Although we seem to have her temperature somewhat under control now, Gracen’s cough, runny nose, and congestion are in full swing now. And sadly, I’m doing no better. In fact, I’ve got all of the same symptoms, plus a wicked headache and all over body pain. We’re a sorry sight over here.
The good part is that Miss G actually spent some time awake today. The downside is that it pretty much looked like this. Uncomfortable, unhappy, and whiny.
And then there was the full-on, defeated cry.
And by the end of the day, Bradley came home to a house that looked like this. Disaster. The worst part is that I was too ill to care. Here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow.
Aw, my poor little doodlebug. Last night I got home from a lovely downtown coffee date with my ladies and heard Grae calling for me in the most pitiful little voice. It was odd for her to be awake at 11:00 p.m. and I knew that something wasn’t right. I went in her room to find her absolutely burning up. We stripped her down, put her in some summer jammies, gave her a dose of Tylenol and some water, and put her back to sleep. Needless to say, it was a rough night and we ended up with a congested, coughing little heater in our bed for much of the night.
We stayed in bed until 8:30 this morning and when we finally got up, I decided to juice an orange for Miss G in hopes of getting some extra vitamin C into her. She’s never had juice before, so we thought she’d love it, but it was actually just the opposite – she wouldn’t even try a sip.
She spent the entire day snuggled up and sleeping on us while clutching onto her cold water cup, which for Grae, is very out of character.
We ended up taking her to the walk-in clinic late this afternoon just to make sure that she didn’t have an ear infection and her breathing sounded okay. Luckily, everything checked out just fine. The doctor who saw us said that there is a nasty virus going around the Lower Mainland and that it should run it’s course in about 4 days. Let’s hope our little lady feels better soon!
Today we headed out to New Westminster to check out the Royal City Kids Fair. Although the fair wasn’t great, the Quay did not disappoint.
The boardwalk was beautiful! We walked up and down the walk, greeting people and puppies along the way. Grae loved watching her pinwheel twirl in the wind.
We stopped every now and then to pop in the markets, watch the birds fish from chunks of ice, and watch the tugboats come and go.
One of the highlights was definitely this boat playground. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a shot from the outside, but it is basically an old boat that’s been anchored into the boardwalk and converted to a children’s play area.
Gracen loved it. We’ll definitely have to bring Papa down here sometime soon.
A few days ago it appeared as this little fig thief was working on her own… But after walking in on this today, it’s clear that’s she’s got a partner in crime. :)
With Bradley not working until later in the day today, we knew we had better get outside to enjoy the snow while we could. We packed up the little one, some steamed milk, and her sled and headed to Queen Elizabeth park, just up the road from our house. We walked around the park a little bit, did some sledding, and showed Grae how to make snowballs. Her favourite part? Eating the snow. Here are some shots of our outing…
Such a fun way to start the day. I wish it would stick around, but I have a sneaking suspicion that all of this snow won’t last much longer…
This morning we woke up a wonderful surprise – SNOW! Not the wet, messy snow that turns to puddles within the hour, but real, light, fluffy snow!
Naturally, Grae and I quickly got dressed and headed out to scour the stores for a little sled. It took a couple of stops, but we found one! We got dressed, got Grae strapped in, and toured in the neighbourhood for most of the morning.
Grae waved to other walkers from her sled, and if we so much as paused at an intersection, she’d immediately start signing, ‘More! More! More!’ Hopefully the snow will stick around for a bit so we can enjoy it for a few more days.
Miss G definitely has opinions and preferences when it comes to things she wears. Today she put together this little outfit with some of her new favourite things from last week’s Christmas celebration. She loves her Tippyknits wool scarf and rubs her face on it while announcing how “pretty, pretty, pretty” it is. The quilted pink sweater is from her Grandma Sue and she won’t let you forget that. While wearing it, she constantly points to her sleeve while saying, “Manmaw” (grandma) and nodding her head very matter of factly. The green bag is made of recycled chocolate milk tetra packs and she adores it. She fills it up with whichever goodies are in need of being totted around and wears it on her elbow like a designer purse. Throw in a crocheted hat, her party shoes, and a giant carrot, and you’ve got an outfit! Strangely, it kind of works. You go, Grae.
This little lady seriously cracks me up. This morning we were hanging out in the the living room. She was reading books and I was doing laundry. Suddenly, she got up and disappeared around the corner. Not a moment later, she zoomed back through the living room with her arms full and her eyes lowered to the floor. I walked into her room and turned on the light to find this. A little monkey with a snack, bowl, and mouth full of dried figs. Apparently she was hungry!
Well, after a lovely week in the Okangan, it was time to head back to reality today. The good news was that the Coquihala was open this time around, but the bad news was that the roads were ROUGH. It was slow going pretty much the entire way down and they ended up shutting down the highway shortly after we had passed through. Luckily for us, Gracen did better than we ever could expect her to do on such a long trip. Being strapped into a rear-facing car seat for 8 hours is no fun, you know. As much fun as our trip was, it’ll be nice to get Grae back into her own crib and get back to our little routine.
Being that today was Auntie Rozi’s birthday and our last full day in the Okanagan, we wanted to take the kids to do something special. We had originally planned on taking them to the pool (they all loved it last time), but that was before our good friend Hayley mentioned Ya Ya’s Play Centre. I’m so glad we checked it out because we all had a blast. It’s basically a big indoor play centre that has a little something for kids of all ages. The giant climbing apparatus has 3 levels, is fully padded, and has all kinds of ball pits, slides, tubes, and obstacles to climb. The really cool part is that wherever kids can go, adults can go too, so you never have to leave your little one to explore on their own if you don’t want to. The older boys loved the interactive games that were projected on to the floor and the little girls loved the toddler play area that was filled with learning toys and building blocks. Check out our visit:
Bradley and the bubbas in the ball pit.
Gracen was in ball HEAVEN!
Gracen playing with the alphabet blocks on the side of the wooden school bus.
Bus driver Kins and climber Grae.
Papa built Gracen a little hideout in the toddler play area.
She was more than willing to test it out.
Where’s Grae?
There she is!
Here come Papa and Grae down the giant slide!
Wheeee!
We had a great time this morning and will be very sad to have to say goodbye to Uncle Gary, Auntie Rozi, and the kiddos later this afternoon…
This afternoon we all got together at Grandma Sue’s house to celebrate a belated Christmas together as a family. It was the picture perfect day for it too… The weather was crisp and giant snowflakes filled the sky and covered the ground. Mom had saved her Christmas tree and the house was still decorated for the occasion. Here are a few shots of Grae’s second Christmas this year…
Christmas dinner complete with homemade perogies!
Grae had a little help polishing off her desert.
Grandma Sure and her grand babies.
Notice how Miss G is the only one not loving the pre-present photo session? I blame it on a bedtime drawing near…
Gracen opening her very special (and very large) gift just from Uncle Gary.
I wonder what it could be… Keep unwrapping, Grae.
Wow! Her very own wooden art easel! I can already see many finger painting sessions in this little artist’s future. Spoiled girl.
After opening her easel (and many other gifts she was spoiled with), she moved on to helping Papa with his.
After a wonderful day spent with family celebrating Christmas, this little lady was ready for bed. We tucked her in, and once her cousins were all down for the night, Bradley, Gary, Roz, and I met up with some friends and went out for the evening to celebrate Roz’s birthday. Grandma Sue had generously offered to stay home with all 4 munchkins while we enjoyed a night on the town. It was the first time Bradley and I had been out together since having Gracen, so we were a little nervous about how the night would go, but everything went great. When we tiptoed into the house at midnight, everyone was sound asleep and Grandma Sue hadn’t heard a peep.
Late last night, the Kossowan crew arrived in town from Cochrane and this afternoon we all met up at Silver Star for some tubing and ice skating. Here are a few snapshots from the day…
Gracen and Korbin are bundled up and ready to hit the slopes.
Grae and Kinslee in their twin sleds.
The crew.
“Skating” while cozied up in her stroller.
Dinner in the warmth of the cantina.
After thawing and grabbing a snack, we all headed back outside for round 2 of skating. Gracen loved being pushed around the ice in her chariot and we stretched our time as far as we could before packing up and heading down the hill for bedtime.
It was a lot cooler today than yesterday, but that didn’t stop us from heading out on our second snow adventure.
We got Grae bundled up and snuggled in her sled…
Then headed down the lane…
And up “the hill”.
We found a nice little path and with Brad at the top and me at the bottom, sent the little lady down the slope.
Apparently we were a little too ambitious with the length of our sled run because poor little G took a tumble about halfway down. Oopsies! Parenting fail. She’s such a little trooper that she just laid there until we came and rescued her.
We did a couple more runs and then headed back down the hill.
By the end of it, we were all chilly and Gracen was unimpressed that she had to wear Mama’s mittens when she didn’t even want to wear her own. Time to call it a day.