Quick Update

Sorry, my adoring fans, but I only have time to write a quick update on the goings-on in our parts.

We've mostly been trying to ride our bikes in a futile attempt to get ready for our upcoming vacation. We've unfortunately discovered that our 30-something bodies don't recover quite as quickly as our 20-something bodies used to. And since this is the most riding we've done in 4 years, our bodies are really not appreciating it.

We've also been busy trying to de-clutter. De-cluttering the house and our lives. We're in the process of trying to get rid of one motorcycle, but that involves actually getting it running! It's out of our garage, though, which made room for the workbench, which made room for a cool bookshelf from IKEA! :)

Aside from that, work continues to eat into our real lives - not a good precedent to uphold - and I've also decided that the US Passport Agency is woefully understaffed! Our nanny (a US citizen) is supposed to be traveling home to El Salvador in less than one week and she still doesn't have her renewed passport that she applied for in early March. AND if you call the Passport Agency number, the only thing they tell you is that they don't have enough people, to call back later, and then the automated system hangs up on you. It's infuriating. Word to the wise: if you think you'll be traveling overseas (or Canada or Mexico) in the next year, apply for the passport and pay for the expedited delivery. You might get it in about 6 months.

Whew. How's that for the most convoluted, rambling "short post" ever?...

Note to self:

Ride for 23 miles with Fellan in tow on the trailer bike, then take him swimming for 2 hours at a friends' house - he'll actually get so tired, he'll take a nap on his own on the weekend - for the first time ever!!!

What more could I ask for?

Every Monday morning, people at work ask all their other coworkers that one question which I always think is only asked out of politeness, "How was your weekend?"

Well, my weekend was great! It started off on Friday evening when my husband suggested that I take my road bike out and see if it still works. I haven't ridden my road bike since the boy was about 6 months old, so considering that stretch of time without any mileage, the bike did great! My butt? Not so much. I think I'll be getting a new saddle sometime soon. There's no way I'll be able to put enough miles on that saddle to get used to it before our biking excursion this coming June. :)

On Saturday, we went for a family bike ride in the morning and then rode our bikes up to Allen Parkway to watch the Art Car Parade. This was the first year we were finally able to go after many years of conflicts, one type or another.

And Sunday was a Mother's Day bonanza:

• The husband and kids went and got me bagels, coffee, and flowers.
  
• Then it was time for the family bike ride...
• ...with our ride finishing at the Houston Grand Criterium - yep, a real bike race in Houston!
• Then lunch and naps for both kids (yay!)
• And to top it all off, we went to IKEA, where the kids are both now able to stay in the supervised play area while we get to wander around and not yell at children. How refreshing!
• And then (as if this wasn't all enough) we picked up the kids from the play area and went and ate dinner at the IKEA cafeteria.

Yes, yes, I'm easily amused, but it really was a very fun and relaxing weekend. The husband did a good job of making it a nice Mother's Day weekend. :)

Nice, strong cup of milk

The girl is increasingly asking to drink out of cups that don't have lids or that are not "sippy cups". And usually, she wants to drink milk from a big-girl cup.

So, we'll get her a cup of milk and every time we give it to her, she takes a long drink, puts down the cup, sighs, and says, "Now that's what I like: a nice, strong cup of milk."

It's just what I always wanted!!!

Well, since I last posted here, I think I've had a birthday, Fellan had a birthday, and my older brother had his 40th birthday (notice how I made sure to tell you that he's my older brother, making sure that you know I'm not yet 40. Far from it. So far that I can hardly imagine what the world will be like four years from now when I hit that mark...)

Anyway, my parents and my brother were here this past weekend to have a collective birthday celebration. Much fun was had by all, but my favorite part was the opening of the gifts. Not just because I got presents, but because I love to watch Fellan open presents.

Fellan is a very sensitive and emotive little boy. He has high, high, highs and low, low, lows. Opening presents is always a high, high, HIGH! His enthusiasm is infectuous and it's really genuine enthusiasm that he brings to every present opening.

Every time he opens a present, he will invariably scream with delight, "Wow! It's just what I always wanted!!!" or "It's the [insert vehicle type here] that I wanted!!!!" (Fellan requested matchbox cars for his birthday - we are totally overrun now...)

I would love for him to retain this ability to be thrilled with any and all presents, although, I'm afraid that I may have ruined it for him already.

I specifically told my mom what I wanted for my birthday and how to order it and then when my brother got to town, I actually went shopping with him and picked out my own present. So, when I opened my presents, I also exclaimed, "Wow! It's just what I always wanted!!"

I'm hoping I haven't made him feel too self-conscious. He is a very sensitive little boy, too, afterall... *sigh*

Time of Discovery

The latter part of March and beginning of April have been dubbed by the preschool teachers, "The Time of Discovery". They mentioned this to the husband one day and it's really true.

Suddenly, all the children in Fellan's class "get it". They get everything. They're totally comfortable at school and with the friendships they've made throughout the year. They're just amazing little creatures and I feel so lucky to be able to be a part of this school and see such growth of character from 4-year-olds.

One of the things that Fellan has suddenly "gotten" is the ability to swing. By himself. He no longer requires pushes from us.

This is a huge, huge thing for him. Swinging is, by far, his most favoritist thing ever to do. If given the opportunity, he would swing for over an hour and not play on any other equipment at any given park.

And so, in an attempt to save our sore arms, we have tried ever since he started using the "big kid swings" to teach him how to pump his legs. "Straighten! Pull 'Em Back! Straighten! Pull 'Em Back!"

Apparently, one of these teaching episodes must have been quite memorable (I'm hoping it was due to the loving supportiveness of my instruction) and now if you ask him who taught him to swing by himself, his answer is always, "Mommy!" Poor Daddy never gets any credit... :)

Runnin' Back Shoes

For those of you who don't know me, I'm not much of a girly-girl. However, it seems that despite her mother, somehow Marxo is learning some of the finer aspects of being a girl.

She loves all kinds of pretty, frilly outfits, and if I ever let her choose the bow for her hair, she will always choose the biggest pink bow that we have (which are all hand-me-downs from one of the neighbor girls - I definitely didn't buy them!).

She loves it when you tell her that she looks pretty (and I must admit I use that to my advantage fairly frequently in order to try to make her wear whatever it is I want her to wear so that I don't have to try to pick out something else! - "But you'll look so pretty in this shirt...")

And she especially loves the multitude of shoes that the neighbor girl has handed down to her. Every day she chooses different shoes to wear. Here lately, however, her favorite shoes are a pair of hot pink tennis shoes that she calls her "runnin' back shoes". Apparently she did pick up something a little "non-girly" from the football season. :)

Farthead

I overheard a conversation between my husband and the boy the other night:

Fellan: Look at my farthead!
Husband: Your what?
Fellan: My farthead!
(at this point, I was thinking that little-boy humor must have finally seeped into Fellan's class from the older kids' class)
Husband: What's on your head?
Fellan: No, look here! (pointing to his forehead)
Husband: Oh! That's your forehead!
Fellan: (thinking a couple seconds) It's my fivehead!!!
(much laughter all around...)

TMI?

Remember how I said that we were all sick for a couple of weeks? Here's an actual e-mail I sent to my mom on Monday after the first weekend of being sick: (she asked me how I was doing)

Better today than last night.

After watching the kids dry-heaving all night long for two nights, I was really afraid I was going to do it, too. But even after trying to will it all to come out the hind end, I ended up throwing up anyway. I hate throwing up.

After I threw up, I took the anti-naseau medicine that the doctor had prescribed for Marxo. It worked like a charm! I was able to sleep from about 10:30 until 5:00 when a big thunderstorm and hail came through.

Of course, that woke up the kids, so I went down the hallway, thinking that I would climb into bed with one of them and they might go back to sleep. But, when I was telling Marxo to move over, I touched her sheets and discovered that she had thrown up.

She threw up while she was laying on her back, so it got all in her hair. I ended up having to give her a bath. Then I changed her sheets and finally, I got them both to lay back down for a few minutes. I was just hoping I could make it through the next few hours until the nanny would get there and I would finally have a break from the gawd-awful weekend.

But then I heard the phone ringing and so did Fellan.
So we all came downstairs at around 7:10 and I checked the messages. It was the nanny - her daughter had been up most of the night crying with an ear infection, so she needed to take her daughter to the doctor. She would not be coming in afterall.

Oh - and when we came downstairs, I tried to turn on the lights in the dining room and one of the lightbulbs burned out (quite fantastically) and tripped one of the breakers, so the lights in the dining room and kitchen wouldn't work.

I eventually made my way downstairs to the garage to try to trip the breakers and get the lights back on, but after I messed around with them, even more lights wouldn't come on.

At this point, I was still not feeling very well, so I just laid on the couch and gave the kids some saltines and animal crackers to eat. The husband was still sleeping, so I left him up there until 9:30. At that point, I decided he had slept enought and he'd better come and help me figure out how to get the lights back on.

He's finally feeling better today after having a fever since sometime on Saturday afternoon. He claims he didn't get any good sleep from Friday until this morning from around 2:00 until 9:30.

I just can't wait to go back to work tomorrow so I can have a break. :)

Hiatus

I figure I've gone long enough without any kind of update on the goings-on here in my little world, so I'll just give you a brief over-view of what's happened in the last month or so.

At the end of February/beginning of March, we went on vacation to Colorado. My parents came out from Nebraska for the first weekend (and brought frozen Runzas for us to enjoy while on vacation, bless their hearts!). The kids had a very good time with grandma and grandpa and the husband and I were able to go skiing together for a day.

We got in a little skiing during the remainder of our week there and attempted to get the boy up on skis. We enrolled him in ski school one morning. I had serious doubts that he would stay for the entire session just because he's very slow to warm up to new situations and he gets very scared about anything remotely dangerous. So, we spent a couple of days talking about it - how the boots would feel, how to walk in them, how the skis are slippery, etc. We even visited the ski area and looked at the boots and skis he would rent and checked out the "magic carpet" that they have to get to the top of the bunny hill.

We actually got the boots on him and the helmet on him. Then we went outside to meet up with his teacher and the other kids. That's kind of when he lost a little steam. But, we went over to the little hill and actually got one ski on him. But then he fell down and he wanted Daddy. Immediately. But Daddy was busy trying to put mittens on the girl, so he wasn't immediately available. Well, that was the end of it. The boy would not continue on. He just couldn't recover his composure, so we cut the lesson short and went into the lodge. The husband and I took turns skiing for a couple of hours and that was that. Maybe next year...

After we returned from vacation, we've basically all been sick! Everyone came down with some sort of affliction the weekend after we got back and I'm actually still struggling with some kind of sinus infection. But we seem to be on the mend. Hopefully in the coming week, I'll be able to catch up with everything I want to post! Write at you soon! :)