Picasso paints.... A DINOSAUR! (Silas)

Dinosaur skeleton painted by SILAS, age 3.5

Cousins! March 2015

Abigail, almost 3
AvaLynn, almost 4
Emma, 6 months
Silas, almost 4
Sydney, almost 6

Selfie with baby Emma :)



The under FOUR crowd plays with the iPad... reading the book "The Monster at the end of this book" starring furry, lovable Grover :)

(Sydney hadn't napped... and was being naughty so, he had to go to bed at his regular time.)

MARCH (pics)... moving slowly... waiting for Spring

March 2, served lunch in a Thing 2 costume.

ALL of the staff at the school wore Dr. Seuss tshirts in honor of Read Across America Day/birthday of Seuss! (Silas is wearing HIS tshirt as often as possible... mommy designed them and had them printed in WI for all of Sydney's school!)

March 5, plenty of snow (still) on the ground. We're getting new electric poles in the neighborhood and enjoying watching from our house.

Cats love to lay on the dining room table, soaking up the sunshine, but are starting to shed.





Celebrating  MS Awareness Week with ORANGE!

and these handsome fellows!

March 10, snow is going....

March 14, (FREE!) Build and Grow project at Lowe's

March 15, sunporch season is open... dining on the sunporch in the afternoon sunshine!

March 16, walked TO and FROM lunch duty. Afternoon was tank top weather! SUNNY! Warm! Beautiful!

Boys declare: LET'S EAT OUTSIDE!! Grilling season open.... BURGERS! (Trying some yellow tomatoes from Aldi's. Sad that Sam's isn't carrying the DELICIOUS Kumato tomatoes again this spring.... seriously, SO GOOD!) and DECK SEASON IS NOW OPEN!!!

March 17, the boys had built a leprechaun trap! Managed to catch some candy and a tiny green hat with their green bait.

March 19, boys enjoy using the new earbuds that mom bought for the iPad so that she could do some mall walking this week on the cold, windy day. Listening to Magic Tree House books from the library while enjoying suckers from the book store!



At last, we're ALMOST to the start of Spring! :)

Each time, I wonder... is this the LAST TIME

We have lived here, at this house, for six years; however, we only expected to be here a couple of years. (Therefore, we never really looked into the school zones, as we bought this house and three months later, brought our first-born son home from the hospital.)

Each fall, Mike mows the back hill, proclaiming "I hope this is my LAST TIME mowing this damned hill!" Each spring, he grudgingly mows it yet again. (He mows it as infrequently as possible.)

Last fall, he declared that he wasn't going to jinx himself yet again; this time, he made NO MENTION of the last time mowing the hill. And here we are again... days away from the official start to spring...

This morning, I looked out of the kitchen window - overlooking the roof of our bonus room and admiring the way that the frost sparkled in the bright, morning sunshine.

I, too, find myself wondering: is THIS the last time I will see frost out of this window?

We live in a constant state of wait-and-see... always wondering WHEN and WHERE we will go next...

Dinosaur oatmeal and EGGS for breakfast

"Silas, come here. Can you tell me about your breakfast today?"

"Sure." Silas hugs his mom. "Bagel... and eggs!"

Silas IS the member of our family who most often requests EGGS for breakfast. Specifically, he likes his eggs to be 'poopy' which to the ordinary world means over-easy or soft-cooked. Like his daddy, he likes to eat his runny yolk with a spoon. Like his mommy, he likes to dip his toast into the runny yolk.

Dinosaur "eggs" are NOT his ordinary breakfast.

This morning, he had requested dinosaur oatmeal. (Quaker. Individual packets.) Sydney most often eats two packets; sometimes THREE! Silas often eats only one packet, along with other breakfast items.

One other time this week, Silas had a melt-down at our dining table because he was sad... he had eaten all of the eggs from his bowl, prior to us adding the 1/2 cup of boiling/hot water and then, had remorse because he really wanted to eat dinosaur oatmeal. For some reason, his three year old brain doesn't comprehend that HE ate them all and that there is NO WAY to bring them back. (Much like his inability to comprehend that after you rip something, you can't un-rip it.)

What a silly little egg...

Weekly report

Sydney brought his weekly report home in his book bag: 

Yellow

Yellow

OFF THE CHART!

Red

Red

Each day, students begin on GREEN (ready to learn). Throughout the day, they move their clothespin UP (yellow and then, red) or DOWN (blue or purple) as the teacher dictates.

Purple means that parents will be contacted. (Bad)

"Off the chart" means that you've done BETTER THAN RED and your clothespin hangs from the teacher's shirt.

Sydney is a consistent mover-upper. Only a few times this year has he EVER been asked to move his clothespin down. (He had one bad week, asked to move DOWN a few days in a row. His teacher was nice enough to email, letting us know what had happened. At the time, he was honest enough to tell us that he moved DOWN, but couldn't recall WHY, assuring us that he ended the day on a good color, climbing back up the rainbow scale.

He's a pretty amazing kid!

Did you buy me a birthday present yet?

After picking Sydney up from school today, he was very adamant that when it is HIS BIRTHDAY, he can do whatever he wants. (A classmate... Elizabeth... had celebrated her sixth birthday the day before.)

"Did you buy me any birthday presents yet?"

"Not yet."

"WHAT?!? You'd better get crackin' on that!"

 "Get  crackin'?" Mom laughs. "That's a little rude, don't you think? You DO remember that both Silas AND Mommy have birthdays BEFORE your birthday."

"Oh...."

"So, did YOU buy birthday presents for Silas or Mommy yet?"

"Um.... NO."

Mommy smiles. "You'd better get crackin' at that, I'd say!"

"Yeah, but... for MY BIRTHDAY, we are going to have a party!" he announced.

"Yes!" I replied. "Our family is lucky enough that we get to have a May birthdays party together!"

"NOOOOOOOOOO," he whined. "...a party with my FRIENDS!!!!!!"

Gulp. "Oh, you think so?"

"YEP! I am! At Jumpin' Janes.... and I'm going to have DINOSAURS as my birthday theme!"

Courageous swimmers

Tried SWIMMING at Camp Courageous!

(Mommy most enjoyed sitting in the solarium room, soaking up the rays of the sunshine while stretching and reading a book.) Grandpa and Daddy hung out in the warm water therapy with the boys.

Thanks for the pics, Grandpa! :)

Sick of being sick, anxious for Spring

Silas and Mommy tested positive for strep throat 2/19. He had thrown up at preschool that morning. He was fevered and unable to keep ANYTHING down for the entire day. He napped in his bed for a little while, but spent most of the day laying on the drafty, kitchen floor. He was given an injection of penicillin and an antibiotic for a sinus infection.

I had been given an antibiotic as well. (Mike tested negative. Sydney stayed home with Grandpa Lowell, but had been treated with antibiotics because he had symptoms and lack of appetite like his brother). I was suspicious of an ear or sinus infection since I had been suffering from cold symptoms for MOST of this YEAR and had been having difficulty hearing, blaming Mike for mumbling quite often. It was a relief that my antibiotics SHOULD have been strong enough to kill off any other infection as well.

HOWEVER, after over half of my treatment, my glands continued to swell ridiculously large and I wasn't feeling better so, the pharmacist encouraged me to call my doctor.

The boys were plagued by fevers again as well so, they went to the doctor again, too. Sydney and I were switched to stronger antibiotics. Both of us treated for sinus infections.

My right nasal passage was FIRE RED and SUPER SWOLLEN. I've been treated with prednisone steroids to reduce inflammation ever since.

Oddly, my ears were fine, but the pressure from all of my glands was making them feel full and causing difficulty to hear.

As for the returning fevers of the boys, they have since tested positive for influenza B.

The view out the window

We had some excitement in our neighborhood the past week or so... we got two new utility poles! This was very fun to watch from our window(s). We got to watch a giant auger drill into the ground. We got to watch new poles being lifted into position. And we got to watch the snow melting away with each passing day...

While folding a GIANT PILE of laundry one day, I was excited to open the windows for some fresh air. Our house has battled more illness than we'd prefer and I wanted to take advantage of the slowly warming temperatures. In fact, our front bedroom gets nice afternoon sun, which is PERFECT for this time of year (less desirable in summer months when we don't WANT extra heat in our bedroom)

The cats were excited to hear the birds singing as well. (Otto was the courageous one! Eddy was too chicken to go outside.)

NOTE: I put the screens back on shortly after this; keeping it safe.