The New Year

We spent New Year's Eve alone this year. Miriam went to bed around 8pm like any other night. We celebrated by making delicious mint brownies and watching the movie "The Ron Clark Story," which we highly recommend. The movie finished just in time to turn on the TV and watch the apple drop. We planned to invite people over for food and games on New Year's day, but Miriam had a bad cold and the rest of us were starting to show signs of getting it, so we decided it wasn't fair to have friends over and share our germs. So, we played games, watched football, and ate yummy food by ourselves.


Miriam's beginning to feel better although she still has a cough. Unfortunately, Henry has gotten worse throughout the week..runny nose, fever, deep chesty cough, and very "wheezy". I took him into the doctor on Saturday where they confirmed that he's pretty bad. They gave him a breathing treatment that was not as effective as we would have liked. We are now using the nebulizer a few times a day at home and praying that Henry will be able to breathe easier and feel better soon and that it won't develop into something worse. We are thankful that he continues to be a happy baby despite the circumstances.


Traveling for Christmas and then a week+ of diarrhea (side effect of her antibiotic) have required Miriam to have a potty-training refresher course this week. We're close to being able to trust her again and are excited to check potty-training off our list. Miriam is turning into a "gamer." Alvin's in heaven and I'm beginning to go a little crazy. She's constantly saying, "Let's play a game!" and as soon as you're done, "Now, let's play a different game!" Her inflection and enthusiasm are difficult to resist. We played Memory yesterday for the first time with upside down cards (we usually have them face up and just find matches). She surprised me several times by remembering matches that I couldn't even remember.

Miriam got some brown, chocolate-flavored chapstick in her Christmas stocking. Unbeknownst to us, she decided to sleep with it one night and we found it in her bed the next morning, along with some brown streaks on the pillow. The next night she asked for the chapstick and I told her she couldn't have it in her bed because that could make a very big mess. So, for three nights in a row we've caught her sneaking into the bathroom after we've put her to bed trying to get the chapstick! You'd think she would learn that we're on to her, but she persists.