Fun in the sun SNOW!!

Friday afternoon we took the cubs out to play in the snow. Emily's fever broke late Thursday night, and she seemed to be feeling fine. I didn't want them to miss the opportunity to play in this very rare, perfect snow. This was the first time they have been in snow (they've been sick every time it has snowed), so it was very fun for us to watch them play. Their laughter was well worth it!

Record breaking snow

As I mentioned before, this has been a very unusual winter for us. It started snowing around 5am last Thursday (Feb 11th) and didn't stop until Friday mid-morning. It ended up being a record breaking snowfall at DFW airport. By midnight Thursday, 11.2" of snow was recorded, smashing the previous 7.8" one-day total recorded in both 1917 and 1964. By Friday, the 24-hour record was also broken with a recorded 12.5", breaking the previous 1964 record of 12.1". This has also been the second snowiest season with 15.7" of accumulation so far, and we're not too far off from breaking that record of 17.6" from 1977/78. CRAZY WEATHER!

This snowfall was the beautiful snow that we RARELY see here in Texas. Big, fluffy flakes! Perfect snowman/snowball fight snow! Our snow is usually very icy, and the ice crystals do not allow for perfect packing. This was perfect snow. My only complaint was that it knocked out our power overnight. We had lost power for a few hours earlier Thursday evening, but at 10:40 it was knocked out for good and not restored until Friday morning. By that time, the temperature in the house was a nice, frigid 63 downstairs and 59 upstairs. The cubs managed to stay warm and snug in their beds and slept through most of it. Steve and I were working on "PLAN B", since it was getting too cold to stay here when our power was finally restored. We had many friends offer us a place to stay (we do have wonderful friends!!!!), but since Emily was sick (with fever) and they all had small kiddos as well (and we didn't want to spread the germies), we were planning on having to "hotel it" Friday night. Fortunately, it didn't come to that point. CRAZY WEATHER!

Flashback

Before the cubs got sick, I was treated by my sweet husband to a nice, peaceful trip to the spa for a Hot Stone massage. It was wonderful, but it really felt the shortest 80 minutes of my life. I could have stayed there all day. When I returned home, I was surprised to see Emily's crib turned back into the toddler bed. WHAT??? So here we go with Round 3. It seems to be going a little better this time. Here we are 10 days later, and she still manages to sleep most of the night in her own room. She does wake up earlier than usual and comes in bright and early to wake join me. Yesterday she came in our room at 6am with the TV remote in hand. She often hears Steve leave and it takes me a while to get her back to bed. Nap time is still a toss up...some days go better than others. Her being sick has made it a little more difficult because she wants to be held which means she doesn't want to be alone in her room, so having free reign is really appealing to her right now...not so much to me. Steve mentioned moving Zach to a toddler bed. I almost fainted at the thought. I'm definitely not in a hurry to have both cubs free yet. He hasn't crawled out of his crib once, so I'm pretty convinced that he is perfectly happy there. For now.

It never fails...

I finally get Zach feeling better and in true Cub Central fashion...now Emily is sick. Naturally. In my previous post, I mentioned that she came down with a fever on Sunday evening. I took her to the Doctor on Monday because she had a CONSTANT dry cough, and everything was ok, the Doctor suspected that she just had a cold and told me to keep alternating the Motrin and Tylenol to manage fever. Poor thing ended up getting worse and by Thursday she had stopped eating, drinking, had a productive cough, and was totally refusing her Tylenol and Motrin. I knew something was wrong because she normally gobbles up her medicine like it's candy. Steve took her to the Doctor where she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis. Poor baby is now getting breathing treatments and an antibiotic. She is doing better now, thank goodness! Her fever finally broke on Friday after getting up to 104 (with the antibiotic!) and freaking us all out again, but she loved the lukewarm bath and I think that helped a lot. She is still pretty fussy, and her eating/drinking is still below par, but at least the fever is gone. I can't wait until the cubs are healthy again, this has been a rough winter season at Cub Central.

Bah humbug

I manage to get one cub feeling better just in time for the other to get sick. Emily has been running a fever since Sunday night. I took her to the Doctor on Monday morning only for them to tell me they can't see any infection in her ears, nose or throat. I guess I should be thankful, but no antibiotics and a persistent fever makes for an unhappy little girl and a very tired Mommy. Exhausting.

The weather isn't helping. It's been mostly rainy and damp. The sun finally came out today but the wind was bitterly cold. We're expecting snow tomorrow night. What an unusual winter we are having. Three snow days in December and a stretch of below freezing temperatures for a straight 53 hours is very rare for Texas. FOR A REASON!!! WE DON'T LIKE COLD WEATHER HERE!!! We like our warmth and sunshine and we want it back!!!

Starting February off with a bang....

...of antibiotics! Yippee! Poor Z-man has come down with an ear infection. WHAT a bummer!! So I kept both cubs home from preschool on Monday and speech on Tuesday. Tomorrow Emily can go to school and I will have to keep Zach home until his fever goes down, so hopefully the antibiotics will kick in quickly. I'm just praying that Emily doesn't get it too.

Z still loves the alphabet, except that he won't say "H", instead he just repeats the "G". He spells his name Z-A-C-G. Oops. Oh well, hopefully he'll figure it out soon.

Emily is doing great. Every day is something new. She's very big into giving hugs, even to her brother. So sweet, even though Zach doesn't like it much. Bath time is still going really well. They LOVE LOVE LOVE baths. They are practicing putting their heads in the water which will be great when it warms up enough to go to the pool. Splish splash!!

We haven't taken many pictures lately, I guess we're in a down swing. With everyone being sick lately I don't think we've felt in the picture-taking mood. I'm sure that will change soon...waiting for Spring to get here! Outdoor pictures are way more fun!!

ESL

I'm contemplating teaching the cubs English as a second language (ESL). Here are a few short blurps from conversations I've had lately with Emily...

The first while I was talking on the phone to Grandma Bear:

Me: Emily, can you say 'hi' to Grandma Bear?

Emily: Hola (Hello in Spanish)

and then while Emily was standing at the refrigerator door (which she had opened) and pointing to a bottle of juice.

Me: What do you want?

Emily: Juice

Me: This juice?

Emily: Si (Yes in Spanish)

Since we're progressing slowly with English, maybe I should just switch to Spanish instead. I might have better luck.