Happy Easter!

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our Easter! We had a great day that included church, lots of outdoor playtime, a bike ride to a park, a visit with friends and some Easter egg hunting. We also video Skyped with family for the first time and were able to see all the cousins and even some of the extended family that was gathered in St. Louis for the holiday. Sam had a blast getting to see all her cousins, grandparents, Aunt Jojo and Uncle Chris. I am excited to do this more often with the kids.
Hope you all had a great Easter!

trying to get a picture

All I wanted was a little picture of my two girls sitting on a rock. Is that so much to ask?

Apparently... it was.

The last two were the closest I could get and I was singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" while trying to take the picture. Not exactly frameable but still pretty cute.

which would you choose? vote please!

One side of Sam's swing-set looks like this right now.
She hasn't shown any interest in it until just a few days ago. Now she wants to climb desperately! But the "stones" are too high and too far apart. Plus once you get to the top (which is WAY too high a three year old) you have to climb over the very rough wall and drop onto the platform. Not appropriate for our little ones at all!

So, I want to take down the climbing pieces. But I know that if I just take those away she will notice and get mad. I think if I replace it with something else then she won't care.

Now the hard part...I have TWO ideas for what to do I cannot decide which one is better and age appropriate! I am hoping this is where you all will help. If you were three years old and one year old would you want -

A. A Water Wall

OR

B. A BIG Chalk Board

I don't think we can do both, at least not all on that side, but I just can't decide which one the girls would get more use out of and like more.
I think making the water wall would be easier. The particle board that is on the swing-set wall now would not be good for painting with chalk board paint so I would have to first attach some better board.

PLEASE leave me a comment and vote for one of the ideas! Would love some other mom and educator input.

Thanks!

tears

It is never fun to go to the ER. But what is worse is going to the ER with your child because you failed. Failed to be there. Failed to watch over them. Failed to protect them. Failed to catch them when they fell. Instead Avery fell. Almost four feet. Hitting a metal platform on the way down. A busted lip and torn frenulum. By the time we drove the 20 minutes to get the ER the intense bleeding had stopped and she was sound asleep in the backseat. But we went in anyway. What do I know about falls or bleeding from the mouth? And maybe falling asleep right away after a fall isn't a good thing. What do I know? So we went. And she is fine. Having trouble eating, very crabby and tired, but otherwise fine. I can't stop shaking and have felt close to tears ALL DAY! Why was I being so selfish? Why I was sitting, eating my lunch and chatting with friends when I should have been by her side? SHE IS ONE! Not three like all the other kids. I should have been there. I failed. And then, today of all days. My husband calls me and tells me to read this. Did you go and read it? Well.....GO! How can someone have that much confidence in me? That much faith in me? And the tears begin to flow. Tears of sadness for Avery's pain, tears of anger over my failure and tears that I can't explain but have to do with how overwhelmingly loved I feel by my sister. I failed today but KNOW that I will do better tomorrow. Knowing that an amazing mother is proud of me makes it that much easier to deal with my regret and feelings of failure.

spring time fun

Some fun pictures from our warmer weather days!

And in big news my very first paid writing gig has been posted! I was asked to do some freelance work for a companie's blog. It will be a four article series and the first one is up!

You can check it out at PlayOutdoors - Campfire Blog.

Off this morning for a hike with the girls to try and find some blooming wildflowers.

Happy Tuesday!

feeling a bit better

Avery is still coughing but last night was a bit better. We got the humidifier set up early last night and she took a very hot steamy shower with me today. The coughing has all but stopped during the day and so far she has been down for almost two hours now with no coughing!

Thanks so much for all the advice! So great to have experienced moms to go to for help.

And since she was feeling a bit better today I let her outside for a bit to do her new favorite activity!

Okay, swinging pictures are really hard. These aren't great. I will have to try again!

the cough

Avery is driving me nuts right now. She is getting over a pretty rough cold, both girls are, but as the noses are finally drying up and attitudes/energy are improving she has developed a cough. She doesn't cough during the day, just at night. And it is a bad enough cough that she can't sleep through it and neither can I.

She is content to stay in bed, not crying or wanting anything, just laying there coughing. Every few minutes. I am a light sleeper and constant worrier. So the second the cough start I lay there listening until she finally falls back to sleep.

Last night was bad. She coughed for so long and so hard that I finally woke Chris up to go check on her (I had already been in several times). He discovered that she had thrown up! Yuck (and what a bad mom that I hadn't heard the difference)! It took her several hours after that to fall back to sleep. So it took me several hours to fall back to sleep. I just laid there, listening to a helpless small child cough. Every few minutes.

Right now I am exhausted but the coughing has already started. I know the night that is ahead of me and I am NOT looking forward to going to bed. I feel bad for her, I swear I do, but I do NOT function well on little sleep. And poor Sam (and a little bit Chris too) has been taking the brunt of my lack of patience.

I just need this night time coughing to STOP!

I think I am going to try and sneak in and put the humidifier in there...aren't those suppose to help with coughs? Any other suggestions?