Anna Claire and the Nursing Home

I felt compelled to write this post today, because when I saw my mom this morning, I realized Anna Claire will probably never see Meme again. I don't want her to remember Meme the way I saw her this morning - so weak, so thin, unresponsive.

Momma is on Hospice, and we know it's just a matter of time (days, weeks) before she will be leaving us. She is ready, has told me so, and is at peace about it. She's down to 86 lbs, unable to swallow and therefore unable to eat. Her living will made it very clear she did not want a feeding tube, so I am just watching her become weaker and weaker with each passing day.

Up until last week, I'd been taking Anna Claire to see Meme for a couple of reasons: 1) Anna Claire asked to please go see her Meme and said she missed her. 2) Momma totally lights up when that little girl enters the room...I could see how much joy it brought her. I know that Anna Claire is Momma's favorite person in this world, hands down...even rating higher than yours truly. That's one of those things that happens when you have kids.

I've been sitting here reflecting on the past few months and the inevitable impact it all must have had on Anna Claire. She has naturally been asking lots of questions, and I've been struggling with how I will handle telling her when mom does pass.

I do think Anna Claire's exposure to the nursing home and assisted living settings have enriched her life (and mine). I have such a warm place in my heart for the residents and care givers, and I am grateful for the life lessons that our experiences have taught us. A smile or a hug brings a tremendous amount of joy to these residents. Momma is by far the minority of residents in both assisted living and nursing homes, receiving many visitors over time. She has someone visiting daily. For most, they rarely if ever have anyone visit. Anna Claire has had the opportunity at a very young age to see how much joy she can bring them just by waving or humoring them when they ask her questions. Never scared, always sweet.

I directly attribute her loving attitude and thoughtfulness toward the elderly to her experiences at both Walking Horse and Signature.

I also will never forget how Anna Claire immediately went into service mode as soon as she walked in Meme's room - thinking of things she could do to help Meme. "Meme, do you want a piece of gum?" That was always HER job each visit...to get Momma a piece of her favorite Tropical Fruit Trident out of her basket, unwrap it for her, and throw the wrapper away. She knew to be quiet when Meme was sleeping and very mindful of this. She often had a drawing that she had made for Meme before our visits.

I will treasure these memories. Anna Claire may not remember as she older, but I know her sweet spirit made a difference in the life of my mom.

Four Year Old Favorites

I wish I had started this sooner, documenting Anna Claire's favorites each year. It's never too late though, right?

Here are her favorites right now as a four-year-old:

Food: macaroni
Dessert: (any) fruit, orange push-ups, Bomb Pops, and vanilla ice cream cones
Colors: pink, blue, and purple
Movie: Care Bears Big Wish Movie and Princess and the Popstar
Activity: drawing and coloring (prefers plain white paper to coloring books), gymnastics, playing pretend, picking berries
Best friend: Amy Eisemann, was her answer today (it changes daily), followed by, "I love all my friends."
Toy: Catty
Song: Here I Am (Princess and the Popstar)
When I grow up I want to be: a doctor
Sport: Soccer
Favorite birthday present: my guitar
Can do for herself: get dressed, go potty and wash hands, pick out clothes, make snack, write most letters, clean up after herself, help clear dinner table.
Milestones: can go underwater and float on her back; do the splits (both ways); can read sentences and short pages in books; can decode new words on her own; can draw rainbows, butterflies, flowers, and people; can mix paint to make all primary colors when given yellow, blue, and red.

She weighs 36 lbs and is 3'5".

First Big Girl Haircut

Anna Claire has been begging to get her hair cut ever since I chopped all mine off a couple months ago. We were able to put it off by reasoning with her that we needed it long for dance recital and that she would need to wear it up.

Ever since dance, hardly a day has gone by that she hasn't mentioned getting her hair cut like Mommy's. Daddy would rather it be longer, but we could both see how important it was to her, so we decided to compromise and let her get a mid-length cut. Then, if she really likes it and wants it shorter, well, we'll see. But it is still long enough that I can braid it or pull it back in a ponytail. Larry and I both think it's super cute. Miss Jenny did a good job!

She has waited for this day for a LONG time! So excited.

We did a decent job holding still for Miss Jenny, but she was so tempted to look in the mirror.

Almost done!

She loves it. It still looks like my sweet girl, just a little shorter.

She got her special treat, a Jolly Rancher, for being a good girl.

Growing up too fast! Don't blink!

4th of July (um, 3rd actually)

Eating her oatmeal breakfast at The Red Barn, the morning of the 3rd. This pic captures the outcome of her first night in hair rollers. Half of them "fell out." ;)

Here's the before of our first night in rollers. ;)

Ready to have our picnic and see fireworks! She insisted on the pink sequin shoes. :)

My attempt at a wrap around braid - the curls from early in the day all fell out.

This light wand from her friend Jackson was perfect for the 4th!

Her reaction to seeing the first fireworks in the sky.

Fireworks at Liberty Park

Gotta have Bomb Pops on the 4th. Bomb Pops and flags.

Our city planned their fireworks for July 3rd, I'm guessing so as not to compete with the Nashville fireworks. Consequently, we began our festivities on the 3rd!

Our 4th celebration this year was simple, but probably needed to be since I am at risk of being put on bed rest if some of my symptoms don't subside in the next few days. Don't worry, I'm taking it easy! I promise!

We began our celebrating wearing our red, white and blue dress to The Red Barn on the 3rd. She loved the dress so much, she even insisted on wearing it to bed that night after fireworks. And she wanted to keep it on when she woke up the next morning since it was the 4th, for real.

I really made an effort to rest and take it easy while Anna Claire was at school, just like I promised my doc. We made sure to wait and pick her up after the ice cream man paid his weekly visit to The Red Barn, otherwise we would have heard about it!

We went home for a bit, then it was off to Rotary Park to have our family picnic. We picked Rotary because we knew we'd be battling crowds and traffic soon enough, and just needed somewhere to eat our yummy dinner of sandwiches, chips, cookies, and blackberries. Anna Claire loved our picnic! She is still talking about it. You forget how the simplest things bring so much joy to a child. Just eating outside, and listening to the birds and crickets and watching the trees blow in the wind.

After our picnic, we were off to Liberty Park for fireworks, only to find a flashing sign that said "Lot Full, Park at Jostens." Um, no. I'm 6 months pregnant people, on strict orders not to over-exert myself, with a 4 year old in tow. That just wasn't an option for us. Well, I was driving and had the idea that we could drive through the neighborhood opposite Liberty Park to scope out something closer. How blessed we were to find a lady charging $5 a car, allowing people to park and watch from her front yard. We were DIRECTLY in front of where the fireworks were being shot. We didn't have to walk anywhere. Just plopped our blanket down in front of our car and munched on our leftover picnic snacks. I think God heard my prayer that we needed a miracle so that a little girl could see fireworks, while keeping this baby cooking at the same time!

Anna Claire loved the fireworks at first, but tired out quickly since she didn't take a good nap at school and not to mention the fact 9:30 is way past her bedtime. She also said the fireworks were too loud.

The 4th of July itself isn't much to write about. It rained, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. Larry's dad has a shooting buddy who invited us to return this year to have a ginormous picnic with his family on his farm, near a beautiful creek. I really wish I hadn't gotten Anna Claire's hopes up. She remembered going last year and was really looking forward to it. Can't do anything about rain though.

I do think she loved our picnic and the fireworks, and had a good 4th experience in spite of the disappointment. And there's always next year!

Reading Pages...and Everything Around Her

Everything Around Her

I can't begin to tell you how fun it is that Anna Claire can read, and what a different experience life is for her that she can read at four.

We were driving to Rivergate Mall a few weeks ago, a mall and area she's never been to before. Once we entered Goodlettsville, she perked up and said, "Mommy, there's a Jack-in-the Box." Now you may be a skeptic like me and think, "There's a Jack-in-the Box in Clarksville. She probably just recognized the logo." I thought the same thing. But when I came home and told Larry, he reminded me she's never seen one before and that the only one in Clarksville is in North Clarksville and we haven't been over there with her.

A few miles later she said, "Mommy, there's an animal hospital." Sure enough, there's a non-descript building with no pictures or images on it, just the words in giant font on the roof that say, "Animal Hospital." I asked her, "Did you just read that? I didn't know you knew "hospital." She said, "I did read it Mommy. Is that good?" Yes sweet girl, that is very good.

As we enter Rivergate, I asked her to help me look for the Party Store, just for fun. We get to an intersection and she says, "Mommy is that a Cheddar's?" I answered her, "No baby, that's a Checkers, a burger place. It does kind of look like the word Cheddars, doesn't it?" She got mad at me. "Yeah! It does say Cheddars Mommy. It start with 'ch'! I want to go to Cheddars." I didn't argue, I just smiled and kept driving until I heard from the back seat, "That say 'party' Mommy, is that the party store?" Yes it was. She saw the sign for "Party City." Thanks little reader!

We actually did go to Cheddars the eve of her birthday and their menu had very few pictures but she was reading everything on it. Pop was constantly amused as she pointed out all the foods on the menu she wanted to order: broccoli, chicken, pasta, and we all loved when she pointed out, "They have strawberry frozen rocks guys!" (referring to the Strawberry margaritas, frozen or on the rocks) Again, there are no picture clues on these menus people. Just text. Proud, beaming parents...I can't help but brag!

Cheddars Menu - see "strawberry," "frozen" and "rocks" in the description?

Yesterday we were in the car, and Anna Claire pointed to the word "booster" her car seat. "My car seat says, 'booster' right there." I asked her how she knew that word, since we've never taught it to her or encountered it in it a story, and she said she just figured it out.

We got her a pack of colored glue sticks to use at her birthday party. When we got home with them, she opened up the pack and said, "I have 'ice', 'fire', 'earth', and 'sun.'" I asked her what she was talking about, and she said, "Look!" I walked over to her her art table, and sure enough, the glue sticks where each given names based on their color: blue ice, red fire, green earth, and yellow sun. Totally read those.

Then, at the library last week, we were in using their restroom and pointing to the hardware on the door, she said, "That say 'Mills,' is that like Opry Mills, Mommy? They came from Opry Mills." The hardware did, in fact, say "Mills."

I should stop being so surprised when she reads things, but I am still in a state of disbelief and shock that she's decoding new words on her own at such a young age.

We are not super-parents, we just purchased and believed in an amazing system for teaching kids to read, and followed the directions verbatim. We persisted with it from age 6 months to two years, and she took off on her own from there. It takes discipline from both parents, but as a middle school teacher who witnesses on a daily basis how a lack of reading and decoding skills cripples kids and impacts their performance in school, we totally bought in to being proactive and giving our child every advantage so that she will NOT be one of those statistics. Also, when you study child psychology and read about the window of opportunity that takes place from 6 months to 2 years, when kids' brains are literally sponges, you don't want to miss out on that. People totally underestimate babies! Ok, off my soap box now. ;)
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D.W. Gets Wet - First Book to Read Whole Pages

Larry and I take turns reading her her bedtime story each night, and tonight it was my turn. Anna Claire LOVES Arthur books, and especially books about his sister, D.W. A couple nights ago, we were reading her new library book, D.W. Gets Wet. Larry and I are both in the habit of leaving out many words on the page as we read to her and having her supply the missing words. Tonight, I left out the first word on a couple of pages, and instead of just giving me the word, she kept going, and I let her! Read the whole page. Granted, there are only 6-10 words in each sentence, and maybe 2-3 sentences per page, but impressive nevertheless. I will post snapshots of the two pages she read later.