welcome weekend!

After such a splendid and relaxing weekend at the beach, it was inevitable that re-entering the real world would be a sluggish transition.  But even with Russ out of town, our week was going great–until Wednesday night when I went in to check on Theo and found him running a 103 degree fever.

I took the other two to school the next morning and headed off to the pediatrician with Theo, knowing full well he had strep. He was duped into enduring the throat culture by a nurse who tickled him to make him laugh and open his mouth.  Poor guy; that was pretty unfair. An hour and a half later, we were checking out of the pediatrician’s office when my phone rang; it was the nurse at Tucker’s school saying she had him in her office.

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Round II, here we come. Tucker’s complaint? His ear had hiccups. The doctor confirmed this–his eardrum was covered with little bubbles that were full of fluid and were rupturing.

We left our second pediatrician’s visit of the day with yet another prescription. We now have about a gallon of amoxicillin sitting in our fridge.

It wasn’t the most exciting way to spend my 41st birthday.

But amoxicillin is a wonder drug and everyone perked up in 24 hours, thank goodness.

At one point on Friday morning, I peeked into a suspiciously quiet living room to find Theo decorating the Easter Tree.  My grandmother loved her some holiday decorating, that’s for sure. She also had a thing for bunny-rabbits that rivals Tucker’s; her collection of rabbits–95% of which are made of insanely fragile materials and which are specifically placed around his room–makes Tucker so happy. One of the many [often random and quite funny] decorations I have from her house is an Easter Tree, which has to be the most hilarious thing ever.  Who on earth thought to do a smash-up of Christmas with Easter?

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The boys and I hauled up Mama B’s cache of Easter stuff on Ash Wednesday, but I’d left the Easter Tree in its box and was likely going to take it back downstairs…until sweet Theo discovered it.

Theo still believes in his original Christmas decorating mantra of “the more, the merrier” and proceeded to use only one branch for all of the ornaments.  Every. Last. One.

I know somewhere up in heaven, Mama B. is looking down and smiling at the little boy who loves her funny Easter Tree as much as she did.

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The rest of Theo’s morning off from school was spent stomping puddles and doing some serious tricycle riding. It was such a relief to see him feeling better.

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these great red boots? worth every penny…

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So we’re back to good health here (except for Henry, who lost a tooth last night). And we’re back to a full house; Russ returned from a work trip last night, prizes in tow for the little men. It’s a chilly, sunny Saturday in Atlanta, and we get to spend the morning at the ballpark, watching Jack and Tucker practice a sport they love.

And tonight, we’ll finally celebrate my birthday with dinner out with the boys.  It’s going to be worth the wait.

beach break

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It’s hard to beat a weekend at the beach, even if it’s windy and partly gloomy outside. We took a fabulous trip down to Amelia this past weekend. Russ’s parents have spent the past month down there relaxing and tinkering around.  Russ’s dad is absolutely masterful at the art of tinkering. He’s rigged up a way to keep our bikes from toppling over in the closet, he’s hung various things in various places, he’s fixed random holes in random walls, and he’s gone toe-to-toe in a serious battle against a nest of carpenter ants. Russ’s parents are on a first-name basis with the dudes at the hardware store and have even visited a machinery shop to have–are you ready for this?–a pull on a drawer re-threaded (Russ’s response? “I’d have just bought a new chest of drawers.”). Grandpa’s a rock-star of a fix-it-up man. He puts your run-of-the-mill handyman to shame.

It was nice to spend time with them both, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed walking the beach with them and helping Grandpa search for lost golf balls in the dunes, which he enjoys doing when he’s not fixing up stuff.

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You got something you think needs fixin’? This cat can handle it…

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The beach in late February can give you a solid taste of the upcoming Spring when the weather cooperates, which it did in a spectacular way on Sunday. It was over 80 degrees when we moseyed on out to the beach after a lunch outing downtown.

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The water, of course, was still way too cold for anyone–except Tucker, that is.

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Cold? What’s that?

And this old brown/gray guy?

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…still loves him some beach time but still does not like wet, salty tennis balls. Both Henry and Buck hover around me all day at the beach, begging to go for a walk down to the sand and the ocean.

The downtown area is still great fun and our usual go-to restaurant still has shoddy service but good food.  And the giant fake shark is still hanging on the dock, waiting for children to mess with him.

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Spring is on its way. Basketball is done…

…which means baseball has started up. Even on 50 degree days, both boys are thrilled to be on the ballfield. I love catching them playing toss in the yard (or cul-de-sac, as the case may be…).

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February has given us our 9th anniversary, Valentine’s Day, Russ’s birthday and–almost–my birthday.

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these are the coolest paintings the boys did with our dear friend Emily (L-R: Jack’s, Tuck’s, Theo’s)…

We’ve built more train tracks this month than Sir Topham Hatt could fathom.  Cold, rainy, windy weather that locks you indoors will do that to a family. We’ve even managed to combine marble tracks with train tracks–Jack and Theo call them “cargo loaders.” Their creativity makes me smile.

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Theo’s latest obsession is organizing his trains:  by size or color or engine type or tinders or numbers of wheels…his categories are endless.

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The rest of this week features some great beginnings:  the start of Lent and the start of another trip around the sun for me, both of which I view to be pretty doggone fantastic.

Make your week count, too.

Tucker’s superstar week

Superstar Week is upon us–for Tucker, that is.  One child a week is the Superstar in Tuck’s class and, in kindergarten, this is one big, huge deal.  We had to make a video for him, and he gets to take his favorite book to share and a favorite song for a snacktime dance party–in addition to other nifty little treats that happen throughout the week for him.

The video was a true labor of love.  While I love to take photos, getting them from the computer onto a dvd in a decent order and with proper music is a multi-day process.  The end result here makes us smile and got Tucker’s stamp of approval, meaning that I amazingly managed to avoid all embarrassing pictures.  Success!  (Now if I could just figure out how to make it larger on the blog…)

Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/36447603