Surfacing from sick week

So, after almost three years of being home with the girls from China, we finally had a sick kid this week. Aside from the frequent fevers that both E and A get (during which they don't seem sick as long as we keep the fever in check with Advil or Tylenol), neither one had ever been sick. At least not sick as in vomiting.. they've had colds in the past.

Well, this week E caught some type of stomach bug that involved abdominal pain (cramps probably, but it's hard to say since she just laid around whining and saying her "tummy hurts") and vomiting. She had it for about 4 days, so I consider myself lucky that she only threw up four times. The first time she threw up was kind of funny... it was a huge surprise to her (having never thrown up before in her almost four years) and she actually laughed after it happened. The novelty wore off though.. for both of us. After the first time though, she was pretty good about alerting us to the fact that she was about to be sick, and so we didn't have a lot of clean-up to deal with. I know, I know, this is more information that you wanted, right? Okay, moving on from this lovely topic...

Yesterday, A, B and I went to a shower for a friend who recently adopted a baby from Ethiopia. (Dot stayed home with E, to avoid passing sicko germs to everyone else). Well, it turns out that the shower was a surprise joint-shower for my friend and for us (actually B). What a nice surprise. We had a really great time - there was lots of food and I actually had a chance to visit a bit with friends, even given that I was on my own with two kids in tow. And, in a few weeks, we will be getting a play house that has been ordered as a shower gift. The girls are going to love it every bit as much as B will, I think. I showed them a picture of it and they are pretty psyched. :-) Of course, I didn't have a camera along with me at the shower, so I don't have any pictures to show you.

Yesterday was also B's second birthday. So we sang 'happy birthday' and blew out candles on a cake at the shower, and then did it all over again at home (so E and DoT could participate). I got a few pictures at the home rendition. Here they are...

(All three kids helped blow out the candles.)

While E was home sick, I pulled out my knitting thinking I could get back to it. (It's probably been at least a year since I last did any knitting.) E decided she wanted to knit too. Here she is with her work...

I'm thinking she did better than I did...

Notice the dropped stitch and the broken needle. *Sigh* Clearly I have some remedial work to do.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you are enjoying this spring and everything around you is coming alive. If you have any tips for effort-free-gardening (particularly for a garden that has been neglected for years) please, please leave me a comment. :-) (Comments on other topics are also welcome!)

K...