Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Climbing out from under everything

I generally like to stick to the happy stuff on this blog, and - much to our great fortune - life with Anna and Margaret is blissful and wonderful.  But the past 2 weekends have been rough on all of us, explaining why I haven't posted anything since we got back from Florida.

Two weekends ago, I spent 48 hours straight on the couch while Joey took care of the girls in his always capable, super Dad fashion while I suffered through some weird stomach virus and the nausea that went along with it.  Hoping it was behind us, we spent last week in our usual routine of play dates and trips to friends' houses, and prepared for an eagerly anticipated wedding of a dear friend of mine (who I've known since I was 10!) in St. Louis - and looked forward to seeing my family again.  On Friday night, weather between Nashville and St. Louis was downright awful with gusting winds, pouring rain, and low temperatures - and so my paranoia of taking my 3 favorite people in the world on potentially icy roads for 5 hours straight, in the dark, got the best of me and we decided to stay in Nashville Friday night and leave early Saturday morning to make it just in time for my friend Joelle's 2:00 wedding.

In hindsight, that was a good decision to stay for many reasons - as I awoke to Margaret screaming at 3 in the morning, grabbed her out of her crib, tried consoling her in our glider...and noticed an odd smell.  I took her out in the hallway, and sure enough - she's covered head to toe in her own vomit.  The night went downhill from there - as the poor girl threw up for 3 hours straight, and after multiple clothing changes and clean-ups, she fell asleep exhausted and drained.  

The next morning, we gave her a very necessary bath and made breakfast...at which point Joey started feeling not so right, sealing the decision to stay in Nashville.  He ended up catching the same virus, as did Anna, and luckily I remained standing and spent the weekend doing a lot of laundry, clean up, and baby/husband care, while I watched them all suffer and couldn't do much to help anyone.

The good thing is - everyone's feeling better, so we have so much to be thankful for - and that was a much needed though painful reminder to all of us to not take good health for granted.  And despite the rough weekend spent entirely indoors, as well as a missed wedding of a dear friend - there were some funny moments.  Like listening to the girls newfound love for animal sound impressions (their elephant and tiger are the funniest, and when I ask them what a dog says, they strangely pant instead of saying "woof").  Or watching them and their fixation with picking out their clothes - the recent obsession is wearing patent leather shoes and winter hats around the house, which makes for an awesome fashion statement.

By Monday night, everyone seemed to be feeling back to normal, despite the girls' runny noses and Margaret's molars coming in, which are causing some pain for her.  Just before their bedtime,  Joey put on some music in the kitchen and we had a very goofy, spur of the moment family dance party - basking in the euphoria of feeling great again.  I am so grateful to be surrounded by so much love and laughter. 


Friday, November 7, 2008

Florida Recap

All week long, I've been meaning to sit down and write a meaningful post about all of the fun things we did while visiting my parents at their condo in Sarasota, Florida - how much the girls adored the pool, how they could have spent hours with their pail and shovel on the beach, digging little holes and pouring sand on their legs (and occasionally taste-testing), how enamored they were with living for 5 days in a warm climate in which they could go outside at any time of the day without being pestered to put on a sweater - but I figured our week there would best be told in pictures. So enjoy!

Our (yes, admittedly dorky) family bike ride. Much to my surprise, our girls actually loved wearing the helmets and insisted on wearing them while walking around my parents' condo - which was quite a funny sight.

Check out Anna's delighted face as Daddy takes her for a spin around the parking lot (well, we did make it beyond the parking lot - we actually took them into the main drag of Siesta Key and stopped at Captain Curt's for lunch!)

Bad timing for their first dip in the pool - the weather was a little chilly that day, the wind was blowing hard, and the pool heater didn't seem to be working very well - poor little Margaret's teeth were chattering, so she welcomed a warm towel and hug from Nana (my Mom)

Anna seemed unaffected by the cold and insisted on playing in the pool with Daddy

All warm and dry in their cover-ups (and Margaret carrying around the 2 sand buckets that she insisted on holding for the majority of the day, including bath time in the evening)
Anna finally took a break from the pool

We dressed up Anna and Margaret in their (somewhat makeshift) Halloween costumes and did a little photo shoot near the pool and on the beach, since we didn't take them trick-or-treating that evening.  
Margaret and I
Our little (fairies?  angels?  something like that...) on the boardwalk to the beach
I love how the sky looks in this photo
Loving how curly their hair has become
Catching our beach fairies sitting together (this lasted about 5 seconds)
Daddy giving Anna a lift while Nana and Margaret hold hands
Margaret and her Nana (not to be confused with Anna, or their favorite morning snack, a banana)
Catching a cute moment between Daddy and his girls
Margaret's elated reaction to having her feet buried in the sand
A surprisingly happy reaction just minutes after taste-testing the sand
I think they could have stayed at there for hours.  Don't you just love little gals in pigtails?