Santa Claus is Coming...

Two days, two accidents

So the girls are trying to give make me gray or give me a heart attack -- maybe both. This has been a rough week for the Beckner sisters. Lilly received her first injury when she took a rough tumble on Thursday. What was she doing? Jumping on a bed? No. Just walking on the sidewalk with her sitter, Kyle, and Belle on their way to pick up her daughter, Gabby. Lilly fell on her left shoulder on the sidewalk. She was fine until later in the afternoon, following her nap, she started complaining that her neck hurt. So I retrieved them from Kyle's. Dropped Belle off to Daddy (at his birthday outing) and took Lilly on to the ER at Women's and Children's, where we spent 2 hours. After talking to the doc (and assuring her that I had nothing to do with this accident!), they started the X-rays with the collar bone and discovered it was broken. She has to wear a "special backpack" for two weeks. We see an orthopedic doc on Monday for her injury.

I called Stacey (the sitter on Fridays) to tell her about Lilly's injury and explain you have to pick her up from the bottom when lifting her. She calls me two hours later and says, "You're going to kill me. But Belle jumped off the couch and hit her chin on the coffee table and is going to need stitches." I had just got to work from a meeting. I dropped everything to rush to Scott Depot and pick up both girls, where I learned it wasn't her chin, but her left eye (outer corner). I made a joke to calm Belle down, who is now hysterical again because I'm there. I asked if she was being the monkey on a bed who fell off and bumped his head, but Stacey explained that she just flopped off the counch from laying down and hit the coffee table.

At first, the gash didn't look so bad, but it just kept bleeding the 4 hours we waited in the emergency room at CAMC Teays Valley Hospital. The small band-aid was basically holding it together. It required four stitches. We were surprised that only Andrew and another man had to hold her still. She was actually very brave and very good for such a big injury. She cried of course and begged us to help her (breaking my heart, of course.) Mommy cried in the corner at this point. Doc told me I couldn't be near her if I was going to be upset as it would only upset her more. Belle told us it burned when they put the numbing medicine in, but then was pretty good for the stitches. Afterward and actually while we waited, she was the sweetest little girl and just colored and talked to people around us. She's quite the social butterfly, much like her Mommy. It's been an eventful, tiring and stressful two days. But I guess we were due... we haven't had any injuries or illnesses since Belle's last daredevil injury in May -- her left ear cut open. I just pray that the kid won't have all kinds of scars on her face before she's a teen-ager.

Note: We'll get a picture of Lilly's "special backpack" tomorrow and post it.

Best friends, first snow and new dos

So rather than the girls writing what's been going on... I thought I (Mommy) would share some funny stories with you.

Best friends.

Let's start with Belle's infatuation with bugs (or proper term -- insects.) The nasty, stinky brown ladybugs have started to infest our house. They're dying quickly (which makes me quite happy), but Belle discovers their dried carcasses and then brings them to us. "Look, Mommy I found a ladybug. Aaw. He's my best friend." Now I'm not so happy to see this new "friend" and tell her we have to throw him away. She gets quite upset. The first time this happened. Andrew convinced her to set him free and we let him go through a small hole in the screen in the bathroom window. Tonight, however, I wasted no time opening her hand and dumping the dead bug in the trash and said he could live there. She bawled and said she didn't want her frined to live in the trash. She wanted him to live in her bed. Ugh. Daddy convinced her that he would crawl out of the trash and live in the bathroom.

First snow.

So it starts snowing last night. Belle is quite excited and asks if they can go outside to play in the snow. I say, no. It's too dark and cold. She says we can go later when the sun comes up. I say no we have to go to school. This morning she says now we can play in the snow? I say, No we have to get ready for school. They're running around excited about the first snow of the season. Throwing open the blinds in the windows and upsetting me. I tell them to go downstairs to the dining room so they can have breakfast, where they can see the snow better from the door to the deck. Next thing, I know I hear giggling and stomping around as I'm putting on my make-up. I yell down to Andrew, who is checking school closings, that the girls are on the porch. They had run around on the deck in their socks. They had a ball. We were a bit upset. Then Belle tells Daddy has he's drying off her feet that there are ants on her feet. He tries to explain the science behind the prickling sensation, but she insists there are ants on her feet.

New do.

Belle's hair was quite long and I liked it. But a) she hates to have us mess with her hair and b) she won't stop twirling it. So she got her first real "do " tonight. She was very good. Sat quite still while the man cut her hair. Of course, before she entered his chair she had to model her outfit and say, "See my beautiful shirt and pants." Too funny.

Lilly has her moments too.

So I can't leave without telling a story on Lilly as well. She's entering the terrible twos in her own way, of course, and as any last born would -- with a mischievous grin. No, she's not going to be full of rage, but rather full of mischief. She has her moments of anger, but again, it's usually too funny and she starts giggling. Lilly disobeys your command and then giggles, grins and generally tries to "charm" her way out of it. When I tell her that I don't think she's funny and she's going to get into trouble, she insists, "Yes, I'm funny.

Well, last week Andrew had them when I had an evening work event. So he had Belle in the tub and a naked Lilly on the potty. She jumped up from the potty and ran her naked butt into her bedroom, where she climbed into bed, squatted and peed. She then rann into the bathroom and told Andrew, I pee-peed on the bed (with a grin, of course.) And then said, I pee-peed with my butt as she smacked her butt cheek. Andrew of course was upsetat the time, but later laughed when recounting the event for me.

The leaves are changing

Belle created this in school today.

She's quite proud of it, so we thought we'd share it with you.

Art is definitely her favorite "subject"/activity.