Mischievous late-night prowl of Dee and Dis

Faith cracks me up with her names of 'Dee' and 'Dis' for herself and her Maddie. It's so neat to know that she's at an age now where she is coming up with nicknames for the two of them as Maddie used to do when she was little and Faith was the baby. Faith is constantly over at the fridge looking at the family portrait that Maddie wanted me to draw weeks ago. It is purely stick figures of myself, Dan, Maddie, Faith, and Gordo (but, Faith today insisted on adding the swamp creature in the background of our family portrait as well!), but she loves it. She took it from the fridge today and put it on the couch where she would periodically go up to it this morning and point out, "Da-Da, Momma, Dee, Dis!" It's even funnier that she refers to herself as 'Dis' (or, 'this' in Beebsterness). 

Dee and Dis were up to no good last night though! It was quite amusing. Maddie had gotten up at about 9pm crying and crying that her ear hurt from the inside. Dan and I rolled our eyes and thought, "oh great here we go again... when will this ongoing sickness finally leave us all?!" It must have just been water though in her ear from her bath because after a short while, she was totally fine. Of course, she became quite talkative and animated and lost all sense of sleepiness. This in turn woke up the Beebster after Maddie was in a fit of giggles. I put them both in our bed after Dan went to work, and told them they could read a few books and then it was time for bed. They are so darn cute at this late hour and always put on the charm, so it's awfully hard to ignore their funny ways when I know I should so that they can go back to bed. Eventually though I went back out to the living room.

I ended up falling asleep for a little bit while watching "Forensic Files" as I do almost every night. I woke up and thought I heard voices. I was right. I got up to turn off the Christmas tree, and noticed none other than Dee and Dis sitting by the cottage playing. Not only were they playing, they had gotten three bins of toys out and had made a block city with ponies and pets as the citizens. It was actually quite an elaborate block city. But, this was at 11:37pm! I asked them what in the world they were doing, and Maddie's response was as follows: "Sorry Momma, but we were having a camp fire with a cookout." Haha. Needless to say, Dee and Dis helped clean up and went straight to bed after that, although Faith was still singing and reading past 1am!

'Science Lesson'

Maddie loves her 'science lessons' which usually include an episode of either "Planet Earth" or "Blue Planet." It just so happens that Faith also loves this part with the ducks falling out of the trees in the seasonal forests part of "Planet Earth." Maddie's laugh in this is pretty fake, but still funny. They always laugh hysterically at the plight of the poor little ducks!

18-week appointment

The little women never fail to entertain!

They were quite the entertainers at baby brother/sister's appointment today. Of course, that goes without saying that the volume in the doctor's office probably went up a few notches once they walked in and made themselves comfortable! Maddie had taken the poodle and pony Pets and Faith of course had her Baa and Boo Pets, so they were busy playing in the waiting room and entertaining a couple who had just had their second baby girl. They told Dan and I that it was neat to watch our girls playing because their two girls are fairly similar in age difference. 

Maddie is always concerned about her Momma, and wants to stand right next to me during the entire appointment. They both waved goodbye to me (which they did last time too) when I went to give a urine sample, and Faith was so excited when I came back into the room. Maddie gets concerned about the blood pressure cuff, and insists on holding my hand through everything. My little buddy. She's awesome. Faith was spinning Baa and Boo on the swirly chair, and would come stand next to me at intervals. She cracks me up because all I can ever see are her little eyes peeking over the edge of the chair.

Maddie changes her mind often about whether she'd like a baby brother or sister, but today she was insistent again that she would love a baby brother. She told the midwife and said she would like to name a boy 'Prince Phillip.' The midwife laughed and asked if she had a name for a girl that she liked, and Maddie quickly responded, "oh that's easy.. Aurora. Just like a princess." We might have to break it to her easy that Prince Phillip and Aurora are probably not going to be options! Faith of course answered that she would like to name the baby 'Baaaa' or 'Booooo.' Hahaha.

Besides that though, everything was perfect. My blood pressure has remained perfect at every appointment. I measure perfectly at a little under 18 weeks, and I have never felt better. I thought for sure I'd be more stressed this time around with having to care for two little women, but the 'stress' seems to agree with me I guess.

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We took the little women to see the Holiday Lights at Gring's Mill after dinner. They loved it. It was just the right amount of walking for both Cran and Flop. One of Faith's favorite parts actually was a tuba band that was playing Christmas music in the barn. She thought this was awesome, and stood the entire time with her jaw dropped. 

They put their reindeer cookies on the tray when we got home-- cheated, because I got those Holiday Place N Bake cookies, but Maddie is anxious to try all kinds of different Christmas cookies that she has seen in her favorite edition of 'Better Homes and Gardens' magazine!-- and were off to bed. 

2 peas in a pod

Double doctor's appointment

Optimism abounds

I know optimism will bring us our best chances for a quicker recovery for my little women, so I am trying to look forward to when they are completely themselves again!

It was quite hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel though last night, and into this morning. Dan and I just stared at them sleeping out on the loveseat (where they have requested to sleep since they've been sick, and been passed out before 6:30pm every night despite LONG naps) from about 8:30pm until he had to leave for work. We kept discussing the color of their cheeks which had by then turned fire engine red. They were both burning up. I woke up at about 1:30am realizing that I felt ridiculously hot, and realized that the source of heat was Beebster laying next to me. I checked her temperature, and it was 102.5. I gave her Tylenol, but by 2:00am it had risen to 103.5. I am not used to them having fevers or being this incredibly sick, and it really was making me scared. She screamed in her sleep from then until waking at about 8:30am. I would rub her back and stomach in circles, and this would soothe her for a short while before the screaming would begin again.

They both woke up with low-grade fevers, and I've realized that now the 3 of us girls have colds. Lovely. The cherry on top of the sundae. I'm thinking that on Monday Faith must have come down with a cold when she went out to Blockbuster with Dan for a short trip in the afternoon. She was the only one of us that day that was feeling well, and Dan hadn't quite been hit yet with the lovely stomach virus so he wanted to get her out for a little while. It just so happened that there was about a 5-minute downpour that looked like hail right when they stepped out of the car to come back inside. I'm wondering if, despite being dressed like an Eskimo, her immune system was still weak and then the cold and rain put the icing on the deal for her and she came down with this next cold. 

After watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and "Backyardigans" this morning and eating nothing more than a few tablespoons of applesauce for breakfast, I realized this day would be another disaster. Faith was crying from the discomfort of a runny nose and probably a sore throat and/or congested head, and Maddie was laying on the floor wanting to do nothing but sleep. I got out their Play Doh's and we spent a good while making pizzas, and luckily that seems to have turned the day around for my little women. I set up their Disney Memory game and a version that Faith could play too, and they loved it. Maddie got out Disney Scene-It and Faith even loved watching the clips and rolling the dice. They colored with markers then- and Faith made a picture which she hung so proudly on the fridge for Dan (she now constantly asks, "Where Da-da?" when he is not around)- and then played happily on the top bunk for almost an hour setting up Radiator Springs with Beanie Baby cats that were supposed to be Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz. My little troopers. I know they feel like total crap, but I'm hopeful they can finally have a fun day.

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