Family Getaway!

Anna didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday so we decided to do a mini-vacation and give our girls a much needed break from home.  Since Ethan's been born, we've done a lot of things in and around Madison, but nothing too extravagant for the sake of an infant.  We thought it was about time to do something more.

Sunday after church we headed up to the Wisconsin Dells to spend the night at Mt. Olympus (this was the same place we went last year).  We met my mom up there so we could have some help with the kiddos, since neither girl is big enough to do waterslides on their own yet, and Ethan was going to need someone else with him anyway.  We had a great time.

The girls did fabulously; it's amazing the difference a year can make!  They both jumped right in (literally) to the different water activities, both the kiddie waterslides as well as the big ones that they went down with an adult on a raft.  Anna loved the tallest waterslide whereas Kate would say "Can we do it AGAIN?" every time she made it down the medium slide.  They both enjoyed the lazy river, as did Mom and Dad after climbing those stairs over and over again.

The girls stayed with my mom in a room next door to Matt and me and Ethan.  These sleeping arrangements worked out great, since no one else had their sleep disrupted by sweet Ethan.

Speaking of Ethan, he was a little overwhelmed by the sensory overload of the indoor waterpark and so after the first try of us all being in the waterpark together, he had some quality time with Grandma in the hotel room while the rest of us played.

This little getaway gave us a nice break from the wintery weather here in Wisconsin.

Wishful Thinking

I suppose it was wishful thinking to think that Kate's cold wouldn't spread, or that I would continue my run of not getting sick this winter.  Alas, Kate, Ethan, and I appear to be trading viruses back and forth these days.  Thankfully, none of them are too bad, and certainly not as bad as the one that went through the kids in January, but it's a pain nonetheless.

I suppose it is also wishful thinking to hope that spring is just around the corner.  This winter seems to be lasting forever.  The few days that I've had a chance to get outdoors with one or both girls (or by myself!) have been great and I've felt much better for the rest of the day because of it.  However, it's just been SO cold that I don't feel comfortable taking Ethan outside for more than the walk to the garage to get in the van.  I guess Jimmy the Groundhog was wrong this year.  We'll just have to keep trying to enjoy the cold wintery weather for awhile yet

Valentine's Day was nice here for us.  We all exchanged cards in the morning and had heart pizzas for dinner and pumpkin cake (frosted with pink cream cheese frosting) for dessert.  Anna was excited to open up all of her valentines from school and she did a nice job of sharing some of the treats with Kate.

Our weekend was pretty low-key.  We were able to do a bit of cleaning on Saturday, although you can't really tell now :)

I guess for the most part we're just plugging along.  I need to do a better job of jotting down the silly moments and sayings over the course of the week so that I can remember to write them down here.  I'm sure we had some this past week, but I can't think of them right now.  Oh, well.  Maybe it's my cold, or the cold outside.

At least two of our three children are happy and smiling most days (Kate's the one who's been giving us grief lately).  Often we even get all three kiddos in cheerful moods :)

Day by day

I feel like the longer my sleep deprivation continues, the worse my memory and coping skills become.  Oh, well.  I know it won't last forever, but knowing that doesn't necessarily make today any easier.

At least there are many moments in our life that make us smile and laugh.

For example, the other night after dinner there was a disagreement about dessert.  I don't remember all of the details, but it had something to do with Anna wanting a certain piece of candy which belonged to Kate and then Anna started melting down when she couldn't have it.  Kate piped up, quite sweetly I might add, with "Well, if you keep crying then you may not get any candy."  Matt and I, trying very hard not to laugh, told Kate that she wasn't the parent and so those kinds of decisions weren't up to her.  To which she responded "I was just giving you guys an idea."

Anna has been diligently making her valentines for the students in her class.  However, she took a break from those last week and made some for all members of our family.  She'd sneak out of her room right at 6, and spend awhile in the kitchen making her cards and then hide them somewhere until Valentine's Day.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she made :)

In the midst of creating as much laundry as any little baby can, Ethan is often full of smiles and the start of giggles in the morning.  You may think I'm joking about his laundry needs, but his spitting up rivals any that the girls ever did and he probably generates more dirty laundry each day than anyone else in the family.

The girls and I had dentist appointments yesterday after school so I bravely approached the dentist office with all three kids.  The "plan" had been for Ethan to sleep through the whole affair, but he appears to have reached the stage at which new places are more exciting than sleep.  Oh, well.  Our family got several compliments for how well behaved the kids were, but I suppose that's just a perk of not watching much TV in our house.  Each of the hygienist's spaces are equipped with a TV so the girls' eyes were glued to the PBS station.  Ethan, surprisingly, was content to just hang out in his car seat and take everything in.  Of course, as soon as we got in the car, both girls melted down about something and were pretty crabby the whole ride home.

Last Thursday Bible Study was cancelled due to freezing rain and more snow, so Kate and I had some special glamor time in the morning.  She got braids, and painted fingernails and toenails at the Mommy Salon.

Unfortunately, Kate has a cold again.  We will continue to hope that no one else in the family catches this one, especially sweet Ethan.

Pretending

First of all, Ethan had his 2 month check-up last Thursday.  Ethan, like his sisters, is long and lean and with a big head.  He weighed 12 lb. 11 oz. (53%), was 23.5 inches (65%), and had a head circumference registering at the 84%.  He's meeting all of his milestones and even checked out clear in his ears and lungs after his first cold.

He also got his first round of immunizations.  The poor kid (and mom and dad) had a rough evening/night on Thursday.  Ethan was pretty sore and miserable, but perked up again on Friday.

Now for a glimpse into our lives.  Kate, moreso than Anna, is fully immersed in an imaginative stage of life.  For the past year or so, she will latch onto a particular story for a few months and pretend it again and again, with her own variations.  She will also insist on being called a certain character's name and give every member of the family a name from the story as well.  Anna, of course, plays along and will often direct which pretend story they will be playing.

Anyway, the current stories in our home are The Lion King, The Lion King 2, Aladdin, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and The Little House on the Prairie.  So Kate's names vary from Kiara to Jasmine to Cinderella to Ariel to Laura.  After Matt and Anna leave in the morning she'll often announce to me "I'm Cinderella.  Who do you want to be?" or "Hi, Ma!"  In reliving a lot of the "classic" Disney fairytales, I've come to realize that there are not a lot of positive adult women, so I choose the fairy godmother over the evil stepmother :)

Since the snow day last week we've had more fresh snow every few days and some slightly warmer temperatures so we've been able to play outdoors a little bit.  It's nice that I can even send Anna and Kate out to play on their own after school some days and be able to stay inside with Ethan.

I love playing outside with them, but when I'm on my own with all three kiddos I can't do it very often.

With Matt home over the weekend, though, the girls and I got to have a couple of Mommy-Daughter dates.  First, we spent Saturday morning doing Kate's make-up music class and then running a few errands.  Then on Sunday afternoon I took the girls swimming for the first time since Ethan was born.  We had lots of fun :)

Perhaps the weekend really tired Kate out because on Monday while I was feeding Ethan, she crawled into bed and fell asleep.  This kid has not taken a nap willingly in her bed in at least a year!  Then she slept in until almost 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning!  We were gearing up for another round of sicknesses, but other than a little bit of congestion and a slight sore throat, Kate seems just fine.  Maybe she just slept this virus off and didn't pass it on to anyone ... let's hope so!  Here's a shot of our sleeping beauty.  (I needed to take a picture to document this rare event.)