It was so much fun, that afterwards, Kimberlie told me that “we should have another kid just so we can do cookie day again”.  I’m not so sure about that, but I do agree that it was fun.

It was the school nurse. Apparently on the way to her class, Mackenzie got her finger slammed in the door. OK, I thought. Just put some ice on it. Nope. They wanted someone to come and take her to the urgent care center. I couldn’t reach my wife, so off I went.

After lots of waiting and paperwork, we finally went back. Let me just say that urgent care doctors are worthless. They are usually at the bottom of their profession, like public defenders are at the bottom of the legal profession or how the Geek Squad is at the bottom of the IT profession. Mackenzie had some x-rays and the doctor told us all was well and just to put ice on it. What a relief!

By that time, she had missed her normal lunch period at school so I took her out for a happy meal and some ice cream. For some reason, chemically enhanced food and high fructose corn syrup tends to make children happy. We were nearly back at the school (and 30 minutes from the urgent care center) when the doctor called and told us that the radiologist had just looked at her scans and to return immediately. I’m not sure why the radiologist would read scans of discharged patients, unless it is simply a way to bill us for more services.

When we returned, a nurse put a temporary splint on Mackenzie’s finger and informed us that we had an appointment the next morning with an orthopaedic hand specialist due to a crack in the bone.

This morning, we saw the doctor and were told that because of her age, she should get a cast. She was a little nervous, so I showed her a picture of her friend Savannah who recently got a cast and that eased her nervousness a bit.  She was completely fine when she found out that she would be able to choose a color and she even started acting silly.

After deciding on pink, and then pink and purple, she finally went with a Christmas cast.  It’s the most expensive Christmas decoration we’ve ever bought.

She will get it off a few days before Christmas, followed by more x-rays.  Then we will go from there.

Never a dull moment in our house!

And, in case you missed it . . .

Last year:

• Tristan’s first day of first grade
• Mackenzie’s first day of 4K

Even older:

• Tristan’s first day of kindergarten
• Mackenzie’s first day of 3K

Make sure to check out the video and the photos below:

Did you see my poor baby trip? She was the shortest in her class and her cap and gown were a little large!

I was amazed at how many stay-at-home-moms have nothing better to do than accompany their kids on preschool field trips.  The drive from the preschool to the mall was as long as a small funeral procession.  In an effort to stay on topic and not start ranting about how much I loathe stay-at-home-moms, that’s all I’ll say about them.

Mackenzie's class posing for the parent paparazzi

Mackenzie’s teacher had a special arrangement with Santa for me to take photos, but not in Santa’s usual chair.  Apparently, that would violate some mall contract or something.  The kids, however, didn’t seem to mind visiting Santa on a mall bench several feet away.

Mackenzie with the Mall Bench Santa

Mackenzie shares her Santa letter

Afterwards, the class walked down to the ice cream place formerly known as Baskin Robbins, which had promised to be open at 10:00 in the morning.  Unfortunately, the indian who runs the shop must have decided that nobody would care for ice cream that early in the morning when its 30 degrees outside, and decided not to open.  So down to the food court Wendy’s at the other end of the mall with 14 kids we went.  After all, a Frosty on a frosty morning makes perfect sense to a class of 4 year olds!

Mackenzie shows off her loot from Santa

A Frosty on a frosty morning

Enjoy a few photos as well:

Tristan is doing really well in first grade.  Last Wednesday, he brought home his first progress report, earning a 99 in Math and a 100 in Reading.  He consistently gets a perfect score on his Wednesday spelling test, which exempts him from having to retake it on Friday (and earn’s him a dollar for his good work).  His weekly behavior chart is good as well.  Let’s hope he becomes the Star Student sooner this year!

Each week, they also learn a different color, shape, number, and letter.  On Wednesdays, they have to wear the respective color and on Fridays they bring to show-and-tell something that starts with that week’s letter.  This week was the letter O.  Although it is 90 degrees outside and although she has no idea how to get them on and/or off, Mackenzie wore new overalls.  She also took Oreos to share with the class.

Her love for that preschool is the ONLY reason that I haven’t been more aggressive in pursueing career opportunities outside of Central Georgia.  Seven more months . . .