Vivien passed the sickness I blogged about last time to Annie. She did not take it well.
Like Vivien, she spent most of her time sleeping (she loves to sleep with her little hands tucked up adorably by her face). And also like Vivien, the sleeping was punctuated with relentless episodes of extreme discomfort, especially during the night.
Merrick caught the bug as well, but I think because we're still nursing a little he was spared the full impact of it.
Anyway, Annie was a miserable couch potato from Tuesday to Saturday, at which point she was so sick she stopped eating and drinking and I freaked out and took her to the Urgent Care.
The PA looked at me like this:
So we went home and she was miserable for a few more days. I joined her in Feverland for the weekend.
On Tuesday next she woke up and couldn't hear, which was both heartbreaking and hilarious, so I took her in to the pediatrician. She'd developed a double ear infection over the weekend, so we started her on some antibiotics. That night at the dinner table she was sitting there, looking intently at all of us as we were talking, trying to figure out what we were saying and why she couldn't hear. At one point she interrupted with, "Who said 'baila baila?'" No one had.
But the antibiotics worked their magic. Signs of good humor began to reappear.
Appetite for pink oatmeal was restored.
Interest in pictures of herself returned.
And now she's pretty well back to normal. These are all from before she got sick.
There was a part of me that worried she would be forever altered after her illness.
Which would have been a travesty, because no one brings more joy to the world with her darling personality than our sweet Annie Goose.
Vivien is happy she's better for different reasons:
This little booger has been doing a lot of "cring" at the table lately. At first I thought it was because he kept getting himself wedged uncomfortably. What? No, there's not old food left all over the floor under the high chair! Pfff, that would be disgusting. Who would do that?
But that's not it, because he's perfectly capable of un-wedging himself. He doesn't want to sit in his chair, he doesn't want to get down, he doesn't want to sit next to us, he just wants to stand on the table. He's in a "climbing on stuff" phase.
I have to be really careful where I leave step stools and full baskets of clothes and pillow piles, etc., because he will happily use anything available to gain new vantage points.
The one that worries me most is when Rafe wants to practice cutting vigtibles and brings a stool over by the counter, which I promptly forget about until Merrick heaves himself up and has easy access to "THE RING OF FIRE!!!" on the stovetop.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised he's a climber, since all the others seem to be.
Wonder where they get it . . .
We actually went to a climbing gym a few weeks ago. One of Drew's coworkers has a share in a building that is being used as a climbing gym and they got us in free for our first time. We left Annie and Merrick home with a babysitter (a laurel in our ward who is one of those Competent Babysitters of Old that can bathe your children and put them to bed and do your dishes) and just took the older two. The kids had a blast.
There were tons of self-belay walls, a huge, challenging bouldering section, an easier bouldering section even Rafe could do...
...then another huge room of longer climbs. We were definitely the doughiest people there. Drew's coworker thought we went home early because we weren't having fun, but really it was because our little arms didn't work anymore. I wish it was a) closer to us and b) not so expensive, because I think my kids would have a lot of fun on the climbing team.
For now we'll just have fun on the jungle gym.
Piggie, too.
When Vivs went to put her climbing shoes on, this is what we found inside her sneakers. Gotta love those dirt playgrounds at the school.
The most exciting thing that's happened since last time we blogged is that we finally were all well enough to have a cousin weekend! Heather and Casey drove down Friday afternoon. We had Pizza Friday and watched Coco together, then we made a pillow and blanket pile under the jungle gym for a massive cousin sleepover...
...complete with a "curtain" for everyone.
There were still kids awake at 11 when we finally went to bed.
We took it easy the next morning. Uncle Drew made delicious breakfast burritos (which were not quite as popular as the Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie Cereal Rafe had specially requested for his birthday) and we played around the house, enjoying each other's company.
Then Merrick went down for a nap and Curt and Annie and I sent everyone else off to watch Rafe's t-ball game.
Afterwards we met them at a park for a birthday picnic lunch, culminating in gigantic pieces of All-American Chocolate Cake (thank you, Costco).
Birthday Boy and Cousin Curt.
Vivien somehow ended up with the biggest piece of cake (which she could not finish).
So fun to have these excellent girls around!
After cake, Rafe opened his many Star Wars presents, which he loved.
Then we let everyone play on the playground until the babies were done. They played hard. Annie fell asleep in the car on the way home (highly unusual, though maybe not after staying up till 11 the night before).
It was perhaps not quite as amazing a weekend as some people had, but it was definitely the best one we've had since moving!
There are lots of exciting spring things happening around here. We had a butterfly stop in for a moment.
It "mudded" while we were in church (too much dust in the air for the rain to come through unscathed).
All the trees in our neighborhood threw out blossoms this week.
And we went to Target to get an Easter dress for Vivs.
She found this number at Target as well and HAD to have it. She begged to wear it out of the store and I had to wash it that night so she could wear it to school the next day.
Here's Merrick in his Easter outfit. He loves to be outside. In fact, he is out there by himself right now while I'm typing, just exploring. He walks across the rocks without flinching. I don't know if it's because his feet are so fat that the rocks can't poke him through his padding or if he's just not heavy enough for it to be painful. I'm inclined to think the first.
This was not an Easter picture, but it is our little 5 year old looking very dapper.
Here is my new African violet that came in the mail this week. Her name is "Ingrid."
And here is my first berry pie I've ever made, in honor of 3.14.
Here are the new pillows for my bed that came vacuum packed in a box that seemed impossibly small.
The new pillows were the push I needed to finally execute my picture wall.
It is a rainbow of all the closeups we've taken of beautiful things from around the world, from roses in Nana's backyard to bamboo forests in Kyoto. I love it.
I also love our new bird door. We looked up all the birds we've ID'd since moving here and printed them off for the kids' bedroom door so we can learn the names together. There is a loggerhead shrike, a pair of American kestrels, and a couple red-tailed hawks that frequently hang out on the power lines on the way to Vivi's school that are fun to see.
We have been reading a Spanish book before Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator every night. We got to this page in "Esperar No Es Fácil" and Vivien said, "It's the Walmart sign!"
And speaking of foreign language schooling, if we still lived in Japan, Vivien would have graduated from youchien this month. One of my friends that still lives there sent me a picture from the graduation program. Vivi's name is listed in a section of friends who've left. It made me a bit teary.
Here's some art. Vivi's teacher told me her snow person was the most recognizable one because the hair was so true to life.
This one is an Easter Egg.
Vivien as a baby.
Queen Victoria
A scene featuring Queen Squooshems.
She likes to use the church programs to write down her thoughts on Sundays.
And here are some Rafe drawings. These three are all part of a garden. They are various colors of pansies and some thorny roses.
And this one is about a family of moles who are clearing out a nest for their baby. There is a tunnel they've already cleared. The snakes are helping the moles with the rocks that come out of the ground. The man fell out of the sky and landed in the tunnel, and then a rock fell o n his head. That long skinny stick with arms is a scale for weighing. What exactly we are weighing and how, I'm not sure.
And some funnies.
Annie: Now can you wead me stoy-wees?
Vivien likes to use "steaming" as an adjective. When we picked her up from school the other day, she complained, "This car is steaming hot!"
Rafe doesn't like when we use the word "bucks." He would prefer we say "dollars."
Rafe, as I'm preparing dinner: Can we have whipped cream on the salmon?
Rafe: When I'm tickled, I lose all my T-ball skills that I learned.
Rafe: I want to lay with you.
Me: You can lay here on my side.
Rafe: I want to be under a blanket.
Me: You'll have to get your own because you move around too much to share this blanket with me. Grab that one over there.
Rafe: I don't like that one because it has little threads that get stuck on the dome shaped things on my lips.
He finds a different blanket. We all get comfy, then 30 seconds later Merrick wakes up. Annie wants to get him first, so she leaves and then I get up to follow. As I'm walking away, I hear:
Rafe: Yay! I get my own couch!
Serving salad at dinner, I give Rafe a little and he says, "Where's MY proton?" He wanted a crouton.
Whenever I get ready to put Merrick down for a nap, I bring him into his room and set him on the rocking chair, then go turn on the noise machine and lay out his blanket so I can swaddle him up in it. While I'm doing this, he always slides off the rocking chair and runs to the door to escape, laughing all the way. It's a favorite game. Of his.
I keep forgetting this picture, but I think it looks like in video games (all those video games I've played...) when they mark the defeated characters that have stuff for you to loot.
