"I Feee Yucky"

In four and a half years as a mother, my children have not had a fever and no one has thrown up or had other stomach ailments due to illness (Jonathan threw up on me during a turbulent plane ride, but that wasn't illness). I can almost feel the dirty looks emanating through the computer screen from those of you whose children haven't fared so well in the illness department.

I knew we couldn't remain illness-free forever, and this week we broke the streak. Caleb has been sick, sick, sick this week. Fever and all sorts of other unpleasantries. After an especially rough hour for the little dude, he looked at me with big eyes and tears:

"Mommy, I fee yucky. I fee yucky."

We are on day three of this illness and the lovely weather from last week is nowhere to be seen. To top it off, my sister returned to work today after a long maternity leave. One of our most frequent "play dates" is now out of commission.

We are just thankful it is Friday, and Grammie and Grampie come next week to help with the my sister's kiddos. That will certainly be a welcome reprieve from the hum-drum of snow and/or cold rainy weather in March.

"Family Date"

Jamie and I go on dates on a regular basis (not as regular as we would like, but such is life). The children obviously need some supervision in our absence so this usually means a babysitter for them. Jonathan has lamented being left behind during the last couple of dates, and he requested several times that we go on a "date as a family". We inquired about what he meant by a date: dressing nicely and going out to eat were his answers.

Last Friday was our inaugural "family date". We dressed up (Jamie and Jonathan matched) and went to Macaroni Grill for dinner followed by some stupendous desserts from Whole Foods. Jonathan pulled out my chair for me, and he was beaming all through dinner. He kept making comments about the fun of being on a "date". Caleb was delighted, too, but his delight was related to the unending bread supply and the ability to color with crayons on the table cover.

The restaurant we chose was the perfect "nicer" place to go (due to the aforementioned bread and crayons), the boys were thrilled with the desserts (as were we), and we will definitely do a "family date" again.

Enjoying our desserts

Family date night

Matchy, Matchy

My kids do not wear matching outfits very often. They have the same coats because they were on clearance last year, and they have matching mittens because they were the only workable ones I found. Lastly, they have these cute car pajamas that were also (you guessed it) on clearance two weeks ago. They won't match often, but it sure is cute when they do :+)

"Mommy, Watch This!"

Followed by a crash. Not a good combo. In an attempt at a "fancy maneuver" Jonathan landed chin first on the tile floor of the kitchen. There was a lot of blood.

We stopped first at the children's hospital urgent care. People advised this as our best choice since, of course, they understand children. There was a three hour wait, and I observed two people with masks on through the glass to the waiting room. I decided we would visit the urgent care for the family practice we regularly use instead of waiting three hours and possibly catching some horrible infectious bug.

On the way home Jonathan told me, "Tell Daddy I was really super brave."

Let's see:

You didn't cry when the doctor (who clearly isn't experienced with children and is nothing like Dr. Holly who we usually see) poked at your gaping chin, jabbed that lidicane needle in there like it was raw meat, covered your face with a drape, and stitched your chin back together. In fact, you didn't say one thing until we left the office. Then, you asked for a lemonade. Followed by the request to tell Daddy how brave you were. In my "mommy to a four year old" book that is brave. Especially because I had a moment where I thought I might pass out when looking at that hideous curved needle. (In my defense, it was insanely hot in there.)

Ruth and Keith warned me that stitches or something of the like would be in my future with two boys... guess I'll just be glad that this time it was only three stitches and they were just on the chin.

In Cold Wintertime...

We do a lot of crafts. I've tried to branch out a bit in our artistic endeavors this year, and below are two of the resulting projects. When we were discussing the seasons, I pulled out a book we have on art (in a kid friendly format). Jonathan was quite enthused, and quickly tried to "replicate" the spring picture.

Jonathan's version of "Spring" by Monet

Caleb and Jonathan both contributed to the coloring on this piece of art, but the cutting was left to the big man as Caleb would have surely mutilated this lovely truck.

The Making of Granola

One word: granola. I utter that one word and the boys are sitting at the table, spoons in hand, faster than I can assemble the ingredients and the bowl. They love to eat the uncooked granola, and I just brace myself for the grandiose mess that will ensue.

Visitors from the North

Jamie's brother and three kids came for a visit about a week ago, and we enjoyed the reprieve from the sameness of winter. We attempted ice skating, which was a little sketchy for our family after Jamie was called to the hospital on a work call. Marc's older kids did pretty well, but my kids are kind of doomed if they have my skating abilities. (NONE!!) Nic could set up the best car ramps, and this kept Jonathan and Caleb intrigued for long periods of time.