Break time!

My parents left for Taiwan early this morning which means I am off of work and at home with Ayla until the 24th. I labeled this post "Break time" but I'm not sure that being at home with a toddler all day long for two weeks equals a "break." :) I do always enjoy these times though. As much work as it can be, it's nice to have so much time with Ayla.
We are not a healthy bunch right now. We all have stuffy, gunky, runny noses. Yuck. I have been so unhealthy this winter. It seems like once I get over something, I am sick again within a week or two. Total bummer. However, Marla introduced me to Emergen-C...it's a packet of fizzy super powers that you pour into a few ounces of water. It works. I've been swearing by it for the past several weeks. Ever since that sinus infection from hell that I had around Thanksgiving, I've been doing everything in my power to not get to that point again. I've gotten sick a few times since then but taking this Emergen-C a few times a day, knocks down the severity of my symptoms immensely. Whenever I get sick, I have a couple days where I cannot climb out of bed, but the past few times, because of Emergen-C, the symptoms are tolerable so that I can still function (for the most part).

I just wish I could do something for Ayla to make her feel better. We've been cranking the humidifier in her room and she has a Vick's plug-in as well. Her stuffy nose causes her to sleep poorly...or maybe that's the excuse I've come up with for this week. (She's still waking up in the middle of the night. Sigh.)

Despite not feeling her best, she is still a little fireball. She is busy-busy all the time and is in to absolutely everything. She's also learning so many new words lately. We don't know how she knows some of the words that come out of her mouth. It's fascinating. She has always loved Elmo, but just in the past couple of days, she has been pointing out other characters...during the intro to Sesame Street, she excitedly screams out their names--Ernie! Abby! Bird! Oscar! Telly! Grover!

A few weeks ago, she looked at me and said, "Hungry," and pulled me to the fridge. I was sooo excited that she was telling me that she wanted to eat. This actually worked for a couple of weeks, but I have since realized that she was pulling a fast one on me. She knows I'll open the fridge if she says she's hungry...the catch is, she's not really hungry. She wants to play in the fridge. Lil stinker.
She went into the "laundry room" and emerged with her dad's goofy hat. Now that she can easily open any door in the house, it's difficult to keep her from digging for goodies.


I hope these next two weeks go well for us and that we don't go stir-crazy. It's so cold out that I'm reluctant to take her out. I'll have to get creative and come up with new things to do inside the house.