Before the kids get up

It's 6:01 so that means one or both of the kids will be up shortly so I'm typing as fast as my little hands (and little brain) will allow. Will and Laura both have developed a cough that results from months upon months of runny noses. (And  now enter Will enters--coughing--stage left. This may be really short.) Jamison has been in Milwaukee since Monday and he won't be home until after bedtime tonight so I've not had much of a chance to write anything so far this week.

The kids, though, have been eerily good during my co-pilotless week and I have to say that it's really not been bad. (This is also where I should say that I don't know how single parents do it. But I actually do know, kind of. They do it because they have to, because there's no other choice in lots of cases.) This may sound weird but the times when I am parenting solo are somehow reassuring to me. Things are much, much easier when Jamison is around but doing it alone gives me a distinct sense of....competence, I guess. I feel more accomplished at night when the kids have had a relatively good day, we ate dinner (leftovers, but still dinner) together, everyone is clean and smelling like Burt's Bees Baby Wash (one of my favorite smells in the world) and the kids are finally asleep. That's not to say, of course, that I haven't lost my patience or wished for a nanny to drop from the sky at moments. (As a side note, if you happen to live near family or friends who can watch your kids, even for half an hour, go give them a big hug today. That's a luxury we live without, so it's a good thing we like being around each other and our kids!)

I'm lacking a good segue here, so consider this my "graceful" transition sentence. I took some pictures of the kids this past weekend cavorting in the leaves. I'll show you two of them but leave one of them a secret that may or may not show up in your mailbox sometime after Thanksgiving. (And so the loooong holiday checklist has one paltry item checked off of it...)

That's really not a "leaf pile" per se, but more like what our entire yard looks like.

She doesn't really look like herself in this picture for some reason.

And now it's 6:23 and Will's losing patience with my "writing a story" as he says. He and his Angry Bird stuffed animal are really cutting into my personal couch space. (Speaking of Angry Birds, I finally broke down and got a new phone. I've finally entered the 21st century. I also recently got my first iPod. I know,  I'm about ten years behind everyone else, but I needed some tunes for the gym.)

Also, because I apparently have aspirations of becoming a personal shopper, if you're looking for a gift of pure comfort for someone special, get them these. I got myself a pair as a little early birthday gift and I would wear them everywhere if I could finagle it. (Also, I have a thing for pajamas. These are some of my favorites that I've ever gotten, also as an early happy birthday to myself. What can I say? I guess I'm feeling indulgent this year what with all the traveling and solo momming. The bonus is that the pants also come in petites so that means less hemming. Yes, I have to hem pjs. Are you telling me that you don't?)

The countdown to Mamaw Sally's chicken and dumplings and Mamaw Jeanetta's rolls is on...T-minus six days and counting...

Greetings from the infirmary. . .again

We're still here! And we're still sick, too! Will recovered from his ear infection of week before last only to come down with a stomach bug on Saturday while we were in WV. It didn't last long, fortunately, but he's contracted another stomach bug and is going to be out of school again tomorrow. (I emailed his teacher to let her know that he won't be there tomorrow and in her response she said that Will's other teacher saw him take a drink from her water bottle--he proclaimed it not "fair" that he didn't also have a water bottle. She was out Wednesday with a stomach bug as well. So...we've still got a little bit of work to do on the whole boundaries thing, obviously.) And to continue with the sickness theme, I also have something that causes ghastly congestion and ears that feel like they're going to explode. It's really nonstop fun and excitement (with a side of germs and tissues) around here.

But somehow Laura has managed to emerge (so far--knock on wood) from the miasma of our communicable diseases mostly unscathed, except for the runny nose that she's had for the past few weeks. Which, based on recent history here, means that an ear infection's a-brewing in her little Eustachian tubes. (Those are two of the most poorly-written sentences I've ever been responsible for composing. But I'm leaving it because it's after nine and everyone knows that my mind goes rapidly downhill at this hour and I'm basically too lazy to go back and rewrite them.)

Laura with a yogurt goatee. She's big on feeding herself these days. This morning we caught her scooping yogurt straight out of the container with her hands. Who needs a spoon anyway, right? I kind of admire her resourcefulness.

This is blurry and it's not really The Look that she gives us but I think it captures a little bit of her personality. She's really the funniest baby I've been around. It's one of my very favorite things about her.

I tossed our sheets over the gate from upstairs while I was cleaning up our bedroom this morning and found little Miss Fancy Pants hanging out in them.

And then she couldn't resist lying down in them.

I don't have any pictures of Will to add because he was probably off telling us how something or other wasn't fair and that his life was basically ruined because of it. He actually told me yesterday that he wished he had a better life. I didn't know whether to laugh or give him the standard parental you-don't-know-just-how-lucky-you-are speech. So I went with the laugh (not that he saw me laughing at him, of course). The kid is either going to be a soaring, spectacular success at whatever he chooses to do or he's going to wind up behind bars. Either or. I kid. (Kind of.) In any case, he keeps things interesting around here, as do his various gastrointestinal adventures.

Hopefully everyone reading this is avoiding any gastrointestinal issues of their own...

Halloween and other things

Our pictures of trick-or-treating are particularly not great this year but I thought sharing a few blurry shots of my giraffe and cat were in order.

Traditional couch picture. We have a couch picture from every milestone/holiday. This one is not my favorite so far.

I think this one could have been good but The Headless Giraffe wasn't exactly the effect I was going for.

Laura's costume was really cute.

Giraffe on a bike. Will's costume was funny.

3/4 of our family.

This picture is depressing to me because it is ocular proof that I am rapidly aging.

Self explanatory.

This is the state of our house the day before Halloween. Scary, indeed.

This was also a scene from our weekend. We're currently archless. The one pictured here was rotting and leaning and generally unsafe. The new arch has yet to make it out of the box in the garage, though.

The pantry is one of Laura's favorite play spots, which is why the floor of it looks like a little bit like a garage sale.

I think that's it for now. We're spending the weekend in WV and I have about 76 loads of laundry to do before we leave tomorrow. Yikes!