Trying to cram everything in before John’s surgery on Tuesday. Not going to be easy, and not going to happen, but I’m still gonna try.

Had a photoshoot this morning for some "extra" christening pictures. That should be on the blog later this week. Be on the lookout.

Hit the stupidmarket to get in the shopping for the week. Still need to go to the deli and CVS tommorrow, as well as the pediatrician to drop off forms, scrapbook class, Timmy’s first evaluation. Usually there is religion tommorrow too, but it was thankfully cancelled. One less thing and all.

Spent over an hour in the camera store yesterday afternoon (had to escape the house for a little bit. I so need winter to be over-getting cabin fever and so are all the boys). John said some people escape to a bar, but I go to the camera shop. That’s pretty accurate. I’m really not feeling the improvement in my photography that I think I should- on the focus end of things mostly. So I went in there for a little encouragment and advice. I got both and am going to be doing some additional practicing with some new ideas and tools. Which I’m soooo sure the boys will just be thrilled about. It’s all me-not the camera, not the lenses. Just me. Focus, focus.

I worked for a few hours this afternoon. It’s an on again/off again gig at a Test prep place. I give practice SAT’s or ACT’s and the like to the students and grade them. It’s really a great little job. Very convenient and easy. And I’ve been working on and off for the Professor who owns and runs the place for almost 10 years now. He’s a great boss and brilliant beyond brilliant. He will be tutoring my boys for their SAT’s eventually, even if I can’t afford him.

Drove John’s new car all day today and I really liked it. Can you say LUXURY vehicle? My favorite parts are the way it drives (tight, quiet, and cush), the ipod direct hookup (you know I was blasting Amy Winehouse!), and the way the trunk opens and closes with a touch of a button. Plus the fact that it’s a Mercedes is pretty cool in itself. And best of all, I didn’t crash it.

Leaving you with some pictures I took of Timmy last weekend. Found this cool grey wall/stairs and the red & green doors over by a party that Timmy went to. Always on the lookout for some good new locations. He wasn’t particularly thrilled with the balloons but Uncle Nelson met us there and really helped out. He even made a really good save once and caught the balloons just as Timmy let go. Used some textures and frames from Pink Ink Studios that my friend Maureen bought me back on my birthday. The pictures were of him turning 3, although a few weeks late.  

First, you may ask, what is a birthday vegetable? Well, we were telling Timmy that the party was part of his 3 week long birthday festival (we celebrated his birthday at Disney too- several times). When he said "no, it’s not my birthday vegatable". Yeah, good thing he’s getting evaluated for articulation this week, huh? Gotta love it though! I hope that if he does qualify, they won’t take stuff like ‘birthday vegetable’, ‘alidrator’ (refridgerator), etc. away. Anyway…

Here are a ton of pictures from Timmy’s party which started out as a Buzz Lightyear party with Buzz invitations made at home by me. But then somewhere along the way, Buzz was out and Superman was in. So a Superman party it was. There were only about 18 kids invited, with 15 kids there. If you’ve been to any of Jack & Patrick’s parties, you know this was a very very small party for us. They usually have around 70 kids invited, with 50-60 showing up. But there are not a lot of my friends with kids Timmy’s age so things got smaller. But he had a great time with all his friends.

As for the clothing…totally Timmy’s choice. When I asked him the night before the party, what he wanted to wear for his birthday party, he told me "a tie". So, there you go. Super cute and very formal at the Rec Center. It only lasted for a little while though. Then the nice white shirt was covered in pizza & ice cream cake. Yum.

How is it that weather forecasts are NEVER accurate and yet all the forecasters still have jobs? If in any other line of work these people were as wrong as often as they are, they would be soooo fired. We were predicted to get 1-3" of snow. It ended up being about 7". Oh, so accurate. Still ,I would rather have been in Florida.

But the boys had some fun outside. Even though the time it takes to get everyone dressed and undressed from the snow gear is usually less time than they actually play outside. Uncle That Guy was kind enough to come over and shovel us out, build a great snowfort for the boys, and let them whack him with many snowballs. I do have to say that the boys aim is getting much better. As Uncle That Guy drove off (he told them they could hit the car as much as they wanted) they were pelting the car but good. Uncle That Guy opened the window to try to say something and Patrick actually threw the snowball right into the partially opened window. I think they may do really well at baseball this year.

And if you are wondering why Uncle That Guy is called Uncle That Guy…when Jack and Patrick were really little (like under 2) Thomas (aka Uncle That Guy) was walking up the path to come inside and the boys were standing at the front door waiting. I asked them "who’s that" and they said "that guy". So from that day on, he has been Uncle That Guy. And he apparently really likes being Uncle That Guy, so we never changed it.

So which do you want? The good news or the bad news first? Just life, ya know?

• Timmy has graduated to a "big boy bed" in his new "big boy room". Spent the day on Sunday revamping the whole room. Took down the animal pictures, animal valance, animal mirror, the changing table and the crib. Let me tell you, it was REALLY hard. I was seriously on the verge of tears the whole time. No more babies in this house. No more crib. While it’s so exciting that Timmy is growing up, I’m missing my baby. And even though he’s still a baby in so many ways, he’s a big boy too. The lack of crib just sealed the deal.

           I am proud and happy to report that the transition from crib to bed was a very, very smooth one. He is LOVING his bed and is sleeping great in it. He seems to take a really long time to fall asleep in it, but he’s sleeping pretty late in the morning (between 7-8:30), and most importantly, he’s not getting out. For naps (we are still hanging on to the nap for now, thank god) I’m still rocking him until he falls asleep cause it just takes too long otherwise. And I decided to let him keep his papi’s for now. I didn’t want him to associate the bed with me taking them away, thus equaling no sleep. We need sleep. So the papi fairy is on vacation for now, until we are more ready. I am also selfish and don’t want to give up the naps yet. I still need that time.

           Timmy decided on a Superman theme for his room. Picked out the bedding himself from the Pottery Barn Kids catalogue and store. We had the Superman and Batman pictures from the big boys old room. Bought the lunchboxes on the bookshelf from Party City when we were going to get his party supplies. The navy blue and red bins with the chalkboard fronts are from Target. The furniture is all from his old room except the nightstand and mirror are new from Gothic Cabinet Craft. The big blue smooshy chair is from my room when I was little. I can’t believe it’s held up as well as it has over the last 30 or so years! It even folds out into a bed so he can have some sleepovers eventually. He just looks so tiny in that big bed, but so, so cute.  

• John’s back (herniated disc) is just a mess. The shots (epidural steroid injections that are shot right into the disc to try to reduce swelling) aren’t doing anything and he’s in a lot of pain. And while he has the Percoset, he can’t really take it cause he needs to not be high at work! So he saw the surgeon (and got a second opinion) yesterday and they are going ahead with surgery on next Tuesday 2/26. How’s that for speedy? He is supposed to be in the hospital only overnight and then home for a week if all goes as it’s supposed to. Then one easy week at work and by the third week, he’s supposed to be all back to normal work activity. I hope it goes that well. My only solace is that this surgery is a lot less intense than the other neck disc surgery he got a few years back. And he came thru that one okay (well, except for the fact that he couldn’t breathe while coming out of anesthesia- that was a little scary) in the end. That one was a lot more dangerous and risky with the placement in the neck. And the recovery was LOOOOOONG. So if you are so inclined, please send some good thoughts our way for a good outcome to the surgery and a quick recovery.

• Today’s was Timmy’s 3rd birthday party at the Rec Center. After doing the math (and those of you who know me, know what a feat that is for me), I figured out that out of the 11 birthdays we’ve had in the house for the boys all combined, that 8 of them have now been at the Rec Center. I guess we really like it there, huh? The only ones we didn’t have there were each of the 1st birthdays (those were at home) and the big boys birthday last year which was at Shea Stadium. Pictures and a whole birthday party post to follow soon.

• John is getting a new car tommorrow. A Mercedes SUV. Will post pictures on that as soon as I can but the weather tommorrow is supposed to be pretty bad, so it might have to wait til the weekend. We’re both pretty excited about it! (yes, John is actually excited about something. I know, hard to believe). This is pretty much what it looks like, same color too.

Timmy is getting evaluated for speech next week. His teacher and pediatrician both thought I should get him tested for articulation. His vocabulary is fantastic and his sentences are long and great. It’s just that apparently some people find it difficult to understand him sometimes. So I’m surprised on how fast the process has been going along. I just put the paperwork in early this week and I already have evaluation appointments next week. When the big boys were evaluated for their whole low muscle tone thing 4+ years ago, I think it took so much longer. We are going back to the same place where Jack & Patrick went for their PT and OT. I’ll let you know what happens. I personally don’t think that he’s going to qualify, but we’ll see. It’s free and it dosen’t hurt to see.