February, we hardly knew you

So here is blog catch-up number one. What did we do in February?

I finished the Christmas tree skirt! Velcro sewed, ready to be put in a bin for next year. Yippee! And now I can teach others the fine art of making your own tree skirt from red felt :) On to the real excitement...

J went to NY for a week over President's day weekend for a trade show. The highlight of the week was that I did not visit the pediatrician's office while he was gone. Nearly every time he travels for 5 or more days, or leaves the country, I visit the pediatrician. We've had double ear infections, wheezing (more than once) and various other maladies. But hurray! Instead we visited the doc at the end of January for G's sore neck (which was thankfully diagnosed as a ... sore neck) and in late February for S's allover rash (which was diagnosed as a rash, possibly from Fifth's disease, but well past the contagious stage, and minor.) Both children have fully recovered, and we were only out a few hundred dollars, since we were between insurances for G's sore neck.

Amazingly, way cheaper than our visit to the ER for S's tooth in November (for which the bill finally arrived) - it cost less than $20. Cheaper than the dentist! I think I'll go to the ER everytime! I just checked back in blog archives, and it appears that I left this notable event out. Can't imagine why. Here's the story. We were leaving the swimming pool after lessons at about 6pm. Since this is dinner time, and I'm trying to be a good mom, I hand each kid a bag of sliced peeled apples to eat in the car on the way home. Two minutes later, S hands me a chewed piece of apple (yes, while I'm driving) and tells me it made his tooth hurt. I discover that it is a piece of the core that I didn't cut out. Oops. Less than a minute later, he is screaming, so I pull over and turn around. His face is all bloody, his tooth is very wiggly, and I freak out - it looks like his tooth is broken. I called J to ask what to do, and he (calmly) suggests we can come home, or visit our local small town hospital ER. So I say the hospital and he meets us there.

By the time we get there, the screaming has ended, and the blood has subsided. By the time we finish the check-in paperwork, S is happily chewing gauze and watching television in the lobby. But since we were the only action at the ER, we couldn't really leave. After meeting 3 nurses and the doctor on duty, who correctly guessed that the tooth would come out cleanly and the white piece underneath is the adult tooth, we receive two new stuffed animals and are discharged. The tooth fell out that evening, followed 6 weeks later by the other front bottom tooth. I know this is all very exciting, and makes me look like a panicky mother. But really, would you expect your 4 1/2 year old to lose a tooth?

So back to February. And no dramatic illnesses while J traveled. We did do some fun projects. We hung hearts from our 2nd floor balcony to celebrate Valentine's Day.
S made himself a miner's helmet, by attaching a flashlight and his night vision light to a fire helmet. With scotch tape. It takes a lot of scotch tape to hold this together. By the way, what is it about preschoolers and tape? We only have tape in this house if I hide it. Any tape left in the drawer by the phone is used as soon as it is found.

And at the end of January, we made lily pads and a big art project in the front hall.

The kids helped me reorganize my car emergency kit. When I went to get some new supplies for the bin, they decided I needed more help:

At the end of February, I made a brief trip to Oklahoma for a family memorial service. It was just lovely, inspiring, uplifting, a great celebration of a life well-lived. My great aunt, who passed away in January, was a kind, gracious, thoughtful woman. She delighted in small joys, had a ready smile, and always shared words of encouragement and love. She is dearly missed by our extended family. I loved the words shared at her service - poetry, scripture, eulogy and many sweet memories! I feel inspired to be a better woman, friend, mother, wife, daughter, etc. I would love to have people remember me at the end of my life as she was remembered last weekend.

All in all a good month, certainly ending on a better note than it started.