Lots to share, but no pictures yet

We had quite a busy week last week, with lots of Kodak moments. Unfortunately, I was bad with the camera. My friend Denise was a shutter bug and took lots of pictures, so as soon as I can get some of them from her, I will post them.

As I mentioned, my friend Denise from Chicago and her 3 year old son Caden were here last week from Sunday to Thursday. It was a fun week, we did so many things. Museum, park, mall, visited friends and had our usual outings to grandparents houses. It's amazing how much more energy one child adds to the house. All 4 of the kids were just go-go-go all week. It was quite tiring! They enjoyed a lot of playing outside time, as the weather cooperated! They ate picnics, played on the new swingset and had lots of fun together. Caden enjoyed the children's museum with the triplets and they did things together they had never done before, like climb into the big airplane. By the time Denise and Caden left on Thursday, everyone was very tired, but it was a great visit and we're so glad it worked out for them to come!

Unfortunately, right after they left is when illness chose to strike. Chad and Carter had the stomach flu on Sunday and Monday, Lisa wasn't sick but had been around the sick people. She came over here on Tuesday and the triplets were around Carter on Wednesday. Well, they picked that flu up one of those times, because they all started throwing up on Thursday night. Xander was first around 11 pm. He was sick until around 3, when he finally fell asleep. Then Grace started in around 3:30, for the rest of the night. Will waited until Friday afternoon. By then I was so good at knowing the sounds they made before they threw up, that I was able to catch it all, and Will never even had to change his clothes. They were pretty miserable on Friday, but more back to normal Saturday. By Mother's Day, they were fine and we ended up having a pretty nice mother's day. Brunch at Firethorn with the Hoefs, then a light dinner with the Niebuhrs here in the evening. Today was storytime at the library, other errands and they went with me to vote. That was the highlight of their day, apparently, because they got stickers. Lucky! And speaking of lucky, Brian and I never got that flu. It was our reward having it a few months ago when the kids were healthy.

All three of the kids are being so vocal lately and are very good at pretending and make-believe playing. Every toy car belongs to someone else (grandma's car, daddy's car) and Grace likes to talk to her animals and dolls. I caught her bossing around the ducks in the bath the other night. She would put it on the ledge and say "sit here peep" (it is one of those Peeps like the Easter candy, only it's made for the bath). Then she would say "Go this way" or "no, sit here". I'm afraid the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the bossy department. I was fertilizing the rose bushes yesterday and she was watching. I explained to her that I was feeding it, kind of like giving the rose bush lunch. She looked at the rose and said "here, eat it rose bush." Priceless.

Xander is obsessed with "owies". Everyone has an "owie knee" or "owie arm" or "owie head". Grandma Pam's "owie knee" (the one she had surgery on) is a constant source of conversation. Finally we have been telling him that her knee is better. So, now everytime he looks at a knee he says "Grandma owie knee all gone." He is also still loving to be tickled. Once, Brian was tickling him and he said "all done" (wanting to be finished), but Brian said "No all done" and kept tickling him. Now that's his ploy to get more tickles. He'll come sit on our lap and say "all done". Then laughs and giggles when we say "no all done" and tickle him.

Will has some new crocs, well, imitation crocs from Payless, that he just LOVES. He is able to put them on by himself and I think they are pretty comfortable. It's the only shoes he will wear now. Luckily, they stay on pretty well. He is doing well on the asthma front, the steroids are doing their job. He is tolerating them pretty well, the behaviors aren't as severe as they used to be (either that or we're just used to it). The likelyhood of him getting colds will decrease this summer and we are hoping that that will enable us to decrease his dosage. He sits like an angel during his treatments, and most of the time, just looks at books or plays quietly with a car. He's even taken to holding on his mask and taking off the strap. He dilligently leaves it there until I tell him to turn it off. What a good boy! He is still pretty possessive of his things, usually of the big red car. Which is odd to Brian and I, since they've had that car forever. We've noticed with Will, though, if you warn him of what is expected of him, he handles the transition really well. Example: "Will, I am going to count to 5. When I'm done, it is going to be Grace's turn to play with the red car." After I count, he's fine and gives it up willingly. Grace will usually play for 30 seconds and goes to do something else, so he gets it back and he's fine. We think that is a strategy we will always have to do with all of them.

So, that's all for now. I will post pictures from Denise as soon as I can, otherwise check back next week for more updates and some pictures from this week. Thanks for checking on us!