldigt gärna leka.
Oklahoma is going through its worst drought in history and our neighbor to the south, Texas, has it even worse. We are used to lots of spurts of heavy rain and some moderate flooding in the fall here in Oklahoma. And we had several days of rain early in the month and McGee street in Norman flooded - as it should! I was so incredibly happy. The kids were too. Anja says of rain days: "Det här är den bästa dagen i mitt liv!" (This is the best day of my life.)
It even began to pour one day when we walked our mile and a half to school. Anja was in utter bliss! Here are a few pictures from our rain days. I pray for many more to come.
De minsta systrarna på väg till lekparken.
Och en bok måste man ju ha med i regnet...
Elina tyckte sparkcykla genom rännilarna var roligast.
Kungen av minerna.
Isak sprang som en galning utan regnjacka i timtal.
When we moved here from our old house, the MAIN consideration was to have lots of opportunities for the kids to play outside. The location, therefore, was the main selling point for our current house. Two new kids moved in behind us, Mia - who was on both Isak's 2nd and 3rd grade classes, and Jackson, a 1st grader from Elina's school, and we have ladders on each side of the fence so that the kids can go to each other's houses. Another little kid, Justin, from that street behind us, joins them too. Add to it, the two boys across the street (Tristan a long-time buddy of Isak's and the other, Xavier, the BOSOM friend of Anja's), and finally Ashton - also across the street from us, 1 year older than Anja. It makes for this mass of kids that run around the cul de sac, lots of screams and laughter. They own our street and the park. Julia wants to play with them all time, but we can't really let her.
"Mamma! Jag har hittat en daggmask! Titta vad sööööt"
Vi gjorde ett besök i svenska skolan i Plano, nära Dallas, efter IKEA besök nummer 2. Den svenska skolan kan man läsa om HÄR. Jag skulle önska att mina barn kunde få delta i sådan undervisning. Det finns såna skolor lite varstans i USA, där det finns tillräckligt med svenska barn. Men inte i Norman. Jag är glad att vi kunde vara med på en lektion i alla fall (hålls onsdagar 16:45-18:45 i övervåningen av affären, The Wooden Spoon).
The Wooden Spoon.
Isaks favoritavdelning!
(Jag köpte turkisk peppar som ingen av barnen gillar.
Fick ha påsen helt för mig själv!)
De hade både hushållsost och norsk gulost, och brunost. Mmm.
Julia älskade dockorna.
Äkta vikingar!
Klassrummet.
Barnen var uppdelade i 2 grupper. Elina och Isak fick vara med i den övre gruppen. Elina tyckte det var så där (skola? om eftermiddagen? varför är jag här? när blir det fika?) men Isak räckte hela tiden upp handen och tog arbetet på största allvar. De pratade om dubbelkonsonantbeteckning. (Mata, matta, kapa, kappa osv). Anja var egentligen för ung att vara med över huvud taget, men vi var med en stund i den yngre gruppen och i dag visade hon mig att hon förstått lektionen om rim, fastän jag inte trodde hon lyssnade i går. "Mamma, vad är det som är lika dant som sand?" sa hon plötsligt efter frukost. Jag förstod inte vad hon menade. "Hand!" svarade hon då. De lär sig allt mer än man tror!
Sen lärde de sig om Stockholm och landskapet Uppland. Jag tror till och med Elina tyckte samtalet om Vasaskeppet var lite intressant. Om de hade pratat mer om landskapsdjur och djur i allmänhet hade det fallit henne bättre i smaken. Jag var imponerad över upplägget och tycker lärarna var riktigt duktiga.
Vi åkte till både IKEA i Austin (Round Rock) och IKEA i Dallas (Frisco). Det var oplanerat att vi stannade i Austin för jag ogillar planlösningen där. Det är inte 2 våningar och man måste gå igenom HELA affären innan man kommer till resturangen. Men det var nästan tomt på IKEA när vi kom dit vid middagstid och hör och häpna men på TISDAGAR äter barn gratis! Det oplanerade infallet att äta middag på IKEA föreföll plötsligt både inspirerat och genialt. Vi betalade 8 dollar för hela familjen att sitta ner och äta i lugn och ro i en stort sett tom restaurang.
Dagen efter (vi övernattade på hotell i Waco) besökte vi IKEA igen, i Dallas. Vi åt lunch denna gången till fullpris, men det är ju inte fasligt dyrt. Elina och Anja var i Småland medan jag tog med mig Isak och Julia in i affären - Isak aldeles för lång och Julia för kort för att vara i Småland. Isak var med rätta sur för det fanns en 10 åring där inne! Längd-diskriminering! Mark hade parkerat bilen i skuggan och tog sig en tupplur i det perfekta vädret.
Middag i Austin.
"Titta, mamma! Labradorer!"
"En sån här bäbis vill jag ha i julklapp!"
Julskyltningen hade redan börjat...
Leka lite.
Och mysa.
Julia spenderade säkert 10 minuter i den här stolen,
We stopped by the Temple on our way out of the city. It was Elina's favorite part of our trip (that - and when we saw a 2 month old Pug puppy and got to pet it). We then drove the back roads and through the Hill Country (beautiful!) from Marble Falls (I could live there) to Cedar Park - north of Austin - (I could not live there). On the whole, I am not a Texas fan. And the severe drought plaguing Texas and Oklahoma both, makes Texas even less appealing to me. We may get rain this weekend. Pray for floods!!
The San Antonio Temple has beautiful stained glass windows.
And Anja picked just a FEW of the "Temple flowers."
This is our THIRD family vacation to San Antonio. We like it, but it is rather a coincidence that we are here a third time. We're not going to Sea World this time. Instead we are lounging in the condo and the hotel pool. Tomorrow we are going to Dinosaur Quest.
Elina and Anja in their bed.
Isak sharing his bed with Julia.
Classic: The girls checking out the balcony and Isak is figuring out how the technology works.
Made me nervous, but they played here for hours.
Isak on dish duty.
"Room service? Yes, I'd like to order..."
H.E.B Central Market on Broadway across from University of the Incarnate Word,
our FAVORITE PLACE in San Antonio. For real.
In the cheese section there was a cow...
...and cheese from Norway and Sweden!
Och hushållsost!! <3
Den köpte vi. Och brunosten med!
Vi har ju tagit 3 dagar ledigt från skolan,
så ett par timmar här och där spenderas med att göra "make-up work"
Men mest simmade vi i den KALLA (med Texas-mått mätt) saltvattenspoolen.
