Catching Up....

William's Halfy Birthday

Valentine's Day party at preschool

Valentine's Day party

Well.... things are finally quiet around the house. Both kids are at preschool today. I actually have 2 1/2 hours to myself this morning!

This past month has flown by! Both kids were sick with colds and ear infections. The ear infections were a first for both kids. Poor William had a build up of fluid in his right ear which eventually ruptured his eardrum. It must have been incredibly painful. He cried harder than he did when he broke his arm a few years ago. After being up to our armpits in Amoxicillin, both kids are finally healthy (for now).

Brian was home for a week (mandatory furlough). It was nice to have him home to help out around the house (although it took several days for him to relearn the house rules). Prior to his week off, he made a long list of projects to do around the house. Guess how many of those projects he accomplished? One! Yes, one. You see Brian has absolutely no concept of time. What he thinks will take 1 hour actually takes 2 days. I've have come up with a formula that always works for him. He thinks a project will take 1 hour... double that = 2 hours.... then bring up a degree (such as hours to days) = 2 days. Only in this case what should have taken an hour, took 1 week (my formula was slightly off this time). Yes, it took Brian 1 full week to put the Christmas decorations away. The decorations were already boxed. They just needed to go back into the attic. Brian decided it would be easier to store the boxes in the basement so he had to clear a space to put all of them. This took several days of clearing, several days of cleaning and several days of carrying the boxes to the basement. Yup, that's Brian. Every project is long lasting.

William celebrated his HALFY Birthday at school. Since he has a summer birthday, he was able to celebrate is half birthday in January at school with special treats (little donuts). He wore a birthday crown and was sung to by his classmates. He really enjoyed the special attention. We celebrated at home too with a dinner request by the birthday boy (pasta and salad with brownies for dessert).

Valentine's Day was a BIG deal this year. Claudia was really excited about giving cards to her friends. She made her own cards with construction paper and doilies. She enjoyed writing her name on the first few, but then called it quits because "It was too much work." It took several days for us to finish her Valentine's cards! William passed out "Cars" Valentine's this year. He had fun choosing the cards for each friend. He wrote his name on each card as well as the name of the classmate it was going to. No complaints from him!

Both of the kids had parties at school - on the same day... at the same time. Thankfully, Brian and I both attended the festivities. We didn't want the kids to think we picked one child over the other so we divided our time between the two classrooms. The kids came home with a huge stash of treats! They both sat at the kitchen table searching through their candy and cards. Claudia asked who gave her each card. William was able to read all his friends names...although he just quickly scanned over the girl cards and offered them to Claudia. Claudia, in turn, gave her boy cards to William. Claudia has 5 more students in her class than William which made her loot pile noticeably larger. Being the sweetie that she is, she offered William a good chunk of her treats.

This past weekend, we made a trip down to Purdue for a little get-away. My sister's oldest had an indoor softball tournament in Lafayette so we tagged along. We didn't go to her games because she played on Saturday at 6:00A.M. and Sunday morning at 12:00A.M. and 2:30A.M.!! Crazy! We did meet some of our college friends that still live in the area. Mike and Angela are now married and have two children. We all met for lunch and then went back to the hotel for a swim. The kids had a blast playing together. Later that evening, Brian watched the kids and Gayle and I went shopping. I don't get out without the kids much, so it was a welcomed break! Thanks Brian! I owe you one.

While at the hotel, we stayed up late eating snacks and watching television... when it came time to go to bed, the kids got into a heated discussion on who was to sleep with who. Both kids wanted to sleep with Brian (no complaints from me) and argued until William decided that he would solve the problem. He used the all-time ultimate decision maker..... "EENIE MEENIE MINEY MOE". He won, but Claudia was not convinced that Eenie Meenie was going to keep her from sleeping with Daddy. William insisted that she lost and repeatedly said to her, "Claudia, we did Eenie Meanie Miney Moe and you lost.". Well... they both ended up sleeping with Brian which made me quite happy!

The next morning, we had breakfast and headed out to see campus. The kids weren't too excited about all the reminiscing that was going on in the front seat. "Remember when..." or "Look kids. Mom lived there and there and there and there....Dad lived in that dorm and that house and that apartment...." The kids wanted to get out of the car and run around, but it was too cold. We'll have to head down when the weather is warmer and do a walking tour of our favorite places. Speaking of favorite places, we did stop at Snowbear Frozen Custard for a quick treat. (A note to Kathy... the one across from our apartment on Stadium is no longer there. There is only one in the levee now.) No trips to Harry's for Long Island ice teas. We'll have to wait for a kid free weekend for that!

This weekend Brian and I are heading to Schaumburg to meet up with some of my high school friends. A few of them I saw at my 20th high school reunion in 2008 (dating myself) and the rest I have not seen in a LONG time. The reunion was so crowded and loud that I really didn't have the opportunity to have a conversation with anyone (other than shouting a few words). So this should be a fun time. None of my friends are bringing their spouses / significant others with them so I'm not really sure if Brian should tag along or not. I know he would enjoy himself. He has a gift of gab and could hold his own. But, on the other hand, it's hard to pretend your interested in high school "flashbacks" especially when you didn't attend the school. So... I may just have to flip a coin to see if I'm going solo or not.

That's it for now. I still need to upload all our photos since Christmas. That's next on my list.... along with doing laundry, making the beds and a date with the treadmill.