Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

I've been having problems the last couple (few) months letting my mind rest (since school started? Possible). To-do notes work when I get truly overwhelmed, but sometimes it's one or two thoughts niggling away for hours, even days. When I finally admitted this to Doug, I think he thought I was a little crazy. For example, I'm going on a scrapbooking weekend in 2 weeks and I'm taking my computer. I am already trying to plan when to dismantle it, how to do it, how to pack it in the car, what I'll need to use it at the crop, and what night all this should be done, because I'm going to have to have Doug show me.... and I don't have this thought occasionally. I'll think of it 3-4x a day. Another example would be a pancake breakfast at Roman's school this Saturday. I saved the original email from 2 weeks ago, thus thinking of it every time I check my email. Then I started thinking that I'll have to talk to Doug about it. It's in conjunction with th...

Momentous things that occurred this week: Roman can whistle, and Charlie can say "hi." Now, neither are that great at it - Roman can only make one sound, and Charlie is kind of random at it (but did say hi to almost every person at Jo-Ann's). Either way, small things to celebrate. Especially since we got our property tax info in the mail today. It's good news, I guess - it went down. Way down. Again. So we're saving money for the second year in a row. But wow, does that make our house really not worth much. Throwing around numbers, assuming things bounce back even this year, it'll be another 5-7 years before we can consider making a profit on this baby. So. Since Roman may go to high school here after all, I've been trying to think of all the reasons I like being in this city. To be honest, it's been kind of hard. But here are my top 10: 10. Our house is close to the elementary school. 9. We have a walkable/bikable neighborhood. 8. I am within 5 miles ...

It's so easy to get caught up in cute, adorable Charlie that I don't talk as much about sweet, thoughtful Roman. So now it’s Roman’s turn to be my subject. We have had two psychologist appointments, and the last one was rather interesting. While we haven’t zeroed in on whether there’s an “issue” that is measurable with Roman, he did get Doug and I to start considering our parenting and how it could be contributing to some of Roman’s behavior. There are some definite things we need to work on, such as more consistent follow-through with directions. An example would be what occurred last weekend. Roman had been playing with Legos and they were spread all over the place at the bottom of the stairs. Doug told Ro he needed to clean them up. “Okay,” Ro said. Doug went upstairs and started doing stuff, (here’s the key!), got distracted, and 15 minutes later goes downstairs to find Roman fiddling with the Legos and not one had been put back in the bucket. So predictable pattern: Doug g...

Charlie is already showing improvements since he had his tubes placed, but it's hard to figure what is us attributing it to the surgery, or what really is a benefit. Immediately he began sleeping longer for both naps and at night, now waking up at 6am or 6:30am... before you scoff at that, we've been getting up between 4:30am-5:30am for about 4 weeks now. That extra hour is amazing. Doug also noticed that naps had increased to 1.5 hours in the afternoon. I think without that fluid or dull ache in his head, the boy can finally be his normal self. Oh, and what a self! While he's a happy boy anyway, he is almost constantly all smiles now. He has spent half the day today laughing, I swear. He thinks everything is funny, every noise, every movement of his big brother's. Today at lunch I pretended once that he scared me with a noise he made, and he kept repeating it and laughing... to the point that he was giggling so hard he couldn't even make the noise anymore. He'd...

Charlie had his tubes placed this morning and he was out within 25 minutes and on his way home. Whew! He's been grumpy and groggy today, to be expected. He fell asleep face down in his bouncer just as I arrived home, pretty funny. Roman was told by his ped. that he has a virus and the temps are hanging on longer than usual. If he still has a temp in a couple more days, we have to go back again. He's losing his voice, which is pretty funny. I went to the dr. today after completing my own 4th day of a sore throat. Surprise! sinus infection. 2x a year, without fail. Hopefully this is my "spring" version and I won't run into it again. By the end of this weekend we should be all healthy... too bad I have 3 meetings and a field trip to get through by this time tomorrow. All I want is sleep!

This week has been just gross in our house. Monday I was at class, came home to Doug finishing up wiping up the puke in Charlie's crib. Out of the blue in his sleep, poor Charlie was sick. Appeared fine Tuesday and we waited for the other shoe (Roman) to drop... which it did around 4pm Tuesday afternoon with a call from his afternoon care. Ro threw up during snack, right at his seat. Oh, man... Doug then fought his own urge to throw up Tuesday night but ended up with, let's say delicately, "other end" issues Wedn. and Thursday. I thought I had dodged it, but no... Friday I woke up just feeling gross and had the same issues as Doug until 6pm, when I too threw up. And you would think that's the end of it, right? But no... we had houseguests, my parents, and just as I recovered Saturday night it was my mom's turn to be sick. They made it home today and now we're just wondering... when will my dad get sick? To top it off, of course, it's not just a stomac...

I have checked the weather for Florida in April and my goodness, it averages about 80 degrees. So I thought it best to see what, if anything, fit me of my summer clothes. Having lost 25 pounds, the end of last summer was dicey - capris too big, & my mom gave me some old shorts of hers because I had nothing else that fit. Now that I am holding steady and the leftover fat has redistributed (fallen to my hips & thighs, is the better explanation) I tried on 5 different things. Capris? Not so much. I love them, but when you can fit yourself AND your year-old baby into them, it's time to donate. Of the shorts, one receive the comment "They give you a caboose" from Doug. So they're definitely going in the donate pile too. Two more didn't fit, and 2 more are passable. So. Two pairs of shorts (and no swimsuit, by the way, because the one I bought last year had the fastener break) to face vacation and summer. It's looking like I will be haunting JCP, Kohl'...

Doug got word today that he *will* be working next week, and just has to suffer through one more week of layoff after that - the week we need him to be off due to vacations & tube-surgery, so that's good. Doug was absolutely elated, dancing a jig in the kitchen and everything. My first reaction? A sarcasm-filled "oh, great." Doug was hurt of course, but I knew right away (with guilt) why I wasn't pleased. I rather like being the breadwinner. I enjoyed those couple weeks with Doug home in the morning, helping me with the boys getting ready for the day. I only had to leave the house with one boy - the one who can gather his own things and put on his own coat. Doug did the errands and phone calls that either don't get done or get done in the evening, and so we could spend more time together those couple weeks. I had the option of staying after school to correct papers or prep the next few days, which is my best time to work. I had the option of coming home after ...

Charlie is getting very picky about what he eats. When he doesn't like something, he not only makes a face but he sticks his index finger in his mouth, hooks it around, and flings the food back out. Roman and I went to the library today. When we were ready to check out, he said, "Wait! We should get a book about Obama!" I asked him if he wanted to know more about our new president. "Oh, yes." He was just so earnest about it, and he wants to be so grown up. However - they were all checked out! So we settled on a Star Wars graphic novel. Charlie has naturally curly hair. This winter it has been hard to see except for a couple spots on the back of his head, but today (as it got up to mid-40s and humid a little) his hair was curled all over. We got a " Magic Bullet " for Christmas from some friends. It's awesome. We process almost all our dinners for Charlie now; he has recently had ravioli, roast beef & carrots, and Hamburger Helper. And has eaten...