In more pleasant news ...

Before the mono madness hit, we had a chance to get outside and enjoy the warming weather. Who knew Alex was a little daredevil ...

Mono?!

Clearly, Giardia for Alex and his parents wasn't enough for one term. Bill has mono, complete with some serious fatigue and a very persistent fever. Not what he/we needed. Someone apparently didn't get the memo. Isn't this the sort of thing that professors are supposed to cause undergraduates to develop due to finals week stress? Ah well. It's far better than the other possibilities that crossed my highly neurotic our minds.

A Few Pictures

All is well here. Three weeks left in the winter term ... not that we're counting! Things should settle down a bit after that. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the boys.

Keeping up ...

How can it possibly be 15 days since we last posted? It's a good thing our travelmates are so good at keeping up with their blogs; otherwise, there would be little hope for us in keeping up with this one. Social comparison is a powerful motivator!

All is well here. We took the boys to the Indianapolis children's museum which has a very cool new Lego exhibit complete with nifty dress-up gear. Owen was in heaven! He donned his sword and (pink!) shield to protect his kingdom, especially from (little-brother-sized) green dragons. After the duel, Alex decompressed with a little tea party care of the three bears.

We also got out to do a little bit of hiking in the near 80 degree weather last week. I will be so very happy when spring is here to stay.



Alex's language is really starting to take off. He can now say and/or sign up, down, banana, mama, dada, ge ge (mandarin for big brother), shoes, kitty, turtle, cheers!, bye bye, hat, ball, milk, juice, and night night. He still LOVES to eat (grilled cheese and tomato soup is YUMMY!)



and continues to be a pretty easy baby, though he does get a bit hyper when he's tired. :)

Muffins and Angel Hair

Alex and Ellen have been spending their mornings baking delicious treats lately.

Stirring is great fun.

Waiting is hard.

But,oh, so worth it.

And Owen has been quite the raconteur at dinner. Here's the tail end of an impromptu rendition of "Aiken Drum" (note Owen's name spelled in angel hair pasta on the table).

Time is flying ...

This semester has been flying by for us. I suppose that's a good thing, but, because we're still counting Alex's age in months, it seems like he's growing up incredibly fast. I wouldn't mind for time to stand just a bit more still. Barring that, we're doing our best to enjoy

sink play ...



drawing ...



cooking ....



matchbox ...



and hanging out with big brother Owen ...



who is becoming quite the Lego engineer ...

Happy Valentines Day!

In the spirit of the holiday, the siblings are getting along much better these days ...