Quinn + Lila

This sums up how Lila has been feeling the past few days.

She has another double ear infection.  ANOTHER.  Even though she has tubes.  And the tubes are apparently open (and working, according to the doctor- I disagree with the “working” diagnosis, since this is her third or fourth ear infection this winter).  Unfortunately we are only at the beginning of ear infection season…

Anyway, Lila stayed home from school on Thursday and Friday so she and I had lots of quality time together.

We painted her toenails, but only one set because she decided she didn’t want the other foot painted.

We also had a photoshoot that Lila directed.  I had the camera out to take a picture of her feet and she held up Ernie.  I took the picture…

…and she brought Ernie over to check himself out in the photo.  Then she picked up a furniture protector strip that is shaped like an “L” and started calling it a chair.  She put it down on the ground…

…and had everyone in her entourage sit on it to get their picture taken.

And then she lined everyone up for a group picture.

While I was taking everyone’s picture, Lila instructed them all to “say cheese”.  Here she is demonstrating to Ernie.

Maybe she has a future as an art director?

She’s feeling better now,  although she now has added two new medicines to her daily routine.  Hopefully they’ll do the trick and she’ll be ear infection free for a while.

Even though this snow day happened on a weekend and wasn’t accompanied by the excitement of work being closed, it’s still nice to wake up in the morning to fresh snow.  Quinn was so excited about it that he ran to every window and door in the house to look out.  He was thrilled that there was snow outside each one!  I love getting dressed to go out in the snow- not the outerwear part, but the part where we find our warm clothes and layer them on.  Everyone looks so mismatched, with layers of socks and legwarmers and fleece over sweatshirts over tshirts.  Ryan thinks I put too much clothing on the kids; I just want them to be warm.  Turns out we are both right on this one- Lila had to come in early because she was yelling that she was cold, and when Quinn came in after over an hour outside his hair and back were all sweaty.

Lila did much better in the snow this time than during our last snow.  She stayed out for about half an hour.  She looks like Ralphie’s brother from The Christmas Story in her snow clothes and when she falls over she can’t get herself back up.  At one point I turned around to see her laying on her stomach in the snow, her head up but her arms and legs flailing because she couldn’t push herself up.

Quinn has some of Ryan’s New Hampshire cold tolerance in him and could stay out forever, throwing himself into the snow face first and making a thousand snow angels.

We played in the backyard for a while, so Fenway could run around with us and the kids could use the swingset.  They were going down the slide so fast, thanks to their snowpants fabric, that they each got air at the bottom of the slide.

After heading out front to do some shoveling, Lila decided she was done with the snow so I brought her in.  Ryan and Quinn stayed out and shoveled.  Lila and I parked ourselves at the window with some cheez-its.  I think it’s safe to say that I got the better deal!

watching brother

hard at work

cheez-its

There are some naps happening right now but I think afterwards we going to head to the neighborhood hill and do some sledding.  Rumor has it that it’s going to warm up and rain on Monday, so we have to get our snow time in while the snow is still here.

Ryan was in NYC for a conference from Tuesday afternoon until late Friday night.  To break that down in terms of my world, that was 4 bedtimes, 2 bath nights, 3 mornings of getting everyone ready and out the door by 7:15, 4 dinner times, and 3 nights of sleeping in the house by myself convinced that a serial killer was going to come get us all.  Needless to say, I’m thrilled that he is now home!  I know people do this all the time- both single parents and families where one spouse travels for work frequently- but man, is it tough!  Some things I learned during this time:

1.  There are far too many crime dramas on TV and I really should not watch them when I’m home alone.

2.  Given the option, Quinn will (and can) eat macaroni and cheese for three nights in a row.  Lila’s palate seems slightly more refined and she requested scrambled eggs to break it up.

3.  I can check every lock in the house and make sure my car is locked and the garage door is down a million times before going to bed, but the minute I get into bed I become certain that the entire house is unlocked with the garage door up and an illuminated sign that says, “Welcome serial killers” posted in our front yard.  It’s annoying.

4.  Even when one entire side of the bed is completely open, Quinn will still put his head right next to me on my pillow and leave me approximately four inches of sleeping room.  He said it’s cozy to sleep like that.  I disagree.

5.  Someone WILL get sick when we are down a caretaker.  And that sickness WILL involve some diaper explosions and multiple clothing changes for everyone involved.  Lila got another fever/ear infection/cold/stomach thingy on Thursday.  So that was fun.

6.  I am glad Ryan doesn’t travel often.

bed

head.

It’s Farm Show time here in Central PA, when everyone raves about their awesome trip to the PA Farm Show.  Except we went last year and did not have an awesome trip- we got lost inside the building for thirty minutes, the crowds were insane, and we didn’t even get to eat any of the famed Farm Show food.  I vowed never to go again.

Until Saturday morning, when I looked around at the kids and thought, “what the heck are we going to do today?”   And the Farm Show entered my mind for a brief second.  I passed by the thought in search of other activities, finding nothing.  When Ryan came down I asked him what he wanted to do and he shrugged his shoulders.  I told him that the Farm Show entered my mind for a brief second, he said “oh”.  A minute later he said, “So, you thought about the Farm Show?”  And thirty minutes later, with two kids and a backpack of supplies, we were in the car headed for the (in our minds) infamous Farm Show.

We had no plan, but the stars aligned for our trip- we went early and the crowds were small; we parked in a lot that did not require a shuttle bus; and we went with just us.  The latter is not my usual m.o.- I’m a “the more, the merrier” type of girl.  But in chaotic places with large crowds, I think fewer is better.

We saw rows and rows of sheep and goats and cows and pigs and poultry.

Giant butter sculpture?  Check.

We saw prize winning fruits and veggies and honey and bologna.  We rode a carousel that went too fast for the adults.

The kids played in a box of corn kernels.

And Lila had a staring contest with a goose.

We sat on tractors.

One of us sat on tractors with a milkshake in our hands.

And yes, we tried the food.  The fried food.  The potato donuts.  The milkshakes.  Lila enjoyed the milkshake so much that she wouldn’t let go of it.  She ended up drinking half of it, which later we learned was too much for her little belly.  But we won’t get into detail on that one…

And the verdict of our Farm Show experiment?  Not bad.  Not bad at all.  In fact, I might even say that I would go again next year.  Because the milkshakes really were THAT good.

Meet Baybay (which is how Lila says the word baby.)

She is Lila’s baby doll and Lila LOVES her.  She can’t get out of bed without baybay coming.  Sometimes baybay eats dinner with us and Lila feeds her.  Baybay has even started going on the potty.  And, of course, Lila must sleep with her.  They like to cuddle.

Baybay aside, check out Lila’s pajamas.

She loves these pajamas.  She calls them her “amamal” pajamas.  She has about seven other pairs of fleece footie pajamas exactly like this, just different fabric pattern.  But given the choice, she will choose these ever single time.  I think it is because they used to belong to this guy:

Please note that these pajamas are size 12 months and in this picture, Quinn is 12 months old.  Lila now wears them at almost 22 months.  Just a bit of a size difference!  I mentioned before that I love when Lila wears something that used to belong to Quinn.  But Lila loves it more.  Shoes, pajamas, jeans- anything that we tell her used to belong to Quinn becomes her new favorite item. Whenever she wears something that was Quinn’s, she walks around pointing to whatever she is wearing and shouts “brother!”  She’s so proud.

We had someone come to our house for insurance stuff last night.  I was trying to keep the kids downstairs so Ryan could talk to her without interruption.   But Quinn decided he needed to go say hi and escaped upstairs while I was changing Lila’s diaper.  I tried to get him to go back downstairs and he finally agreed.  But first he insisted he needed to tell her something.  I knew this wasn’t going anywhere good so I tried to stop him but he INSISTED he really needed to tell her something.  I relented and the conversation went like this:

Quinn: Um, excuse me.  Can I tell you something? (which, if you’ve ever talked to Quinn, you know is his catch phrase for how he starts almost every conversation.)

Insurance lady: Uh, sure.

Quinn: My dog Fenway sniffed your bum!

Insert awkward silence by all except Quinn as he happily runs downstairs, apparently feeling relieved to have that weighty issue off his shoulders.

We made cookies last night for Quinn to take to school.  Lila was pretty impatient with the whole baking process…

I felt the same way about the waiting.  Like mother, like daughter…except I had pants on!

In response to Quinn’s war on bedtime, we decided it was time to pull out the big guns.  In this case, a furry, 90 pound big gun.

I love how they are both looking at me like “really?  This is your solution?  Not buying it.”

Quinn’s biggest complaint about going to bed is that he doesn’t like being in his room by himself and he doesn’t have anyone to snuggle with.  Apparently, the various stuffed animals, toys, and blankets don’t count as “something to snuggle with”.

Good news is that we have solved that problem.  He is no longer by himself and he has a “someone” to snuggle with.

Fenway has been wonderful and sleeps on his dog bed in Quinn’s room the entire night.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case for Quinn- he still winds up in our bed sometime during the early morning hours.  Meaning that now Fenway is left alone and with no one to snuggle with.  If this scenario turns into Fenway also jumping in our bed at 4:00 am to snuggle, we will have a huge problem on our hands.  But for now, I’m just going to pretend that this solution works.  Because few things are as cute as a boy and his dog.

Lila’s shirt reads, “And though she be but little, she is fierce.”

Ain’t that the truth!  Don’t let those big blue eyes fool you, this girl one to be watched.