Surviving on popsicles

Well, I survived the tonsillectomy. It really hasn't been too bad so far. The pain medicine really works - too bad it keeps me up all night. Plus, I've always had a fairly high tolerance for pain, which comes in handy. Elizabeth has also learned a new word: POPSICLE! She's really good at sucking all the "juice" out, then leaving the ice for me to eat.



She's been very sweet. She keeps kissing my throat to make it "all better."

Here's a picture of her accessories from this morning:



She's our little fashion queen!

Countdown to ice cream

I'm getting my tonsils out this afternoon. Ick! Hopefully, it will get rid of the horrible sore throats I've been having once and for all. The recovery is supposed to be pretty rough for adults. I can't eat any solid food or exercise at all (including lift Elizabeth) for 2 weeks, and I'm not allowed to go to work next week. Because of that, I've been working like crazy these last 2 weeks so I'll have enough to keep me busy while working at home this next week (there is no such thing as "time off" with my job!). After that, I'll have one more week of "light" duty (i.e., no roofs, attics, or crawlspaces) before things hopefully return to normal. Of course, there's always a bright side - lots and lots of ice cream!

Wish me luck!

Kissing cousins week

Elizabeth and Brooke have really enjoyed playing together this week (for the most part). Sure, we've had our share of righteous indignation (read: screaming) when each of them thought they deserved to have the other one's current toy (which was usually a baby doll). But, we've also been able to watch them really start to interact with each other. They even played a few games together, including "hiding" and sneaking up the stairs to Gran's room. It's really been fun to watch!

Here are some highlights from the week for you.

They read lots of books:







They went to see the ducks near Gran's house - and even got to see baby ducks! And, they got to see Halo, the dog from next door:



They spent a lot of time drawing and coloring:



And, Brooke really enjoyed watching Uncle David, Jonathan, and Granddad play pool:





For a while, they both enjoyed wearing parts of the beads that were tangled up and walking around together, chanting, "Walk, walk, walk!"



However, Elizabeth tired of that game before Brooke. So, after that, Brooke enjoyed chasing Elizabeth around and trying to lasso her with the beads!



Does anyone know where Brooke and Elizabeth are hiding?



Oh! There they are!!!



What are those silly girls up to?





Looks like LouLou and Zoe wanted to "hang around" together too!


On Thursday morning, we all went to the Children's Museum, and the girls had a great time there:













They ended the week by playing in the bathtub together:



It was really a fun week. Elizabeth can't wait to see Brooke again in June for Aunt Amy's wedding!

Cousin Brooke has landed

Uncle Brad, Aunt Erin and Cousin Brooke drove in yesterday. We got to visit with them last night, then Brad flew out for work this morning and Erin and Brooke are hanging around Lexington all week. Yeah!

Brooke and Elizabeth are getting along very well. Being a few months older really seems to have made a big difference in their abilities to share and play together.

We've also noticed that peer pressure has set in, as they both want to do things like each other. We're trying to capitalize on that by emphasizing their positive behaviors (especially when they involve sharing).

Stay tuned - of course we will update you with cute pics - assuming we can get either of them to stay still long enough to take them!

This is what happens...

...when you get markers in your Easter basket, then Daddy has to leave the room for a minute. Guess who was trying to "smell" the black marker?

Visiting Aunt Amy in Arkansas

We had a good trip to Arkansas last week to visit Aunt Amy. Gran, Elizabeth, and I flew down on Tuesday. David stayed home to try to finish painting the house. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and it ended up too cold and snowy to paint. But, he did get a lot of other projects done and enjoyed some free time wih no parenting responsibilities.

Flying with a toddler was exhausting, and we later figured out that from door to door, it took about the same amount of time as driving. Go figure! But, once we got there, we had a lot of fun. Aunt Amy greeted Elizabeth with presents - a ducky hat and candy bracelets, among other things, which she immediately started to enjoy.





Elizabeth spent most of the week bossing Abbey and Pepper around. She really liked having a nice kitty to play with:




and offer her toys to:




and kiss:



Oh yeah - and she really enjoyed playing with Aunt Amy too:



Elizabeth really liked playing on Aunt Amy's bed with all the pillows:





Can you find Elizabeth?


Fortunately, Elizabeth slept a lot better at night than she has on previous trips. We think the main reason for the improved sleep was that she got to sleep in a real crib, which was more like home. Of course, she didn't take a single nap, other than the ones she took in the car driving to and from Little Rock. In fact, here's a picture of her during "naptime".



Notice that Gran's the only one taking a nap in that picture!

On Friday, we went to the children's museum in Little Rock, then had a nice lunch with Uncle Neal (Amy's fiance) and his parents. We're happy that they will all be a part of our family soon!



We also got to spend a lot of time with Jack, Neal's son. He's in the 4th grade - the same age Jonathan was when David and I got married. Jack went along with us for the highlight of the trip - visiting horses, including a BABY horse. That was a real treat!











As you can see, the baby horse thought Jack's jacket was good to eat!

Elizabeth and I flew back alone on Saturday, and she did very well on the trip. But, did I mention how exhausting it is to fly with a toddler? I sure was glad to see David when we got back to Lexington!

Happy Easter!

Yes, I know we still owe you lots of pictures from our visit with Aunt Amy, but I've decided to put up the Easter pics first, to stick with the appropriate greeting for the day.

Elizabeth looked absolutely beautiful in her Easter dress this morning. The weather, however, was not. It was in the 30s when we went to church this morning, and there was even some snow left on the ground. So, everyone got to wear sweaters and jackets over their pretty Easter dresses!

Here's a picture of Elizabeth in her Easter dress.



She wouldn't stand still to let us take a picture, but I managed to get one while she was rolling on the floor. Does that count?



She'll hopefully be wearing it again at Aunt Amy's wedding in June (as long as it still fits!) so some of you will be able to see it in person then.

Since she didn't know the difference, and since we had to be at church very early to sing in the choir, she didn't get her Easter basket until this afternoon.



She had a lot of fun playing with all of her new toys before her nap.



But, I do think she had her holidays a little confused. As you can see from this video, we got a visit from the Easter ghost this afternoon:

Big girl panties

We're having lots of fun with Aunt Amy in Arkansas, but she just reminded me I forgot to post the pictures from Elizabeth's recent experiment in big girl panties. A few weeks ago, we bought Elizabeth some Dora panties...not just any Dora panties, but YELLOW Dora panties. That made them very special indeed. So, one Saturday morning, we let her hang out in them for a while. As you can see, she was quite proud:



She was particularly ecstatic when we let her wear her favorite black socks with them:



And, she managed to accessorize the outfit quite nicely with her fancy black velvet handbag:



The girl's got style!

She did very well in her panties - she managed to keep them dry for most of the morning while she was at home. But, she seemed to get confused when we put pants on over them, because that's when poor Dora got wet. Guess we still need some more practice!

Illnesses and Easter eggs

Elizabeth, Gran and I are about to head to Arkansas to visit Aunt Amy for the week. David's going to stay home to get a much-needed kids-free week to allow him to try to catch up on some of his projects around the house. Anyone who is familiar with Murphy's toddler traveling law would not be surprised to learn Elizabeth woke up from her nap yesterday with a mysterious 102 degree fever, which continued through this morning. Since we're leaving tomorrow, we decided to go ahead and take her to the doctor to make sure she wasn't going to get any worse. After an hour and a half at the doctor's office, we were happy to learn it was just a virus and we just needed to keep giving her Ibuprofen. At least we know her ear tubes are still working! And, fortunately, she seemed to be feeling a lot better tonight, so we're still planning to go on our trip.

I, on the other hand, did not fare so well. My mysterious lingering, very painful sore throat, which has now been occurring off and on for a year and a half, came back with a vengeance on Saturday night. In desperation, I went to the Urgent Treatment Center on Sunday morning, and ended up getting a wonderful doctor, who managed to get me into an ENT specialist this afternoon. The most probable diagnosis is that I will need to get my tonsils out. I find out for sure when I go to my appointment with the surgeon on Monday. Ick.... She told me the minimum recovery time was a week, which would be *extremely* difficult with my job. But, at this point, if it will get rid of this pain, I'm up for about anything.

Because we're going to be gone until Easter Eve, we decided to go ahead and dye Easter eggs with Elizabeth this weekend. Of course, we made the mistake of telling Elizabeth we were going to "color" the eggs, so she gamely went ahead and pulled out all her crayons for us to use!

The colors didn't come out very well, but Elizabeth didn't seem to mind.



She really loved putting on the stickers that came with the dye kit.



And, even though she wasn't feeling very well, we even convinced her to go on a quick Easter egg hunt in the living room.



Notice her new pink Dora crocs - she's very proud of them! I'm afraid she won't be wearing anything else this summer!





Happy Easter, everyone!