venturing back out in the world

On this, our 10th week of illness in the house, we finally made it down to Florida to see my parents (apologies to my Tampa peeps that I won't get to see them... we're only here for 2.5 days and we have extended family visiting). We have been beleaguered with two different flu episodes, kidney stone passage (ok, so that's not contagious but I'm here to tell you - IT HURTS), and now the stomach flu. When the contagious illnesses work their way through four people, at four different times, you get 10 weeks of illness. We're happy that we made it here, though. It wasn't a certainty given the stomach flu situation. Charlotte has it now, but we're hopeful that it ends with her.

My niece Annaleis came over today to play. She is 19 months old and really, really adorable. She is also totally overwhelmed with Elisabeth. Elisabeth, who is 20 months older than her cousin, views Annaleis as more of a child that she should be helping to care for than as a playmate. She said to my mother today, "Don't worry Grandmommy, I'll watch her. Annaleis can come with me, I'll watch her." Talk about the blind leading the blind. Elisabeth would "watch" Annaleis stick forks in outlets. She'd probably drag a stool to the kitchen to get Annaleis the forks.

Anyway, Annaleis, being all of 19 months old, doesn't speak terribly clearly. She speaks a lot, but you can't understand her. So Elisabeth said, "Annaleis, do you speak Spanish?" Radio silence. So Elisabeth tried again, a little louder and more in Annaleis' face. "DO YOU SPEAK SPANISH Annaleis?" So I said, "no, Elisabeth, she barely speaks English. She doesn't speak Spanish." "But, mommy, I can't understand her. She's speaking another language. She's speaking Spanish." And then, I swear to you, the next two babbles out of Annaleis' mouth were "yo soy." So what do I know. Maybe she is speaking Spanish. We are in Florida afterall.

Speaking of Spanish, on the drive home from the airport, Elisabeth said -- "I see something! In the trees! Hanging down!" Spanish moss. She loves the Spanish moss. But is confused by the name, since, duh, moss doesn't talk.

Elisabeth ran up and down my parents' hallway about 276 times. We had at least an hour of push toy rollerderby. Poor Annaleis stood watching with mouth agape. I actually feel bad for letting my kid show Annaleis all of the excitement than can be had. She'd try to venture out to take part in the rollerderby, see Elisabeth flying at her with a push toy, and come and hide behind my leg. But then I went out there with her and ran up and down the hall and she had a blast. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to teaching Annaleis that she can make poop muffins. I mean, my sister is really missing out on all that having a psychopath - sorry, toddler -can be.