Snow and Sickness

On Tuesday we woke up to a newly white world! A snow day... one of my favorite kinds of days, from time immemorial. (OK, only since I was school-aged. But isn't "time immemorial" a great phrase?")

Less pleasantly, we also woke up to Matthew's fourth day of fever, which meant that a doctor's visit was top priority. (Here's my sick-eyed boy during one of our midnight Motrin rendezvous.)

So we bundled up, went to the doctor, found out that Little Man has an ear and throat infection. Drove to Rite Aid, waited for the prescription. Filled the car with gas. Headed back home.

Home, where Dave and Meg were waiting for us. Dave too was sick, with some kind of grown-up version of Matthew's ailment, a fever and cough. My poor husband--when he gets sick, he really goes down hard. He was in bed for almost 48 hours straight, with only a few brief ventures to the shower or the kitchen. Fortunately, he usually comes back up relatively quickly. On Tuesday afternoon, his fever broke, and an hour later, Dave was pretty much back on his feet.

In the midst of playing nurse to my boys, I did manage to get Meggie outside for a little while. She was begging to play in the snow, and I was happy to oblige while Dave and Matthew napped.

To Meg's disappointment, the new-fallen powder wasn't good for snowmen or snowballs that day. But she did get to ride in her little red sled ten or twelve times! We have a small hill right outside our house that is perfect for beginners--especially beginners who have a parent handy to steer them around the divots and the trees.

After snow play, we came inside, and Meg had her very first taste of "concoction." Concoction is a Nancy Nalle invention that I loved as a little girl--warmed milk laced with vanilla extract and a shake of cinnamon. It's a nice alternative to hot chocolate at bed or nap time. Meg loved it.

I find that a sick family is a wonderfully sanctifying thing. Getting up in the middle of the night to tend to a feverish toddler and then not being able to get back to sleep myself--that chips away at my love of ease. Having to tend a feverish husband on our family day, laying aside all of our plans for fun and productivity--that reveals my sense of entitlement, my proud, demanding, "I-deserve-better" heart. And having no one to baby me when I start to feel less than 100% myself--that makes me aware of my selfishness and my quickness to complain.

All in all, it's been a week full of sickness, snow and seeing my need for the Savior. How grateful I am that He "came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)

Family Day At the Aquarium

Two Mondays ago, we made our first family venture to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Don and Jan (Dave's Louisville folks) sent us a generous gift for Christmas, and we used part of it to become aquarium members for the whole year! We are so excited about this. For a family our size, buying a membership (so that we can go any or every day for the whole year) is cheaper than paying for two days' admission. So we figure, hey, if we make it there three or four times this year, we'll have gotten more than our money's worth. And that should be no problem, since we are always looking for fun family day activities!

I think this was my first time ever going to an aquarium. Yes, in my whole life. I remember that my family had planned to go one summer when I was a teenager, but when we got to the city we ended up nixing it. Don't remember why. (Maybe because of the cost.) Anyway, I would not have exchanged the chance to go for the first time with my very own kiddos. Soooo much fun.

Matthew, especially, truly loved it. He was in awe, standing at each tank, staring, pointing, exclaiming, "Da! Da!"

Meg liked it too, but she was afraid of some of the strange sea creatures, and that had some adverse effects on her attitude later.

Here is a real, honest-to-goodness diamondback terrapin, in case you ever wondered what they really look like. Now you know why they say "fear the turtle," right? Um... right?

This was probably Meg's favorite moment of the day save one. Can you tell what she's watching?

It's this guy. Nemo, in the flesh.

The top floor of the aquarium is a rain forest. (I don't envy the aquarium staff members who have to stay up there in the humidity all day.) Here's the exotic pink bird who welcomed us.

Here's David saving our son from throwing himself overboard.

And here's Meg being angry. (This picture has been modified to protect the... um, guilty. OK, not really. My camera just didn't auto focus.) Like I said, Meg was having some attitude issues that morning. But that wouldn't last too much longer...

This is another terrible picture, but it's the best I could get of the sloth, who made a rare public appearance during our visit.

Here was Dave's favorite creature of the day: tiny, blue, poisonous frogs. They were exquisite.

More teeny, weeny frogs--some were no bigger than the tip of my thumb!

Now this... this is my husband and my daughter at the dolphin show, highlight of the morning.

Looove those identical, fake grins, guys. Thanks.

Despite Meg's pasted-on smile above, she was quite happy once we got to the dolphin arena. Bye-bye fear, bye-bye anger! And how could we not be happy while we were watching this?

It was my first dolphin show as well as the kids', and we couldn't get enough. Matthew even remained still in my arms the whole time! Now, David, whose grandparents used to live in Florida and regularly took him to Sea World, is a dolphin show veteran. He said that this show wasn't quite as spectacular as some of those he's seen, and I can easily believe it. But I couldn't help enjoying the beauty of these animals, and their love of fun (or is it fish?). I have no idea how an animal that weighs 500 pounds can vault itself out of the water and 20 feet into the air. Spectacular.

Dad and Jan, we had a blast on our first trip to the aquarium, and we are looking forward to many more! Thanks for making it possible!

Christmas Vignettes V: For Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Tom

I am almost finished with the Christmas Vignettes, I promise! But before I wrap up completely, Dawn and Tom, here are some pictures that I thought you might particularly enjoy...

This first one is from when Meg opened her birthday presents, actually. You can see that your little "girly girl" was pretty pleased with her pink velour jacket!

Here are the wonderful banks, which Tom painted at the pottery shop and had shipped directly to us after they went through the kiln. They turned out great!

There's a glare in these pictures which makes Meg's name appear less bold than it really is. Here's the bird's eye view:

Hidden details:

Here is Meg doing the giant "Nemo" puzzle you sent, which she just loves.

That's a satisfied smile that says, "Look, I finished it!"

And here is one final shot that I snapped one evening right before Meg was to go upstairs for bedtime. I couldn't find my dishtowel until I looked over at the puzzle. "Meg, what did you do?" I asked. "Why are the towel and the napkin on the puzzle?"

"I put the fishies to sleep, Mommy," Meg replied matter-of-factly. "Shhhhhhhh."

Of course.

By the way, we are getting a tiny taste of a Michigan winter here! No real snow, unfortunately, (though it looks like there's a chance in the next few days!), but when Dave and I woke up this morning it was 1 degree outside! Now that it's mid-morning, we've climbed to a balmy 12 degrees, but still... that's pretty cold for Maryland!

Christmas Vignettes IV: The Experiment

Christmas morning at the Wilcox house was a little different this year. Since Christmas Day always includes a three-hour car trip to my grandparents' house in Virginia, Christmas morning always ends up feeling rushed, harried. There's so much to do before we travel: a special breakfast to eat, Bible stories to read, stockings and gifts to open, new toys to assemble and explore, Christmas clothes to be put on, a car to be loaded up... Inevitably, we arrive at Gran's later than we would like. I know some families who solve this problem by backing up the gift exchange to Christmas Eve, but Dave's job strikes that option for us, since he works all day and evening for our Christmas Eve service at church.

So we switched it up this year. We did our little family's exchange early in December, on one of Dave's days off--the 8th, I think it was. It was an experiment, and we weren't sure if we would like it. Would the gifts be less special because they weren't opened on sacred December 25th?! Well, no, as it turned out--at least, not for us. In fact, we loved it doing it this way. We had the whole day (or at least until nap time) to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, open gifts, and let the kids play with them. No rushing through anything, no anxiety, no push.

We capped off the day by taking the kids out to dinner and driving through the lights at Great Seneca State Park. It was Meg and Matthew's first time seeing the display, and they were mesmerized. Meg sat on my lap in the front seat as we crawled around at about 5 mph. She alternated between awed silence and excited narration. ("Look, Daddy, a penguin and a teddy bear! See it? See it, Little Bugga? See the penguin and the teddy bear?") Matthew, who remained in his car seat, spent the entire ride with the most rapt smile on his face. He never made a sound until we were out of the park. (Very unusual for him--he normally does NOT like slow car trips.)

So where did that leave us when the real Christmas morning rolled around?

Our main goal was to celebrate Jesus' birthday in a way that would be fun and exciting for the kids. So... we had birthday cake for breakfast. Here it is:

And here it is again, immediately before the word "birthday" was rendered illegible.

After breakfast, we read our special Christmas morning book, This Is the Star. And we closed out our Advent celebration with Meg finally getting to place Baby Jesus in the manger. This was a major highlight for Meg--so much so that she actually sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" with us that morning, as I mentioned here.

Oh, and we did let them open one present--it was the one that happened to be under the tree, since we had just received it that weekend. Thank you for the book, Aunt K! What a great choice. I know that I can always trust you to add to our library in a beautiful way! Meg loooooves it, and we have already enjoyed it many times!

All in all, it was a sweet and simple morning. Of course, it didn't go perfectly. Dave and I were sort of tired from the previous evening's show, so we overslept, which pushed everything a little later than we'd planned. But it was still a far cry from previous years, with much less packed into the schedule. And it really was refreshing to spend Christmas morning with a more single-minded emphasis on Jesus Christ, the Great Gift.

And we got to Gran's in time for Christmas supper, which was a first. Merry Christmas to us.