Ear Infection

Maria had a rare ear infection last week, she had to stay home on Thursday, which was a bummer because I am home on Tuesday and Wednesday but it's super hard/impossible for me to get a sub on short notice so I had to go to work and even though it was month-end, wonderful Mike stayed home with her.  I suppose if he had to go and I had to go, she could have stayed home on her own for a few hours and I could have made a short day of it but I'd rather not do that quiet yet with her.

It wasn't until she was fell by the fever part that she even said she was sick.  She told me after we went to the clinic that she started feeling bad, actually, 'on Monday'.  Monday! She didn't want to miss gymnastics, or school, so she just waited until she absolutely had to go to the doctor.  I told her, you know, if you told me when you started feeling bad, we could have maybe not missed school, not gotten to the point where you had a fever.  She doesn't care, it's hard for her to slow down.

She made High Honor Roll her first quarter, we had a 'fun time' on Fall Break, we had a nice Thanksgiving, all is well with Maria.  She plays a lot with our neighbors, she has a lot of girls her age to be friends with, she is lucky and they all seem to get along well which is just great.

She wants - well I am trying, as ever to do: Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read for Christmas.  So she wants a hamster or a fish or an iPad.  She needs to wear Vans, sweat pants, hoodies, pajamas.  She wants to read any graphic novel, any DRAMA, and she also wants an Xbox.  Luckily they all do so maybe they'll get one and they'll each get a game of choice, or a remote or whatever.

I learned the other day that she is 4 feet, almost 7 inches which means she's grown an inch and a half since ... many years ago, it seems.  I wonder if she'll ever be a tall or even a medium tall person, because right now she is the shortest in her class.

Here's some cute pictures, the one with the hat was from her Fifth Grade Explorer Wax Museum, where she portrayed Jean-Baptiste de Sable, the founder of Chicago.  Her teacher has them do super varied explorers, beyond the normal/problematic (Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Vasco de Gama).  He has them do many women (Amelia Earhart, Sacajawa, as well as many African ones, like Maria's).