Friday Quick Takes (40)

 

--- 1 ---

St. Nicholas visited our house Wednesday night!  He left our kids' favorite mouse friends in their shoes along with some treats.  If we had our act together, we would've gotten some gold coins to go with them, but I was in the midst of hive-zilla, round 2.

Anna quickly confinscated both Mickey and Minnie and claimed them as "Mine".  When he gets his hands on one of them, Anthony goes crazy and kisses them all over.  

 To read about our St. Nick tradition and why we celebrate his feast day but don't do Santa, read last year's reflection here.  I found it interesting to remind myself about traditions we started and will continue :-). 

--- 2 ---

I feel like the last three months have been a constant health saga over here.  I had a sinus infection which concluded with my first bout with intense hives.  I itched head to toe for about a week.  Then that week I fell and broke my tailbone which I think is finally almost all the way healed.  Then I had the stomach flu which spread to Jeremy and Anthony, leaving Anthony with a messed up stomach for like a week and a half.  Finally, we were all feeling great when the mysterious hives showed their ugly face again.  Only this time, along with them came incredibly swollen hands and feet.  I couldn't get my rings orr and I couldn't walk because the soles of my feet hurt so bad. 

 

So finally, yesterday, I bit the bullet and went to the doctor for some relief.  He gave me a steroid to help with the itching and swollenness and said the hives were definitely an allergic reaction.  I think I've pinpointed the allergy and will be avoiding a certain monthly feminine product from now on. The steroids did wonders and within an hour, I was hive, itch, and swollenness free.  I could walk again and my fingers no longer looked like sausages. 

 

Today, I feel better than I've felt in months.  I have incredible amounts of energy (thanks to the steroid, I'm sure) and I'm super motivated to get things done and stay active.  After months of needing a daily nap and having to pry myself out of bed, it feels good to be back to normal!  Let's hope it stays!

--- 3 ---

Since I have all this energy, my house is getting some much needed attention today. I watch a very mobile almost one year old on Friday evenings, so it was important to make sure my kitchen floor didn't look like a family of pigs lived on it.

 

--- 4 ---

I seriously love Anna's afro. It looks super adorable right out of the bath, with a healthy amount of leave-in conditioner. Unfortunately, 3 hours later, after lots of playing, a nap, and drying time, it no longer looks this cute and looks more like a hot mess. So we let it go for a day and it was so dry, I had to condition it all over again. So back in a style it went. But it was cute while it lasted! Hopefully next summer when the air is moist again, we can go natural for longer at a time!

It now looks like this. A super easy veil style this time, with two pony tails in the back. Similar to her princess do, but much less complicated and it only took me about 20 minutes start to finish.

--- 5 ---

We celebrated St. Francis Xavier's feast day on Monday.  Anthony's named after him (his middle name is Xavier).  We originally had Francis picked out as his middle name, but his birthmom really wanted Xavier as part of his name.  We were completely thrilled with Xavier and we're glad she had a part in naming him.  We celebrated with dinner out, in our pjs.  We have a library lap-sit on Monday nights and it was the last one, so they declared it a pajama party.  We looked silly eating out in our pjs, but oh well!

Playing in the discovery room at the library.  They love it there and as soon as we get off the elevator, Anna shouts (yes, unfortunately in the library) "paaaaayyyy" (play) as she bolts for the discovery room.  One day she'll understand the rules of the library... At least the librarians think she's adorable!

--- 6 ---

Last night we took our kids with my mom and my niece to our local pottery place.  You can paint your own pottery and then they glaze it and fire it and you pick it up the next week.  We did ornaments for the grandparents last year and thought we'd continue the tradition, adding an extra for Anthony's birthmom.  The kids had so much fun and were so good.  Anna loved "painting" (we just let her have water and a paintbrush) and Anthony and Cecelia loved all of the attention!

 

My kids love doing projects with their handprints!

 

--- 7 ---

Anna has always been incredibly verbal and far ahead of where she should be.  But this week, her verbal skills have skyrocketed.  All of the sudden all of her jibberish is starting to make sense to us (we know it made sense to her before) and she's suddenly speaking in sentences.  We are constantly cracking up at the things she says and we're realizing common phrases that we say all the time.  I just love each and every new phase of development.  And with both kids, it's new and exciting.  They meet different milestones and different times and excel in different areas.  We're just soaking it up as much as we can while they're still little!

 

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