A Fever...

Well, Bria ran a fever off and on Tuesday night, all day Wednesday, Thursday and again Friday.

She's been running around, playing and eating fine. Complained of a sore throat and a headache a little bit but it would come and go. I kept her home from preschool on Thursday.

We took her to the doctor's on Wednesday. Received the basic advice to watch her and see if it develops into anything, strep test was negative, ears were clear, chest was clear, no other symptoms.

Doctor's rule of thumb is: if it starts out w/fever... it's probably part of a virus and has to run its course. if it starts out as a cold or congestion, then develops a fever 4 or 5 days later then it's probably an infection and requires antibiotics.

I hate it when either of the kids is sick.

B.F.D. Night... ;-)

Thursdays have now officially been declared "Breakfast For Dinner" night at our house! :-)

One of our neighbors does this with her kids and they LOVE it! Makes for a quick and easy dinner one night a week.

We're also trying to make Thursday night our "Date Night" so the two work well together. {Even on nights like tonight when we're staying in...}

So far... so good! It gives Emelie a theme to work with, Bria loves it, and it's one less family dinner I have to plan.

CJ could care less. As long as he gets to eat and play, he's happy.

Happy St. Pat's Everybody! :-)

We had a good weekend. Laura and Sarah came over for a playdate and helped us celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Sarah and Bria decorated homemade cards in the shape of shamrocks.

Chris brought the little red car upstairs that Uncle Ken got for Bria when she was a year old. CJ LOVES it! That's all he wants to do is sit in it, spin it's wheels, climb on it, sit in it again. He doesn't even want to take time out to eat! He calls it (and all cars) the "Brroom Brroom."

Some of CJ's more noteable vocabulary these days:

• "Brroom Brroom" => car, truck, vehicle
• "Hiyah!" => the Nintendo Wii game, that's the noise Chris makes when he scores
• "Ouch" => This has become a game where he taps his head or pulls his hair. He does a good Bria impression of when she's getting her hair combed.
• "Night Night" => sometimes accompanied w/fake snoring, copying Chris again ;-)
• "Daddy"
• "Mommy"
  
  

Nothing else much new.

Hope you all had a Happy St. Patrick's Day! :-)

Mommy/Baby Exercise Class...

Well, I survived my second week of exercise with CJ!!!

A wiggly, squirmy, 22 lb bundle of energy is NOT an easy exercise prop!

Although I DO get a workout and break a sweat, I don't think chasing after my son was part of the intended choreography and he definitely doesn't consider it to be quality time w/Mommy (unless of course he can run around and explore and play with the other babies like he wants to do..)

The class seems to be geared towards babies who are about 13lbs and who are NOT mobile. Which means I would've had to join shortly after CJ was born!! haha (OK, maybe not quite... but you get the picture...)

The other mothers don't seem to mind and the teacher insists he is fine even if he does want to explore.

So I guess we'll continue to stick it out. I have discovered muscles that I'd long forgotten about... so maybe it is doing some good.

Passing of the Torch...

Emma flew home to Finland on Monday! We had a fun going away party with her though. Among other things, we broke open a chocolate champagne bottle and we all played the bowling games on the Wii. I lost count of how many STRIKES Emma got but she definitely has a new skill to show off back home! :-) That and the Peanutbutter Bar/Starbucks/Let's Dish combo franchise center she will open once she gets settled ;-) hehe

We took a big group photo at the party but I don't have a copy of it yet.

I'll post the group photo once I get a copy.

Emma, we want to keep in touch with you often!

So pop in once in a while. Say hello and let us know how you are doing!!

...BTW, the chocolate is just about gone now from the champagne bottle.

Emma handed off her au pair duties to Emelie from Sweden. The girls overlapped by a week so that helped with the transition. Emelie and the kids have settled into the routine well.

Welcome aboard Emelie! :o)

"Mommybrain"

This morning, I was commenting on how I remembered something... (I forget what it was now..)

And Bria chimed in "But you've got MOMMYBRAIN!" (which has been a running joke between us)

I found myself countering "Believe it or not, my brain worked pretty good before you kids came along!"

Truth is... more often than not I DO have "Mommybrain"!

• Like when I set my cup of coffee down, decaf of course, and turn around forgetting where I put it
• Or the other day when I couldn't find the On/Off switch to the computer terminal I was using! (that was embarassing!)
• Or when I left the diet coke in the bottom of the cart at Target and drove off without it
• Or when Emelie asked how to turn the treadmill on and I drew a complete blank (OK, maybe THAT was because I hadn't used the treadmill in years...)

But the list could go on.. and on...

You've seen that email joke where the woman walks from room to room attempting to clean and straighten but continually gets distracted by more projects and things that need to be cleaned and straightened until the day is gone and she's come full circle; no closer to being finished than when she'd started?

Well, I'm convinced they were following me around when they wrote that. Only I'm NOT old! I'm just sleep deprived; and overworked; and suffering from too much multi-tasking -- in a word: "Mommybrain"!

I was telling a friend at work about it and she said, "'Mommybrain', is that bad?" (she has no kids)

So I googled it. And guess what I found? It IS a real term, someone wrote a book about it and there is a website called "www.themommybrain.com"! Even better, it's not supposed to be so bad... motherhood is supposed to make you smarter or more creative or a better problem solver or something. (I guess I'll have to read the book )

Ha! Who knew?!