The highs and lows of parenting...

So Lucy has a little problem with motion sickness and has a tendency to throw up in the car. Always has. We never know when it's going to happen. It hasn't been too frequent lately, maybe once every two months. On the way to Jackson, Peej, and baby Cam's house on Wednesday night she said "Mommy I get sick." I told her that she needed to hold it in and that if she got sick we couldn't play with her friends. In hindsight that probably wasn't the most sympathetic thing to say to a kid who's about to barf. Anyway, I'm driving down the road at 50 mph and she starts hurling. It was by far the grossest, chunkiest, smelliest vomit yet. Ick! We dropped off dessert and turned around to come home. Lucy cried the whole way home because she couldn't play with her friends. My mom came over to watch the kids (Dave was at school) so I could clean up the gigantic mess. This time I had to take the hose to get everything off the car seat, the mats, and her clothes before I could throw them into the washer. I am so grateful we got Lucy a new car seat this summer! The new seat is so easy to disassemble and washes up beautifully (her old one was really worn because of all the washings and took forever to undo). It still took over an hour to get everything undone and cleaned up. Lucy woke up with a bit of a cold yesterday morning, so I decided to keep her home from school (just in case her throwing up wasn't car sickness). We stayed in all day yesterday. In the middle of the night Gus woke up screaming. He threw up all over his crib. Dave was such a trooper and he had the sheets and Gus changed in no time. I got to take care of Gus and not clean up this round of puke. I guess Gus woke up at 5:00 (I didn't hear him) and threw up a little bit more. Dave was with him and was able to get it all in the sink. Poor kids. Poor parents. When I went in to get Lucy this morning she had thrown up all over herself and her bed (it still seemed fresh and wasn't nearly as messy as the other stuff). I asked her why she didn't call for us and she said she wanted to keep playing with her animals. Crazy girl! So I changed her and the sheets and put both kids in the tub. Hopefully, the worst is over.

Dave came home to watch the kids so I could have the parent-teacher conference with Ms. Eileen. Ms. Eileen was so prepared and had a whole sheet of points to talk about with Lucy. She told me Lucy's strengths: aware of other children's emotions, kind, her participation, recognizing letters/colors, sharing. At first she was worried about Lucy's lack of speech, but now she realized that Lucy was just trying to feel out the situation and that her language is not a problem (sometimes she has to ask Lucy to stop talking!). At home we can't get Lucy to be quiet. She is constantly talking to herself, her toys, or us. Ms. Eileen said Lucy loves to cook and play with the kitchen (that is her favorite thing at home, too). She said Lucy loves the puzzles, dancing, and craft time. Ms. Eileen just lit up when she talked about Lucy and went on and on about what a sweet little girl she is. It made me so, so, so proud. I feel like we're not completely messing up as parents, because our little girl is nice and polite when we're not around.

Gus has started to take initiative in how he wants to play lately. We play hide and seek every afternoon while Lucy is finishing up her nap. I go and hide on the other side of the bed and he crawls over to find me and I say "Boo!" He belly laughs and crawls away so we can do it again. Yesterday he crawled away and didn't come back. I followed him and he got the play blanket and put it over his head and then took it off really quick (how he plays peek-a-boo). It was neat to watch him decide that he wanted to be found and surprise me. He started fake sneezing a few days ago. When he sits down he say "Choo" and bends his head down to his knees really fast. Hilarious! We ask him to sneeze, he says "Choo," bends his head down and pops up to clap and laugh.

Still no offers on the house. One couple came on Wednesday and loved it. The husband said "I'm sold." So that's two different people who have said that without any prompting, but no offers. The guy who loved it on Monday is still interested, he's just trying to schedule a time for his fiance to come. He told Dave he really wants it and it makes the most sense for his family. I'm glad he's emotionally attached. That always helps. We're having an open house on Sunday. Until then, we're staying in. I don't expect much traffic with the snow coming tomorrow.