We're (not) Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

In preparing today's post, I was looking back at pictures on this day last year, thinking I'd do a little "on this day in history" thing.  And you know what?  On this day *last year* Maya was running around in long shorts and a zip-up sweatshirt, Charlotte was wearing jammies and no coat, and we even went to the zoo!  I have a pretty spectacular penguin video that the girlies enjoyed watching (and by "spectacular" I of course mean "only interesting the the 1- and 3-year-olds in my house").  

(March 9, 2009 ~ ya, ya, it's technically *yesterday's* "day in history"...close enough :))

At first I was sad, because we're supposed to get another 8-12 inches of wet snow tonight (really, Ohio???).  But then I decided that it just means that spring is reallyreallyreally close :D  Really, I can't complain too much because we've had some pretty fantastic-for-March-in-NE-Ohio weather days so far.  A couple of days ago we even took a walk over to the playground about a 1/2 mile from our house (Maya rode her little tricycle the whole way!  And Charlotte walked the whole way!!).  We are enjoying the nice weather when we get it, snuggling inside when we don't, and generally waiting anxiously for the return of shorts-and-t-shirts season!

 

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I took my camera to Story Time at the library, hoping to get some cute pictures of the girlies dancing.  But, Charlotte had a meltdown on the way in (how DARE I pull her away from the computer table, at which she was not using the computer, so that she could go to Story Time???  Worst.Mom.Ever.).  Because of the screaming, I had to leave for a minute to calm Charlotte down, and then sit at the back corner of the room, in case I needed to make another quick escape!  But, I did get to put the camera to good use taking pictures of adorable Isaac (this is "little" Isaac ~ Jamie's son, Eden's brother).  So sweet!

 

Princess Party, Growing like Weeds

A couple of nights ago, after a much-too-late-but-amazing family nap, the girlies were WIDE awake and it was well past bedtime.  Instead of sitting in a dark room and quietly reading books or watching a movie (what normal parents do when trying to calm down too-hyper kids), we decided to have a DANCE PARTY!  Woooo!  The girlies put on one of several pairs of matching jammies and we made our way to the basement.  Maya decided that it needed to be a princess dance party...she was the only one who dressed up, but when you're 3 I'm not sure it really matters all that much!  After cleaning the basement a bit (my real motivation behind the dance party ;)), we tried to get the girlies to dance...but they decided to play the "jump off the couch armrest" game instead.  The game is pretty self-explanatory, and the pictures show its awesomeness.  They played for probably at least 20 minutes, then moved onto some yoga.  After that, we talked about the baby in my belly, and Maya was pretty intrigued so we started asking her if she remembered Charlotte's birth (she didn't).  We came upstairs and the girlies cuddled with Michael and me on the couch and looked at pictures from Charlotte's birth <3.  Maya thought it was HILARIOUS that she kissed Charlotte's head and got vernix on her mouth (it's a long story to tell how we got around to talking about vernix...).  She also thought every single picture of her from that time period was Charlotte, no matter how much we explained that Charlotte wasn't even born yet in most of the pictures.  When we got to a picture of Sierra holding Charlotte right after the birth, Charlotte got excited because she thought is was Isaac (or "Ikiss" as she calls him).  After we were done looking at those pictures, I showed Maya some from when she was born.  Those ones always make me laugh because there was so.much.crying. from day 1!

I'm pretty excited that Maya might actually be a little bit more involved and remember this baby's birth!

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The weather seems to be turning around on us, and it's been warm enough to be outside the last 2 days!  We've even had sun!  I pulled out one of our little riding cars and Maya's tricycle, and the girls had a blast ~ Charlotte didn't cry once (yay!) and today when I asked her if she wanted to go ride the tricycle she even said "yes" ~ woohoo!  Maya's knees are getting mighty close to the handlebars on her trike, and Charlotte's legs are *just* long enough that she can almost reach the peddles, so I think I'm going to have to go tricycle shopping at our local retail shop.  I'm pretty sure Maya is ready to move onto a "big girl" bike with training wheels (eek!).

Happy Boy, Sad Girl

On Tuesday afternoon, I had the pleasure of watching Isabella and Isaac for an hour or so while Sierra got a haircut.  It happened to be a warm-ish day, so we got to play outside for a bit.  After a long discussion about which boots Isabella would wear (she wore her fancy shoes to our house, and our backyard is a bit muddy after the feets of snow melted), we bundled up and made our way outside.  Charlotte, of course, would not be put down and cried as if her little tiny world was coming to an end.  I couldn't hold both her and Isaac for very long, and while I'm sure he would have been happy to sit in the grass, the mud problem mentioned above made that less than a good idea.  I tried putting her in the Ergo, thinking it would be an epic fail, and then she calmed down right away!  I wouldn't say she was totally happy, but at least she wasn't crying :)  I found out that Isaac loves the swing, and he REALLY loves when Isabella pushes him in the swing.  He was laughing so hard he was snorting, which is pretty adorable :)

On Tuesday night, Charlotte started coughing again.  She had had a cold for a couple of weeks, which then turned into an ear infection, and she had *just* finished a round of antibiotics on Monday.  The coughing had stopped Monday, and I'd even had the audacity to tell my mom that both kids were healthy (after many weeks of that not being true).  The coughing kept her awake most of the night, but the next day it wasn't so bad, so I figured it was just a resurgence of the cold.  By Wednesday night, she was coughing every 45 seconds or so, so Michael called the nurse line for our doctor to see if we could give her some Benadryl or something ~ we'd already tried a steamy bathroom, humidifier, honey, honey water, and later Chestal Honey, all with almost no effect on the cough.  She couldn't recommend anything, but strongly suggested we take Charlotte back to the doctor asap.  I called as soon as the office opened on Thursday and got in pretty much right away.  I fully expected the doctor to give the old eye roll and tell me it was a virus because she had no fever, no icky colored anything, no diarrhea, no vomiting...just a cough.  But, after listening to Charlotte's chest, told me that she heard wheezing and she wanted to do an albuterol breathing treatment!  Eek!  I mean, obviously this is not the worst thing in the world, but I was so not expecting it to be anything!  The probable diagnosis is RSV (this is the 2nd or 3rd time Charlotte has had it).  Poor thing!  We're doing home treatments with an inhaler now, and the girlie is a trooper!  The first time I did the inhaler, she said, "again!"  This morning when I got it out, she said, "MY medicine!" (in case anyone mistakenly thought it was for someone else :)).  The inhaler does seem to be helping, though it is making her a bit crazy on top of her typical hyper self...apparently the albuterol has the same effect as caffeine, which is exactly what every one-and-a-half year old needs!

Now some pictures of our adventures :)

 

Maya and Isabella were pretending to skate on the little bit of ice left on this step from a climbing toy :)

Isaac and Charlotte, both being held at the time of these shots.  You'll notice that Isaac looks interested and inquisitive, while Charlotte looks angry and snotty.  That's real life, folks ;)

 

Ya, ya, this is a lot of pictures of Isaac in the swing...but I loved them all!  He looks so happy!