Kick Me

Oh, my. What a start to the New Year. For the last 10 days I feel like I've had a sign that says, KICK ME on my back. Since Chris has been gone -- he left for a month to San Diego -- it's been one thing after another, it seems. Though we had an extraordinarily good time with Mike and Mattie, who came to visit for a week in the beginning of the month, their departure left me with a deep sense of loneliness and separation from my loved ones. They were gone, Chris was gone, and there was just US, and not a whole lot on the calendar to do. (So the post-holiday winter doldrums aren't limited to cold-weather climes, I figure.) Well, I shouldn't have worried about what to do, because we had a new visitor, albeit an uninvited one: a stomach virus came to play with the boys and I. Poor Jake had it worst of all, and Evan is still suffering from stomach upset. It left me fatigued and despairing...feeling like a prisoner in the house and not even meal times to look forward to! Prior to that I got my first bee sting on the patio, luckily no allergic reaction and thank God it wasn't Evan. Now we have a mandatory SHOE rule in the backyard; lots of flowering shrubs attract any number of buzzing "friends" to our yard. On a lighter note, yesterday was Jake's first Science Fair at school. He took me to his classroom where we observed the experiment they had performed: how celery and daisies absorb food coloring. He explained it very well and took me around proudly to each of the displays. In the cafeteria we looked at the older kids' projects and Jake was very interested in what each experiment tried to show, and wanted to know what each had proven. He seems to be really enjoying Fun Season soccer (1 practice, 1 game per week) and I'm considering getting him a once a week swim lesson as well. Evan and I have just discovered Playmorning, a mom and tot program run three times a week by the YMCA on base where we can go play with new toys and meet other little ones his age. I was reinvigorated last night by a much anticipated Girls Night--pedicures and Thai food with two other moms--and feel ready to take on the world once again.