Illness and Winter Continue

I went away for my girls weekend. I came down with a cold on the way there. Then ended up with the Norwalk virus on top of the cold. My stomach still hurts and I'm still struggling with nauseousness. Slowly getting my energy back. We have a very busy weekend ahead so I'm hoping to heal up quickly. I have one month left to train for this triathlon and now I'm really taking a step backwards with this illness. I'm not a quitter though and maybe loosing a little weight from all this sickness will make me run that much faster ; )

The girls both are still fighting their colds. Although, they are happy and playing as if their fine. Mikayla's top tooth is going to come out soon and she will look very different for awhile. I hope I can get used to it!

I wanted to put in the following conversation Nate had with Mikayla last night. He wrote it down in an e-mail:

Last night I read the Dr. Seuss story "The Sneetches" to her. It's the one where some Sneetches have stars on their bellies and some don't and the star-belly sneetches don't let the plain-belly sneetches play with them and stuff.

I asked Kayla, "Is that right?"
She said, "No. Cuz the rule, for the whole world, is: be friends to everybody, if they're nice, like you can even have a thousand friends and be friends to everybody."

I said, "Well, if they're *nice*."

She said, "Yeah, if they're nice. But you can't love your friends."

"Wait. What?"

"Because each girl can only love one boy. Each girl chooses one boy and each boy chooses a girl. And then they get married."

"Well, yeah, but that's not until you're older. Like in college."

"Yeah. But I know I'm going to marry Drew."

(long pause) "Really? Why Drew?"

"Because he's nice. And he's quiet, and lets me do my work. And I'm quiet and let him do his work, too."

"Ok. But what if you meet someone else like in high school or college who is also quiet?"

"Hm… Well, then I'd invite them both over to my house, and we'd have a Quiet Contest."

"A Quiet Contest?"

"Yeah. To see who's the quietest."

"Oh. So, like, if one of them breathes loud like this" (I breathed heavily through my nose)

"Well, if they have a stuffy nose or something then that doesn't count."

I guess she's got it all worked out, then.

Winter Inside

Yesterday we longed for Spring. We ended our day by bundling up and playing outside with bubbles. That was a first for us, blowing bubbles in the snow. Today, we accepted Winter and created indoor "snow shoes/skis. It was Mikayla's idea.

Ballet and Gardening

Yesterday I bought Mikayla her ballet shoes and clothes for a YMCA class I signed her up for starting in a few weeks. She's was so excited she insisted she try everything on (even the tights) in the store. When someone came into the dressing room, she modeled her new outfit and as she twirled around in front of the 3-way mirror, she explained that she was a ballerina. She couldn't wait to put it on again when she got home and she and Ellie played dance most of the afternoon.



Today, I am declaring it spring as the girls and I began an indoor garden. We planted the seeds of the flowers and vegetables we will transplant into our garden when spring/summer comes. We planted some corn, green beans, carrots, zinnias, and a package of mixed spring flowers. (I have extra seeds if anyone would like them.) Then, we read their favorite book about gardening "Zinnia's Flower Garden." We followed that up with having a picnic snack on the floor.





Of course, kids playing with dirt inside can get messy, so I saved the cleaning for afterwards. A friend of mine lent me her Shark Steam Mop to try out. I wanted one really bad for Christmas. It would save me money and time when I clean houses. My dad gave me a gift certificate for Bed Bath and Beyond to put towards it. At the time, I thought I'd come up with the rest of the money in no time, but as soon as Christmas was over, Nate and I began saving up everything we can earn for a nice family vacation this summer. So, perhaps next year. I absolutely loved the Steam Mop. It's easy, light weight, cleans without chemicals, and drys in seconds. It's good to know that when I do buy it, I will know that I'm getting a good product.

Oh, and Nate wanted me to tell about what Ellie said last week. She was still struggling with her cold so I didn't want her to go to Cubbies. Since it was a special movie night at Sparks, I let her come with us. During the handbook time, Mikayla was trying to answer the question of what does the Old Testament promise. As she was starting to say, "It promises that God will send ...." Ellie bursts out randomly with "Boobies!" With that, I lost all control of my group and they were in hysteric giggles until movie time.

A Pick or a Fork

Ellie is watching Sesame Street right now. Elmo has different kids on showing how they take care of their hair. This black kid comes on and says, "I don't use a comb, I use a pick." Ellie laughs and says, "That's not a pick, that's a fork. So silly!"

Catch Up

I guess it's been awhile since I've posted again. Ellie's been sick with a nasty cold. She's still not completely better and is pretty stuffed up. At a recent visit to the doctor, they told us that she needs to gain some weight that she's lost a little. She's always been my good eater and the last several months, she's been pickier. Perhaps it's just the age of 3, who knows. Still trying to potty train her, it's going a bit better, she can stay dry most of the time. I remembered an idea a friend gave me a long time ago, she used tv trays in the bathroom with toys and books. It at least make going to the bathroom more fun and less scary. It is helping with her fear of pooping. So, yesterday I put her on the potty and gave her some blocks to play with. I heard some grunting type noises and peaked in on her. She was grunting from the effort of building this incredible tower.


Mikayla got to go on a fieldtrip to the hospital where they took one of her classmates and did "pretend" surgery on him. At least these are the only details of the fieldtrip she shared with me. She came home with more doctor stuff to play with. Ellie's been enjoying it all too. I think they can give kids all this stuff because they charge so much to real patients.



I am so sick of winter that I'm thinking a lot about fun things I want to do this spring and summer with the girls. Beginning with our garden this year. I decided to get us through winter and get excited about spring, we are going to start growing our garden seeds in empty egg cartons (friends, I could use a few more of these if you have some).

I'm still triathlon training, April will be here before I know it. I made a mistake in training though. I've been so focused on getting my heart rate up more and seeing how fast I can run (10 min. mile!), that now I've lost some of my endurance for the longer run. My swimming is still fine (it's my easiest of the 3) and so is the biking. I can't wait to get out on my bike again, but am waiting until May when I can get my carpel tunnel surgery scheduled. I think I would be miserable biking with it untreated.

(Finally, a note to all my Rochester friends, if you or someone you know could use their house cleaned once a month, please let me know.)