I have faith that we may eventually see
spring. Yay!!! Today was sunny and in the 50s. Alan even opened
the windows and took the insulation covers off the upstairs
windows (we’ve had no natural light upstairs for a few
months… not that we get much from the small windows
anyway…)

I took the kids out for a walk
and we had fun jumping in puddles. Eve gets excited to go
outside just so we can find some puddles :) We went up to check
on the fire hydrant, of course, and found a newly filled pot
hole. That’s when things go interesting. It never occurred to
me that the tar/gravel stuff they fill pot holes with might not
be dry and hardened. It is right next to a water drain grate
that the kids like to throw gravel into (according to the
neighbor there, ALL kids like to throw gravel down there :) ).
So the kids went over to play and Lex tried to pick up some
dark black gravel… and ended up with a handful of tar/gravel
gunk! Blech! We walked home with me holding his arm so he
didn’t touch anything (like his eyes or mouth!) and dragging
Eve along. Clean up was
interesting. We ended up with tar on both of their jackets,
their pants, all over his hands, and of course all over my
hands from cleaning him up. He did a lot of fidgeting while I
was cleaning him up and at one point I said something like,
“I’m sorry Lex, I know this isn’t fun, but we have to get you
cleaned up.” He said, “why is it not fun?” I said, “umm… I
don’t know. Are you having fun?” and he said “Yeah!!” I guess I
was too quick to judge :) It was certainly a new experience for
all of us! After several times through the wash, some olive oil
(thanks to a Google search) and some “Oops” thanks to Alan’s
good memory, we finally got their jackets mostly cleaned. I
think I learned an important lesson about road work today! Alan
took them back out this afternoon while I prepared for
tomorrow’s Pampered Chef show (my first since December! I’m
nervous like a newbie again!) I think we all enjoyed the day
(mostly) and are looking forward to another warm one
tomorrow… and many more, soon!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9a9RQixxSQ]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-AKEIYDRyE]

Lex has been experimenting with emotions
lately. It’s interesting, and occasionally aggravating. In the
car today he told me that he was feeling a bit sad. I asked
why. He said he was also feeling a bit anxious. I think he’s
often just trying on the words for size. Just getting a feel
for what the word really means and what kind of response he
gets from us. The other day he was telling Alan that “sometimes
I like to make a happy face (big smile) and then go make a sad
face (frown).” Alan asked him why and he said “It makes me
sad.” Sometimes he makes senses, but sometimes he doesn’t.
Still other times he doesn’t seem to make sense, but when I
look back on the situation I see that he probably was feeling
anxious or nervous and I just didn’t get it at the time. He’s a
smart kid. It’s definitely cool to watch the learning (I know,
I know, I say that all the time, but it is cool!)

These are the movies I mentioned in the
last post. I went to bed last night before they were done
uploading. The second one is kind of long (2 minutes) but I
really wanted to catch her saying “you ready?” which she
finally says at the end :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwb2Ov4ZeNs]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht2AERnwpdg]

Eve is feeling better today. Her appetite
came back a bit yesterday and she kept down the limited food I
allowed her to eat. She still took two naps and was pretty
fussy. Today she was fully of energy and eating almost at full
Eve volume :) Here she is in action.

Riding the car carrier

Lex making a snack

She’s so strong!

After a hard day of jumping from toy box to chair
Eve decided she needed a little rest. She even asked me to tuck
her in.

So cute. She stayed there for awhile, so maybe
she’s not quite 100% yet.

I was so excited yesterday when Lex said
he wanted to write letters with me. He never wants to write. We
wrote an A with crayon and then he started looking for the
“magical special eraser to erase the letter.” I explained that
we don’t have crayon erasers and so we switched to pencil.
Check it out, we wrote A, B, C, D, E, and F. I “helped” by very
lightly guiding his elbow. It took awhile (had to get Eve, had
to get bread out of the oven, change a diaper, etc.) but he
stayed interested. He even asked me (several times!) to help
him hold the pencil the right way. I was super excited!

Eve woke up this morning way too early.
Lex got up a few minutes later, then Alan a few minutes after
that. We all went downstairs and Eve cried and cried for no
apparent reason. Alan generously suggested I go lay down with
her, so we both went back to bed and slept until 9:00am!!! It
was awesome. Eve still wasn’t 100% though, very fussy and
clingy and slow. Alan took Lex to the science museum to play
while Eve and I stayed home. I debated about taking her to the
museum too, because she hasn’t been out in awhile either, but
I’m glad we didn’t go! She ended up throwing up again (the
water, Ginger Ale, and crackers from Saturday) and barely
stayed awake until noon. After a long nap she woke up still
tired and clingy. So we cuddled for the afternoon. I broke out
the Ergo carrier again (Love that thing!!), which I haven’t
used in a very long time and she got her mommy time. She was
back in bed at 6:00pm for the night. Hopefully tomorrow brings
a healthier girl!

Well, I wish
this was our afternoon. In reality it was only about 5 minutes.
The rest was spent with Lex running around like a wild man (I
realized he hasn’t been out of the house in many, many days!),
Eve trying to keep up with him, and me trying to settle them
both down so she wouldn’t throw up! Although I had little
success settling them (except when I turned the TV on!) we were
more lucky with the throw up, or lack thereof. She had no
appetite all day, which is unusual for her, but she managed to
keep down the Ginger Ale and a few crackers. She also took a 4
1/2 hr nap (!!!!) and went to bed easily tonight. I’m going to
call today a success and try for more activity and less TV
tomorrow :)

We’ve had good fortune in the “sick baby”
department with both kids and last night made me really aware
and appreciative of that! Eve was a bit cranky for most of
yesterday and I assumed she was tired from the day before. She
took an early nap and I prepared her (both of them… ok, all
of us!) for an early bedtime. At 6:30pm I carried her upstairs
for bed and she threw up all over me, herself, the carpet at
the top of the stairs, the bathroom, the bathtub, etc. Lex came
up to see what was going on and started gagging a bit. I
immediately sent him back downstairs! She threw up several more
times that night and ended up falling asleep on my lap, bucket
in her lap, while Alan and I watched TV in the dark. I couldn’t
get her settled in bed because every time she started crying
she’d throw up. So falling asleep to The Daily Show seemed like
a good alternative. She threw up two more times during the
night and twice more this morning. After the first two
stomach-emptying episodes, the rest have been fairly mild.

She’s such a trooper though! She’s a
little shaken each time and ends up clamy and ghostly white,
but after a minute she recovers and is her old happy self
again. I don’t think she cried once during the whole thing
(except when I tried to put her to bed!) I spent this morning
trying to keep her still so her stomach wouldn’t get jostled.
We watched a lot of TV today! Lex is pretty happy :) I feel bad
for him though because I’ve pretty much ignored him since 6:30
last night. He gagged twice when he came to “check on Eve” and
saw throw up, and apparently decided he no longer needed to
check on Eve :) Smart boy!

Now she is
sleeping (super easy and early nap!), he’s having his quiet
time and I am hoping for a calmer afternoon.

Julie and Molly came up to visit this
week. We had a fun little visit. Lex no longer likes to bathe
with Eve (really he no longer likes baths at all, but when
forced to take one he chooses to do so without Eve), so we
decided to put Molly in with Eve instead. Eve was a little
resistant at first, insisting it was her bath and
her toys,
but after a minute she started handing Molly toys, one at a
time, and eventually even turned around to look at Molly. I
think they both had fun.

Eve seems to have forgotten
that she was potty training. She went from being really good at
it to just not caring. Not only does she no longer tell me when
she has to go, but she stopped telling me when she DID go!
After a few yucky surprises I stuck her back in diapers for a
few days. I know she’s still really young and I keep telling
myself that this could take awhile, but I was secretly excited
to not have to buy diapers any more :) Oh well. I bought her
some new potty treats (yes, I bribe her with candy) and maybe
that will help. Or not, we’ll see.