The past month has been a doozy around here. I've been sick for five weeks, no exaggeration. A cold I caught in Florida turned into a lung thing which turned into a sinus infection. Now, two antibiotics later I think I'm turning a corner. I hope. I have new empathy for my father-in-law who has chronic sinus problems. It's awful!
All my energy of late has gone into all of us reaching the end of the day alive, fed and clothed, preferably with the house not on fire. (These seem like lofty goals to me, too!)
But of course, the kids have been anything but static over the past month. Molly especially is changing rapidly. She learned a couple weeks ago how to roll from her back to her front, and she is excited with her new powers. In fact, when she first learned she lost all interest in nursing for several days. I think her thought process was something like this: "I'm so powerful! I can roll over! I no longer am subject to normal human conventions like eating!" She likes to be on her stomach now just because she can do it herself, and she just feels stronger to me. She no longer likes to be in a reclining position, and spends her time in a crunch trying to sit up straight. Her other major accomplishment is trying to grab hold of everything so that she can put it in her mouth. This is a delicate operation because she REALLY wants it in her mouth and if all doesn't go according to plan, I have a passionately frustrated little girl on my hands.
Tucker's favorite thing right now is playing a tackle game where he finds an unsuspecting parent to sit on the rug so he can run over and tackle us to the ground. The other day he had a stomach bug and the first thing he said in the morning when I walked into his room was "I don't want to play the tackle game" (not that there was any chance of me wanting to play the tackle game at 6:30 am with a sinus infection after spending the night cleaning up vomit....) It was like telling me in flashing neon lights "I feel sick, Mommy."
One of the other highlights from the last month was a concert that Tucker participated in at the Bible study we go to. It was ridiculously cute. Tucker did the University of Florida gator chomp throughout most of the songs, and was quite the little wiggly-dancing-singing enthusiast. He had a lot of the audience laughing out loud. It's funny; Tucker will be too shy to hold hands with the other leaders in our little prayer circle beforehand, but he can be the absolute center of attention on the stage and think that is the best thing since sliced bread.
Another milestone in my little boy's left happened yesterday: he climbed his first tree, much to the delight of our 86 year-old neighbor, Althea. He also filled out his first NCAA basketball bracket yesterday, with a little help. I told him yesterday morning we needed to fill it out ASAP if he wanted to be in our extended family pool. He promptly got down from the breakfast table and ran to get his football helmet, and to get me a ridiculous hat shaped like a birthday cake. Apparently, picking a tournament bracket is predicated on the proper headwear. Who did he pick to win it all? Notre Dame. Why? I told him their mascot was like a leprechaun. Other favorite teams were Michigan State because they wear green, Richmond because they are the spiders and Aunt Liz went there, and Washington because that's where Uncle Mike lives.
There is, of course, much more I could add, if I could think of it. It's even possible that one day all my brain cells will collect in one place and I'll start speaking in complete sentences again. :)
