The Ridge: In Sickness and in Health

Lately, it seems like it's been more about the sickness part. After the kiddos and I got over a lingering cold, we headed into stomach virus territory. I blame our volunteering at the WARF, since we get exposed to all kinds of other kids' germs. Fortunately, we all seem recovered now but it's kept us from doing too many exciting things.

We did get to take advantage of some warm weather to play outside for a bit this week--hard to believe that a week ago we had temperatures in the 50s and it is currently 14 degrees and getting ready to drop loads of snow.

The biggest event this week was DC's trip to the pediatric ophthalmologist. We'd noticed a couple of months ago that his left eye has a tendency to drift outward. Occasionally the right eye seemed to drift too. Apparently, POs are quite busy and we had to wait quite awhile for an appointment and the closest POs were an hour in either direction. Turns out that DC has amblyopia (lazy eye/drifting eye) for no serious reason, just some weak muscles. He will be wearing an eye patch over the right eye for a short period of time each day and we go back in a few weeks for a follow-up appointment. His vision troubles don't seem to be slowing him down--yesterday he attempted to climb a stair for the first time and he pulled himself to a near-standing position on me in our bed. All this mobility and learning is making him pretty excited and he would much rather practice and explore than sleep at night.

With AW being sick and then me being sick, she's had a lot more screen time than usual. She wasn't too sad about it as it meant frequent viewings of her favorite movie: Land Before Time. She asks for "Dinosaur Movie" everyday (she doesn't always get her wish). Whenever we ask her what she wants to talk about, she says dinosaurs. I guess this means we need to check out some dinosaur books at the library!

As for me, I'm getting ready to start seeds for my garden. Usually I use a mild February day for this activity and work outside--not today! I'll be potting in our basement on the linoleum floor by the back door. I'm pretty excited, although a little daunted by the number of plants I'm planning on. Himself is working on a moveable grow-light system for my plant rack, but is kept from spending too much time in the shop because of the cold.

Enjoying the Warmth

We did have a very nice Valentine's day: we made chocolate chip pancakes with strawberry sauce for breakfast (although AW preferred her Cheerios--crazy!) and visited Home Depot. Then we picked up some goodies for dinner and headed to Old Bust Head Brewery for live music and beer/chocolate tastings. It's a very family friendly venue--so it was super packed. AW danced to the music and we ate cheese, sausage, and fruit. Not a bad way to celebrate our love as a family. It was 43 degrees and partly sunny when we left (a sign that winter IS ending, as it was past 6:00). The temperature quickly dropped, and about halfway home, we hit the snow squall. On the ten miles of highway leading home, we could barely see the side of the road and the temperature dropped twenty degrees. It was quite a white-knuckle drive but we made it. It was hard to believe we got less than an inch of snow with all the blowing and heavy snowfall--but it was done before we even got home. Crazy weather!