no more sickness here!

We are all finally healthy. Robert had a moment yesterday when he thought he might be coming down with something, but thankfully it was nothing serious. I spent the weekend enduring a raging sinus infection, but now feel 100% better. Addison is A-OK now, thank goodness!

Addison returned to school this morning with a cheerful grin and a bit of a skip in her step. She agreed to walk to class with Miss Stacey, which gave Robert & me great relief and comfort...oh how we dread the return to school after a break! She even turned and blew a quick kiss to us before disappearing into the classroom! Hallelujah for this morning's drop. We can only hope that the rest of the week goes as smoothly as today did!

We visited with baby Stokes again. Addison got to hold him this time, which tickled her to no end. She held him for about 2.5 seconds and then said, "Ok, Daddy. Now you take Stokes." She held him just long enough to snap a quick photo, which pleased me! She was very gentle and (mostly) calm while we were there. Her excess engery was diverted to Trevor & Jen's dog, Yoshi. Poor Yoshi. By the time we left, he was hiding under their coffee table...Addison can be a little too gregarious sometimes. But the way I see it is that Addison was just given Yoshi a taste of what life will be like as baby Stokes grows older!

We also went to the pumpkin patch, but I'll have to write about that another time....

sick, new skills, interns

Addison is sick with pneumonia and the flu (type A). After one day on antibiotics, she's significantly improved. No fever to speak of in the last 24 hours, no more drippy nose, minimal coughing. Antibiotics are wonderful! Regardless, she has to stay out of school until next Monday.

I've noticed a few things about Addison lately that I find amusing:
1. She's obsessed with colors. For instance, when watching her "Your Baby Can Read" video or doing her flashcards, she'll read the word and follow up with "But, Mommy, cats aren't green!" (because the word is written on a green background. Similarly, with her game "Cariboo" - there are colored balls that are concealed beneath squares that are labeled with different colors, words, shapes, and numbers - Addison can't stand it when a ball does not match the card that it was hidden under. "No! That's not YELLOW! It's GREEN!" and she proceeds to move the ball to a matching color box.
2. She's obsessed with sequence of events. Everyday she wants to know, "Mommy, what are we going to do first? And then? What's next?" She will repeat the order back to us, and ask again, just to be sure nothing is changing. I think it's great because she's not surprised by events now...she knows what to expect and I think it's soothing to her. She feels a part of the decision-making process.
3. She wants to be everyone's big helper. All the time - "Can I help? I want to help! LET ME HELP!" It's great because she really can help with lots of things. It never hurts to spread around the workload!

In Nicole News, I'm getting an intern in the spring. At first, I was not excited about the prospect, but I am warming to it now. I met the girl today - she spent 1/2 day in class with me - and she seems highly motivated, interested to learn, and aware of students' diverse needs. She was complimentary of several things she saw me do in class. I was impressed she picked up on them so quickly - never saying "no" to a student, but rather stating it in a less judgemental way, "good thought, but let's try that again"; patience; ability to converse with each student personally during class; understanding that each student is not going to spend the entire 50 minutes on task, quiet, at their seats. Based purely on her comments today, I think she has a similar teaching philosophy. I am excited about the opportunity to help her build skills that she will use in her own career. I just hope I'm a good example - I saw lots of non-examples of good teaching as a student teacher and intern. I only hope I have learned from those mistakes and that I can be a better leader for my intern. Wish me luck in January!

Robert is officialy the best daddy ever. He stayed home with our sick little girl today and will stay home with her again on Wednesday. He is so generous and wonderful. Addison is one lucky daughter and I am one lucky wife! We love our Daddy!

I am looking forward to a day off with Addison tomorrow. It's the first sick day we've had together in a long, long time. Hope we can keep each other entertained!

little known fact about toddlers & the doctor

If you have a sick child, all that's needed to rid them of their illness is to call & schedule an appointment with the doctor. You don't even have to go to the appointment. Before you get to the office, the illness will be gone. Absolutely miraculous. Just thought I'd share that helpful little tidbit with you all.

Dr. Elzie was wonderful as always, and gave us a "just in case" prescription to fill if Addy's fever wasn't gone in two more days. Luckily for us, she was better before we got to the appointment, so we didn't have to fill it.

Today was a wonderful way to end the work week & start the weekend. After we got home, Trevor, Jen & Yoshi came over. Then Fenella popped in for a bit to visit. I really needed some down time to relax & have real, meaningful conversations. Now I feel refreshed & ready to face the next week of work. Luckily for me, I have two more days in my weekend first. :-)

Funny story about our Realtor/friend, Kenley: He called me this week & left a message about helping to "bail" him out of "jail". (He was doing the MDA donation drive thingy where we was "locked up" until he met a certain goal). His message was so effective, I called him back as soon as my kids left class & gave him money. His secret? He pointed out that the only Realtor who was currently beating him in fundraising for MDA was my most favorite Realtor in the whole wide world, Joan (who made our lives miserable when she assisted out-of-town clients buy our Whetherbine Way townhouse). He is an effective salesman. If you need help buying or selling a house, he's surely your guy.

Happy weekend!

Oh What a Day!

Saturday was jam-packed for us Browns.

We woke up extra-early and went to the SouthWood Community yard sales. After an hour of driving around, we finally found what we'd been looking for - a new big-wheel bike for Addy. It's awfully beat up, but she loves it and it was only $5. We were thrilled. We spent $14 total for the morning and came away with some neat things. Very successful yard sale venture.

We then hurried over to the civic center to see Stacia's FPCHS cheerleaders compete in the FHSAA Cheer Competition. They ended up placing 4th! Addison loved dancing & watching the girls (and a few guys) jumping and flipping around on stage. It was great to visit with Stacia & see her girls be succsessful. We missed the final round and the awards ceremony, but what we did see was really, really good. Stacia has a great artistic vision for pairing cheer moves with music. Those girls certainly showed that they earned their 4th place finish! They were great!

We drove home and Addison drifted off to sleep. This is highly unusual as she hasn't taken an afternoon nap since December. She slept for about two hours & woke up with a fever. Not really high, but noticeable.

We went to the park with Adam & Seph (Matt's nephews) & Matt's parents. Addison seemed overwhelmed by the number of kids at the park, but miraculously decided to play on the slides and bridges rather than swinging for an hour like usual! Cousin David showed up with Grandma & Grandpa, and that really put Addison at ease. She & David & Adam & Seph played in the slides and ran around for almost two hours! Adam is exactly one week older than Addison, and Seph is 5. David is 9 already! It was hot, but lots of fun.

Then we went off to have dinner at Paulina's with David, Grandma & Grandpa. Yummy. Addison picked at her food. When we got home, her fever was 102. She stayed extremely hot all night (but I didn't measure her temp)...and woke up at 8 with 101.5. Tylenol did nothing for her. Her wonderful Daddy went out at 9AM to get her some Motrin, and since then she's been much cooler. Still grumpy and clearly not feeling her best, but cooler.

We planned to go to the Painted Pony today to paint a pony at their Family Fun Day, but Addy's sickness and the weather are going to prohibit any more fun this weekend.

One week until Fenella is here! And (maybe) Amaly, too! Yea!

Two weeks until our cruise! Whoo hoo!

busy week

Our laptop is back, but it had to be scrubbed. There were tons of extra videos and pictures of Addison that were not uploaded online that are not lost forever. It's a very sad day for me. I have learned my lesson, though, and we will be buying an external hard drive this weekend. I will never again lose all my memories. Dumb computers.

In happier news, we didn't have to buy a new computer or hard drive.

VERY busy week. Monday was our only calm evening. Tuesday Uncle Patrick came over for an early birthday dinner. Since he was here, Addison has pointed to the chair where he sat at dinner & said, "Uncle Patrick's chair". No one else is allowed to sit there now. :-) Wednesday was Book Fair night at school, and I was supposed to visit my friend, Kendra, in the hospital, but got sick that day with a cold/sinus something, and never made it. (I still haven't been to visit her & I feel awful about that!). Thursday is our normal busy day after school, 'cause I always have a meeting. Friday was exciting. We had our picture proof preview at Long's Photography. We will have an online gallery available at: http://www.longsphotography.com/pickpic/gallery/jump.php
(password: Maclay) where you can see all the images from our photo shoot and order any, if you want. The images will be available online from tomorrow (12/6) until 12/12. Long's designed the most awesome Christmas cards ever for us. I can't wait to mail them out. Should be about two weeks, but it all depends on how long they take at the printers. We ordered a five photo "story board" for Addy's room. It has a variety of the photos on it. We hope she'll enjoy it for many years. It's going to be printed on wood, so it should endure time well.

After that, we rushed to pick up Adds & then ran to Macaroni Grill for Janie's 38th birthday dinner. Did you know that at Macaroni Grill, if it's your birthday, they will sing Happy Birthday to you in Italian? With an operatic voice? They hire voice majors from FSU specifically to sing Happy Birthday in Italian. That's crazy, right? It was really cool, but I still think it's crazy. While we were at dinner, we noticed that Adds had a fever. Her wonderful Daddy literally RAN to CVS to buy her some Tylenol. Don't know how high her fever was then, but when we got home (and after a dose of Tylenol) she was at 100.4. It's likely her 2 year molars combined with her cold that are causing it. It's been a long time since she's felt so bad. She moped all through dinner. Sat in my lap & whined. Then my dad came in (to tell Robert something about the family poker game tonight, since we didn't hear our phones ringing) and after he left, Adds cried, "Doodah! Doodah!" - over & over & over. She even tried to run toward the door after him. Too cute, but I think Robert's parents were a little insulted. She must be feeling better now, because she went right to sleep with no arguments, and she's been sound asleep for almost an hour.

Be on the lookout for Addison's birthday invitation in the mail, everyone! Party will be on 12/21. Evelyn designed an adorable card again this year, so prepare to be blown away!

I am so glad this week has come to an end. We are very much looking forward to the weekend - Winter Festival tomorrow, and Market Days on Saturday. Yeah!