A week in review

It's hard to believe that it has been a week since my last post. We've been busy beavers around here. To pick up where we left off, last Wednesday, we went to the Transportation Museum. We really enjoy their Creation Station room designed for younger children. Lily played with a tractor set, made a glittery train picture and played on the big wooden ship. Lots of fun!

On Thursday, we went to the Oakland House for a holiday extravaganza. Below are the pictures from this event.

The Oakland House

Holiday story - Lily was completely captivated by the reading

Puppet show. Once again, I don't think Lily moved during the entire performance. She was totally mesmerized.

Waiting in line to see Santa is hard work. Here, Lily takes a load off.

Lily finally gets to see the man of the hour. Luckily, we got a shot of the stark naked baby with Santa. I was afraid this shot would elude us this holiday season.

Into the kitchen for freshly baked cookies from a slightly scary Mrs. Claus. When sweets are involved, the kids don't seem to mind.

On Thursday night, Carl and I went to a cocktail party hosted by WUMCHA. It was nice to have a grown-up evening. However, Carl was already not feeling well at this point, and since he has been waking up at 4 am for work and not getting home until around 7:30 pm, going to the party was probably not a wise move. He is currently on his surgical pathology rotation which is by far the worst. He is getting hit particularly hard because the work load (number and complexity of cases) seem to be really high. The hours alone are not helping Carl recover from his illness, but the added stress of an incredibly busy work day makes it worse. All this right before the holidays - sheesh! This is the last new rotation for Carl. After Christmas, he will cycle back through all the rotations that he has done up to this point. I think that will be nice for Carl. It's always nice to have some experience under your belt and to know what to expect.

On Friday, Lily and I headed out to my parents house for a scrumptious chili lunch, some shopping, and gift wrapping. Good times! Lily has been very into wrapping gifts. At home, she gathers together little stuffed animals and trinkets and wraps them up for her baby dolls. She is so funny when she opens them up for the dolls and gives an exaggerated, "Oh, it's so cute! Look baby...isn't it great?"

Saturday is when Lily and I started feeling under the weather. I don't mind being sick in general, but it really ticks me off when it interferes with our social calendar. So far, we have missed: a holiday party held at the home of one of Carl's colleagues, a cookie swap with WUMCHA, cookie decorating at Whole Foods, and story time at Pottery Barn Kids. Stinky.

Today, Lily and I are having a completely self-indulgent day. She has been given an unlimited pass to tv watching today, and I am kicking back with my computer & internet access. We are pushing fluids big time. Our household is going through orange juice like it's going out of style. Luckily, getting in some fruits and vitamin C is never a problem with Lily. Since clementine season is back, we have had to limit her to *8* per day again. However, I have also allowed normally forbidden things, like say, eating frosting straight out of the can. Hey, whatever gets you through the day.

So far, Lily seems only mildly affected by the bug we have caught. Although, it is sometimes hard to tell with her because she remains in good spirits and is generally playful and active even when sick. But I can hear the congestion and coughing. She has occasionally complained of having a headache and seems aware that something is not quite right. She told Carl on the phone last night that her head is all wrapped up, and it's hard.

In other news with Lily, she has been impressing us with her use of some new words lately like "delicate". She is also really into telling secrets right now. The last one was that I was told was, "The hair is not real. It's fake." Like a bad toupee, I guess it's not a secret anymore. She has also gotten into Toot & Puddle lately which I like because they often visit other countries. As a sociology/anthropology major, I like that she is taking an interest in other cultures. During her play yesterday, she told me that we were getting ready to go on a camel ride. When I asked her where we were going on the camel, she replied, "Africa". That's pretty cool. Also, she was playing with a decorative fan the other day and when I asked her where she got it, she said, "China". Looks like some cultural studies will be our next topic in "school" whenever we both get to feeling better.