Scattered Thoughts . . .

W e celebrated two birthdays yesterday.  Sheila and Ellie share the same birthday so Sheila took the day off from work so we could celebrate together.   Ellie didn't know that we would be spending her birthday with her so Sheila, Will (Pop) and I surprised Ellie by showing up at Echo science and nature museum on the Burlington waterfront.  Whitney simply told Ellie that they were going on a birthday adventure.  When Ellie and Whitney walked into the museum, Ellie immediately saw us in the lobby and greeted us with a big smile on her face.   Gee had previously purchased a "5th Birthday" tiara and a sash and it was gift-wrapped for Ellie to open when she arrived at the museum.  Before we left the lobby, Ellie had opened this first gift and put on her tiara and sash.  Everywhere we went, people wished Ellie a happy birthday and commented on her tiara! In this next photo, you can see that Ellie was pleasantly surprised by finding us waiting for her at the museum... Ellie is o

Kenzie and I played around with her Fuji Evo Hybrid Instax camera today and came away with a few nice prints.  We also learned a little more about her new Instax camera that she received this past Christmas. I set up one studio light for our little photo session this afternoon.  We started with her hybrid Instax camera.  It is a "hybrid" camera because it has both digital and film capabilities.  It captures photos and saves them to a memory card in the camera.  The photos can be viewed on the rear LCD screen like most other digital cameras.  What makes this camera different is that it has Instax instant film loaded inside it too.  If you want to print a particular photo to the Instax film, then you simply crank the "print" lever which is the same sort of lever used to advance the film on old film cameras.  The image is then developed onto the Instax instant film and the photo is ejected out the side of the camera just like on the old Polaroid cameras.   I actually s

K enzie sort of inherited a small lot of China dolls a few weeks ago.  These dolls needed a bit of attention so Kenzie and Gee went to work on them a couple of weeks ago.  First, Kenzie chose the dolls she liked the most out of the small lot of dolls.  I believe she chose about half of the dolls for various reasons.  These were some nice looking dolls! Then it was time to evaluate their condition to see what needed to be corrected.  All of the dolls needed some cleaning and some airing-out.  Hair needed to be cleaned and brushed.  Clothes were hand-washed.  Even Papa was asked to fix one China doll's figure skates.  I had a gel cyanoacrylate glue that worked perfectly for gluing the figure skate blades back to the white upper boots.   This little project gave Kenzie some one-on-one time with Gee.  Plus, these are things that Kenzie adores...  dolls.  She was pretty excited.  In the end, Kenzie went home with a nice selection of China dolls.  

It was our second sunny day in a row today! First thing this morning, we headed up to the hospital to see our warrior princess and her parents in their new PICU room overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. We picked up some coffee and breakfast for ourselves as well as for Whitney and Wayne and continued on to the hospital.  We were fortunate this morning to have arrived early enough to meet with the team of doctors. Although Ellie had a nice burst of energy and consciousness yesterday and seemed to have a great day (albeit with some visible pain)... which was perhaps the most "normal" day for her since being in the PICU... she had a rough and rather dangerous night through the night. Naturally, the doctors addressed this while also showing concern about her continuing struggles and evolving problems. Ironically, Ellie was awake during this doctor visit and seemed to be listening intently as the doctors talked and carefully examined little Ellie.  Ellie r

When we awoke this morning, the sky was a crystal clear blue and the sun was shining brightly! We hadn't seen this in weeks! The day was off to a good start for a change.  We immediately headed toward the hospital again to visit with Whitney, Wayne, and Ellie, our little warrior princess.  When we arrived at the quiet, empty hospital it was early Saturday morning so the hospital was eerily quiet. We made our way to the PICU which is in the opposite corner of the hospital from the main entrance.  As we approached Ellie's room, we could see the door was open with no commotion in the area around her room... a good sign...  We stepped into the room and it was relatively quiet other than the warning tones and beeps indicating relatively minor issues... the tones and beeps cutting through the silence. Mom was sitting on her bed in the corner of the room, dad was still sleeping, and Ellie seemed to be resting quietly but breathing deeply... The nurses are in the room 24

(As I've written before when writing about this Christmas project, since Kenzie is still young enough to make it impossible for her to read this blog entry, there really is no problem in writing and publishing blog entries about her Christmas present so here is an update.) The front facade... before trim... before brick sidewalk... Despite my relatively poor health lately (and for the past three months), I've squeezed in some time here and there during the halfway decent periods to make some progress on the dollhouse Christmas project! It is still unassembled to make it easier to work on different areas of the house. At some point, however, I'll need to assemble this townhouse... glue, screws and nails... and then just finish it with tiny brushes and a lot of patience. For the purpose of this photo, I carefully placed the pieces together and then tied it together with a cord (seen across the top in the first photo). The windows and doors are just placed into thei