A trip in pictures

Kalina and I have both been busy lately, so we apologize for the lack of blog posts. We traveled last weekend to South Carolina to visit some friends, so here are some vacation pics:

Our friends Anna and Tierney traveled with us. We left bright and early so the kids would be in a good mood, and brought plenty of snacks and entertainment so they'd stay in a good mood. Mission accomplished, the girls did great on the 4-hour drive. So well that they now miss each other as traveling companions.



We were particularly excited to be heading south so that we could enjoy some warmer weather. Instead, we were met with 6 inches of snow by Saturday morning! Back at home, we got a dusting of merely 1 inch. Fortunately, I pack heavy and brought plenty of warm clothes for Kalina, although I had neglected to toss in her snow boots. Silly me.







Our hosts posing for Anna's camera next to me. Sara, Ethan and Lee!









To escape the cold/snow, we took the kids to the mall. So did everyone else, but fortunately we managed to snap this picture. Three kids in a photo at once--a record! The mall was an adventure for Kalina, who wanted to wander in every direction except the one I was leading her in. I'm told that in the next few months she'll learn the art of following a bit better. Until then, I keep an iron grasp on her hand in such situations, thinking Matt probably wouldn't be happy with me if I returned home without our child.

One of the trip's highlights was a carousel at the mall. Kalina first laughed at all the animals running around in circles, and then ecstatically chose a tiger when I broke the news that we could ride on it. Tiger! Roar! Tiger! Roar! What a happy girl.
(Again? Again? Again?)







More carousel pictures because they're so cute. Ethan and Tierney were nice enough to oblige Kalina by riding beside her after she unbudgingly made her tiger choice.













Another highlight: the zoo!
Here's Kalina with the geese. What? Those aren't geese? Well to Kalina, if it's big and has feathers and a bill/beak, it's a goose. Besides, they kept saying "honk." Interestingly, when I told Kalina we were going to the zoo that morning, she kept saying "goose." She's just really into geese and was glad to see some.
These and the giraffe (see below) were Kalina's favorite animals there.





Anna and Tierney in front of the penguin exhibit that Kalina could care less about.








"This place is great, Mom! There are rocks to climb on and lots of open space to run around! Oh, yeah, and I guess the animals are pretty cool, too."






We got to feed the giraffes some lettuce! Despite Kalina's somewhat grim expression, she was really quite excited.

In between all the site-seeing, Kalina had plenty of downtime with her friends. She uses the term "friend" loosely, though, and generally preferred to be across the room from them playing with Mommy (possibly because they're a good 6 months older than her). She surprised me by being the worst-behaved child of the bunch, and the only one to throw food (no offense, anyone, Kalina is usually a little angel!).

My other surprise came at 3:15 Monday morning when Kalina woke up for the day, and therefore so did I. At first it was an hour of tossing and turning in her crib. Then it was an hour of tossing and turning in my bed. Then it was 30 minutes of tossing and turning in the rocker with me, and then we both, quite sadly, gave up. Poor girl. She wanted to sleep more than anything, but couldn't.

Why not? Possibly because of her double ear infection. Or if not that, because of her upset tummy that decided not to hold milk in an hour later and at other times throughout the morning (I only gave her a few sips of it once, I promise!).

So we high-tailed it home, having planned to leave that morning anyway. Kalina fortunately dozed a bit on the way but still owes me/herself a good long nap to help her catch up.

We returned to a house that was freshly painted and fixed up, thanks to Matt's and my dad's hard work while we were gone. The next morning, Kalina, in such a surprisingly good mood that I told the nurse "no, I don't think she's in pain," and with a fever over 102, was almost diagnosed with a stomach virus until the doctor looked into her ears on a whim. Definitely a somewhat bad double ear infection, and from my best guesses, her left ear still hurts a little (at least, she's been cranky and a little stinker all week, so that has to be it, right?). I managed to have a very productive freelance week despite relatively short naps and a quite needy/clingy/newly defiant child, and have probably never been so glad to make it to Saturday in all my life. Judging by her smile after spending much of the morning with Daddy, Kalina was pretty happy, too.

And that's why it's been so long since I've blogged.