on the up

The antibiotics have helped me a good bit, and I'm mostly human again now.  I still have a cough and residual sniffles and the occasional sore throat - but those things are minor and I'm feeling a lot better now.

I've even tiptoed back to trying to be minimally productive at home.  I took out the trash and took down the christmas tree yesterday.  Major movement, there.  It won't be long before I'm going to have to admit that all of our suitcases are still waiting to be unpacked and put away.  Next thing you know, I'm going to be cooking dinner again and everything.

Being sick is rough.

My feeling better has been casually correlated with my getting my computer back as well (the crowd cheers).  Lucky for me, the problem was that my adapter had blown a fuse and my magsafe board needed to be replaced as well.  Easy Peasy and we're back in business.  I'm happy that I didn't lose all my pictures and files liked I'd feared.  Maybe now would be a good time to look into backing up my computer on occasion.  Maybe.

The girls are good.  Abby is happy to be back in her routines again.  She will occasionally ask me, "Am I still in Boston?"  Just to check, y'know?  Over vacation, she became obsessed with the Lion King.  She's now memorized most of the song "I just can't wait to be king" and she sings it all the time.  It's really very funny to watch her.  On the plane home, she crushed up a yogurt bite, smeared it across Kyle's forehead and said, "Look!  Just like simba!"  Fun stuff.

Elizabeth is faster everyday, and stronger.  We lowered her crib down finally.  She can get where she'd like to go.  She's pulling up to her knees and feet when we let her. If I hold her hands, sometimes she'll take a few assisted steps, but I don't think she'll walk outright for a good while.  Last night she started clapping.  It was the cutest thing ever - and she's SO proud of herself too.  I have a video of it, but if I posted it, you would all die of cuteness, so I may just keep it to myself.  Or maybe I'm just too lazy to upload it.  Either way, trust me, adorable.

My other favorite thing E does is let us chase her.  She'll start crawling, and the whole time she's laughing and gasping and nearly hyperventilating from excitement because she's anticipating being chased.  She'll slow down long enough to take a quick glance behind her and when she sees me on all fours crawling fast toward her - she screams and does a little cartoon-like jump and tries to crawl faster and faster.  It's completely addicting to see her so excited and happy and playing.

Abby has entered the "why?" stage.  It's crazy.  It's like, she turned 3, and BAM - "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHHHYYYYYYY?"  And I always thought I'd be good at this game.  Like, ok, kids ask why all the time because they're curious!  They're trying to figure out the world, what's the big deal?  Just answer their questions and be patient.

But, you see, it's not like that.  I mean, sometimes it is.  Sometimes Abby just wants to know WHY something is because she doesn't know and she's figuring it out. But, most of the time, "WHY" is just a word that she automatically says.  Such as:

Abby: "Can I have a banana?"
Me: "Ok"
Abby: "WHYYYY???"

Me: "Good morning, did you have a good sleep?"
Abby: "WHY?"

Me: "Abby, would you like milk or water?"
Abby: "WHY? Oh.  Milk, please"

And when she's on a why-spiral of questioning me, it takes about 7 turns before I'm out of answers.

Me: We're going to the grocery store
Abby: Why?
Me: Because we need milk
Abby: Why?
Me: Because you like milk and we ran out.
Abby: Why?
Me: Well, you like milk because it taste good and we ran out because you drank it all.
Abby: Why?
Me: You drank it all because there's no more left.
Abby: Why?
Me: Because there was only 1 gallon.
Abby: Why?
Me: Because I only bought 1 gallon.  Because I can only afford so much milk at a time.  Because my job only pays so much per month and because we can only finish so much milk before it expires because you can only drink so much milk in a day and we can't always have milk at the ready, because sometimes, SOMETIMES, we just need to go to the store.

ad nauseam.

So, I've developed a strategy for breaking these cycles.  When I run out of answers, I just ask, "WHY are you Abby?"  It makes her laugh.  And she has always given me the exact same answer every time.  I do not know why she answered it this way, but the first time I asked, she says "Because I'm Abby and I'm a helper and I can wash things!"  That's her answer.  Every time.

*shrug*  It breaks the cycle, so whatevs.

My point is, things are fun around here.  :)

I'm hopefully going to work on getting my pics uploaded from our trip and I'll finish documenting all of that fun-ness soon.  Till then, have a good wednesday.