How Gabe Sleeps

Don't ask me how the bear gets on top.

A Glance at Spring Break

It's been awhile, but we spent Phil's lovely spring break two weeks ago in St. Louis. Have I mentioned before that we love this city? For a family with kids, it's heaven. There is so much to do and see - a lot of it for free, even!

Gabe and Rubi are the best travelers. Gabe slept forthe first two hours of driving and then literally just stared out the window for the next hour and a half. And Rubi just slept. They both do the same thing - stare and sleep - whenever they are in the stroller, so our trip consisted of a lot of walking while Phil and I just got to talk. It was wonderful.

When we booked the trip, it was supposed to be sunny and sixty - lots of good weather for being outdoors, so I planned a lot of activities outside and mapped out our hotel accordingly. But, as can be expected in Missouri, we arrived in St. Louis, welcomed with a blissful 34 degrees. And wind. Gahhh! Such is the Missouri way. So, the one day the sun came out and warmed the air to a delightful 45 degrees was the day was the day we decided to brave the zoo. Other than that, we kept indoors.

Gabe hate the pool. Like really really hated it. He cried the whole time. Until Phil took him to the hot tub. Then the cry turned to a whimper.

Rubi didn't mind it though.

Real men push two strollers. At the same time. 

Beautiful day at the zoo. :) I'm sure it really looks amazing in the spring/summer/fall. Unfortunately, we've only ever been here during the winter months. But, this zoo truly is awesome! It's huge, clean, has lots of good viewing areas and...it's totally 100% free.

Kirksville friends: are y'all freaking out now?

Here's Gabe booking it out of the spider house.

He didn't want to, but Phil and I convinced Gabe to climb through this tunnel at the zoo. He cried at first, seemed un-amused at the end, and then just climbed back into his stroller.

After the zoo, we hopped over to the St. Louis Science Center. So cool! I wish we'd had more time to spend there. Gabe loved it too. Everything is hand-on.

Sadly, we didn't take many pictures, and even more sadly, Rubi was in very few of them. Always in the carseat and almost always sleeping. Except for here.

Triangle Quilt

I've been digging triangles lately, and wanted to try my hand at a triangle quilt. Getting the points to match up was way harder than I had imagined, but even with all the messy points (which made the quilting messy too), I have to say I really love this quilt. 

It was super fun and relatively fast to make. The backing is some white minky that I got from the Amish store in Rutledge (about 45 minutes away). Who would have thought that the best, most modern fabric around Kirksville would come from an Amish store? Minky is not terribly easy to quilt, but it's not as hard as I thought, either. Just in case you were wondering. And, I've already washed it - no problems. I tried to get Gabe to hold it up for me while I took pictures, but he was more interested in the water dripping from the rain gutter.

                                

Four Months

Four months, friends. It goes by lots faster the second time around. I swear we were just at the hospital having her! Her smiles are fantastic, her cries so pitiful, her appetite diminished (RSV, remember), her binkies worn out, her hands more skilled, her neck area more wet, her hair more gone, her belly more round, her eyes more bright, her laughs more sweet. This is our Rubi!

Snow Removal

Barely exists in Kirksville. It's more like snow move-over. For the most part, the snow is just pushed to the side of the road, sort of.  I understand why: it's a smaller town with few large roads and traffic. The town pretty much shuts down at the prospect of a few inches, so why bother wasting energy when no one will be driving anywhere anyway?

Because the roads are already narrow, two lane roads become one laners, and I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever be able to get our garbage cans emptied again. Not only is there no place for them on the side of the road on garbage day, but all 8 of them (for our complex, not just us. although, with the amount of diapers we go through, I sometimes wish it were just for us :)) are buried and barricaded in their wooden slots under heaps of hardened snow.

Winter rule: the blankie has to stay wrapped around the neck so it doesn't drag in the snow and slush.

How do you get triple clean teeth?

Use three toothbrushes!

Really Stupid Virus

An epidemic has exploded through Kirksville. It seems like every child under the age of two has been infected with RSV in the last couple months.  I'd heard of it before, knew what it was - it's not exactly rare.  But, this year, RSV has become the common cold. And, it hit our house this last week.  I think we have 1-2 more days left of incubation, and then finally, finally we will be able to emerge from our snowed-in hovel, slightly more pale and exceedingly more restless than we were a week ago.

Rubi was the infected one. It started out as just a cough. A nasty one, but still just a cough. So, I was surprised when the doctor decided to test her for RSV. It stayed a cough for a couple days, and then she started throwing up. I can't tell you how many blankets and sheets and onesies I've washed the last five days. Then, Saturday, she really looked ill. Phil claims that she didn't have a fever because the thermometer said 98.6, but I maintain my argument that our thermometer is broken, always has been, and that poor Rubi was burning up. Either way, it was clear that she did not feel well. She would barely move her body, would go limp when I held her, and would whimper any time she was awake. Luckily, it was short lived, and she seems to be doing much better.  Still washing sheets, though!

I would like to say that Gabe made it through unscathed, and although he hasn't been sick at all, he's had to suffer the torture of being a home-body for the last week, and having a mom who's run out of fun ideas to do indoors.

This was us pretty much every day. My spot was in the middle.

Major bed head. We didn't even care. Pjs all day too.

Here's Rubi's make-shift elevated bed on the couch.

Gabe and I have been doing a lot of this:

I've decided I enjoy playdough more than Gabe. And, for those of you unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet in playdough, the bottom one says "Gabe" too. You have to get creative when it's the third time that you've  gotten the playdough out in one day.

We also have been doing a lot of this:

One day I'll do a blog post about Gabe the chef. He's actually pretty helpful in the kitchen, and it's one of the only activities that will sustain his interest longer than 10 minutes.

And, here's one I snapped of Rubi while she was feeling well.

Here's wishing good health to everyone else!