We had a couple of sick kids this week (here's hoping this means we get a miss during Christmas). Andrew had a stomach bug that sort of kept him home from school: sort of meaning he went to school on Wednesday, but called within an hour because his stomach hurt. He came home, rested, threw up, rested some more, and claimed to be feeling better on Thursday. (I think the fact that it was his week to be "leader" at school influenced this claim. Sometimes, he's so clearly my son it makes me sigh a little. Ask my mom about the time I went to school with a burst eardrum without telling her . . .) Thursday he lasted until noon before coming home. But he did seem genuinely better Friday and (knock on wood) we haven't had any other incidents since then. His being sick did mean we had to reschedule a small birthday celebration we'd planned for him and a close friend.
Oliver started acting odd Tuesday night: he wouldn't eat at dinner--instead he sat on my lap and cried. He wouldn't calm down or tell us what was wrong. Suspecting maybe something hurt, we offered him some Tylenol, which he refused (also something he's never done). In any case, I took him in to the doctor's in the morning, and I'm glad I did---turns out he had a double ear infection! No wonder he was so uncomfortable. He seems much better now.
Outside of that, Dan and I both submitted our final grades, so the semester is officially over. I had a little snafu--I entered my grades and thought I'd hit submit ("thought" being the operative word), until I got an email from the registrar's office the next morning informing me that now the deadline was past I needed to submit a change of grade form for each student. Sigh.
A week or so ago I asked the kids what sort of things they wanted to do for the holidays. They came up with things like making paper snowflakes, decorating gingerbread houses, baking sugar cookies, sledding, etc. With the exception of sledding (I don't have much control over the serious lack of snow), we've done several of them.
One of the things Andrew wanted was to make chocolate pretzels--I was confused until I realized he meant he wanted to use our chocolate molds with the giant pretzels. I convinced him that this easier project would work just as well (melted chocolates drizzled back and forth over pretzel sticks). The pretty ones are mine and Evelyn's. The globby ones are the ones Andrew insisted on doing himself.
Oliver didn't make any, but he ate more than his fair share. (Sometimes I forget how easily he can reach stuff on the counter).
The kids reading. We showed Andrew and Evelyn the first Harry Potter movie this week. Evelyn is gamely trying to read book 1 (I think she's about a chapter in). So far this week, Andrew has read the first four books. He read the first three during the two days he was home sick, so I guess that's his silver lining! I was a little worried about book four being too dark for him, but while he said it was scarier than the others, he seemed to be okay with it. We'll see how he handles book five.
Monday, I made gingerbread for the first time--real gingerbread, that we rolled out and cut and cooked into walls for the houses. They smelled divine, but I'm not convinced it wouldn't have been easier (and ultimately cheaper) to buy the prepackaged kind. (Excuse Evelyn's hair--she was just out of the bathtub).
Oliver was in bed when we started, so he got to decorate his own "tent" house the next day. I think he was more interested in the candy.
One of the great things about being two is that no one has told you yet that there are "boy" things and "girl" things and everything is equally delightful. Oliver and Evelyn had a great time the other day running around the house in pink outfits and pink fairy wings.
Here's wishing our few faithful readers a very merry Christmas this week. My hope for you is the same as my hope for myself: to be more caught up in the reason for the celebration than in the accumulation of things.
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