This and That

It's been a pretty dull couple of weeks around the Mannion house. I'll try to recap as best I can, but the pregnancy brain and the busy, busy 17 month old kind of destroy my ability to recall anything.

• Bracken and I are still sick with the colds we came down with just before leaving for Utah for Christmas. Bracken has felt sick the entire time, whereas I had a little break and thought I was just dealing with increased asthma from the after effects of the first cold. Unfortunately it turned into a full blown second cold. And the girls continue to have snotty noses. Yesterday morning I had just had enough, and could have been nicer as Bracken detailed his continuing symptoms to me. He left the room, then came back and said, "I just need some empathy." I made his favorite soup for dinner, which helped improve my empathy standings.
• Fortunately, no one but Addie caught the stomach flu that erupted the day after Christmas. My first thought when she threw up had been, Great, now Chloe will definitely be throwing up on New Years. See, we had a tradition. For the last two years, Chloe had thrown up on New Year's Eve. I was positive it would happen again, and now I thought I knew how. How glad I was to be proven wrong. I was also grateful that my fear of impending vomit kept us from making any plans for the night. We were all asleep by 9 and it was a wonderful way to ring in the New Year.
• We finally have a working exhaust fan in our master bathroom! It was all Bracken really wanted for Christmas, so on New Year's Day, I climbed up in the attic and replaced the old fan and cleaned up the funky ductwork. The previous owner had used a corrugated plastic plumbing Y in part of the ductwork, and the weight of it had pulled everything apart. It was about the dirtiest and uncomfortable job I've done (The attic is filled with loose insulation, angled joists, and I had to do most of the work flat on my stomach), but I sure enjoyed stepping out of the shower afterward and seeing a fog free mirror. Good sense of accomplishment on that one.
• We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. I'd had fears about it being a molar pregnancy, or having more than one in there (you know, just my usual pregnancy paranoia), but it looks like there is one little fetus in there. Now I'm just worried about the fact that I have a baby in there. We're going to have 3 kids. What are we in for?
• We have a piano now! My in-laws gave us theirs and Bracken and a couple of friends went and picked it up this week. It looks really nice on our wall, and I'm excited to work on the goal of being able to play some hymns. I've also been relieved that my worst fears have not been realized. Chloe has been very enamored of the piano, and loves to play it, but does not pound it. She plays and sings her own little songs. I love it.
• Chloe is making the adjustment to Sunbeams. The first week was a little rough for her, but she certainly wasn't alone. The second week went better, but she came out of it with a scripture assignment, which she really doesn't want to do. She gets really nervous about getting up in front of people. Any ideas?
• Addie is adjusting to nursery. Bracken has been taking her in and staying with her, and she just loves it. It's nice to have a place to take her since we are just exhausted after a Sacrament meeting which consists mainly of doing anything we can to keep her quiet. She does usually get a laugh, though, when she screams, "Wadoo!" as the water is going around.
• Chloe is definitely missing her cousins and her Grandma and Nana Geilman. Yep, the entire time we were in Utah, she referred to my dad as "Grandma Geilman." Both names, all the time. She is also missing Heather, my step sister. I'd never previously had much of a chance to get to know Heather well, but we were all staying at my parent's house, and we had such a nice visit. Heather was wonderful with Chloe and we were not joking when we offered to have her come live with us.
• Addie is climbing on everything since we've come home. She spent the whole time in Utah doing the stairs, and now she is up on everything. I had to stop typing and rescue her from the chair she just tumbled off of. She's on the table, the counter, the top step of the bunk bed ladder, and my favorite: she pushes the rickety step stool to the middle of our tiled kitchen floor, climbs up and rocks. Yeah, it's safe.

And I think that's about it for us right now. Hopefully we'll start having some more fun as our colds finally clear up. They have to clear up eventually, right?