Brian has been gone for almost 2 weeks and has 2 more to go. (He is home for one day in between, which I worry may be hard on the kids to have him leave again so quickly, but I will be glad to see him even briefly.) I have been not looking forward to this time away for a LONG time. The kids have been on a whole, pretty great. We started a fuzzy system to reward good behavior and it has gone very well. Colin was excited because his church group is also collecting fuzzies and Jane, although she maybe a little young for it, has gotten very excited. Colin was funny this morning. He was cleaning up some toys for fuzzies and he later told me "I thought the clean up was just going to be annoying but it was not so bad!"

I was planning on keeping the fuzzies only for positive things, but Colin brought up that if they do bad things, they could lose fuzzies.

Today since their jars were filled, they got to go pick out a couple of things at the Dollar Store. Colin knows the Dollar Store does not have quality products but he still loves it, even when new $1 toys break the same day. After we got home from the Dollar Store, most of the afternoon was spent fighting over each other's toys. If there had been fuzzies in their jars, both kids would have lost some.

Colin chose this little lantern that he loves. He has already fixed it a couple times but thankfully, it does still light up, for now.

We are watching for the new tooth but nothing yet, and nothing else seems to be wiggly.

Jane chose a hula hoop and some necklaces. The hula hoop has already broken in one place, and has been banished to outside of the house. I wish I knew where my Mardi Gras necklaces were, the kids would LOVE them. I had a lot, and from the real Mardi Gras in a different lifetime.

Jane has 2 pairs of leg warmers and she wanted to wear both today. The pair under her trousers are hidden, but she also wanted a pair to be arm warmers. In Italy I would occasionally use the kids' leg warmers on my arms if I was cold, it was very nice.

A relatively normal smile from Colin. How strange.

And from a few days ago, Jane playing in one of the toy boxes. It was just kind of cute. To the left in the photo, our pink exercise mat is visible. Jane has been so funny because of course we are eating jelly beans these days and she likes to tell me what flavors the colors taste like. She says yellow tastes like lemonade, orange like an orange, and pink tastes like the pink exercise mat. She frequently does yoga with me and has a great downward facing dog. Maybe she does know what the mat tastes like.

For extra fun this week, the herniated disk in my back that has mostly left me alone for 18 months wanted to say "hello" a few days ago. I was laying down reading a story to my kids Monday night and I could barely get up. I was very concerned since Brian is gone and I knew most of the pharmaceutical remedies were not an option to me pregnant. Thankfully within a few days I was feeling nearly normal. My Midwife had me check in with a physical therapist to make sure I am doing everything possible to ensure this does not happen again. I really liked the therapist and I am doing all the right things (minus doing abdominal exercises on an exercise ball pregnant. I thought this was safe but she said it can encourage a separating of the abdominal muscles so no more). My Mom has been very great to pick up where I cannot (literally) but I hope things are really on the mend.

AND, when standing normally, my pregnant belly no longer lets me see my feet. It is getting serious.