Cabin Fever

Snow almost every day in December, really cold temperatures, two snow days at work, and now Grace is sick so we are home again...we are all getting tired of being in the house. Even Chris Popinkins is trying to get out! Good thing we are going to Florida next week. We can use a break from this crazy winter we are having!

Grace woke up with a cold and red, itchy eyes. We went to the doctor and she has ear infections which are making her eyes pink. The nurse told us that Grace is 39 1/4 inches tall and she weighs 33.3 lbs (50th percentile). Being home with her was funny today. She was full of one-liners that made me laugh, like:

• "My eyes are not working." (When she woke up and they were crusted closed.)
• "No, my eyes are not pink, they are brown."
• "I hear something in my ears. Like bugs"
• "I'm not sucking my thumb. My teeth are itching."
• Overheard when Grace was talking on her cell phone (an old pink Razor), "Daddy, we have an emergency. Daisy is not being fair to me and my kitchen is not working. Okay. Bye."
  

Snow day

I am just like the kids....I love snow days. But, usually, when we have a snow day the roads clear up enough by the early afternoon so I can go out, run errands, and feel like I made good use of the time off from work. Not so today. The weather has been so bad that the sheriff in our county has asked that no one drive unless you absolutely have to. There have been wind chills below zero, lots of wind causing the snow to blow and form big drifts, and under all the snow is a slick layer of ice from the rain we had yesterday! So, we all stayed home, played with every toy in the house (including two bicycles!), took naps, and started to go stir crazy with cabin fever at about 5:00. We bundled up and went outside to shovel (Kyle), play (Grace), and take pictures (guess who!).

We started on the deck where Kyle cleared the snow
so Daisy can go out and look at the geese.Where are Grace's eyes?Here they are!She needed a scarf (and some Vaseline) to cover her face.When we got out front, Grace "belly flopped" into the snow...Over.......and over!All that playing in the cold gives you a runny nose!The abominable snowgirl!We had to change scarves...the first one got so wet!Okay, it is time for hot chocolate...Let's go inside!

Our house

A cold, gray Sunday afternoon was a perfect time to make our gingerbread house. It was a messy, but fun project. The only problem was that Grace ate more icing and candy than she put on the house!

The finished product!

Magic

There is nothing like seeing the magic of Christmas in the eyes of two 3-year olds when they open presents. Dawson and Grace knew they were going to open some presents today, yet they did a good job of waiting, playing together, and eating lunch before Kellie and I allowed them to rip into those packages. But when they did, watch out...there was no holding them back!

We gave Dawson three puppets (shh....she is getting a puppet theater from Santa) and Grace received two dress up outfits - a doctor kit with a lab coat embroidered with "Grace Villa, M. D." (I like the sound of that!)....

...and a firefighter uniform.

So cool! And so perfect for her. I love that Kellie and I are like-minded about toys that encourage learning and open-ended, creative play.

Cold turkey

No, this is not a post about Thanksgiving leftovers....

It is not a post about being out in the snow, although it COULD be with the weather we have here...

But, it is about quitting.

What could a 3-year old quit, you ask? These!Oh, yes. We have gone "cold turkey" in our house. No more pull-ups at night. I still have about 10 of them in the house, but Grace and I agreed that she is not a baby and she doesn't need to wear pull-ups at night any more. I am determined not to buy any and we are donating the ones we have left to the toddler class at her school.

It has been a week now without them at night (she has been pull-up free for at least 6 months during the day) and it is going okay. Before we made the switch her pull-ups were wet every morning. I mean soaking wet. Most of what I have read says that kids should be waking up dry for an extended period before you eliminate the nighttime protection. But I felt that Grace was not aware or didn't care since she had that "safety net". She rarely has an accident during the day and she knows she is not supposed to wet her underwear. Now, that the pull-ups are gone she is more aware of her need to go at night. It isn't perfect. Some nights she wakes up on her own to go. Some nights I wake her up before I go to bed so she can use the bathroom one last time. And a couple of times she has woken up after she has wet the bed. She doesn't like that!It is a process and I can see that she still doesn't have the muscle control to hold it for the 10-11 hours she sleeps. Grace is a very deep, sound sleeper so waking up to go is not going to be easy for her. But I am happy that we are taking some steps in the right direction. And in the meantime, the money I was spending on pull-ups looks like it will go toward more of this!

Grace made the newspaper

How fun to see Grace in the local newspaper!Here is the photo from the newspaper's website.

I got a lot of calls and emails from people who saw her and many people cut the page out and left it on my desk at work.

Snow angel

Baby, it's cold outside! But a little bit of sunshine (a rare thing in northeast Ohio in the winter) was all we needed to go out and play in the snow this afternoon. It has been too cold for the kids to play outside at Grace's school so she hasn't had a chance to romp in the 12+ inches of snow that has fallen this week. Her teacher did bring the snow inside their classroom so the kids could look at it and talk about how it felt and learn a little about ice crystals and the shapes of snowflakes. Seriously. They learned stuff I didn't know. But I digress...this post is just about playing. That's all.

As we were getting cold I realized that we should

have gone in the backyard by the lake....
that is where we get afternoon/evening sun.

Daisy didn't miss out on the fun, either!

Christopher pops in

That Christopher Popinkins! He took Grace's crayons and wrote her a note! What a surprise....Later, she took Chris' note to "pretend school" (in the dining room) and shared it with her friends for show and tell.

Whirlwind winter walk

We did whirlwind tour of the holiday festivities in small shopping district near us. The stores had many activities planned like cookie decorating, crafts, music and some offered free snacks to get everyone in the holiday spirit....and to get visitors into their establishments to shop! But, we went to the holiday walk for some of the outdoor activities! But, it was a COLD, SNOWY day so we made a plan and hit the major attractions quickly and then came home for a warm lunch and Sunday afternoon football.

We were first in line for the horse and carriage rides. This is "Ape" and he was probably the biggest horse I have ever seen. Grace loved him. No surprise there!

Then, we bumped into Christopher Popinkins. We have a mini "Chris Pop" at home. As the story goes, Chris is an elf sent by Santa to watch little children and report back to him about all the good little boys and girls. He moves to a new hiding place each night and when Grace finds him in the morning she says "Hello" but she doesn't touch him because that would make him lose his magic. From there, we hurried to the toy store to see the big guy himself. We were 4th in line, but while they were waiting to get Santa's chair, Grace walked up to talk to him and I snapped some pictures as she showed him a jet that she took off the shelf in the store. That is all she told him she wanted. If I had known that, I could have saved a lot of money!I used my point and shoot camera today, but I had it on the wrong setting. I forgot that it was set for the dark theater the last time we went to see the orchestra. So, that is why the photos are grainy. So disappointed.....