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When I was ten, my grandparents gave me the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series as a Christmas gift.  I remember reading the books in the back of their suburban as we traveled to Yellowstone and back the following summer.  I read all the books except Farmer Boy (for some reason I didn’t think I would like it because it was about a boy).  The books then sat on my bookshelf in excellent condition … waiting.

They sat there all through my teenage years, through high school and college.  When Aaron and I got married, the books followed me to our apartment and then to our house in Mt. Pleasant.  During one of our times eliminating clutter, Aaron suggested I redistribute the Little House series.  My response was something like, “are you kidding me?  I’m planning to read these to our daughter someday.”

And then one day, we had a daughter.  A few days later I started reading her books.  Day after day, we read  books together until one day she was ready for her first chapter book.

Early one morning in June 2008, Kayla and I sat together on our front porch bench as the sunshine warmed our legs.  We started Little House in the Big Woods, and before I knew it, Kayla was hooked.  Sequentially we worked through the Little House books, saving Farmer Boy for last, since I didn’t think we would like it.

Well tonight we finished Farmer Boy, which means we have now finished all nine books of the Little House series.  One thing I learned:  I was wrong!  I loved Farmer Boy!  What a treasure I missed as a child because of my erroneous thinking and unwillingness to give it a chance.  The last chapter was absolutely outstanding!

To show how much Kayla has loved these books, I thought I would include this:

She informed me the other day that she would like a new set of Little House books since hers have fallen apart.  That way, someday, she can read them to her little boy or little girl.

Note:  One thing I forgot to mention is that we intentionally planned to finish Farmer Boy today.  Were he still alive, today would be Almanzo’s 153rd birthday!  Aaron and the girls even had a breakfast birthday party for him this morning while I was getting my hair cut.  :)

Life is always more fun when you turn it into a game.  For Kayla, that means she spends much of her life pretending to be Laura Ingalls.  It’s especially fun when we play school.  Laura is an excellent student and will do anything the teacher says—for hours on end!

We’ve almost completed the Little House series.  We read all the “Laura” books, and we’re now reading “Farmer Boy,” the book Laura wrote about her husband Almanzo’s childhood.  Tonight Kayla wanted to be Eliza Jane, one of Almanzo’s sisters.  I was their mother, and the two of us washed dishes together while Madeline and Savannah played.

Madeline and Savannah were playing so nicely; I was pretty impressed.  I always use my ears as a guide to know if I should check on them.  Madeline was giggling constantly, so I knew she was doing fine.  But I couldn’t hear Savannah.  At first I tried to push it out of my mind, but then I realized I really should check on her.  When I opened the door to her room, Savannah had climbed to the top of the changing table and was just hanging out!  I didn’t know she could to that!  I had the “don’t ever do that again” talk with her, which I hope she understood.  Silly girl!

Aren’t they sweet?

And here’s a picture of the sisters before class.

For school Wednesday afternoon, the activity was pumpkin carving.  The subjects?  Science (we were dealing with a pumpkin after all; there has to be some science to that), art (we were expressing our creativity), math (we counted the seeds by fives and tens), and home economics (we roasted the seeds).  Did I miss anything?

Our babysitter, Kim, didn’t have school that day and was able to join us.

Based on a book we read about pumpkins, we guessed that Miss Kim’s pumpkin had more seeds.  (It was darker and had more lines, therefore we suspected it had spent more time on the vine.)  The result?

Our pumpkin:  578 seeds

Miss Kim’s pumpkin:  398 seeds

I guess we were wrong.  That was certainly a lot of practice counting!

I’d like to introduce a guest blogger today.  Her name is Kayla Kerr, and she is five-years-old.  She wants to tell you a story:

Mommy bought some caramel apples.  I was eating one of them, and I lost my tooth!  We looked for it, but we didn’t find it.  We think I swallowed it.

Here’s a picture before Kayla lost her tooth.  I had no idea she was going to lose it; I just took a picture because the girls had never had caramel apples before.

However, a few bites into the apple, I said, “Kayla, you might lose your tooth eating that!”  She said, “no,” but then I looked and saw the tooth was already missing.  We searched the caramel coating but found only peanuts.

Quote from Kayla:  ”This is the Upper Peninsula, and this is the Downer Peninsula.”  Don’t you love the logic of a five-year-old?

Kayla turned five last Sunday!  It’s hard to believe!  

Kayla is a gem.  Each day she touches our lives with her kindness, compassion, sense of humor, creativity and joy.  Not only is she well-behaved, but she also has a great heart.  We sure love this kid!

Here are a few pictures of Kayla over the years:

And now, here she is as a five-year-old with her amazing birthday cake (compliments of my mom).

Do you think she felt like a princess?  Thanks, Grandma!

The princesses are starting to feel better after another round of the rotavirus.  Thankfully Madeline seemed to miss it again but caught a bad cold or something.  Both Kayla and Madeline had temperatures of 104 on Madeline’s birthday.

Here are a couple pictures of the princesses in their new dress-up gear:

Princess Kayla spent the morning with Aaron for “Take Your Daughter to Work Day.”  Though I had two sick girls at home, it was pretty quiet around here and things certainly felt a touch easier than having all three.  But it was good to have Kayla back at lunchtime!  She is a blessing and a joy.

Princess Madeline and I baked “Masterpiece Muffins” during our special time together. 

The day was March 3, 2009—Aaron’s 31st birthday.  The previous night Aaron had taken Kayla to the ER for her first round of rehydration via IV.  She came home feeling much better and acting a little more like herself again.  She went to bed, only to awake in the night vomiting once again.  We feared that the vomiting would continue all day like it had the day before, and sure enough it did.  Around 2 p.m. we took Kayla back to the ER while Aaron’s mom stayed with the little girls.  Here’s a picture of the little sweetheart.

When the ER doctor came to check her, he suggested keeping her overnight.  We agreed completely—there was no way we wanted to take her home only to have the vomiting start again. 

After the doctor examined Kayla, the nurses came to draw her blood and insert the IV.  Unfortunately there was a problem.  Kayla was so dehydrated that they couldn’t get the IV in her little veins.  Finally, on the fourth and last try (they had already tried both arms and one hand), the nurse looked up to God and prayed.  I had been praying all along, but it was really neat to have the nurse pray, too.  And guess what?  After that she got it in!  Within minutes Kayla dozed off for a nice long sleep.  

Kayla slept well that night and barely woke when the nurses checked her vitals.  Aaron and I were able to stay with her; we shared a tiny little bed that wasn’t exactly cozy, but at least it was functional.  We slept relatively well given the circumstances!  

In the morning Kayla smiled again!  What a relief it was to see that smile!  She was still pretty worn out, but she felt up to a little reading and coloring.  Her she is with one of her favorite books.

Tests confirmed that Kayla had a rotavirus infection.  The doctor was really surprised that our almost-five-year-old was in the hospital but that our one-year-old and almost three-year-old were fine.  Usually it’s the younger ones who get hit hard with rotavirus.  

We spent most of the day of Wednesday, March 4 at the hospital, and it looked like we may even stay another night.  But by 6 p.m. when the doctor stopped by, Kayla was doing great.  Soon we were on our way home.

Kayla was very excited to ride in a wheelchair on the way out.  She was beaming the whole time.

We arrive home shortly after 8 p.m., just in time for Aaron to go to his surprise birthday party!  Before all of this happened, I had arranged for his seven closest friends to hang out with him at Buffalo Wild Wings.  I ended up having to break the surprise earlier in the day so I could ask his option about whether he would feel up to a party or not.  I was glad when he said yes, because we had already cancelled three birthday celebrations that week.  Aaron enjoy hanging out with the guys, and I was really thankful that all his friends could make it!  

Unfortunately the rotavirus is extremely contagious, and Savannah did end up getting it.  Her case, however, was extremely mild compared to Kayla’s.  We were grateful for that!

So that was our little adventure earlier this month.  The experience felt similar to having a baby—being in the hospital, only having one child to care for, getting to choose and order our own meals.  The nice thing for me was that I didn’t have a postpartum body this time around!  :)

What do you get when you combine a four-year-old girl and 25+ trips to the bathroom being sick?  You guessed it—one dehydrated child!  Kayla’s sickness started Friday evening.  The poor thing threw up 15 times in 9 hours.  Besides being a little weak and feverish on Saturday, she seemed like she was well on her way to recovery.  Sunday she felt great, but we kept her home from church just to be safe.  We were surprised to have Kayla wake at 2 a.m. today to start another round of sickness.  We lost count, but I’m pretty sure she threw up at least 25 times.  She couldn’t keep anything down—neither ice chips nor sips of Pedialyte—so around 4 p.m. Aaron took her to the ER.  She was a champ with her IV, and when she returned home around 7 p.m., she was doing much better!  Sorry I don’t have any pictures for this post, but I didn’t think to send the camera.