Valentine Fun

We had a very fun Valentine's weekend. On Friday, Addie enjoyed her first Valentine's Day party at preschool. They had a chocolate fountain that they were able to dip marshmallows, cherries, and other things that Addie couldn't remember to tell me. They had hearts painted on their faces, and I think they all LOVED giving out valentines!

Here's Addie showing Dad her loot. I was impressed that Addie could tell us the names on each card. Her teachers must teach each child's name to all the class, because Addie was able to 'read' names that I had a hard time reading (each child wrote their own names on the cards, and they are in preschool - just imagine).

Dad's excited to spot a cool valentine.

Here's our sassy girl, trying to get her dense dad to understand just how things are. Note how many times she picks her nose in this short clip -- at least she doesn't ever sample.

Valentine's Day arrived with a fresh blanket of snow. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it! Weird, but I guess snow on a 30 degree day is a lot better than old, dirty snow on a 10 degree day. Corey is the best dad! He is willing to get cold and wet playing in the snow with the kids, and I think he loves it as much or more than they do.

Of course, as soon as I got the camera, Max fell off the sled and face-planted in the snow. After that, he was pretty well done with the snow. At least Addie was still up for a little footage.

Just before bath time, after the movie (Bolt, pretty cute), and after our takeout dinner (we have NEVER gone out for Valentine's Day, and we love it that way, braving crowds just doesn't seem romantic). The kids love to wrestle with Corey. I remember many evenings on our living room floor wrestling our dad, is it in the job description?

Happy Valentine's Day!

February?!?

We had the best day yesterday! It was 60 degrees, and sunny. Pretty windy, but totally great. We went on a walk, played in the puddles, and decorated the driveway with colored chalk. Max was in heaven! Poor guy never gets to do anything fun. We take Addie to school, he gets hauled in and out of the car, only to be dragged back to the house to kill time till we go to pick her up again. And that's his outing. So good weather is heaven sent.

Here he is, enjoying our pools of melted snow that can't make it through the frozen ground (it was 10 degrees last week). Yes, he is up to his ankles in icy water, but he wasn't complaining so I didn't worry too much about it. Later, when he fell down and sat in the water for a minute before I realized it, I decided we needed to go in and get him dry. He wasn't very happy with me.

And Big Sister showing him how to ride a pink bigwheel. Poor kid, he needs some boy toys!

Great neighborhood

One of our few hangups with deciding on our house (5 years ago) was the proximity to the mall. Our backyard neighbors are across the street from Sears, so we get some mall traffic... kids cutting through, lots of garbage blowing into our yard, and the occasional shoplifter being pursued by police.

Yup, I've been lucky enough to witness two arrests right from my own home! The first was last summer, I was out weeding when the pursuit unfolded in front of me. Max was sleeping inside, but Addie was roaming around with me, so I beelined back inside and locked the doors. My first thought was, "I left the back door open, maybe someone took refuge in the house!" Mother's paranoia, I guess. My imagination is vivid when it comes to what could happen to my children.

Then, this past Thursday, lightning struck again. Addie was still banned from civilization, but it was the last day to pay the deposit on her dance costume so I had to bundle the kids up and drop by her class to give them a check. Max was napping, so I waited till as late as possible. Finally, we head out and were walking into the garage when I saw a police officer coming around the other side of the garage. He asked if I saw anyone running through here, and I realized I did see someone running around the house behind me that is currently vacant. He kind of blew me off, so I proceeded to load up the kids. I got Max buckled in, and felt I should turn on the light to the garage (hanging around in a dark garage while the police are looking for someone doesn't seem too smart). Just as I did, I heard the officer start screaming at someone that was apparently hiding underneath our giant arborvitae at the end of our driveway. I guess he found who he was looking for, but all I could think was Get In The Car!!! Close The Garage Door!!!

Did I mention that we have a detached garage? So we were stuck, with no windows to see what was going on. I waited a couple minutes, then went out the side door to see if it was safe. By then, our street was lined with cop cars, and our driveway was blocked. I was going to miss her dance teacher, so I pulled my car out and waited. I saw five officers taking care of this perpetrator, and one noticed me waiting so he came to talk to me. "Don't worry, ma'am, we just apprehended a shoplifter that was fleeing the mall. Nothing to worry about." Yeah, easy for him to say. He doesn't have to live here! At least I can rest assured knowing there's apparently very little crime in the area. There can't be, since there were so many available officers chasing down a shoplifter! Isn't that the kind of thing that usually gets shrugged off? I guess this means we actually do live in a great neighborhood.

Good to know.

Rough week

Addie's sick. But she isn't sick. She came down with a rash on Monday, but I didn't think much about it. I just thought her shirt was irritating her, because it was just on her upper body. When she got home from preschool (yes, I sent her with a rash), it had spread across her whole body. The doctor thought it was scarlet fever, but she didn't have strep that usually prefaces the rash (or the fever, for that matter). "Come back if it's still around in two or three days," says the doctor (not my regular ped, but ours was out that day). Doesn't he see me wrestling Max away from all the fun 'toys' that a doctor's office presents to a toddler? Like I want to come back.



That was Tuesday, and she still had the rash on Friday... along with some flushing around her mouth and up her cheeks. Another $30 co-pay later, we see our regular doctor. He's convinced it is scarlet fever, and doesn't understand why she didn't test positive for strep. He brings another doctor in (his dad, actually) and they both agree. Dad says that scarlet fever can sometimes come on after a staph infection, thus the negative strep test. Great! She could've been on meds for 3 days and back in preschool had the first doctor thought of this. Because he didn't, Addie missed 2 days of preschool, playgroup, and her dance class. Ask me how my sanity was this week.



Thankfully, the weekend was awesome! We had record breaking warmth on Saturday (53*) and we were outside most of the day. We went out to breakfast at our favorite local pancake house, then headed to the park. Although we haven't had more than a couple dustings of snow since December, it's been so cold that no snow has melted. That means around 3 feet of snow melting all over the place. Thankfully Corey had the foresight to have me grab their snowpants and boots, because it was wet, wet, wet! We were there about 1 1/2 hours, and the kids were still mad when we said it was time to go home. Max crashed in the car, but Addie spent the next hour or so clearing slush from the driveway and front walk with her dad. We now have beautiful sidewalk-chalk art along our back walk, and muddy grass everywhere.