Come on Spring!!

It's almost here & I couldn't be happier. More people have been sicker this cold & flu season than ever before, at least around us. Fortunately Sean has stayed pretty healthy all season. Colds/ear infections & (2) rounds of the stomach flu have passed through our house & he's missed it all. Poor Evie though...she got hit the hardest with everything. On 02/11, Evie & I went to visit my friend Antonietta & her daughter Marianna. Evie was acting fine and then during lunch, she threw up. That was the kick off to one of the hardest weeks we've had as parents. She never threw up again after that day, but she had major stomach issues for a whole week. She didn't sleep at night, she screamed for hours at a time. It was awful. But, thankfully we're all healthy now and I hope it stays that way.

Sean's still doing great at school. All good reports, his bus has never moved off green, he's always greeted with "Sean's here!!" or "Hi Sean!!" when he sees his classmates. He tells me bible stories or sings me songs that he learns at school. His writing and word recognition is incredible for his age. He has a Veggie Tales cd in the car with a song on homophones. It fascinates him, so we've spent a lot of time coming up with other homophones. He says, "We is a homophone! Wii like my game & we like us!". How smart that he put that together. Speaking of Wii, we got one. Sean is so good at it. He's consistently around 150-160 every time he bowls, he usually beats me at tennis and he always wins at boxing. He told Grandpa Jim that he beats him at tennis because he's an old guy and doesn't move so fast. ;) Last weekend Puppa & Grandma came over to watch Sean play Wii & Sean beat Puppa too. Puppa's convinced that he just needs some more practice & then he'll beat Sean. Some people live in denial. ;) One day we were sitting at the table & Sean asked me if I could marry anybody other than daddy. I told him no, just daddy. He looked discouraged, so I asked him why. He said, "I just don't know who I'M going to marry." I tried to reassure him that he had plenty of time before he had to think about that, but he just said he really wanted to know who it would be. Lucky me - I was an option! :) Last Saturday Daddy & Sean went to the dinosaur exhibit at the Detroit Science Center. Sean's really laid it on thick lately by telling Daddy how he wishes every day was a "Daddy Day". Daddy Days are days where Daddy doesn't have to work, so he can just play with Sean all day. :) So, their trip to the science center was nice Daddy/Sean time. They had to wait in line for over an hour just to get it. Sean was a good boy & his favorite part was the electricity exhibit & an exhibit where he lifted 1000 lbs! Yesterday Sean & Grandma texted each other mysterious pictures & they had to guess what each picture was. I swear sometimes I think it would just be easier to get Sean a cell phone! He also texted her, "I knowed I'm the most guy you ever loved". :) Sean has a tough time with "down time". Yesterday we had a little talk about how lucky he is that he gets to do SO much. He needs to enjoy all the stuff he does and when he's home find a way to enjoy it. I also told him that there are lots of kids who don't have a Grandpa who takes them to Chuck E. Cheese all the time or a Grandma who plays with them or Grandparents who buy them prizes and let them have sleep overs. He needs to start appreciating how good he has it. He listened to my rant & then said, "Can we pray right now for all those kids?". He may act like a 4 year old sometimes and he may have bratty moments, but he's genuinely a good kid.

A guy at work asked me how many kids I have because it seems like I'm always talking about Sean. He's just at an age that produces more funny moments or interesting stories. I'm sure once Evie's able to talk, I won't be able to shut up about her. I already think I'm obnoxious because of how much I brag on my kids. They're awesome! Evie's communicating more & more every day. I love watching the way she reacts to things now. She absolutely LOVES Sean. She looks for him, wants to do everything he's doing, smiles at him for no reason, laughs at him, etc. I know she loves me (and Daddy, sometimes ;), but Sean is her favorite person. We went to her 9 month check up on Tuesday. The nurse had to poke her toe to do an iron test. She didn't even flinch at the poke, but the band-aid they used after, really bothered her. She kept picking at it, like "get this off my toe!". ;) She's 21.2 lbs & 29", in the 90th+ percentile for height, weight and of course head circumfrence! I say she looks like Lil from Rugrats. ;) She continues to pull herself up to a stand and is standing more on her own, but only for a couple seconds. She makes noises, expecting you to make the same noise back, then she'll make the noise again. Fun game in her book. She still loves Super Why & Billy Joel. She has ALWAYS loved being outside, so I can't wait for nicer, dryer weather. She just started feeding herself, but makes a big mess because she can't "pinch" food yet, but rather, she gets a fist full & shoves it in her mouth. We have one of the family pictures we had done last October sitting on our end table in the living room. Evie likes to pull herself up on the table and wave to the picture. We say, "Hi Grandma, hi Puppa, hi Aunt Mary, hi Uncle Mike, hi Mumma!". She thinks it's fun. She still growls after each bite of food & makes the snorty face a lot too. Quite a personality developing. We're going next week for her 9 month pictures.