4

Well, it happened. Elliot turned 4 on Friday. It's is always so surprising to remember the emotions and excitement of 4 years ago and realize that these past 4 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. We spent the day doing what Elliot loves best which means we went to the zoo! Normally we go just for an hour or so and see a couple of things, but this time I decided to follow the birthday boy's lead. We took the bus tour, we rode the Skyfari, we saw the polar bears and the giraffes and we had lunch while the peacocks roamed around the table. We spent most of the day there.....

Then we went home and made pizza and decorated the cake. it was a nice, quiet day all about Elliot with no big extravaganza party to plan. Nana spent the day with us, and Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner and cake. It was lovely! And Elliot was supremely proud to turn 4.

Then, on Saturday, we went to Medieval Times. Now, this is a little hard to picture if you haven't spent any time with Elliot lately... but he is obsessed with knights, castles, Robin Hood, jousting, and pretty much anything having to do with the Medieval era. It kind of started last fall when we spent time learning all about Robin Hood, and that naturally segued into getting book after book about medieval castles from the library, and then Elliot received a play castle and knights for Christmas and he's been obsessed ever since. So, naturally, we figured this would be the perfect way to spend his birthday. Boy, were we right. We ate like kings, watched impressive swordfighting and jousting, saw the Royal Falconer training his falcon and spent the evening being entertained medieval style. I'm pretty sure Elliot will remember this birthday forever....

We are so lucky to have this young Knight of the Realm in our family. We love you, Elliot!

Recovering

*WARNING* this post may be disgusting....

This has got to be the sickest winter yet. In December we all caught some creeping crud that took over a month to leave our chests, complete with racking rasping coughs and unending purchases of Kleenex. But we finally got over it.

Then last Friday Elliot started puking. By Sunday night I was hunched over the toilet bowl, and Owen was vomiting all over the living room. Later that night, Paul caught the thing (no surprise after caring for three sickies and cleaning up after us for hours). On Monday we were all wasted and spent the day in bed alternately sleeping and watching movies and trying to re-hydrate. You should have seen this sorry family.... We had pulled Owen's top bunk mattress onto the floor so he could easily get to the bathroom, so the boys' room had me and Elliot curled up in the bottom bunk, Owen curled up on the floor and Paul curled up on the couch while we all drifted in and out of sleep ALL DAY LONG.

Luckily, Paul was the last to get sick so he was still well enough to clean up some messes and managed to drag the run out to the backyard and hose it down. And, since Elliot was the canary in the coal mine of the whole affair I had stocked up on bananas, applesauce, crackers and electrolyte drinks before Sunday. But still. It was truly awful.

We are finally a little better. But I think I've learned a few things.

1. Never try to identify food that has been regurgitated.
2. Sometimes the area rug is not worth saving.
3. In the future, at the first sign of stomach flu, wrap everything in plastic and make the kids carry bowls with them EVERYWHERE.
4. Thank goodness for Netlfix streaming movies...
5. Especially when you're sick, cuddling with your kids makes everyone feel better.

Good lessons, but hopefully we don't have any more "teaching" moments like this any time soon.

Now, I think we'll try to get out of the house and enjoy the sun today.

All about shoes.

I'm not exactly sure how or when, but my little baby is growing up. After that last post, Grandma commented on how tall Elliot has grown and it made me look at him with new eyes. Suddenly, his pants were all too short and his shoes didn't fit. When did that happen? How can it be that I see him every day -- every minute of every day -- and I don't notice when he is literally bursting out of his clothes?

Elliot is turning 4 next week, and he has never had his own shoes. I had saved bins and bins of Owen's clothes and Elliot has been slowly making his way through all the hand me downs. But something else happened in the last year, too. Owen's hand me downs are no longer hospitable for other wearers. Suddenly when Owen grows out of his things, they are dilapidated and torn and stained beyond repair. And the shoes never last even for Owen to grow out of them it seems. So the hand me down supply is sadly dwindling. Today I pulled out the last clothing bin and found that Elliot totally and completely fits into all the pants. Yay! But the shoes were in a sorry state and I confess to being a little ashamed I didn't notice Elliot has been too big for those shoes for some time.

So, I took Elliot shoe shopping today. Just him and me. For the first time, Elliot got his foot measured and got to pick his very own brand new pair of shoes. I assure you that the very first pair he liked was the most splendid running shoe I have ever seen. He has yet to take them off, and may never (except for bath time). He loves them. I love them. THEY ARE SIZE 12!!!!!!!!

He literally bounced and ran all over the store in them, and now I fear that buying him good fitting running shoes is going to force me to run more too since he is MUCH faster now that his shoes fit.

If you don't believe me, come over and play with him for a day and see if you don't lose few pounds!