Being sick was a nightmare but what’s frustrating after the fact is all the catching up you have to try to do. I missed a couple of days of work so I had to catch up on that. The apartment which had been so clean post-party was experiencing that, er, “not so fresh feeling” so I had to catch up on housework (George was awesome about helping keep things under control but he was also under the weather at the time). I fear I may never catch up on laundry unless I just throw everything out and start over.

And I finally caught up on photos. Thanks to an online friend who is of German descent, I’ve been celebrating St. Nicholaus Day since Hayley was a year old. We accidentally did it a day early but no one cared much; we set out Hayley and Breanna’s empty shoes by the door on the 4th and then when they woke up on the 5th, their shoes were full of fun little trinket type gifts. I was not well at all so Hayley had all her stuff out and open before I could even turn my damn camera on, but I managed to get Breanna. There is a small photo set over here, and then after I took the last picture I crawled back into bed.

Even better, after over a week, I finally got the birthday party photos up. That includes the Caillou cake which I did indeed draw freehand with some of those squeeze tubes of icing.

When Breanna saw the cake, she yelled, “Caillou!” so I knew I had done a decent job!

My favorite of all the gifts she got was the little Dora the Explorer nightgown and I think the cuteness of this picture explains why.

The rest of the photos are here.

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We also played doctor catch-up today. Somehow they ended up getting their check up appointments today even though Hayley has been five since September and Breanna turned two last month. Whoops. It went well and everyone is healthy. Hayley is still almost popping off the height charts for her age, and Breanna’s just above the middle of the chart for her weight so everything is pretty much status quo. Hayley did really well and Breanna did just fine until she had to have her MMR and Prevnar vaccinations.

Oh, the screaming.

Usually when there are two needles to give to a young child, they get another doctor or nurse to come in and they each take a side, doing it at the same time so that they don’t have to stick a poor little creature two times in a row. Sadly, no one was available so the doctor had to do one and then the other. If Breanna could have gotten ahold of an assault weapon… Sheesh. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled when we go back for the booster early next year.

I felt so bad for her. She completely melted down in the waiting room while I was trying to get her into her coat. That was fun because some people were giving me dirty looks. Which is why I turned to Hayley and asked her, loudly, to “please hurry up and get your coat on so we can leave so that these people can stop staring like they’ve never seen a child cry from being in pain and afraid.” Assholes.

The best part was when we got into the elevator. It was me, the girls, George’s dad, and some guy in his 20s. The door closed, we hit the button for the main floor and we promptly got stuck between floors. The guy said, “um, I don’t think we’re moving. Does it feel like it’s moving to you?” Trying not to panic I said, “no, I think you’re right.” We tried buttons and nothing happened. I looked at him and said, “this must be exactly what you’ve always wanted, to be trapped in an elevator with a screaming two-year-old.” At least he laughed. I pushed the panic button, the bell rang, and then we started moving again. Thank God. I’m not exactly claustrophobic but I’d probably freak out in a stuck elevator after about the first minute.

So far things are fine. Both girls are asleep (I can hear Breanna snoring like a machine over the monitor – there should be a law about kids catching colds right after gastro!) and I gave Breanna some Motrin because she was feeling a bit warm. She should be okay for the rest of the night.

And on that note, I think I’m going to head to Japan with my copy of Memoirs of a Geisha. It’s been a long time since a book has totally captivated me like this one has!