The trip ...

Grandma Colba passed away in early February. She had been nearing the end for awhile and we are all thankful that her passing was peaceful and are rejoicing that she is finally able to join those she loved in heaven. Because of my parents' planned vacation to Hawaii in the middle of the month and my aunt and uncle's trip to Chile, the funeral was put off until this past weekend. We were hoping to go, but didn't make the final decision until Thursday morning when both Matt and Anna seemed to be over the worst of their colds.



We packed everyone up, made the plans, and headed out on Friday morning. Our trip down to St. Louis included a midday stop in Bloomington to visit Matt's Uncle Martin and Aunt Kathy (and to give the girls a chance to be out of their carseats for a little while). It's always nice to spend a little time with the Eckerts :)



We arrived in St. Louis just in time for the visitation and spent the evening catching up with family while Anna made some new friends and Kate tried to eat everything that was on the floor. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but a funeral home is not exactly a baby friendly environment :)

We thought both girls were exhausted enough to crash right away, but of course it took a long time to get our hotel room set up and convince them (especially Anna) that it was time to go to bed. Then on Saturday morning Kate woke us all up at 5 a.m. ... uh-oh. When everyone was still awake at 5:45, we decided to just get up.


We headed downstairs for a leisurely breakfast and then took a "drive" before the funeral so both girls would take a nap. Before we had kids, I used to think going for a drive to get them to sleep was a silly idea. I stand corrected. I don't want to think about what the rest of the day would have been like if both girls hadn't napped in the morning.


After Grandma's funeral we had lunch at the nursing home and then headed over to my cousin's house for the afternoon. Kate napped there (hooray!) and Anna spent the day milling around from room to room, toy to toy, cousin to cousin, and then having some playtime with Daddy outside, too. Believe it or not, but my mom just informed me that there were 32 of us (three under the age of 1, nine more between 2 and 12) in Natalie and Ryan's house for Saturday afternoon and evening. It certainly brought back memories of the holidays when I was little. Lots of people, activity, noise, and of course fun.

Both girls crashed pretty hard on Saturday night at the hotel, but Kate woke us up again at 5:30 on Sunday morning. Anna slept a little bit longer, but we were ready to be on the road by 8. On the way home, we stopped in Bloomington (again) to spend some time with my high school friend, Laura, and her family.


We made it back to McFarland just in time for Anna's swimming lesson. We had missed last week (the first one) because she was sick so we didn't want to miss another one. She LOVED it ... more on that another time.


Overall, the trip went really well, better than expected. The girls did SO well, even if I spent a lot of the drive in the back seat of the van keeping Kate company. Any frustrating moments (of which there were surprisingly few) were certainly balanced by the memories we made.

Recovering

Last week was a week of recovery for the family. Matt came down with a real cold (after all of the vague symptoms of the previous week) and was pretty wiped out; he took Tuesday off from work and slept most of the day. Anna kept her cough throughout the week, too. She was up during the night with coughing fits, but was able to get back to sleep pretty easily most nights ... except for Wednesday morning when she woke up coughing at 5 a.m., then got up to poop on the potty (hooray!), but never really went back to sleep (neither did Mommy). That was a LONG morning.

By Thursday Matt and Anna were both on the mend and, surprisingly, Kate and I didn't have any symptoms. It was just in time, too, for our big trip down to St. Louis for Grandma Colba's funeral and the inevitable family reunion.

Before I get into that whole affair, however, let me give an update on Kate; she had her 9-month check up on Monday. All is generally well in Kate-land, except for a case of eczema. The doc gave us some strategies to ease the skin discomfort (mainly daily baths followed immediately by a thorough slathering of vaseline all over her body), but told us to keep an eye on what foods might cause a flare-up, turns out it could be a mild allergic reaction.

Anyway, her stats are:

height: 28.5 inchese (83%)
weight: 19.1 oz. (56%)
head: 46.5 cm (97%)

All her percentages are about where she was at 6 months ... long, lean for her length, and a big head :)

Yuck ...

I don't think there's a better way to describe the past 4 days other than simply using the term "yuck". Our immune systems have truly been working overtime this past week.

First, I had a bit of a cold in the middle of the week last week while Matt was just feeling generally under the weather. Then Anna woke up with a croup-like cough on Friday morning; nothing really bad, just the cough. Then on Friday afternoon I came down with a bad fever; it was short-lived, but high and very uncomfortable. Saturday morning I was feeling much better (thanks to Matt taking care of the girls on Friday night so I could stay in bed), but by 8 a.m. Anna had thrown up her breakfast. We'd kind of been expecting the stomach flu since it had been going around at church.

Matt, who was still feeling under the weather, and Anna crashed for most of Saturday watching TV or playing games and then again on Sunday. Anna is over the stomach bug, but now still has the cough/cold she started with while Matt has a real cold this week. So in the course of a week, we're pretty sure there were/are at least three sets of viruses in our home ... :(

Surprisingly, Kate has weathered all of the germs without too many noticable symptoms; hopefully she stays healthy! I'll be really surprised, however, if she doesn't get sick at all.


So our Valentine's Day wasn't too spectacular. I made some heart shaped pancakes for anyone who wanted to eat them and we passed cards around; the girls also got a special balloon to share. Kate and I went to worship just the two of us while Matt and Anna watched the second half of Mary Poppins. Pretty low key, if you ask me.



Actually, Kate and I got to spend quite a bit of quality time together this weekend while Matt and Anna were feeling sick. Not only did we go to church together, but we also ran some errands on Saturday, took a walk around the neighborhood, and played a lot just the two of us. It was kind of fun to do those things just with Kate :)

Speaking of Kate, this kid is going to be walking before she turns one. Not only will she cruise around on the furniture, pull herself up on anything and everything, and tranfer from object to object, but she has started pushing toys around in the basement. It is certainly fun for her, but also a little intimidating for the rest of us!

We love our musicians :)

Matt and I find ourselves singing about the most random things to a wide range of tunes ("twinkle, twinkle little star", "london bridge", "Mary had a little lamb", etc.) For several months, Anna has been able to identify the tunes we've been singing and knows most of the words to the songs, but hasn't been able to carry much of a tune herself. Her singing was definitely of the monotone variety. However, sometime in the past few weeks, she's found her real singing voice and now sings all the time. Now, even if she's humming we can usually recognize the song she's thinking of ... kind of fun :) She even likes to make up songs using the tunes she knows. For example, this morning she sang "If you're happy and you know it, put your leg in your pants" while Matt was dressing her.


Kate has also shown an affinity to music lately, too. She's started dancing (more like bouncing) whenever she hears a song she likes, especially ones that have a good beat :) She's also learned to clap in the past week or so and will start clapping along to "If you're happy and you know it", even if Anna is the singer.

I'm sure part of this love of music for Anna comes from our participation in music class, and I'm guessing Kate is learning many of these musical ideas vicariously through Anna. Last week our babysitter's family was ill on Wednesday so Kate got to come with us to music class for the first time. She loved it; Anna put up with it; and I got the chance to see once again how different our two daughters are. Kate, for instance, warmed up to the environment within about 5 minutes and proceeded to crawl around and "introduce" herself to whichever family was sitting nearby. On the other hand, when Anna and I first went to Kindermusik a year and a half ago it literally took her about 6 weeks of class for her to open up and be herself. Not bad, just different.


Anyway, on a different note, we've been able to spend time outside again the past week or so. We experienced some rain and warm temperatures a few weeks back and our snow finally melted to the point (maybe 4-5 inches on the ground?) where Anna could walk through it relatively easily. Both she and Kate have gotten a kick out of taking sled rides around the yard and into the field. It's easiest to play this game either when Kate is sleeping or when Matt is available to pull a second sled :)

And finally, Kate has two teeth! The first came through last Monday and the second arrived at the end of the week :)

Busy days

We had a few busy days last week, or at least they seemed busy to us, and then a few not-so-busy ones.

Tuesday was a big day in our house ... The girls and I went to play group in the morning at church, then ate our lunches there before we drove up to the Dells for the afternoon. Both girls napped on the way there, then we spent an hour or so at the outlet mall (hooray for Mommy!) before we met Grandma Barb at the Kalahari. She had a conference there on Wednesday and since they got free waterpark passes with their room, we joined them for a few hours in the water.

Anna LOVED it and was simply a chatterbox on the way home. It took a bit more convincing for Kate to really enjoy things, but she was also pretty exhausted. Certainly a BIG day for that little kid. But both girls were full of smiles while we were playing the shallow water.


Wednesday was another busy one for us girls. Anna and I dropped Kate off at the babysitter's before we met some friends at a coffeehouse for snacks before music class. Anna and Sadie got to sit at their own table together for their donut muffins and playtime ;) Anna is getting really cute about friendships now; I can tell she really wants to have a friend, but the other kids we know who are her age aren't quite ready for it. Sadie (who is about 9 months older than Anna) is a great friend, but we don't see them nearly as often as we'd like these days.

By Wednesday evening it was obvious both girls had colds so we stuck around home for most of Thursday and Friday. I've had my fair share of wiping noses the past five days, but we seem to be over the worst of it. Anna's feeling much better and Kate seems to be more pleasant, too.


Poor Kate has also been working on her first teeth. The first one has sort of popped through today, but the second one isn't quite there. So Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were pretty rough for that kid ... stuffy nose, fever, new teeth ... yuck. On a brighter note for Kate, she's not falling as much as she was last week, but now she tries to crawl faster than she can and ends up hitting her nose/chin/mouth/forehead on the ground. She's going to be a tough kid :)

Saturday my mom came down for the afternoon/evening so Matt and I could have some much needed time off together. We ran a bunch of errands, spent some Christmas money, then went out to dinner. The girls did great for Grandma and Matt and I had a lot of fun together, even throwing in a trip to Target after dinner. It's amazing where you end up when you're out without the kids :)

One of the things we got on Saturday was a new camera (the last one was pretty old and had a few too many "quirks") so we took a bunch of random pictures on Sunday. I'm not quite sure what Anna was so worried about here, I just know she was REALLY tired.

Bumps and bruises

Poor Kate. In the past two weeks she's probably knocked her head on something at least 2 times every day. She just wants to pull herself up on EVERYTHING, even if it has wheels, isn't the right height, has hard and pointy legs, etc. The worst ones are when she slips while she's pulling up and knocks her forehead on a table leg. She doesn't seem to be too bothered anymore by tumbling and hitting the back of her head, unless she's not really able to slow herself down and roll out of it. Nobody in the family (especially super-empathic Anna) likes it when Kate falls down and bonks. We think she's gotten a bit better about not falling in the past couple of days; her little muscles seem to be getting strong enough to catch herself BEFORE she falls.

On a brighter side, Kate is such a babbler right now. Sure, she still will screech just for the fun of it, but now we're hearing lots of consonants, too. Her favorite sounds to make are da, ma, ta, goo, and ah. We're not completely sure, but we think she'll imitate some sounds/words, too. I've caught her a few times repeating "ah da" after I've said "All done."

Anna, of course, continues to brighten up our lives, too. One of her favorite things to say lately is "I yuv (love) you SO much." Very sweet. However, I think she's only said it to me once or twice. Matt's gotten the love a few more times, Kate many more, but inanimate objects like her blanket, stuffed animals, toys, and even Shadow get the love more often than us :)


A highlight for Anna-Banana this past weekend was that she got to have dinner on Sunday night with Matt at his work. We'd been holding out "lunch with Daddy at work" as the ultimate prize for pooping on the potty (she needed to have three poops on the potty to earn this one). Well, the third number two came on Sunday afternoon, but Matt wasn't going to be able to do lunch with her on Monday, so they did dinner last night instead. Since it was such a motivator for Anna, we're going to try it again, but this time she needs four poops on the potty. This whole poop-training has been harder than it seemed at first ...

On a different note, I was just thinking the other day how we had gone for close to a month without any colds for anyone in the house. It seems that whenever that thought crosses my mind, someone gets sick. Sure enough, Anna's got a cold again ... nothing major, but still. I hope the rest of us stay healthy!

Mid-winter

We were, thankfully, able to spend a few afternoons outside last week. I convinced Anna that we should go on some "adventures" around the yard to see what kind of animal evidence we could find. With Kate in the backpack and Anna in the sled, we trekked around the yard a couple of times looking for deer and rabbit tracks and, Anna's favorite, deer poop. One afternoon Anna was up very early from her nap and so she and I got to spend a good hour together outdoors while Kate slept. In addition to adventures that afternoon, Anna and I also did a bit of sledding :)

Because of the "warm" (can we call it that?) weather, we even went for a family hike on Saturday afternoon at the Arboretum. We (meaning Anna) didn't last too long, but both girls had huge smiles and lots of fun tromping around or being carried.

When we can't get outside (which is most of the time), here's a glimpse of what happens in our home. Matt and Anna thought it would be fun to use an old mattress to bounce anything and anyone who was willing to be bounced. Anna thought it was hilarious!


For the most part, though, we're well into our winter routines ... play group at church, music class, Bible Study, food prep and clean-up, naps, etc. It's really nice that we're not as busy as we were last year during the winter so there's a bit more free time to do silly things like have "adventures" in the yard. Still, I think I'll be thankful when we're past January and February.

Kate, however, is making the most of all of this indoor time. She's mastered crawling in the past week and can pull herself up on just about everything. It's been a lot of fun for Matt and I to watch Kate go through these early crawling stages since Anna was a scooter instead of a crawler. Anna is getting a bit frustrated, already, with her sister getting into all of her stuff, though!