February 27

It was a big day: 

Eli's first dentist appointment.

That also meant it was my first time taking all four kids to the dentist by myself. I was nervous, but those kids of mine dominated it!

We were literally in and out of the dentist's office (including the time it took to take this selfie) in 40 minutes. It helped that we declined x-rays and fluoride treatments, but still. I was impressed! Even Eli was very brave. We talked before the appointment about what the hygienists and the dentist would do, and I told him that he needed to be cooperative and brave.

As we walked into the office, he solemnly told me, "I not cry, Mommy."

That boy kept his word. As he watched his siblings get their teeth cleaned, he alternately clung to me or stepped up to watch closely. When it was his turn, he bravely laid on the exam table and did his best to cooperate. He made it through about 75% of the cleaning before he was done, which was really impressive!

The dentist did  her exam with him in my lap, which helped immensely. He sailed through that!

We had so much time left over after our appointment that we did something unheard of: we met Chris at a McDonald's near his office, where the kids played in the play place and ate lunch.

Yep.

They. Were. Ecstatic.

I am very aware that for some families, this is a normal occurrence. (At least, the lunch/playplace part.) For my kids, it has literally never happened. It may have been their favorite day ever, and I am 100% confident that the next time they have a dentist appointment, they will all remember playing at McDonald's and ask to do it again.

Daisy took this selfie while I was doing school with Caleb. I have no idea how she scraped the bridge of her nose. She's fine now, Mom.

Dark, blurry picture of the carry of the day. It was possibly Secure High Back Carry? I'm flaking on this babywearing challenge.

 Also, this:

The toy in the kids' McDonald's Happy Meals was a puzzle. 

Puzzles are Lily's favorite. I was preparing dinner, and came into the room to find her finishing her puzzle on the floor. The light was so yummy and she was so proud that I took too many pictures.

Also, we just got out that dress/tunic for her; she is moving into her 4T hand-me-down clothes, and jumped up to size 7 shoes.

She's a big girl!

February 25

No one threw up today. I felt like I might much of the day, but I didn't.

I took Eli and Lily grocery shopping with me, and we had a grand time at Aldi.

This was our carry of the day. I'll be honest: I'm writing this a week later and I can't remember what it was and I'm too lazy to look it up. But it had a knotless finish. The picture above was at the beginning of our shopping trip.

This is after.

While I unloaded the groceries, Lily put away groceries in "her" kitchen.

Also, the mailman brought me this awesome new pour lid for my mason jars. It is perfect for my fire cider, which can't have a plastic lid due to corrosion issues. Yay!

February 24

I had big plans for my birthday. Chris was taking the day off work, we were going to all go out to breakfast, then a trip to the Botanical Garden, then lunch somewhere, then maybe a nap or a child-free outing, then dinner out somewhere...

And then Chris and I were awakened at 5:00 this morning by Daisy vomiting on our bedroom floor. 

Yuck.

That husband of mine is a good man, though, and he made sure that I didn't clean up any vomit on my birthday. He got up and took care of Daisy and let me sleep in. Around 9:00, he woke me up with this:

Coffee (with frothed milk!) in my favorite mug and a waffle from a nearby French bakery. Can you spot the waffle under all of the powdered sugar, whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and pecans? Yum.

Of course, as soon as the kids knew I was awake, I had visitors. This has quickly become our new norm: Chris leaves for work at 7:00 am while I'm still in bed. Around 7:30, Eli comes in and climbs the foot rail of my bed like a ladder, then demands, "In you covers! Haf' milkies in you covers!"

I lift the covers, he snuggles in, and I nurse him and doze a bit more.

This morning was a bit different, what with the breakfast in bed and all. (Note to self: teach children to bring me breakfast in bed.)

I ended up sharing a good bit of my waffle with the children, and then Eli and I got our snuggles. 

Later in the day, Lily and I took a trip to Target and I picked up some lunch for myself on the way home. 

I got home to find Chris and Daisy trying to make me cupcakes that I didn't want (my stomach felt yucky from fighting off the bug), and Chris and I got into an argument about making icing. 

After the little ones were down for naps, a delivery man brought this to my door: 

An Edible Arrangement from Chris' sister Grace and her husband. What a bright spot in an otherwise dreary day!

Shortly after, Chris threw up.

Dinner was a bust because everyone was sick. I stopped by a nearby Italian restaurant and got myself some lasagna to go. There were presents; some were purchased, but most were random treasures scavenged from around the house and wrapped up as gifts. Caleb was responsible for all of those gifts, and he was proud of his handiwork. Here is one:

I can't remember his exact description of it, but I think it was a sculpture. All I know is that it was created from some of his dearest treasures. Sweet boy.

After that, there were cupcakes that the kids ate eagerly. 

Then Eli puked his all over the kitchen floor.

I drank another glass of wine and called it a day. Definitely not my favorite birthday ever. Happy 36th birthday to me.

February 23

Today was gymnastics day! Hooray!

The kids look forward to gymnastics day all month. But today, just when it was time to start getting ready to go, Eli vomited all over the couch, the pillow, and the floor. Then he was so sad about it that he buried his sweet little face in the vomit. 

Poor kid.

Poor me.

I sat on the floor and cried. It's only the third round of vomit from the same child in three days; it really could be infinitely worse. But for some reason, it hit me hard and I was so frustrated. 

My birthday is tomorrow, and I'm going to spend it dealing with pukey kids. 

My poor kids had to miss their favorite day of the month. 

We were out of upholstery cleaner.

Ugh.

I got Eli cleaned up and put all four kids in my big bed so that I could deal with the mess.

I googled a recipe for homemade upholstery cleaner, and we had all of the ingredients to make it happen.

I texted my friend Jill that we wouldn't be at gymnastics, and she replied with essential oil and wellness advice for the kids. Then this happened:

Sweet baby Eli (wearing a onesie that Daisy helped him pick, and that Daisy put on him), applying well-diluted essential oils to his feet.

For a crunchy mama like me, this is about as cute as it gets.

Also, all four kids (three still in gymnastics clothes) watching Sesame Street and learning that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Lily cracks me up because 1. She is totally into that show and 2. the Olaf hat.

A few minutes later, Jill texted me that she was going to be at my house in five minutes. My sweet friend brought me a bag full of snacks and iced coffee. It felt so nice to be taken care of, instead of having to take care of someone. Things were looking up, after all.

There was no more vomit today, and some friends even came over to play in our back yard this afternoon. Hopefully my birthday tomorrow is puke-free!

February 22

Remember yesterday's rain?
It turns out that yesterday's rain makes today's mud puddles. And guess who has a new fascination with mud? My children.

We were initially supposed to go to a babywearing meeting today - you know, the meeting that I lead now? But Eli's afternoon throw up yesterday meant no meeting today. Since our plans were ruined, I let the kids play outside.

Big mistake.

They were mud magnets, so I resigned myself to giving everyone a mid-morning bath.

Bigger mistake?

Telling the children that. Suddenly, they felt the freedom to get as muddy as they pleased. But really, it was pretty fun to watch.

Slipping and sliding in the mud!

It was about this point that I realized that, while muddy children are a temporary problem, a yard destroyed by children digging and slipping and sliding in the mud was a longer-term problem that Chris might not be so pleased about.

Oops.

But look at their happy little faces!

He wasn't so upset when I showed him these pictures.

Especially this one.

And this one, which is nearly perfect except that Daisy is slightly out of focus. Darn back-button focusing! I still need to work on that.

Cleaning the kids was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Also, no more vomit today. Hooray!

I did two carries today to get caught up. 

This is short ruckless bikini carry. I was surprised how much I liked it!

And this is a five year old in a torso carry. As in, she is supported entirely by a wrap tied around my chest and nowhere else. Kind of the way you tie a towel around your body? Same concept.

Except this was Double Hammock Torso Carry, with a Junko's Bunko finish.

I know - fancy stuff here!

February 21

All I have for today is this photo that is actually yesterday's carry of the day. I got a bit behind.

It's called "Mermaid Carry", and I kind of like it!

(I also kind of like this wrap of mine. I've had it listed for sale for a while, but maybe I don't want to sell it, after all.)

Why is Eli in his jammies?

Why do I have no pictures?

Well.

It rained this morning. It was kind of an issue, because it was a Classical Conversations day, and I wondered about if the kids would insist on wearing rain boots, and I worried if the day's scheduled ice cream party outside would be ruined.

Turns out it didn't matter. The rain stopped, and no one required rainboots, and I got lunches made, and everyone was loaded into the van. We were going to be on time for once!

Three minutes from our destination, Eli started crying in pain. I reached my arm back to rest my hand on his head, and he turned to bury his face in my hand. He stopped crying, and I took my hand back because the light had turned green.

Then I heard the coughing. Caleb and Daisy immediately shouted, "MOMMY! ELI'S THROWING UP!"

I looked back in my mirror, and sure enough, he was.

I made a U-turn and we headed home.

So.

We spent the rest of the day snuggling and watching TV, and then there was some more puke. Not a great day.

February 20

President's Day is always particularly exciting for me, because it's a bank holiday and bank holidays mean Chris is home. This spate of unseasonably warm weather meant that today could be an outdoor family adventure. Hooray!

Chris' one request for his day off was donuts. I found a unique little donut shop, and we stopped there first and let each kid pick out a donut. Then we drove to a nearby sculpture park. Chris and I went there once, many years ago, before babies, and I went there this fall for a photo session, but otherwise we had never explored the place. It turns out, we have been missing out on an awesome experience for the kids!

Daisy shared her donut (white donut, chocolate icing, Nutella drizzle) with Chris. It looks like Chris is eating a cheeseburger, but it's actually a beignet donut filled with chocolate pudding. And Lily's is a chocolate donut with rosewater glaze.

Caleb chose a King Cake cinnamon roll donut.

Hi, Lily!

These kids *never* get donuts, so this was a special treat.

Yum!

After a quick trip to the bathroom, we headed off to explore the trails. This park has sculptures placed along trails through the woods, as well as large open meadows with sculptures on display.

Babywearing selfie! Eli looks unhappy, but he was really just getting situated by burying his arms down in the carrier.

I love that our kids love exploring outdoors so much, because this is when Chris and I feel like ourselves again, and not just parents of small children. It is so encouraging and exciting to be entering a new season where we can do more things that we love with our kids! (Even if it means that we both have small children strapped to our backs. Whatever. If they're not in the picture, it counts as a date. Right?)

There were also lots of creeks to play in and clamber across. This place was really the perfect combination of hike, art exhibit, and nature play.

Chris brought Lily's carrier, and she hopped up and down quite a bit. It's nice to have an option for when her little legs get tired, and she's really happy on Daddy's back.

This sculpture was geared toward all of the dogs whose owners take them on walks in the park. My toddler also found it interesting!

My four little ducklings and Papa Duck!

We found a smaller creek, and Daisy worked at clearing out a blockage in the pipe that carried the creek under the path.

This was Caleb's favorite sculpture. It was a giant, C-shaped mound/ridge, with narrow stone steps leading up it, and a stone path at the top. It was quite steep and while the stairs only felt mildly risky going up, when it was time to head back down the felt downright treacherous. Caleb and Daisy scampered down without incident and Lily was safely on Chris' back, but Eli was another story. There was no way I trusted him to go down the 30 or so steps, and I was even nervous to walk down them with him in my arms because they were steep, shallow, and had no hand rail. So I wrapped that baby up on my back while I was up on top of the ridge, and that's how we got down. Thank goodness for babywearing!

After this sculpture, we got to the "traipsing through the woods" portion of our morning, when actual hiking occurred. It was the perfect level of difficulty for 2 children and 2 adults with toddlers on their backs. When we emerged from the woods, we found a clearing with several kid-friendly sculptures.

This is Whisker the War Werm, by artist Tom Huck. The kids loved him, especially because he was one of the few sculptures they were allowed to climb on.

We walked back to our car and grabbed lunch, then found a shady spot for a picnic. By this time it was 11:30, and the park was packed with picnickers and people playing. I suppose 70+ degrees on a holiday in February will bring out the entire metro area!

We picnicked near these awesome stone steps, and Caleb was kind enough to pose for a picture. The girls called these steps "The Wedding Steps" and took turns pretending to be bride and groom. The "groom" waited at the top while the "bride", carrying a bouquet of pine boughs, walked down the aisle. When she arrived at the top, the "groom" bowed to his "bride" and then hugged her. 

Over and over and over.

It was hilarious, especially the bowing.

Family picnic selfie!

I tried taking a few with my camera remote, but it would appear that the children weren't feeling cooperative.

After lunch, we headed home. As soon as she got out of the van, Lily raced to the basement to find a "wedding dress".

At first, she had a veil and underskirt to make the dress cover her feet. She quickly discarded those because they got in the way.

 Fun fact: when I was about 7 years old, my mom bought this dress for me. It was a first communion dress, found on clearance somewhere. She bought one for each of my sisters and me, and told us they were "wedding dresses". We loved them, and now my girls get to play with them. Sometimes my mom's penchant for keeping everything works out in my favor.

Daisy even let Lily borrow her white high heels, and Lily felt so fancy!

I mean, really. How cute is she?