February is a long month

A good friend and I have said for a while now that even though February has the fewest amount of days, it seems like the longest month of the year. It typically includes what seems like a million hours of paperwork and meetings at work, the Super Bowl, the annual meeting at our church, as well as few "holidays" and birthdays. This year, February has been busy and stressful...

Still feeling euphoric over the Packers' Super Bowl win, love was abound at our house for Valentine's Day. Peanut and Swanny had their second annual date at the Daddy-Daughter dance at the YMCA.

This year, instead of just having a cookie and then wanting to leave, Peanut decided to dance. Apparently, she got most of her groove on dancing with friends, but managed to squeeze a few steps in with her dad.

With help from the neighbors, the kids also baked us this lovely Valentine's treat.

Swanny and I enjoyed dinner and a show in Chicago for Valentine's Day.

(By the way, it was AWESOME--I've only now stopped singing the songs all day long in my head!)

This past Saturday we enjoyed visiting with my cousin and her family visiting from out east. We took the opportunity to celebrate a Fairy's 3rd Birthday.

No Fairy party is complete without Pirates though.

That day though, Peanut started feeling unwell near dinner time, which I attributed to too much cake and partying. By 11 pm, the cake and punch were all over her bed. Thus started a 2 1/2 day saga of poor Peanut taking in some water or other fluids, then bringing them back up. She never ran much of a temp, but couldn't keep anything down at all. A phone call to the pediatrician Monday morning yielded typical advice on dealing with a virus (hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, medicine for fever--except she couldn't keep the medicine down). By 9 pm on Monday, the poor kid had puked about 6 or 8 times (water, Sprite, juice, Pedialyte--all of it came back up) and I was really worried about how dehydrated she was. Swanny arrived home and we took her straight to the emergency room.

That's my poor Peanut with her I.V. providing her fluids and anti-nausea medicine. She took 2 full bags of fluid and I spoon fed her a Pedialyte popsicle. The doc then told us she was confirmed to have Influenza type A and B. He then noted he had never seen anyone with both types of flu. Way to go Peanut, anything worth doing has got to be done right, huh?

She was luckily able to come home (there had been talk of admitting her to the hospital) with a prescription for Tamiflu and anti-nausea meds. The doc ordered her home from school for the duration of this week.

All in all it was a pretty scary event. It's awful to see your little ones sick and such a powerless feeling you have when there's nothing you can do to help. While I was sad to see her so sick with flu, I was still grateful it was nothing more serious.

Happy to report she is back to herself again--eating meals (no vomiting since Monday!), playing, and of course fighting with her brother.

So, the long month of February is now drawing to a close. Looking forward to March (and Spring Break), I say here's to good health and a less busy schedule. Oh yeah, and a quick jump in a lake!

Toothless Thursday

"So what'd you do today?"

"Nothing much. Went to work, sold some books, picked up the kids, and pulled Peanut's second tooth."

Look at those choppers, will ya?

Remember when you were a kid and you discovered you had a loose tooth? Remember how it was the coolest thing in the world to worry that tooth back and forth, round and round? Remember how you couldn't wait to show your new tricks to everyone around you? As a kid, it was pretty damn cool.

As a parent, it's pretty damn... ugh.

Thirteen days of waiting. Thirteen days of fidgeting, wiggling, and twisting. Thirteen days of making the adults around her cringe every time she'd prod that loose tooth with her tongue.

Tonight, after a bit of prodding from Jen as she left for a meeting, Peanut asked me to pull her tooth. It took me a bit to get over the heebie-jeebies, but I was able to sit Peanut down and two quick yanks later...



Peanut's very happy with her new gap and is very excited to see what the Tooth Fairy leaves for her under her pillow. Anybody know the going rate for a first tooth?

What a difference 5 years makes

She was sweet then.

She's still sweet now.

(Photo credits to Rikki--Kudos!)

Happy 5th birthday to my sweet little Peanut.

Details of the 5-year-old sleepover extravaganza to come--the guests arrive in about 2 hours! For those of you on Twitter, Swanny says he's going to "Live tweet" the sleepover. Wish us (me) luck.

Truer words...

There isn't time to get into the "why hasn't anyone been posting on this blog?" and "where the heck are they?" and the "are Jen and Swanny still alive or have Peanut and Swanny Jr. staged a coup?" questions right now. I'll get into that in a few days.
But for now here is a sweet shot of Peanut and her best church pal Curly Q who were angels in the Church play on Sunday.



While waiting for her cue, Peanut said to Pastor Lisa, "Sometimes it's hard to keep your halo on right."
Some days harder than others Peanut!

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Preschool Pumpkin Patch field trip 2008. Peanut and her best friend HP.





And yesterday...

Tied up in knots

Is my little girl is really old enough to be doing this?

She tied her shoes by herself today more times than I can count. She'd tie them then untie them just so she could tie them again.

Wow. I'm so proud of you Peanut!

Holiday fun and poor table manners

It was a busy but fun holiday weekend for the Swanny clan.

We started on Saturday with the drive to my dad's house. The kids (and both of our dogs) played with Grandpa, Grandma Jodi and Jodi's neice and had a ball. Swanny and I celebrated the wedding of a friend of mine from my Rock Island school days. It was a beautiful day and ceremony and the reception was fun--for me. Swanny didn't really know anybody there, but was a good sport while I caught up with some friends. He did enjoy live-tweeting the dance action at the ceremony and the food was delicious, so don't feel too bad for him.

Yesterday, we made a long over-due visit to Peanut's (& Swanny Jr's) GGPA who used to be a loyal reader and commenter on this blog. I think he still lurks every now and then but we don't see or talk to him nearly enough. We had a nice time chatting and catching up. I was able to snap a good shot of GGPA, Swanny and the kids.


We attempted some shopping and a visit to Grammy Pam, but Peanut had reached her breaking point of fatigue and the 4-year-old beast that sleeps somewhere just below the surface emerged in a big way. Thanks Peanut for that tantrum-to-beat-all-tantrums that ruined anyone's shot of getting Whitey's while we were there. My favorite line during her diatribes, "You're not my mom. I don't love you!"

Peanut survived (barely) and we rounded out the weekend with a campfire and s'mores last night and breakfast this morning, once we found a place that was open. (By the way, I have no idea why I didn't take any pictures after the visit to GGPA's house...sorry.)

Needless to say, tonight when Swanny headed off for a few hours of work, I had 2 very tired children on my hands. (The dogs by the way are so tired from running around on my dad's 2 acres and playing with their Golden Retriever, that neither one of them woke up to eat dinner tonight). Early dinner and baths for the kids were top of my agenda this evening.

Apparently, no one told me that Swanny Jr. is on protest from broccoli.

My normally good-mannered little boy who will eat with spoon or hands anything I put before him proceeded to dump the broccoli from his bowl, toss the bowl to the floor and then--no joke, finger paint with his veggies instead.

Big Sis Peanut was eager to show off how a big kid eats broccoli.

Notice the majority of her veggies are gone and NOT on the table or floor surrounding her eating location. She was quite proud to be the role-model on this one. A nice change as I have asked her no fewer than 3 times this weekend either in build up to fit or in the midst of one, to remind me who the baby in our house is and then to think about who at the time was acting like one...

Eventually Swanny Jr. caught the hint and ate most of his veggies. (With generous amounts still landing on the floor).

Hopefully a good night's sleep and a back-to-normal routine tomorrow will help bring our good table manners back!

Hold on, you wanna do what?

This weekend Peanut became a grown-up. At least that's what she keeps telling us. It's something that Jen and Peanut have been kicking around for about six months. This morning, Peanut decided that today was the day.

BEFORE:


There followed much holding still, some squirming, a small yelp, and then...




That's right, those are earrings. My little girl is now the proud owner of pierced ears. That sound you hear is the beating of my heart trying to burst from my chest while I stare down the barrel of the future. Ugh. Isn't there some way to keep them from growing up?

What's going on?

Swanny and I are so guilty of blog-neglecting this summer. My excuse, I'm working way more than I normally do during the summer. (I hear the collective feeling of pity from those of you who do not get your summers off). I think we're both trying to spend as much time enjoying the kids and the summer on our days off and we just haven't made time for blogging.

So randomly, here are few updates on the kiddos and some of the shenanigans we've been able to get up to during my time off.

Despite the mild temps this summer, we have found bursts of sunshine and periods of heat during which to enjoy the sprinkler and our mini backyard pool.

Swanny Jr. has learned how to climb out of the pool all on his own--the big boy.

Since he can climb out, he figured he may as well climb in too.

He's also decided to generalize this climbing skill to the bathtub, his sister's rocking chair (where I found him standing today) and attempts at getting up on the couch on his own...I think he'd climb up on top of the dog's kennels if he could.

Peanut is getting just too grown up to be allowed.



Just look at her--I remember when......

Now she's traded in the spoon for a float belt and twice weekly swimming lessons that are teaching her the front crawl, knee diving and the all important boat safety.

We have discovered another member of the family who really enjoys the sprinkler, or the hose when I'm watering the garden...she's not picky at all.

I love that you can still see the specks of water on her face in this picture. Penny's lovin' summer for sure!

Swanny Jr. would spend every waking minute outside if it were up to him. He doesn't even care if he hasn't gotten out of his pajamas yet.

Peanut has been practicing her hairstyling skills. I tend to be the one she experiments on. Today, she put nearly every single clip from her hair box on me while I read my newspaper. Here are the pics she took of me when she finished her masterpiece:

Okay, I took that last one and forgive me for not making sure my daughter's hair was swept out of her eyes. When your hair looks as gorgeous as mine did, you don't tend to worry about what everyone else's looks like--Sorry Peanut, but thanks for the glamorous do you gave me.

And finally in recap, yesterday the Swanny clan made its way up to the Shedd for our summer visit to the aquarium.

Peanut is always eager to see Nickel the sea turtle and talked about her non-stop on the way up there. She even took a picture of Nickel from her room to have in the car on the ride up. Though happy to see Nickel, she was also pretty thrilled to see that he Beluga Whales and Dolphins are home once again.

Swanny Jr. pointed at EVERYTHING and seemed to love looking at all of the creatures. He REALLY loved the popcorn snack we had near the end of the visit. The child eats non-stop.

Summer's flying by but I think we're having a pretty good time making the most of it! Next adventure, I head out west with the 2 kids (without Swanny, booo!) to visit the family in Idaho. Can't wait to share those moments!