Scars, illnesses, and maybe Spring? (4 years and 2.5 years)

Austin's scar is still not healed from when he fell on the playground in September.  The ends look great however in the middle has a red raised area.  A zit appearing thing appeared.  It looked terrible.  I took him to see the plastic surgeon.  Our surgeon is relocating however he offered to do surgery before he left.  Because it looked so bad, we scheduled surgery for Friday.  He did not want to do it in the office because of his age and prior experience with stitches.

Then on Tuesday night after seeing the doctor during bath time the "zit" broke open on it's own.  It opened again Wednesday morning.  Brian put a band aid on it and Austin went to school.  It looked much better Wednesday and Thursday morning.  I called and talked to the doctor.  He still feels there is something in there but he said there is no rush to "clean it out" so I cancelled surgery.  It continues to look better and Brian and I are grateful we did not put him though surgery.  Hopefully it will finally heal on it's own (update: it turned out it did!).

This winter we have been surprisingly healthy.  It has been so nice however Sydney got a GI virus.  It started Saturday night with vomiting.  Then the next day it was diarrhea.  She would be up a lot during the night too.  Since Sydney is a "big girl" she refuses to wear diapers and always wears underwear except at night.  That includes when she is having a lot of diarrhea.  Brian and I both tried to convince her to wear a diaper because she was sick but she adamantly refused.  She made it too the potty most of the time but there were a few accidents.  She continued to have diarrhea and was unable to attend school on Wednesday and Thursday.  That was difficult for Brian and I but Brian stayed home in the morning and I came home at noon.  It wasn't ideal but we had to do it.

Unfortunately around 11 pm on Wednesday, Austin started with diarrhea.  He was really good at getting to the potty.  It didn't seem to bother him too  much.  But he had diarrhea until Saturday.  We were worried because we had plans to go to Great Wolf Lodge on Sunday with our friends.  Brian had to stay home with them on Thursday.  By Friday they were pretty much better and they both went to school.  We were so happy they were better in time for Great Wolf Lodge.

On Sunday we drove up to Great Wolf Lodge for the night.  This winter has been so cold it was so nice to go somewhere warm for the day and night.  The kids love the water so it was perfect for them.  When we got there it was so busy.  I took the kids to the pool while Brian and Lisa stood in line to check into our rooms.  Sydney was a little hesitant as first going down the big slides but after a few times she was ready to go.  She always wanted someone with her though either Austin or Daddy/Mommy.  They played in the water until dinner time.  For dinner we ran out to Wendy's.  After dinner they played in the pools and slides until it closed at 9 pm.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel with our friends.  Then after breakfast we let Austin and Sydney play in the water park for an hour until we had to drive home.  Brian needed to be at work so we left by 10 am to get home.  We had a lot of fun at the water park.  February is a great time to go since there is not much else to do around here then.

The next week on Sunday Austin came down with a 102 fever.  The next day he developed cold symptoms.  Luckily he was better by Wednesday.  However Brian and Sydney got it.  They were really tired with cough and chest congestion.  When I picked Sydney up from school on Wednesday she was lying on the small couch in her classroom.  I knew she was now really sick too.  Brian and Sydney had to stay home on Thursday again.  We were doing so well this winter without any illnesses however we had 2 illnesses in 2 week's time.  The kids got over it pretty quickly however it has taken Brian a lot longer to get better.

This winter we have had snow on the ground since early January.  It has never warmed up enough for the snow to melt.  Just this week, we can see grass again.  The kids (with our help) built a large snowman in our front yard in mid January.  It just melted this week.  When we would walk back to the swing set, the snow would be up to my knees.  It was crazy how much and how long we've had snow.  Spring is finally coming.  It has warmed up into the 40's (which that feels like 60's to us).  Over the past week the snow has slowly melted.

However before the snow melted the one thing Austin wanted to do was build an igloo.  So Brian and Austin took a bucket and made like snow bricks to make an igloo out of his massive snow pile by the driveway (Brian tries to snowblow the driveway into one massive pile for the kids to play on).  Austin really liked it.  He wanted to do it because of the book Alaska's 3 Little Pigs. In the story the third little pig builds an igloo and the bear can't get him.  Austin enjoys that story.  Austin got his request before winter was over to build an igloo and he enjoyed playing with it for a day until it fell apart.  Fortunately no bears came to test his igloo.