bonzaiii!

Daddy was gone most of the week so we decided to go play at Grammy's house.  We arrived Monday afternoon and played through the evening.  The girls were eager to share all the special "Grammy house toys" with Lovely.  Her favorite was the lego table with the big mega blocks.  While not coordinated enough yet to build anything, she certainly loved toppling my towers and even more, loved pulling the blocks out from the table side pockets and scattering them everywhere.

That evening we took them in the "'cuzzi".  The big girls splashed and played in the hot water while Lovely took turns cuddling whichever adult wasn't currently the jungle gym of choice. (the big girls like to climb, wrestle and "bonzai"--jump from the side of the jacuzzi into the middle).  But the best part of nighttime swimming is how soundly the girls sleep after.

Except Lovely.  She sleeps great at home, typically 11 hours without making a sound and after practically putting herself to bed.  But she doesn't like sleeping in a pack'n'play and always ends up in my bed cuddling.  Which wouldn't have been too bad except that the uncomfortable knots in my stomach throughout the day (I assumed muscle soreness from a new workout), turned into a raging stomach flu.

Therefore, Tuesday was miserable.  Grammy and Papa were at work so the girls and I had planned a trip to the park and a picnic lunch until Grammy came home at 2.  But instead, they watched movies, played with toys and climbed on the back yard playset while I battled out the flu.  The girls were actually exceptionally good, especially considering how little parenting I was doing.  By the time Grammy got home, I could barely stand up straight and the body aches had taken over.  She drugged me up and watched the kids while I finally slept and eventually it was Wednesday.  It's still kind of a blur.

I had planned to go home Wednesday to do a rock climbing competition at the gym.  But still exhausted and achy from the flu, we decided to stay another day and get to do some of the fun things we had originally planned.  So we played, went to a park, ran a few errands and best of all, went swimming in Grammy and Papa's new toy--the swim spa.  It's like a spa, with jets and seats in one end of the above-ground fiber glass structure, but at the other end (20ish feet away), it's four feet deep and has jets to create a resistance current for swimming.   The girls loved it!  They took turns calling a "bonzai taxi" (Papa) to shuttle them to the deeper end where they climbed up onto a high seat and cannonballed themselves into the middle of the current which them carried them splashing and giggling back to the start.  They found water toys they could fill and use to shoot streams of water in every direction.  It was such a blast and again, thoroughly wore them out for bedtime.

Thursday morning, we packed up, stopped at each of the schools where Papa and Grammy now work to say good bye and headed home to prepare for the next adventure.