Somewhere over the last few months, my little girl, has become my BIG girl. At 20 months yesterday, Apple is tiny compared to her brother, but fearless.  She is long and lean and has the abs I have dreamed of all my life.  Her metabolism is incredible as she eats and eats and eats.

Where J and I can easily enjoy an afternoon with a movie and popcorn, Apple will have none of it. She is raring to go whenever she is awake. And her new favourite word is ‘outside’.  I fear the rain that is coming for tomorrow and Thursday not that we can’t go out in the rain, but it makes it much more difficult for me. And sliding down the slide is a no-no for a 20 month old in the rain.  And can I add that this is no toddler slide, but the slide on the play structure that was made for a three year old and up.  She climbs the ladder and slides down all on her own.  Be still my heart.

Her newest dare devil attempt today was the swing.  Not her baby swing, that I love and cherish, but the big girl swing.  She hung on and swung along side her brother.  Laughing, squealing and enjoying the moment.  She only let go and tumbled down once and it was party my fault as she was doing so well that I leaned over to push J for a second.

If this is what I am faced with at 20 months, what is going to happen when she turns two?

Friday morning as I was so excited to bring the Beach to school, J woke up coughing and hasn’t stopped.  To make things worse in addition to the cough he had a fever, again.  Since school started he has now had three colds.  One a few days before Christmas holidays, the second over the long Family Day weekend and now this third one, at the start of March Break.   Now, I will need a break!

Poor guy, his fever got so high on Friday night that I slept beside him worried that I was going to have to bring him to the hospital.  Thankfully the medication kicked in and it started to come down. He was so hot his hands were like mini hot water bottles, which really made me nervous. This was his highest fever yet at 39.9C (103.8F).

Thankfully, the weather was fabulous this weekend so Saturday afternoon we put the kids in their jackets and headed outside in the backyard.  Despite being 10C (50F) both kids had their Winter jackets on, just in case.  Here are a few photos of the fun.

Apple and J were getting ready to play soccer, with the basketball that somehow got left out all winter long.  I was amazed to find what J and the neighbour’s boy dumped out of the storage bin beside the house before the snow fell.  I should say not impressed instead of amazed.  Next year the bin will have to go into the garage again.

 Here the kids are playing soccer with Hubby.  Apple kept picking it up to bring it back to them, but she was totally loving being included for once.

 J asked me if he needed to shave, I happened to catch the photo?  Not sure where that came from, he asks the funniest questions sometimes.  He actually got out of his pj’s today! I mean, I made him put clean ones on every day, but he actually wore pants and a sweater today, so I knew he was feeling better.  That and his fever broke last night before i went to bed so now we are contending with the cough.

And sweet little Apple.  She is so happy to finally be allowed to run around the backyard.  She was able to a little last fall before the snow came, but all Winter long she had to watch the kids have fun because the snow was too deep.  She is in all her glory.  And I found her a pair of splash pants on Sunday so she wouldn’t get any more of her pants dirty.

And this is what I have been working on this past weekend.  These cute little birds are going to be part of Cooper’s Flock.  I first heard of Cooper through Susan B. Anderson’s blog.  I thought they were cute birds and clicked over to Lucinda’s page to hear the story of Cooper and his flock.  If you are interested in helping out please click over to Lucinda’s blog, but be warned to bring a tissue or two.