At the end of March, since I am still out of work, I took Jameson and Coraline to visit with Meemaw and Grandpa. Our drive there wasn’t too bad; I think that Coraline is slowly getting better in the car.
Jameson jumped in right away playing with toys at Meemaw’s house. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really that warm yet, so we didn’t spend a lot of time outside.
Don’t let Coraline’s happy face fool you! Within a day of our arrival, she was starting to get sick. She just loved the dogs though, particularly Mayzee who was perfectly nice to let her pet her without getting all up in her face like Shiloh does.
The dogs are always a hit with Jameson too, and he finally seems to be getting a little too big for Shiloh to give him “hugs” constantly. He was so good with them both. When they’d follow him upstairs, he’d say “thanks for coming up with me” and enjoyed tossing their toys for a game of fetch (he wasn’t too keen on tugging the toys out of Shiloh’s mouth though). He even claimed Shiloh was his best friend once.
We did get bundled up and went outside one day. Jameson flew airplanes with Grandpa and wanted to swing in the baby swing (he fell off the big swing when he wasn’t holding on properly–oops!)
I can’t get enough of that excited swinging face! He drove the car around too, but then decided he was too big for it for now.
Coraline was out too, but it was really quite cold and I forgot gloves for her, so we grabbed a couple (mismatched) for her to put on while we walked. She was fascinated. Despite the cold, I did get out on a run with Grandpa which was fun, our first run together.
Even though Coraline was sick, bedtimes went pretty smoothly until our last night there. Each night, I’d put Coraline down first and then Jameson. A couple times she woke up as I was putting Jameson to bed, but I was shocked that they both fell happily asleep. Jameson couldn’t wait to get into Meemaw’s big bed (a blown up full size mattress on the floor is like sleeping in a bounce house to a toddler!)
Meemaw read them Hairy McClary from Donaldson’s Dairy which became a hit while we were there. We got a few more Hairy McClary books and some movies at the library near the end of the week. Our last night though Coraline woke up Jameson and both were up for a couple hours. It was difficult with just me there since they both wanted me. Jameson hung out in my bed with me until Coraline finally fell back asleep and then insisted on going back into his own bed.
Jameson was a big fan of the small cucumbers while we were there, eating them like pickles, whole.
Coraline practiced clapping on command! Whenever I chanted “fee fi fo fum” (just like Daddy does in the mornings), she would clap her hands. It was super cute, and a highlight from our trip which otherwise mostly involved her crying, fussing, clinging, or sleeping. Poor thing! She developed a persistent fever, which did respond to Advil, but returned every time it wore off. She stopped eating solid food, so I was thankful we were still continuing with formula for her bottles.
Meemaw brought out the dollhouse, and the kids both did some playing with it. Jameson enjoyed swinging the Little People from Coraline’s new Little People set high in the swing.
But… the box all the furniture and people came up in was quite a bit more fun for him.
Both kids spent a lot of time in their pajamas, though Jameson was by choice! He would stay in them all day if we let him. Coraline visited the urgent care once for her fever, where they told us it was viral. We followed up with the doctor when we came home on day 6 of her fever, and the doctor requested some tests including blood and chest xray. The white blood cell count was double the norm, and indicated an infection. We never got a certain answer, but when they ran a catheter the following day the almost-too-small-sample did have indications of a urinary tract infection. After a shot of antibiotic, she immediately started getting better. Within 24 hours, she was back to her normal self.
We didn’t let Coraline’s illness stop us from having a little fun at Meemaw and Grandpa’s though. We managed to get out at least once a day for a short period of time. I did take Jameson to visit and play with my friend Katie’s kids, Finley and Marky. Finley is Coraline’s age, so we were disappointed we weren’t able to get them together too.
Jameson and Marky played so great together, it was like they remembered each other! They played with Marky’s turtle masks, so when I needed to use a gift card received for Coraline’s birthday at a close Toys R Us store, we went ahead and used a portion of it for a mask for him.
Coraline was less than thrilled about being at the toy store though, ha! She did get some cute baby dolls out of it though. As Meemaw says, you can never have enough baby dolls.
Our last full day at Meemaw’s we went to the library and grocery store, where Jameson got to push his very own cart. It was very exciting for him, though he resisted our efforts to steer him properly. He wanted to do everything himself, of course!
We had a nice time (all except for maybe Coraline since she was sick). Jameson may even get to go to Meemaw and Grandpa’s by himself this summer. He said he’d like to, we’ll see 🙂
