Morphy Family

Monday, May 16, 2011

Bum Leg

I don't know why we have such injury prone dogs. In Sam and Abby's almost 10 years of life, between the two of them we have endured 4 surgeries and countless episodes of 'what did he/she do now?'.

Our latest ailment is some unknown pain Sam is feeling in either his neck, shoulder or leg or a combination of them all. Somehow on Friday, he hurt himself. Not sure what could have happened considering he did nothing all day but rotate between rooms for sleeping. By the time David got home, Sam was walking around very stiffly and would yelp/cry every time you talked to him. This has happened before - its almost like he gets a crick in his neck, making him very uncomfortable and unable to lift up his neck. A good night's rest usually clears it all up.

By Saturday, he was worse and crying in pain like I had never heard him do before. He had spent most of the night moaning every time he moved and fidgeting around to find a comfortable spot. We tried to get him up and moving around throughout the day but that seemed to make it worse. We also tried a heating pad - see photo below - but that didn't last very long....it made him too hot.

So we just left him alone. Sunday - he was better, but still not 100%. Then this morning, as usual, he got up to eat and his spunk was back. Not sure why it took almost two and a half days to recover from this unknown injury, but at least he is better.

He's had a rough go of it lately - last week I took him to the vet for his yearly shots and within 10 minutes of being home, he had an allergic reaction to the shots. His face was blotchy and he had hives all over his back. One dose of Bendrayl and he was good as new.

Friday, May 13, 2011

6!

It is hard to believe that Caroline is six years old. I asked her if she wanted to have a party with her friends and she was more concerned with the cake than anything else. Hopefully, next year when she is in kindergarten and around more kids on a regular basis, we can have a little party for her.

I decorated various parts of the house to celebrate the special day.

She requested pancakes with sprinkles for breakfast - when I placed the candle into the pancakes, which were straight from the pan, the candle began to melt. She wouldn't blow out her candle until we were finished singing to her, so she had a little extra wax to go along with her pancakes and strawberries.

On to the main event - The Cake. So I got a recommendation of a bakery in East Nashville that does gluten free cakes. My friend Jennifer told me the cake she got for Luke's birthday was SO good she wanted one for her birthday. I called the bakery and arranged for a chocolate gluten free cake. I knew it was going to be a bit more expensive than our regular $20 Publix cake, so I was thinking around $30-40.

I drove ALL the way to East Nashville to pick up the cake. When it came time to pay, I about fell over when she told the total - $60. Really? For a 9" round cake? That's like almost a week's worth of groceries at our house. I couldn't believe it. I was kicking myself that 1.) I didn't ask about the price when I called to order it; and 2.) That Jennifer hadn't mentioned that while it may have been a good cake, it was a bit pricey. I stewed all day long about how much $$ I'd spent on the cake. It wasn't even decorated as I had expected it to be. It was cute, but it looked like I had done it.

Then the moment of truth - how did it taste? I was pleasantly surprised. It was just a hair off where you could tell it was gluten free. The icing was different than the buttercream we are used to, but overall it was quite good. Of course, Caroline didn't seem to have a problem with it at all. We munched on it for a day or two and then I split the rest up to put in the freezer. Now we have a gluten free treat to enjoy over the next couple of weeks.

On to the presents - we don't generally go all out for presents. She already has so much stuff anyway. Just the fact that she has presents to open is enough for Caroline. We got her some bubbles - still her absolute favorite - to take to the beach and some toys to go along with it.

Since we are leaving for the beach next week, we needed some new flip flops, another one of Caroline's favorites. I got a little crafty with them and added an embellishment to them. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

All in all, a great birthday....here are some more photos....

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Family Traditions

David's mom always made them bunny cakes for Easter so I have started doing that with Caroline and Kathryn. The head and ears are a regular white cake and this year, I made the bow tie special just for Caroline - a chocolate gluten free cake. It's nice to have a cake that everyone can enjoy. Caroline didn't even seem that upset that she couldn't have any of the white cake - she was quite content with the chocolate - can you blame her?

The final product...

And of course, they had to help out...

What is Easter without dying some eggs? Kathryn's favorite was dipping the eggs in all of the colors. After 3 colors, it wasn't very pretty, but somehow the blue dye saved the day - it turned out a nice shade of purple - her favorite color.

When I was little, EVERY Saturday night was spent sitting in front of the TV getting my hair rolled with pink sponge rollers. I bought a pack of rollers a while back with the intention of rolling Caroline's hair for Allison's wedding. That didn't really work out so we tried it the Saturday before Easter.

They were both quite patient while getting it done and were impressed with how it looked. However, come bedtime, they both FREAKED out at the prospect of having to sleep with them in their hair. With such thin hair, I knew Kathryn's would be out before morning. I was hopeful for Caroline's.....but to no avail. By the next morning, all of Kathryn's rollers were out of her hair and Caroline had maybe two still hanging on. Even those two produced not a single curl.

We will have to try again on another Saturday night when our hair has been freshly washed and dried. Sadly, I think we will have to wait a while for Kathryn's hair to grow longer and thicken up a bit, I'm thinking maybe around age 10 at the rate her hair grows!!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Caroline's Easter Egg Hunt

Caroline had an easter egg hunt at High Hopes this year and I thought I would go and join the fun. This egg hunt was over in 2.2 seconds. Most of the kids would see the eggs and run to get them. Caroline would see the eggs, take her time getting to them and then shake the egg to make absolutely sure there was something inside the egg. If there wasn't something moving around in there, it was of no use to her.

What trip out to the playground would be complete without a quick hop onto the swing?

Caroline has a special friend at High Hopes - his name is Tucker. She almost has a borderline obsession with him. As you can see, he is in a wheelchair and Caroline feels like it is her duty to take care of him. Once we were done with the egg hunt, the class went back inside to prepare for lunch. Ms. Kelly, her teacher, told everyone to go play until lunch was ready. Most of the kids were boucing off the walls, playing with one another. Caroline was with Tucker and had brought over a bin of toys for them to play with together. Tucker is only minimally aware of what's going on, but always responds well with Caroline. She would take a ball, for instance, place it in his hands and hand over hand help him throw it, saying "Yeah, Tucker, you did it!" Ms. Kelly said that in a way, Caroline is acting like his therapist when she interacts with him. Lord knows she has gotten enough therapy herself over the years to be a therapist herself.

Kathryn's Spring Program

Each year The Little School puts on a spring program - this year the 3's recited the Creation Prayer...

Sang the a jazzed up version of the ABC's and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Here's a clip from the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

After the program, they have a trike parade around one block of downtown Franklin. All of the children had decorated their bikes for the parade. There seemed to more parents/grandparents than children as we made our way through downtown, but Kathryn enjoyed keeping up with her friend Lily.

Once we had made the block, it was back to the school for popsicles and pictures with the Easter Bunny. We had taken Caroline out of school after her Easter egg hunt to watch Kathryn's program. She quite enjoyed the popsicle, but even through a little bribery, she was having no part of the Easter bunny.....maybe next year.