Quite often on Fridays, when I get home from work, we head down to Pegasus Pizza at Alki Beach for dinner. The weather almost always permits at least a brief walk along the seawall. This last Friday was especially pleasant and we spent a long time at the beach.
Charlotte isn't starting to talk, yet, but she's thinking about it. Carol thinks Charlotte said "more" the other day, and maybe "ball." She says something that starts with "Aud..." when she see Audrey. But she has a pretty large vocabulary of words she understands. She can point to various animals by name in books, like cow, kitty, dog and bee. And if you tell her you're going to her bedroom she'll lead the way. She's been shaking her head "no" for a long time (kids somehow learn that very early), but lately she has nodded her head "yes" as well.
Lately Audrey likes to lay out some elaborate series of events that she would like to see happen and then finish with, "That sounds like a great plan, doesn't it?"
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Sunny Vacation
The month of serial sickness is in the distant past now. Just in time, too, since we had planned for months to spend the first week of March in Palm Desert, CA at John's parents' winter home. It was a wonderful break from chilly and rainy Seattle weather. It was in the 70s and 80s our entire visit.
We succeeded in getting Charlotte weaned enough (she still cheats a little) that Carol and I could take off for a couple of nights in Las Vegas. The most direct route is on lightly traveled two-lane roads through the middle of the Mojave Desert. This is the third time we've taken that route and we love the remoteness of it.
What did we do in Las Vegas? Go to bed by 10:30 and sleep in! We went to see Mama Mia (Carol liked it, John felt sorry for the cast). We ate. We played a little craps. We oggled the crowds. We lost $75, which we consider pretty cheap entertainment.
The girls had a great time in Palm Desert. They spent a lot of time barefoot in the grass, greeting every person and every dog who passed the patio. Audrey slept on a makeshift bed on the floor of Grandma and Grandpa's room. She would crawl in bed with Grandma for an hour at 4:00 each morning, then go back to her own "special Audrey bed." Charlotte had a great time playing in a small fountain on the patio.
The plane travel went fine. We won a portable DVD player in a raffle at my office holiday party, so we brought a few Disney movies to distract Audrey. Worked like a charm. Charlotte fell asleep before takeoff both directions and slept halfway through the flights.
What we miss most being back home is the built-in babysitters. Carol and I went to three movies while we were in California and out to dinner a couple of times.
We succeeded in getting Charlotte weaned enough (she still cheats a little) that Carol and I could take off for a couple of nights in Las Vegas. The most direct route is on lightly traveled two-lane roads through the middle of the Mojave Desert. This is the third time we've taken that route and we love the remoteness of it.
What did we do in Las Vegas? Go to bed by 10:30 and sleep in! We went to see Mama Mia (Carol liked it, John felt sorry for the cast). We ate. We played a little craps. We oggled the crowds. We lost $75, which we consider pretty cheap entertainment.
The girls had a great time in Palm Desert. They spent a lot of time barefoot in the grass, greeting every person and every dog who passed the patio. Audrey slept on a makeshift bed on the floor of Grandma and Grandpa's room. She would crawl in bed with Grandma for an hour at 4:00 each morning, then go back to her own "special Audrey bed." Charlotte had a great time playing in a small fountain on the patio.
The plane travel went fine. We won a portable DVD player in a raffle at my office holiday party, so we brought a few Disney movies to distract Audrey. Worked like a charm. Charlotte fell asleep before takeoff both directions and slept halfway through the flights.
What we miss most being back home is the built-in babysitters. Carol and I went to three movies while we were in California and out to dinner a couple of times.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
When It Rains...
Labels:
family
We have music playing almost 24/7 in our kitchen, from our iTunes library. One favorite song that comes up a lot in our rotation is "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall." The pertinent lines are:
That's definitely how we felt around here on Tuesday when Carol came down with a very painful sore throat. She went to the doctor yesterday (boy, we've been to the doctor a lot lately!) and you guessed it: strep throat! Sheesh! The doctor took one look and said she wouldn't even wait for the culture results. She started Carol on antibiotics immediately. A couple of hours later Carol got a call that the culture was positive.
I guess we're just getting this all out of the way before vacation, which is only nine days away.
Can we been finished now?
P.S. It's 6:45am and we haven't had to visit Charlotte since we put her to bed at 7:00pm. Yippee!
Into each life some rain must fall
But too much is falling in mine
That's definitely how we felt around here on Tuesday when Carol came down with a very painful sore throat. She went to the doctor yesterday (boy, we've been to the doctor a lot lately!) and you guessed it: strep throat! Sheesh! The doctor took one look and said she wouldn't even wait for the culture results. She started Carol on antibiotics immediately. A couple of hours later Carol got a call that the culture was positive.
I guess we're just getting this all out of the way before vacation, which is only nine days away.
Can we been finished now?
P.S. It's 6:45am and we haven't had to visit Charlotte since we put her to bed at 7:00pm. Yippee!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Cough Mystery Solved?
Labels:
family
Last night Audrey's cough kept her awake quite a bit. Carol was trying to buy some over the counter medicine for her today and didn't like the advice she was getting from the pharmacist. She called the doctor to clarify what she should do. The nurse asked some more questions and decided they should see Audrey again. Sure enough: double ear infection. They just saw her last week (and so did a nurse practitioner friend of ours at home on Saturday) and her ears looked OK, so it apparently was low level and decided to come into full bloom in the past few days.
She'll start a course of antibiotics today. Maybe we can finally be rid of her cough. She's a really good sport, but we can tell that the constant coughing is bothering her.
She'll start a course of antibiotics today. Maybe we can finally be rid of her cough. She's a really good sport, but we can tell that the constant coughing is bothering her.
Audrey Turns Three
Ooph, we've had a challenging couple of weeks. Skip this post if you're easily grossed out.
The winter child illness season just keeps hammering us. I've previously written about Audrey's persistent cough and then Charlotte's double ear infection. Right in the middle of Charlotte's course of antibiotics she started hurling. We assumed a drug reaction, but were told by the doctor that it didn't present right for that and must be a coincidental stomach bug (what we used to call "stomach flu", but which is really gastroenteritis - nothing to do with influenza). OK, so we made it through 24 hours of vomiting and then eruptions from the other end. Of course, two days later Audrey came down with it. Poor girl vomited the first time in the car stuck in traffic on the freeway. There was nothing Carol could do but let Audrey stew in it and get home - about 15 minutes. That was Wednesday afternoon.
Meantime, Carol and I both felt horrible and thought we were coming down with it, too. Wednesday night we both went to bed with body aches and assumed we'd be joining Audrey in being up all night sick. But fortunately we apparently had some immunity and we both just felt lousy for a couple of days but produced no unpleasant body fluids. Good thing, because Audrey was pretty sick for about 36 hours. I stayed home from work Thursday and we all laid around and watched TV and movies all day. Audrey, through this whole ordeal, has continually put herself to bed when she has felt tired. It's the cutest thing, and sad when it is because she feels sick.
Both girls hadn't kept much food down for days. Of course, as parents that made us really worried. Slowly they started getting better and Saturday morning they finally both woke up famished and ate a ton and kept it down. Neither of them are 100% yet, but they're definitely getting better. I hate to whine here, but that's been our life for the past two weeks.
Fortunately, that all hit after Audrey's birthday party. We had a joint birthday party with Audrey's friend Ian who is two weeks younger than Audrey. We held the party at the YMCA and invited about 10 other kids. We had an hour in the kids gym, which has tons of padded stuff to play on. Everybody had a blast. Then we moved into the party room, where the staff had set up decorations and had table places all set up for the kids with cupcakes and juice. The whole thing was very fun. The staff was wonderful and they do a great job.
Every February in Seattle we seem to have one or two days that are 70 degrees and gorgeous. Saturday was that day this year. We went down to Alki Beach and went for a walk. There were tons of families there enjoying the pleasant weather. After walking a while, Audrey wanted to play in the sand. She was still pretty low energy. She found a place near a big log and just sat in the sand for a long time and played quietly. We could tell she was enjoying being outside for the first time all week.
Yesterday Audrey wanted to go back to the beach. It was 25 degrees cooler, but it wasn't raining. She also said she wanted to walk to the beach, which is about a mile from our house down through a heavily wooded ravine (Schmitz Park). Usually we carry the girls in backpacks when we go that way, but yesterday Audrey walked all the way for the first time and loved it. We stopped at Whale Tail Playground for a few minutes, but it was too cold to play. So we went to the bakery for hot chocolate. Audrey was really enjoying her date alone with me (and so was I!). She even thought having her picture taken in the nice light in the bakery was fun. Then Carol and Charlotte picked us up in the car and we went to Tacoma for a little exploring and then to Aunt Tricia and Uncle Frank's house for a delicious salmon dinner with Aunt Beth and cousin Adam. It was a very fun day. Both girls fell asleep in the car at 5:00pm. We transferred them to bed and they both slept all night.
Less than two weeks to go until our trip to Palm Desert, CA and Carol and my escape to Las Vegas for two nights. We can't wait! Maybe some warmer, dryer weather will help Audrey's cough.
The winter child illness season just keeps hammering us. I've previously written about Audrey's persistent cough and then Charlotte's double ear infection. Right in the middle of Charlotte's course of antibiotics she started hurling. We assumed a drug reaction, but were told by the doctor that it didn't present right for that and must be a coincidental stomach bug (what we used to call "stomach flu", but which is really gastroenteritis - nothing to do with influenza). OK, so we made it through 24 hours of vomiting and then eruptions from the other end. Of course, two days later Audrey came down with it. Poor girl vomited the first time in the car stuck in traffic on the freeway. There was nothing Carol could do but let Audrey stew in it and get home - about 15 minutes. That was Wednesday afternoon.
Meantime, Carol and I both felt horrible and thought we were coming down with it, too. Wednesday night we both went to bed with body aches and assumed we'd be joining Audrey in being up all night sick. But fortunately we apparently had some immunity and we both just felt lousy for a couple of days but produced no unpleasant body fluids. Good thing, because Audrey was pretty sick for about 36 hours. I stayed home from work Thursday and we all laid around and watched TV and movies all day. Audrey, through this whole ordeal, has continually put herself to bed when she has felt tired. It's the cutest thing, and sad when it is because she feels sick.
Both girls hadn't kept much food down for days. Of course, as parents that made us really worried. Slowly they started getting better and Saturday morning they finally both woke up famished and ate a ton and kept it down. Neither of them are 100% yet, but they're definitely getting better. I hate to whine here, but that's been our life for the past two weeks.
Fortunately, that all hit after Audrey's birthday party. We had a joint birthday party with Audrey's friend Ian who is two weeks younger than Audrey. We held the party at the YMCA and invited about 10 other kids. We had an hour in the kids gym, which has tons of padded stuff to play on. Everybody had a blast. Then we moved into the party room, where the staff had set up decorations and had table places all set up for the kids with cupcakes and juice. The whole thing was very fun. The staff was wonderful and they do a great job.
Every February in Seattle we seem to have one or two days that are 70 degrees and gorgeous. Saturday was that day this year. We went down to Alki Beach and went for a walk. There were tons of families there enjoying the pleasant weather. After walking a while, Audrey wanted to play in the sand. She was still pretty low energy. She found a place near a big log and just sat in the sand for a long time and played quietly. We could tell she was enjoying being outside for the first time all week.
Yesterday Audrey wanted to go back to the beach. It was 25 degrees cooler, but it wasn't raining. She also said she wanted to walk to the beach, which is about a mile from our house down through a heavily wooded ravine (Schmitz Park). Usually we carry the girls in backpacks when we go that way, but yesterday Audrey walked all the way for the first time and loved it. We stopped at Whale Tail Playground for a few minutes, but it was too cold to play. So we went to the bakery for hot chocolate. Audrey was really enjoying her date alone with me (and so was I!). She even thought having her picture taken in the nice light in the bakery was fun. Then Carol and Charlotte picked us up in the car and we went to Tacoma for a little exploring and then to Aunt Tricia and Uncle Frank's house for a delicious salmon dinner with Aunt Beth and cousin Adam. It was a very fun day. Both girls fell asleep in the car at 5:00pm. We transferred them to bed and they both slept all night.
Less than two weeks to go until our trip to Palm Desert, CA and Carol and my escape to Las Vegas for two nights. We can't wait! Maybe some warmer, dryer weather will help Audrey's cough.
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