Dancing with the Stars

We got the Dancing with the Stars game for the Wii for Christmas and we all took turns playing it. Here's Collin getting down to "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin.

Football

We put the kids to bed on time tonight but they protested. Loudly. Since they didn't really eat a good dinner and Nick had taken an extra long nap today I brought him back downstairs to have some dinner with Tim and I around 8. No sooner did I make it down the stairs when I heard "Mommy? Why did you bring Nick downstairs?" Busted! "To try some of my dinner. If you want to try it too, come on down." Can't let one come down and not the other. Nick ate up the Beef Burgundy I made, well at least he ate all the noodles and sauce. He wasn't trying the meat for anything. Collin wasn't interested in it at all but chowed down on the bowl of pink stuff (recipes to follow) I had for dessert. He then asked for an apple and a glass of water. Both nutritious choices so I let him have them. Of course, Nick had to have them too. So we watched some football and hung out all together while the boys ate. One of the teams scored a touchdown and Nick threw his arms in the air and yelled "Touch Down!". That's my boy! I was so proud of him and he was so proud of himself. All the football watching we do in this house, I shouldn't be surprised, it was just neat to see. Collin wants to know if when he gets "much, much, really, really bigger" can he play football. Tim told him he could. I told him to practice his kicking. Bless his little heart, he just doesn't have the genes to be anything other than the kicker. He's going to be thin like his dad and lets face it, guys who are 6'0" and 175 or so do not make great offensive or defensive linemen. But what do I know? He can be anything he wants to be when he gets much, much, really, really bigger.

Merry Christmas

It's been a very busy month for us, as it's probably been for everyone else, and I haven't had a whole lot of time for blogging. Tim's parents were here the week before Christmas so we got to celebrate a little early with them. Collin and Nick really enjoyed having their grandparents here and keep asking for them to come back. Unfortunately at the very end of their visit the boys (all 3 of them, actually) caught some raunchy bug that left them with some impressive gastric pyrotechnics and us with a lot of messes to clean up. Collin got it first in the car on the way home, literally 2 streets from our house. Then Nick got it an hour or so after we got home and got Collin cleaned up. Once he was clean again, Collin seemed to do pretty well. Nick, on the other hand, was just gray and clingy the rest of the night. I finally got him to bed and then Collin had another episode. Tim and I cleaned him up again and put him back to bed. In the morning he woke up bright and chipper and was fine from then on. Nick was still not feeling well. He was very clingy and just slept on me most of the day. He'd have brief periods where he'd perk up and run around like normal and then he'd come cuddle again. I felt horrible that he was sick, but it was kind of nice to have my little guy want to cuddle for a change. He's far too busy for that kind of stuff these days. By that evening, Tim was miserable too. Thankfully he can make it to the bathroom when he's not feeling well so no more messes to clean up. I was lucky, I didn't feel great but never got to the point where I needed to pray to the porcelain gods. I was ever so thankful that the boys got sick the weekend before Christmas and not on Christmas itself. That would have been absolutely miserable.

Instead, everyone was feeling great and couldn't wait to get up and open presents. Tim and I went to bed around midnight. Nick woke up at 2:17. That is not the child I expected to be up at the crack of dawn. He was up again at 2:30 and 3:00. At that point I just scooped him up and tried to snuggle him in bed with us. Hah! He climbed all over us for an hour and a half to two hours before falling back to sleep. Then at 5:30 Collin came in and asked if Santa had come yet. I told him Santa doesn't come before 6:30 in the morning but the next thing I knew Tim telling me "I know you're tired but Collin is already downstairs!" Little stinker went down without us. He was riding his SmartCycle when I got down there. He was very, very excited about Christmas. His presents were opened in no time flat and then he helped Nick open his because Nick wasn't really interested in it yet. He just wanted to play with whatever Collin was playing with. It didn't matter if they each had one, Nick wanted the one Collin had. After we'd opened all our presents and played with them for a while we went over to my parent's to celebrate with them and Aunt Bella and Uncle Max. We had our traditional kielbasa which both of my boys devoured. Nick climbed on the table when we weren't looking to steal some more off the plate. We had a wonderful day together. My house now looks like a toy store exploded. The boys have so many new toys they don't know what to play with first. They just keep going from thing to thing to thing. I guess I'll be packing some of the stuff that they don't really play with anymore away very soon. And I'm ready to take down my tree already. How terrible is that? It was so pretty when we put it up but now it looks like a tree in a house where a 3 year old and an 18 month old live. The bottom couple of feet is mostly bare and the top is so cluttered with ornaments it looks ridiculous. I've lost count of how many ornaments I've lost this year. Fortunately they haven't been ones with sentimental value but I'm ready to pack the tree up and save what's left and reclaim that area of my living room. I'm sure it will be promptly swallowed by toys, but at least I'll be able to walk in there again.

It's been a busy month but a happy one. We've gotten to see family and friends and do lots of fun stuff along the way. I hope that your holiday was full of love, laughter, family and friends. May the new year bring nothing but happiness and good fortune to everyone.

18 months

How is it possible that my baby is already 18 months old? The time has gone by so fast. My sweet cuddly little angel is now a walking talking angel who wears his halo on a tiny set of horns. We had his 18 months check up the other day. He's 33 inches long and 28 lbs, little chunker. He still had an elevated temp so we lucked out and didn't have to get any shots. Nick's still battling this sinus infection or whatever it is that he caught last week. He's been running a low grade temp, 100-100.5, for about a week now but it finally seems to be going away. He still has his cough but that seems to be improving too. He's slept through the night the last two nights so keep your fingers crossed that the streak continues. The best part is that he seems to be more like himself the past couple of days too so I'm thinking we've turned the corner, finally. The doctor told us to call if he isn't better in another week. She even took a little blood to check his white count to make sure that she didn't need to change his antibiotic. He did so good when they pricked his finger. He didn't cry about that at all except while I held him so they could collect the blood from his finger, he was mad about being restrained, not that it hurt. Collin was really worried when he heard they were going to take blood from his brother but I told him not to be afraid and explained what was going to happen. I told him that he had to be brave for his brother and give him a big hug when it was all over and tell Nick what a brave little boy he was. Collin did great. He sat still and out of the way while we took care of Nick and then gave his brother a big hug and told him he would be OK. Have I mentioned that I hate this time of year? It seems like someone is always sick. I think I was in the doctor's office or hospital 6 times in the last week or two. I've filled my quota for the winter now so my boys are going to be perfectly healthy from here on out. Yeah, right. A mom can hope though right?

My kids make me smile.

Since we have all these Christmas cookies I let the boys pick one each to have on the way home from daycare. Collin hopped into the van and was getting the cookies out of the bag while I was putting Nick in his car seat. When Nick realized that Collin had the cookies out he put his hand out and said "please, please, please" until Collin handed over a cookie and then he said "thank you". It was the first time I'd heard him say please all on his own. I've been working on it, reminding him to say please when he wants something but he did this all on his own. I was very proud of him.

Collin had an interesting Collinism tonight. Collin was going to bed and he surprised me by getting in bed right away. Then he jumped off his bed and yelled "psych". I thought that word went out in the 80's, where the heck did he hear that one? And how did he manage to use it appropriately? I swear the two of them never fail to amaze me.

Collin spent 20 minutes vacuuming tonight. He wanted to help so Tim hooked up the little attachment to the hose and turned him loose in the dining room. He scoured the floor looking for dirt and cleaned everything he could find and then went looking for more. He was quite upset when I told him it was time to turn it off and go to bed. I'm going to spend some time tonight thinking up some more chores he might enjoy doing. Dusting is probably a good one. Any ideas about what a 3 year old should be able to do?

Moments....

This weekend the four of us made Christmas cookies together. We had the Christmas lights turned on and the music playing and were having a great time when Collin looked out the window and exclaimed "It's SNOWING!!" Indeed it was, big beautiful flakes. It was that perfect kind of snow that looks gorgeous but only lays on the grass. Bonus, it happened on a Saturday so I didn't have to worry about getting the kids to and from daycare and was able to enjoy it. As we sat there watching it snow and making cookies I couldn't help but just savor the moment. It was one of those picture perfect moments that you see on TV but seldom seem to really happen. The cookies were in the oven, my kitchen table was covered in sugar, Tim and Collin were watching it snow and I was dancing around the room with Nick. It was one of those blissfully simple memories that lasts forever. My kids won't remember it two weeks from now, but I will never forget how it made me feel to have my family all together enjoying the afternoon together getting ready for Christmas.

Update

Collin went to see the ENT this afternoon to see how he is healing. He's healed up completely and this whole thing is officially behind us now.

Nick has a sinus infection so he's under the weather. He woke up with a fever of 102.5 and nothing really brought it down so he slept most of the day. His fever finally seemed to break a little after dinner so hopefully after some antibiotics and more Tylenol and Motrin and a good nights sleep he'll feel much better, otherwise I'll get the day off tomorrow so I can stay home with him. Gotta love this time of year!