Cough-Coughs and Cranky Pants

Both the girls picked up a bug this week. Catherine had it first starting Sunday, and is now mostly over her slight fever but has a terrible cough and runny nose. She seems to be feeling good enough to try and play, but bad enough that the instant something isn't going exactly as planned she has a major meltdown. Yesterday she pulled a real winner, no less than 1.5 hours of inexplicable screaming, crying, jumping up and down, falling on the floor, swatting at Mary if she got anywhere near me, and making completely unreasonable demands. And then she got over it, and acted like nothing happened the rest of the day. All this combined with the emergence of some classic toddler mantras this week (I can do it if I want, you're not the boss, etc) has made for a couple "psychologically trying" days in our house, as Michael puts it.

Mary picked up her cold a day or two after Catherine, but she also no longer has a fever this morning. Her nose is running running running, and she HATES to have her nose touched or wiped, so she mostly looks like a giant mess. Luckily she has not picked up Catherine's cough, so hopefully it will stay that way.

But of course in the midst of all this they are still doing things that are incredibly cute and entertaining. Catherine has decided pants are for the birds, or at least not for her, and since, as she will gladly remind you, she can do them all by herself, we find her very often running around the house in just a pull-up, or nothing at all. For the most part I ignore it as long as she is wearing a pull-up; she's big enough to decide if she is cold and put some pants back on. Although we have instituted a "pants must be worn at the dinner table" rule as well as a "pants must be worn outside" rule, and "pants must be worn when friends are visiting" rule, so she does find herself motivated to get dressed now and then. Here is a skirt she put on herself and relieving her legs of their pants.


As much as Michael likes to claim that Mary, the calm, smiley, laid-back daughter, is his and Catherine, the type-A, hyperactive, everything-has-to-be-just-right daughter is mine, I think Catherine would disagree. She loves to do whatever Michael is doing. A couple days ago she asked for a snack, and I gave her a choice, and she chose, and when I handed her the snack she said "Cool". Seriously? "Cool"? Definitely her father's daughter.

Mary is up to her regular stuff, only slowed down a little bit by her cold. Her hair is really starting to get longer, and I am predicting from the initial little waves that it has the potential to be a curly mass like Catherine's. Mary also LOVES the bath. She starts kicking her feet and squealing as soon as she hears the water turn on. Mostly she just splashes non-stop once she's in the water.



She is also fascinated by the water. At first I couldn't figure it out, but in this video she is dipping her hand in the water then holding it out, watching the water form drops and fall off. She does this a lot now.