A House Full of Sick People

It is our turn with the flu. The flu that we have is a fever on day 1 followed by DAYS of chest congestion and coughing. We spent all of the school holiday week at home, sick. Here's how the last week went.

The Tumbleweed has had a runny nose cold for a better part of a month, and it continues.
The Dandilion got his first fever on President's Day, followed by days of very runny noses.
I woke up Wednesday with a fever, body ache and cough. Friday I lost my voice.
Saturday, the Dandilion got another fever and a cough. Sunday he sounded like he lost his voice too, but his nose was much better.
Monday, we are all mostly better. I think. The Dandilion and I still sound a bit hoarse and occasionally cough a bit.

Still waiting to see if the Eagle gets the bug, and we are really hoping that we didn't pass our germs on the Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma.

Cornell Wins

We were able to head to Cornell for the Ivy Classic Gymnastics Championships. It was a great meet. Very exciting - and Cornell won! It is very different watching a meet not knowing any of the girls and their routines. Not sure which I like better.

I was a little disappointed that none of the alumni from my era were there, but I sort of knew that going in. I would also have liked to have had time to take pictures of the kids around campus and go to the bookstore - but that was not in the cards this time.

Snowy Trip Home

Despite being sick, we decided to go to my parents & the gymnastics meet for the weekend as planned. Looking back, we probably shouldn't have gone - we should have stayed home and not spread the germs. But, I was feeling so bored having been home for a whole week and I really wanted to see family and go to the meet, so we went.

We had to alter the leaving plan around a snowstorm Friday afternoon. After some hairy driving, we finally made it out of the state to better conditions. The kids did really well on the drive.

We didn't really have any plans for the one day at home, and that was good because I was still feeling lousy and so was the Dandilion. Great Grandma came for lunch to see us and the kids. We had a nice visit, but I really hope we didn't get her sick.

We shouldn't have gone. Hindsight is 20/20.

Christmas Past

Well, the decorations are finally all put away! The village and kitchen decorations were the last to go, but now the house is back to the way it was in November. Phew!

No Wet Bed

The Tumbleweed surprised us today and woke up during her nap to go potty. Pretty cool. We were worried that she wouldn't go back to sleep, but she did. Another step in the right direction.

Going Back in Time

I finally journeyed back in time to relive our honeymoon memories. My sister-in-law and I had a Honeymoon Scrapbook day, and I finally got started putting my album together.It was fun to look back and remember life 4 years ago --- just married, living in NJ, different jobs, no kids and on vacation!

I didn't make much progress on the album, but I did get a good start! After our scrapbooking session, Auntie stayed to watch the kids while we went to dinner. I had a fabulous steak, delicious!

Paper-eater

The Dandilion is going to test our vigilence. While I was bagging up the Valentine's gifts, the phone rang. I left the Dandilion sitting near the bagged presents, but not close enough to touch. When I returned he was in the midst of them, looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. I soon figured out why. I found the remnants of a tag off of one of the gift bags, all gummed up in his lap. I took it away. He had definitely eaten some, but I figured since he didn't seem to be choking it probably wasn't a big deal.

But, I was soon proved wrong, as the Dandilion projectile vomited his entire stomach contents all over the place. A few pieces of paper in the mix, but overall not much. But even after that he was still happy as a clam.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day this year. The Tumbleweed had a party at school, while the Dandilion and I went shopping for the Eagle. I found the perfect chair for our bedroom - the Eagle has been looking for one for a while - and it was 50% off. He was quite surprised :) I got a bouquet of flowers, a potted orchid and a cookie cake! The kids each got little gifts too - the Dandilion got some Valentine''s Little People and the Tumbleweed got Valentine's Littlest Petshop Pets and a 'singing' stuffed dragon from Hallmark.

The Eagle picked up takeout from Outback for dinner, so we didn't have to cook or do dishes. The Tumbleweed finished quickly, and fed the Dandilion so we could finish. She is an awesome, almost three-year-old.

Lovely Day.

Less Trash!

Potty training has reduced our diaper trash significantly! The Tumbleweed's diaper trash is down to one for each night, and that's it! Saving us money for sure and better for the environment - pretty awesome!

Sudoku

I finally finished the Sudoku book I have been working on for over a year. It takes a while to do 300 puzzles when you only get about 1/4 done at each sitting. I guess now I should devote some Sudoku time to reading the two books I have started - "YOU on a Diet" and "7 Habits of Highly Effective Families". I have a few others in the "To read" pile, but I haven't quite gotten there yet.

Accidents Happen

"It's alright Mommy, sometimes accidents happen." is the Tumbleweed's latest thing. I am not a big fan of this mentality when it involves washing the rug. After several good days of potty training, I think the Tumbleweed is bored with it because she has decided several times that it isn't worth the time it takes to go to the potty. So far she's only had two "accidents", and she's getting better at pooping on the potty, so I guess we are making progress.

Pictures Sorted

I spent much of the weekend sorting my prints and putting them in albums. I have had the albums for ages, but never take the time to put the pictures in. Now I will be able to find things a little easier to scrapbook when I want to. I am getting excited about CKU, despite the fact that I will likely not catch up on any of the scrapbooking that I need to do for my family and kids albums. Maybe I can catch up before then? LOL.

Making Dinner

This exchange just took place in the kitchen as dinner was being prepared...

The Tumbleweed: "Daddy, I know how you make pizza. You need a recipe!"
The Eagle: "Daddy doesn't need a recipe because he know how to make pizza"
Me: "The recipe is in Daddy's head"
The Tumbleweed (looking at Daddy's head really funny): "I don't see it. I think you need a recipe"

Too cute.

Dry Underwear

The Tumbleweed has had two days in a row of success in underwear. Yesterday morning she woke up, took off her diaper, put on underwear and has been using the potty ever since. Today she even went to school in underwear. All in all she has done really well. A few small accidents, but nothing major. I was pleased with myself for staying calm and not overreacting to the accidents. She is still using a pull-up at night, but today she napped without one! She has been very excited to tell people about her success. Could this be the end of diapers?

CKU

I finally have plane tickets for my trip to CKU. I am starting to get excited, but I need to do some more planning ahead this time because I will have very limited space for extra stuff. It sounds like we will be getting so much stuff while we are there! I don't know what I am looking forward to most - the weekend away, the creative outlet, the classes, or the free stuff :)

I really want to catch up on some pages, so I don't always feel behind.

Preschool Decisions

The Tumbleweed only started school last month, but it is already time to enroll for next year. I have begun my research, but I am thinking more and more that I want to keep her at the same school. We toured a school today, and I wasn't impressed with one of the schools that several people have raved about. I had expected it to be "the one", but now I see more negatives than positives. Well, I am still going to put our name into the public school lottery, but I don't think I want to send her there next year. She's happy where she is. Maybe I shouldn't mess with it.

Pop

I have decided to give up pop (aka Soda) for Lent this year. I figure that it is better for my teeth and my weight to cut it out, but I have already started craving it!

Tears

This was the first day that the Tumbleweed missed me enough to cry at school. I guess some of the other moms arrived to pick up the kids earlier than I did and she thought that I forgot her :( I arrived a few minutes later, and she had already calmed down, but she greeted me with "I missed you Mommy".

Home Parties

I had my first home sales party today while the Tumbleweed was in school. It was a book party and the consultant gave an excellent talk about reading to your kids. Very informative.

I have decided that the home sales parties are a lot of work. I am pretty used to hosting playgroups and activities, but there was a lot more leg work for this. I had to think of everyone who I could possibly invite, send invitations, e-mails, remind people, clean, plan activities for the kids, make food... I guess I do all of those things for a regular event... I guess it just seemed like more work.

Two down, only a little bit left

I finally took the second Christmas tree down. In a marathon of cleaning for a playgroup in the morning, I took the tree down. I didn't have time to wrap up the ornaments yet, but I need the Eagle to carry the box down before work. A step in the right direction... maybe I will take the Village down before Valentine's Day.

Super Bummer

The mood in New England is pretty low after the Patriots lost the Superbowl to The Giants in the final minutes of the game. The kids watched the first half with us, but were both in bed before the game got interesting. It was probably good since they would have learned a few new words.

Not being a Patriots fan, I recovered a little quicker than the rest of New England. I suppose now the focus will shift to the Presidential Primaries rather than a victory parade. Probably better that way.

Shadow

The Tumbleweed learned about the groundhog and it's shadow this week at school. She told me, and then her teacher, that the groundhog would not see it's shadow on Groundhog Day. She was SO bummed to find out that it did see it's shadow! I was bummed too - first, because she was so convinced that she could predict what was going to happen and second, because we will have 6 more weeks of winter!

Stalagmites

The Dandilion is getting teeth! Yesterday morning I noticed that he has two little sharp points coming in on the bottom. Overall I think he is handling it well. He is slobbering and chewing on everything he can find, but he has been able to get some sleep. We'll see how long that lasts.