Thursday, January 22, 2009

January Thaw

When we last left off, Lil Sis was recovering.  Let's just say, she's back to her normal self.  Enough said :)

One cold weekend recently, we were bored and in need of something fun to do.  We were organizing our new markers, crayons, paints, and other Christmas gifts.  I came up with the brilliant idea of recycling our old crayons.  The girls busied themselves peeling the paper off for a couple hours.  They grew weary.  I peeled more crayons while watching a movie.   

We eventually sorted them by color (a day or two later), melted them and poured them in the above mold.  
Voila!  The finished product...pretty cool!
In other news, the girls continue to take the camera on adventures in the house.  Here's a self-portrait of Lil Sis.
Here's a self-portrait of Snickers....or is it?  I think Lil Sis took this one too.  Snickers seems to be doing better.  We switched up a few things with the litter box and medication.  He's not much interested in eating a lot, but he has become one docile, snuggling cat.  Lil Sis carries him around, they fall asleep together at night, he sleeps next to me when I go to bed, and spends the day letting Lil Sis do anything she wants with him.  
One night during the girls' bath, Cool Daddy-O played a little trick on the girls, HGTV style.  We converted the toy room to a bed room and vice versa.  They're still adjusting to the new set up, but one of the first days, Big Sis built this structure on her own.  Usually, she gets really frustrated when playing with Lincoln Logs, but pulled this off effortlessly.  Not sure who took this photo, but I think it's a pretty good shot.
Not sure if this is a self-portrait, but it probably is.
On Inauguration Day, I informed Lil Sis that we'd be watching "grown-up TV" all day.  She found it incredibly boring, however, she loved the opportunity to paint and make a mess without getting in trouble.  She had fun and clean-up was a breeze.  

Unfortunately, our TV decided to die during the Inaugural balls.  Fortunately, I was able to watch a lot of it on the internet (thanks to CNN and facebook).  
Today we had some awesome weather.  Technically, I guess we would call it a January thaw.  The temps were close to 50.  Lil Sis happily pulled on her snow pants, boots and a light weight winter jacket and ran out and dove in the piles of snow.  She had a blast throwing snowballs...
at me!  She has good aim!
She also enjoyed playing with a neighborhood kitten.  This kitten lives outside.  It was -17 a week ago.  This kitten looks fat and healthy.  Not sure how, but that kitten and its twin sibling must have good genes.

After swinging awhile, she said she was done playing outside and ran in.  Tomorrow night it will be approaching 0 degrees again.  It sure was nice to be out and soak in some rays today.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Before and After --- An Apple A Day

Lil Sis has been down in the dumps.  We initially thought she had a case of the 24 hour flu that lingered on.  She had one bout of vomiting, no appetite, no fever, just lethargic.  Last night, we finally figured out, that was no longer the issue. Instead we were battling a bad case of constipation.  After several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the problem on our own, Lil Sis said she wanted to go to the doctor.  We needed medical intervention on this one.

Our regular doctor was booked up today (which is probably a good thing) so we saw the on-call doc.  We explained the situation and asked him to "clean her out".  He accommodated us.  Even though Lil Sis was asking him to "please stop doing that" and "when will he be done?" and "how many more times is he going to do that?" the whole time, she remained a trooper until the project was complete.  

After all was said and done, she walked herself out of the office, with a smile on her face, carrying a handful of stickers.  After that experience, I told her kindergarten shots are going to be a breeze.

We met friends at McDonald's for a celebratory lunch.  When we returned home she said she was hungry again.  I happily gave her an apple and she said it tasted delicious.  When I tried to take her picture, she just kept making silly faces.
"Take a picture of my hand."
"Take a picture of the apple."
Nice and relaxed and watching one of her favorite shows.  I was surprised she chose to lay on the floor.  I think she just needed a change of scenery.  She spent the past 3 days laying on the couch or hanging out and snuggling with me.  I think she's still in recovery mode and she still looks tired, but things are looking  up big time!