Today was the day of Lex’s big birthday
party. He helped me with the invites and guest list and we were
expecting 20+ grownups and 15ish kids. Sounds like fun, right?
Or not!

After a fairly uneventful
morning we had a royal rumble at nap time! Possibly our worst
yet. My lucky family got to listen to the whole thing. After
some extreme frustration I said to him, “Do you know what I
feel like doing right now, Lex? I feel like canceling your
party! Calling your friends and telling them not to come. No
cake. No ice cream. No party!” Good threat, right? Lex says,
“yes mommy, please cancel my party.” What!?! I came down and
talked with Alan and it turns out Alan had made a similar
threat during one of his turns in the ring and Lex said the
same thing. Sooo… we canceled the party. I still have no
voice so poor Alan got to call all the guests. Lex continued to
have a rough time, but eventually fell asleep.

Balloons. This is all he wanted for his birthday.
He’s been asking for weeks if he can have balloons for his
birthday. We went to the party store yesterday and he picked
out six balloons and my parents picked them up today. When they
brought them in, he was thrilled. We should have stopped there
and called it a party.

We all crashed onto
the couch for some TV downtime and hoped that no un-RSVPed
guests arrived. We also wondered if Lex would still be in favor
of the canceled party when he woke up.

After a good nap he woke up and I went to get him. Not
only was he still in favor of the canceled party, but he also
asked me to send everyone else home too :) He said “Mommy, I
just want to watch TV on the couch with you. I don’t want
anyone else to be here.” That didn’t happen, but he eventually
warmed up and we had a nice, relaxing afternoon. Some playing
outside, some swinging, pizza for dinner, bike riding, and off
to bed.

This is awesome!

There is a lesson here that I
should have learned last year and hopefully learned this year.
Lex does not like birthday parties. He does not want 35+ people
celebrating his big milestones. So next year when I start
planning his party, somebody, EVERYBODY remind me of this day.
Please! :)

Sadly we didn’t get to show off the crazy purchase
I made for his party. Personalized M&Ms.; We will have
fancy potty treats for many months to come!

Here’s how we found Eve when
we went in to check on them before we went to bed. She doesn’t
look very comfortable, does she. I guess it was an omen for the
night ahead — rough and uncomfortable! Eve spent the night
tossing and turning, fussing and crying. So bad, in fact, that
Lex found his way into our bed at one point and I ended up
sleeping in his bed for awhile. It was easier to get up with
her over and over if I was in their room, instead of crawling
in bed with Lex and Alan each time.

Here’s Eve, showing some
sympathy for mommy in glasses. She was pretty excited that Mr.
Potato Head’s glasses “fit” her :)

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 :)