A rough week

Well, I don't have any pictures to share this week and I'll apologize for the late post. It's been quite a week and a half, mostly because everyone in the house has been sick! It's a long story, starting with Xander last week, so I'll be brief.

So, I mentioned last week that Xander had the stomach flu on Tuesday. Well, he threw up again on Thursday night and then again on Sunday morning. This was a big puzzle to us and we were a little concerned, so I was going to take him into the doctor on Monday morning. Well, Sunday night at Grisanti's, Will started throwing up. We left early, came straight home and put them to bed. Unfortunately, Brian and I also got sick that night. So, come Monday morning, most of us were miserable and did not feel good. Brian stayed home from work on Monday and we all just lazed around and tried to feel better. Grace never did get as sick as the rest of us, but had a touch of it. Tuesday morning we felt better, so I took Xander in to the doctor. To be safe, Dr. Swisher did a series of tests, including stomach x-ray, blood test, urine test and stool sample because he was concerned about how long he had been throwin up. As of this morning, I haven't heard any results, but am hoping that no news is good news. I did call, but they haven't called back. Fortunately, Xander feeling better and back to his normal self, Will threw up again this morning (Friday) and hasn't really been all that perky, so I think this is just one bug that sticks around for a long time! I know Brian and I don't 100% great, yet either.

Not much else has been happening, because we haven't really gone anywhere to done anything notable, for obvious reasons. Maybe a quiet weekend with lots of resting will help everyone be back to their regular selves by Monday. It is supposed to snow, but I don't know if we will take advantage of that and sled or not. Hopefully I'll have happy news with some pictures to share with you next week. Hope you're healthier than we are!

Their new favorite dance

Here is some video of them doing their new favorite thing which is dancing. I got out some old movement CD's from my preschool and music therapy days and now they love doing a handful of them. The one they are doing is called the New Zoo Review, by Greg and Steve (LOVE Greg and Steve). They move like zoo animals (notice Will's drink breaks. All that dancing makes him parched, apparently). You should see (in order, in case you can't figure out what they're doing): elephants, penguins, monkeys, crocodiles, seals, kangaroos, lions, and blackbirds. Enjoy!

Our news

Can you guess where they are hiding? It is the boys' empty closet. I decided to take off their closet doors because they kept pinching their fingers playing with it. When the doors were off, I decided it needed to be painted. So last week, Brian and I cleared out the closet and painted the walls and shelves. The kids were around when we cleared it out, and Xander said "Let's get in the doghouse." So, they all three climbed into the bottom shelf and crammed in. I had to get a picture. It was so funny! The closet is done and looks great, by the way. No more pinched fingers and room looks so much bigger without those huge doors.

So, not a lot of earthshattering things have happened here this week, but a few small things are notable. First, Grace is COMPLETELY out of diapers. She had been waking up dry in the mornings, so we told her she didn't have to wear them anymore. She is so excited every morning when she wakes up when we go in her room and she says "I'm dry!" So, that is a huge development.

Our other piece of news is that poor Xander had the stomach flu. Since my food poisoning episode about a month ago, he's been telling me all the time that he has throw up. So, I always send him to the bathroom and make him stand there. Well, he never does throw up. Except for last night. Right before dinner he told me his tummy hurt and that he needed to throw up. So, I sent him into the bathroom and followed him in. Well, sure enough, he actually did throw up a lot and proceeded to do so many more times until bed. Luckily he slept through the night and is drinking some today, even though he has no appetite. Now we just have to make sure the others don't get it, because I will go crazy!

Will has a new name for me. It's no longer "mommy" it's "mommy, mommy, mommy, mom". He consistently calls me this. The other variation is "Mommy, mummy, mommy, mummy." So funny! He's still doing OK with the pottying thing. He tells us he's dry in the mornings, but he's not. I think we're heading in the right direction, though. He's not soaking wet like he used to be. He has a little bit of a cold, enough to set off his asthma. We've started up albuterol treatments, and I had to get him up in the middle of the night last night for one. I think this will be short lived, though.

We went sledding again at the lake by Kara and Wes' on Sunday. It was much more fun this time, more snow!! They are turning into dare-devils. They loved going down as fast they could, until they ran into weeds. Will even fell off a couple of times and went rolling, then stood up and said "I want to do that again!" Thrill seekers, just like their dad. They spent Saturday night with Grandma Hoefs while Brian and I went out for Valentine's Day, then Sunday night we were at the Niebuhrs for Grandpa's birthday. So that's about all. I took some video of them doing their new favorite passtime, dancing. I'll get that uploaded later this week.

Roller Skating

We have been having fantastic weather lately. 50 and 60 degree days in February in Nebraska are very rare, and we have been taking full advantage. We have been outside riding bikes and playing on the swingset, we went to the park on Friday and Sunday, we got out a Christmas present that hadn't been opened yet. The roller skates. They're beginner skates that go over their shoes, and they have 3 settings as they learn and get better. They did well with them on level 1. They kind of walked around on them. We switched them to level 2 (where they roll only forwards, not backwards) and held their hands and taught them how to roll. They had a good time. Today the weather is 60+ degrees, so we are planning on being outside again in the afternoon.

In addition to being outside, we went to the indoor playground place that's by our house called Lost in Fun. It's the one with the inflatable bouncers and swing sets (see Jan. posts). We with with Grandma, Aunt Lisa, Carter and Camden. We played all morning, then ate lunch there. Boy, were they tired when we got home! We also hit the library, park, church, grandparents houses and ran errands. Just a quick note on the running errands point, now that they're older, they are so much easier to take to public places. I can let them walk in and trust that they'll stand there and not run around like maniacs. I took them to their bank to deposit their birthday/Christmas money yesterday and they stood there like angels. The two bank tellers gushed over them and they each got some candy. Grace even waved to the security cameras as we were coming in and out. Hilarious! I may have also mentioned we were getting rid of diapers at nap time, and were using covers instead. Well, that has been going very well, so we even got rid of the covers! So far everyone is waking up dry and no accidents. Now, we're working on night-time. Grace has been waking up dry most mornings, so I think very soon she will not have to wear a diaper at night anymore. Will can wake up dry, so I think he pees first thing when he wakes up or while he's waiting for someone to get him up. I just need to think about how to stop that and we'll be golden!

Xander has been getting more and more sneaky lately. Here's a prime example. On Friday night, he wanted to put all the trains and train tracks into one of their play purses. Brian didn't want him to because Will and Grace were playing with the trains. He kept saying to Xander "you may not put your trains in the purse." So, Xander said to him "I'll get my surprise (which is a little plastic bag thing that my mom gave them) it's not a purse." Brian said "It's just like a purse." Xander "but it's not a purse." Brian "Xander, it's just like a purse." Xander "But, it's not a purse." Brian realized he couldn't argue with a 3 year old's logic so he said "Xander, you may not put the trains in your surprise." So Xander said, "Daddy, you need to go upstairs." Brian "Why?" Xander "Mommy wants you." At this point, I had just walked downstairs and heard the conversaion. Xander "Daddy, go upstairs." Brian "Xander, I'm not going upstairs." Xander "But mommy needs you to go upstairs." I said "Xander, if Daddy goes upstairs are you going to put the trains in your purse." Xander "no." Me "Xander, if Daddy goes upstairs are you going to put the trains in your surprise." Xander "yes." At least his is honest. Sneaky, but honest.

Grace about melted my heart today with what she said to Xander. It went like this:

Grace: I love you Xander.

Xander: No, I don't love you.

Grace (with a VERY sad face and the saddest voice you've ever heard): But you're my best friend.

Xander: no.

Me: Xander, Grace is saying something nice to you. Maybe you could say something nice back.

Xander: OK. I love you, too.

Me: Maybe now you can hug.

Grace gave him a huge hug. So cute! I about died when she said he was her best friend!

Will has started doing this evil genius laugh that is just hilarious. I'm going to try to get it on tape so you can hear it. The other thing he does now is flips his tongue out when he says and "L" sound. It's hard to describe, so I'll try to get that on video too. It cracks me up to hear words like "lollipop" and "willy nilly". My mom also said he told my dad to shut up yesterday. I haven't heard that one at home, yet, but I will not like it if we start that. I'm pretty sure that they heard that in a movie recently. (That's what I'll blame it on, not Brian and I of course!) :-) That's all for now. Thanks for checking up on us!

What's going on....

A pile of toys the kids made in the living room the other day. That is pretty much every toy from the upstairs. It looked like a bonfire to me. It was a huge mess, it took them forever to clean it up.

I have figured out that if I put Will on the potty with a book, toy or his hand-held video game after lunch, he will sit and poop and not have an accident. It's worked for about 4 days in a row now. He tends to sit there for 20 minutes!

Xander's idea of hanging his coat up..... That's the front door, by the way.

Xander holding Hannah and Haylea's little sister Lauren. She's about 9 months old. How cute!!!

So, this won't be a very long post. I don't really have much to report. Nothing interesting has been happening. Everyone is healthy and fine for the most part. Will's cough is acting up a little, but nothing terrible. Pottying has been better and we've just been doing our normal activities.

The only major thing that happened over the weekend is that we spent a lot of time at Oma and Opa's house. They are getting their house ready to sell, and we spent a lot of time over there stripping wallpaper and painting, while Oma and Opa played with the kids. We ate dinner over there twice over the weekend, and I think the kids enjoyed the change in routine. Saturday night they stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr while Brian and I went to Omaha for dinner to celebrate our anniversary (nine years!!). Otherwise, we're just waiting for nice weather to get outside and play with our new outside toys. Spring fever!!! Hopefully something interesting will happen to us this week so I'll have more news. Take care everyone.