Avery gets really excited when she eats and often lunges forward and grabs for her bowl or spoon. I don’t normally let her hold anything (too messy!) but Q is a bit more lenient than I am. Here’s what she wound up looking like the other night, when Daddy was in charge of dinner.

-M

What else did I miss blogging about recently? Q’s birthday! His birthday was last Sunday, and he celebrated it a day earlier by going to the horse races – just like last year. Avery and I stayed home, but he and Zoe had a lot of fun with friends – and the rumor on the street is that Zoe is quite good at picking winning horses!

-M

So what kind of things did blog readers miss out on this past week? Here’s a sampling of what I would have written about here, had I felt well enough:

Zoe has been on antibiotics for the past 9 days for an ear infection, and she’s actually been pretty excited about it. (I think it made her feel special to be the sick one – especially after Avery’s long illness last month.) “Avery, I’m sick!” she told her sister late one day last week. “My ears hurt, and I’m taking medicine!” … At the end of the weekend, Zoe got sick again and developed a fever. It was a short-lived bug (which she probably got from me), but she was pretty miserable for a full day. “I’m sorry you don’t feel well,” I said to her at one point. She looked up at me with big, sad eyes and said, “I’m sorry you don’t feel well, too.” … Though Zoe and I were both slowed by illness, Avery (thankfully!) was as busy and mobile as either. In fact, these days, she’s constantly on all fours, rocking back and forth in what BabyCenter.com calls the “precrawl.” (My notes tell me that Zoe started doing the “precrawl” at 32 weeks; Avery is 30.) This morning I noticed Avery was even moving her knees forward, before falling on her tummy – so I suspect we’re just days away from having a cruiser on our hands… Q noticed the other day that Avery’s two bottom teeth are coming in. She hasn’t been drooling or fussing more than usual, so there’s no telling when the teeth will make an appearance… And lastly, a funny Zoe story. “When you peel back a banana like this, you say ‘Yum, yum,'” she told me the other night. “Oh, who told you that?” I asked her, expecting her to mention someone at school. “God,” she replied. I prompted a bit further, asking her who God was (“My friend”) and when he told her that (“Yesterday”). I wonder what he’ll tell her next…

-M

Well, it’s been a full week since I first got sick – and I’m finally (finally!) feeling back to normal. It was a tough sickness – made tougher by the fact that I couldn’t take care of my girls the way I wanted or needed. I’m terribly grateful to Q for playing the single-parent role for so many days (I hope he doesn’t ever have to do that again!), and I’m thankful that we all made it through. And whenever I start feeling sad about the last week (thinking about missing time with the girls, etc.) I remind myself that Zoe and Avery are totally fine. (Avery, in particular, was totally unfazed by all the sickness-induced drama.) The picture below is actually from this morning, and nothing makes me happier than the sight of my happy baby!

-M

As you probably noticed, the blog has been pretty quiet the past few days. The reason: I’ve been sick. So sick, in fact, that today is the first day that I actually feel well enough to sit at the computer for a moment. I’m hoping that’s a good sign, and I’m hoping to be back up and running soon!

-M

Every night as I finish reading Zoe a book, telling her a story, and singing her a song, when I am on my way out the door she stops me and gives me her deepest thoughts for the day. Michelle suggested that I start writing them down, so here was tonight’s:

“Daddy, when I grow up and am as big as you are…actually, probably bigger…I’ll wash the dishes with hot water and put food in the oven and I’ll need a robe so the food doesn’t get all over me.”

Jon Q

Okay – so either Lou is shrinking, or my baby is growing really fast! Sadly, I think it’s the latter – as you’ll be able to see from the picture below. It was taken in honor of Avery turning 200 days yesterday, and there’s quite a difference from her first two photo shoots with him, seen here and here. And for fun, check out how Zoe looked at her 200-day mark!

-M

We recently mentioned that Avery started eating solids. She likes to eat (just like her sister) and so far has enjoyed rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce and pureed carrots. She really likes pureed bananas, too – but as for the real (chunky) thing? The jury’s still out on that.

-M

Okay, I guess we have kids that don’t complain much when they’re not well. I was surprised when I found out how sick Avery was a few weeks back (she hadn’t been fussing that much; I only took her to the doctor because she had a lingering fever and was somewhat lethargic) – and I was just as surprised to discover today that Zoe has an ear infection. Zoe commented a few times over the weekend that her ear hurt, but she otherwise seemed fine. It was only when her teacher called and said she was moaning in her sleep during naptime that I began to suspect something wasn’t right.

For having an infection (a “red-hot one,” in the doctor’s words), Zoe was in pretty good spirits. She was bouncing around the doctor’s office, and she said she was excited to meet “the boy” (i.e. the doctor who saw her in Dr. Fernandez’ absence). And she also made me laugh after I told her she wasn’t going to school tomorrow because of her ear. “Well, we can put a Band-aid on it,” she suggested. “That will probably help.”

-M

Safta and PopPop flew home on Sat., but not before PopPop did a few grandfatherly duties with Avery. After they left, we hung out with Uncle Dan and Jenny, and also with Angela – who was visiting from Wisconsin. Needless to say, the house seems pretty quiet now that everyone’s gone!

Here are a few more pics.

-M

As promised, here are some more recent pics, including a family shot from New Year’s Eve. The girls had a lot of fun during Safta and PopPop’s visit; it was a great way to kick off the new year!

-M

2010 = so far, so good. Our celebrations started last week, when Safta came for a visit. PopPop arrived a few days later, and we rung with in the New Year with both family and friends. We’ll post more pictures soon; for now, here is Safta with the girls.

-M