Happily over the new year...and then some

I read my last--very brief--post and realized that we survived the holidays, and happily, and have embarked on this new year without comment. Record for posterity I must (and for the few family members and friends who check in now and then), so here I go!

Christmas, as most things in life, did not go quite as planned. We were supposed to spend Christmas Eve with Eric's side of the family, but the day before Christmas Eve, we ended up taking Auden to the ER just to check on this nasty cough and slight fever he had been dealing with for roughly a week. It turns out he had RSV, a nasty cold virus that can cause pneumonia, especially in kids under two and people with fragile immune systems. So, we decided to contain our germs and stay home. It was quiet and a little strange, but we fixed up a dinner of crab legs (for Eric) and pasta with browned butter and mizithra cheese for me and the boys. We had stopped by Eric's parents' to swap gifts, so the boys opened a crazy amount of presents, and they went to bed at a relatively reasonable hour.

The next morning, we woke up, opened gifts from Santa, which included an indoor trampoline for Auden and a Beyblade set for Logan, and we headed down to my parents' for Christmas Day. Always good to see the fam! My cousin Tyler was on leave, and he was finally able to meet Auden and see a walking, talking Logan. If anything, the holidays remind you how fleeting time truly is. My cousins used to beat me up mercilessly. This year, they just shot Nerf discs at my husband...and, in turn, my children attacked them. Ok, so maybe it's nice to know that we really aren't so grown up after all.

The rest of our break was remarkably productive. As we fought off the cold that Auden so generously passed to the three of us, I did most of those projects that I half-heartedly put on a to-do list to accomplish during break, the ones that never actually get done. Well, this year, they got done! I cleaned out our storage room, donated three bags of toys, organized the boys' room and the new office, organized the pantry and got rid of all the stuff that had expired in '08 or something. Wow. Not that I typed that out, I feel not productive but incredibly lame.

Eric and I had the neighbors and their kids over for an early new year's celebration. The kids played together really well, and we actually got some grown-up talks in. Not bad!

We had time for laziness and leisure. Eric and I saw two--count 'em--two movies in the theater (Les Miserables, The Hobbit--bother entertaining but entirely too long), and I got hooked on the BBC series Sherlock. I also made it through Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite, a so-so book that makes conjectures about the origins of various monster myths.

Auden started potty training full force. It's been weeks since I've changed a poopy diaper. It's so easy to forget how nice that fact is. Still a ways to go, but we're on the right track.

The only thing missing is my commitment to working out in any way whatsoever. But I'm finally at a point in my life when I'm feeling the effects. My legs and shoulders feel crampy in the evenings; my energy level feels rather low, and it's not just because I'm a mom. For the first time in my life, running just doesn't appeal to me. I'm thinking pilates. Maybe next month I'll see if there are any classes out there... :)

This past weekend was great--spent some time with Eric's side of the family. Always fun to see the boys play with their cousins and clown around for grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Hope all of you are well!

Gearing up

Well, I've been doing my best (well, maybe not my best) to avoid the news as much as possible the past week and a half. I talked to Logan about the shooting in Aurora, CO, but this one I'm hoping he'll remain blissfully ignorant about. Twenty-six people shot in an elementary school, and the NRA's solution is to have an armed policeman in every school building. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? I wish things were that simple.

The holidays are on their way. We're out of school for two weeks. For most of us, the world didn't end.

Summertime

I know, it's a strange title for a post in December, but I just wanted to record a nice memory. Auden always asks for a song or two before he goes to bed. It's funny how the kids eventually choose the lullabies, not you. For Logan, it was Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" and "In My Life" by The Beatles, but Auden's choices are "Summertime" (fitting for a summer baby; I like the Ella Fitzgerald version) and "If I Had the Wings of an Eagle" by Ziggy Marley.  He likes daddy to sing "Snuggle Puppy," which is pretty adorable since Eric doesn't sing all that often.

Anyway, Auden sings along to both songs--he knows most of the lyrics, surprisingly. And when I get to "Nothin' can harm you," Auden shows some potential jazzman qualities: while I'm holding that note, he follows it up with "No harm me" like he's improvising or something. Cute.

Jokes from a four-year-old

Logan's really into jokes these days. Not ones he's heard...ones he comes up with himself. So I thought I'd share a little taste of his sense of humor. It's strange, but these two jokes say a lot about, well, his parents' poor joke-telling skills.

Why did the bear cross the road?
To get to the other side so he could eat the stuff over there.
(Ok, a variation on the classic chicken version, but with an added practical reason for the bear's short jaunt. Way too logical/serious to be funny. He gets it from me.)

Why did the bear eat the wolf?
Because he was mad at the wolf because the wolf was making fun of the wolf...I mean the bear...so he ate him!
(Screwed up the punch line...Totally Eric. But this one made me laugh anyway.)

Colds

Our household has been hit this year with a cold that just won't quit. Auden's been sick off-and-on since Halloween, and on and on it has gone with all of us in varying stages of stuffiness, coughiness, sore-throatiness. I'm really sick of being sick.

Anyway, as I was rubbing some balm on Auden's chapped nose, he characterized his cold brilliantly for me. This is what he said: "Mom, I have diarrhea nose."

Gross. But how apropos.

My Precious

This weekend Logan thought it would be a great idea to go through all of our board games in our play room/basement. He hit nearly all of them. Cranium, Blokus, Risk (Lord of the Rings edition), Stratego, Battleship...the list goes on. As a result, this afternoon was spent picking up said games, which were strewn all across the basement floor. I had Auden and Logan sorting the LOTR Risk pieces, which consist of a crap load of elves, orcs, trolls, humans, and dwarves. Oh, and there's a pretty convincing ring of power as a game piece. In fact, I thought it was one of Eric's long-lost wedding bands until I did a double-take and realized it was yellow gold...and was adorned with elvish scrawl. Anyway, Logan found it, quickly snatched it up, and said, "Oh! This is so pretty! I love it!"
"Would you say it's precious?" I couldn't resist.
"Yes, precious! That's it. My precious ring." He even petted it lovingly.
When he wasn't looking, I put the ring back in the box. I'm not taking my chances. We don't need any of those shenanigans unleashed around our house. :)

It must be the witches...

Last night I was tucking Logan into bed, and he put his blankie around his feet, under his comforter. "Are you getting cold at night?" I asked, thinking his legs and feet were chilly or something.
"No, I just like to put my blankie and Spikey (his panda bear) under my covers at night so the witch won't get them."
"Wha?"
"Yeah, this witch comes in my room at night and just throws my blankie and my panda on my floor while I'm sleeping."
"No, I think that you twist and turn at night and kick your blankie and panda out of your bed."
"Nope. It's the witch. Where do witches come from, anyway?"

Maybe we just had a little too much Halloween this year? Our neighborhood block party was pretty tame, but we made the most of it. The boys had fun playing with their friends. I made a jello brain. A good time was had by all, in short.

The boys did their trick-or-treating early to beat the cold, so we had fun hanging our with our friend Leah and handing out candy to other ghoulies. I think Logan actually had more fun handing out candy than he did getting candy for himself.

Auden is fighting off a cold and ear infection. He's been handling it like a champ, but I wish the coughing and snotty nose would clear up already. It's been about two weeks and he's still hacking and blowing snot rockets. Why must toddlers wipe the snot that's oozing out of their nose clear across their face, but it's like the worst thing in the world if you wipe their noses with a tissue? Gross.