Snow-maggedon...again

Words cannot adequately describe what it's like to watch a couple of feet of snow fall from the sky over the course of a couple days.  We hunkered down for the weekend and I couldn't help but think of the book, The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder that I read when I was a kid.  Roads were impassable and roofs were weighed down with the burden of the wet, heavy snow.  The snow reached the bottom of our front window, completely covered our deck, and took down a huge tree limb in our backyard, destroying the wooden sitting area.  Thankfully we were well stocked on groceries and had no cause to go anywhere, though I'm not sure what we would've done if we had an emergency.  We are all struggling with being sick of snow, sick of the cold weather, and sick of being sick.  It has been such a long, difficult winter, and looks like there's no end in sight.

Rabbit or Duck?

Nolan's class recently did a persuasive writing piece about whether they saw a duck or a rabbit when they looked at an illustration.  Here's what Nolan did:

I think it is a rabbit because if it was a duck it would have a tongue.

100 Days of School

Nolan's class recently celebrated the 100th day of school.  His teacher asked them to dress up like they were 100 years old.  Nolan was completely fine with this until the morning of, when he was completely overwhelmed by the idea.  I did manage to get him to don a cardigan sweater and neck tie, but that was the extent of it.  He does really enjoy school and is doing such a great job in kindergarten!

The Great Shrew Rescue

The other day, while Eric was setting up the baby monitor, he called upstairs for Livi to come down.  There was a tiny shrew stuck in the window well, frantically trying to climb out the slippery metal sides that he wanted to show her.  Each time it slid back down into the snow and it looked like a hopeless cause for the poor little creature.  I gave Eric *that* look and he knew it was useless to argue with me...he marched out into the waist deep snow to put a wooden bridge into the window well for the shrew to climb up.  Sure enough, within a couple of minutes, it climbed out and scurried away under the deep snow.  A few minutes later a second shrew emerged from the window well, and followed the path of his friend.  My husband; my hero.

Robotpants

Me: "Liv, are you going poop?"

Liv: "No."

Me: "Then what's going on?"

Liv: "I have robots in my pants."

Valentine's Day

We did a pretty small scale Valentine's celebration this year, but thought it would be meaningful and fun for the kids to wake up to Valentine hearts posted on their bedroom door.  We wrote some of our favorite character qualities about them on the hearts to point out the many amazing things they bring to our family.  For Olivia, we picked determined, helpful, clever, protective, silly, loving, and confident.

For Nolan we chose sensitive, enthusiastic, kind, curious, friendly, caring, and brave.

The kids also received some special presents from their grandparents.  Though many consider Valentine's a special and romantic holiday, Eric and I spent the evening with one of the worst colds of our lives.  We shared the Kleenex box, sucked on cough drops, and dosed up on Sudafed...not quite the evening we had hoped for.  Regardless, the kids felt loved and special and we are grateful for the love found in our family.

Snow-maggedon

We received an insane amount of snow in the last 24 hours - nearly 14 inches!  The trees are heavy with the weight of it and most of the city has been shut down as we all navigate the intense snow removal.  It has certainly been intense weather this winter season!

Lice...(again)

While running my hands through Olivia's silky blonde hair, I came across every parent's worst nightmare - a giant louse scurried across her head.  Having just dealt with this in December, I stayed relatively calm, but made the trip to the store for treatment supplies right away. After washing dozens of loads of laundry, treating her hair, and combing it, I must've found 20+ GIANT dead lice. GROSS! I didn't find any on Nolan or Eric, but did find a couple of eggs on myself.  So far, since this treatment we have remained lice-free.  Let's hope we stay that way! 

Baby's Room Construction

When we found out we were expecting Baby #3, we decided to pull the trigger on finishing off a portion of our unfinished basement space.  We got a couple of quotes and decided to have Kevin Eggers work on the project.  He began back in December by putting in a huge egress window, so that the room would meet code specifications.  Kevin worked quickly and had the studs and drywall up in two days!  After mudding, Eric got the room painted while I was in Eau Claire for the weekend.  Next came the doors (which I found second hand on a rummage sale page) and the trim  (which was overstock from EWP).  Finding those discounted items really saved us a bunch of money and helped keep us on budget.  Final touches were the drop ceiling, light fixtures, and carpeting.  We couldn't be more thrilled with how it turned out!  It is such a light and bright space that doesn't feel "basementy" at all.  We know it will be a cozy space for our newest little, and will help Nolan and Livi feel secure by letting them stay in their current rooms.  Now on to decorating...

Looth Tooth

Nolan's permanent lower incisors have been in for the past several months.  However, they came in so far back that his little baby teeth were in no hurry to leave.  Finally after months of wiggling and trying to loosen them, Nolan lost his first tooth!  He woke me up at about 1:30 in the morning to tell me it fell out after it had been hanging by a thread for a couple of weeks.  The next night he tucked his tooth safely in his tooth pillow and the tooth fairy paid his a visit and $5!  He was very excited!

Disney on Ice

One of the best Christmas presents we received this year was a trip to Green Bay to see Disney on Ice perform at the Resch Center.  The kids were so excited to see the show, go out to eat, and play in the pool area at the hotel!  After a winter of sickness and being pregnant, I was excited to get out of town,  too!  Of course, because we've had terrible luck lately, Nolan woke up the morning we were going to leave with a miserable sore throat.  He was in tears, which is very unusual for him.  Not knowing what to do, and hoping against hope that it would fade as the day progressed, we dosed him with IBU profin and decided to proceed with our trip.  As the morning continued, a fever spiked and the poor kid was feeling absolutely terrible.  By the time we got to Lambeau Field for lunch, he was in rough shape and actually fell asleep on my lap at the restaurant.  We wrapped things up quickly and got him back to the hotel, not knowing if we needed to find an Urgent Care Center or what else we should do.  Since our hotel was literally next door to the Resch Center and Nolan insisted he didn't want to miss the show, we decided to let him go, knowing that if he was having more trouble we could easily walk right back to the hotel and get him to a doctor.  Fortunately, he perked up when we got there and was able to watch the entirety of the show.  Olivia was absolutely enthralled with seeing all her favorite characters skating around, especially Elsa.  She clapped her hands wildly at the end of each performance and even cheered outloud.  She was especially amazed by the fireworks incorporated into the performance, even though they scared the pants off of her older brother.  

At the end of the show, Nolan was still holding his own and his fever was under control by alternating Tylenol and IBU profin.  Obviously, we didn't think it was a good idea for him to go swimming, which was a bummer for both he and Olivia.  We decided to order in some pizza and just lay low for the night.  The next morning, Nolan had improved but it was the weather that was out of sorts.  Due to an impending snowstorm, we decided to leave for home around 7am in order to try to have some decent road conditions.  It's a good thing we left when we did, because the roads got bad enough later in the day that some of the highways (including Hwy 51) were closed!  

All in all, the weekend didn't quite shake out how we planned.  The Disney show itself was wonderful, but it was frustrating to miss out on the other parts of our trip due to sickness and weather once again!  We hope we can do something like this again, and have the opportunity to make some more memories (hopefully without illness and bad weather) with our kids and parents!