The Kind of Rambling Post You Might Expect from Someone Who Is Mostly Just Killing Time While Her Husband Watches the Packers Game

To all who commented or e-mailed me with support, suggestions or stories to share on my last post - thank you! That's exactly why I wrote it, and your words mean a lot to me. M. and I are still thinking about what we will do - I know I will bring it up with Finn's pediatrician, just not sure when. For today, we are choosing to just keep an eye on him and wait, but we are taking it day by day.

On to more uplifting or at least mundane subjects. Yesterday Finn went ice skating for the first time with his daycare class. We were alerted to the field trip on fairly short notice, so unfortunately neither M. nor I could take time off of work to chaperone. But I have to think it was hysterical and fun - 14 or 15 kids wobbling around in little skates and helmets, pushing buckets around on the ice in an effort to stay upright. I was a bit hesitant - it's a lot of kids, and some of the teachers that went on the trip had never been ice skating before themselves. I pictured lots of crying, bumps, bruises and chaos. But apparently all the kids had a blast, even Finn, who was concerned ahead of time that he would fall a lot. He did fall, and he complained that he wasn't good at skating (at some point, need to have a blog post or two to seek advice on helping kids who are prone to low self esteem - why would he even think he SHOULD be good at ice skating, if he's never done it before? He sets unrealistic expectations for himself), but admitted that it was fun. Even the falling.

By the way, a note on the classroom door the night before the field trip indicated that parents could bring in helmets for their kids if they wanted to. M. and I vacillated, unsure of the right answer. Did he really need one? Would it be overprotective of us? Don't kids usually learn to ice skate without helmets? Is this just one more symptom of the madness that is parents trying to keep their kids in protective bubbles forever? Or would I doom him to concussion? I even considered taking to Facebook to put out a little poll since I am apparently incapable of making parenting decisions without doing some sort of research. But I did not, and we decided that we did not need to bring in a helmet for Finn. After all, he's only about 3 feet from the ice, and he was not going to be speed skating - how much damage could he really do to his noggin? Then I found out afterward that the ice rink had all the kids wear helmets anyway. And even though I'm very, very far from being a germaphobe, this skeeved me out because frankly, lice is gross. And a pain to get rid of. So in hindsight, I should have just brought in the damn helmet after all.

So that was Friday. Today, Lucy woke up with yet ANOTHER illness, which I suppose we can expect to see run through the family. She was free of sickness for about one week. Now she has a fever, a runny nose, and is currently coughing juicy coughs over the monitor. I have a feeling there may be a dose of antihistamines in her future tonight. And likely some missed work for me or M. (pretty sure it's my turn) next week. Or maybe by some miracle she'll be fever-free by Monday morning? A girl can hope.

Finn opted to spend the entire day in pajamas, and refused to let us go out and do anything. Well, M. did run a couple of errands, and picked up Thai food for dinner (and hey! The kids ate some chicken satay! Grown-up, non-processed food! It was a January miracle). And I walked about 10 yards outside of our house to get the mail. But other than that, no one left the house, and we did nothing productive AT ALL. Aside from some squabbles about too much TV watching, it was actually pretty relaxing. I took a nap. I think it's the longest amount of time Finn has ever spent in the same pair of pajamas (he's still wearing them now, which is probably kind of gross, but hey, less laundry, right?). They are footie PJs, so I have to think his feet feel pretty disgusting, but if he's not complaining, I certainly won't!

And now for a few photos and videos to tide over the extended family.

Here, Finn explains a drawing he made of the race car Chick from the Cars movie:



And here is a photo of the artist posing with his work of art, as well as a close up of the drawing. I helped a little with the green coloring, but everything else was all Finn - pretty good for a 4-year-old (I think!).




A cute faced Lucy



And Finn hamming it up with a funny face



Finally, a video of Lucy. Most of the ones I capture of her either involve her running away from the camera, or telling me "No pictures!" over and over again. Here she demonstrates a hint of her singing prowess - she loves to sing, especially at bedtime, where she accompanies whichever parent sings to her that night. It's hysterical, and also I am amazed by how many lyrics she knows. This performance is just small snippets, and you may want to turn the volume up when you watch it as I was sitting kind of far away from her when I filmed it.