We're still here...

I am so behind. SO, SO behind on blogging. Little catch-up: Moses turned 4 on April 16 (hence the video below). I meant to put up some pictures from his parties, but never did (although they ARE on facebook!). I am 18+ weeks pregnant (will try to get a pic with my kiddos before church tomorrow). ZuZu has been to the Children's Hospital twice in the last month, but she is fine!

Actually, her second appointment was this week. And there are just some things in life that pull you right out of blogging apathy. Our stay at the hotel this week was one of those things.

ZuZu's appointment was at 8:00 on Thursday morning, and the hospital is 2 hours away. So we decided to make a fun little family trip of it-- stay the night in a hotel, swim, etc.

We checked into the hotel at 6:00. We walked off the elevator and into a hallway that smelled like a bowling alley (and were quickly reminded that we were no longer in IL with the wonderful no-smoking laws!). Our room was okay, but every time you opened the door, the nasty smell filled the room. SO, by 6:30 we were back down to the desk demanding a room on a different floor. That room was SO HOT when we went in, but the AC had been turned off. We cranked it and settled in, unpacking things and getting stuff ready for the next day.

Moses and K changed and went down to the pool. They came back to the room within three minutes. The pool was closed for cleaning. Nice of them to tell us that when we checked in, right? Moses was SO disappointed. How do you make that up to a four-year-old? We tried with the vending machine (m&ms and popcorn) and tv. About an hour later, Moses and K headed out to buy 1) a memory card (I brought the camera, but neglected to replace the memory card) and 2) milk for ZuZu. While they were gone, it became clear to me that this pregnant woman was HOT. I checked and made sure that yes, the AC was indeed on the coldest setting- but was clearly not working correctly. By the time K and Moses came back, I was nearly in tears I was so hot and frazzled.

By 9:30 that night, we were in Room #3. Not bad in 3.5 hours.

About 10:00, K was rocking and walking with ZuZu, trying to get her to go to sleep. She then threw up. All over the room. There was a path of undigested food from the location where K was standing, to the bathroom. Thankfully, I have a husband who is good at cleaning up vomit.

After clean-up, K took ZuZu for a ride in the car to get her to go to sleep. She eventually fell asleep about 11:00. And then was up at 1:00, 2:00, 3:17, and 5:00. My alarm went off at 5:30. FINALLY, at about 6:00, she was sleeping soundly:

Since Wednesday, Moses has repeated two things over and over:

1) "The water [pool] was closed. I didn't know it would be closed." [He knows how to tug at a momma's heartstrings!]

and

2) "ZuZu throw up at the hotel. ZuZu, stop throwing up!"

While we were waiting for the doctor, he even drew a picture of ZuZu throwing up:

It was not a total loss, however. We did make a trip to the Children's Museum. Moses had a ball. I could post a ton of pics, but just a few will suffice:

Moses, making a "pizza" in the little pizzaria (complete with apron):


Moses put on a puppet show for ZuZu. She thought her brother was HILARIOUS:

After we convinced Moses that the hotair balloon would NOT go up, he was excited to get inside:


ZuZu was there, too!

AND, any time spent in a Children's Hospital is a very humbling experience. I think there were more cancer patients there this time than the times we were there before. To get to leave the building--knowing that ZuZu is okay-- I can't describe the feeling. Relief, mixed with a little bit of guilt. And thankfulness that the roughest part of our stay there was a closed pool and vomit on the hotel floor.