Before the Plague: Silly Glasses

Before this house was hit with RSV/cold/flu/ear infection, we had some fun with glasses. Last Wednesday was the Young Women's New Beginnings. The theme was "Seek after these things..." and everyone wore funny glasses. I got out Tom's funny glasses collection to bring them and Celia had some fun trying them on. The last picture is my new all-time favorite picture of the two girls. They're so great.

In plague news: both girls slept really well last night. They both still have terrible coughs, but Celia is off the couch playing and Sabrina's fever is down. So we're out of the super scary zone for the time being.

Celia Dailies: Avoiding Naps

Celia is still sick, but the Amoxicillin has kicked in and she's doing much better. She spent the morning with Taylor at our house while we took Sabrina to the doctor (more on that in a bit) and when we left the house, she had a really wet diaper she wouldn't let us change, she was still wearing her jammies, and her hair was an old messy braid. When we got back, she looked like a transformed tween. She was wearing a dress with pants under it and had a sweet early 90s crimped ponytail. She also had a much better outlook on life. Which meant she was back to trying to avoid her naps (rather than asking for them as she has the past three days). Just today, here are the ways she tried to stall/avoid a nap:

- We told Celia when the movie she was watching was all done, she had to go to bed. When Tom reminded her of that toward the end of the movie, she said: "wait, wait, wait. I never said that." He reminded her again and she said: "What do you mean?" Then she apparently said: "We're on the elevator. And there's Zurg. And there's Jessie." (She was watching Toy Story 2 at the time.) And she kept telling Zurg: "It's okay. You don't have to be afraid of us."

- She was also wearing two tutus. I took her downstairs to put her in bed and told her she had to take off her dancing skirts. She said: "But I have to dance!" and I had to count down from 20 so she could have a chance to dance before I took them off.

- She was just about to get in bed when she decided she needed to wear her watch and hide behind her bedroom door. At this point, I did the "you're in trouble count to three." I said: "Celia, it's time to get in bed. I'm going to count. One. Two..." Then she looked out and said: "No no no. Stop counting. I'm behind the door right now." When I started over she said: "You can't count, I'm behind the door right now!"

And then she took an over 3-hour nap....

Sabrina spent the night with a 101.2 underarm temperature. I did a middle of the night run to the store to get baby Tylenol. (I was there in my jammies with about 30 couples from some holiday ball type occasion. Awesome). Trying to keep Sabrina asleep and bring down her temperature proved to be a very sleepless event for me (though Sabrina slept fine). I was nursing, medicating, and calling the night nurses constantly. When we got into the doctor at 10AM (thank heavens we live in a place where our doctors are open on both Saturday and Sunday!), Sabrina had a rectal temp of 102.6. Her lungs sounded great (no RSV!) and she didn't have any ear infections. The flu test came back negative, but they said that's probably what it is. So, we just have to monitor her and bring her back in if she gets worse or if her temp gets up to 103. She's got a hacky cough just like Celia but she's still a smiley, happy baby (despite literally burning my hand last night when feeding her she was so hot, poor girl).

Celia: Really Sick

Yes, that's the saddest picture (previous post) you've seen of Celia. I know. Well, the verdict is two ear infections and RSV. Pray that Sabrina will stay healthy. Pray that Celia will get better. She's a mess of no eating, no sleeping, and lots of crying and pain. Poor girl.

Celia Dailies: Sick

Celia is sick. Nasty cough, runny nose, zombie eyes. Poor kid. She stopped eating her dinner on Wednesday. She told Tom she couldn't eat it because her nose was "happening."

- Last night I put a humidifier in her room. When she asked: "What's that?" this is how the rest went:
Me: It's called a humidifier. It makes steam and it will help your cough.
Celia: And my sneeze?
Me: And your sneeze.
Celia: And my laugh?

- She woke up this morning saying: "I need to put some clothes on." I went down there and she was wrapped in her blankies and her jammies were in a pile next to her. Wonder when that happened... Then she put on a t-shirt and capris and refuses to put on anything warmer because she says she's hot (even though the heat hadn't turned on yet so it was 59 in here). And yet, no fever.

- Celia's been telling me: "You're the best Mommy I know."

- She commented on Tom's sweater on Sunday: "Oh Daddy, these are the greatest pockets ever known!"

- We were out driving last weekend and we fishtailed a little on a traffic circle (Tom was driving, so we were fine) and we heard Celia from the back seat say: "that was... AWESOME!"

In BIG Celia news, she got her poopies out in the toilet TWO times on Wednesday. Her choice. She would get close and then say she needed to sit on the potty. We think it might be because we told her she could bounce and cry on the potty. So she sat there, screaming and crying and bouncing until they came out. Poor girl. But we're SO PROUD!

Sabrina, so far, has seemed to avoid the illness. Though everytime she cries, I just feed her. I'm not taking any risks.

You know you're Alaskan when...

1) Your Christmas lights are up and on from September to April -
We didn't put ours up until just after Thanksgiving, but they are still up and on. Tom said he'd wait out the neighbors. Apparently this is more than just not wanting to put them up or take them down in the snow. A couple of years ago, the city had a "City of Lights" campaign where they ran full-page newspaper ads urging people to turn on their Christmas lights during the whole dark season. Because of energy shortages and such, the campaign died. The woman who told me this suggested a new campaign: "The LED City of Lights."

2) The best meal you've ever had was in a strip mall -
Strip mall restaurants are "the thing" up here. And they are often the best. Thanks to cousins Tami and Mark who got us a Gift Certificate and to cousins Taylor and Travis who babysat the girls, Tom and I went out to eat on Saturday night to a really nice strip mall restaurant. It was HEAVEN. We just kept ordering more food. We started with the Samosas and the Dim Sum Sampler. Then we split two bowls of soup: a chicken curry and a five-spice sweet potato. And finished off with the Rib eye steak. All of it complemented our lychee lemonade (with free refills) nicely. I don't think Tom and I have ever gorged ourselves on $70 worth of food. It was worth it and I can't wait to go back.

Celia Dailies: Getting Old

Celia has been very witty as of late. I wish I could remember everything she says, but I'm usually not in a position to run to the computer to write it down. She's seeming so old:

- Yesterday, frustrated with the usual holding poop in, I was trying to get to the bottom of the fear (as I always am). I said: "Celia, why do you hold these in? When the poopies say: 'Celia, I want out!' why don't you let them out?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said: "The poopies want to talk?"

- Today, she was wearing a headband (the stretchy kind. She likes to find them and put them on herself. She wears them like sweatbands.) She took it off her head, put it on her arm, and said: "Look, I have a headband hula hoop on my arm." When I told her that was silly, she said: "Yeah. Headbands are for wearing when you do something" like that explained it...

- We're redoing our bathroom downstairs (will post on this when we're done) and a few days ago, Celia was helping Tom put in the new toilet paper dispenser. Halfway through, she turned to Tom and said: "you're not making any sense!"

- Yesterday, she told me that she needed her slippers on her feet. "My feet are so, so cold. They're like Popsicles!"

- This morning, Celia was playing with her Duplo cars and tracks. The tracks were broken and she wanted me to fix them. And she said: "You're a mommy. Means you can work it!"

- Celia really is kind of obsessed with the fact that the red folding chairs are Mommy's and the black ones are Daddy's. Not sure where she got this idea. Anyway, as she always does, when I sat down in the black chair yesterday, she said: "No. no no. That's daddy's chair. You want to sit in that one. It's mommy's." When I told her that we all share, she looked at me and said: "yeah. whatever."

- Celia's really good at pretending. Any random character from any tv or movie she has seen will appear with us sometime throughout the day. I have to pay attention more when she's watching tv so I recognize the minor characters from dinosaur train when they come to play with us later that day. This morning, she was talking to a random doggie from her high chair. "Doggie. Doggie. Where are you going? Come back. Oh well!"

- I've gotten kind of addicted to buying Timbuk2 bags on clearance at REI (okay, I only bought 2 but this bags are amazing. Look them up. They're made of ballistic nylon and are made to last a million years. I digress...). The one Tom came home with for me yesterday has a tag that says: "get your chi on." I read it out loud and Celia said: "Huh. Are you getting your chi on Mommy? You getting your chi on?"

- Just now, we were talking about our family. Celia pointed to Sabrina, herself, and me and said: "1, 2, 3 girls. And we're missing a boy named Daddy."

- She frequently tells us about numbers that are flying through the air.

- When she walks backwards, she sometimes puts her arms out and says: "I going backwards. I like a dragonfly!"

Sabrina ROLLS!

First, she rocked. Now, she rolls. Sabrina rolled from her back onto her tummy four times yesterday. We knew this would happen kind of early because, since birth, she had preferred to be on her side. She sleeps propped between two rolled blankets on her side. (She hates tummy time, so we knew she wouldn't be rolling the other way anytime soon.) And since she was about a month old, whenever we put her on her back, she ends up like this:



And make that a total of five times that she's rolled... she just did it right next to me while I was writing this and then smiled at me like I should be proud. So proud, Sabrina. So proud. (And now she's on her tummy and mad...)