Last week- Henry.

Last week, was an exciting week for us, though we didn't take many pictures- you'll see why soon.

The long, hard winter is over. Apparently, it gets cold down here (and we mean in the thirties), but it doesn't usually stay cold for long. It was in the thirties for almost 3 weeks straight, which was hard on a lot of people. But last week, it started warming up and once it hit 45, I started bugging papa about opening up the new sandbox.

After two nights of begging, we bought some sand and set it up. We filled one side with water, but decided it wasn't as fun, so now both sides have sand.

We played in the garage, which was good for June, as she'd spent the previous day barfing. At least the garage floor would be easy to clean. Luckily, it only lasted about 24 hours. It was also nice for mama, because we played outside for almost 90 minutes while she took a nap after supper.

We should have expected something was up, because by Thursday morning, mama was in a bad way. She dropped me off at school and had every intention of going to the gym, but turned back for home at the last minute. Instead of working out, she turned on the TV for June and fell asleep for 4 hours (off and on). We're not sure what June did the whole time, but she managed to keep herself out of trouble. Papa had to come home and take care of us as mama was sick through Saturday.

On Friday morning, I crawled into bed with mama and papa, announced my belly hurt, and barfed all over their sheets (which mama prefers because it's easier to clean up- plus, we always have two mattress pads on the beds just for this reason). So I didn't have to go to school and papa had to stay home from work to take care of all of us. We got to watch a lot of movies on Friday. It was the best.

On Saturday, we all thought we were feeling better, so we decided to take advantage of the warm weather (fifty degrees) before it started raining for the rest of the weekend. We headed to Nettles Park and played.

We had fun on the swings.

I continue to show that I am not a natural leader because I will follow June anywhere once we get on a playground. Papa says I'm doomed to be a follower. Mama likes to think I'm just very protective on my little sister and it's like having a free babysitter.

We rode the big alligator.

And we all tried out this spinning instrument of torture.

Papa lasted about 10 seconds before he got sick, which is about 9 seconds longer than mama.

Poor Junie wasn't quite recovered from her gastrointestinal maladies because suddenly she started tugging on her pants and mama said, "I think June might have pooped." Understatement of the century. Too keep from getting too graphic, let's just say that it's a good thing no one else was at the park, because the parking lot, June's clothes, the van's carpet, and June's winter coat (an unintentional victim) will never be the same. We had to drive home with the windows open because mama was dry-heaving and poor Guggie was stuck wearing only a diaper.

Amazingly, papa managed to never catch this bug from us, even though he is on medicine that supposed to wipe out his immune system. We're all feeling better finally, though now the three of us have colds and runny noses. Of course, papa is fine. Mama's favorite part of this whole fiasco came on Saturday morning. I was cuddling them in bed and asking repeatedly "Can we get up now?" while a snoozed (a morning tradition in our house). Out of the blue, I climbed on top of mama, took her face in my hands and said, "Mama, I'm sorry I barfed on your bed yesterday."

And despite the fact that he's spent the last 4 days waiting on us hand and foot, cooking all the meals (though we mostly just ate crackers), and doing about 4 loads of laundry a day, Papa offered to take off Monday morning to take us to the zoo. It was 67 degrees and beautiful today and the zoo was packed, because everyone else in the upstate must have had the same idea. It was also a special treat because today was MLK Day and papa usually prefers to work on Federal holidays because his office is always very quiet. He did go into work once we got back home from the zoo.

Thanks so much for taking care of us papa. For your efforts, we promise that you can get that new big TV you've been dreaming about- sometime in the next 15 years.

P.S. thanks for all the congratulations on the new baby, but which of our Wisconsin friends left the comment saying they were having a baby and didn't sign it?!? Please, let us know!