Lunar Eclipse and Moon Madness

Tonight we witnessed a lunar eclipse. As with many 3-year-olds, Erika is very interested in the moon, so this was quite an event! As the moon turned to red, Erika exclaimed, "The moon looks like Jupiter!" which I think is a pretty insightful observation!
We don't have a telescope...yet, so we made due with binoculars as best we could.

After we got cold and came in, (notice that mommy needs no jacket since her oven is cooking along at about 400F. Just try sleeping near her!) Erika wanted to watch a "Cosmos" DVD. This must be where she picked up the idea of what Jupiter looks like! Indeed, while we had the stomach flu the week before last, we watched the whole 13 episode series of Cosmos from 1980.

In this final picture, Erika is showing signs of moon madness: she has pants on her head, is chattering about rockets, and is expressing desire for more Carl Sagan and the planet Jupiter. Who says the Wetzels don't know how to party?

As a side note, this "Cosmos phase" in her viewing habits has been going on for about two weeks so far. I'm sure it will pass like the other phases have, but just in case something sticks, I'm saving this picture to show at her doctoral dissertation.

Band-aids, Skittles, and drawing thing.

Erika loves band-aids.  This is what happens when you leave the box unattended. Whoever thought of putting cartoon characters on band-aids has cost us a lot of money.  Below is Erika lazily watching Saturday morning cartoons and putting band-aids wherever she can.  

Uncle Mark joined us for our Sunday ritual of going to cross-roads mall in Bellevue for Thai food.  Afterwards, Erika is rewarded with a handful of Skittles candies.

Grandma Kathy sent Erika this lovely drawing thing.  It's the kind where you paint with plain water, but the picture magically appears.  I don't know exactly what these things are called, but Erika simply loves them.

Rotavirus: 3; Wetzels: 0

This past week was brought to us by the letter V for Virus.
It was ugly, but here's what I have learned about projectile vomiting:

3) You get an instant abdominal workout without the hastle of going to the gym.
2) It's a quick way to loose 5 pounds overnight
1) Eat applesauce, it's good the second time too.


Figure 1. Microscopic Evil.

The good news: Erika took 5 days to recover, but recover she has. She laid down Monday morning and vomited every 20 minutes for several hours. She did not get up on her own until just this morning (Friday). She asked for Pizza.
Jackie is tired, but this is a huge improvement from the earlier explosive action from both ends which is a joy while pregnant I'm told.
The Twins, still in there and ticking away. Jackie had another ultrasound visit today and little A and B are in excellent shape having missed all the fireworks.
As for me: I missed 3 days of work.. well, I tried, but people kept calling me. It's good to feel needed, but I'll admit during the darkest 8 hours of this virus, I could not have possibly cared less. Lying motionless and cursing repeatedly seemed to be the only thing I was capable of doing. Yes, I know, that's not much different than a typical day at the office.

Stomach virus. Again with the snow?

Last week it snowed again! ..for a day. Erika looked out the window and excalimed "What a great day to stay inside"

But this week Erika is one hurtin' cowpoke. She has her first really impressive stomach virus. She was throwing up about every 20 minutes for several hours. She could only tolerate the tiniest sip of water or Pedialyte. As of tonight, she has turned the barfy corner but has no energy whatsoever. She just lays there and dozes. So sad!
Last night, she was looking particularly pathetic and I asked if she needed some loving. There has never been a tinier, sadder "yeah" uttered. I picked her up and she cuddled into a ball in my arms. Now *this* is the sweet part about being a dad! Then she barfed impressively all over me and I had to take a shower. You gotta be ready with the towels at all times.