don't touch this man

and if you do, wash your hands and for the love of god do not follow him through a buffet line.

pink eye is pretty

Hanukkah, pretty darn fun so far

Harry and Jack playing with their night 1 super heroes-- a big hit, by the way

On Saturday, Harry was in full-on elf mode and whipped together this little play land for his super guys while I was in the shower. He had an excess of energy because my parents were on their way for a little Hanukkah visit.

He really wanted to wear these stockings as socks

My parents brought a few presents,

and there was much unwrapping


and merriment

Harry got this Playmobil vet clinic, and it is intense-- the vet tech had a lead apron to wear while x-raying animals. There are file folders for the teeny file cabinet and twee bottles of medicine for the little animals. Very detailed-- if you have a little kid into imagination play, I highly recommend it (but if that little kid has a small sibling, you may have to keep an eye on the itty bitty parts.).

At dinner, Harry had fun with my parents


and Jack was a nightmare. Every time we tried to put him in his chair he screamed. He screamed even when we didn't try that. He also bit a creamer and made it explode all over me and was only happy standing on the booth between me and Ben eating his food while waving and giggling and saying "hhhhhhhh" (hi" to the booth behind us.

Harry and Jack both love Jack's dragon castle

At breakfast today, Jack was way better behaved, mainly because I let him pick his own food at the buffet and gave him exactly what he picked out-- a waffle, a donut, and some Fruit Loops. Healthy.

These next two are just some hilariously bad pictures


After breakfast , we played a rousing game of Guess Who I am? which is super fun, as Jack and my mom can attest

You put these little cut out things around your face and the other players guess who you are-- Harry always runs to a mirror to check before he guesses.

3 and up, but the under 3's like it,

and so do the and ups.

After my parents went home, Ben and I braved the mall crowds ($5 rugby sweaters at Children's Place and 25% off the WHOLE STORE at Gymbo) and bought ourselves a Hanukkah present: a new point and shoot camera!
Here's a picture of my new ELPH taken with my old ELPH,

and here are its inaugural pictures:
Jack's silly face

Harry jumping on the bed


Scintillating stuff, no? Well get excited because I have 5 more mega pixels and even more zoom to capture these fascinating moments. Up next: trying to wrap up the semester on winter-break amounts of childcare and living to blog about it.

Happy Hanukkah

I was on campus until 11 last night (and actually, I had a lot of fun-- it was our department's annual persuasive speech contest, and ya'll know I like a good persuasive speech contest), and Ben and I stayed up until midnight wrapping Hanukkah presents. Then Jack woke up screaming at 1:11, at which time I discovered I was nauseous, had the chills, and had a blinding headache. I passed out on the couch watching Miss Congeniality around 2-ish; Ben (after being head butted in the templed repeatedly by a thrashing baby) and Jack fell asleep at 3, and Harry the Elf woke for the day at 5:50.

Good times.

Jack and I went back to the doctor's office (where Jack was still too sick for the H1N1 booster, which sucks) to discover 2 things 1. Jack has his first ear infection. 2. Jack f*cking hates amoxicillin. The next ten days are going to ROCK. (Jack woke up this morning clutching his ear and saying "ow ow ow ow ow.")

Ben and Harry were charged with the much funner task of HAVING LUNCH WITH SANTA!

Ben said when they went into the lunch room, the food was all spread out, and Santa was standing right in front of Harry. Harry said, "Oh look Dada! Cheetos!"

Harry insisted on wearing his Santa hat to school today, and I love that the only time he took it off was when he donned his antlers.

Snug in their beds

I know you're dying for an update. Here's how we wrapped up our SNOW DAY:

Played a little needy superhero

Ate some tacos

Gorged on these

Were riveted to the magic that is SNOW PLOW

Had a little bath time treat

Bathed the kids

Jack puked all over everywhere, and we put the kids in silly footie pajamas. Which Harry has already changed out of because his feet were too hot. And since Jack was asleep in his room, Harry had to change into the only available spare PJ's, size 24 month snowman jammies. HILARIOUS. I'll be sure to get his pic in the morning.

Sooooooo, we've played with lots o'toys. Now what?

I think it was the second trip outside that did him in

One second, he was sitting next to me on the couch talking about what songs he wanted on his holiday iTunes playlist. The next second, he was snoring.

Boredom, desperation, fever setting in

Jack actually does have a fever, and he may be joining Harry in ear infection land. He had a fever yesterday, so we made him a quick appointment at urgent care to get his ears checked because he has been dripping mucus from all facial orifices for at east 5 days, and you never know. On our way into the clinic, we bumped into our pediatrician's nurse, who had her arms full of boxes of pediatric H1N1 vaccine. Score! She commiserated with Jack and dashed behind the front counter to switch his appointment from urgent care to our regular doctor. So nice! Jack couldn't have his H1N1 booster because he had a fever, and the pediatrician examined his ears for quite some time before asking us to bring him back Friday for a re-check (and more H1N1 vaccine). He couldn't tell if Jack's left ear was red because Jack was screaming or red because it is just starting to get infected. He even took care of making our follow-up appointment himself, since the front desk had his schedule blocked off for Friday. Again, so nice!

But still. Not so nice that Jack is sick on our snow day. Between him not feeling well and Ben rushing to put together a snow day special for his company, I almost feel guilty lounging about. Almost.

A shameful picture on so many levels. The are in their jammies at noon. Most of their dishes are Munchkin Take and Toss that were never tossed. The rest are paper. No place mats. Lots of microwaved food. Ugh. Paper napkins. The horror.

Picture-worthy because the kid never eats fresh fruit. But today, he sucked up some watermelon spears and asked for mo.

Soon, we shall stop kicking our toys and get dressed