"Santa ate my lovey!"...and other tales of Christmas woe

Well, I have finally recovered enough from the holidays to blog about the holidays. We had a great time with extended family, as usual, but also enjoyed staying home in our pajamas all day on Christmas day! It was especially fun this year as Alina is old enough to have expectations about Santa, presents, etc. Alina was amazed that Old St. Nick had eaten the cookies we left out. Later on that morning, her lovey came up missing. She was distressed about it and I asked her where it was. She started to cry and said, "Santa ate it!" I guess Santa can seem like a pretty scary character to a 2-year-old.

On the 26th we started our road trip to Jacksonville, FL. As we bid farewell to the 465 loop, we were all healthy and happy, looking forward to seeing friends and a trip to Disney Land on Tuesday. This feeling of wellbeing continued through Kentucky, Tennesee, Georgia....then something happened when we hit Florida. I know you're supposed to feel better as you go to a warmer climate, but what happened to our bodies was some sort of abberation. The first night, Alina woke up with a temp of 101. This combined with a new sleeping environment resulted in me pulling the first all-nighter since college. The next morning, basking in the glow of the warm Florida rays, I told myself that she must just be fighting off a little bug. Unfortunately, things only went down-hill from there. By Monday morning, she was spiking scary-high temps which I felt warrented a trip to the nearest immediate care center. As we were at the pharmacy getting Alina's presciption filled, Meagan started complaining of a sore throat. We only had one shot that week to go to Disney...with one kid now on antibiotics and the other kid in the early stages of getting sick, we thought we had a good window to make a break for it. Instead of staying the night in Orlando, we decided to get up at 4AM and drive the 3 hours from Jacksonville to Orlando (we like to do things the hard way). Fearing that the park would sell-out that day, and with the kids half-dressed and doped up on Motrin, we literally raced to the entrance.

Here we are looking pretty bedraggled, but successfully inside of the Magic Kingdom


We hated to wake Alina up when it was her turn to meet the Princesses, but gosh darn it, we waited in line long enough she was going to have fun

Notice, she has no shoes


The girls looking really cute in their face paint








We left the park 12 hours later at 8PM and drove to Naples, where we spent a truly relaxing and enjoyable time with friends. The weather was perfect and the girls loved the beach









Here is NiNi with "Aunt Monica". Ok, nevermind that she looks like AMAZON baby in this picture




Although the weather and the company were both great, our health continued to decline. Chris and I succumbed to the fever/sore throat virus, hitting it's peak during the 19 hour drive back up north. By the time mommy acutally drug herself to the doctor, it had turned into a mild pneumonia. Go figure.

Now we're back home, bracing ourselves for the really grueling part of Indiana winters. Hmmm...let's do a little comparison:

Florida: Happy, sunnny, lot's of endorphins flowing

Indiana: Cold, gray, low endorphins


I guess we still have our children to entertain us. Here are a couple of recent quotes.

Meagan: "Your spit smells like bologna" (A refreshing twist on the usual sibling banter)

NiNi: "I have a diaper rash. Need to put cream on it" (I guess when your kid is old enough to diagnose and treat their own diaper rash, it's time to potty trian)

I gave NiNi a good morning kiss and she said, "Mommy, you stinky" (What would we do without our children calling to our attention our bad breath, pimples, food stuck in the teeth, etc.)

In trying to psych NiNi up for breaking the finger sucking habit, I explained to her that she is a big girl now. Only babies suck their fingers. Then I asked her, "Are you a baby or a big girl?" She replied, "I'm a baby." So much for psychology.