Earthquake!!!

We had a 5.8 magnitude earthquake here today! Well, the epicenter was about 85 miles southwest of here, in Virginia, but our buildings were shaking. It was the first day of school, first day teaching third grade, and we have an earthquake. The kids noticed it before I did, I figured it was just the building hvac system or a plane flying overhead. Then the whole room started shaking, walls and all, and I had the kids get under their desks. We went into the hallway a short time later and then evacuated the building.

The kids were at daycare, and they evacuated out to the car for a safe spot. They don't seem to have really noticed, except for being a bit more tired than usual since they were woken up in the middle of their naps.

Speaking of naps, Jack is screaming his head off in bed so I'm off...

Back to School!

Well, I started back to school today. It's deserving of a :) and a :(  Jack told me this morning not to go to work, he wanted me to do my work at home :( But it's an easy transition; Mimi is here to watch the kids today and tomorrow so they are happy being in their normal routine at home with mommy gone.

The past week has definitely been rough, with all the sickies going around. On top of the HFM and Annie's ear infection, all four of us have been battling a cold. Jack seems to have it the worst at the moment, but hopefully that will pass in the next couple of days.

Some funny Jackisms from this week:

• Mommy, I need my sunglasses to hide from the sun. I don't want the sun to see me!
• Aunt Faith, I need to go downstairs. I don't have time for this.

Jack also went through a few days where he apologized for *everything*. It was SO sad, but he seems to have gotten past that with a lot of positive reinforcement. He is, however, having some issues with his speech (it's regressed a bit, he's a bit harder to understand than he was) and his potty training (lots of pee accidents the past few days). I spoke with our school psychologist today about it since she asked how he was doing with Annabelle around and apparently it's a very normal phase for him to go through. That was a big relief to hear from a professional who's also a mom of small children.

Annabelle is still the same happy, smiling baby. She apparently had issues with her first bottle today (my fault, she hasn't taken one in 2 months), but did much better with her second one. She's trying to sit up from a reclining position, like when she's in her bouncy seat, and is almost sitting on her own (she can do it for a few seconds, but topples over ;). They both are still absolutely enthralled with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Channel. Jack also loves 'playing' the games on disney.com with one of us helping him! It's such a different time, computers didn't even really exist when I was his age!

 Poor babies...

 Eri's birthday/graduation toga party! Jack was still contagious, so he had to stay at home with Aunt Faith.

 Even Annie had a toga ;)

 Hanging under the pergola Seth built at Jackie's house.

Some recent photos

Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease :/

So Jack has HF&M, and it sucks. If nothing else, it's basically chicken pox that's concentrated on the hands, feet, mouth area (chin for Jack) and genitals. It's so sad to see him with all these blisters, but for the most part he's been a real trooper. The blisters bother him when he sees them, but they don't seem to itch and hopefully it won't last too long. He seems to have a pretty bad case though; if I didn't know better, I would think it was chicken pox.
And to up the ante a bit more, Annabelle has an ear infection and pink eye. So it's been a fun few days at our house! She also seems to have some kind of sinus infection but she's on antibiotics so hopefully that will clear up with the medicine. But eating for her hasn't been fun with the stuffy/runny nose and she was absolutely inconsolable with her ear before we started on the medicine. All I can say is - Poor Babies.

August

I know this post is a bit late, but we've had a busy week I guess! Honestly, I don't even remember what all we did, but I know I haven't had very much free time ;)

Friday evening we had dinner with Keith, Ramona, Faith, Brandon and Samuel. Jack didn't want to eat a thing, he was much more interested in playing with all the boys' toys. Saturday we spent with Dad and Roberta; Annabelle is quite the swimmer! And Sunday we headed over the bridge to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a visit.

The bad news today is that both kids have Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. It's just a virus, but both have fevers and Annabelle is really, really miserable. She has a runny nose and I think she's teething on top of the virus. Jack has little blisters on his chin, his hands, his feet and his privates but they don't seem to bother him at all. They bother me to look at though! So we're just taking it easy and trying to get through the sickness as best we can.

School starts for me next Tuesday, so one more week to spend with the kids. Hoping we can do some fun things this week when they're feeling better!

Annie is rolling over like crazy this week. She's smiling tons and 'talking' a lot too. She's gotten good control of her hands now and can pick things up and take them in and out of her mouth. She still loves her bath, and that's been a good way to calm her down when she's fussing w/her teething.

Jack cracks us up every day; he is so funny in his own way. He wants to know about everything and then brings up the information later when we've figured he'd forgotten about it. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is still tops in his book, although he's taken a liking to the Babar movie today :) His favorite thing to do though is sit and read books. He can 'read' "No David" aloud and loves to do that!

Well, sick babies need me. Will post pics later :)

August 1st, 2011

It's been a fun and crazy week! Last Monday, Annabelle, Jack and I drove up to Philadelphia to pick up Mimi so we could all spend a few days together at Avalon. The first night, Jack nor Annie slept much at all and I was questioning my sanity ;) But it got better after that!

We went to the beach one time; Jack wasn't into the beach this trip. We did spend quite a bit of time at the pool though. Both kids loved the water and were acting like "real" little swimmers. Jack enjoyed wearing an innertube and floating around by himself, while Annie didn't stop kicking and splashing in the water. Aunt Leah came down for a day and while she was there we went to the boardwalk at Ocean City, where Jack rode his first rides. We rode on the train once, and then Jack "drove" a vintage car around a track three times! We were riding with him, but he was definitely the one behind the wheel ;)

Then Jack, Annie and I took the ferry on the way home. Miss Annabelle only cried for about 20 minutes, making it probably her most successful trip to date! Nikki and her boys stopped for the night on their way home from Michigan. Wow, were Reading and Will big! Will loved holding Annabelle, while Reading and Jack played really well together. The hit of the visit was remote controlled cars; Will even gave his to Jack when they left. So we sent them a bit of a present in the mail ;) And not only did we have Nikki and the boys here, Uncle Brian decided to stay over for the night after some meetings in Baltimore.

Saturday was just as busy, with our company leaving and us attending our annual picnic with my girls up at Patapsco State Park in Baltimore County. Suffice it to say, yesterday we did absolutely nothing except hang out with the kids. Seth and I both even napped with them :)

Annabelle has been getting bigger every day, it seems. She started blowing bubbles and making raspberry/kissing noises. She gets an enormous smile whenever Jack is around, and tries to "get" him - kicking, grabbing and pulling his hair!

Jack is doing a magnificent job with potty training! He almost always goes to the potty now that we're sticking strictly to underwear. He likes to stand up on the potty to pee, and will stand on his head for an m&m reward ;) Today at school he wore the same pair of undies all day with no accidents! I am SO proud of him.

More next week! Be on the lookout for Annabelle's first tooth!