Insert Awesome Pool Pic Here (150/365)

It was a beautiful day today, and Alice and I were feeling better, so
she and I went down to the pool and left Matt and Izzy at home (Matt
is still sick). To say this kid had a blast would be an
understatement! We swam, played motorboat (the spinning in the pool
kind, perverts), channeled Scorpion from Mortal Combat and played "Come
here!" with a noodle (she'd grab one end and I'd quickly pull her
towards me), the list goes on. We were down there for two hours and
I'm sure she would have stayed to swim for two more if I had let her.

Needless to say I think it's going to be a great summer (so long as
the weather cooperates, unlike last year).

Izzy is Growing Up Too Fast (149/365)

Something she's been obsessed with for a while now is drawing with crayons. Maybe she's got a bit of Rice in her after all. Right after I took this pic she laid down all the way, put her feet up in the air, and started kicking them wile drawing. Too bad I missed it!

Turning the Corner? (148/365)

Man, I sure hope so. Here's the low down on how all if us are doing
today.

ALICE: She's definitely over it, THANK GOD! Her attitude is much
improved since the other day when she made me cry out of frustration.
I can tell she's finally thinking about what we talk to her about when
she does someting or is going to do something bad. She's no angel,
but damned if she isn't 50% more plesant to be around.

IZZY: I'm hopeful she'll be completely/almost completely over it
tomorrow. She drank a lot of fluids today, which she has been
refusing, and she's finally eating a bit too (though the big thing is
drinking. Doc didn't even care if she ate anything other than formula
and pedialite). The big plus - ONE poopy diaper today! Still tooting,
but just one poop. Woo hoo! Her rash is already 50% better since
she's not pooping all the time. Fingers crossed that tomorrow she's
golden!

MATT: Well, unfortunately he didn't escape it. But thankfully he
didn't have any pain while at work. Hopefully it won't stick with him
long, though if the girls are any indication, I'm betting that won't
be the case.

ME: Yep, still sick, though I am feeling better this evening. I had a
fever this morning and I still have an upset stomach, but somewhere
around 4PM I gained a burst of energy for some reason, and it really
felt good.

So once this has all past and we're feeling better, who wants to take
the girls off my hands for a day so I can get this wreck of a house in
order without having little munchkins at my feet? Anyone?

OH, I almost forgot. Izzy is finally starting to walk more! She's
been very stable on her feet for ages now, just not confident enough
(or just lazy) to walk more than 4-10 steps at a time. Well as of this
week she's walking acrosss the room! And when she can't figure out
how to stand when there is nothing to hold on to, she'll walk on her
knees. It's super cute.

Also, some of you may remember that when Alice was tiny (heck she
still does it about 50% of the time) she, for whatever reason, placed
her hand to her chest when she said please (which is actually very odd
because it's pretty close to how you actually say please in sign
language). We have no idea where she got it from, but I've decided to
try and teach it to Izzy, and she's picking it up! I can see why some
parents teach basic ASL to their not yet speaking children when she
clearly makes the gesture. It's so nice to actually know what she
means, AND it's cut down on the amount of pointing and whining (er,
screeching) for things, which is FABULOUS! I'm actually seriously
thinking about teaching a few signs to Izzy just for the heck of it.
Might be fun, you never know!

Now if ASL could stop my big girl from whining I'd be all over
teaching her too.

PICTURES:
Alice got to make her own lunch today. From picking out what she
wanted, to getting her plate, to pulling things out of (and putting
them back too) the fridge, to serving herself, she did it all. And man
did it make her day!

Izzy feeling better in her Cubs shirt from Mary and Andy. She peed
right through it at dinner time. I'm guessing that means she's a Sox
fan, though I can't be sure (and yay for full diapers. I never
thought I'd be so relieved that my kiddo is having full pee diapers.
Such a change from the rest of the week).

Still sick... (147/365)

We took Izzy to see Dr. Dan today. He says it is some sort of viral bug, and that Izzy seems to be getting better. We'll see how that pans out, the 5 poo-splosions she had today seem to disagree. Here is a picture of Izzy to tide you over...

I'll Just Keep this Short (146/365)

- Yes, I'm still sick.
- and so is Izzy.
- If she's as bad as she was today (really loose, extremely smelly
diapers) she's got to get to the doctor.
- Other than the awful attitude, Alice seems to be fine.
- and trust me when I say awful.
- The kid had me in tears twice today I was so frustrated.
- I hope tomorrow is better. I'm SO over it!

I Know You're Sick of Hearing About It (145/365)

Looks like we may be making a trip to Target this weekend - Alice has
been waking up dry since about Thursday of last week. Even when she
was sick she woke up dry, so we told her if she keeps it up we'll take
her to get some new panties and let her wear them to bed. My fingers
are crossed, I can't believe what a big girl she is!

Izzy is feeling better (see pic, she's up to her old tricks), but
still sick, unfortunately. She's a day or so behind Alice, so I'm
hoping she'll be loads better by tomorrow.

I'm still sick, hopefully I'll be feeling much better soon. This bug
is really kicking my butt.

Guess Who's Sick Now (144/365)

Thankfully it's not Matt. I woke up with the bug this morning and haven't felt the greatest since. Why am I still up, you ask? Well, I fell asleep on the couch for the third time in 24 hours and Matt woke me up to tell me that I needed to do my blog. I hope this is acceptable.

Alice appears to be on the mend, though she didn't have a BM today so I can't quite say she's better yet, though not having one is much better than what she was having so that's a good sign.

Izzy still seems to be not feeling the best. She wouldn't touch her milk, and refused to eat some of her favorite solids as well so she existed mostly on pedialite and rice cereal again today. She did have a good dinner and a few pancakes for lunch though so things are looking up, I hope. She's had quite a few nasty diapers though, so we'll see. Hopefully she'll be much better in the morning.

If we're feeling up to it, and the weather cooperates, I'm hoping to get them out into the wading pool tomorrow. Today would have been a great day for it had I not felt like crap.

Well I'm off to bed now. Hopefully I can get a good night's sleep and tomorrow will be a better day.

Can You Guess What We Did Today? (143/365)

If you said, entered a Blues Brothers look alike contest, you'd be
wrong. Nope, today we went to see the final instalment of the Shrek
series - in 3D. We had intended to go see How to Train Your Dragon,
but we won't get into why we missed that one as I'm still irrationally
upset about it. All that matters is we were able to take the little
munchkin out to see a movie like we promised her, and it actually
wasn't half bad. The big plus was I didn't get crazy eyes from the 3D
either like I normally do (Yes, I was wearing my glasses, Mike. Even
2D films on the big screen give me issues, for some reason). Alice
left her glasses on for about 1/3 of the movie, which really surprised
me. It was fun to watch her at the parts where it looked like things
were flying out if the screen at you. She really had a good time. Can
I just say that they really should make some kid sized glasses too?!
The glasses were almost too big for my enormous noggin, I had to
thread them through Alice's pigtails to get them to stay on her head,
for goodness sakes.

Both kids seem to be on the mend, though still having issues that
concern me. I plan on giving the doc a ring tomorrow if the symptoms
are still around tomorrow. I hope that they're not!

No Movies Today (142/365)

Maybe tomorrow. As of today, both babies are sick with a stomach bug.
Oh, and don't ask Tori about her dress.

How I Spent My Friday (141/365)

• Sitting in the bathroom with my big girl. Poor thing has a stomach bug.
• Laying on the couch watching movies with my big girl. Like I said, she's got a stomach bug and I didn't mind being lazy all day with her.
• Movies/shows we watched today: taped off of tv, circa 1987, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; taped off of tv, circa 1987, A Muppet Family Christmas; a collection of Mickey Mouse cartoons; The Fox and the Hound, twice (we fell asleep during it the first time and she wanted to watch it again when she woke up); and a few episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle. It was a very productive day. ;)
• Playing with my little girl. Both of them had a hard time staying away from one another.
• Enjoyed pancakes and popcorn thanks to my wonderful husband who made dinner.
• We're also enjoying the company of Auntie Tori who is here for the weekend. The girls are incredibly happy to see her!

If Alice is better tomorrow we have plans to do something fun, maybe even go see a movie. If not, we'll just hang out at home and hope that she's better on Sunday so we can do something fun (Tori will be here until after dinner on Sunday). My fingers are crossed that this is just a 24 hour bug, and that no one else gets it!

It's a Painting Party! (140/365)

The kids and I spent the day over at my mother and father in law's
house with Annie. Ma and Pa are on vacation, so Ann decided she was
going to repaint the dining room, hallway, and the kitchen while they
are gone.

She called me yesterday and expressed that she felt she had taken on
to big a task for the time she had, so I offered my help if she wanted
it. Obviously she took ne up on my offer.

We knocked out quite a bit of the work today, and surprisingly the
girls behaived WONDERFULLY and allowed us to paint in peace without
much interruption. I think we lucked out because Izzy seems to be
going through a growth spurt and she slept a solid 4 hours, like she
has every day this week.

The rooms look great and I can't wait to see how they look completely
finished!

May Picture Overload (139/365)

5.2.2010 - Kathy's Bridal Shower

Loved our waitress. She went and dug out Christmas
menus and crayons so the girls could color.

Alice adores her older cousin, Amanda.
She was her shadow all day.

Kathy in her crown.

Cath, Izzy, and Mary talking to Mrs. Q.

5.9.2010 - Mother's Day at Cathy and Bill's House

They played monkey in the middle all day.
I had to put post this pic because Matt's stance was so funny.

Alice pouting because she's not as good at the game as the other kids.

"Run, Daddy, RUN!!"

"HIKE!"

5.15.2010 - Trip to the Zoo

Izzy eating bologna for the first time - she devoured it!

An old man who worked at the zoo offered to take our picture for us.
Too bad he hardly filled the frame and he cut out the
bottom of the statue that says Brookfield Zoo.
Oh well, he's a retiree and we're lucky we were all in the shot.
And, according to Matt, that he didn't abscond with our camera. :)

Uh, oh! Watch our for James and John when there's a full moon!

Alice the Okapi.

James the Walrus.

5.15.2010 - Today

Pictures for Aunt Eva because this was one of
the outfits she gave Izzy for her birthday.

Who can resist this face?

Her curls are really starting to come out now.
I can't wait to see what they'll look like
this summer in the humidity.

A Taste of the Future? (138/365)

MATT trips over the cat and proceeds to spew expletives from his mouth.

MATT: Did you see that cat? He gets under my feet and then he proceeds to hiss at me...

BECKY: Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt...he's just an animal!

IZZY: Map, Map, Map, Map...

MATT: Really kid? Are you gonna start on me too?

IZZY: (shakes head yes)

insert hysterical laughter.

A Few Snapshots From My Day (137/365)

Alice has been obsessed with wanting an "Alice sized" baby carrier to
carry Teddy around in since I bought the new carrier for Izzy. She
even insisted on wearing it to the store when she went on a quick run
with Daddy. I have a feeling my purple scarf is going to get a lot of
use in the coming days!

Matt is still studying for the GRE (wish him luck, he's taking it
tomorrow!) and Izzy obsconded with Daddy's graphing calculator. She
would not put the thing down once she got ahold of it - not even to
crawl. She Army crawled all over the place with it still in her hands.
Yeah, I definitely have two geeks who take after their Daddy!

The Best and Worst Part of Yesterday (136/365)

BEST
All of the kids piled on the blow-up bed and watched The Lion King
while Matt made dinner. Who knew that such a silly thing like that
could make all five of them so rediculously happy?

It was such a good day I'm still blogging about it!

WORST
Oh and I wanted to go on record and say how much I didn't like the new
bear enclosure at Brookfield. I'm sure it would be awesome when the
zoo isn't crowded, but even with the normal traffic that there was
yesterday, my slight claustrophobia kicked in full force and it wasn't
pretty. People push and shove, race to get a spot when a bear is in
the water, push kids out of the way, don't think twice about coming
between you and the group of children who were obviously with you,
etc. There had to have been some fire code they were violating by
allowing that many people in an enclosed space like that.

Anyway. There were also some design flaws like very narrow walkways in
some spots and the fact that you have to walk through a SMALL giftshop
in order to get out of the bear area. Now I know why they do this, but
I don't like being forced to walk into a shop, let alone one that is
hard to navigate through with kids, a double stroller, and a wagon
(which many people use at the zoo) due to the fact that it is so small.

I'll certainly give it another chance because it does have the
potential to be an awesome experience, but it will have to be on a
very traffic light day.