You can tell it’s been a hard few weeks when the “Weeklies” become an every 2 week affair. Here are some highlights:
Sickness!!
President’s day was occupied with malaise and sore throat for me. It took me about 4 days before I wanted to eat anything other than applesauce. That paled in comparison to the ear drum rupture I suffered from 3 days later. I took myself to the emergency room while Wayne watched the kids. The pain was excruciating. I’m still deaf in my left ear. I’m very sympathetic toward the hearing impaired. Loud ambient noise makes it very difficult for me to hear. Laura has run a fever this weekend and been having crying fits. She’s also having major teething. She seems to be recovering. Wayne’s had on and off crud and tiredness. Maybe it’s continuation of sinus issues.
Fun stuff
We’ve had some beautiful days. Today, me and the girls played at the park and enjoyed the slides. It’s ironic that it’s been so beautiful and we’ve been so sick. We celebrated Wayne’s 40th birthday with Cupcake Royale cupcakes. We had a date were we went to P.F. Chang’s at Westlake. It was fun, “junk” Chinese food. We continued the junkie theme by watching Jumpers at Cinerama. It wasn’t as horrible as everyone made out. We had free movie tickets from Pixar. He got to play Dungeons and Dragons the next day. I was supposed to surprise him with pizza and a cake. My ear drum ruptured instead and he got to watch the girls while trying to fend off monsters. Last night, I took Claire for a girls night out. We attended the closing night of Taproot Theater’s As You Like It. It was a fun play, but Shakespeare doesn’t keep me awake at 10:30pm when I’m used to going to bed at 9pm. We tried the Kebab House and found it to be Ok. I would try it again, but wouldn’t go out of my way to go there.
The best news is our carpet has been installed. Hopefully replacing the carpet will help with the allergy issues. Evidently, cat dander can stay around for up to a year after the cat is gone. It’s nice to have the basement back after 3 months without. I no longer have a wall of books and cushions in my bedroom and most of the electronics have been restored. We watched Surf’s Up (penguin surfing movie…amazing efxs, reasonable story). Sara loved the scene with the penguins surfing in lava tubes. She’s been talking it up. She’s eager to go to Hawaii now to surf lava tubes. I hate to disappoint the kid.
Northwest Flower and Garden Show
This is a rite of spring in the Northwest. In a place where summer doesn’t appear in earnest till July, we need all the peaks into spring that we can. There are photos on our flickr site. The day was sunny. It was a wonderful excuse for me to hang out with the Jon and Claire. Jon’s Mom, Kathy, was visiting. She is wonderful with kids. She met Sara 3 years ago when Sara was Laura’s age, barely starting to walk and using her tongue a lot. Kathy charmed Sara as much as Sara charmed back. Kathy has a sweet manner with kids.
Sara
Sara is interested in knots. When her sister isn’t around, she’ll pull out her strings and tie leashes for her animals. She found out “how to tie knots” book while we were organizing this weekend and she liked playing with it. She’s been learning the art of money. She’s now made 3 purchases with her “own” money. She has her wallet that she brings to the store. Today she bought a little Beanie Baby dog named Juneau with money her Grandma sent. She’s interested in letters. She recognized most of the letters in “Ballard Market” and wouldn’t let me go in the store till we’d gone over them all. She’s started eating spaghetti, the only pasta she will eat at the moment. And she’s budged a little in her food preferenced by eating the crust of pizza. This is my child who decided that waffles have crusts.
Laura
Last week, I had a parent conference for both girls. Unfortunately, it was the day Laura had bitten another child. So that was the main topic of conversation. Laura seems to be doing better with that. She continues to be very oral. She’ll sometimes eat her crayons. She likes to nurse, especially these days when she’s been teething. She discovered popsicles and soda this week. Her words are becoming more defined. She says baby, dog, more, milk, and out clearly to my ears. She’s decided sign language was only useful for Sara. She’ll use the sign for more and please occasionally (mostly because they use these at daycare). She’s become a bookworm. Her favorite book is “Moo, Baa, Lalala” of Sandra Boynton fame. She’s our outdoor girl. Sara is fascinated with TV and videos (especially since her Dad has been setting up our entertainment system). While Sara has actually turned down offers for walks to the park to be with Dad, Laura begs to go out at least 3 times a day. As soon as breakfast is over, she has shoes or jacket in hand. If a door gets opened and she’s not allowed out, that’s automatic cause for a tantrum.