March

March! The weather broke! We saw the grass again, played outside without snowsuits or requiring hot chocolate when we came in. 

We even went for a hike. The fresh air was doing Mommy good - pulling her out of the yuckiness of morning sickness.

The kids pulled out their bikes and roller skates again and put on a cul-de-sac circus. 

Sarah still wasn't doing the best job taking time to sit and play with Simon. And he still wasn't all that interested in listening to book after book after book on the couch. BUT we did discover he likes sticker books.

And if a sticker book got us talking and playing together, then it was the perfect thing to get Mommy through until the next opportunity to nap!

We also celebrated Uncle John's birthday. He was pretty jealous when the little boys (Simon and Elijah) blew out his candles...so we re-lit them to give the big boy a chance at making a wish.

We hosted a bridal shower for John's fiance, Ande, and Tim took Simon to a train "museum" of sorts at the local outlet mall. It was Simon's dream!

Near the end of the month, Simon woke up one morning breathing oddly. Almost struggling to get a breath. He was lethargic and barely wanted to move. Mommy - who rarely takes the kids to the doctor - felt all kinds of alarm bells going off. She dropped the girls off at school and when Simon had fallen asleep on the way home it confirmed that something was definitely wrong. The doctor agreed to see him right away. We think the world of our family doctor and she again proved she's worth twice her weight in gold. Within moments of observing and listening to him, she stated she thought he had pneumonia. She ordered a chest xray, had the nurses give him a breathing treatment, and ordered a prescription. The xray confirmed her diagnosis. It was just a sad day. He could not keep his eyes open in any of the waiting rooms we visited that day, cried through the xray but Mommy couldn't hold him because of the pregnancy, and went from extremely active to a dazed sitting. It came on very suddenly, but with the help of modern medicine he was almost back to normal in 48 hours!

About a week later, the girls were on Spring Break and we were on our way to the Toledo Zoo to meet Sarah's sister Annette and her family. It was a little chilly but we were happy to be with them and have everyone busy and healthy. No xrays for broken bones or hurting lungs in sight! At the zoo, Simon was astonished at how big an elephant really is!

After Toledo we made our way to Windsor to spend the weekend with Annette's family and visit their indoor water park (you'll remember this was a special gift from Santa at Christmas that we were FINALLY able to take advantage of!). Mommy was already in her maternity swimsuit. Everyone warns you the baby bump shows up faster with each pregnancy. In any case, it was the perfect way to kick off a whole week having our girls home!