Where the deer and the buffalo roam

Just so Mike will get off my case for a while...

We went to a local petting zoo if you will where some of the animals are just roaming free, walking along beside you and you can feed them carrots. I have never before seen an Emu eat a carrot, but they will. And they'll swallow it whole. Weird. Above is me and the gang and below is the rest of the gang...

Seriously, the largest pig I have ever seen. I think it belongs in the Guiness Book or something.

One of my all time faves (coming in second behind the pig) is the capybara
Yes, I realize it's just a giant rodent, but I think they're so cute.

Addison and Sydney

Look at these precious fuzzy llamas. We got to pet the baby one and she was super soft.

A white peacock. I didn't know they made those...

A regular peacock, up above us.

Addison feeding some deer. They make really cute noises. I was petting one and when I walked away it sounded like it was crying.

Chris petting a really old donkey.

Other donkeys trying to get that carrot!

awww

Cali pulling the girls. We took Cali here when she was Sydney's age (6 years ago) but she didn't remember it, so to her this was all new and she loved it. They all did...

The parking lot greeter. The emu who eats carrots whole. They also make very strange noises and scare the crap out of me. They look like they could just peck your face off.

First Official Day of Kindergarten

She wasn't in the mood for pictures that morning. Here she is, before leaving the house.

My very own Pippi Lockstocking!

In the gym, before school starts. This is where they meet every morning.

I tried uploading the video of her telling me about her day, it's way too cute, but the file is HUGE! Anyone know how to make the file size smaller on a video?

Stuff

She got this scuba barbie after getting her cast, but of course, she can't take it in the bathtub, so we just did this.

She tells me this is a fancy girl smile. OK

In her new pj's I got her, with the dog. This is pre-cast. She got a pretty purple cast from her toes to her thigh yesterday. I got teary eyed when he was putting it on her. Today is the first day we don't have to run all over creation! yeah! So, the house gets cleaned today.

Updates

So, after the MRI, we have discovered her leg is broken after all. It's a crack in the growth plate in the bone below her kneecap. We were trying to get into a pediatric orthopedist, but with Anthem and Norton's disputes, no one will see us unless we are willing to pay out of pocket, which I'm not. If I had all the money in the world, sure. But as it is, with our escrow shortage, our ER bill coming, and now my hours being cut at work, we just can't. So, they're going to try to get us into an orthopedist over here, just not one that specializes in children. She's in some pain now and I'm hoping they call me back soon so I can go get her some more medicine.

We did go to school this morning and met her teacher and her class, got her assignments and sat down with the school nurse and someone else to determine her care plan for the next 6-8 weeks or however long it takes.

A hyperextended knee

We were at a pool party this weekend and Sydney hurt herself pretty badly during a good time running and jumping in the pool. I don't want to rehash it again and I'm sure most of you know by now what happened, if not, check FB. Anyway, let me just say that it has been the hardest thing to go through as a parent, knowing that one second your child was having the time of her life and the next minute, she can't walk. I can't even bring myself to look at the pictures of that evening, taken just minutes before it happened. It's an image that will never leave me. I cry just thinking about how much it had to hurt and how scared she was. Ok, so enough of that. Tomorrow is her follow up visit with her regular Dr. He'll determine if we need an MRI to evaluate soft tissue damage, since we know nothing is broken. He'll be able to tell me if he thinks she can go to school on Tuesday, and even then, I'll have to call the school and make sure they can accomodate her, in a wheelchair, most likely, if they'll be able to help her go the the bathroom and such. I'll post again when I know more tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who is keeping her in their thoughts and prayers.

Things she's saying now

Yogurt is "yogrit"
Fern Gully (the movie) is "Fern Valley", which I find especially amusing, considering.
Sell is "sale", as is "mom, when are we going to sale our house?"
When she sees something in a movie, or on a billboard and isn't sure if it's real, she'll ask "is that real in this world?" Example..."are kangaroos real in this world?"
When I ask her to feed the dog, she replies "I didn't want a dog anyway!" (I wonder where she got that from.) Sometimes, it's "I wanted a small dog." To which I reply "you'd have to feed a small dog too!"
Aly, our neighbor across the street is "the little girl who lives in the woods" because they have a lot of trees around their house.
It's also funny to me that she knows the names of places to eat. The other day, she asked me if we could go to Moe's. Then, at the end of swim class I told her we could go anywhere she wanted and she wanted chinese. She likes it because of the buffett and ice cream. She also knows the name of a local pizza place that she likes because it has a train that brings your drinks. Of course, she knows McDonald's, and also Chick Fil-A, and Cracker Barrell (which is Crackel Barrell).
And this next one is just a fine example of her intelligence. When we went to Gatlinburg, the cabin didn't have a key, just a keypad you had to enter a code to get in. So, when we were leaving the cabin for the first time, we weren't sure how to lock it. Our initial thought was to enter the code again and it would lock. But that wasn't working, so we were discussing and Sydney piped up and said "dad, all you have to do is hit that little lock button." In the center of the keypad, there was a little lock icon and that was it! We did it, it worked and then we just looked at each other and laughed.

Swimming

Tonight was Sydney's last night of intense summer swim camp. It was Monday-Thursday for 2 weeks, half hour each time. She did SOOO well! I am honestly shocked at how great she did. I realize I'm biased, but she went from being scared the last session (which was a while back, I'll admit) to jumping in without hesitation and using her arm circles to swim! Her little butt just a wiggles and it's sooo cute! She graduated level 2 and will be moving on to level 3 now. Unfortunately for me, the only time they had left was Sat. morning at 9 am. For the next 10 weeks. Ughh! I vote Chris takes her 5 times and I take her 5 times. Sounds fair, right?