Ridiculous!

Our big plan this week, for mid-winter break, was to go to the zoo today (Thursday). I especially knew it was a good idea after Victoria's 7 day fever and the three days following of no school, due to the break. She was definitely cooped up, bored, and downright crabby! She was also confused. She prayed on Monday that she could get better so she could go to school. I told her that she was better, but that it was mid-winter break, so no one was at school.

She hasn't been herself since she's been over her fever. She's been very quiet, for the most part (a very odd thing!), sitting down a lot, and wanting to be by herself. Needless to say, I was very excited to get her out for a full day at the zoo. Well, this morning she threw up twice, so no zoo. The sicknesses of 2011 are getting ridiculous!! I remember thinking right before Christmas how great it was that none of the kids got sick during the fall, not even a cold, which they usually do. Then Christmas came and besides a week or two here and there, someone has been sick since!

To keep my sanity, and because I'm getting tired of looking at the same things in my house, I've done a few small projects.

I got this picture I took of the kids at the botanical gardens last summer made into a canvas portrait from Costco. (They had a $10 off coupon and I think it's still good for three more days if anyone wants to do one.)

I took our old wooden dollhouse that was falling apart and made a sign. I'm sure it could have been done better if I had all the nice gadgets used for such a thing, but I didn't want to buy too much. I just painted the borders of the board, stuck on some nice paper, printed off my favorite quote and stuck it on, and used some Mod Podge for a finishing touch. Since there were the nice little holes in each corner, I thought some ribbon would look cute.
Here's a straight shot, though I couldn't get the glare out.
I also just recovered some little pillows that I didn't like anymore to match the curtains on the slider door on the other side of the room.
My next project: paint the living room celing, then the walls. I'm very excited!

Stuffed Animals

Since she was interested in playing with toys, Victoria has always been drawn to animals. Mostly, at first, it was the little plastic animals that come with the Little People set. The past few years it has been stuffed animals. This past year, though, it has become an obsession. They are pretty much the only thing she plays with, which is good, since we have a trillion of them. They all have names and many have jewelry or bows she adorns them with. They are all set up within families- husband, wife, and kids. For a while, each day she would arrange them, then rearrange them on her bed, according to families. Recently, she started bringing them downstairs and setting them up for meals and then on the couch or chairs. It was one thing, having to deal with them being on her bed. Making a top-bunk bed isn't the easiest, especially when it's completely covered with stuffed animals! It's another thing to have them all set up on the table or on the couch or family room chair. Last week, I cleared a shelf of books so she could set them up there. That seemed to go over well. Unfortunately, they don't all fit there, but it's a start.

Here's the new set-up. Here's more of them, set up on my family room chair.

Here's a picture she took of her big unicorn on her bed, which has stayed there, luckily, as well as the dog that is the same size.

When we got our camera back, she was so excited, she took some pictures of some of her "guys" with their loved ones.

The very next day, she came down with "the fever" sickness, as everyone around here is calling it. Tons of kids have been out of school because of it, and she just missed church, four days of school, and will miss tomorrow as well. She happens to have an ear infection with hers, but for most of the kids, it was just a fever. With temperatures up to 104.5 degrees, most of the time this week, it has been quite the sickness. The problem is, I give her some fever reducer medicine, then she feels great for 6 hours and I've 3 cooped up kids all day! She still has a fever of about 100. I don't know when it will break. Most kids went for about a week with this thing. Next week is mid-winter break, so we get to have another week off of school. I just hope Karissa and Austin don't get it so we have to stay in for another fun-filled week!

PB and J part 2

This just in: my kids, all three of them, ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches! Too bad my camera is still in the shop, I couldn't take pictures to capture the moment. They had some friends over who brought their lunch, which was PB & H. I felt bad making my kids a hot lunch, like they usually have, so I asked if they wanted to have heart-shaped PB & H. They agreed and actually ate it! Victoria exclaimed, "MMMMM!" Her friend stared at her like she was crazy. I told him that she had never eaten a peanut butter sandwich, except for a quarter of one when she was 20 months. Austin even ate the parts of the sandwich that were not included in the heart. What a great milestone for them!

It's too bad we won't have the camera for tonight either, when I take Victoria and Karissa to see the play Alice in Wonderland with the girl scouts, or the other night when Austin helped his sisters make Valentine sugar cookies, which he did very well. Or even for Valentine's Day, one of my favorite holidays. Oh well. I think it's being fixed under a warranty, even though it's 6 years old, because of some recall it falls under. Have a happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Groundhog Day

I'm sure the groundhog in Michigan couldn't even find it's way out of the ground with the 8 or so inches of snow we received yesterday. Too bad I couldn't take any pictures since our camera is off being repaired for some quirk it has.

Yesterday, Austin hit his 20 month mark. It's hard to believe that just a year ago he was still nursing and not even crawling yet! He seems older to me than his sisters did at this age, mostly because he likes to do whatever they do and they weren't exposed to some of the things he is now. For one thing, he loves hot chocolate. They just started drinking it a year ago, but he's not even 2 yet and he really enjoys it. He also loves all kinds of soups and can feed himself all of them, which they had a harder time with it sliding off the spoon before they could even get it to their mouths.

My favorites of all the words Austin repeats are "surprise!" (uprise) and "peek-a-boo!" (pee-boo). He will join Karissa, who he calls Deega, and hide from me and then jump out and say, "Uprise!" The way he says cookie is pretty cute too, especially when he goes over to where the cookie jar is, but I don't mind giving him a cookie when he asks (when we have some) since he eats his meals so well!

He enjoys playing Duck, Duck, Goose with us and is sad when he is left behind from all the fast runners (we play our own version where everyone runs in a circle with the chaser and the goose). He is still very helpful and always wants to help me make bread, other baked goods, do laundry, and put things away. He is very good at following directions. Yesterday, we had a friend over for our snow day and I asked all the kids whoever wanted a fruit smoothie to raise their hand. Austin was the very first one. His hand shot right up. The funny thing is, I haven't asked them to raise their hands in a while, so I was surprised he knew what I was talking about.

Some time when my camera is back, I'll have to video tape him dancing to High School Musical's 16 Minutes and Will Smith's Getting Jiggy With It. He enjoys dancing to those songs and singing with Will Smith. He also likes the song John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt and calls it "John Jacob".

He's such a cutie!

What a Relief!

Our visit to the neurologist today was very enlightening. I not only learned about Karissa's seizure episode, but of my own as well. After repeating the story of Karissa's recent seizure to the doctor, I gave him my background. Well, it turns out, after about 28 years, I discover that I did not have epilepsy as a child. I was misdiagnosed, as was probably more common back then, in the dark ages, when research and studies were still being conducted and they didn't know as much as they do now. The doctor today said that they now know that there are no epileptic seizures that are caused by trauma (all of mine were). What I had, and what Karissa has, is a genetic predisposition to have seizures, or convulsions, as a result of trauma in combination with either breath holding, which she probably did, or passing out. He said that she could have a few more over the next few years, but would probably grow out of it after that, as I did. Her EEG was perfectly normal and there is no real harm done by the seizures. It sounds like the greatest "harm" done was from the phenobarbital that I took as a child for my seizures. He said there is no need for any medication, but that I didn't look too affected by it (he doesn't know me that well!:)

I feel much lighter now, not having to worry about Karissa anymore, and not having to put on all my medical forms that I had epilepsy. In some of my own recent studies of it, I found it is a brain disorder, which doesn't sound good to me. So, maybe Karissa's seizure wasn't so bad after all. I was able to uncover a part of me that I didn't know! Thanks for all the inquiries about Karissa!

COLD!

We're living the usual Michigan January. We've had a nice covering of snow for a while and some good, solid, cold weather. Right now, it's 16 with a wind chill of -4. We took advantage of the holiday on Monday and the sunshine (not too many of those days around here) and went sledding. It was Karissa's first real time going and Austin's as well, though he only went once while on my lap. Even though it was pretty windy and cold at the top of the hill, we all had a great time.

Karissa preferred sliding on her bum the first few rounds. Victoria enjoyed every second of it.

Here's Austin's first and last time going. He did have fun, so I'm not sure why he didn't want to go again. I think he was just frozen to my hip.

Karissa ended up letting Jason pull her down, but she also rode down with him in the yellow one, which is faster.
Austin and Karissa enjoy watching the fire, luckily we have two screens to separate them from it!

A Princess Party

Karissa has been talking about her princess birthday party since Victoria had her party in October. We had a typical party for our family. We started out with dancing and games with music (musical chairs, hot potato, freeze dance). Then we made a craft. The girls got to glue and decorate these little castles. (These were also the pattern for the invitations.) This was Karissa's.They played with some dress-ups and jewelery in the basement. Karissa is the second youngest, the girl in the Belle costume is the youngest, but you can see that Karissa is taking after her mom's height pattern at this age, being shortest by a long shot.
We had some castle cake and ice cream. Unlike the last time I made a castle cake, I decided to go for the recipe that only called for one cake mix. The castle doesn't look quite as grand, but it held up better and we don't have quite as many left-overs.

Luckily, Karissa's favorite colors are red and pink, since that's what is all around with Valentine's Day coming up.
Karissa enjoyed opening her presents and having a party of her own. It was a great party!