The Flu Can Be A Good Thing. No, Really. It Can.

Maliana ~

Early this week was the release of the coveted Frozen movie on DVD and so after eating a picnic dinner with the kiddos next door, you all piled onto their couch for a Frozen movie night. I suspect that nearly every household in America with girls under 10 were doing the same thing that evening. You all LOVE that movie!

Your daycare continued a celebration of St. Patrick's Day all week and one particular day, this note came home from your teacher:
Mali liked looking at the map and globe. We located Ireland, the USA and China! Neat!
I love that not only do your teachers encourage a worldly awareness in your classroom, but also that you are able to and enthusiastic about incorporating your birth country into the lessons.  

Then I also received this picture from school too and a note stating that you practiced independent reading. 

The above picture, coupled with the one I forgot to post from last week of you reading to me at daycare pickup...

...make me very happy to see your (hopefully) burgeoning love of reading.

And speaking of moments that I did not include in last week's post, here are a couple of my favorites, highlighting the kindness and generosity that we are so fortunate to have surrounding us.

one of the sunnier days we played outside where Juan met up with us and brought you over to his house where he had
a belated birthday present for you. such a kind and thoughtful gesture from one of your classmates.

"Auntie Jo" aka "Yo Yo" sent you some money for your birthday since she did not have a chance to get out and put together a package for you. she insisted on making sure you go on a shopping spree to celebrate your birthday and here
is a picture of that shopping spree. you were very excited to go to Toys R Us and select just the right toys
for your birthday. thank you so much, Yo Yo!!

By Wednesday, I think you were feeling better, thank goodness. We've all been hit by this nasty cold and so our house has been a bit grumpy lately. Anyway, you seemed to be finally on the upswing (at least a little bit) and so it was a good night for us. You even got to go out with Daddy to meet a jet that was bringing home some real Chicago pizzas for us! You got to go on board and meet the crew and some of the big banker passengers. Evidently one of the passengers was a woman who was born in Hong Kong and now lives in New York City, which you thought was very cool. She took a special liking to you and gave you a big box of cookies to bring home. Then you also met Josh, one of the best flight attendants with whom Daddy's company has the pleasure of working. Daddy got this quick picture of you "high rolling" with Josh on the jet before bringing home our yummy pizzas.

Thursday was the first day of spring as well as the Spring Fling at your elementary school. Lao Lao came with us to get her "Mali-fix" and hang out with you while I helped man the ticket sales and Daddy manned the ice cream social. It is so much fun to help out at your school, gain another opportunity to get to know other families at your school, and see you in your element (our little social butterfly). You had a ball as your buddy, Jocelyn, was there with her mom and brother, and you both ran around together checking out all of the various science displays and of course chatting with friends. It was a pretty cool concept to encourage an interest in science as the entire Spring Fling was basically a big showcase of science experiments and a book fair, plus they had some great pizza and ice cream to boot. If you're K-5, you can't beat it!

doing a scavenger hunt with Jocelyn and a
woman from natural resources

checking out furs and skeletons from Blendon Woods

being silly with Lao Lao over pizza and ice cream

By Friday, we were all so. very. pooped! Thursday night was rough, with you up and down all night long. The bug had came back and hit you hard again with major congestion and the "itchies" throughout the entire night. It was so miserable that when you finally got to a sound sleep (at 5am), I decided to cancel your speech session that morning just to let you get a bit of sleep before school. When you did wake up around 8am, the cold sore on your lip was crazy inflamed and your nose was so stuffed up (and running at the same time) that you also had dried blood on your sore chapped lips from breathing through your mouth all night. Poor kid. I felt awful for you. Hate when I can't do much to make you feel better. Luckily, I got some medicine for you and left it in the hands of your capable teachers at daycare and by the time I picked you up, everything looked remarkably better.

I surprised you by showing up at school early to pick you up directly from kindergarten with Audrey and Mr. Yang in the car too. We all headed back to stop at the house and loaded the car a bit more with your scooter and both Suzy and Abby, then headed on to Hoover to soak in the early spring sunshine and breathe in the fresh air. It was hectic with all of these dogs and a very energetic kid on a scooter (you!) but we all made it back in one piece. *whew!* Once home, we made dinner (the Chicago pizza that you and Daddy had picked up from the jet earlier in the week) and then you and Audrey played Connect 4 and checkers together, strategizing and learning new moves under Audrey's tutelage. I sat and watched you play, with all of your big kid mannerisms and silly jokes. It made me smile. I love to see your personality evolving every day and very much enjoy watching you interact with others. Evidently it's interesting to others as well.  Your teacher at daycare had sent home the daily update just that day and made the comment of "Mali has such a creative mind!" I would agree. It's fascinating to watch you, just being you.

surveying Hoover

Audrey and Mr. Yang helping you find rocks that you can skip

checking out the water with your dogs

playing Connect 4 with Audrey Ayi

getting some helpful pointers

Unfortunately on Saturday I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck and aside from a trip to urgent care, I slept for pretty much the entire day. I hate missing spending a weekend day with you but the good news about that is that you and Daddy got to spend the whole day together. He took you to Chinese class, you helped him pick up the house, fix your car seat, went shopping for birthday presents for Brooklyn and Braycen, grocery shopped, and out to eat at Pei Wei together. In between all of this, you kept checking on me, concerned about waking me up, always making sure there was a good distance between us though so you didn't get (any more) sick too but also concerned about me needing to cuddle while I slept. You even offered, "Mom, I can give you one of my stuffed animals that I don't like. Then you can cuddle it and it's okay if you get it sick." Ever so thoughtful.

You also decided to break out some of your new beach wear I picked up the other day. Can you tell how full of awesome you are feeling in this picture?

swag pose. Daddy said you were strutting your
stuff the entire time you had this on...
so glad you love it!

Sunday I was still feeling pretty sluggish and unfortunately, you were feeling a bit uncomfortable too. I had thought you were getting better but this cold is hanging on just long enough to make Daddy and I a little nervous. You've had this nagging congestion (among a few other things) that just won't go away so Daddy ended up taking you to urgent care right after attending a birthday party for the neighbor kids. Luckily, what you have is fairly common and nothing that some medicine shouldn't fix, but sheesh, right?! How much more sickness can we all take? Anyway, you were in pretty good spirits all day long, so thankful to get to spend time with your daddy. As you helped him later that night, you even told us that we were the best parents ever, completely out of the blue. I definitely don't feel worthy of that title after being so out of commission all weekend, but I am so grateful that we have the daddy we do and that you got to spend so much one on one time with him this weekend. In fact, here is how I shared it on Facebook:

Of course the book shelf in M's room fell apart on the same weekend I've been out of commission with what was likely the flu  ...so thankful for a hubby who kept the house and all of M's activities running smoothly (including a trip for her to urgent care ~ sheesh, right?!) and even ran out to get a new bookcase and is putting it together tonight with his little helper. Great bonding time with Daddy for the last couple of days so maybe there is a silver lining to feeling like I got hit by a truck  And props to all you single parents out there...I have no clue how you do it! Remind me next time I see you; I owe you a babysitter, a drink and a foot massage.

And of course, I can't forget to mention Brooklyn and Braycen's birthday party. You immediately reported that "It was awesome!" as soon as you got home. So glad you had fun! Here are some of the funny things you brought home with you:

when I handed this to you in an ID holder I found, I said,
"Stay safe, man" to which you replied (with a
finger gun/point), "No, actually you stay
safe!" while swagging away.
you.crack.me.up.

Off to bed for me now...hoping that both of our medicines do their thing tonight and the illness is history soon, preferably by morning. Wishful thinking, I know.

Love you gobs, kiddo.
Mama