Slow Days of February

I know we're only half way through, but this has already been one long month of feeling yucky. It feels like we've all had every cold/flu symptom in the book. Hopefully we'll be better soon. In the meantime, we've been making the best of staying home with lots of projects and exploration (and naps).

We did enjoy a little calm in our family's storm of illnesses with homeschool preschool this week. We hadn't met in several weeks, mainly due to runny noses among all the kids. It actually felt pretty remarkable to get through five months of preschool without a sick day. I think that's impressive for six little ones.

This week we learned about community workers (thus Ryan's fireman costume) and made Valentine's Day cookies. With Ryan in costume, Lucie wanted to dress up too and opted for her ballerina skirt with a wizard hat. We had an interesting discussion about how wizards qualified as "community workers", and decided that their magic kept us all safe.

The kids loved baking cookies. They all did great rolling out dough, using cookie cutters, and decorating with much gusto. The only thing they had trouble with was waiting for the cookies to bake. Ten minutes seemed like an eternity.

In other adventures this week, Lucie happily went to art class all by herself. Ryan decided that he was still too sick to go, and preferred to hang out with me instead. But, after missing class for two weeks, Lucie was ready and waiting to go. She walked right into the classroom and didn't look back. It was the first time she did something entirely on her own, without Ryan or a parent. I could tell that this was important to her, and she did great! I was so proud of her bravery and independence.

Even Firefighters Get Runny Noses

Ryan and Lucie (and Chris) have been trading illnesses for the past week. It started last Thursday with fevers, then moved to coughing and now runny noses, watery eyes, aches and pains.

Lucie has had a few symptoms off and on, but nothing like Mr. Ryan. The poor guy has not been himself these past few days. He's fallen asleep twice on my lap during story time, and has had no energy for anything but weak calls for "Kleenex, please!" from the couch or his bed. I really feel for him.

With Ryan feeling so yucky, Lucie has been experiencing all the benefits of being sick, with few of the icky side effects. She's enjoyed Sesame Street marathons, toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plentiful "Daddy" juice, and endless bowls of ice cream. This sort of stuff doesn't happen every day -- but for now, she'll have another scoop of Neapolitan, please...

Feelings

During a low moment this week, Lucie and Ryan got into a tug-of-war over my watch. I had given it to Ryan to look at and naturally, Lucie wanted a turn too. As always, the biggest battles are fought over the silliest things.

I was busy making lunch and could hear them going back and forth, over and over again. "It's MY watch!" Ryan yelled at Lucie. "No, it's MY watch!" Lucie screamed back at the top of her lungs. When it became clear that things would only get worse, I had to step in.

Once everyone calmed down, we talked about taking turns, and how to politely ask for one. But, as I explained to them, what I was the most disappointed about was the yelling. I hated to hear them scream at each other like that. I asked Ryan how Lucie's yelling made him feel. "Sad, and like I want to hide" he wimpered. Then on to Lucie, how did being yelled at make her feel? She thought for a second, then pumped her fist in the air and proclaimed, "HUN-GRY!"

They both fell over in giggles, bringing me along for the ride. I got to hand it to her — Lucie does have a way of diffusing a tense situation. And off to lunch they went.

Big Kid Beds

With Lucie and Ryan getting close to 40 inches tall, Megan and I have reluctantly started thinking about moving them to big kid beds. Personally, the thought of them roaming the halls at night terrifies me. I take great comfort in knowing that we'll find them in more or less the same position come morning. No doubt, plenty of fellow parents who have struggled with crib tents, climb-outs, and nighttime escapes would consider this a problem they would love to have (as Brian and Jen discovered in coming up with reason #47 why every household should have multiple bungee cords).

Coincidentally, Megan's Aunt Betsy recently realized that Cousin Scottie (if can you call a nearly 6' boy Scottie) had outgrown his current twin bed. To be honest, he probably outgrew it over a year ago. In looking at this picture, it seems silly to think of Scottie and L & R sleeping in the same size bed. But when Betsy called, we jumped at the chance to pick up his hand-me-down. Especially since she offered a second matching bed, dresser and desk as well.

There were a few logistical problems to overcome. Primarily that we don't have a vehicle capable of transporting two beds, a dresser, and desk. A quick call to U-Haul secured a nice pickup with an extra long truckbed. On to problem #2 — upon hearing that only Daddy would get to ride in the pickup truck and pick up the beds, L & R protested wildly at the injustice. So I canceled the reservation at U-Haul and started searching to find a 4-door pickup to rent. Five calls later and we had a nice, shiny Ford F150 at our disposal.

The hour-long trip passed quickly, especially since Lucie and Ryan were armed with personal Kleenex boxes. With Betsy graciously providing lunch and handling story-time, we made relatively quick work taking apart the bedroom set. But the last problem was Betsy and family have a lot of nice stuff and our little truck began to get very full. Armed with only a 30' section of rope, we managed to strap everything down securely enough to brave the freeway ride home. I'm proud to say no pieces were lost or broken.

For now, we've decided to store the new beds in the garage. Hopefully, we can get over our big kid bed fears before Lucie and Ryan are ready for Kindergarten...

Ryan, A One-Shirt Kind of Guy

If only Ryan were always as happy wearing long sleeves as he is here, in matching sweaters with Tate and Lucie. Much to his mother's dismay, Ryan is not a guy known for his fashion flexibility. He knows what he likes, and likes what he knows -- and that usually involves short sleeves, the color orange, and elastic waistbands. He is not a fan of long sleeves, jeans or fitted waistbands. (Who really is — can you blame the guy?)

Ryan has had several favorite shirts, starting of course, with his fireman costume and "FDNY" shirt. That shirt, which once seemed enormous, has been so well loved it is paper thin and skin tight. Next in the shirt Hall of Fame came the "crane shirt", a shirt picturing the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge, bought when we were visiting Minnesota for cousin Jayme's wedding. That shirt was worn day after day after day after day last spring, the bridge slowly peeling away with each wash.

This past summer, the favorite shirt was an orange striped shirt I bought at Old Navy for $3.99. He loved that thing, especially since Chris has a similar orange shirt and the two of them could be "matching orange shirt buddies" on casual Fridays (for Chris, not Ryan — every day is casual Friday for Ryan). When I think of this past summer, I think of that shirt. It spent very little time in his drawer, and instead was either on him or in the washing machine preparing to be on him again.

And, now more recently, the favored shirt has been Ryan's "3" shirt, declaring "3's a charm!" and announcing his third birthday. Multiple requests have already been put in for a "4" shirt. I have my eye out, though frankly, I'm not ready for that yet. I wish Ryan, and his quirky fashion tastes, could stay three forever. It is a charm.