02.26.09

Hello from the recovering Marquardt household! We have had a nasty week here dealing with Influenza A. This is the influenza that you get the shot to protect against, (and we got the shot!), except this strain was apparently not covered in the 3 that are in the vaccination. I'm not a huge fan of the vaccination to begin with, but I got it this year considering I was pregnant. WELL! Didn't do me a whole lot of good ~ most of my co-workers would say it made my symptoms not as severe, but I don't know if I believe that either, because I felt pretty miserable! Jeremy came down with it Wednesday night, I started Sunday night (while in PR for Parker's baptism), my dad started yesterday, and so far....Oliver is safe! :) We are recovering now, feeling mostly like we're dealing with head colds, but still the energy level is quite low. We've had lots of early bed times! I've been off of work all week, and will go back tomorrow. My doctor is gone tomorrow so it's the perfect opportunity to get back into work - should be a slow day.

These two pictures are hilarious! Pre-flu I was nesting up a storm ... painting, planning, organizing, you name it. This picture is nesting gone bad. I was cleaning up from painting, and in my OCD-ness I decided the brush needed a thorough cleaning. So I get out my fine-tooth comb and decided to make this brush just like brand new! Needless to say, it backfired. And Jeremy loved every second of it! Did he offer to help me clean up? NO....no, my husband ran and grabbed the camera. In his defense, he did help me clean up, after he had picked himself up off the floor. :)

The picture of Oliver shows how serious this child is about his tomato soup. Tomato-anything, really. He LOVES tomatoes, always has! Even as a baby, tomato chunks were one of the first things he ate. His spoon wasn't working for him at the end of the bowl, so he politely asked for a straw, and we obliged. :)

Hope you're all staying healthy! WASH, WASH, WASH those hands!!

02.14.09

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Happy Valentine's Day!

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Sending lots of love your way! I hope you feel loved today. :) Jeremy and I went out on a real date last night! It was great - just dinner & a movie but it was good to have some alone time. Oliver, in his "Why?" stage, of course asked why we would go out on a date. After explaining first what a date was (!) we explained that we loved eachother and so we wanted to spend some time together. At various points throughout the day, toys were getting married & going out on dates "because they love eachother." It was pretty cute!

The week went by uneventfully, with only me being sick this week. My sinus infection came to a head Monday, and most of the day was spent in bed, which was good considering it was a snow/ice day! I'm feeling much better now and glad it's over. I'm now just about 22 weeks along and baby has been doing great. The only thing that's really starting to be noticed is the lack of sleeping, and it's really okay if I go to bed early enough. But sleep from 4:30 a.m. on is hard to come by. Baby is active, but still no where near as active as Oliver was! But he does let me know, everyday, that he's there. And I do cherish those movements ... they are by far one of my most favorite parts of being pregnant.

And now pictures! The first few are of our trip to Fargo with Arlyn & Donna at the hotel. We had a great time. I was not so sure about the water! So I mostly watched, but we still had a great time. Then the rest of the pictures are from today - which was hilarious!! Oliver has gotten into a "karate" phase and took it out on Jeremy for most of the morning. I love the intensity in his face -- he was being pretty serious! Good times....

02.08.09

Finally some ultrasound pictures! These are over a week old, my apologies, but I got to a scanner as quickly as I could. As you can tell by the second picture, this boy is NOT modest!! haha Both Jeremy and I commented on how glad we were that we decided to find out the sex because we both figured it out pretty quick, even without her explaining things to us. I have gotten several questions about names now that we know the sex. I have to admit, we kinda don't have a clue. We always have girl names picked out, and we never can agree on a boy's name. However, we also decided that the name is one thing we're keeping quiet. :) Gotta keep something a surprise!! But at this point, we are WIDE OPEN for suggestions!! So send 'em on...

This week was good, but tough with illnesses. We did end up taking all the kids to the pool last weekend, and we had a wonderful time. Unfortunately Oliver got quite sick while we were there, with his fever reaching about 103 in the middle of the night - which meant Jer and I were up past 3 a.m. keeping watch over him!! His fever finally broke, and all kids were up by 6:30 ready to swim...all kids except us old kids of course. Oi...that was an early morning. But we had fun nonetheless and brought Oliver in to the doctor Tuesday, as his fevers had now been going for 7 days. He did have a left ear infection (which I found odd considering he never complained of ear pain, nor did he ever touch it, etc.) and also some kind of bronchial/sinus infection. I think within 24 hours of being on antibiotics he was brand new again! That's when *I* started coughing/sneezing/body aches! :) Such is life as a mother, no?? Jeremy asked if I had washed my hands enough, in a joking way, and of course I did!! But you can only get coughed in your face and sneezed on so many times before it finally finds a way in. I am on the mend but it does feel slow going. Days are good, nights are still tough.

We also had the chance to meet Donna and Arlyn in Fargo for a night and get to spend some time with them. We had a wonderful time, this time with a healthy Oliver. I have some good pictures of that trip so I will post them later in the week.

Here's to a happy Sunday, and the start of great week! Blessings to all~