Out and About

The weather has been wonderful this week, but we haven't been able to get out and enjoy it much. At the beginning of the week, I couldn't walk too well for reasons I care not to divulge. And I'm a little nervous about walking with the three of them. We haven't cleaned off the double stroller yet, Ben hasn't been trained to walk with me yet, and I can't snap on the Snugli by myself. Hmm...guess I could teach Matthew to help with that one. We did do an evening walk on Thursday to Walgreens when Rob came home, which was fun, but haven't managed anything else.

Today, however, was different. The boys and I went to a Children's Fair at the high school. That was a lot of fun! Rob had schoolwork to do and Anna has a slight head cold, so they stayed home. I wasn't expecting it to be all that great, but it was awesome. There were tons of booths there hosted by every group imaginable (that deal with children), a huge inflatible slide, a bounce house, a petting zoo, and lots of craft tables. Pretty much every booth had a craft, but we managed to keep it down to three. We came home with lots of useful stuff, like a bike helmet, bike chain, toothbrushes and paste, vitamin samples, and info about children's activities in the area. We got semi-useful items, like pencils and stickers, and then things that are just plain space-wasters, like a survey about the public schools.

Matthew had fun on the slide (he had his shoes whipped off and was up the thing faster than you can blink), painted, made a tooth, held a baby chick, fed a sheep, played with all of the Discovery Toys he could, chowed on a cookie and milk, and had a blast. Ben stayed in the stroller, but he did get in the bounce house, ran away to the slide and was flabbergasted (it's just a little too big for him!), and was pretty quiet the whole time. Oh, they did get their pictures taken by the police department for a kid safety thing and that was funny. They were supposed to be weighed, measured, and photographed. The boys kept trying to do everything together, but the police men kept trying to call just one boy over. They finally got the boys separated to do each task, but it took awhile. It was too funny!

I can't wait until next year when Ben's older and can do more. I'll also take Rob so that we can let the kids conquer more of the craft stuff. Some of it was pretty cool, like planting a plant and cookie decorating, but way too messy for one mommy with two boys. We did run into Matthew's Sunday school teacher (she is an early ed prof at MBBC) and she said I was brave to have the two boys by myself. I think the braver mom was a friend of mine who had her one-year-old and some one else's 2 1/2 year-old and one-year old!

Funny boy story: So the kids have been playing doctor recently. Matthew pulled out the stethescope and has been checking everyone's heart, then giving them a shot. Matthew and Ben also take turns being the sick one. What illness do they have?? Rotavirus! They have been pretending to vomit into buckets and have been pretending to change each other's diapers. I suppose when the main illness you had over the winter was stomach flu/rotavirus stuff, that's what you know!!

Anna does have her first cold. Thankfully, I talked to her pediatrician about the possibility of her getting one since all of us have been sick. He said only to call in if she has a fever. We've elevated her crib mattress, but that's about all we can do right now. She's still eating fine, sleeping fine, and hasn't missed a beat. She does cry a bit when she coughs, but I think it just scares her more than it hurts. Poor little thing!

Rob and I are both fighting this cold on top of being tired from baby care. I tried to quit last week but he wouldn't let me. Instead, he sent me out for lunch and shopping by myself on Monday. I'm working on goal-planning right now in a few areas of my life, so hopefully that will help keep me sane. That and velcroing the boys to the walls......