Riley and Avery

Today,we went to the Pumpkin Festival that was held at the nursery school that had all their pumpkins stolen twice. It was a lot of fun. Basically, we got there and immediately went to wait in line for Riley to get her face painted. We waited for about an hour. One of Riley's teachers, Ms. Meredith, was doing the face painting. That was a nice surprise. The whole time we were waiting in line, Avery harassed me for a drink and an apple. Mostly I waited in line while the girls played. Finally we got to the Whole Foods stand and got free apples for the girls. We missed a lot while we were in the face painting line. Hundreds of pumpkins were scattered about, free for the taking, but they were all gone by the time we got out of line. The girls were okay with that. They each picked out a free muffin from the bake "sale" table. We also missed the free bags that Whole Foods had been giving away. They were their $12 bags, but oh well. The playground at the school is beyond phenomenal. I was hoping the picture of Riley with her cheetah face would show the color of her eyes, but no. Oh well.

As soon as we got home, Riley completed her face painting by coloring the rest of her body. I declined the invitation to color on her back. Now, several hours after we got back from the festival, she's an unholy mess. Her face painting is heavily smudged. Bathtime tonight!

It was also unusually hot today. I dressed the girls and I fairly warmly and we all were over-hot. The changes in the weather are causing Riley to cough. Warm, cold, warm, cold. It drives me crazy, for sure. I never know how to dress the children.

So, Riley asked me if teeth were bones, and I told her that they were very close. Riley said "I really really need to see some people bones. Do we ever get to see people's bones?" I said no, not unless there's an accident. Riley says "Well, I really need to see what's inside people's bodies. I just really need to see." So, she'll either be a surgeon or an axe murderer. The jury's still out on that one.

We had an appointment with Riley's play therapist on Friday, and Riley was released from her care. She no longer shows any signs whatsoever of anxiety. She had Riley using the dollhouse families to determine if she had any underlying problems. She has an asian family, a latino family, a white family, and a black family. She said that 99% of the time the child uses the family that matches their own race. She said that Riley totally mixed the ethnicities in her family and thought nothing of it. She thought that was really cool.

On the way home from the play therapist, we almost got in a car accident. Riley was in the back seat freaking out, saying that her neck hurt because of the car seat harness, and saying that we almost died. After the minor accident over a year ago that started this whole snowball-ride descent into anxiety hell, it would be my luck to have the therapist say that Riley is over her anxiety, and then get in another accident on the way home from the therapist. It would be very reminiscent of the time I saved for months to replace the engine in my first car, only to have it totaled at an intersection exactly one mile from the mechanic. But I think Riley is over it. After all, it was a near accident, not an accident.

Hmmm, I think that's enough for now. The afore-mentioned bathtime is nigh.