Catching up...

Sorry for the absence, it's been a long and mostly fun few weeks.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and Santa was very good to the kids. Abby got the trombone,* guitar, and Barbie she asked for, along with a giant dollhouse**. After presents and a breakfast of bacon and cinnamon rolls, we headed up to Richmond for Christmas #2. There, we had a day of fun and presents, and we left bright and early the next morning to beat the snow on the way to Manassas for Christmas #3. Again, lots of fun and lots of family time.

Dan had to work for 2 days when we got back, but he was off Thursday-Sunday for New Year's. It was really nice couple of days together, full of shopping trips, playing and meals together. It was SO nice to have him home considering he'd been putting in a lot of hours prior to the holiday. Though, I'm not going to lie, by the time Sunday rolled around we were all ready for our normal routine.

Oh! I totally forgot to mention Austin came home from our Christmas travels with his first ear infection. He handled it pretty well: none of the screaming, fevers and extreme eye gooping that plagued his sister's ear infections back in the day. He did have a little tummy trouble after the first few days of antibiotic, but he seems to be doing much better now.

Anyway, after the new year Dan headed back to work for a day and then headed up to Toronto on Tuesday. I'd invited my sister down for a day to help, play with the kids, and to catch up. Unfortunately, Abby woke up Tuesday morning with a fever of 102. She was pretty upbeat, and the doctor said it was just a little virus. However, by the afternoon she was in a miserable, zombie like state. She stared at her lunch plate of yogurt and chips (her favorites) and asked to go to nap. By the time Kelsey got here, she wanted nothing more than to cling to me. She was doing much better the next day, but poor Kelsey didn't get a lot of fun time.

30 minutes after Kels left, I had a fever of 102 and was very quickly hit with that miserable zombie like feelings. I called a neighbor to bring me some Tylenol (go figure I'd be out!) and put on the TV until it was time to put the kids to bed.

That brings us to this morning.

Abby's almost completely better, and my fever is gone. I still feel crappy, but hopefully taking Abby to preschool this morning will help. Dan comes home late tonight, so I will be disinfecting what I can in hopes that he can escape this misery.

And, we are now caught up. I apologize if this isn't very interesting (or even very coherent) but I felt like everyone needed an update.

I'll be back soon to explain why I love my son more than cheese.

*It's a trombone shaped kazoo. After a few tries and demonstrations on how a kazoo works, she's now an expert. She loves to march around the living room playing her trombone.
**It's taller than she is, with three stories and an elevator. It took ALL DAY to put together. Though, in retrospect, in would have taken far less time if Abby hadn't been in the room "helping."