Growing Grays: Cure for Cabin Fever

Our week
This was an interesting week but the challenges far outweighed the joys. Everything started Monday when Doreen (our wonderful Monday nanny) called me at work saying something was wrong with Hadley's arm. She described the symptoms - right arm hanging limply and Hadley whimpering in pain -this is exactly what happened when Hadley's elbow got dislocated in September. Nothing obvious had occurred to make it happen this time but when I got home it looked like another case of "nursemaid's elbow." Hadley wouldn't even let us put a shirt on her and she kept saying "hand hurt" so I threw a little pink poncho sweater over her head, bundled her in a quilt and drove through a snowstorm to the doctor. She was so sweet and cuddly as we waited to be seen. The first thing the doctor had us do was play in a little toy area so that she could observe Hadley's arm. The first thing Hadley did was raise her right arm high to grab beads on a toy. I stared - part of me thinking "it's a miracle!" and the other part of me thinking that the doctor is going to think I'm a crazy person for dressing my child in blue pants, a pink poncho with her belly hanging out and driving through a blizzard for no reason. The doctor confirmed (yep, I'm sure this will cost us $150) that the tendons around her elbow popped back into place on their own and assured us that eventually Hadley will outgrow this. Just that morning I thought I'd love to have more time with the kids and I got my wish. Hadley and I cuddled and got an extra 2 hours together that morning.

Tuesdays through Thursdays nanny Amy comes to our house. This week - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, something unbelievable happened each day that prevented her from taking care of the kids (none intentional or her fault!). So I worked from home most of the week. In a way it was a blessing in disguise because I didn't have a lot of meetings and the kids were so wonderful. It was a great week to work from home - and again I got my wish to spend more time with Miles and Hadley.

A sweet moment
Today Miles took Hadley's toy (typical these days) and while I was telling Miles that he needed to give it back and ASK her for it instead of just grabbing it, Hadley, never complaining, leaned over and started hugging Miles. Then she just walked away and started playing with something else.

Cabin fever
The snow and cold continues here - it feels like February - and I thought that if we had to spend one more cold, snowy weekend at home I'd go a bit crazy (or crazier). Friday afternoon I thought - let's just get out of town and do a road trip. The Nickolay family was in for an adventure too so we found a last minute deal about a 2 1/2 hour drive for each of us and Saturday headed to Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, MN, near Brainerd. I can't describe adequately in words how much fun we had! It was just the cure for cabin fever. We stayed in a huge, two-bedroom condo on Gull Lake, had yummy meals at the lodge and thoroughly enjoyed the pool and water-slide. It was a perfect 26 hours.

Some little princess is very proud of her two little pig tails in the back! (Mommy's proud too.)

Since I got to take Miles to and from preschool this week I captured this picture of him with his "queen crown" in honor of the letter of the week - Q!

When I proposed a spontaneous road trip adventure to my family everyone was game and started packing immediately.

Ready to hit the road!

Sometimes you have to find the beauty in a long, Minnesota winter.

This was the first trip that Miles picked out his own clothes and packed his own little suitcase. I have to say that the fishing hat was a cute touch!

Relaxing at the condo watching March Madness. While not at the pool or the lodge we snuggled in by the warm fireplace, watching the snow fall outside.

There was one huge water-slide at the pool and Hadley must have done down it 30 times. She loved it saying "more water-slide - go, go, go!," as she pumped her arms in the air and waved to everyone from the top.

Do I even need a caption when their smiles say it all?

It's pretty cool to be lounging on a beach chair, enjoying the tropical humidity of the pool when there is 2 feet of snow outside. Miles and I also loved the water-slide and we went down it as a family several times.

We threw this trip together so quickly that we didn't even pack toys and didn't need them. A cupboard, the perfect size for little kids, is all you need!

Two little cousin-buddies - just one month apart in age - enjoying the view.

I feel like the luckiest girl to have such a wonderfully fun family...

...and the two cutest...

...and sweet kids ever!

Me and my girl just off the water-slide. Hadley's fearless!

Everyone loved swimming.

Me and my little brother. Mike snapped this photo and sent it to both Matt and me. Independently of one another we each told Mike when we saw the photo "that's a good one!"