7 QT

Time for some quickety-quick-quick takes to get you caught up on our lives. 

--- 1 ---

Stomach virus visited our house this week.  AGAIN.  I'm not sure if it was a re-infection of what we just had a couple of weeks ago, or if this was a new virus, but whatever it was, it was miserable.  Of course I say that because I got it this time.  That's right, for the first time in 15 years, I spent a night alternating between shivering uncontrollably, writhing in pain, and having "the spits" as the girls say.  I'm sure this happened because I did some good-natured teasing of my husband a few weeks ago about how he always seems to get these things and I never do.  Ahem.

Ironically, my humble and understanding and never-teasing husband did NOT get it this time.  It was fortunate, because there was still one healthy parent who was able to nurse the little ones through their episodes.  Poor L was very sick with it this time.  It has taken both of us about four days to start feeling normal again.  The other two girls have been much more normal and cheerful.  But nevertheless, everyone stayed home from school Wednesday and Thursday, and we did a lot of this:

(watching movies on Mommy's bed)

--- 2 ---

Oh yeah, I got new glasses (sort of visible in the picture above).  I think I mentioned that in one of my recent posts.  A few days after C was born (yes, that was two years ago) my glasses got stepped on, and I've been getting by without and/or using my spare pair since then.  Glasses are so expensive, you know?  But at long last we set aside the cash, and I'm back to not squinting on a regular basis.  It feels pretty great.  And I've had this, C's new favorite Wiggles song, running through my head, ever since I got them:

It also helps that C sings it to me every time I put them on.  Can't you just hear her little voice crooning, "You've got your glasses on and on and on and on...."

--- 3 ---

Another new thing M and I got this week... smartphones.  We really dragged our feet for a long time about joining the technological world.  A lot of reasons for that.  The first one was the added expense for something that wasn't really necessary, obviously, but also there was the not wanting to be THAT parent who is always distracted checking his/her phone and ignoring his/her kids.  I have enough in my life to distract me from giving my kids the undivided attention they need from me.

But then TMobile made it worth our while to switch carriers.  And it worked out that our monthly bill would be about the same.  And I envied the ability of my friends and family with these devices to immediately share their pictures and videos directly from their phones.  That's really what tipped the scale for me-- I made sort of a New Year's resolution to take more pictures and videos, and my new iPhone has been a huge help with that so far.  Even as I've been writing this blog post I've enjoyed the convenience of putting these pics up right from my phone-- no transferring, uploading, or USB cables needed.  Hopefully that means I'll be blogging more, too... we'll see.

N has been a ready and willing subject of my experimentations with the iPhone camera.  She likes to choose new "colors" for her pictures as well:

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This happened the other day:

--- 5 ---

Before we traded in our old phones, we downloaded all the pics onto my laptop, and it was a fun blast from the past to look through them.  Here are a few fun ones from M's phone:

I actually remember this afternoon-- I was teaching and he took the girls to the park.  When they got back and M was folding the laundry like the SuperDad that he is, L was so worn out that she crawled into the laundry basket and passed out!

I'm guessing this was somewhere around L's first birthday, give or take.

--- 6 ---

I've also been doing an email clean out to make my inbox more streamlined for my phone-- a project that has been needing to be done for ages and this finally motivated me to do it.  I came across these photos my cousin emailed me from her wedding last summer:

We whiled away the sunny hours before the wedding playing shuffleboard with the Uncles and Piper.

C was still a little wobbly with her walking at that time, and I remember her tripping over the lip around the edge of the court numerous times.  How much she has grown up since then... running and jumping now!

What a lovely day that was.  It makes me pine away for warmer weather a bit.

--- 7 ---

Then again, we're having a cozy little snowy day here.

(Google auto-awesomed the snow in... but actually that's really what it looks like here from our window.  So I'll go with it.)

M is adjudicating some auditions today, so it's just me and the girls.  We went to dance class this morning and C had fun playing in the little siblings' playroom:

Now it's rest time, younger two are napping, N is peacefully coloring here next to me, and I'm off to finish up a bit of work, and then shovel the driveway before M's return.  A lovely way to spend a Saturday so far... and I really don't mind the cold so much with little girls around to snuggle.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Oh P.S.  N wanted me to tell you that she thinks it's ironic that we got this book from the library

the same week we all got sick to our stomachs.

Thanks N.