Making it a yearly tradition we decided to head up to the Wisconsin Dells again. It wasn’t quite as a full house as last year since only one other family, the Johnsons, could attend with us. That certainly didn’t stop us from making a lot of waves. We daftly thought that by attending on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday that we would avoid the crowds that we had to deal with last year on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Such was not the case as it seemed doubly busy each day we were there, but fun was still had by everyone. The same park, the Wilderness Territory, had the best deal again this year, so that’s where we stayed. It really does have the most to offer in the way of indoor water fun and lodging, and there were no complaints from any of us. I don’t have any pictures of our water time yet because I was lazy and left it up to the Johnsons to bring their camera and take all the pictures. I do have one picture from the Dells to offer, and I think it was totally worth it just to see how Violet looks in a flapper and happy to be posing on a car and holding dynamite. Annie and Mimi were so thrilled, too, to get “fancy” dresses and necklaces and feather headbands. Daddy was just pleased that each of his girls got to hold deadly weapons. I’ll post more pictures from the Dells once I con the Johnsons into giving us the pictures on a disc (hint, hint, Julie).

In other news, Violet is pretty much able to sit up on her own now. I quickly snapped these pictures of her, and then she planted herself on her face not 10 seconds later. Guess I jumped the gun and should’ve also placed pillows in front of her as well. She is competent in that area most of the time though.

Where do I begin? I feel as if it’s been months, even years since I’ve posted here, but I’ll get back to it anyway. The past two weeks have been a sleepless haze for me. Ever since Mike went away for his trip to SD a few weeks ago, life has been full of illness and other unplanned events. Annie got sick again last weekend which ended up with her needing to go to the ER. Her asthma is usually the culprit which got so bad that none of her rescue treatments at home were doing the trick. We also discovered that she had pneumonia. Because of all this Annie had to miss most of last week of school. Annie was taking 4 different medicines at one point. Fortunately, two of the medications were only 5-day treatments and are now complete. However, Annie has now been prescribed a preventative inhaler which is to be taken twice a day for as long as her doctor feels she needs it. The good news about that though is that she should no longer require emergency asthma treatments. Hooray!

The drama didn’t stop there though. As soon as Annie was feeling back to normal and returning to school Violet decided it was her turn. She came down with a fever starting Thursday and continued on with it until Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, Tylenol did the trick with making her feel better and kept her from getting too fussy. Nonetheless, Vi did lose her appetite during those days and put us back to square one with her solid foods introduction and was waking up almost every hour at night. She still isn’t eating as heartily as she was before all this began, but I still sit patiently with her each meal trying to pry those little lips open. Vi is back to her normal sleeping schedule though.

Mike was in Utah for the bulk of all this, so it was a bit more difficult to deal with everyone being sick. He’s home now and shackled down. Life is finally getting back to normal. Thank goodness!

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures of my dear children.

Violet in her pod.

Annie and Mimi hijacking my camera.

We’ve dedicated ourselves to keeping the girls busy with activities this winter that being ice-skating and swimming lessons. The girls love doing both and are really showing progress. Annie is actually starting to swim with her face all the way in the water for more than a half nanosecond, so I definitely call that headway. Annie also got to move up to level 2 for ice-skating next session. The ice-skating instructors are really strict this year with a new program in place and are making sure that each child can successfully do ALL the skills taught in the current level before moving to the next level. Mimi was told she should stick with the same level because (surprise, surprise) she doesn’t really listen well and do the techniques that teacher wants her to do. This is actually good because there is only one more level for her age group, so we’d be stuck with no classes for Mimi to take after that class. Both girls have been told they should repeat the same levels for swimming, but I’m fine with reiterating the skills that they’re not that great at anyway.

The point of bringing this is up is because we’ve been trying to make it to as many open swim and skate sessions as possible to help the girls practice their skills (usually once a week for both). When we go swimming together Violet also gets the opportunity to slip into her suit and swim around with Ma and Pa. Annie wasn’t really interested in the water as a baby and let us swim her around without much excitement. Mimi, on the other hand, just plain hated swimming until she was about 2-3 years old. I wasted money on an infant/toddler swim class for Mimi once, and she screamed during EVERY SINGLE CLASS FOR THE ENTIRE TIME. I ended up not attending the last few sessions because I was so embarrassed. Vi is a completely different beast and immediately took to the water and can’t stop moving once she hits it. Take a look for yourself. I’ve never seen anything like it. Is she Esther Williams reincarnated?

Ok, so I apparently have to explain who Esther Williams is because Mike just said to me, “Who’s Esther Williams?” {Am I the only person from my generation who loved watching old movies as a kid and can name most actors/actresses from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s?} Esther Williams was an actress from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s but was just as famous for her swimming abilities. She even swam the English Channel and set other swimming records. Many of her movies revolved around her swimming prowess and were known as “aquamusicals” and featured synchronized swimming and diving.

Annie isn’t having such a great weekend. She’s sick. Again. Yes, again for like the 5th or 6th time this winter. She’s been plagued with coughing and wheezing fits, and no amount of inhaler puffs, breathing treatments or other medications we’ve pumped into her are doing anything to halt the non-stop coughing. Vi and I stayed home with her from church today. I texted Mike multiple times asking is there anything I could do to JUST STOP THE COUGHING. It was really starting to drive me nuts. I’m not trying to be the insensitive mommy, but it could literally drive someone mad to hear someone cough every 2-3 seconds for days on end. Annie will probably have to miss yet another day of school tomorrow and possibly visit the doctor, too. At least Sadie tried to comfort her.

Violet has been certified to be a half-year-old baby and is on track for her milestones and size. At her doctor’s appointment last week she weighed in at 16 pounds, 4 ounces and was 26 3/4 inches long both of which chart at around the 50-60th percentile. Violet’s favorite mode of transportation these days is rolling over from one end of the room to the other and can do so with much swiftness. It occurred to me that I’ve been neglectful with the camera lately, so Vi and I did a quick photo shoot while the big girls played outside. It had to be quick because Vi got pretty fussy and wanted to feed and nap shortly after. Please note that the mustache is coming in nicely (this is what Mike refers to Vi’s strange cowlick in front).

Vi isn’t quite able to sit up on her own, but I was able to get a couple of shots of her sitting up before she toppled over. Why do all my babies roll over and almost crawl before they could sit up whereas it seems other babies sit up before they even roll over?!?

Violet loves getting put down on the floor so she can roll over and can really pull herself up high during tummy time.

This face was a first, and I’m glad I captured it. Too funny!

And had to include a smile. I don’t know if you can tell in the picture, but Vi has a way with her tongue. That baby can curl it in the strangest ways like I’ve never seen anyone do. Do I see a future talent (her daddy would be proud)?

In other news, Lucy approves of the new kitty.

And in other other news, they built a Monkey Joe’s in our town. Essentially, it’s an indoor playground that is full of bouncy houses. My cousin and his wife have one in Atlanta and take their kids there all the time. My Kenosha friends and I always thought we needed a place like that here since it’s too cold or snowy for playing at the park for 5 months out of the year. We finally got our wish and tried it out with the Johnsons last week. I don’t know how much time we’ll spend there because it seems every other family in Kenosha has thought the same thing as us, but we may stop by once in a while.

Yesterday was a snow day and kept the girls home all day. I didn’t really have anything planned and was almost tempted to just stay in p.j.s all day, but I motivated myself to get dressed and go to the gym. Besides, it gave the girls a couple of hours of activity and joy at the indoor play area. Driving back and forth was not fun though. In the afternoon was swim lessons, and I kind of hoped it was cancelled because it had been snowing non-stop all day. Again, I got us all packed up and headed out into the fluffy world and took the girls swimming. It seems odd to think of swimming when it’s so cold and snowy outside.

Then today Annie only had a half day at school. She came home and immediately wanted to go outside to play in the snow. I was all for that, but it was lunchtime. I gave into her as she decided to stay in her gear and eat a quick lunch. Mimi ate quickly, too, so that she could follow her sister outside.

After all this time away from school I ask myself why I don’t just homeschool these girls. I can’t imagine much is being taught to Annie with the numerous sick, snow, and half days away from school. I’m just sayin’.