I Should Be Sleeping

It's been a week since I last posted. I have a million things on my mind and no time or energy to post about them.

The twins turned 20 months on Saturday. That's a TWO and a ZERO, people. To quote my best friend, "That's emmereffin crazy!"

The weather here in Southern Ontario was incredibly glorious last week, so we spent an inordinate amount of time enjoying it. The kids are so happy when they can spend so much time outside and happy kids make for happy parents.

We found a new park just down the road. It is literally brand new and not just new to us. It has at least two feet of soft sand (instead of the hard gravel at our nearest park) to cushion falls and the equipment is super-fun and challenging.

I bought some sand toys, some sidewalk chalk, and some little cars and trucks at the dollar store. Each time we traveled to the park, we sprawled out all of the new toys and invited other kids to come play with us. I loved seeing Chick and Pea walk up to the other kids and hand them a toy. It completely melted my heart. Isn't this what parks are for?

Unfortunately, the weather over the weekend was not as friendly and we were back to spending time indoors. April showers? You betcha!

I have learned to trust my Mother's Intuition. Ten minutes after we put the twins to bed on Saturday night, I decided to check on Chick. She usually plays in her crib until she falls asleep and we can hear her doing so on the monitor. On Saturday night, we didn't hear anything. When I went up, she was just lying there with her eyes open. I kissed her and left. I told J. that I thought it was odd that she was just lying there and he thought maybe she was just overtired. Twenty minutes later, I checked on her again and she was still lying there awake. I scooped her up and rocked her for a bit until she fell asleep. She woke up crying shortly after midnight (Chick never cries through the night unless she is sick) and was completely stuffed up and coughed (bark-like) until she conked out just before 5am. A trip to the clinic on Sunday revealed croup. Poor little thing.

The doctor told us to keep Chick outside as much as possible and that the cold air would be good for her. So, when J. and Pea left to run some errands, I took Chick on a 5K walk. It was FREEZING and snowing, so I bundled her from head to toe. We were gone for about an hour (we stopped at a park midway so she could stretch her legs and have a snack) and when we returned home, she was full of energy and ready to play for the first time all day.

I bought all of the fun Easter goodies we are going to give to the twins on Sunday and will assemble it all in their new Easter Baskets. We weren't going to do anything for them this year because they would have no idea otherwise, but something stirred in me that made me want to have them go on a hunt this year. I can't wait!

We are signing up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Organic Veggie Bin service from a local farm. In addition to lovely fruits, vegetables and herbs, we will collect a dozen eggs per week from pastured hens. The program runs for 20 weeks (from June to October) and I'm excited about buying from local farmers who are humane in their treatment of animals and the Earth.