Germs, Germs, Go Away...

I feared that this was going to be a rough winter in the health department because it is Hannah's first year of kindergarten and so she is exposed to (and bringing home) all sorts of new germs. We started off right away in December with some sort of fever/congestion deal. Elaina was first and then Grace, and finally, just before Christmas, Hannah caught it. And hers turned into an ear infection. While they were battling their sickness, I got to battle the stomach flu. But miraculously all were well in time for Christmas and the ensuing week of vacation.

Hannah's birthday is the week after New Year's, so it falls just when we are trying to get back into routine. We noticed just before her birthday that she was having a hard time hearing. Of course, wouldn't you know it, the ear infection never actually cleared up all the way, so round of antibiotics #2. She had her hearing mostly restored in time of her first birthday party and was able to enjoy that day to her utmost ability! However the next morning I woke up with the beginnings of a nasty cold. Which has not left (despite receiving its eviction notice multiple times). I can't take much for it, so it really is just a matter of endurance and rest. And of course, just because a cold is never enough to plague a pregnant woman, I got pinkeye on top of it. Just a bonus, you might say :-P And ironically I'd never had pinkeye before until I was pregnant with Elaina (so now I've had it twice). So apparently pinkeye enjoys picking on pregnant ladies. I think I'm starting to head toward recovery, though. Just in time for Grace (and now Eric) to catch some sort of virus that involves the throat. We thought it was probably strep, but the strep test was negative for Grace. She seems to be pretty much over it, though, so now we just wait on Eric :-)

I'm sincerely praying that this is the last of it. My poor immune system needs a break! I'm so grateful that this time around we are expecting a late spring baby. So I can weather all this sickness without worrying about a newborn being born into it. Hopefully by the end of April/beginning of May everyone will be healthy and outside enjoying spring weather!!

We have some fun things coming up around the corner, too, so we need to be healthy for that!

Fun for me, perhaps (and maybe not so much for the rest of the family), is that we're soon going to start decorating the nursery. It will the first actual nursery I've had to decorate, so I intend to enjoy this one. We'll hopefully be doing that over the next couple weekends. We need to tackle the girls' room, too, since we'll be moving Elaina in over there shortly. That room was a "nice" shade of pink with a horrid sand texture, so we need to re-plaster the walls so that the walls stop leaving scratches on our girls' hands while they are sleeping.
We'd like to get our room painted, too, since it is this shade of yellow:


This is our bedroom before we moved in. And what this picture doesn't truly show is the darker color of yellow that goes around the trim...and how it fails to blend with the rest of the wall. Ugh. I do not feel rested in our bedroom! And since I'm soon to be spending many hours at night awake, I want to enjoy our bedroom.

Besides home improvement Eric and I are going to a couples retreat at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp with some friends Valentine's Weekend and then I get a "girls weekend" at the end of Feb. where, for the first time ever, I will be leaving Eric alone with the kids *gasp* for an entire weekend! And then we've enrolled the girls in a "big sibling" class which will probably be more fun for Mommy than them! And mixed in there somewhere, hopefully, will be a visit from Grammy and Grandpa from PA.

I will leave you with some pictures from the last few weeks:

We had to get rid of Daphne in November because she started peeing consistently in the house and despite our best effort (replacing carpet to remove the smell, frequency of cleaning litter, better lighting by the litterbox, etc) she just didn't stop. So we rehomed her with some friends up north, where I've heard she is happily living the life of a farm cat. And Sophie is the newest member of the family. So here is Elaina snuggling with Sophie (Elaina is a huge fan of cats, the cats for Elaina? Not so much)

After Christmas Grace got her first "big girl" haircut and got to go to the kids salon where she got her hair styled and a mini-manicure. She was in her element!

Hannah's 6th birthday came and went. I can't believe that it has been 6 years since she was born and I became a mom! Somedays it just seems like yesterday.


Eric playing "duck, duck, goose" with Hannah's party friends.

Hannah's little party enjoying their treats. She loved it. Parties for Mommy? Not such a big fan.

Hoping that this next month brings lots of before and after pictures and good health!!