Flowers and Chocolate Really Do Make it Better

These strawberries were about as big as my hand!

Another bouquet? This one looks slightly more edible!

A close up of each 'flower'

The daisies are pineapple rings that have been dipped part way into dark chocolate with the centers made from a ball of cantaloupe, with sprigs of grapes as the garnish!



The face of the Flu...

Sophia says Booooooo! to the nasty old flu

So yesterday Charlie and I celebrated four glorious years of marriage! He had taken the day off with the idea of celebrating in style! Oh so many plans, and oh, so many changes! Sophia is still sick. Yes, count the days, we're now going on day 5 of this terrible bug. She is still quite cranky and tired and has vomited at least twice each day since Monday. Today, however, we're keeping our fingers crossed and out mouths closed. She has a bit of an appetite, but nothing major. So far she's enjoyed soup, yogurt, apple sauce and water. I'm ready for her to be back to normal. I do feel like a terribly selfish mother, but it's hard to deal with this sort of cranky, sicky, grumpiness for so many days in a row. I know she's sick and I truly feel for her, but it's wearing me out. I know I sound horrible, but like I said, I'm ready for recovery!

Charlie did surprise me yesterday though with some treats! Traditionally we have always celebrated our anniversary by getting each other something from the "traditional wedding anniversary" list. Four years is commemorated with flowers and fruit. Hmmmm, flowers and fruit, that's easy for me, not so much for Charlie! I toyed with the idea of a Hawaiian shirt, but he's got quite a few and it's no fun to get something that you can't use right away (especially when 2 inches of snow is expected for tomorrow morning!), so I opted for a pie. My original plan was to bake him one myself but little miss Sophia did not allow for such things this week, plus with whatever germs we've got floating around here, I didn't need to present them to him via dessert! So I had Tippin's make a very delicious strawberry rhubarb pie just for him! This is one of his favorites, and my first attempt at making it was a serious disaster, so it's just as well!

He got me a dozen, beautiful red roses and some very delicious treats from Edible Arrangements. Okay, so I've seen commercials for these things on TV and I seriously thought they were cheesy, but honestly, it was about the cutest thing I've ever seen! I was absolutely giddy over it! The fruit is very fresh and juicy, the chocolate is yummy and even the vase is a keeper! He also threw in an order of chocolate covered strawberries that I've had to restrain myself not to devour all at once! Although, we wish it had been under better conditions, at least we spent the day as a family! That was truly what I wanted and enjoyed every minute with my darling husband! I am thankful every day for him and our family and it's nice to know that no matter what life brings us, we always have each other! I love you, honey!

Pacific Science Center

Sophia was 'helping' Zoe play the game!

George VS Zoe in a very curious game of vertical tic-tac-toe



The Butterfly House

Sophia was fascinated by the rows upon rows of butterfly chrysalises, it was fascinating!

Observing without touching...? Perhaps a first for her!

A butterfly landed on Zoe (near arm on sweatshirt) and stayed with her for quite a while!



Toddler Room

building with blocks while inside a block, how novel!

making sweet, sweet music!

The three of us spinning the barrel in the water

The PCS was a good afternoon. It kept us busy and occupied on a cold and blustery day and I can't ask for more than that! The kids had seen many of the exhibits before, but we were all intrigued by the Lucy Exhibit (no pictures allowed). It showed the progression of species discovered in Ethiopia and glorified Lucy, the link between orangutans and apes, who walked upright. It was interesting for sure and I recommend checking it out if it comes near you!

Playground Party Animals!

As we all know, Sophia lives and dies by the park. Luckily, they have a park just a block from their house. Plus, there was another park nearby that had been recently renovated and was the absolute coolest! They had all kinds of fun climbing structures and swings that I'd never seen before. They also had the tallest slide Sophia has ever braved, probably about 15 feet or more??, and she absolutely loved the thrill of the ride, er...slide! So, forgive the million and one park pics, but there were so many cute ones!

Here's a zip line that looked so fun Steph and I even had to try it out!

George was more than happy to help us fly from end to end!

This was a huge hit! It's a bucket type chair that spins and spins all the way around and mysteriously you don't fall out of it!!

George was quite the trooper and hit the park with us every day. He is such a good playmate to Sophia and was a big helper for me too. Every morning Sophia would wake up and ask for 'Georgie? Georgie?'

Valentine's Day

Before we left Grandma Sue made a special delivery of Valentine's fun to Sophia, Charlie and me. Sophia loves anything that she can push a button and watch it sing and/or dance and Grandma didn't disappoint! She got us these hilarious Hallmark animals that have saucy Valentine's sayings. Sophia got a kick out of them for sure!

Valentine's Day in Seattle...
My Valentine!

A beautiful and festive table scape designed by Stephanie!

Notice the various candy hearts strewn about the table adding a colorful flair!

Jonathan treated me and 10 of their closest friends to a wonderful Valentine's feast! Sadly I didn't get any pictures of us that night, but we looked gorgeous! Zoe and her friend Natasha were 'hired' to do the plating and serving and they really did a fantastic job. It was hard work, especially since Jonathan cooked 7, count them...7 courses! Wowser! My favorite was probably the fillet, which was made special for me in lieu of the fish course (blech!), which was unbelievably tender and delicious! There were two desserts, a lemon tart which was absolutely to die for and chocolate ravioli, handmade, of course! The only thing missing was my darling husband!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

So, after disproving my two other theories, it seems that for the first time in 17 months, my child has the flu!

My poor little pumpkin is struck down with a fever, vomiting (which has thankfully stopped) and diarrhea. She's in pretty good spirits, but extra cuddly and extra tired. She woke up at 7 and went back to bed at 8:30, slept for three hours and honestly looks like she'd sleep some more! It just breaks my heart! We have been very lucky, however, that she honestly hasn't been sick at all her entire life. This is her first fever and we going to do it up right by spending the day in jammies, drinking Pedialyte, and reading books....we're just a bunch of party animals over here!

I'm still working on getting those Seattle pics up! Stay tuned!

Back in One Piece...Mostly!

So Sophia and I arrived back home from our week long vacation in Seattle! We are home and tired, and at least she's back on schedule! I mean, seriously...I have an amazing child. We took a flight out of KC that left at her bedtime and as planned, she slept the entire flight. When we arrived in Seattle she awoke and entertained herself through the airport, on the way home and while we set up her crib. She went right back to sleep and slept her way into the new time zone. Gotta love it.

The way home was just about as good. She only slept for about an hour, but it was the middle of the afternoon, so I can't ask too much! We read books, ate snacks and sang songs for the other 3 hours, which was tiring, but not as bad as I expected. She was really in good spirits, despite her injury...

So let me preface this by saying it is REALLY hard to entertain a toddler by yourself, in an airport, while schlepping around a boat load of stuff!!! That being said, I guess I have to make some smarter choices from now on! ;) So here's what happened; while playing in the airport upon our departure from Seattle I was hoping to entertain Sophia by swinging her by her hands. Well....not such a good idea I guess. Long story short...there was a small cracking sound, a little crying and no moving of her left arm the entire flight. So, there I was at 30,000 feet with nothing to do but fret! As soon as we landed I freaked out to Charlie and made him drive us straight to the ER. In a nutshell, she probably popped it out of socket and put it back in while waiting in the very busy Children's Mercy waiting room. When she started putting weight on it and sucking her thumb again, we bailed! It's been perfect ever since and I learned my lesson about the whole 'swinging' thing! ;)

Once we got home, she ate some dinner and since she'd only napped an hour, was pretty much ready to go to bed at her normal KC time, so there ya have it! Overall, we had a great time filled with lots of playing and family and I will most definitely post pictures soon!

A Visit from Lily

Lily made herself right at home rearranging the furniture and toys to her liking!

Everyone enjoys a relaxing lunch. The girls enjoyed cheese puffs, cheese puffs, and more cheese puffs.

Okay, look here...smile..no over here...wait, no...oh well!

This was my favorite picture! There were diapers everywhere!

For a brief second there looked to be fatigue, but it was quickly remedied!

Kathleen, Carl, Lily and Kathleen's sister, Angela, all stopped by for a wonderful afternoon of playing, talking, and lunch! They were on their way to St. Jo where their other sister lives. I was so thrilled to see them all and catch up, especially since it's been years since I've seen both Carl and Angela. The girls played wonderfully well! It was so nice for Sophia to have a play mate and they just had so much fun! They entertained each other and I actually got to have adult conversation! It made both of us wish we lived closer, but now that they're back in the Midwest, we'll have to make plans more frequently! We have plans to head to St. Louis next month so it won't be long at all! Good to see you guys...miss you!!!

Play-Doh and Slides...Who Could Ask For More?!

Only a few short weeks ago Sophia was terrified of Play-Doh, but now, not so much. I think it was because Emma and Isabelle were having such a good time with it that she figured it couldn't be that bad!

Behold my ball of white Play-Doh!

Then we hit the community center for their free toddler room. Sophia had so much fun sliding, climbing and playing with her friends! We will have to visit this place again!

Today's Latest

So this morning as I was getting out things for Sophia to eat I sneezed. She said, "bless you." And then she said, "vagina!".


Oh.


Well, I blamed Charlie for the 'boobs' comments, but this one is all me! I mean, I guess I say that word when we take baths so that she learns the correct terminology, but I just never expected it to come up at the breakfast table. Whoops.

Spring Fever

A sea of people and dogs!

climb,

climb,

slide!

Still happy all the way home! She was trying to pose with Walter, but he wasn't cooperating!

The weather here on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous! I think we peaked at about 65 degrees and we couldn't have asked for a more pleasant day, except for the fact that now we're back into single digits, it was a cruel joke on the part of Mother Nature! We took full advantage of the day and headed to the dog park, where we have never seen it as crowded as it was that day! Sophia loved to watch all the doggies run and play and Walter loved to be one of those doggies! There is a playground in the same area so Sophia got some time to run and play for herself! Then we headed to Blue Chip Cookie to round out our full afternoon...YUMMY! If you have those in your area and you haven't yet tried them, get on it! Best cookies, ever!

Sunday looked sunny and warm in the morning but it just didn't last! :( We did get outside and do some quality bubble making before it took a turn for the worse, though! Sophia is very excited about bubbles but makes quite a mess, at least bubbles are made out of soap right, so maybe she's getting cleaner in the process...is that how it works?!

No, daddy, you do it!

If you listen closely in this video she dips the bubble wand in the solution and then she does blow, just not into the wand...details!