A New Royal Carriage

A couple of weeks ago we needed to replace our "Royal Carriage", our Chevy Malibu, due to problems that were unable tobe diagonsed without spending lots of money. We are not a well off royal family. Therefore, the King & I opted to replace the failing vechile. We chose not only to upgrade the space but also to upgrade the luxuries on the new vechile. Our "carriage" of choice? A 2005 Chrylser Town & Country Mini Van. There are several things I really like about this van. DUal sliding doors, the multi dics DVD player & headphones for the passengers behind the front seats, dual climate control, undeseat stow-n-go as well as the third row of seats that fold down into the bottom of the van. We will have plenty of space to transport everything we need for over night excurions to the forest. Not to mention an additonal Prince or Princess if that is what the future holds. No, I'm not aware of that happening anytime soon.

Why the royal references you ask? Well, it is because King Robert, better known as King Daddy to the Princesses in residence, is taking us to a far away kingdom called Dinseyland. For King Daddys birthday the princesses & I made him a book. It was about our travels to the Royal Kingdom in Febuary of 2006. The gift was the eldest duaghters idea & she dictated the entire story to me. I wrote it down & did a little bit of editing, not all of which she agreed to. Since it was her story, comming from her then 4 year old mind, I only included the changes that were Princess approved.

Next I procedded to glue the pages together, giving them additional strength. Finally binding them with plain "golden" brads. The front & back covers were made of posterboard in the king's favorite color.




I wrote out the story & illustrated it, leaving room for addtional illustrations by the Princess.





She indeed added her own illustrations as well as color to many of these pages & had a ball in doing so. We used photos taken during our visit as references for the illustraions & some of the colors during this two week process.

Upon presentation to the King, he scooped up his Princesses & proceeded to read the story to them. The King is not big on books. He chooses to keep this treasure in the confines of his royal bedside table.

The memories made during the creation of the book "A Royal Disneyland Adventure", will be among those I shall forever cherish. Maybe one of these days, I'll finally get around to scanning & posting of this book & it's images here on Purple Puddles. Until then, enjoy your family & all of the memories you make together.

My sister, Grandma & Kiwi

My Grandma Gaskins is 85. She has had a tough year medically. She travelled to the desert to ride a mule down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with my "little" sister.

Grandma came & spent the night at my house one night. She also got to go to my daughters classroom & meet the students. As they left all of the kids either waved to grandma, said bye or gave her a thumbs up. She, of course, ate it all up. She enjoyed playing "Chutes and Ladders" with the oldest. As well as reading a short story to the kids & helping my oldest with her "homework".

The next day my husband took Elizabeth to school & Grandma, Char & I picked her up. Then we drove to my moms & spent a little time with Grandma & Bill & headed home.

This Friday past, I got to see my sister. Her & Grandma did NOT get to ride the mules. :-( Grandma had too many medical conditions, not to mention that she didn't realize the mules backs would be over her head. I, like many others, tend to think mules are donkeys. That is not the case. Grandma & Crissy, my sister, did get to see the both sunset & sunrise in the canyon before the unthinkable happened. By unthinkable, I mean the most threatening thing that can happen to an elderly person. Grandma fell as they were boarding the bus. I'm not clear on how it happened but it did. She went down HARD. She had a gooseegg on her forehead, numerous scrapes & she ruined the lenses of her glasses. Grandma, whom I will refer to as GiGi from now on, is on a blood thinner called cumadin. Due to her age & the bump on her forehead, the staff at the Grand Canyon sent her by ground ambulance to Flagstaff for either an MRI or a catscan. I honestly don't remember which. It showed that there was no bleeding in the brain, which is what their concern was. It did reveal that sometime she has had a minor stroke. At age 85 with her medical history, it came as no real surprise.

She looked like she had been beaten to a pulp when I saw her Friday. I took no photos of her other than those which she asked me to take. Those were with Charlotte.

My sister had me take pictures with the kids & my parents. My Dad took the one of us with Kiwi.

I only got to see her a few short hours, but I enjoyed watching her interact with my children.

It MUST be the age of 2

As Halloween fast approaches, I find myself thinking of what the perfect costume would be for my little girl. Some that would be VERY fitting for her are following.

1. Monkey...because she CLIMBS up & onto EVERYTHING she can.

2. Angel...because God was watching over BOTH of us when I delivered via emergency c-section 2+ years ago.

3. Devil..because she acts like a normal 2 year old. Sweet & innocent one moment & like a little imp the next. When she is quiet she is either sleeping OR, more than likely, thinking about what kind of trouble she can cause.

Two things about her are constant. The first is that she never wants to be still or quiet when it is needed. The second is that she seems to love & be curious about all creatures, both human & animal.

To her, the world is one big adventure, just waiting for her to be part of. She seems to know not what fear is. She knows not what judgement is. She is kind & captivates nearly all that lay eyes on her. She is 2.

Being her mother, I know more than others what a little impish monkey she tends to be. She is so curious that if she were a boy the perfect name for her would have been George. Alas, she is not a boy. We gave her the sweet, classic name of Charlotte Grace.

Our little Char had a rough entry into this world. It was completely different from that of her older sister. In fact, it wasn't until after 48 hours of labor, decelerating heartbeats & an unexpected c-section that she arrived. She was a short cord baby. Her cord was SO short that my Dr. said it wasn't long enough to put the needed pressure on my cervix to dilate it.

This is where I say God was watching over us. Short cord babies not only have a tendency to be born with organs on the outside of their bodies, they also have a tendency to die before birth. The mother has a tendency to pass on as well. What happens is that if the baby reaches a weight of about 7 pounds, the umbilical cord can rupture causing the little one to bleed to death. Often the uterus can rupture as well & the Mother passes on before they can deliver the child. Charlotte weighed 6.8 pounds if I remember correctly.

Mine was a high risk pregnancy due to my age, my weight & my family history of diabetes. I did not develop diabetes...thank goodness.

Now I am torn as Halloween approaches. Do I celebrate the impish 2 year old that she has become, that I LOVE with all of my heart, with a devil costume? Do I celebrate the blessing that she will always be & how God protected us from all of the horrible things that could have happened that fateful day with an angel costume. Do I just celebrate her silliness & her simple view on life with a Monkey costume. It may seem like I am over thinking this...she is only 2 after all. It is likely that this will be the last costume that I have much say in with her.

Personally, I am leaning toward escorting a little devil around the Halloween carnival this year. It just seems to be beyond fitting for the age of 2.