Our VERY Big Day

Arianna is officially a 1st grader and she is LOVING it!!! And I love that she loves it. She only briefly mentions how long the day is but gushes about how much fun everything else is; good sign! She is thrilled w/ her teacher, Mrs. Shuler, who seems kind and very organized from the little bit I have seen so far. She has an exciting curriculum planned for them this year!
I also love the class size of 15! Wow! She is already busy making new friends (she knew no one in the class from before hand, this is a new school) which she does slowly but surely. It is obvious that she isn't that fragile little kindergartener that started school just one year ago.
It is amazing what 365 little days (and lots of great experiences) can do for a child. I wasn't prepared for that, but I am so proud of her for it! Way to go baby cakes! I am missing her, FOR SURE! The 3rd day has been the worst or the longest. I just about cry when the morning kindergarten bus rolls by our house bringing kids home for lunch. I wish they had my angel on there too. Enzo asks for her several times throughout the day and often asks me, "mom, don't we need to go get Arianna now?" He'd like that, we all would. Then Massimo wanders up to her room and tries to find her under her covers, but to no avial. Bummer! So he plays with her dolls anyway and names them 'Nana.' We are already REALLY excited for fridays (short day), weekends and Off-track time!!! That image of seeing her come out of school w/ the biggest grin and a bounce in her step helps to make it all worth it!
And on the bright side, I do get a lot more cleaning done. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have her home than clean any old day, but I am trying to count my blessings here. With 2 boys sleeping in the afternoon this place gets awfully quiet...and clean! I just hope she continues to enjoy it as much as she has up until now.
Yesterday she wrote a journal entry about our upcoming Cali vacay and did it in her typical kindergarten style (quick and easy). Her teacher asked her to take it home and 'try again' as homework. She wasn't sure why. I tried to give her some pointers as to what her teacher may have wanted and she sat down to try again. I am so glad her teacher holds her to her best. Her second take of it was so much improved! Even Arianna was surprised! I wish I had the 2 to show you. The best part about it was how excited she was that she had done something "SO well." The picture was probably the best she has ever done because she actually took time to do her best. She couldn't believe she filled the page up all on her own w/ 1/2 picture and 1/2 words. She was just sure she was Barbara Park (author of Junie B series) in training! And, "Barbara Park is the bestest author EVER!" She couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home from YM and to show her teacher tomorrow!
Oh, the places she'll go!

But, the title of this post isn't Arianna's very big day, although it certainly was HER'S. It is OUR very big day because it didn't STOP being big right there. After school we all enjoyed time playing together at home, then dinner, then bike riding. We didn't enjoy bike riding for very long, though, before we heard screams. You can probably guess that it was Enzo. He is a pretty adventurous little guy. I wish I had a picture for you of the bloody mess that he was after landing on the concrete right on his chin but that wasn't exactly the time for photography. You can check out his splatter on our drive way if you care to though. We won't even charge a fee! By the time this picture was taken it had been all cleaned and stopped bleeding, but it was gross in there! I have never seen such a deep cut. I have never needed stitches, well, you know, not from falling.
Marco and I were busy attending to Enzo's needs and then I looked down to see my littlest holding a cup of Enzo's milk which he proceeded to spill down the front of himself and which he had also, obviously, already taken a drink of. No big deal... unless your littles is VERY allergic to ALL dairy products. BIG DEAL. I stuck him under the sink for a preliminary rinsing. Marco rushed him upstairs to disrobe him and throw him in the tub but yells for me instead. You know, the kind of yell you don't like to hear because it means there is REAL trouble. Yea, the same kind of yell we had heard just moments earlier from Enzo's incident. So I left Enzo (again) w/ wet paper toweling over his wound and high-tailed it up the stairs. Marco was waving the Benadryl at me because if I didn't measure out the proper dose he was going to pour the whole bottle down Massimo's throat just to keep him breathing! We didn't really want to administer the Epi Pen Jr. if we could avoid it, Benadryl was the first line of defense. He was red all over, itching everwhere, sneezing, rubbing his eyes, clumps of hives in several places and now had a raspy smokers voice.
When he started itching at grabbing at his throat that is when Marco got really nervous. So we threw 2 boys in for a quick bath and then we were off to the after-hours clinic to see what was next.

Yea, OUR big day.
By the time the kids were dressed again Enzo had largely stopped bleeding and all he wanted was to get out and ride his bike some more (you gotta LOVE this kid!) and Massimo was looking much improved! Phew! We would ALL survive this day, to be sure.

Enzo took 6 stitches to the chin
and has to sit out of swim lessons for the week until they come out on Sunday.
As for Massimo, we have switched to soy milk for everyone and NO more eggs, either. We just don't need anymore surprises like that. And besides, we'd really like to help him grow out of this darn allergy biz if we can instead of making that a virtual impossibility.
So there you have it, our no good, very bad day which turned out to be pretty ok; thanks, in large measure to 3 very resilient, very happy children that we love very much!