What A Week!

Seriously, what a week! Mr. M had one day off, so he came home last Sunday for the day. I was feeling a little run-down, but we decided to go hiking and to the cove anyway. It was a beautiful day, and this place really is my little piece of Heaven on Earth, so I had to go.



The girls had a great time hiking, and then playing in the ocean.



Paprika found this little friend (a hermit crab) and played with him (gently) for a long while. When she pulled him out of the ocean, I thought...oh dear...what is that?! But he ended up being pretty cute.



I had Baby Violet in the Baby Bjorn, and she slept the whole time we were there (hike and all!) The problem was that one of the straps on the Baby Bjorn was in a funny place and was pressing down on my chest. It was really uncomfortable, but I didn't want to wake her up! Big mistake...turns out the strap on the Bjorn caused a plugged milk duct, and by the next morning, I had a raging case of mastitis with a temperature of 102.



But while we were at the beach, everything was beautiful and we were all together and I didn't yet know what was coming. It was lovely! :-)



I started to feel bad on Sunday night, but thought it was just me feeling tired from the hike and wearing the baby bjorn all day. Mr. M went back to Santa Barbara at 5am on Monday morning, and by the time I woke up, my fever was 103! Yikes! I thought I had the flu at first, but then quickly realized it was mastitis. Still, there is no time off when you're a mom, so that was tough.

I get paid in smiles, and there was no shortage of those, thankfully! :-)



Baby Violet's new way to fall asleep is like this...you have to carry her seated in the crook of your arm, and eventually she just slumps over and goes to sleep. Any other method of getting her to sleep will fail and will result in hours of screaming. Just so you know! ;-) It cracks me up and I keep trying to get a good picture- but this is the best I could do on my own:



The rest of the week is a bit of a blur. Mr. M came down one night and got Ginger and took her up to Santa Barbara with him to give me a break (which left me taking care of just two kids and not three!) Grandma Pat watched Ginger during the day at her house, which was just wonderful and let me rest a little while Paprika was at school. I hear that Ginger is having the time of her life and is adoring all the one on one attention from Grandma and from Daddy when he gets home from work at night (he is staying with his mom while he works in Santa Barbara on the movie). But I miss my little Ginger bear sooooo much. I am counting down the hours until Ginger (and Mr. M) come home. Tonight! :-)

I started taking antibiotics on Monday or Tuesday (can't quite recall)- and as of now, my fever is normal (yay!) and I am feeling a lot better. I think I had about three days of having a fever of 101 to 103. It was awful. I had zero energy.

Last night I was feeling better, so I took Paprika and Violet to the mall. Paprika was sooooo excited! She counted out some money from her piggy bank and put five dollars in quarters and dimes in her purse. She dressed herself to the nines, including wearing sunglasses (even though it was dark out) and a big purse.

Several people stopped to tell her how great she looked, and one person even asked Paprika for her autograph. She was having a blast with it all!



Paprika kept saying things like, "I feel like such a grown up shopper. A serious shopper. But not a greedy girl shopper!" It was a hoot!

We went to a bunch of stores, but finally ended up at the Hallmark store. She picked out a Valentine's card to buy for Baby Violet.



She was so proud to buy it with her own money and to get to talk to the cashier on her own. And of course, now she wants to go back again! It was a real highlight to my week, just seeing how happy she was with something as simple as buying a greeting card.



Happy Weekend! TGIF!!!! :-)