Things and stuff

We've had a busy month. Here are the highlights:

1. I spent what felt like most of the last 3 weeks working on a term paper for the class I just finished. I don't have a grade yet, but anticipate a solid "good enough."  I'm signed up for another class that starts Monday and I'll be testing out of another over the summer. All this means that I should be finishing my BSN in July of next year. Woot! 

2. Quite unbelievably, the Bear turned 6 this month. Without my noticing, he's turned into real live boy. Bear is too smart for his own good, sweet and very helpful. He is fascinated with how things work and building giant lego creations. He recently discovered the laptop-as-playtoy and will shortly be following his father into discovering laptop-as-building-project, I'm afraid. He still loves the color pink and all things glittery. I know you'll all be shocked to learn that he likes to be in charge. He and his brother mostly antagonize each other, but have moments of breathtaking brotherly love. Mostly that first thing though. 

He had his birthday party at a bouncy house with 22 other 3 and 6 year olds. They had a blast.

The cake this year was a rocket ship cake. It wasn't perfect, but I was pleased by how it turned out. The Bear seemed happy too.

The Bear's favorite thing about the bouncy house is the giant throne where he gets to hold court.

We also got lots and lots of brightly colored plastic crap. Bear was thrilled.

3. In keeping with the confusion that our part of the country seems to have about what time of year it is, we have both Easter and Christmas decorations on our windows.

4. We had been noodling around the idea of trading Ry's car for a while. It was 10 years old and we estimate would need about $7000 worth of work done in the next 2 or 3 years. Since we eventually plan to have a third child and his car would not hold 3 carseats, we started researching cars that would. Then Ry was rear-ended. He decided the time was now. 

So, now we have a shiny new Accord. It's a manual, which is pretty fun. I don't love having the car payment, but we do love the piece of mind that comes with the warranty and safety ratings. 

5. Today is Bear's first day of spring break, so we decided to hit the Zoo. We had a really nice time.

This is a two-headed skink. Seriously. This is the most awesome animal I have ever met. It doesn't actually have two heads, one end is the tail, but I had to look long and hard to distinguish which end was which. Apparently they also taste good. Mmmm. Skink.

6. Next week we have some more fun stuff planned for "spring" break. I hope the weather starts to play along. I am hoping to get off work early enough Sunday to attend our church service and have a little egg hunt before I have to get to bed. Hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend and hope you get to enjoy more of it then I will.

Lullaby

Because I haven't done this in a while and I got a new ukulele!

Another weekend down

My  weekends are always a bit of a blur. I work 24 hours in 36, so by the time Monday morning rolls around I haven't done much except eat, sleep and work.  Gummy Bear started running a fever again on Saturday. It's a strange little illness he has right now. Aside from some mild cold-like symptoms he's feeling fine. As long as the fever is controlled with Advil he runs around like normal. Because I needed to sleep this morning, Ry worked from home and took him to the doctor. Another virus from the "petri dish" that is the elementary school.

Ry was up a lot this weekend, between dosing Bear with Advil and Monkey dreaming that a dragon ate him. I was unsurprised to see that he needed a nap today too.

My hands are having some kind of allergic reaction to the soap or alcohol sanitizer at work. By the end of my two weekend shifts, they are bright red and feel sun burnt. It takes me all week of Vaseline and hand balm to get them back to some semblance of normal. Then I go back to work and they are worse than ever by Monday morning. A colleague of mine suggested putting the Vaseline on my hands and sleeping in gloves. Voila: I am officially an 80-year-old woman.

I am hopeful that this will do the trick. If not, I'll be making an appointment with my dermatologist. Since I can't stop washing my hands at work (can you imagine?!) I'll have to figure something out. Good times.

Nursing: a glamorous profession.

The goings on

It's been a pretty quiet week. For the first time since I can remember work did not call me at all to come in for an extra shift. I worked my two weekend shifts and had the rest of the week to get the other household tasks accomplished. We actually got to have a playdate this week! And then Gummy Bear got sick. I thought he had strep throat, but it turned out to just be a virus going around. He was out of school for two days, and still isn't 100%. We're having a quiet Saturday.

This is a self-portrait the boys took. How sweet are they?

Ry also created a book-nook in the Bear's room. There is a lot of research that shows that kids are more likely to read books if they can see the covers. So far it's a big hit, although I think the bean bag chair is more of a draw than the books themselves.

Last night we had some good friends over. It was just what we all needed. I actually had 2 adult beverages. How unlike me?!

The kids have known each other since Bear was 6 months old. We had a really terrific evening. The kids played nicely together, we fed them dinner and then put in a movie in the living room. Then the adults sat and ate and laughed for the hour and 15 minutes the movie was on. A seriously lovely evening.

 And how sweet are they all together? I am excited for the weather to get warmer so we can actually have more than one family over. As it was, 8 people in our little house was plenty crowded. Crowded ... with love.