Valentine's weekend update

We had worked out plans late last week to meet my parents' at their lake house in West Virginia for the weekend. But Jack came down with something on Thursday, which included a nasty cough (and drainage, which made him throw up) and a high-grade fever. We kept holding out hopes that he'd rally enough after a good nap on Friday to take off when Mike got home from work, but as soon as it looked like he was making a come-back, he pulled out a fever of 104.1. We stayed home.

Despite Jack feeling mostly better the next day and our disappointment over my parents playing Quiddler without us... AND getting 14.5 inches of snow over the course of time we were planning to be there (we got three), it was good we stayed put. I'm not sure we would have been able to make it out of there with all of the narrow, curving mountain roads. And we did end up having a nice, relaxing weekend at home, making more heart crayons, playing games and catching up on sleep-- and attending a funeral/helping with the luncheon afterward, but even that ended up being a nice diversion for me.

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

I had the privilege of attending Jack's preschool Valentine's Day party this morning (Mike watched the gals), since I helped to plan one of the games. I loved seeing him in this setting, interacting with his friends, whose names I finally learned today when they were at my memory game "station." They were all so sweet, and so.well.behaved. But I felt a bit out of place there, as the mother who didn't spend my entire Sunday browsing Pinterest and then jaunting to Walmart to get supplies for crafts and the goodie bags I was going to send in with my child (three of the other moms saw each other there- no joke). Not there's there's anything wrong with that. I just felt a bit overwhelmed. I'm always taken aback by the sheer amount (time and money) that other parents spend and send in with their children, but I refuse to get sucked into that. I felt a little bad that Jack was the only child who handed out Valentine's cards. Just Valentine's cards. But after all of the (20!) kids had distributed their bags of candy, homemade cake-pops, and heart-shaped erasers and bells and whistles, I glanced around their circle, and do you know what was fascinating a good majority of them? Jack's lenticular dinosaur cards. And the teddy bears holding roses, but we couldn't really compete with those.

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

Abigail... plotting ways to confiscate that bear

Abigail asked me to take some pictures of them in their new-to-us "spring" jackets. While at the park a couple of weeks ago during our warmish days, I noticed Abigail, looking a bit like Tommy Boy in her size 2 jacket, a gift from her friend, Daphne, that she loved so much (it was pink with white polka dots). And Jack's lighter jacket was a snug size 3. So I let them each pick one from a few I'd bookmarked on eBay (both are sized 5-6, but I like getting them a bit large).

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

I'm so glad Abigail still occasionally breaks out her wooden peg doll family (a Christmas present from last year). All three kids had a blast with them this morning. And Jack screamed when I mentioned that maybe I could make him a set of peg dolls with a knight and dragon. He began listing off the features I need to include.

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

While Jack is pretty much fully recovered, both girls had bad coughs and fevers of more than 100.5 this morning. However, they seemed playful enough and in fairly good spirits, so we're hoping these are just short-lived little spells.

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

(notice that she got the bear... she pushed it, her "baby brother," around in her stroller for quite a while)

From 02/13/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

One last feat from this weekend: I'm back into the double digit miles in my training for the first time since my half marathon last year (10.25 miles on Sunday). It felt good, and other than my knees bothering me a bit in the last couple of miles, I felt as if I could just keep on trekkin'. The longer distances in training seem a lot more doable this time around. Perhaps because this time I don't have any kids under one? I'm not nursing? That was a biggie. I feel like Mike and I both have a better handle on watching all of them now, even though we've added one more since I was training for the Frederick Marathon. Plus, I switched out my tunes before my run yesterday, which made all the difference in the world.
some tracks from my run yesterday:

Boys Don't Cry-- The Cure
Pilgrimage-- REM
The Stars of Track and Field-- Belle and Sebastian
You Can't Break a Broken Heart-- the 6ths
Anonanimal-- Andrew Bird
Sante Fe-- Beirut
True Faith-- New Order
Forever Young- Alphaville
One Big Holiday-- My Morning Jacket
Walk Unaraid- REM
Lips Like Sugar-- Echo & the Bunnymen
Vaporize-- Broken Bells
Paradise-- Coldplay (I'm a sucker for synth)

...makes me want to hop on the 'mill right now!