Blogging mojo lost.

Hello!?? Is this thing on? So, the blog posting has been a bit sporadic of late. I have major writers block. I can't think of anything interesting or humorous to write, so you're getting another bulleted list. Is anyone even still checking this thing?

Here's the haps as of late...

Sick, sick, sick. AGAIN. I had a terrible cold/flu bug that just would not end. Poor Hadley had pneumonia that took antibiotics to kick. Dayven had another man cold. Wyatt had a horrible ear infection with drainage and actual blood coming from his ear. Antibiotics and drops got it under control and we were relieved the tubes are still in place. When we went back a week later for a follow up, the ENT saw some dried stuff lodged in the tube and informed me he'd need to vaccuum it out. Wyatt panicked when he heard that idea. It took 3 nurses to hold him down as you might imagine. All the commotion scared Tate and he started crying. Another nurse had to hold him so I could help with Wyatt. I was sweating by the time we left. Once we I gathered our belongings, wrangled the crew to the car and buckled everyone in, I stopped to catch my breath and Hadley said "Well... that was a train wreck" in the most deadpan voice a three year old can muster. It took me over an hour and a half to drive home through a snow storm on the interstate, with three hungry crying/whining kids in back. Train wreck indeed.

Guess who's still crawling around here like a slug. He's apparently boycotting walking. He stands on his own, even holds objects over his head (our favorite is his "strong man" impression where he lifts Dayven's giant protein shake container over his head and shakes it. Rooaaarrrr!) and has even shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He walks along holding onto furniture and walls and remains standing when he lets go, but as soon as it's time to move, he plops down and crawls. Dayven calls him a chicken lizard, but I'm glad he's cautious. He'll walk behind anything he push - laundry basket, his high chair, oatmeal container... We often see phantom barstools just moving around the kitchen. It won't be long I'm sure. He's also sprouting another tooth or two. We can see them just below the surface. Hadley said "The teef just keep falling out of Wy's mouf and then they pop up in Tate's!" Clever girl.

Wyatt's doing great. School seems to be going well. His reading is really coming along. Still a bit choppy, but he'll get there. He recently told me "school is boring" and he's been grumbling about going lately. He had his 100th day of school and the kids were required to wear 100 of something. He counted and hand strung 100 beads on a necklace without almost zero complaining. For a kid who struggles with fine motor activities like he does, this was a huge accomplishment. I was so proud of him!

Thanks to Dora, Hadley is obsessed with speaking Spanish. She likes watching cartoons on the Spanish channel and she's constantly babbling on in her pretend Spanish (that sounds oddly real) and then translating for us, "That was Spanish for 'I want cereal for breakfast'". The other day she asked me to get the instruments out so we could start a band.  Against my better judgement, I agreed. We're called the "Ocho con Pesos" which loosely translates to the eight with weight. I attempted to play my harmonica from the comfort of the couch, but she said "No mommy, it's a marching band, you have to march." We paraded around the house single file with our slug bringing up the rear. Good thing he's fast.

She's been begging to have a playdate with her little girlfriends from school. Since I don't know any of the moms and they're at the age where the moms come along, I organized a little outing at Liliput Play Center, a little pretend village made up of play houses, an ice cream parlor, post office and fire station. It's so darn cute and the kids love it. The girls had a ball and we all exchanged info so we can keep the playdates going.

We've had a pretty mild winter but our standards, but the Pittsburghers are complaining about how much worse it is than last year. We get snow about once a week and it's melts within a couple of days. It comes fast and furious though, big heavy flakes. Hadley can't wait to get out and shovel with Dayven. She's Canadian, what can she say? Wyatt's a southern boy at heart and avoids the snow and cold at all costs. When he gets out of school, the teacher practically has to push him out the door if it's snowing. This baffles them and they always say "He lived in Canada for 5 years!? We don't get it!"

We're still plowing through the house stuff and making some great headway. I'm not good about just letting the house decor evolve. I can't stand white walls and I want it done. We've been painting up a storm and I'm happy to say, we've only got a couple of rooms left to go! I've been pouring over design blogs, testing paint colors and making countless trips to Homegoods and TJ Maxx looking for just the right accent pieces. The tile backsplash is going up in the kitchen soon and then we'll be done for a bit. Pictures to follow. We had a radon test done and it came back elevated at level 5. It's recommended to correct anything above 4 so we put a radon fan in. It's quiet as a mouse and brought the levels back down to 2 so it's all good. Now that the snow has melted, we can see the all the bare patches in the yard. We could probably hold a pretty good mud wrestling match this spring. We've got some major work to do outside once things warm up.

It's feeling a bit more like home around here and I'm starting to make some friends too. I've always said it's a bit like dating. You have to kind of put yourself out there, go through all the getting to know you small talk, endure some potentially awkward silences and figure out who you click with. It's hard work, but friends are essential for survival, so I'll press on. I'm finding people really friendly here. I asked a new friend to meet for coffee this week and we had a great time getting to know each other better.  I packed up a bag of toys for Tate and he happily played on the floor while we sipped and chatted away. An hour and a half just flew by! I also organized a dinner for the fellow "Cat wives". There are only 5 of us in this area of Pittsburgh, but we had a great time and vowed to make it a monthly event.

Nana is coming this weekend for a visit. Yeah! We are all very excited to see her, even if she does have a horrible cold and we try to avoid those people like the plague. Surely we've built up an immunity to most things by now?

I'm going to attempt to get this blog back on track. I've got a few ideas bubbling up from somewhere down deep. Bear with me. More to come...