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Monday was the boys last day of their Winter Holiday Christmas break. I had planned on just letting the boys chill out and play with whatever toy they desired. Didn’t happen. Sunday night as I hugged the Z Man before bed he “ouched” at a bump on his chin that hurt to touch. It was kind of odd and other than touching it, it didn’t hurt him or bother him in any way. I knew though that if it was there in the morning we were in for a day at the doctor. And it still was, it was in fact a bit puffier. So at 8am straight up I was calling the pediatrician’s office, closed, ugh. Called the clinic – you can bring him in as a walk-in, crud. The rules at the clinic are first come, first serve. Even if you show up at 9am you may get in to see a doctor nurse or physicians assistant by 5pm. So I skipped my shower, got myself dressed and then got the boys dressed and rushed them out the door. We arrived at 8:30am and after some issues with his insurance they called Z back, he actually went to get his vitals done by himself. The boy weighs a whopping 64lbs already. Such a big guy. No fever, no red throat, no pains. Moved to the smaller waiting room where they at least had a TV the boys could watch some cartoons on. The little Leapster that Grandma got them really saved me that morning from having to try to find ways to entertain them. The nurse practitioner walks in and looks him over and we get the “hmmmm” he has one icky ear but that’s not causing the swollen nodes but we’ll clean it out anyway. Let me tell you what came out of his little ear was GROSS!! He can hear much better now though. The nurse lady brings in the physicians assistant and he kind of shrugs his shoulders and says that he would do the same thing. So she comes back and says well I think it may be something bacterial (he had slightly metallic breath) and the lymph nodes are supposed to swell when they are fighting infection. He’s got 7 days of antibiotics with penicillin in it and if it’s not better we’ll go back. The knots are still there but they don’t hurt him and they are not as inflamed. We’ll see how it goes over the next two days. We had some small issues with his insurance again at the pharmacy but got it all fixed and I took the boys to eat then home. Zach spent some time chilling and doing this ->

He’s on a quest to build a Lego set for a Lego movie he wants to make.  Both boys are quite serious when it comes to this work. Later that night they snuggled in front of the fire to stay warm and watched a little bit of cartoons before bed.

It’s the first day of the new year and I barely set foot outside today. I spent the larger part of the day vegging in the recliner with the Little C who hasn’t felt well lately. We reclined, covered up and watched Cartoon Networks’ marathon of Looney Toons. However for the first four hours of the day I built a gift Z Man got from Santa. Yes, that’s right FOUR HOURS. I finally agreed to put together his K’Nex Double Dare Dueling Roller Coaster and all of it’s 1,054 pieces. Casey J patiently hung by waiting for me to finish so he could be the first to give it a try. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but it was grueling work. I’ve got a hunch back to go along with my sore butt. It is actually a really cool toy and pretty darn creative, it also has some alternate designs but at four hours of build time on this one I’m not sure I’ll take it apart. Problem is it’s over three feet tall and takes up a fair chunk of space. They don’t have a lot of space in their room especially with the large Millenium Falcon taking up a good two square feet of room. I’ve got a nice little box for all the pieces to be put in, I’ll let them leave it out for a few days before deciding what on earth to do with it. I put together a little montage of the coaster track in action. Enjoy!!

K’Nex Coaster Build from Kim Moreland on Vimeo.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! A quick sharing of some great Christmas time quotes. Pictures of this morning (way to early for me) coming soon!!

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” — Dale Evans Rogers

“Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white’.” — Bing Crosby

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” — Roy L. Smith

My boys laugh a lot, but I have never heard them laugh louder, longer, or harder at any one thing in particular besides this. It’s a clip from Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving.

Then, they laugh almost as hard at this – from Charlie Brown’s “All I Want For Christmas Charlie Brown Is A Dog”. They walk around singing Jingle Bells then quote the line “singing doesn’t help at all”. They’ve only done it once in the car. What? I’m a GOOD driver. Really.