It’s a beautiful day today. Sunny and 90
degrees!! It’s not supposed to last, but I’ll enjoy it while I
can (by sitting in the living room, updating the blog :) ). We
went grocery shopping this morning and now both kids are
napping. I love it. I just realized that Lex’s party is just
around the corner and I haven’t done anything at all to
prepare. Today I started making lists. That’s a good first
step, right? :) I also ran my birthday cake idea by Lex. He
smiled and said it was a fun cake, but not what he wanted.
Instead he choose two layers, vanilla on top, strawberry on
bottom, with chocolate frosting and colored sprinkles on top.
Soo… that will be the cake :) And I got a bunch of guest
RSVPs back in the past few days, so it’s starting to feel like
a party!

We’ve had a rough few days
around here. The downside to daycare (sickness!) hit sooner
than I was expecting. Lex had been feverish off and on for a
few days, which is normal for him, but also started just after
his first day at daycare. Then on Tuesday (day two of daycare)
Eve woke up with very goopy eyes. She seemed fine otherwise so
I cleaned them up and sent her to daycare. Tuesday afternoon
they were goopy again and both kids had think, greenish snot.
Yuck! Wednesday morning I woke up with an obvious case of
pink-eye. Blech!! The moistness and discomfort is bad, but
wearing glasses (especially on bright, sunny days) is a million
times worse!! I kept the kids home from daycare and we all went
to the doctor Wednesday morning. I was cranky because I had to
pay for daycare anyway (which is ok and part of the contract)
and was losing money because I couldn’t go to work, and have to
pay for the doctor visit on top of it all!! I guess I’m getting
a taste of what millions of women deal with on a regular basis.
Thankfully I have a strong husband with a good, salaried job
and benefits to support the rest of us! Anyway, the pedi said
that we just have a viral infection (all of us, and probably
Alan too) which happened to cause an infection in mine and
Eve’s eyes. She said we are contagious, but no more or less so
then the common cold, and the virus may or may not cause eye
infections in others. My eyes look worse than Eve’s and she
said that’s most likely because I wore my contacts on Tuesday,
before I had any symptoms. So now we are all recovering from
this virus, trying our best to act sweet to one another. Today
Lex is definitely on the up-swing, with just a bit of runny
nose. Eve still has goopy eyes, but they are getting better and
her runny nose is also getting better (clearer snot at least!).
My eyes are feeling less goopy and looking less red. Yay!

As a responsible person I asked the doc
about canceling Lex’s party and she said she wouldn’t. She said
most likely by Sunday we will all be fine, and if not, it’s
just a virus, like the cold, and not anything major. She said,
“most likely half the kids there will already have a cold
anyway.” Sooo… I’m hoping we are all healthy by Sunday! (and
hoping I can wear my contacts again!!!)

Hopefully they are both healthy by next Tuesday so I can
send them back to daycare to collect more germs! Crazy world.

I know this blog is getting a pretty
text heavy, but I’ve been having problems with my camera
lately. I just bought new batteries (not rechargable, shhh!!!)
and I hope that will help. I’ll try to post pics of the lovely
children soon. I’m sure there will be a million take this
weekend.

Eve’s favorite line these days, “I can do
it myself!” Or “I DO IT!” She likes to yell. It’s cute that she
wants to do everything Lex does (except the potty thing,
sadly). She even follows his routine for things. Like when she
makes her own snack, the chair cushion goes on the table, then
move the chair, then get the bowl, etc. Just exactly the way he
does it. But then she gets mad when I won’t let her do things.
Or when she gets up on the chair and realizes she can’t reach
the snacks in the cabinet like he can. She got mad at me the
other day because I wouldn’t let her get the mail by herself :)
Funny little independent girl.

I LOVE YOU DAD

WE LOVE YOU

LEX

(He wanted to
email Alan yesterday and was super excited to learn that he has
his own email account! This is what he wrote, all on his own.)

Day 2 at daycare went a bit better. After
last week’s experience I let the subject drop for a few days
and then started mentioning daycare casually in conversation.
Eve also conveniently brought it up a few times (“At daycare
they play RAFFI!!!” she yells), but every time Lex insisted
that he did not want to go back. I was getting a little
worried. Then yesterday I asked him if he would like me to stay
with him at daycare for a little while and he immediately
perked up. “Oh yes mommy, if you stay with me for about an hour
then I will be very happy at daycare.” Ummm… ok. He’s such a
little puzzle. All day yesterday he seemed positive. This
morning he got himself dressed (clothes over pjs, but it was
good enough for me!) and in the car with no fussing. I stayed
with him for about an hour and when I left he said he was sad,
but ok. The teacher called me a few hours later and asked if he
could go on a field trip to find salamanders. She said he was
crying and saying that he wasn’t having fun anymore, so she
thought a field trip with a few other kids would be a good
change of scenery.

When I got there
this afternoon they were both outside playing. When they saw me
they started crying. Both of them. Running to me, crying. So I
held both kids for a few minutes, heads on my shoulders, tears
streaming down my shirt. The teacher said that Eve had been
great all day and that Lex did much, much better. She said he
listened to her very well and didn’t argue or fight. I guess he
cried a lot and kept saying he wanted to go home now, but at
least there was no fighting. Eve said, “Mommy! You came back
for us. You came back to get us!” I really hope this is just
toddler words and not her really thinking that I was leaving
her there forever. And if she does think that, she sure doesn’t
seem concerned in the morning when I leave!

I think mostly they are both exhausted from the whole
experience. Hopefully after a few more times they will get into
the swing of things. Or maybe this is just what daycare is.

We also have to work on our evening
routine a bit too. They are both wound up when we get home and
I try to settle them down for dinner, bath, stories, but they
just bounce and make me frustrated. Then I feel guilty for
being annoyed with them when I haven’t even seen them all day.
This is mostly my problem, not theirs. Last night and tonight
they were awake for a really long time after I put them in bed.
Awake and bouncing. Annoying! Both nights it was shortly after
9:00pm before they fell asleep! So I think I need to work on
the post-daycare evening routine. Apparently its going to have
to be different than our regular evening routine. For all of
our sakes!

I had a horrible headache last night.
After bath I told the kids to pick some stories and I’d be
right there to read. I think I said something along the lines
of, “I need to take some Tylenol before I explode!” Right
behind me came two little ducklings claiming they too were
about to explode and need medicine. It cracked me up. Good
headache relief. I ended up giving Lex some a little later for
his fever and Eve came running along saying, “I am splode! I
need medicine.” Lex just woke up from a nap now (three days in
a row!) and he was hot and crying so I asked if he wanted some
medicine (hasn’t had any since last night) and Eve again said,
“I splode too! I need medicine too!” I love that she doesn’t
fully understand what she’s talking about, just repeating words
and hoping for a positive outcome :)

I think Lex gets spring fever, very
literally. It seems like every spring (and fall, I think, twice
a year) he comes down with a fever for a few days, but no other
symptoms. I remember last year he fevered off and on for a week
or so and I took him to the doctor and they said to just let it
ride. They aren’t really high fevers (ok, honestly I don’t take
his temperature often, but he doesn’t feel dangerously hot and
his behavior is never worrisome) and them seem to go away in
the mornings and come back in the afternoon/evening. Anyway, we
are in the midst of another spring fever. Today is the third
day. He occasionally complains of a sore throat or belly ache,
but not consistently. I have him Tylenol for the first time
last night because he was up every hour crying. At one point he
said his belly hurt and he needed food, so we came downstairs
and had a 2am snack of yogurt and Tylenol :) Poor guy. Luckily
spring fever doesn’t seem to be contagious.

Just
nine more days until the little guy turns four years old! Crazy
kid is growing up. I have once again started thinking about
those days, how tomorrow was my due date and I was soo eager to
meet little zig. But he kept us waiting, and waiting, and
waiting. Now it seems like just yesterday and suddenly he’s
almost four! Smart, active, happy, silly, stubborn, and still a
beautiful boy.

The trains are
always a favorite, and lately Lex has been mixing in other toys
as well. Here he has the wooden track set up, with the tunnel
from the plastic tracks, and his blanket in the middle as a
pond. Poor Thomas derailed and fell into the pond. Not sure
what’s going on with the bunny. Lately his blanket serves as a
waterfall down one line of the tracks. The talented trains
tumble down the waterfall and land, perfectly, on their wheels
and on the tracks :)

A boat. Eve looks
fascinated to be allowed to play in Lex’s game.

Last week Lex
started asking if he could paint these train pieces brown. I
have no idea where this idea came from. I put him off for a few
days (we were too busy for the project anyway), but he
persisted, so after awhile I said “sure, go for it!” These are
pieces of the coaches that came with the wooden train set. Two
coaches, two pieces, two very happy kids painting. They have
been “drying” in the bathroom for a few days now and I’m not
sure what the final result will be. It’s a washable paint, so
I’m a little worried its going to come off on their hands and
the carpet. I guess we’ll see!

Hard at work
painting the coach top brown.

After a nice solitary trip to the grocery
store this afternoon I took my double stroller and walked over
to pick the kids up at daycare. Sweet, huh? I got lots of funny
looks for walking with an empty double jogger, but that’s ok. I
got there to find Lex sitting on the steps and on the verge of
tears. Everyone was outside playing and as soon as he saw me he
said “Oh!” and walked over to get his shoes. I sat down, he
crawled into my lap and started crying. He said he was too
tired and needed me to put his shoes on for him so he could go
home. I think he had a tough day. They daycare teacher said
that he was pretty stubborn about following their schedule and
argued about not wanting to go out, or come in, or lay down, or
play here, etc. She said he threw a pretty big tantrum and one
of the teachers held him in her arms until he calmed himself
down. I felt bad for him and bad for her and secretly a little
happy that I had a day off from it all.

Eve noticed me a minute later (still sitting with Lex) and
she ran over and said “Mommy! You came back for us!” Not sure
what she was expecting, but she seemed pretty surprised and
happy to see me again. Then she proceeded to tell me all about
how I left and they played and I went to work “at daddy’s
office” (nearby, really) and then “You came back for us!” She’s
cute. The teacher said she did awesome all day. I think it
caught up with her though. About half way home she started
crying and couldn’t control herself. When we got inside I
cuddled her and asked why she was crying and she said, “I don’t
know, I can’t stop crying.” (words I think she learned from
Lex’s tantrums) They were both pretty exhausted from the day.

At dinner I asked Lex if he had fun
today and he said yes, he had a lot of fun. Soo… I guess
we’ll see how next week goes. I hate to see him having tantrums
and being so upset, but he’s going to preschool in the fall and
he’s going to have to get used to other people’s schedules
sooner or later. I think it would be better to have this
adjustment in a daycare setting instead of a school setting.
That makes sense, right? Sometimes I think he’s like a delicate
flower and when handled well he thrives, but put in a situation
he’s not used to he just rebels. I try to be accommodating to
him (maybe too much so) but it’s draining on me and Alan and
probably even Eve. I also know that he won’t get those special
accommodations in school and part of growing up is learning how
to handle yourself in situations outside of your control.
Right? Anyway, I think (hope!) he’ll adjust after a few days
and I’m still confident that this will be best in the long
run.