Here You Go

Since I've had quite a few people asking me about my ailing family, I wanted to give you an update on how we are all doing. Thanks, by the way, to those of you who have expressed care and concern. It was greatly appreciated.

And now the funk torch has been passed on to.....


Brooke.
Poor thing. She was running a fever on Tuesday, and sometime during the night, she became very congested. She's been feeling really crummy (yesterday was bad), but today she seems to be feeling much better. She's still pretty congested, which makes feeding time fun, but she seems to be much happier overall. This cold certainly isn't slowing her down, that's for sure.

As you can see in this picture, despite the fact that she does look (and feel) pitiful, I still get all kinds of cuteness. I thought this face was precious.













She loves this toy. She is enamored with her reflection---and mine. I'll sit behind her and smile and talk to her---as I get the reaction below--and she turns back and forth to look at the "real" me and the "reflection" me.
She doesn't know quite what to think about it all, but she does think it's a trip (me too).
Steven's grand-
mother Hope got this for Anna, and while Anna enjoyed it very much, it is nothing compared to how much Brooke loves it! It's so nice to be able to re-use toys and see how each child responds to them differently.

Anna is already over her diseasedness (that is an actual word, I looked it up). Her cold came and went in 48 hours. Thank goodness. She, much like her daddy, does not handle illness well. She was a major crankypants the whole time. She's still a little hoarse from the PND and subsequential coughing, but overall she has totally convalesced. Glory be. One good thing that happened during this whole escapade, which was very encouraging, I got my first unsolicited "I love you, Mama" from Anna. She has always responded to my "I love yous," but I had yet to hear her initiate. I had tucked her into bed on Monday night, and turned to pick up a few things on the floor in her room. Then I hear, "I love you, Mama," coming from my stuffy, hoarse little girl. I think I gave her about a hundred kisses and hugs. That was so nice.

Anna has found what she considers to be a "comfortable" substitute to the couch in the playroom. A wicker basket. Rather then sitting on the world's most awesomely cozy (truly, it is, and I am very picky) couch, she prefers to wedge herself into the basket (pictured below) for her afternoon Noggin session (it's preschool on TV, folks).













And when I interrupt her to suggest the couch alternative, I get this look (again, pictured below) with a "No thanks." At least she's polite.













Anna is a big fan of Thomas & Friends. One day she started yelling out all the names of the different trains as they are shown during the closing song, without any help or provocation on my part. I thought it was pretty cute, so I filmed it the other day. Granted, I am doing some coaching in this video, mostly because she seems to be very distracted by the fact that she's being filmed, but she knows all the names of the trains on her own. Notice also how this child cannot remain still for more then 2 seconds at a time---and feel sorry for me, if you please.


I shall leave you with a few photos to give you warm fuzzies by. If you do not think these are cute, perhaps you should check your pulse. You may be one of the undead.