A Package from Grandma

These were waiting for the boys in a package from Grandma that arrived on our doorstep this afternoon via UPS. They loved all of their little treats (and Caroline loved her ruffled jeans and her new finger puppet book!). Caroline even got in on the glasses action, although she got so excited about them that she wouldn't sit still for the picture. But also, I had to include this video of Ben riding his little bike down the sidewalk - he gets going and I think the adrenaline starts pumping, and he just tunes us out. This video shows a "legal" version of that, whereas earlier this week, he proceeded to go down the driveway, INTO the street, and down the middle of the street, while Scott ran after him, chasing the Big Wheel and Ben while in flipflops. Needless to say, Ben spent some time in his room after that little escapade.

Crazy Halloween glasses from Grandma in the mail

Caroline wanted to try them on for size!

Catching a Break, I mean, Breath

Well, we've had an eventful month! Well, actually a couple of months........the car was totaled at the beginning of August. We had a bout of lice on the two boys and Scott that resulted in a lot of work cleaning and combing, and treatments for the whole family. Four of the five of us just spent the last week with swine flu. Ben has bronchitis as a result of the flu. And now, Ben has lice again. At first, I thought, "Why can't we catch a break?". But that's not a very healthy attitude, nor is it really true. It may seem, at first, like we've been handed a string of nasty blows, but really, in the grand scheme of things, these events are little, and we have emerged from them virtually unscathed. I've been reading a lot of other families' blogs over the last several months, and am convinced that we have been blessed with, frankly, more than we deserve. Yes, we had a car accident that resulted in the temporary loss of a vehicle, but we survived an accident where we were hit by someone going 60mph, and we walked away with nary a bruise or scrape. How miraculous! Yes, we faced (and are facing!) head lice, and that is disgusting and frustrating and somewhat embarrassing, but it's a small little blip on the health radar, and could have been something much bigger and scarier for my kids. Same goes for swine flu. Despite its big, bad name, and the hysteria that has surrounded it for months, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Jake had pneumonia at 18 mos. that was much scarier. Ben had croup where we felt like he couldn't breathe - that was scary. The swine flu was inconvenient, at times uncomfortable for those of us with high fevers and bad coughs, but it has passed fairly quickly and without any residual damage. Families all over are going through and have gone through things that have altered the composition of their families, and are scarring, and have lasting emotional and mental impact. Swine flu, schwine flu, I say, compared to the alternatives. Thank God that he gave us a car wreck, lice, and swine flu. I'll take that anyday over the other things that are lurking out there. I've decided that it is selfish and in extremely poor taste to lament about how "bad" our luck has been lately. The opposite is quite true. These babies live in a blessed house!