Vacation...finally!

Finally- glorious February vacation! Looks like we'll have fresh snow, based on the current forecast for the week. We're all healthy (for once) and are looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends. Get ready for a long one- here's a recap of all the minutiae that's been going on the last few weeks.

Elijah's pink-eye was the lead-in to a bad stretch. The following Tuesday, our childcare provider called me at school to report that Eli was feverish and very lethargic. We took him straight to the pediatrician, got there at 5pm. He had a pretty high temperature and a very high heart rate (200 bpm). The doc was really concerned about the heart rate, and didn't know if it was related to his sickness or to the fact that Elijah absolutely FREAKS OUT and goes ballistic when the doc enters the room (it's really quite embarrassing). He gave him a dose of Tylenol and then wanted us to sit and rock him for a half hour and let him calm down. His heart rate did go down some, but the doc said, "he just looks sicker than the typical child with an ear infection." So he called up to the hospital in St. Albans, ordered some chest x-rays, bloodwork, and two IM antibiotic injections, and sent us up to the ER. It was a long night, we got home around 10pm after our doctor was satisfied that there wasn't anything really out of the ordinary going on. Just a really bad ear infection, poor Elijah! Later that night, around 2am, I woke him to take his temperature and it was 105 degrees! A rough couple of days followed, until finally he began feeling more like himself.

Last night we had the Garrows over for dinner- their boys (Ryan, 5 and Jackson, 7) were really good, and enjoyed playing hide-and seek inside the new built-in benches in the sunroom :-) The last time the boys were here (I was pregnant with Elijah), they played in the "secret" eave closets up in Elijah's room. Remember how fun stuff like that was when you were a kid? Imagine their disappointment when they opened those doors last night, only to find the closets crammed full of stuff! But then they found the benches, and they entertained themselves well. Elijah had a lot of fun watching their antics.

Our trip to visit Grammie, Lisa and Dan has been postponed for one day due to weather. We're expecting about a foot of snow, more or less. It's snowing pretty steadily out there right now. We hope the weather is fit for traveling tomorrow. Whatever will we do with this cheesecake otherwise...?

Elijah has started climbing on anything and everything. He especially loves to get up on the dining room chairs, where he often can get his hands on Ed's highlighters. Sometimes he tries to crawl on the table, but we're trying to nip that trick in the bud.

Here are some pictures of Elijah making Grammy and Nana their Valentine's Cards:

On Valentine's Day, breakfast was heart-shaped mini omelets and toast.

After that, we got dressed and headed down to the Open Toddler Gym at the elementary school. Elijah's personality is really beginning to blossom. While he's generally a very good little boy, one of his dominant traits is stubbornness. He wants what he wants when he wants it. Maybe it's a toddler thing. On this particular day at the gym, he was determined to make his great escape, and I spent much of the 90 minutes chasing him down and bringing him back into the gym. The funniest thing was that he would start on the far end of the gym and run-shrieking- towards the door. Not exactly "sneaky."

Yesterday was Open Gym again and Ed came along for backup, but Elijah had abandoned his escape plans and instead was attempting to get bowled over by the children on the rope swing. Mid-conversation with another parent, I would sprint across the gym to grab my kid just seconds before he almost took a foot to the eye. We'll just say that happened more than once. I got MY workout, too!

One night, clad in his "cammo jammies" Elijah claimed Ed's recliner as his own. He was very proud of himself and didn't want anyone to sit with him. We weren't sure he'd ever go to bed that night.

Friday Ed will head to a much-anticipated Glover Bowl, and (travel weather permitting) Eli and I are heading to Rhode Island to visit my family. We are very excited to see everyone!

Finally, I'll sign off with some pictures from today. It's really snowing out there now!