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I’m happy to report that we’re all well this week. The plague seems to have run it’s course and we’ve recovered… except for Chris, who managed to avoid the whole thing. We think that breathing the filtered air all night probably helped him!

CareBear spent a couple of days at her “day camp” at the Y… music and playing and crafts, she loved it. On the first day, they made cardboard guitars and played musical chairs. On the second day, they made tambourines an played duck, duck, goose. She taught LiliBee and me how to play both games when she got home. I have to say, musical chairs is a lot easier to play with only 3 people than duck, duck, goose.

While CareBear was off at her class, LiliBee enjoyed only child status. I’d forgotten how much easier it is to get around (and quieter) with just one kid! We spent our time playing and shopping, just the two of us.

CareBear also had her first movie theater experience! While LiliBee played with Grandma and Grandpa, Chris and I took CareBear to see Ice Age 3. She was very impressed by the whole thing and alternated between thinking everything was hilarious to thinking that everything was scary and hiding her eyes. After it was over, she declared that the movie was fun.

CareBear decided to stay in Olympia for a slumber party with her cousin last night, so LiliBee and I have been on our own again today. We’ve been having a lot of fun playing with all of the toys and having a quiet nap. We’ve talked about all of the people in our family, all of the colors of the rainbow, all of the parts of her body and all of the neighbors.  She’s become a big fan of the bumblebee song, so we spent a lot of time singing that. And playing “this little piggy”. She cracks me up.

We’re between sessions at the Y, so we don’t have any classes to go to this week! Between that and the heat wave, I’m hoping to spend some quality time with the air conditioner. Of course, the kids will want to go outside and play in the sprinkler so I’m sure I’ll end up in the heat anyway.

As it turns out, I was overly optimistic about this week…

About 2 hours after I sent last week’s email, LiliBee’s eyes started oozing. So we had several days of eye drops for two! On Tuesday, LiliBee had some kind of discomfort that I couldn’t pinpoint (I’ll be so glad when she decides to talk to us) but I suspect that it was her tummy. It only lasted a couple of hours, but kind of cancelled our plans for that day.

On Thursday, CareBear had some very definite and visual tummy trouble that, happily, only lasted a few hours. Also on Thursday, I woke up with a sore throat so we took a quick trip to the doctor for my strep throat diagnosis… by evening, my fever was 102 degrees and I was pretty much useless to everyone until Sunday.

The good news is that Chris was able to take a few hours off on Thursday and go in late on Friday, which helped greatly. Also good that he has yet to get whatever plague we’ve picked up.

We did manage to have some fun with swim classes (they had a special safety day which CareBear loved), toddler gym (the confirmed source of the plague), our weekly trip to the farm and lots of backyard playing.

It’s been tough for CareBear to stay home so many days and I didn’t have enough energy to find as many things to do as she needs. She’s a high energy kid! Consequently, we had a few days of too much tv and not enough good behavior. It’s a good thing that LiliBee is a cuddler and was happy to just hang out with me and play quietly much of the time.

Chris helped by taking them out to ride their “bikes” for awhile. Also by making sure everyone was fed and dressed and clean while I was out of commission.

I’m hopeful that this week will be much better. We have the last week of classes for this session and CareBear gets to got to special music preschool day camp kind of thing (it’s just two hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it’s a big deal to her).

I’m sure that LiliBee and I will find something fun to do with our free time. And one of these days, we’re going to take CareBear to her first movie theater movie!

We had quite an exciting week… a trip to Alder lake, a trip to the doctor, lots of sprinkler fun…

We all headed out to Alder lake to celebrate my dad’s birthday and CareBear had her first fishing lesson. She was very impressed. Pas brought a fishing rod just for her and showed her how it worked.

She got to hold it and practice reeling it in. She was excited about it for awhile, but soon traded fishing in for “skipping” rocks and playing at the playground. They ended up catching a few little fish and CareBear helped release them back into the wild. All in all, a very successful introduction to fishing.

Meanwhile, LiliBee hung out throwing things into the water and watching everything. She probably would have waded right into the lake, but it was one of our chilly days so we wouldn’t let her.

Both of them really liked the tire swing and playing with their uncle, though.

On Saturday, CareBear woke up in a panic because she couldn’t open her eyes. Poor kid picked up pink eye somewhere last week (probably the Y) so we headed in to the doctor for eye drops. That has been a bit of a challenge, though talking her into sitting still for the drops takes much longer than actually getting them into her eyes. She’s actually pretty cooperative.

I told her that we couldn’t go anywhere if she didn’t let me put the medicine in her eyes… that kid hates staying home. She’s not contagious anymore, but I’m guessing it won’t be long before LiliBee comes up with it, considering how much they both touch everything!

We had a nice weekend overall, though. We went to the new pancake place for breakfast and had a fun trip to the hardware store. Chris spent some time smoothing out part of the lawn (or starting the process, anyway) while the girls and I worked on cleaning wallpaper off of a wall.

This week will be interesting. We have the usual classes scheduled, but the pink eye could change how we do things if it travels through the family. Hopefully, we’ll be able to hit a park sometime and enjoy the nice weather.

Our visit south got cancelled, but I’m sure we’ll find lots to do.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!

We had a very busy day. We spent the afternoon in Olympia having BBQ and sprinkler fun with Chris’ family. Cousin H was there, of course, so the three girls made for great entertainment.

After visiting the goats, driving the little jeeps, having lunch, running around in sprinklers and having hose fights, we headed back up to my folks’ place for more tasty BBQ and fireworks.

CareBear has been waiting for a year for the fireworks to come back. She was a little concerned about how loud they were, but loved watching them and waiting for the “pink” ones.

This was LiliBee’s first time to actually be able to track what was going on and she totally loved the fireworks. Every time she saw one, she’d giggle and clap along with saying either “oooooh” or “woooow”. It was very fun.

After all of the excitement of Saturday, we took it pretty easy on Sunday. We had a trip to the library, but otherwise we just hung out and dealt with cranky, clingy and generally out of sorts toddlers (or maybe that was the parents). It was nice to have a quiet day before the week day schedule started all over again!

In other news, Chris had a long weekend. It was nice to have him around and he even got to go to one of CareBear’s swimming classes. He was dutifully impressed by everything she did and she was thrilled to have him there.

I was able to have a great visit with Susanna, who I used to work with at Good Sam. I haven’t seen her in months so it was nice to be able to catch up and get all of the gossip. I really do miss all those lab folks. Hopefully, we’ll get to do that again soon.

The weather has been so nice that we’ve been having park visits and lots of water fun (sprinklers and pools!).

We set up the sprinkler in our back yard for awhile the other day. CareBear spent most of her time running away from the water and splashing in puddles while LiliBee ran into the water. I must admit, though, that I’m glad that the weather has cooled down for a few days and I’m really hoping for a little rain to water down the pollen!

We’ll be heading out to Alder lake this week to celebrate my dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Pas!). I guess it’s a lot different than it was the last time I was there… of course, that was probably 25 years ago. Anyway, there should be lots for the kids kids to do there and I hear that CareBear might have her first fishing lesson.

I’m finding it hard to believe that the year is half gone already, but my allergies assure me that it is the end of June. The Fourth of July is next week! I think I’ve lost all sense of time since having kids and quitting my job…

CareBear started her swimming classes this week, which she loves. They’re learning how to kick and float and how to do a few swimming strokes. She’s in a class with a few older boys and they all have a great time splashing each other while waiting their turn to work with the teacher. CareBear tells me every day that she wants to go to swim class.

We spent Saturday out at the Tacoma Highland Games. It was interesting to see how it’s different from the big Highland Games that will be out in Enumclaw in a few weeks. CareBear was fascinated by the hammer throwing and the dancing girls. LiliBee loved the puppet show and the dogs. Chris and I liked the pipers and shared an ice cream bar. So, something for everyone!

This coming week should be fun. We’ll have more swimming classes (and Chris might even be able to come watch, too!) and toddler gym. We’ll be spending the Fourth of July in both Olympia and Puyallup and CareBear can’t wait for the fireworks. Chris will have a long weekend and I might get to visit with some people that I haven’t seen in ages.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. And Happy Summer to everyone!

The beginning of summer hasn’t been nearly as “summery” as the last couple of weeks, but my allergies are really appreciating the slightly damp weather right now.

We had a pretty mellow week. We got back into our routine after the vacation weeks and just enjoyed not having much to do. That will all change this week when we start our next session of classes at the Y! We’ll have our usual Toddler Gym class and CareBear is starting swimming classes. She’s really looking forward to it, especially since she gets to go by herself while I watch through the window (she’s so independent).

Adding those to our week means that there aren’t any days where we just stay home all day! I’m not sure how that happened… for all my planning, I never see these things coming.

Chris had his follow-up appointment with the neurologist last week. We found out the results of his testing (mostly normal) and his sleep study (really abnormal). He was being worked up for sleep apnea vs narcolepsy… apparently, they sometimes have the same symptoms and can only be differentiated by the sleep study. As it turns out, he as severe obstructive sleep apnea (he stopped breathing more than 40 times an hour and woke up more than 50 times an hour) and what they call “pathological sleepiness”, plus his blood oxygen saturation goes down to 85% during the apnea.

So he went back to the sleep lab to be fitted for what’s called a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine that he will wear when he sleeps. Considering that he’s apparently been severely sleep and oxygen deprived, that should make him feel much better.

We spent Saturday down at Meeker Days and it didn’t even rain on us. The festival was lots of fun, though we didn’t get to browse as many of the booths as I would have liked.

Once CareBear spotted the bouncy rides, it was all over! She spent a lot of time bouncing, going on everything they had there. We convinced her to walk around with us after a while and managed to check out all of the things that we really wanted to see.

We even got to watch the belly dancers, which was something that I wanted to do. The girls both enjoyed that, too, which was nice since it meant that they sat there and watched instead of running around… for awhile, anyway. LiliBee was most impressed by all of the dogs walking around, though. She loves pointing out dogs to us.

Father’s Day was very, very mellow around here. Since Chris already had his unofficial Father’s Day a couple of weeks ago (can’t beat the radio convention for Father’s Day gifts around here), our “present” to him was a relaxing bath and a few hours off. The girls and I went shopping so that he could have peace and quiet to play with his new radio gear. We all spent the rest of the day lazing about, reading and playing.

It was nice to be slackers for awhile.

We have returned from vacation… Chris is even back to work today, so it really is all over for another year.

We had a great time, though. We did the carousel, window shopping, beach going, the aquarium and hit some of our favorite eateries. Chris’ folks, his sister and cousin H joined us for much of our week.

The girls had a great time together and the weather was nice enough for lots of beach and ocean playing. It was fun for us to show off one of our favorite vacation spots.

LiliBee loved the water and CareBear loved the beach.

We did manage to get CareBear to play in the water a few times, though.

I wrote a few updates on our blog while we were gone (see below), if you want more details on our vacation. I’m also working on getting more pictures up here… but that might take me a couple of days.

The only bad part of our vacation was LiliBee’s trip to the local ER. The house we were in had a flight of stairs to get up to the bedrooms and we kind of pulled in opposite directions when I was helping her one evening. She ended up with nursemaid’s elbow (a common dislocation, it’s more common in girls than in boys for some reason), which the doctor popped back in quickly and LiliBee acted like nothing had ever happened. I was more traumatized than her.

In other news, the critters here at home had a great time with our best house sitter. It gives us great peace of mind to have someone that we can count on to take care of them while we’re away.

On our way home, we stopped in Olympia and visited the new goats at Grandma’s house, which was great fun. Grandma got three baby goats just after she got back from vacation. They’re really cute and sweet.

We’ve spent the last few days trying to recover from all of the excitement of vacation. We’re slowly getting back to our regular routine, but it’s tough. We had our last tumbling class of the session and our first trip to the farm for produce. Lots of different things going on these days… we’re looking forward to Meeker Days this weekend and maybe some visiting. And Chris has an appointment to find out the results of his sleep study!

This week’s update got a little delayed… Chris being on vacation is messing up my sense of time and I totally forgot that it was Monday until late yesterday afternoon.

On the plus side, he’s on vacation for the next couple of weeks! And we’ll be heading for Seaside and the Ham Radio convention tomorrow! I have a lot to do today.

This week was good. Chris had an overnight trip to Fort Worden and worked too much to get ready for being on vacation, but we managed to have some fun.

We finally got to have that play date with Auntie T and Z-bear! The kids had a great time running around, playing, making “cereal” in the dogs’ water dish, having tea parties and such. It was so nice to finally all be healthy and get to visit.

Unfortunately, our other planned play date fell through due to illness… aren’t we supposed to be out of “cold and flu season” by now?

The girls and I visited the farm where we’ll be getting our produce this summer. CareBear loved the herb field with butterflies flittering about and LiliBee thought that the ducks and baby chickens were fascinating.

I hear that they also have goats and bee hives so we’ll have to check those out later.

We made a couple of trips to the park in honor of the nice weather. LiliBee is a sliding fool and CareBear has become obsessed with the monkey bars (that she can’t actually reach yet, but don’t tell her that!). We even saw baby geese and a couple of hawks around the lake.

We visited the newest farmer’s market in our area (it was the first weekend)… it’s small but there’s potential there. It’s not as fun to visit a hot parking lot, though, so I hope they move to a nicer location at some point. Still, I love getting to browse around those kinds of things.

There may or may not be an update next week… we’ll be in a vacation rental with no internet connection (shocking, I know), so emails and pictures will depend whether or not we can find a convenient connection. I hope to be able to do at least a few quick updates on the website, if nothing else.

Otherwise, see you after vacation!

 

Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the weekend.

We spent some time at the Farmer’s Market again, picking up some tasty fresh cheeses and a couple of heirloom tomato plants. I’m not entirely sure what to do with the tomatoes, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

(By the way, CareBear took this picture of Chris.) It doesn’t seem like we did much this last week, though we seemed busy at the time. Chris had a day trip out to Fort Worden, which meant we didn’t see him hardly at all that day. Then, a couple of days later, they had some weird power issues at their building… so we didn’t see him much those days either! He’s got another trip to Fort Worden this week, overnight this time. It’s weird how those small changes to our “schedule” make the week seem busier than it is!

Of course, we did get a little visiting done and a few trips to the park, so we weren’t idle the whole week! We also did a vet run so Radio could get his shots and had Maisy groomed. Not bad at all.

We’re hoping that this week brings our long awaited play date with Auntie T and Z-bear… 

We’re starting to get ready for vacation! It’s hard to believe it will be June next week and we’ll be headed to the beach. CareBear is really getting excited about going to Seaside so we have a whole countdown going on the calendar. It will be fun to see what LiliBee thinks of the seals this year… I think she’ll get a kick out of them.

We had lots of fun this week…

Our Mother’s Day festivities continued as we took my mom out to lunch. CareBear was less patient than usual with the whole restaurant thing, but LiliBee had a great time trying all the food.

CareBear was much happier when we stopped at the park on our way home. Both girls showed off their sliding and swinging skills for Grams.

On Saturday, Chris took me to the Farmer’s market as my own Mother’s Day outing. The weather was fabulous and there was lots of fun stuff to look at.

The girls got balloon animals made and played on the playground there.

There were hot dogs and popcorn and we all had a great time.

Sunday was spent in the backyard. I did a bunch of weeding and a little planting while Chris prepped the compost for me.

He enlisted the girls to help him sort out the worms for return to the compost bin, but that didn’t last too long.

They much preferred getting as sandy and then muddy as possible. LiliBee took two baths and they both had several outfit changes that day!

We ended the day with out first BBQ and picnic of the year.

Today was LiliBee’s 18 month doctor visit. She’s happy and healthy and still tiny, but at least she’s consistent! She did finally make it to the magical 20 pound mark where she can turn around in the car, though! That will make our vacation road trip much easier. LiliBee was fascinated by the dr and loved the book that he gave her.

She’s such an easy going kid!

We didn’t get to do as much visiting as we’d hoped last week and our visit with Auntie T and kid Z has been postponed once again (3 times so far, due to illness… we’re taking turns being sick!). At this rate, summer will be over before we get to have that play date!

We’re looking forward to the nice weather and long weekend this week!