Winter weather

Every now and then we get a blast of cold air down here. Luckily, Kennedy thinks hats are about the coolest thing around.

Picnics and adventures

The girls and I went to a park on Martin Luthor King Jr. Day, to have some lunch and do some outdoor exploring.

Ponytails!

Saturday afternoon tea party

Lela and Resli decided to have a fancy tea party for grandma this afternoon. We started off with tea and snacks, and then progressed to games, reading and drawing contests. They are energetic party hosts!

Saturday morning chillaxing

The annual measuring of the girls!

Look how much they've grown!

Happy 2013!

Given the early bedtimes of many of the members of this household, we celebrated European new year at 6pm local time.

They bought it. :)

Sending 2012 off in style at Westside Park

It's chilly but sunny, and everyone is having fun!

Fun at the museum

Extended vacations from school always SOUND like a good plan, but the long unstructured days can definitely get tiresome for all. We're always s glad to be members of the Museum of Natural History, because there's always something educational and engaging to do there!

Matching PJs

Santa, in his infinite wisdom, thought that the three little ladies would look cute in matching Christmas pajamas. 

We agree, although getting a decent photo was admittedly a challenge!

Little Drummer Boy

The Angel Choir performed (among others) The Little Drummer Boy during the Christmas Eve service.


It's a long video, but it's cute. . .
By the way, if you make it to just before the 2:00min mark, the squeal you hear from the audience is none other than Kennedy. :)

Christmas festivities

We had a wonderful Christmas, not only because everyone was mostly healthy this year!

I'm blogging from my new phone app, so I can't seem to insert pictures along with the text, but below are some holiday photos: Angel Choir rehearsal, homemade (obviously) gingerbread cookies, Christmas Eve pageant, showing off new gifts... Enjoy, and I'll try to learn how to make better mobile posts!

 

 

18 months!

We missed the 17-month-mark and the 18-month celebration nearly passed us by... but we remembered in the nick of time. We were out having pizza with some friends, but luckily they had paper and crayons so we were all set.

O tannenbaum

Given our Thanksgiving ordeals, it took us a little longer than many others to get in to the holiday spirit. But last weekend we finally went out and got our Christmas tree.

And then decorated it. 

(Lela wanted to try tinsel this year and I gave in. Never again. Especially with the ceiling fan on...)

We think it's just about the prettiest tree ever.

Post-Thanksgiving update

Hi blogfans. It's been too long, I know, since my last post. My apologies. We've had a busy few weeks. I'll do my best to give you a quick summary.

The week before Thanksgiving, I went up to Philadelphia for a conference and then, that weekend, Harvey  bravely flew up with the three girls to meet me there. 

Unfortunately, upon their arrival Lela started feeling pretty sick. So the next day, while Harvey and Resli and Kennedy were off visiting Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell with Uncle John, Lela and I went to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 

They took great care of us, but we discovered through a chest x-ray that poor Lelita had pneumonia. She started antibiotics that day though and within a couple days was feeling much better.

We then went up to NY to visit Grandpa and Eleanor and had a lovely lunch with them at The Boathouse. No photos, unfortunately.

The next day we drove up to Rochester, where Nana and Aunt Meliss both live. By then though Kennedy wasn't feeling too well.

We took her to the doctor there where they suspected that she too had come down with pneumonia, so she started antibiotics too. 

In the midst of all this came Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to see Adam and Amy, Meliss and Mathias, Atticus and Emmeline, and Nana. Even in spite of ongoing health issues.

It was nice and cold up there, but we bundled up to go see Lake Ontario - couldn't pass that one up!

And we prepared to say goodbye to Nana and head back home.

Alas, Kennedy wasn't getting better, only worse. So we went back to the pediatrician there (for the third time) and he decided that this wasn't at all good. He sent us to the hospital there, Golisano Children's Hospital. Kennedy was feverish, dehydrated, on not breathing well, so they started an IV and ordered a chest x-ray. 

Somewhat to our surprise, Kennedy did not have pneumonia, but rather something called Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Unfortunately, because it can be very dangerous in young children, they admitted her to the hospital.

She was not well...

Harvey and Resli and Lela went home, a few days later than planned, because they had to get back to their routine, and Kennedy and I stayed. 

Kennedy's school friends all missed her and sent us a picture of the sign they made. I was very touched.

Slowly but surely, she got better and better, and on the third day they let her leave the hospital.

They did not, however, give her permission to fly until several days later. Lucky for us, that this misfortune had a silver lining - we got to spend four more days with Nana.

(And Ollie.)

So it was quite an adventure, but at last we are all back home, mostly healthy, and very grateful to be both of those things. 

Someone asked me the other day what we were doing for Christmas. My response: "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." We've had enough excitement for one holiday season!