Does Virtual Coffee Come in Decaf?

So, it’s almost 9:00 at night and I’m just now getting around to some virtual coffee. Do you want to know why? I’ll tell you why. Chocolate Covered Pretzels, that’s why. I made a bunch today. And I only ate one. So I’m feeling like I’m kind of awesome right now with the whole self-control thing, as long as we don’t discuss what I ate for dinner.

Anyway. Last week on Thursday I told Bubs I was going to take him out that afternoon and do his 8-year-old photo shoot. We had this big plan where Art was going to drop Bubs and me off early at the college where Bubs has piano lessons, and then I was going to walk around with the birthday boy and get lots of awesome pictures of him while Art took Stinky to get sealants on his molars. We were nearly ready to walk out the door when Bubs said, “Mom, I feel a little carsick.”

Behold the words of doom.

He had been saying all day that he wasn’t feeling great, so the nausea was the deciding factor in canceling his lesson for the day and taking him out in the backyard to get a few birthday pictures quickly and then tuck him back into his pj’s with some orange juice and a movie. Bless that boy’s heart. In the middle of our photo shoot he threw up. And he let me take a few more pictures after that even.

However, that was not the last time he threw up. I got him settled on the couch with a pillow and stuffed animal and trashcan, and he spent the entire evening in nauseated misery. And then, just as Stinky was getting ready to give me a goodnight kiss, he threw up, all over my chair and the carpet and my snuggie.

During the night, Art and I both succumbed. Friday morning, Squeezy joined the ranks.

It was a truly lovely weekend around here. I feel kind of like I missed a week of my life. I keep thinking about last week, and I can’t figure out what happened to it. It was just this daze of vomit and carpet scrubbing and jello. And now it’s December 14th, eleven days before Christmas, and I’m totally unprepared, but all is well because, well– chocolate covered pretzels.

So, other than vomit, the only other thing that’s happened around here lately is that Bubba turned eight. EIGHT. That’s some crazy stuff right there, that is.

We had planned to celebrate his  birthday on Saturday, since it was on Sunday, but thanks to the whole only-popsicles-will-stay-down thing we decided to wait till Monday. So last night we celebrated, and it was a lot of fun. It’s fun to have a great kid to celebrate.

I asked what he wanted on his cake, and he said he wanted a sailboat, so I made him a sailboat cake. I found the instructions online here.

He was so excited when he saw it. I gotta say, it doesn’t look like much, but I am very proud of that cake. It’s one of my better ones.

So I have to tell you about this next picture.

Last week we had a bit of a crisis when we discovered some money we were expecting wasn’t going to be available to us till after Bubs’ birthday. This meant some budget shuffling, which left our Bubba Birthday Fund pretty slim. Then someone anonymously gave me an amazon.com gift card.

Which meant I was able to get him a Magic Science set.

Which he liked just a teeny little bit.

He got some other stuff too.

The boys are moving to a new bedroom soon, so Art’s sister sent the Earth poster to decorate it. And he got a journal, and some slippers that don’t fit, and some other little odds and ends.

But he hugged that Magic Science set. So whoever you are– thank you. Maybe this shows you a little bit how much you blessed my eight-year-old. And me. 🙂

If you came over for coffee today, Squeezy would probably be walking around with a washcloth on her head. It’s her new thing. After she eats I wash her face and she says “cloffee?” which means “washcloth?” so I give it to her, and then she puts it on her head and walks around the house. Which is weird, but cute. You’d also probably notice that she is learning so many new words and putting them in little sentences. I need to do a new post about it, but she’s learning them so fast that it’s getting harder to keep track. And she’s started adding an “ee” sound at the end of random words, like washcloth and sheep. CUTE!

Today she had the following conversation with herself:

“Cookie?”

“Wha-say?” (what do you say?)

“Da!” (please)

“Hot!”

Which was all kinds of awesome.

And Stinky lost the second of his two front teeth in his sleep the other night. So we’re working on the song, because he REALLY needs to sing it for my blog, don’t you think? We’ll see though. Unlike his brother, Stinky is a bit reticent about performing for others. Which is really too bad, because the kid is HILARIOUS.

Anyway, I’ll at least try to get some pictures of the Toothless Wonder here soon. Because he’s so cute.

Well, I know this is one of the most random posts ever. Just like a rambly conversation over a hot cup of coffee! I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m not around as much over the next couple weeks. It’s that time of year! 🙂

Before you leave, though, you’d better take some chocolate covered pretzels with you. Before I eat them all. Seriously.

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