Haircuts and Homecomings

I came back from a four-day trip out to San Antonio on Thursday and it was so nice to be back home. Here's my welcome committee:Ali started her Masters program at CSU (my alma mater) this week. It's called Leadership and Organizational Studies, which sounds like what she was doing when she was an at-home mom. But as it turns out, that's also what she gets paid to do at Sunrise, so way to transfer those skills!

To give her a few minutes to do some schoolwork, I took the kids out for haircuts this morning. It was Sadie's first haircut, and she did great! She sat very quiety, with that suspicious, furrowed eyebrow look that she must have picked up from studying Ali's baby pictures (or I suppose it could have something to do with genes). You can't see too well from this picture, but the rest of her hair is still long, she just got a little trim in addition to the bangs. Jake got his standard cut, and chatted up the barber the whole time I was helping with Sadie. "Mommy's at home doing work for her teacher. We don't get haircuts every day, just some days. This is Sadie's first haircut. She likes yogurt" and on and on.

Pappa Ooo Mow Mow

Here's what Ali and the kids were up to while I went grocery shopping yesterday. Sadie might need a little explanation. She's got the wax dracula teeth in her mouth from Halloween, and yes, she's wearing a tutu. Oh, and those are ruby slippers on her feet. And, that blue balloon sculpture she's carrying is the base to a balloon Eiffel Tower (thanks for the balloon architecture kit, Deni & Patrick!) Sadie loves to accessorize.

Good luck tomorrow, Mike/Poppy!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!

We had a fun night last night, starting out at the Dogfish Head Alehouse. We went for an early dinner and the place was packed with families and kids. When we got home, we did our usual run around the cul-de-sac banging pots and pans to ring in the new year. Here we are, practicing our technique:

Last week, we were all up in Sea Isle City, NJ to celebrate Christmas with our family. We had a great time and luckily Santa found our milk and cookies and left just a few things for the kids.

One of the highlights for Jake was getting to hang with his cousin, Arjuna. Here they are hamming it up for the camera on one of our beach walks:

And the other highlight was playing with his older cousin, Declan. Declan, you were a great sport with those two!

Here's one of my highlights:

We had so much fun with the family -- luau night, karaoke, great food, and lots of laughs.

Check out some pictures here.

What was that last post about?

We're pretty much back to normal today, I'm happy to report. Besides some lingering coughs, Jake and Sadie were pretty much back to their funny, happy, inquisitive selves. Jake, especially, is a little loopy with all the Christmas talk, and getting ready for a week-long family get-together in Sea Isle City, NJ is just adding to the excitement.

Tomorrow, we'll drive up to the (or, "go down the," as Ali would say, preposition-less) shore. DD and Pop are sponsoring a family get together and we're all looking forward to fun times with about 30 Fergusons and Edelsteins and Carrs and Pucas. We're so happy that it's become the norm that both sets of Jake and Sadie's grandparents are together on the holidays. Those kids really are spoiled. Not to mention all the sweets that Ali's always sneaking them.

Here's a video of me and Jake, working on our Christmas song routine:

Worst Day?

I think to ensure survival of the human species, the brains of parents are designed to hold onto pleasant memories, and suppress memories of tough times with kids. That's why, when Ali and I ask our parents how we were as little kids, they have no memory of us waking up at night, or ever throwing a tantrum right in the middle of the grocery store, or anything bad like that. "You were wonderful!" And I'm sure we were, but I'm sure we had our moments too.

So, all this to say, I think yesterday was the hardest day of parenting yet, but I'm sure there were harder days that I just can't remember right now. And this one will fade too, but with blog technology, I'm going to write it down and record it so that when Jake and Sadie have kids of their own, I can tell them it's perfectly normal for their little ones to occasionally scream for an hour at 3am, or to forget every word of the English language except for "no" for an entire day.

Yesterday was the second day Ali and I stayed home with the kids. Jake and Sadie both have strep infections, and both also seem to have a cold on top of that. I have strep too, but I'm feeling much better now. Ali continues to stay healthy, and if she makes it through this without catching anything, she gets the Gold Medal of Immunity.

It was a day of crying and complaining and defiance and sneezing and coughing and crying and then more crying and whining. And they deserve some slack for being sick, don't get me wrong. But it got to be ridiculous. And they coordinated their efforts, so if Sadie went down for a nap, Jake cranked up his crankiness a few notches. If Jake was occupied with a video, Sadie decided she would attach herself to Ali, and still cry. It was just a sad, tiring, frustrating, long day.

The worst part is, they're still sick. We were holding out hope that they could go back to school today, especially because Jake's class has his big holiday party and gift exchange, but they are both still sicky sick. Maybe a little better than yesterday, but nowhere near 100 percent. When they're sick, time moves so slowly. I just hope that by next week, everyone is healthy, and we're all sipping egg nog, and opening presents, and yesterday will be one of those forgotten memories.

Santa, Sickies, Sleep

Here's Jake at the real Santa's Merrifield headquarters, showing that he knows that Christmas isn't all about getting presents. It's also about cheesy poses. We we waited patiently for almost an hour for Santa to arrive, which is actually not a bad wait in this Christmas fun-house that they've built at Merrifield Gardens. This is the same Santa that I went to as a kid. Yes, the same guy. He's 87. After he addresses everyone and leads some sing-a-longs and takes questions from the skeptical older kids, the real waiting starts. We were about 15th in line, and we waited in the same spot without moving for almost another 30 minutes. It was past naptime. And we were out of snacks. We told Jake we'd just write him a letter, and we snuck out and hopped in the car. Jake didn't seem to mind - besides, he already told Santa he wanted a racecar when he arrived by boat down at the lake.

I just realized the last post was about me staying home with a sick Sadie. Well, since then, she's recovered and had a good week, and now she's sick again, along with me and Jake. Jake's such a trooper and refuses to admit that he's sick. He can barely choke out "I feel good" in between coughs. Hopefully these bugs will all pass by the time we hit the road for Sea Isle City NJ this weekend!

Oh, and by the way, I think it's been a little over a month since Jake gave up his pacifiers and we're finally back on track with the bedtime ritual. There are hiccups here and there, but he's pretty much back to stories and songs and then staying in for the night. We haven't had a tantrum in weeks. Way to go Jake!

Sick Day

I'm at home today with Sadie, who's not feeling well. We've read lots of stories, but mostly she just feels like relaxing with her favorite blankets and watching TV. Here's the patient: