and so it goes

So the weekend was a bust. I've been sick since Thursday (although I didn't really feel sick until Saturday). My voice completely disappeared for nearly three days and it's finally starting to come back and it brought this nasty cough with it. Of course it goes without saying that all three kids are sick now. Let's hope the cough and all the sickness goes away before we leave for our trip on Friday morning.

One noteworthy thing that occurred this weekend was that Jason took Clara to see her very first play. It was a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof. I'm pretty sure she liked it. They left at intermission (she wasn't feeling very well and they had already been there for one and a half hours). The story probably was a bit old for her, but she knows the songs and music as we play the soundtrack at home. She said her favorite part was the curtains opening and closing (she liked to pretend her hands were the curtains). I would still very much like to take her to one of the Nutcracker ballets going on around here. Mental note... check the Events section of the paper to find out the where and when.

Jason spent most of Sunday pulling the vine roots (honeysuckle and another unknown species) out of our azalea bush in the front yard. That has been an ongoing project for him and it is wonderful to see it finished. I'm sure the azalea is much happier. I can't wait to see how much improved it is come spring.

A friend made me realize that I haven't really mentioned how Clara is doing since she started as a permanent 1st grader. So here is a brief update. She is loving it completely. Every day she confirms that we made the right choice by running out of the school smiling and so full of energy. Funny... all the teachers and parents who were trying to dissuade us from promoting her for whatever reasons have even conceded that this was definitely and obviously the right move. And as a 1st grader, Clara now has opportunities that weren't available to her as a kindergartner, i.e. an extra-curricular Spanish class. We enrolled her yesterday (Monday) and she started this morning. It's an hour long class in the morning directly before school one day each week for 20 weeks. The ONLY down side is trying to get the 3 kids ready and out of the house by 7:30am.

I took one of the side rails off of Lucas' bed today, not because he doesn't need it anymore (although that may be true), but because he broke it! He uses his bed rails as a ladder of sorts... climbing up and then propelling himself into the bed. If he manages to not fall out of bed for a few nights, I'll take the other rail down, too.

Eli is officially a toddler. Forget that crawling business. And he is fast on two feet! I'm still going back and forth about moving his crib in with Lucas... one of these days, I'll just do it and be done with it. The more I think on it, the more reasons/excuses I come up with to postpone it.

And finally... I found out today that a good friend of mine from the past is expecting her first baby. Congrats!! The back and forth emails brought back those feelings when I first found out that I was pregnant with Clara... all the excitement and expectations. It seems like so long ago now...