No Pants

Today was supposed to be no pants day. I was going to have Alex in no pants, no pull-ups, hoping he'd get the connection between the urge to go and using the potty instead of his pull-up. Well Ken stayed home sick. he got the same cold I hd last week and of course because he's male it's ten times worse than what I had. (yeah sure, you get to be lazy and sleep half the day when you're sick I don't)I had planned it for a Tuesday because that is the one day all week we're usually not doing anything. No school, no work, no playgroup, so I hole up in the house and spend the morning in my PJs, cleaning house, until the kids take their afternoon name then I go shower and get dressed.
Now I have to put this off until we get back from my Dad's house. We're going down there next week, a week earlier than planned, because Ken has a trip to SC the following week. This whole month is going to suck. Ken has travel every week, even though he's home weekends. It means I get no break from the kids Monday-Thursday one week Friday. He did promise to take me out to dinner, sans kids, for my birthday the last weekend in March. I'm just glad I'll be at my dad's while he's working next week. He'll be in TN about an hour and a half from my dad's in GA. He'll come back Thursday night and hang with us until we drive home. I hope I can get my dad to do a family portrait of us. I'm figuring we're not at home maybe, just maybe Alex will sit still for a few shots.I also want a casual portrait of just me and Ken. (another page idea, it's funny sometimes I get page ideas and have to go out and shoot photos for them instead of the usual making pages from existing photos)
I start a CS2 class online the 18th and have another more advanced one in May. The guy Ken will be doing weddings for this year is sending me his design software, so once I get used to that they'll start sending me design work. I'll try and get on again before we go and post photos for the last week or so. I've got a lot of pages too. I guess I've come out of my creative slump.

Chinese New Year

Gong Hay Fat Choy

I meant to come in and post that earlier. welcome to the Year of the Pig or Boar depending on which you prefer. We had our New Years Dinner a day late because I had to work Sunday night. Ken and I both agree it'll be a couple more years before he has this down pat and it's as tasty as his dad's. The chicken was good the si fun (cellophane noodles) stuck to the pan because he was chopping the chicken, they still tasted fine but they weren't super long like they're supposed to be. Not sure what the bean curd soup needed. Extra salt helped some but it was missing that something that gives it a bit more flavor.

me and the boys have colds. I've been miserable since Saturday. Alex picked it up Sunday and now Quin has it. Alex went to school yesterday, because when asked him he got all excited. So he's feeling well enough and he's eating and drinking fine, his nose is just running like a faucet. Today he's picked up a cough. I picked him up from school and we went to the grocery store, so his nap got put off even later than normal for a school day. He went down at 3:00 but I could hear him up there playing until 3:30. He woke up a little after 5 crying, snot dripping out of his nose. I helped him clean up and he lay right back down. I left his door open and told him when he was ready he could come down. I went up to check on him right before dinner and he was sleeping so hard he was snoring. I covered him again with his blankets and went down stairs. He didn't wake again until 1:30 so i got him into his pjs and got him some OJ and he went right back to bed. Well actually I could hear him in there singing at around 3 but then it was silent again. At 6 he wanted to get up and go down stairs. I was able to get another 45 minutes from him by convincing him to play in his room.

So today it's 45 out, which is normal for this time of year. What a relief maybe some of the ice will go away. Though it is a grey cloudy day, so we're all still in our PJs. I have some new photos up at smugmug if you feel like checking things out. As soon as I figure out how to get Hello to work with the updated blogger I may start posting pictures again.

someone needs attention

I think I figured out why I'm not posting much lately. It's really hard to type one handed. So I lurk. Quin has gotten to the age where he needs to be entertained. He does play by himself pretty well but those ten-fifteen minutes I tend to use for things like eating, light chores, showers. So even on the mornings Alex is in school it seems I can read but not post because as soon as I start to type someone starts fussing.

Valentines day wasn't bad even with all the ice and snow. I had gotten Ken's gift Monday. So we open cards and gifts after dinner then had the coldstone ice cream I picked up for dessert.

I hve figured out for every good day Alex has he'll have 2-3 bad days after that. We are trying something new. I have a job chart for him with 5 jobs, he gets a star for each one he does a day and when he gets 25 stars he'll get a prize. This first round it's DJ from[I] Cars[/I]. We started with Brushing Teeth, using the Potty, Clean up your Mess, No Whining and try new foods. He's not doing too bad most days he gets 2 or 3 stars. Tuesday was a bad day no stars at all. And DJ is sitting up on the top of the fridge as a reminder. Next round I think I'm going to change out Brushing Teeth, for Please and Thank you. I'm getting tired of the demands for things. Though lately just reminding him seems to work.

I uploaded some video at clipshack

http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=9C664BE230D14FE0

http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=CE53DCC4901154A7

http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=8E2D18033AE898A2