So Magical!

Today is shaping up to be an awesome day and it's only 2 o'clock. I find that on the days I am most organized, and have a plan for the day...things go so much better than when I don't have an idea of what we're going to do in advance.

We have already gone to Trader Joe's and stocked up on food for the week, had breakfast and lunch, lots of outdoor play time, and watched two butterflies emerge from their cocoons and then we set them free when they were ready to fly.



Paprika loves to dress herself- she expresses herself through fashion. This is the ensemble she put together for our trip to Trader Joe's. I gave her the pink bracelet this morning as a special "just because" present. I have been reading "The 5 Love Languages for Children"- and it talks about all the ways you can show your children that you love them. It's a great book!

I wrapped up her little present this morning in Princess wrapping paper, and she loved it. It's just a little thing...a small thing to let her know how much I cherish her. I often pick up little gifts for the girls - just small stuff - and then wrap them up and give them to them just because. With Ginger, she's not really old enough yet- but she is starting to appreciate things of her own, so plan to start doing this more with her, as well.

It really is the thought that counts, and teaches them generosity and lets them know that they are loved and cherished...because they are!



Anyhoo- after we had lunch, we took one of the butterflies outside and let him go. You can tell that this one is a male because of the dots on his wings. The females do not have dots on their wings.



He wanted to stay with Paprika for a long time and let her hold him on her hand. She really enjoyed that, and had lots to tell him about, of course!



Since he was so delicate, we let Ginger watch from afar...but after awhile, she wanted to go play with her ball instead of hanging out with the buttefly...so that gave Paprika some special time to interact with him on her own.



It was really magical and beautiful!



Ginger is taking her nap at the moment. I have been laying her down for a nap in the afternoon, and it's been working! It only took 14.5 months! Haha!

I plan little trips around her nap, and so far so good. After she wakes up, we have the whole afternoon ahead of us...I can't wait to see what's in store. I have a tenative plan, and hopefully the girls will love it.



Happy Labor Day weekend! What are your plans? I am going to pre-party for my birthday- which is on Tuesday!!! :-)

Hatching Butterflies

Our butterflies are hatching! It's been about a week and a half since our caterpillars went into their cocoons. On Sunday, our first butterfly emerged. She was beautiful, gorgeous...and amazing! We let her go in our backyard right before we went to Santa Barbara.



Then, Mr. Mustard came home and told us that two more had hatched. He let them go - and didn't take pictures! Gah!



This morning I woke up and saw that another one had hatched. All of our caterpillars have their own separate growing spaces - to make sure they all get enough milkweed as caterpillars, and enough room to cocoon and then spread their wings when they become butterflies.



But, as you can see, there isn't much room to move around in there- so once a butterfly is ready to fly (an hour or two after hatching), we let them go.



This one took a rest on Paprika's arm before she flew up into the sky. Paprika was so happy and excited. Monarch butterflies are so gorgeous (and much bigger than one would think). Ginger was fascinated and wanted to be right there when we released the butterfly.

We are going to grow some more plants to keep them sticking around, and hopefully they will breed here. I love butterflies, and so does Paprika (and I think Ginger does, too). I think everyone knows that butterflies have a very special place in my heart. They remind me of my girls in Heaven...and also how life can become so beautiful in ways you never could have expected.

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly. -Unknown

Long Time Gone

We're back in El Lay! I got my car keys this morning via Fed Ex, and we were on the road back home from Santa Barbara.



The problem? We had brought so much stuff up - there was no space in my car to bring it all back.

So, I did what any enterprising person would do...I dumped everything into the car and ditched the suitcases (left them for safe-keeping with Pat, my mother-in-law). So, all of our clothes and stuff were jam-packed into the car like a bad episode of Hoarders (I haven't actually seen that show ever but I am just imagining).



I made everything fit into my little car (even the high chair)- and now it's a mountain of stuff in the living room. Fun, fun, fun!

It took us about 2.5 hours to get home. I usually play the Princess and The Frog soundtrack for Paprika in the car, but today there was an old Dixie Chicks album in the stereo. The first song on the CD is "Long Time Gone" and Paprika loved it the second she heard it.



As soon as the song was done, she said, "Again! Please!" So I played it again. And then the second time it was done, she said, "Again! Please!" And this continued on for over an hour until she fell asleep. Ginger fell asleep right when we left Santa Barbara, and everytime I would try to go to a new song, Paprika would get sooooo upset and almost wake up Ginger. So, I just kept it on the same song.

Then, after Paprika fell asleep, I thought I could change the song to something else. But, everytime it went to a new song, one or both of them would start to stir and wake up.

So, I kept it on Long Time Gone (on repeat) for the entire two and a half hour drive.

I think I heard it at least 50 times today. I need to change the CD before I get in the car with Paprika again, otherwise I'm gonna be listening to it again!



So, we are back. It's kind of weird because although nothing is different than it was last Thursday, I feel so grateful for the girls not having lead poisoning.

But now everything I see (now that I know what I know)- I think "do not put that in your mouth!!!" It's like I am re-living scenes from Erin Brockovich or something.

One thing that the losses we have experienced have taught us (for better or worse) is that bad things can happen in an instant. We don't have the illusion of a safety net. We never think "oh, that couldn't happen to us." Because you know, it could happen to any of us. Really.

That sounds morbid, I guess. But, I guess it's just my truth. I am so grateful to be back in LA, and so extremely thankful that the girls both tested so low for lead poisoning after our horrible scare.

Even though I am in the same spot in many ways I was a week ago, I feel lighter and happier, and the sun is shining brighter. I guess that's what perspective does, right? It makes us grateful for what we already have when we never knew to be so grateful for it in the first place. :-)

What The Heck Happened?!

Maybe you were all wondering what was up since I haven't written anything in a week. Well...I knew as soon as I wrote that Just An Ordinary Day post last week that I was really setting myself up for something.



After Disneyland last Wednesday, we had a full next two days. On Thursday, we went to Huntington Beach to meet up for friends for lunch (Mexican...yum) and then went swimming all Thursday afternoon.



Friday, we went to the Aquarium and had a wonderful day- all of which I was going to write about on Friday night.

But then...



When we got home on Friday night, a letter was waiting for us. It was from the Department of Health. It said that Ginger had tested on the borderline for lead poisoning. We were shocked, horrified, and very scared.

Long story short, we moved into the new house in March. We had Ginger's well-baby visit in May, at which time they did the blood draw to test for lead. We didn't get the letter until this past Friday night (three months after the test) because they sent the letter to our old address, and it had to be forwarded on. Why it took three months to get the results...I don't know!

Anyhoo- at that point we began freaking out because the more we read about lead poisoning, the more we learned how awful and tragic it is. It causes permanent, irreversible brain-damage. It never goes out of your body. Once it has caused brain damage, there is nothing that can be done to reverse its effects.

When we had the initial test back in May, we'd been living in the new house for about two months. We didn't realize it until we started researching lead posioning, but a lot of older homes have lead paint...and ours was built before 1950 (which apparently is much worse than if it is built after 1950). No one ever told us about lead paint in the house (it was never disclosed to us). But now we realized that there was a very real possibility that the lead exposure could be coming from the house itself.

Since the initial test was three months ago, that meant that Ginger (and Paprika) had been exposed for three more months...breathing in lead dust, picking up particles onto their hands and then eating food afterwards. A baby or young child will often not show any symptoms of lead poisoning- it's the type of thing that doesn't show symptoms until a child reaches school age. You can imagine the nightmare scenario that began to unfold in our minds.



Bright and early on Saturday morning, we all went to the doctor's office (and then to the hosptial) to have our blood drawn (three vials a piece) to get tested for lead poisoning. Because it was a Saturday, it took forever. That, and no one wanted to draw Ginger or Paprika's blood...getting that much blood from a little baby and a four year old is not something that everyone knows how to do (or wants to do)! We probably should have gone to a pediatric hospital, but we just wanted to do what would be the fastest and get our results most quickly.

The funny part was that Paprika was totally unphased by the blood draw and thought it was kinda neat. Ginger did great- but mostly because I did the Jedi-trick of nursing her during the blood draw while covering her eyes, rocking her and singing to her all at the same time. The phlebotomist at first thought I was totally nuts for nursing Ginger during the procedure, but when Ginger didn't make a peep during the blood draw, I think she was convinced. ;-)



On Sunday morning, Paprika went to her friend's birthday party - Mr. Mustard took both girls, and I stayed home and packed up our stuff. Since Friday night, I had been unable to sleep at all, thinking about the possibility that lead dust or lead paint might be poisoning our girls. It made me absolutely sick to my stomach.

So, while they were at the birthday party, I packed up some things and by the time they got home from the party, the car was packed with enough stuff for us to go live with my mother-in-law, Pat, in Santa Barbara...indefinitely.



Mr. Mustard started working on the new season of DWTS on Monday, so he caravaned up to Santa Barbara with us on Sunday, helped us get set up (and brought an extra carload of stuff), and then went right back down to Los Angeles (a three-hour drive, each way).

Meanwhile, we just had to sit and wait for the new test results. I started researching everything having to do with lead poisoning...and now I can say that I know way more than I did a few days ago (when I knew nothing)! We started making plans to move out of our house, get rid of all of our furniture (due to lead dust contamination), and contingency plans for what we would do if one or both girls had high blood levels of lead.

In the meantime, I was totally distraught and accidentally locked my keys in the trunk of my car. And, wouldn't you know it, my car has a security feature that makes it impossible to unlock the trunk without the key (you can't pop the trunk without the key).

Since we couldn't go anywhere since my car key was locked in the trunk, I took the girls for lots and lots of rides in the wagon that they got for Christmas last year (but we didn't put together til yesterday!)



So, we waited and waited and waited for the test results to be sent back from Washington. And this afternoon, we got them.

The results? All four of us have very low levels of lead (wayyyy below the level of lead poisoning) in our blood. The first test was a mistake, a simple lab error. (We can be pretty sure it was the first test that was the mistake, since it was a fingerprick test, which has a high rate of error/false positives. Our second lab tests were venous blood draws, which have a very low rate of error...plus since we all tested low, that makes me feel even more assured).

Knowing what I know now, we will be testing the house for lead anyway and making sure that Ginger and Paprika's lead exposure continues to be minimal.

Whew!!! What a whirlwind. I was sooooo sick over it, I couldn't do anything except focus on taking care of the girls and dealing with the whole mess. It's like this giant cloud has been lifted.

So, now I am just waiting for an extra set of car keys to arrive via FedEx (Mr. Mustard Fed Ex'ed me his keys this morning). Once they get to Santa Barbara, we will be headed back to our lives in Los Angeles.



I am soooo glad and grateful that Ginger and Paprika don't have lead poisoning, and that we don't have to move, or get rid of all of our belongings, and a million other things. My current mood is: exceedingly grateful.

And now it's time for a good night's sleep. I haven't had a good night's sleep since before we got the first test results. So, I am really looking forward to it!