May 11 2012

For about the past 10 days our family has been dealing with the effects of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. All three of our children came down with it. At first, they get a fever which can last for more than 24 hours. Then they get sores in their throat and mouth. The sores then move to other parts of the body. The above picture and the one following are of Ezra's hands. He got it the worst and ended up with sores all over his body. The poor kid was miserable for about 3 days, after which he seemed to become his normal self again.

With being sick comes "special privileges". This is Jack and Jude crashing in our bed. Lindsey and I start to put all sorts of fun options on the table when their sick in hopes that it will make things more pleasant in the home. Since Hand, Foot, and Mouth is so contagious, we have been avoiding all friends, making it more necessary to find new, fun ways to pass the time.

Jack and Jude are best friends. Lately, they have been setting up their cars in the bookshelf, reenacting scenes from the movie Cars2. It is great to have them only 18 months apart. Lindsey and I are so glad we made it through those initial hard months where they both needed so much time and attention because now they will sit and play and entertain each other.

This is what happens every time Jude starts to paint. He is a pro at making "muddy swamps"--both on paper and up his arms.

 Based on what I said previously, you should be able to figure out which of these are Jude's and which are Jack's.

 Jack's hair 3 days ago. Way to long! What were his parents thinking!

 Jack's hair currently! Yes, I finally got to cut Jack a sweet mullet! Business on top, party in the back! Lindsey reluctantly let me do this and I still can't believe she did. Usually she does a really good job of protecting our family from any crazy ideas I might have (like when I tried to convince her to live in a tent in the mountains shortly after we were married) but she really let her guard down this time. As it goes, the deal was to cut the mullet and then shave the rest of it off the next day. Why does he still have it? Well, I don't really know but he loves it! The downside to the mullet is that it is causing Lindsey a lot of anxiety. Not sure why. The plan going forward is to let him keep it through Sunday and then wack it off.

The boys and I started digging outside our apartment in search of worms for our fishing trip on the Mississippi. Surprisingly, it is not hard to find worms here. Jack and Jude loved this part of the fishing process. Since we had to wait some time between digging up the worms and actually going fishing, Jude kept asking, "Dad, can we take the worms fishing". I think he thought they were our new friends and didn't realize they were actually the bait.

The trip ended up being a lot of fun. I pulled Jack and Jude in our bike trailer down to the river. The University of Minnesota is located right on the river, so we rode through my campus and down the hill to the water. We found a sandy beach and fished a little with no success. Most of the time was spent playing with trucks in the sand and sitting on a log eating Wheat Thins. Jack's favorite part was watching a hug barge go down the river; Jude's was eating Wheat Thins.

Ezra is a happy little baby. He is all over the place, wanting to do whatever Jack and Jude are doing. He can sit himself up now and prefers to ride on turtles where ever he goes.

Jack and Jude watched Sid the Science Kid today. The episode was on "pulleys" and how they are used. So, Lindsey picked up a $5 pulley at Home Depot and we rigged it up in the tree outside our apartment. We started out by hoisting up a bucket filled with sticks and then a small bike. Then we got out one of the boys rings and started lifting people. Maybe this is an example of bad parenting but they had a good time.

We checked out a drawing book from the library which Jack took a liking to. I thought he did a great job with this picture. (Sorry this picture was taken before the mullet!)