After her bath at night, Eliana wants to choose her panties. She has a drawer full of them but she ALWAYS picks Dora (the Explorer) panties. There are maybe six of these particular panties and she has worn them so much that they are about to unravel. Carmi and I will usually suggest another (newer) pair but Eliana gleefully grabs from the Dora pile and then laughs and laughs. It’s quite the game to her.

Last night I was determined that she would wear something different.

Knowing full well that I would be the bad guy, I grabbed a pair of purple panties with little green frogs on them and shut the drawer. Oh my goodness. We had one unhappy little Empress in our house but she put them on with some resistance and eventually went to bed.

Nothing was said about the new panties this morning. Nothing, that is, until we pulled into the development where her daycare provider lives.

From behind me, this soft little voice asked, “Daddy, do I have frogs on my panties?”

Know what I did? I lied...sorta…

“Ummm...I’m not sure, honey. But your panties are purple and you know that purple is my favorite color!”

There was an uncomfortable pause.

A few seconds later, this same little voice took on a very pitiful tone and said, “There ARE frogs on my panties...”

Oh dear Lord, I pray that none of the kids at preschool say a word about her frogs. I’ll never hear the end of it.

Around last Friday, I began to experience an uncomfortable burning sensation whenever I would tinkle. Over the weekend, the discomfort increased and had become quite excruciating by yesterday (Memorial Day).

As much as I hate going to the doctor, I decided this morning to give our family physician a call to see if he could work me in. Fortunately there was an opening in the early afternoon.

I arrived a few minutes before my appointment time, signed in and hadn't been sitting more than 2-3 minutes when the girl at the desk called, "Mr. Henderson?"

"Yes?" I asked while lowering my copy of People magazine.

"Did you bring a urine sample with you?"

"Ummm...nope..."

"There are cups in the bathrooms. Go on in and get a sample and then take it on back to the lab."

"Okey dokey" and off to the potty I went.

I read somewhere before that, when collecting a urine sample, you should tinkle for a couple of seconds in the toilet before filling the cup so that's precisely what I started to do.

The flood-gate had just opened when I immediately felt 'something' leave my body and I heard a distinct 'bloop'.

With a puzzled look, I peered into the toilet and stared for what seemed like an eternity at a little 'something' sitting motionless under the water. "What the...???"

I finished filling the cup, fished around for the goody and headed for the lab with my prize.

As soon as the lab tech saw it, she said, "That's a kidney stone!"

"The heck you say?!?!?"

There were three episodes within the last month that I experienced some pain in the kidney region. The pain was strong enough that I couldn't get comfortable much less sleep. But I would never in a million years have guessed that I had a kidney stone.

I hope the lab lets me have it when they finish the examination.

Our documents came back from the North Carolina Secretary of State today and everything was fine.

Now the documents have to go to the office of the United States Secretary of State for authentication. For this process, we will be using a courier service called The Assistant Stork.

We send our documents to this lady in Virginia who will personally carry our documents to Condoleeza's office where they will be authenticated while she waits. She will then carry our documents to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for further authentication before sending the documents back to us. This service will shave quite a few days off of this portion of the process.

Carmi knows several people who have used this particular courier service so we're comfortable using the service ourselves.

We had to make a Target run after supper tonight. As soon as we pulled out of the garage, Eliana started chattering away.

It wasn't long before Carmi said, "I have a feeling you're gonna be in trouble all the time when you start school."

"Why?"

"Because you talk all the time and you're never quiet."

Eliana encouraged us when she replied, "I'll be quiet when I get 5."

<...snicker...>

I saw this article on the National Geographic website and just HAD to comment.

A senior researcher in South Korea has unveiled an android designed to resemble a Korean female in her early 20s. That's all well and good. I mean the droid might look like a woman, smell like a woman, feel like a woman and even sound like a woman but there is no way that this machine is an accurate representation.

Why?

She only has a 400-word vocabulary!

Pffft...the Empress probably doubles that amount easily and uses up her quota many times over throughout the day.

This afternoon, Eliana brought home this hugemongous pair of sunglasses that she created in Preschool.

As soon as I saw the sunglasses, my mind wandered back to 1981 and I immediately thought of a group called "The Buggles" whose video was the very first to air on MTV. Do you remember the name of the song? Just in case you ever get this question in Trivial Pursuit, the song was called "Video Killed The Radio Star" and, thanks to YouTube, we have it here for your listening pleasure.

Pay close attention to the curly-headed lead singer. Notice the resemblance?

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This journal offers a peek inside the Henderson home where you'll find two Little Empresses. Eliana stole our hearts on October 29, 2002 and Karys forever became a part of our family on September 17, 2007. Is a Little Emperor in the future?

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