Krispy Kremed

Jason arrived home Wed at midnight...I was so happy to have him back home. He was off to work before the kids were up, so Ethan kept asking me repeatedly throughout the day when daddy was getting home. He showed up around 5:00 pm, then had to go back into work Thursday night around midnight and got home at 4 am, then went back at 6:30 am, worked all day Friday, and crashed Friday night. Nothing like jumping right back in. Saturday morning he ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge with my brother Mark and my dad. You run a little over 2 miles downhill from the NC State belltower, consume one dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, then run 2 miles back uphill to the finish line. The "challenge" is to finish in under one hour, which they did. (The unspoken challenge is to finish in one hour without casting the donuts back up along the way.) Jason had a really tough time choking down the donuts and may never eat another Krispy Kreme. I'm not sure it's good for Jason and Mark to live near each other, since they seem to be good at getting each other involved in things like this. Jason got Mark to do this, and Mark persuaded Jason to get his motorcycle license and to do the Polar Bear plunge a few years back, which involved jumping into the freezing waters of the Chesapeake Bay in January. They are crazy. After the "race," Jason and the boys and I headed to the zoo for the afternoon. It was 50 degrees and sunny...chilly but not miserable. The animals were more active than when we were there last in August in 120 degree weather. (I was 9 months pregnant so that statement may be more a reflection of how it felt to me than the actual thermometer reading.) Ethan had a blast. He loves this kind of stuff. Since it was so cold, it seemed appropriate to pretend to be polar bears. The cougar was pacing right in front of him. It totally freaked him out at first, but since he loves things that scare him (it's strange, I know), he kept begging us to take him back to the cougars. The bobcat was also willing to stalk him, but it's not quite as intimidating so he was a little less impressed.

Colin, on the other hand, was unimpressed by the whole thing. We've seen him cry and we've seen him smile and laugh, but we've never seen him frown before yesterday. He had a very disgruntled frown on his face almost the entire time. We're not sure if it was the cold or our insistence that he stay bundled up in his car seat in the stroller. He hates to miss a party.

Jason got him out while Ethan played on the playground, and he cheered up a little.

Later, while we were waiting for the tram back to the parking lot, it warmed up quite a bit, so we got him out and played with him, which improved his mood considerably.

All in all, a very fun afternoon as a family, which we needed since Jason just left town again for the week. He's moonlighting in Goldsboro until Friday night. We miss him already!

The Storm of the Century

On Wednesday the doctor's office called to say that the office might not be open for Colin's Thursday afternoon appointment due to the weather. I responded with, "Right. Of course. That makes sense." Then hung up and immediately jumped on weather.com to find out what severe, impending-doom forecast I had missed. Freezing rain. Thursday at 6:00 am. It was supposed to be in the low 40s on Thursday afternoon. Why would rain + cold temperatures before dawn affect a 2:00 pm doctor's appointment? We are definitely not in New England anymore. When we woke up Thursday morning, I turned on the news to see if school was canceled. It was a 2-hour delay (even though temps were above freezing and the roads were fine), so preschool was delayed 1 hour. It's only 3 hours long! We were assigned snack this week, though, so we had to go. A bunch of moms showed up at 9 am because they didn't think to check to see if the rain had delayed school opening. This morning the forecaster said we were expecting "the worst winter storm in years. 1 to 3 inches of snow." Woo-hoo! Snow! Ethan was beside himself with excitement. It was supposed to start at noon. It didn't. It rained most of the afternoon. There were a few flurries of snow, but nothing started sticking until after sunset, when the kids were already in bed. My mom pointed out that I could take Ethan out in the morning before church (since it will be gone after), but that would mean playing in the snow in the freezing cold before sunrise and before Colin wakes up, then coming in and getting them ready and out the door by 8:30 am. I'm not sure I'm that good of a mom. Jason's in Florida at a conference until Wednesday night. He's staying at a gorgeous resort on the beach between Miami and Ft Lauderdale. He just called to tell me that he's sitting on the balcony of his 25th floor room looking at the Atlantic ocean, which he spent the afternoon diving. He was trying to convince me that I could hop a flight Monday morning, dive with him in the afternoon, go to dinner with him Monday night, sleep through the night, and fly home Tuesday morning. I am so, so tempted, but I just cannot be away from Colin yet. I'm not ready. I don't know when I will be, but I know it's not now. Not that I'm not so, so tempted. But really, could you leave this face? He had his 4-month appointment yesterday...they toughed it out and opened despite the rain. He's over 18 pounds and almost 28 inches long...the pediatrician couldn't believe he'd put on 5 pounds since his 2-month visit. Growing great but way too fast!

'Twas the Season

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted. I'm going to have to try to do a really brief summary of the entire holiday season. Wish me luck.

First, it was one of the best yet, because for the first time in 8+ years of marriage, we didn't travel. I loved it. We even hosted Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas dinner here at our house for my parents and Bryce and Cathi...so I mean, we really didn't travel. It was so relaxing! In spite of our homebound state, we still got to see lots of family. My younger brother Bryce and his wife and my younger sister Erin and her husband and her cute pregnant belly came from Utah to visit, and Grammy, Papa, Jared, Kelli, and Scarlett came from New York and Budapest for a very brief but fun visit. It was so great to spend time with everyone. Santa brought Ethan a train table and some track. He got lots of trains, [including the beloved and much-prayed for recycling train (see below)] from us, Jason's parents, and his cousins (here and here). His reaction to his gifts is something I'll remember about him the rest of my life. It was priceless. When he saw the train table, he said, "Oh my. That is amazing. That is amazing," in a kind of serious voice. Then later, "This is the coolest train table I ever met." Colin got a peacock (Jacques) that he loves, along with some cute board books, one of which my mom is reading to him. Jason got a class in bike maintenance (I know it sounds lame, but he's really excited). I was, apparently, a very good girl last year, because "Santa" gave me an iPhone. I am in love with it. It's beautiful and fun and everything a girl could ever want in a piece of mobile technology. Jason, on the other hand, was very bad and completely ignored the spending limit to which we had solemnly sworn to adhere. (I'm not complaining, trust me.) We had a great New Year's Eve party that my brother Mark and his wife hosted. I played Cranium while Jason played Scene It (the XBox 360 version) until he was banned from playing anymore because he kept doubling (tripling?) everyone else's score. He's seen a lot of movies. He then moved on to Rock Band. If you haven't played it, you must. He spent a lot of time on drums. My brother even took some video of it. It was fun. I heard he took over the mike at one point around 2:00 am. I guess fatigue will ultimately make up for a lack of alcohol in your system.

Jason had the week of New Year's off, so I lined up some contract writing projects while Jason took the kids. He was great with them. He got them up and out of the house every day, explaining to Ethan the "plan" for the day, and didn't bring them home until dinner (or later). I got so much work done. We have also spent a lot of time looking at neighborhoods/houses trying to decide where we want to end up. On Jason's 8th day home, Ethan came in to wake us up one morning. He climbed up next to me on the bed and said, "Mom, get up. Here's the plan. We're going to go downstairs, have some breakfast, play a little, get dressed, and go look at houses." He had clearly been spending too much time with his father. And househunting. On Jason's first day back at work, Ethan woke up and saw I was alone. He said, "Mom, what's the plan for today? Or....no plan?" Yes, that's right...no plan. And he's learning the difference between his parents. Jason was a little sad to head back to work, but admitted "I could never do your job" (ie, kids all day every day). I could never do his, either, so we have concluded that we are both doing what suits us best in life. It works.

Here are the boys playing in Ethan's room...Ethan with his train table and Colin in the Exersaucer that Grammy and Papa gave him. Both presents were a huge hit!

Happy '08!