Everybody Sick

I never realized how much I take my children's health for granted until this week. Sure I've dealt with sick kids - only Anna up until last Thursday. But when I have to take care of two sick children at once, and I'm sick too, then it hits me how blessed we are to have a healthy family.

So Anna started cold symptoms on Monday night. Remember she was just getting over an earache? She didn't have a fever with it, nothing terribly bad, but she was pretty groggy and unhappy. I've been so thankful that Megan's managed to stay 100% healthy for the last 10 1/2 months. Then Thursday came...Now, you should know that I too spent the entire week with a cold/sinus infection (which is actually pretty normal for me, though still miserable.) Matt was also feeling bad. Megan woke up Thursday with horrible congestion. Long story short, after two sleepless nights, vomitting from 4am till morning, and much disinfecting, we headed to the doctor and discovered it had become an earache. Megan and I both hopped on the antibiotics and we're both feeling pretty good now.

Every time I tackle a week like this, in hindsight I realize that I've conquered another mommy milestone. So we'll chalk it up as character building, right? I know this is just one of many sick and sleepless nights. I truly am so thankful for being blessed with healthy children though.

Here are some pictures I took before this crazy past week. This is basically one of our creative ways we spend our colder days.

Anna was putting stickers on herself in her room today while she, Megan and I were playing.

Mommy to Anna as she was removing stickers from her arms: "Anna, why are you putting stickers on the bottom of your feet?"

Anna: "Meggie can't get them on my feet."

Smart girl.

Anna Back in the Game in Overtime

So Anna's illness was the result of a bad earache. Her fever was down by Friday afternoon. After reassurance from the doctor that she wasn't contagious, we headed over to the Blaze house for leftovers and a Thanksgiving dinner. The best part was watching the girls play together and the cranberry sauce came in a close second.

Megan sees a Christmas tree for the first time.

Hanging with Uncle Matthew

Megan had her head on Myla for almost this whole photo shoot.

Anna definitely felt better by Friday night. She and Myla had a blast playing Ring Around the Rosies in their diapers.

Two Days Before Thanksgiving...

Everyone was happy, everyone was healthy

Megan looks like she's posing for her senior pictures with Indi.

Anna helped me make a Christmas wreath.

Still a Happy Thanksgiving

Then Wednesday came and Anna started acting sick, running a fever, and then vomitting. Needless to say, we missed Thanksgiving outside of the house. At first, I was really bummed, especially with Matthew, Kasey and Myla in town this year AND missing all of the good food. But it turned out to be a relaxing, enjoyable day and it was a sweet reminder of what the holidays are all about. We still spent a wonderful day with our family of four and even ended up throwing together a delicious Thanksgiving dinner - with chicken instead of turkey - all served on our Opal Innocence china and silver that we never use.

Megan excited to see what all the fuss is about for her first Thanksgiving dinner.

Anna relaxing after dinner...in the hamper.

I loved my first Thanksgiving! (and my shirt said "My Little Turkey")

When you open my phone it plays a video of Anna pushing Megan on a swing. Anna opened it up this morning and energetically proclaimed: "Awww. Sooo cute! Megan's on the swing!" The funny part was that she's seen that video on the phone at least fifty times. Her enthusiasm for it made it seem as if it was a new surprise. I love waiting to hear what sweet words are going to flow from her mouth.

It's almost Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd finally post our Halloween pictures. Sorry, I forgot about them - oops!

Anna Quotes:
On the intercom waking up from her three hour nap: "Jennifer, come back! Jennifer, come back!"

I told Anna she had to share with Megan the yogurt snacks that I bought for Megan in the first place. Walking up to Megan, she cocks her head, offers the bag, looks in Megan's mouth and says, "Meggie Moo, finish your Mum-Mums. Your mouth is too full." Anna never did give her any, kept walking up to Megan using the same excuse, and ate the whole bag herself.

Proud Parents of an Honor Roll Student

My experience as a teacher tells me that every parent thinks his or her child is the smartest one in the class. Of course, I hate to lump myself into that category and I certainly don't want to brag....However, Anna is well on her way to earning us a bumper sticker shouting the title of this blog post.

A few days ago, as Anna was swinging with her baby doll, I asked her what the doll's name was. As usual, she replied, "Dolly." Once again I tried to explain to her that her doll could have a name just like she has a name. I asked her, "what is your whole name?" She said, "Anna Gabrielle Zumbiel, Z-U-M." I was shocked. I have made an effort to teach her how to spell Anna (I think it's quite easy being that it's only two letters to learn - for those of you who didn't know :), but we have definitely never worked on spelling Zumbiel. Many phone conversations of me spelling our last name for doctors or phone orders or billing inquiries flashed in my head. This little girl listens to everything. This little girl listens to EVERYTHING!? (hmmm...time to start censoring for sure...)

While Anna was swinging, I went ahead and encouraged her to say her name again and this time I just completed the spelling of our name for her. I didn't really emphasize it, but just let her know there were more letters. We went upstairs, went back inside, and she went to sleep for her nap. Later that evening when Matt came home, I told her to tell Daddy her name. THIS time, our little college scholarship earner said, "Anna Zumbiel, Z-U-M-B-I-E-L." AND the crazy part was that she remembered it from hours earlier. When she says it, the last few letters blend together, but she definitely spells it.

Aren't little baby brains the most amazing things?! It is so incredible to watch them just take it all in. It's wonderful to hear or witness Anna or Megan achieve something, but the best part is probably watching them feel so proud of themselves. I'm sure I'll experience the same proud feeling when I put the bumper sticker on my car one day :)

Megan Updates

Megan is now a little over nine months. I can't believe she's already older than the amount of time she was in my belly. Did this time fly with two under two? No, actually. And that's a very good thing.

I can remember looking at Megan when she was a few weeks old with 18 month old Anna demanding so much of my attention. I remember thinking that Megan's baby days could fly by all too quickly if I wasn't careful with how I spent my time. I made a conscious decision to take time and live in the moment with each of them as much as I could. I didn't want to wake up one day and realize that I was just going through the motions. So we spend our days creating a lot of memories and just trying to enjoy each little moment, monumentous and mundane. Are some days crazy when I want to scream and call in sick? Absolutely! But the point is that I've really taken time to enjoy my crazy life and not take these baby days for granted. It's the BEST to have a baby in the house again! (and no, that doesn't mean we want another too soon :)

So with that being said, Megan has grown into a little big girl right before our eyes. She has the sweetest personality you will ever meet (second to your own children I'm sure). If you've ever read "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, Megan's love language is 100% touch. She is a snuggler, a cuddler, an I-just-want-you-to-hold-me-close-and let-me-rub-your-face kind of baby. Now she is also a mover so unless you're mommy, she might not let you hold her too close these days.

Megan is pulling herself up on everything. She has started walking behind push toys. She has also started climbing which is a real treat when I'm trying to keep my eyes on our other little 27 month old climber. The coffee table has officially retired to the basement by the way. (The picture below is Megan on top of the breakfast table that Anna eats at sometimes. I turned around for probably 10 seconds and this is what I found.)

Megan just learned "so big!" this week and she says "da da" (daddy) on command.

We started signing around 6 months. Since we already know over 50 from doing it with Anna, we pretty much do them all for Megan and I think she is catching on a little quicker than Anna did. She definitely responds to the Indi sign, milk, eat, change diaper, swing, and Anna which is just the sign for the letter 'A'. She has even started doing the Anna sign which is so darn cute.

Megan loves bathtime. I think she finds it to be relaxing since it means she's by herself and away from her big sister.

She's starting to eat more and loves the whole experience. Our next mission is to work on some new finger foods for her. (It's so funny how much I forget about infant eating even though it seems that I JUST went through it.)

Within the last few weeks, Megan's first two teeth have popped through on the bottom. I just noticed this morning that her top left is about to break through too.

It's quite funny to watch Anna and Megan interact with one another. They definitely have started fighting over toys already. They will both grab something out of the other's hand if they want it. They make each other laugh which is pretty cute. Anna has started bossing Megan around by politely (and of course, impolitely) saying, "no, no Meggie Moo." And Anna is now getting a bit jealous of Megan using her toys -see picture of Megs on the car.

Finally, some of Megan's nicknames: Megs, Meg, Meggie, and Anna's favorite, Meggie Moo.

Enjoying the Weather!!!

A few weeks ago, I thought we were for sure beginning our prisoner days of being stuck inside. Then just when I think the cold has set in, we are blessed with a beautiful day in the 60s. We have definitely been taking full advantage of this. We spend so much of our time outside whether it's a day trip somewhere or just a simple playdate with our yard. I've been feeling kind of bummed thinking about the weather getting cold. And now since we are in an early flu season, I really need to find alternatives to indoor activities. Therefore, we have a new rule around here: if it's in the 40s, we're outside. Hence, we've been to the zoo four times in 10 days. Here's a photo recap of some of the fall activities we've been enjoying.

This was a trip to the riverfront to walk aboard Nina and Pinta replica ships. They were really neat and the history teacher in me was very excited to see them. (Anna loved it. The face you see in the pictures is actually her "camera smile".)

We love that we have such a great park we can walk to. We like to go play all times of the day (this particular time is on a Friday evening after dinner. It was such a crazy night, we closed the park down) and we love to feed the duck. Yes, I said duck. Lots of geese but only one duck.

We went to Findlay Market one morning and got a sunflower. Anna thought it was the greatest thing to put on her gardening gloves and help mommy plant the pretty yellow flower. She was so proud of her work.

I take the girls to the zoo by myself quite often. It's sometimes easier that way because then we can work on our own schedule. When someone else is with me (like Great Grandma Joyce -G.G.J.- in these pictures), then it's not too difficult to watch walking Anna. When I'm by myself...yes, I'm the mom who puts the harness on my child. P.S. I included the gorilla picture because it's just too darn cute! Look at the mommy holding her baby.

Pumpkin Patch Pictures
What parent doesn't look forward to these pictures every year? And this year was extra fun for the Zumbiel household since we now have TWO little pumpkins to pose. I literally mean "pumpkins". This year, Anna and Megan will both sport their orange and green for Halloween. We thought we'd try out the costumes at the patch. It went okay, but the girls were so interested in discovering all the sights that it was a bit difficult getting a good shot of them in their costumes. We managed some great ones pre-costume though. Enjoy the slideshow!

Disney on Ice - 100 Years of Magic

Amazing. Tremendous fun. Memories. Watching your two year old's eyes light up while she claps over and over and says hi to Mickey who she thinks is there just for her. Definitely one of the many priceless moments we just experienced as parents.

Not too much else to say. Imagine what it would be like to take your child to see Disney on Ice and that's exactly what it was. I'm sure it was only second to walking down Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom....yes, we're already thinking about that trip for our two little princesses....

I love this picture because it prefectly captures the innocence of a child. Here's Anna playing with her puzzles just minutes before we left for the show. She had no idea what kind of excitement was waiting for her later that night. Oh, if we could all just live in the moment.

Dancing in the aisle. Anna did a great job sitting on our laps. She finally figured out we were right next to the aisle at the end. We let her hang out there and dance for a little bit.

Anna brought this Minnie doll from home and held her the entire show. We actually got out of there without having to buy anything. Lucky us!