I should first explain that Rich had a fairly lousy weekend. His birthday was Saturday, which sounds great, right? But he spent most of the day administering and grading a final. Not so great. He did, at least, have a work party in the evening. We al

So do you remember my previous entry? Where I write about Nick puking in the bushes? Turns out that was what's generally referred to as foreshadowing. Because there was a whole lot more puking to come! Ha ha! So fun! Okay not really. This was not

My mother's visiting for the week. Rich picked her up from the airport on Saturday while I was at a birthday party with the kids. Rather to our surprise, she wasn't late. In fact, technically, her plane arrived a few minutes early. We've

Yay for Halloween! This is probably my son's third favorite day of the year, right behind Christmas and his birthday. And the rest of us like it too. We've been busy getting ready. There were pumpkins to carve. From the left: silly (it's

Here's hoping you all had a great Independence Day! We celebrated in proper style, by carbonizing chunks of meat over a fire, then setting off multiple explosives in the presence of small children. Good stuff. I tried to explain the proper meanin

Beth and Jonathan, and eventually Phillip, came over yesterday evening. We had a lovely time. Dinner turned out well, the kids played nicely, Zoe went to sleep smoothly, and there was much grownup conversation. Ah, bliss. I've decided that one of

My day started around five, when Nick woke me up, all concerned. He'd gotten up to use the potty, I suppose, had remembered that it was Easter, and went to see if the Easter bunny had come yet. Well, there was a basket for Zoe...and nobody else.

No school for Nick today. We started coloring our Easter eggs while Zoe was awake. It was fun, but also difficult to keep Zoe happy and out of trouble when she couldn't participate in any way. Nick got bored after about six eggs, so we finished u

Nick's class had their Easter party today. So, first, all the parents were asked to send in six filled eggs for an egg hunt. Simple enough. Except that nothing about school is ever as simple as you'd think it would be. They were supposed to b

Woot! It's a streak! Three Saturdays in a row, felled by illness. Shall we try for the month? The trend varied slightly, though. This time Nick is fine; it's his parents who got sick. The flu, I'm guessing. Our flu shots availed us not, a

Thursday was Valentine's Day, as I trust everyone knows already. But did you know it was also Zoe's six-month birthday? Which means the day after was Nick's five-and-a-half year birthday. Exciting!Nick and I made this for his Daddy's

It's Thursday already, and I haven't said anything about the weekend. I kept meaning to - it was a good long. And long. Mardi Gras, don't you know. Rich had a Boy Scout event on Saturday, but rather than meaning that we found our own fun

Yesterday was a little chaotic. Nick had the day off from school, and although he loves these vacation days, I only love them in theory. In reality, it throws off my routine and makes me cranky. I am aware of how pathetic this sounds; nonetheless, it

We made last minute plans on Friday - dinner at Mellow Mushroom, then we met up with Beth and Philip, Kristy and Alan. We met at CC's for coffee and spent a lot of time riding herd on the kids; then we drove over to the mall, sat down in the play

It's only fair to say something about Nick as well; he's been busy. At school he's learning how to write. Like, really truly write. They've started doing a sentence a day. The teacher gives them the sentence, then they write it down a

Marjorie invited us to join her family in making gingerbread houses over the weekend. Well, "gingerbread" houses, because they were really graham cracker based. It was a lot of fun; getting the crackers to hold together long enough for the

Nick convinced me he was sick, so he stayed home from school today. Turns out he just needed to rest for about two hours, then he was fine. He spent the rest of the day driving me crazy with his energy and excitement. Mommy can't handle that much

Thanksgiving vacation would have gone better if it hadn't been cold and rainy the last few days. We were stuck inside with each other for a little too long. Not to mention, our plan to entertain ourselves with a trip to the Louisiana Renaissance

Zoe's three months old now. There was a checkup, so we know she's up to 14 pounds now. She's pushing up on her arms when we put her on her front, and scooting around (slowly) when we put her on her back. Nick spent the last two weeks lear

As usual for Sundays, I read the comics to Nick yesterday. This strip didn't get much of a reaction at first.  Not very funny, after all.  But a bit later I walked into the bedroom to find him acting out the war story. Then he wanted

I took a nap this afternoon and now I can't sleep. So - Halloween!  First of all, I should note that Rich was out of town that evening. This complicated things. There was nobody to hand out candy, I had to get everything organized by myself,

My father left this morning. There was much sadness. Let's see if I can recap his visit, shall I? We established that Candy Land is actually fun to play when the people who want to play by the rules outnumber the people who want to make up rules

We  memorialized two centuries of war dead by inviting friends over and grilling spiedie chicken in the backyard. Yeah, I think that's kinda unrelated too. At some point this weekend we sat down with Nick and had a chat about the meaning of

This was a good day. There were no diamonds, but a pair of lovely cards started the day right. Rich cooked breakfast, we ate out lunch, and he picked up take-out Chinese for dinner (I am extremely fond of Chinese food). Nick tried to be good, and fre

Nick is better again. We'll see if it lasts this time. We got a lot done today, trying to catch up on things. For one thing, we made our Mother's Day gifts for the Grandmas. Which obviously will not be arriving by Mother's Day; sorry Mom.