Zach's Wellness Appointment

Today was Zach's wellness appointment. It went really well, and I liked the doctor we saw. She is a pediatrician at the clinic and I have heard good things about her.

We did discover that Zach has an ear infection. All things looked good in terms of his development. We discussed his ezcema and she gave me a plan of action for his next flare up along with prescriptions to use in that case. What I really appreciated was the email address she gave me and a message line that she checks daily.

As far as his stats...he weighed in at 27.4 pounds and was 34.5 inches tall with a 19 inch head circumference. I plugged those numbers into the babycenter.com growth calculator and it said he is at the 50th percentile for height, and between the 25th and 50th percentile in both weight and head circumference.

Two Years Ago Today...

Zach was born!

Happy Birthday Zach!

Zach's 2nd Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday, Zach!

We decided to keep things very low key again this year. After Zach's nap we brought him in to sing happy birthday to him, let him blow out the candles, eat cake (Zach didn't like his cake!) and open presents. He is currently enjoying all his presents, and I must say the balloons have been a big hit.

What's Going On...

Actually, quite a bit. Although probably not very exciting for others.

To begin with, Charlie and I made a very important decision this past weekend. One that we have been considering for some time. Since I am now working on my M.S. and he is completing his B.A. we decided it was time for a technological upgrade. The desktop was older than Clara Grace and the laptop came with its own issues. So, this Saturday we purchased an iMac. Yep, we made the switch from PC to iMac and are loving it. We are having to learn a lot as it operates a bit differently but it is awesome. We also purchased the Microsoft Office for Mac and it is soooo much cooler than the suite for PCs, plus the files work just fine when I send them to work. I talked to our ET at work and he sent me a bunch of documents/tutorials to help make the transition from PC to Mac easier. Charlie has already transferred all pictures from the Vaio to the iMac but I have yet to load pictures directly from the camera. All in all it has been a smooth move! The moues is incredible!

We decided to move the Sony Vaio into Clara Grace's room and purchased a cute little desk for her. Since it was the floor model we got a discount too. She is so happy to have it in there. She does not, nor will she, have an Internet connection back there but she can do word processing and play games. I spent quite a bit of time moving her room around and it looks like such a big girl room now. Not completely, but definitely different.

In addition, Clara Grace and I did a couple activities together. Our school puts on a Perry Idol show which is a school talent show. Most of the acts were high school students but one of my students (singing in a trio) auditioned and made the cut so she was in the show. I'll have to say that I was really impressed with the talent! I completely expected to feel sad for some of the kids, but they did great. They chose songs that truly showcased their talent and some of them sang and played an instrument. I enjoyed myself and Clara Grace had a blast. We ended up sitting with a little girl in her class and her family. Tonight we went over to the school in pajamas for a story night followed by milk and cookies. It was enjoyable. Since I had a hair appointment that lasted just under three hours we didn't make it to the first session but we enjoyed the second one. One of the stories read was I'll Love You Forever and I had to really fight to keep those tears at bay. If you've never read it, go for it, but have some kleenex handy.

Not much else happened other than typical weekend stuff. We did donate a bunch of stuff for the earthquake/tsunami relief. I am amazed at how much is being done by our small base. Shelters are being erected for those that need it.

Also, if you ever see colored bubbles by Crayola and are inspired to purchase...don't. I bought a bottle for each of the kids. We went out to the playground and started to blow them. Within seconds Clara Grace looked like she had murdered something that bled green blood. Splatters were everywhere...face, dress, etc. Even I was splattered in blue from Zach's bottle. Inside we went, clothes in the washing machine. In Crayola's defense, it did come out.

My class is going really well, other than the fact that my books haven't arrived yet. They have sent three shipments of books with the first one sent February 2nd. Charlie ordered his books. They shipped March 10th and arrived today. Hopefully my books arrive very soon. I am now in week 4 and the class is only 8 weeks long. Luckily there are lots of online resources loaded into the site plus an extensive online library so that I have been able to meet expectations for assignments.

Spring Break is in a couple weeks and I am very excited. Charlie will be doing a bike rally which the kids and I will probably visit but he'll be staying overnight. It is a very different culture over here and family friendly. I am hoping to get some school and work stuff completed, plus perhaps some fun day trips. We have talked about camping but we will see.

Brief Update

Let's see. A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. To begin with, there was the earthquake and tsunami. We've recieved lots of inquiries as to how we are doing. We are doing well. We live a bit south of all the damage. Everyone here is remaining calm and springing to action where possible. Information is being passed along quickly and a town hall meeting was held last night. Lots of plans are being made and people are working on relief efforts.

In addition to that, Zach had pink eye. That was my first experience with it. His eye looked awful when he woke up Monday morning. This past week was standardized testing so Charlie and I worked a compromise where he stayed with Zach in the morning so I could administer the test then I took a half day for the afternoon. We only had to do that two days and he was good to go back to daycare. I have just had to go over on my lunch to administer the antibiotic ointment.

Clara Grace lost her third tooth tonight. It has been loose for a while. I was messing with her tonight and she was eating apple slices when it nearly came out. She got a little concerned and wouldn't let me touch it. I then noticed that she could press her tongue against it and it was completely horizontal, nearly sticking out past her lip. I found that hysterical and wanted to take a picture to show just how loose it was. I got in position to take the sillouette shot when she pressed her tongue against the back of the tooth...and the tooth came off on her tongue! She sort of went spastic at that moment and the tooth shot out on the floor...too bad I missed the picture. She is now in bed with the tooth sealed in an envelope ready for the tooth fairy. Our tooth fairy brings books and I have a hunch she'll deliver a Big Apple Barn book called A Sassy Surprise. The irony is that she has lost two of her three teeth on a Friday that we ordered pizza.

Oh, if you would like to chuckle at my lack of grace, I have a tale for you. I was sorting through mail and dropped a paper on the floor. I bent down to pick it up and completely misjudged the distance between me and the table. I nailed my nose on the way down and was at first concerned I might have broken it but quickly ruled that possibility out, but there was blood and it continues to be tender.

It is late and I'm at a loss for any other interesting tidbits to share right now. As I have concrete information to report on what is happening here, I'll share it.

Read Across America Week

This past week our school celebrated Read Across America week in honor of Dr. Seuss. It was a fun week and the kids dressed a certain way each day. I didn't catch pictures of Clara Grace on tacky clothes day or crazy hat day and we just didn't make the cut on crazy socks day. She definitely dressed tacky though and on crazy hat day she wore her Bello hat from the circus a couple years ago. That being said, I did snap a couple pictures of her on crazy hair day. I'm rather challenged in the hair department, but I think it turned out rather well and she got quite a few comments. It is hard to tell in the picture, but we made a loop out of her braid on top and then she had two braids on the side and one coming down her back. What a lazy expression she is wearing on her face!

Students dressed as their favorite storybook character on Friday and then the whole school went on a storybook parade off school campus for a short trip around the food court and back. I'm sure traffic enjoyed the view as they had to wait for us all to cross the road several times on our trip.

Anyway, we threw together a costume at the last minute and I think it actually looked better in person than how the pictures show. It was a pretty chilly day so we had to make sure she was warm enough. We started with tights, cut up a green shirt of mine that I had no intention of ever wearing again (nor would anyone else want to) and put it over her glitterly thermal shirt. She REALLY didn't want to wear any pants but we insisted. She had those green pants from last spring and it worked fine but she did have some people guess she was Peter Pan instead of Tink. I managed to put her hair in a bun and threw in a glittery green pipe cleaner for some glitz around the bun. You cannot see it, but we also applied clear body glitter to eyelids and a couple of green stickers beside her eyes. She loved it and was strutted around all day. One day she'll look back on these pictures and realize just how challenged I am in these areas! Next year I will have to start on the costume a bit earlier.