A month of illness

Well, we are just about to end February this weekend and Connell is still sick. He came down with this virus on Jan 30th and this past weekend Ray took him in again (since it had been 10 days since we last took him in and he was getting worse). After a thorough exam including a chest x-ray, it was again determined that he probably had a glorified cold (even though it was day #22 at that point). The coughing (especially at night, but also including some terrible daytime coughing fits) has really been painful to listen to. They did give some medicine that would be used if one had pneumonia just in case it might work (and to appease us). Well, today is day #27 and although the cough has lessened, he still has it. And now Ray and I both have a cold/cough to boot! Yikes - this winter has been pretty bad for illness for our family I'm afraid. Today the wind chill is again below zero, so it's hard to feel great while walking to the bus stop and coughing and breathing the bitterly cold air. But I am going to just think that spring is around the corner and so hopefully we can get to the warmer weather with our sanity!

Our New Family Room

Feeling a little red-neckish with a hole in our fabric couch and finding that Liam's favorite pastime was picking at the hole to make it bigger, we decided to get some new furniture. The old stuff was 9 years old - but we thought we might have a few more years with it. So we picked some new pieces out last weekend and had it delivered today. We opted for 2 recliners this time instead of one since the couch doesn't recline like the old one did. Everything fits in ok (complete with new window treatments and area rug to hide the terrible carpet that we can't upgrade yet while the boys are still so careless). Doesn't even look like our place - although I'm not sure how long it will stay nice with our little monsters. Very fun though.

We Could Feel the Love this Valentine's Day

Well, as usual we bought each of the boys a Mylar balloon and a package of Peeps for Valentine's Day. Within an hour or so, Liam's balloon was almost out of air because he bit it! So Connell was busy protecting his from Liam and it fared quite well the rest of the day.

Fast forward to Monday morning -- for some odd reason, Liam felt the need to destroy Connell's balloon as so he came at it with a pair of scissors?!?! At least we think it had to be scissors although Connell didn't see anything in his hand. Just look at the rip and Liam just had his finger nails clipped last night so his nails couldn't have done this, could they have? So now I have a very unhappy kindergartner who might never speak to his younger brother again.

They were just balloons, but do the boys seriously have to destroy everything? (which reminds me that we purchased a new family room set of furniture on Saturday due to the fact that the boys wrecked our old set - oh, the destruction just continues when you have little boys I'm afraid...)

Seriously, you think this is clean?!?!

I have talked at length with many of you about how Connell is messy. He is constantly playing with scrap papers, inventing/making his own games and just is all-around disorganized in his play.

Well, this morning both Ray and I refused to play Boggle with him until he cleaned up his mess in the front room. This picture is snapped AFTER he claimed that he picked it up (not before when it truly was a big mess!) We can't even fathom this little world that he lives in where he thinks that this is picked up and orderly.

Why, yes of course...

I am going for "Mother of the Year", thanks for asking!

My boys love me today. I let them play with what we affectionately call "goop" after a long hiatus (like years of avoiding the stuff!). It is simply a combo of corn starch and water and it feels oh so slimy through your fingers. I give them each a nice pie tin of the stuff and let them play. As you can see from the photo, Liam had a blast! Connell quit early.

The reason I decided to give in today -- we have been almost housebound the entire week as Connell nurses a terrible cough. He has been sick since Jan 30th and although I took him in, it appears he has nothing serious. He has a lot to learn about getting the phlegm up and out and so it lingers and lingers much to our dismay. So being housebound everything is in shambles and so I figured what harm could a little goop do?!? Well, despite Liam's urge to pour it all over the table and floor, in a few hours all of the water will evaporate and I can simply sweep up the remaining powder. Thank you science!

Oh, and we did some recent touring of daycares and luckily Ray was able to sense his way through (3 to be exact) and come up with a place that we all can be happy with -- New Horizons. I am a thinker and so therefore not very helpful in the search (except for analyzing the facts about all three places). So we plan to enroll the boys there mid-August in order for me to attend teacher workshops and then Connell will continue in the before and after school program as Liam continues fulltime. Will keep you posted...

To catch you up...

It appears that it has been a while since I posted. Life here is somewhat mundane which is why I haven't been posting much.

Both boys currently have colds -- Connell's first for the academic year; Liam's second. They spent much of the weekend indoors and relaxing, but you know how well my boys relax! They both went to school today and did ok, but I still think that it will take a few days to get over them.

The boys also started swimming lessons again last weekend (I like to point out that they typically go from cold to cold while in swimming lessons, but Ray refutes that theory even though for this year it has proved me right so far!) They love swimming although they are only in level 1 at this point (after taking preschool classes, etc.)

It's hard to believe that it is February already -- which means in 7 months I will be back at work. We have been checking out daycares and have it narrowed to two. We will be visiting both on the same morning in mid-February and will let you know which we go with. One of them is the All Stars Montessori School and the other is New Horizons Academy both in Apple Valley. Since my only option the first year back will be to have fulltime care for Liam in addition to both before and after care for Connell, we needed to pick a place that has busing to his elementary school. Both of these places have access to buses to the school and provide school age childcare. Ray is convinced that upon visiting he will instantly know at which one he sees Liam spending his days. I am more of a "thinker" than a "feeler" (Meyers-Briggs!!!) so I probably would base my decision more on cost, convenience, etc. rather than visiting so I will let him make the final decision this time. They are within a mile of each other and both rather close to our house, so it's pretty even. The cost differs quite a bit, but we would rather pay more for a "more content" Liam! Liam is our spirited child who has had a history of stranger/separation anxiety and is "slow to warm" when adjusting to a new place, so that might play into the decision. Who knew I could write a whole paragraph on daycares?!?!?