Friday, yay!

I have been sick all week--Sunday started with a moderate-to-severe sinus headache and Monday it became a full-blown, throbbing ear ache. On Tuesday morning, my left ear was swollen shut, so I saw my doc at 9am and got antibiotics and supplements to kill the infections and stop the general inflammation (fish oil DHA is supposed to help with that)(the diagnosis was double ear infections, with an abscess in the left ear that was infecting surrounding tissue in neck and jaw). The pain was as bad as labor, except maybe worse because it was steady, w/o the rhythmic cessations and definite end (and great reward) of labor. I have never been in that kind of pain. I finally got some pain meds from the doc and had a good night's sleep Wednesday, so Thursday there was marked improvement. I even went to PTO mtg and served as secretary for the first time. Today I still can't hear clearly but there is less swelling. The pain seems pretty bad, but that's prolly because I was trying not to take anymore vicodin. But I am going to, and I am taking a nap with James shortly.


My girls are auditoning for the Firehouse 5 Playhouse production of Alice in Wonderland today--they've been having theatre workshops all week and are very excited. If you would like to come see the shows, they are next Friday, 2/12 at 7pm, Saturday 2/12 at 2 and 4pm and admission is $5, or $20 for a family. Proceeds go back to the PTO, which shelled out a couple thousand clams to give the kids this experience, so COME SEE THE SHOW!!! Anyway, I just wanted to remark again here how much I adore my children and how lucky I feel to be their mom. It has been a hard week, I have been pretty much bedridden, but they have been really good at taking care of me and entertaining themselves and doing their chores. I am thankful for that! One thing Addie has done to help is reading to James. Heidi has to go to sleep around 7:30pm, but James often has had a nap and Addie's bedtime is now 8pm. So Rich will go tuck Heidi in (reading and a "10-minute-lay-by") and Addie has started taking James to his bed and reading to him for a half hour or so. Then she goes up to her room and James just reads himself to sleep. How cute is that? Here are some pix I snapped on Tuesday:

Awww...reminds me of THIS.
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Meanwhile, Heidi continues to amaze and impress with her artwork. This little marker-on-paper piece just cracked us up:

"Look at your little artist," it says. Indeed. How does she know that artists stereotypically wear berets and carry palletes? and look at that cute little paint brush in her hand. She just kills me.

She drew this pencil-on-paper piece on her lapdesk. Rich and I were cuddled up on the couch watching Harry Potter on 1/23, and she was facing us, "sketching" us on her lapdesk as we watched the movie. Quite a likeness. I was still wearing a striped stocking cap. Rich was thinking about something, she explained to us, but I can't remember what.

Melin Kids Rock.