Hard to believe my little E turned 4 this month. He had a wonderful birthday party at a local kids gym, the same place where W had his party last year. The kids got to jump on the trampoline into the foam pits, walk the balance beam, climb the net cage, climb the rock wall, practice tumbling on the pommel horse, and have a blast. E's favorite -- racing W in the toy race cars! Since W's birthday party in January, E has been insistent that the ONLY thing he wants for this birthday is a NASCAR cake and Matt Kenseth car. Well, he got both, so he was tickled.
Lil E will be 8 months this week. She is so happy and easy-going, she makes me think I could maybe do it again. Maybe. She smiles all the time, her first word of course is "Dada," and when she giggles out loud, it is the most glorious sound ever heard. She is trying real hard to crawl, but isn't quite there yet. Her favorite thing in the world is her big brother. Halle comes second, and she LOVES to give Halle the "business." She chatters and yells and squeals at Halle. Halle looks up at me with her caramel-colored eyes as if to say, "Why did you have to ruin my life?"
We've had a lot of sickness this winter. E has had strep throat 5 times. Li'l E has had ear infections twice. The kids have missed four of the past six weeks of daycare, requiring lots of missed work and help from Granny. For that reason, we decided to pull Granny out of retirement. In April she will become Granny Nanny. Hopefully it will become a fun part-time job for her and keep the kids healthy. She will have them both all summer, then E will start pre-school at a nearby church in the fall. We are so lucky to have Grandma close by and so interested in her grandbabies.
Work wise, it's my favorite time of year. March Madness. But that also means an end to my favorite programming to caption -- basketball. The summer should slow down a bit without all the college sports and coaches shows. But with tornado season knocking at our door, and people scheduling summer vacations, that will keep my work schedule full. Speaking of vacations, I am looking forward to visiting Sarah's new home in Chicago in a couple weeks. Hoping she will show me around town and not tire me out with all the "going" we have planned. Larry and I are REALLY looking forward to a 7-day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands in May. We are going with two other couples. We all got together recently and planned our excursions, which heightened our excitement level immensely. I am nervous about leaving the kids for so long, but Granny will take good care of them.
This recent warm weather has given me a bad case of SPRING FEVER! The trees are budding, day lilies are coming out of the ground, and it's early March! Today it's cold again, so I'm sure all that stuff will get "bit." Darn! Hope the plants can withstand this crazy Midwest weather. I'm having a hard time adjusting to daylight saving time. The kids adjusted pretty well, thank goodness. But I can't get myself wound down at night to sleep. It sure is nice to have the daylight later into the evenings.
Happy Spring!
