Maddie and Blakie Boy have been sick since last Saturday. Guy and I have taken turns feeling good then bad then good then bad. We thought everyone would be better by today, but Madison is fighting a fever, I have a sore throat & light cough, and Guy has some strange allergy looking eyes & migraine. Blake is still coughing, but it is the barkie asthma like cough. We’ve started giving him some breathing treatments at night to help with his restricted breathing since being sick. The only thing we have to watch is doing it enough in advance of bed that the hyper time after the treatment wears off. That stuff makes him a crazy man for at least 45 minutes. Madison is just like me when she is sick. The girl has a big old appetite! I guess our bodies go into overdrive and need the extra calories to fight the sickness. When I get like that I never gain weight though I eat a lot more then normal.
I’ve been working on being a better planner when it comes to menus {what is that?} and cooking. I made chocolate chip cookies for the first time in my life. I used the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook breast cancer edition’s recipe. The dough looked so cracked and dry to me, but the cookies came out well. By staying on top of the cooking time and decreasing it slightly with additional batches they all came out done just right. Guy was so nice as to say they were the best ones he’s ever had and bragged about me on Facebook. A friend who tried one also said they were yummy. The kids liked them, but are a little like me and don’t crave them or want them often. I thought they would go bad before they were all eaten, but Guy took a couple to work with him for lunch each day making them gone in about a week.
I love to watch how the kids sit together to watch TV. They had a babysitter a few weeks ago who got a huge kick out of them sitting like this on either side of her with their pillows on their laps. Blake would lean over to Alyssa and kiss her arm every few seconds. She asked him if he was kissing her, he shyly tucked his chin and grinned up at her. The next day Madison teased him by saying he ‘liked’ Alyssa. It surprises me the stuff they come up with that I wouldn’t have thought they would figure out at age two.
I was taking some images at the end of the day for my 365 project. The kids took turns standing in front of a door close to a wall that I could bounce some light off of with my flash for more interesting lighting. I love that they don’t pose and say cheese very often instead act naturally in front of the camera. They don’t mind doing it most of the time. Here are some of my favorites.
When I was showing the kids the images the other day we got to one just before this one that looked pretty much like all the others just standing in front of the door. Blake says to me, “I’ll have my milk in it next.” Sure enough, there was his milk sippy in the next image. His memory amazes me.
We were talking on the way home from the movies yesterday. Our kids are constantly pointing things out while we are driving. It’s a lot of fun to have the running dialogue with them. We also point out many things to them as we are driving. It gets us talking to each other and teaches them to recognize the world around them. They have definite opinions on which way we should turn onto the main street {Cornwallis} whenever we leave the house.
Madison is showing off my Nikon lens cap here.
I love this image so much.
And this one.
She is sharing her glasses with the baby.
Madison is sitting on my lap helping me type her name and she started talking about how much she loves her sunglasses when she saw this image. So cute. We also have been talking about how long it has been since we went to see family in Utah. Since the kids turned two the price of round trip tickets jumped from being able to get them for $500-$700 to $1400-$2100. We just haven’t been able to save up that much to make the trip. Since Guy worked so much off duty time recently we are thinking we finally have enough to make a trip.
This morning we were playing with all the puzzles. Guy sang Old McDonald with the kids holding up various farm puzzle pieces. When we were playing with the transportation puzzle Blake was asking to go on a cruise ship when picking up the ship piece, going in a taxi around “Your Ami” {they think Miami is Guys “My Ami} and the driver takes money, grandpa’s school bus {he drives one}, and all of us flying on an airplane together. Guy and I started talking about going to Utah again since it had been so long. He asked them if they wanted to go visit anyone. Madison yelled, “I want to see Grammy. I LOVE Grammy!”
We scored an awesome girls bike someone wanted to donate since it wasn’t in good enough shape to sell. Since the bike we got for Blake is still too big Guy took the training wheels off it to put on her bike. She loves it. I think she’ll learn how to use it pretty quickly when we can get over this sickness getting back outside.
Blake still doesn’t really get actually riding the tricycle. But I really haven’t gotten outside much to work with them. They both get frustrated very easily when it doesn’t go their way screaming instantly. It takes a lot of patience and calming them down to get them to work it out. Our driveway is also sloped so they have to work extra hard to try and peddle uphill.
The movie yesterday was a funny experience! We decided to go to an earlier one when they woke up early from their nap. The last couple movies we’ve had an issue with them running around. Both times it was an almost empty theater and we sat in the front row of the upper section. I think all the space in front of them was just too tempting for them. This time we went up a few more rows. We also had a talk about staying in your seat {they have these cool plastic Velcro boosters for the kids}. The movie we decided on was Secretariat which neither Guy or I were excited to see. Because of our recent experience at the state fair {more about that later with images} it was a great time to see a horse movie. We all love it and it captured the kids attention though most of it. Right when the movie got quite we hear this massive echoing fart. I immediately start giggling and see Guy is too. Blake calls out, “Who Farted?” Madison just continues eating her popcorn with a big grin on her face. That plastic seat caused her fart to echo! In another quiet part of the movie Blake all of a sudden bursts out singing Ba Ba Black Sheep. We quickly shooshed him! This was all in addition to going to the potty twice during the movie. At the end of the movie our very loud Blake starts yelling at the people around us, “It’s over people! Move out! It’s over, get out! Time to go!” We were so embarrassed. Then we were coming down the steps when a man {thankfully with young kids} had to go back up to his seat. I mentioned we needed to move over so he could come up and Blake loudly tells him Sorry. It gets even more embarrassing and funny. The kids love to visit the two race car video games on the way out. Blake asks Guy if he can go to the cars game as we were exiting to which he told Blake yes. We got out into the main hallway behind others leaving the theater. Blake starts saying there are people in his way. I told him they were not in his way and he needed to walk instead of run to the game. A nice lady stopped to tell us how adorable they are and to just enjoy them and how she does that with her 12 grandkids. The family with the young kids also expressed how cute they were. Lucky us they were the ones sitting closest to us in the theater.
I worry that because they are big and appear much older {3-4} then they actually are that people will not be as tolerant of their behavior which does match their actual age of 2 1/2 much of the time.