Happy Birthday, Grandma

Today turned out to be pretty decent for a Monday. I wasn't thrilled about having to walk around at work with a giant green bruise and bump on my forehead. I was even less thrilled about the concerned questions: "Oh my god! What happened?!" If my husband hadn't actually witnessed what happened, I don't think anyone would believe me. It sounds like a bad slapstick routine. I actually have another more painful bruise from the same incident but that one doesn't show at least. Anyway, if you weren't convinced before that I am a world-class klutz, my latest kitchen mishap certainly confirms it. I got bummed by having to walk by all the posters for the missing girl (Kelly Nolan), since in all liklihood, they found her body today. :( That whole thing makes me very sad for her, her family and friends, and most of all, the condition of the world we live in.

The temp had finally cooled enough after work that we could actually get outside and enjoy the weather. It was great! Luciana got to play with Hunter outside while I made dinner--it was so nice to see them happy again in the sand box. Kaneisha came over to visit us and spend a little time with Dej. She's here breifly, visiting from Las Vegas. She brought with her Cindy, our cousins' foreign exchange student. The girls went (dej drove) to Dairy Queen and Taco Bell. I loved seeing Kaneisha--we all wish she had more time here. Luciana was PISSED that she didn't get to "play with Kaneisha"! She felt very bitter for a few minutes, but as always, she recovered her happiness quickly.

L. took her diorama to school today. She was so adorable--proudly carrying out her big box by the handle. It was especially entertaining to watch her try to navigate the hoarde of animals in the kitchen and side entry way. She was quite impressive--had to get out the door while keeping her project intact (jumping dogs, nosy cats) and not let any of the animals out the door. I had to help her a bit, but she did well. Only a girl raised in a zoo could manage such difficulty with such grace. ;)

The whole story on the diorama came out today. It seems that Luciana heard a small portion of what the teacher said, latched onto that, and dropped the rest. In actuallity, the project was to be done at school, in small groups that the teacher assigned Friday. Not only did L. greatly exaggerate the complexity of the project (I was pretty sure she was doing that), but she completely misinterpreted (?) the nature of the project (That was a surprise to me). I thought it was a little haphazard of the teacher to expect the kids to do an assignment like that at home but send no notes/instructions/parameters. Then I figured that it's summer school--that kind of stuff happens. As it turned out, NONE of the other members of her jungle group were there today, so it was a good thing she had it done. She spent her time labelling all of her animals in English and Spanish. They will continue working on these at least through tomorrow. Her classmates were duly impressed, which pleased L. She was very cute about the whole thing. I love her passion! When she does something, she really puts 110% into it (usually). We did have a talk about listening carefully to directions asking the teacher for clarification, rather than just filling in blanks the way she would like them to be.

Oh--I almost forgot--When she started the diorama, she kind of snuck down and started on her own. I was going to help her get all the supplies set up and provide guidance, but she decided she didn't want to wait for me to finish cleanin the kitchen. She needed to start right. that. minute. She came running up to the kitchen very excitedly saying, "Mom! You have to come see my diorama!" I got to about the third step, and she turned around, stopped me, and said, "Mom, now DON'T freak out about the mess!" I did NOT freak out when I saw the mess, and Holy Hell! it was a mess!

Take note of the lovely bright gold ribbon handle. I have every color ribbon possible, and thought she would go with more of a jungle-theme ribbon. But no. Her eyes lit up when she saw the big gold ribbon. I knew when I saw the look on her face that she had found the one and only ribbon that would work for her project!