Keeping Busy

On the last Friday of December we headed to Duluth for a checkup for Clare's hips.  Her former pediatric orthopedic doctor was no longer available, so the next closest drive was Duluth.  We stopped at the Great Lakes Visitor Center to stretch our legs and give Clare a break from the car.

We had good news from the doctor, that so far things are pretty close to normal.  She'll have another appointment in six months where they'll do another x-ray and look to see if her "angles" have decreased another four degrees.  This doctor seems very competent, so we're excited to have Clare seeing him even though it means a longer drive.

Clare was sick for a week around New Year's time and wasn't interested in playing or doing her normal activities.  We decided to make "gloop" or "oobleck" (from the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck) except that we don't have the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck so we just called it "gloop".  


It's pretty neat stuff that I used to make with my fourth graders when I taught the states of matter in science.  You mix a cup of cornstarch with water until it forms the consistency of thick frosting.  You can add food coloring of choice to make it pretty.  The neat part is that it looks like a liquid, pours like a thick liquid, but when you put pressure on it, it behaves like a solid.  And of course, the longer you leave it exposed to air, the more water evaporates and the more solid it becomes.  But it's fun stuff to play with so I made sure Clare and I both had adequate amounts.  :-) 

I had to laugh because Clare was trying to wipe it up but the harder she pushed, the more solid it became and it wouldn't wipe.  (It cleans up very easily with water, but not so well with a dry cloth.)

I've been wanting to take Clare sledding and finally (at Menards of course) we found this "baby sled" with a high back and seat belt.  She really likes it a lot more than this picture lets on.  On Sunday we took her and Molly for a walk on the snowmobile trail and Clare kept pointing in front of us and making the sign for "more", which she's been using a LOT lately.  For instance, to tell us we should read MORE books, that Molly needs MORE bones, that she should have MORE cookies or MORE time in the bathtub.