August just had tubes put in his ears this morning.  He has had an ongoing infection and fluid in his right ear for over a month now so I was eager to have the procedure done and avoid an otherwise inevitable future of recurrent ear infections.  I had a lot of anxiety about how cranky he would be at night and this morning with not being able to eat after 2AM but he only woke up once, cried for a few minutes, and then went back to bed and, aside from a few irritable moments at the same day surgery clinic, was excellent.  I do feel like all of my kids perform when it really matters.  Often I worry a lot for nothing.  But if you are reading this, you probably already know me well enough to know that this overabundance of worry applies to all aspects of my life, not just kid-related issues :)

Yesterday Andrew texted me about it being 12/12/12.  He thought it was the last day on the Mayan calendar but I corrected him and let him know that it was actually on the 21st.  ANYWAYS, I told him that I didn't know why but I felt like we should kiss at 12:12:12 PM.  It just felt like the right thing to do.  He never texted me back but showed up at the house at around 12:05 while I was wrapping Christmas presents for the kids and went to the US time check website.  So I don't know what the rest of the world was doing at 12:12:12 on 12/12/12 but I was kissing Andrew Lamoureux.  And it felt like the right thing to be doing.

Andrew is at the allergist with Elek and B right now so that Elek can get prick tested on his back and I am dying to know how it's going.  It was very hard for me to give up the responsibility of taking him to the appointment but August really needed to sleep after getting his tubes.

I am getting really excited about our trip to Vermont which is coming up on Wednesday.  After seeing how smoothly this morning went with August, I am going to promise myself to try to not stress about getting the 3 kids loaded up and on our way to the Jacksonville by 4:50AM!

We've been spending a lot of time with Grace while she nannies two very sweet kids, Carrigan and Brogan.  I tell Grace that I feel like she is a mom and it's so cool getting to hang out with her while she is in the same role as me.  I sure hope that when she does have kids of her own that we will remain geographically close but something tells me there's a fat chance of that happening.  Especially because things seem to be going so well with Teddy who lives in San Jose, CA.

This past Sunday I broke my streak of running 4.5 miles every Sunday.  I was just too tired and did not have it in me.  In fact, I haven't exercised in about 2 weeks and have been eating a ton of sweets.  The sweet binges are nothing new but when I don't exercise they get harder to justify :(

Augie figured out how to play the music on his exersaucer yesterday by banging really hard on the over-sized piano keys!

Andrew asked Elek yesterday what -3 + 3 was and he answered "zero."  You can imagine Andrew's elation!  I was pretty proud too :)

B's birthday was on Monday and I was soooo excited about giving her the mac daddy of doll houses that I had ordered for her a couple weeks back.  I thought for sure it would be a total hit.  Man was I wrong.  She has hardly played with the thing and according to Robyn (and honorary mother, Grace) this phenomenon of mother's being very disappointed about their daughters' lack of interest in ornate doll houses is not completely uncommon.  Both Josie and Carrigan have hardly payed any attention to the houses that their mothers were so excited to gift them.  Hearing these stories made me feel a little better, especially when trying to explain to Andrew why the dollhouse that he had spend 3 hours assembling wasn't being used, but it would have been nice to know before dropping all of the moola we did on the thing.  Oh well, maybe my next daughter will like dollhouses ;)

The birthday festivities are finally over.  They started with a birthday lunch and cake at my mom's house, then Elek shared a little celebration in his class with his birthday twin and buddy, Emily Moseley (for which I made rice crispie cupcakes), then Elek, B, and Em had a party at the library (for which I baked 48 cupcakes from scratch....vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and vanilla and chocolate frosting), and then B had a little celebration in her class (for which I baked and decorated sugar cookies with lemon icing).  Needless to say, I am so over the baking right now.  Especially in mass.  Over it.  But man I could use another one of those sugar cookies right now....

Their library party went really well.  We played pass the parcel, musical chairs, and musical statues.  Most of the usuals showed up and Grace brought Carrigan and Brogan.

I spent 3 weeks without checking Facebook after reading this article (which a friend had posted on FB): http://www.theminimalistmom.com/2012/11/alone-together/.  I'm back to checking it now but have "unsubscirbed" to posts from anyone other than a few close friends.  Anyone who I am still in regular contact with or would feel comfortable calling up made the cut to remain on my newsfeed  but the rest I'd have to search for individually to check in on.  And let me tell you, it is liberating!  So much less time wasted on there and so much less worthless information in my brain!

Recalling this as best I can from 30 minutes ago:

I'm lying on the couch (my bed for the past couple months) and Elek and Beata have just dragged in (it's 7:15 AM) and are sitting in a sleepy daze beside me.  Then Elek says:

"I had a weird dream.  There was a strange dog and he was talking and he said 'belly welly' and he was standing on top of me and then he peed in my eye."

I cracked up laughing.  To which Elek responded, not in a PO'd tone but just very serious and almost in disbelief that I could be laughing, "it's not funny."