Sick ears and eyes

Elise and John Harrison both had their first (double) ear infections this past week . . . and respiratory infections and pink eye at the same time. Elise went from one sickness to the next having had a viral infection two weeks ago and a runny nose that carried over from one infection to the next. David and I both caught the respiratory infection and so between not feeling good ourselves, taking care of sick kids, trying to comfort our kids when they have nights of really rough sleep, and David trying to work, we are pretty exhausted. I am so tired in fact that when I was at the doctor's office with Elise today I looked down at my iPhone and thought that I should turn it on mute before the doctor came in...but, I just stared at the phone not remembering how to mute it. I did remember where the mute button was about 10 secs later. It started to sink in just how exhausted I was. I had high hopes of an afternoon nap, but after over 30 minutes of rocking and singing, I couldn't get Elise to go down for her nap. I put her down, she fussed and refused to sleep. I went back in her room and again tried to help her go to sleep . . . to no avail. Even though I imagine her ears were hurting, she was still so sweet, alert, and talkative. After more singing, rocking, and swaying, I put her in her crib hoping she would be able to go to sleep on her own. That didn't happen so neither did my nap. Hopefully tonight will provide some rest for the weary and further recovery. I think that one of the more challenging aspects to parenting thus far has been being sick at the same as the kids.

Tea, anyone?

We got Elise a Fisher Price tea set for her birthday. Needless to say, there has been a lot of tea made and served in our house recently (mainly from John Harrison who has a strong affinity for sister's birthday gift). Before John Harrison woke up from his afternoon nap, Elise got some time to play with her teapot this afternoon without the risk of it being seized by brother.

Party

We treasure our precious baby girl and enjoyed celebrating her first birthday yesterday. She is such a joy, has a sweet, loving personality, and had truly blessed our family.
Elise devoured her cake and inhaled her ice cream! She loved her gifts (vintage fisher price music player and fisher price tea set) and brother loved them even more:).

One!

Happy first birthday, Elise!

Feels like summer

Visit to the park

Three!

Here are some more pics from John Harrison's third birthday dinner.
One funny thing I failed to mention in the post I wrote on John Harrison's birthday--at Wal-mart the morning of his birthday, the cashier came to our side of the register, put her arm around our son, and sang "happy birthday" to John Harrison. She even asked him if she could come to his party--she was really nice...maybe we should have invited her. It was one of those moments when you don't know exactly what to think or do---however the overwhelming thought was: only in a small town in the South......
The funniest moment of the entire day, however, came after dinner while we were sitting around the table eating dessert. My Grandmama, who had already fished her cake, reached her fork over to John Harrison's plate to grab another bite of cake. John Harrison said, "no, Great Mama" and pulled his plate away.

Let him eat cake . . . for breakfast!

John Harrison has had a peanut butter milkshake for breakfast almost every morning for the past 16 months or so (lest you think we are awful parents similar to those of the girl who only ate chicken nuggets her entire childhood, the "milkshake" is made with milk, peanut butter, ice, and stevia---we created the recipe after getting frustrated with John Harrison getting hungry mid-morning after eating a carb-heavy breakfast---he get hungry about 10 am, ask for a snack, and then not want to eat lunch--anyways, we figured the protein in the milkshake would help prevent the morning hunger strike while still allowing him to be hungry for lunch and it has done just that). At bedtime each night, John Harrison gets a serious look on his face and informs us that he wants a peanut butter milkshake when he wakes up in the morning. One of the songs David sings with John Harrison before bed recaps the events of the day and always starts out by John Harrison excitedly describing how he wakes up and drinks a peanut butter milkshake. Ok, so last night David put John Harrison down to bed and told him that since it was his birthday the next day, that he could have anything he wanted for breakfast. David was sure John Harrison would emphatically say he wanted a peanut butter milkshake. John Harrison thought about it and told David he wanted cake for breakfast. So, this morning after his milkshake, we gave John Harrison a small piece of cake. Happy 3rd birthday, John Harrison:)

We have had a really fun day so far with our birthday boy. We sang a happy birthday song over and over to John Harrison when we went into his room this morning and he was thrilled and ran around dancing and waving his arms in a chopping motion. He is in love with his new gifts from Mommy and Daddy! We went vintage and found him an early 1980s era HotWheels stow-n-go car wash/service station toy on ebay. David had the exact toy when he was little and we knew that with our son's fascination with parking lots, garages, car ramps, etc., that he would love this toy (he does!!). Apparently other people have the same interest in 1980s era toys because I had to bid on several auctions until I finally got one at decent price (which, crazily, is more than the toy was new....oh well....so many vintage toys are so much better and more engaging than a lot of current toys). (Although there are plenty of awesome new toys that John Harrison thoroughly enjoys such as Duplo, wooden train set, Little People sets, and Magna-Tiles).

John Harrison really likes Fisher Price Little People right now so we got him a set with a little car, mechanic stand, gas pump, and two oomies (John Harrison's word for Little People). That set I found on Amazon (prime eligible!!) and even though it hasn't been made by Fisher Price for some time now was still a very reasonable price.

We took both kids with us when we went to vote this morning and then headed for the park. We recently discovered a park that is about 10 mins from our house and took the kids there for the first time on Sunday afternoon. John Harrison was so excited to be going back and enjoyed a ride in the stroller around the lake, feeding the ducks, and then playing on the slide. Elise enjoyed the stroller ride and loved seeing the ducks, but after a while started doing the "all done" sign language symbol --- I think she was getting a little cranky since she had given up her morning nap so brother could have birthday fun. John Harrison came over several times to ask Elise to play on the slide, too :). Before too long, she'll be right behind him climbing up the stairs and sliding down independently!

After the park we went to Dollar Tree to let John Harrison pick out mylar balloons (we have done that every year since his first birthday), but sadly the store was out of helium. We let him pick out several HotWheels cars since we couldn't get balloons. We went to Wal-mart to check out their supply of balloons, Before heading home, we got John Harrison french fries from McDonald's and a drink from Sonic. He went straight to playing with his new toys when we got home and we had to pry him away to eat lunch. John Harrison cried when it was was naptime since we wouldn't let him take the HotWheels car wash toy with him to bed. My parents, Grandmama, and David's parents are coming over for a birthday dinner tonight. I made John Harrison's cake(s) yesterday. He wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake and so you can see below for how my train-making cake attempt turned out (the little guy beside the train on the cake is supposed ti be Thomas's driver--the closest edible thing I had was a marshmallow gingerbread man). Before we had kids, David bought me a cake pans that makes a bunch of different little train cakes and so I used that pan and round cake pans I already had to make a layer cake with "Thomas" on top and then decorated a bunch of the small train cakes. John Harrison's eyes lit up when he saw how the cake turned out. After getting over his initial awe, he said, "Black number one!" "Thomas number one!!" (for those of you who may not know, each of the Thomas trains has a number---I thought about making a Henry cake since Henry is the number 3 engine, but ultimately decided on Thomas since he is John Harrison's favorite train). I can confidently say that David and I are having almost as much fun (if not just as much fun) as John Harrison is having today. There is just something so special about celebrating your child's birthday and watching them have a blast. In just 10 days, we get to do this again with Elise's birthday!!

Pictures from the past week...