Birthdays and Good-byes (157/365)

Tori was here this weekend and apparantly Izzy had lots of fun with
her because she didn't want her Auntie to go. She started saying bye-
bye to me and she cried when Tori passed her over to me. BTW, Tori,
that wrapping paper ended up in the trash. You would not believe the
amount of glitter that I have to clean up tomorrow!

Amanda turned seven today. Seven, I can't believe it! That kid is
growing up so fast. Her party was great, especially the cake, and
Alice and Izzy had such a blast! I have a feeling the girls are going
to sleep well tonight!

Something for Grandpa and Something for My Aunties (156/365)

Iz can finally fit into her outfit from Aunt Rosie and Aunt Ginny.
It's 6-9 month, but fits her perfectly and just screams summertime.
Thanks, Aunties!

This first pic was also Izzy being super cute, putting her purse on,
and going bye bye. Man I have cute kids. :)

And the second one is clearly for Grandpa Charlie who bought these
adorable jammies for Iz for her bday. I have to say, the first time
she wore them I told Alice what it said and she got all offended and
said, "But why does it say that? She's not Gwampa's gurl, I am!" It
was pretty damn cute.

Dress Up Fun (155/365)

Auntie Tori is coming for a visit, so the girls got all prettied up for her! Thanks Aunt Jessica for the jewelry!

She Still Won't Go On the Slide Though (154/365)

Well night two went well! Alice, and her bed, stayed dry all night.
Now if I could just get Izzy to stay asleep when Alice gets up at 6am
to pee. It's really been hard on her sleep wise as she has been in
need of a nap as soon as she wakes.

Today we went exploring and wound up at the new playground on the
other side of the pond. It's much nicer than the park we typically go
to, and both girls throughly enjoyed themselves. I think we're going
to make this our go-to park from now on.

Look at my leggy Izzy! She loved the swing, but she loved it even
more when Matt pushed the empty swing while holding her for some
reason. Crazy girl.

Night Two (153/365)

Of operation Alice wears panties (Sorry, underwear. Happy, Ann?) to bed is underway . Night one didn't go so well as she came out of her room right as Matt and I were heading to bed saying that she had peed a little (thank goodness for The Ultimate Crib Sheet that we used for Izzy as it makes a great sheet saver for Alice). Tonight she's made three trips to the bathroom since she went to bed (the last one woke her sister up, poor thing was inconsolable for a while) so hopefully tonight will be a better night. She's still waking up dry when she wears a pull-up and she's been staying dry while wearing panties for naps, so I'm hopeful that she'll be night trained very soon! I still can't believe that she's at this stage already. Three and a half years has really flown by in an instant.

Fun in the Sun (152/365)

Thank Goodness For My Carrier (151/365)

Izzy was not happy unless she was in my arms, and that doesn't make
cooking dinner very easy. After I did all of my cutting, I popped her
in my carrier and she was a happy camper. So happy that she nearly
fell asleep! Also, notice the spoon. She really wanted to help.

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!