A long post...Sorry!

I was thinking about my sick kids and just wanted to jot a few things down:

The past 5 days have been hard ones in our household. Livi woke up with a high fever and hasn’t really gotten better yet. Her cough started around then, but has continued until it is a constant barking cough. During the middle of the night (5 straight nights!) she has coughing fits that will last 45 minutes and has thrown up several times due to it. We now have the mid-nightly routine to get the steam going in the bathroom for three 10 minute increments. (You know she isn’t feeling well when she takes naps WILLINGLY during the day!!!)
Spencer is also sick, not as bad, but I can tell that his cough is getting worse and his nose is running more.
They have both been so funny the past few days. I thought that when Livi was off for school break, I was going to go crazy, and I did a few times, but for the most part, I really enjoy having her at home and so she hasn’t gone back to school yet (since she has been sick) and I enjoy it. I’m a sucker for her blue eyes and blond hair...what a sweetheart.
Spencer has stopped taking his 2nd nap during the day, which I am not entirely happy about and goes down around 11 a.m. Yesterday, he slept for 4 ½ hours!! He loves CARS!! He loves to vroom them around the house. He loves his bath time!! Holy cow, he is a water baby if I ever saw one. Plus, last night he placed a little Elmo figure on the bathtub faucet and started yelling at me, “ook, ook!!” I didn’t realize he was talking to me until I understood he was saying, “Look, look” look what I did mom! He has started to stack his blocks (the ones he got for Christmas) instead of ramming his cars into the towers, it is awesome to see what he is learning and doing. When we are in the car, he will constantly say, “Mom, Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom” until I say, “Yes?” then he giggles, waits a few minutes and then does it again. Sooo funny. He is obsessed with Livi’s new Cinderella shoes (or shoes in general) he loves putting on Livi’s underwear (cross-dresser) and his daddy’s shoes.
Livi loves outdoors. We went outside and went sledding as a family a few times over break, she giggled so hard and it was AWESOME! She is such a good older sister and really loves and protects her brother. She is a good helper and will put her clothes away or fold them or whatever needs to be done. She doesn’t like playing in her room or by herself...although she is working hard on independent play. SHE MAKES SPENCER Laugh and giggle like we can’t…it is truly amazing how well they get along. She has been a little emotional lately, which could be because she is sick, but it is interesting to see her like that. Last night, she was especially ADORABLE!! She had a 3 hour nap and couldn’t fall asleep very well. Luke came home around 10 from work and she got up to see him…she was smiling her cute shy smile for about 15-20 minutes and we did some stretches with her to help her get “tired” for bed. It amazingly worked! She LOVES stories, especially before bed, where she will request a story almost every night. She loves her Princess blanket (it has become an attachment over the last few weeks/months) and Blueberry Patch, her Build-a-bear. It is adorable and she sleeps with her every night.

**Since this was written we took the kids to the dr's and Livi has strep and this funky bronchial thing. Her cough continues and will for several weeks, but we hope that she will start to sleep through the night and that she'll be a bit better before our Ohio trip!