Super Stuff on a Sunday

Despite the girls being sick the first part of the week, there were still so many glimpses that ultimately made our week super-fabulous.

1)      On Saturday before Sick Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful, unseasonably warm weather and made an impromptu trip to Lost River Cave.  We hiked all the trails…although we were considerably slower than our usual pace.  The girls stopped to examine what seemed like every leaf.  It was lots of fun to see the forests almost bare, noticing new topography, and finding some pretty magnificent colors.  My favorite was finding these humongous leaves…about twice the size of my hand.  They were incredible!

2)      On Saturday afternoon, Baby B got to come with Mommy for a little date – a reward for napping so well – while Baby A stayed home with Daddy.  B and I headed to the bookstore.  She enjoyed a cookie (and I, a coffee), and then we shopped for a couple of Thanksgiving books.  It’s so neat to be out and about with only one baby from time to time…the exchanges are often so much more direct than when Mommy is on zone defense.

3)      The girls have been playing loads of hide-and-seek lately, and I love to listen to them.  They always count to 10 in Serbian (since their daddy taught them how to play), and then, “Ready or not, here I come!  Where’s my kite?”  The “kite” reference cracks me up.  They have a very basic board book where the text reads, “Ready or not, here I come!” and then the following (unrelated) text is, “Where’s my kite?”  Despite me telling them otherwise, the girls think those phrases are related.

4)      Baby A was heading upstairs with me, and she gave explicit directions to B for taking care of her doll, Abby.  “She likes to have somebody sitting with her.  Sometimes she gets thirsty.  If she does, let me know.”  HA!

5)      And that reminds me that one of their teachers told me how Baby A was playing with a doll in a stroller.  She had to leave it to go to the bathroom, and B automatically came over to babysit.  How sweet!!!

6)      The girls’ school organized a drive for Operation Christmas Child.  I showed the girls the website and a short video online, and they were so excited to go shopping.  One shopped for a younger girl (age 2 – 4), and one for an older girl (age 10 – 14).  I let them each carry a shopping basket at Target, and they were such troopers.  Once we got home, they had fun coloring a couple of pages to go into the boxes, and then packing everything.  I think it was such a great experience for them.

7)      I took the girls to the pediatrician on Friday since they started coughing.  (I wanted to make sure it wasn’t somehow connected to the mess we had on Sunday and Monday…thankfully, he said it was nothing to worry about.)  As he was checking out Baby A, B volunteered, “That’s an otoscope!”  (Credit again goes to the girls’ library of Usborne books for such vocabulary words.)

8)      While the girls were in school on Thursday, I went to our local ceramic studio and picked out a design for a Christmas platter.  I took the girls on Friday morning, and they were SO excited to get their feet painted and step on a plate.  (I cannot wait to see their “Mistletoes”!!!)  Then I let the girls pick out an ornament to paint.  They each chose a plain flat orb.  B picked red and green and made a circle design, while A got a little more “abstract” with yellow and turquoise.  The girls had so much fun…and so did I…it was almost an out-of-body experience for me, propped up in a painting studio with my baby girls.  Wow!!!

9)      We attended our MoMs group annual pancake breakfast on Saturday.  I loved seeing the girls playing with their friends and having fun.  And they were quite taken with the pancakes.  I think they each had FOUR, along with the equivalent number of servings of fruit.  It was definitely a treat!

10)   We took advantage of the sunshine on Saturday afternoon to visit the orchard one last time before they closed for the season.  The girls were so excited to see the resident kitty and two puppies, and to make many, many trips down the slides.  One slide in particular was running really fast.  The first few times, both girls landed on their bottoms (even though I tried to catch them!).  After that, they got the hang of landing on their feet.  It just reminded me how BIG they are!

11)   On the way home from the orchard, B spotted the moon.  “Mommy, there’s a crescent moon!”  We’d turn, and she’d lose sight of it.  “Hey, where did the moon go?  Moooooon…where are you?”  And then we’d turn again, “Oh, moon!  There you are!”

12)   And the quotes of the week, both from rides in the car…

B [seeing a pickup truck behind us with a little boy in the passenger seat]: “Mommy!  I see an adult driving that truck.  And there’s not an adult beside him!”  (I know she was confused why a little boy would be in the front seat!)

A [seeing a car beside us at a traffic light]: "Mommy!  Why is there only one car seat in that car?"  (Not everything comes in a set of two, dear...)