Warmer Weather

Spring doesn't arrive until next month, but we've had some nice weather lately. To clarify, that's over 50 degrees, in case our New York readers are thinking "Wow - it's been over 30!" or our Texas readers are thinking "Wow - it's been over 80!" "Warmer" is a relative term.

We've been venturing outside more and rediscovering our "outside" toys. Yesterday, the girls rode their crocodile. Last summer, they couldn't ride together without help because Emma was too light and Hannah didn't know how to compensate for that. Yesterday, Emma almost went flying head first over the handlebars twice, then they seemed to figure it out.




Last week, Ryan and the girls drew with sidewalk chalk. He traced both girls then they colored themselves in. Their drawings survived a morning's drizzle, so we took some pictures.

Here's Emma:


And Hannah:


Last week, Hannah had mid-winter break and Ryan's sister Kristin and her daughter Grace were visiting from Texas, so we did some fun things. I'll get those pictures and stories on here soon.

Do you know these girls?

We spent last week nursing sick Emma back to health. Be glad I didn't take any pictures. It wasn't pretty. Neither of my kids have ever been that sick before. Emma didn't talk for about three days. She laid on the couch or in her bed and that was it. She even asked me if I could turn off Sesame Street so she could go take a nap. Now THAT'S sick.

I did learn a few things about kids and barf though. I share them with you here in hopes that you won't have to learn the hard way, as I did.

1. Layers: towels, blankets, sheets, pillowcases, etc. After changing Emma's bed 3 times between the hours of 2 and 5 AM, I learned this lesson. Sheet, towel, sheet, towel. Lots of pillowcases layered one on top of the other. Then, when the barf comes again (and it will, oh yes, it will), you just strip off the polluted layers. Now the lower layers are on top and you don't have to go find clean sheets and remake the bed. Trust me on this one. Also helpful in the car. Enough said.
2. Pedialyte tastes horrible. (Our pediatrician even admitted this.) After one sip Emma wouldn't get near the stuff and asked for water instead. This is a child who can down a juice box in about 10 seconds. She LOVES juice, but Pedialyte? No way. Dilute Gatorade to half strength. If they can't tolerate it, give 1 teaspoon every five minutes until it starts staying down. Tedious, but it worked for us when even water was coming back up.
3. BRAT diet: Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast. I'll add Saltine Crackers to that list(BRATS?). We tried the toast and crackers without much success, but on day 4, she liked the applesauce and ate a few bites of that.
4. A 3 year old can hold her own barf bowl in her lap in the car. Yup, and throw up into it too. Unfortunately, sleeping snuggled up next to the same bowl didn't mean she got the throw up into the bowl in the middle of the night.

Many of you may already know all of these tricks. At our house throw up NEVER happens, so we had a lot of learning to do.

So, instead of sickness shots, I attached two pictures from the past. Hannah and Emma found these glasses somewhere at my Mom's house on New Year's Eve. They liked them because one of their favorite book characters, Lily from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, wears them. Until next time....