Livin' on a Prayer

Lots of prayers at this house this week, I do believe the only way we are living is because of them.

What else can you do but pray when you have a week of high fevers, goopy eyes, snot, no appetite, wheezing, fatigue and fussiness? And that was just Annie.

Then there was Whit with her random fevers and goopy eyes turned pink eyes.

Then there was Matt who sprained his ankle leaving him unable to put pressure on his foot for 36 hours.

The culminating day of sheer insanity was Thursday when Matt couldn't walk without crutches, Annie finally hit the 'we have to go to the doctor stage' (and were there for 1.5 hours) and Whit got pink eye.

But...we're on the mend, pretty much. Whit is goop-free. Matt can walk again, though has a nasty bruisey foot. Annie is on 2 oral meds and 2 through her nebulizer and has improved drastically.

But...Annie has gone from lethargic and sad to now bi-polarly crazy. Yesterday we thought it was her just getting back into not feeling so sick and her fever breaking and all. By the end of today, we were losing our minds.

• Cuddly for 2 minutes then totally inconsolable
• Wanting you to pick her up then throwing herself down the instant you try
• Pointing to food then swiping it away while screaming
• Up like 6 times a night
• One spastic insanity after another

We are used to bi-polarness here...we do have a 2 year old. But we are used to 3 or 4 bi-polars a day not 5 or 6 an hour.

After my most recent prayer for help this evening, I had the feeling that it might be her medicine. I called the doctor and he confirmed my inspiration when he said that one of her medicines was probably messing her up emotionally. He lowered her dosage.

So, tomorrow is a new day. I'm hoping that the medicine change works and that I can be livin' on a new prayer tomorrow...sheer gratitude.

Aha Aha

What's with the wierd title you might ask? It is a song (as are most of my blog titles--we are Singers you know). It's also a PALINDROME.

Matt and I are nerds, we don't deny it. If you aren't as nerdy as us, you probably didn't realize that today is a palindrome. 01/02/2010--yup, the same forward AND backward. It is a special day indeed since it will only happen, as we figure it 10 more times this century.

A cause for celebration indeed! How does one celebrate a palindrome? We haven't figured that out yet, so feel free to shoot us your awesome ideas of what you did on this oh so special day.

On a side note, in honor of palindromes, my favorite of all time is:
A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL--PANAMA

Here are a few more I found today that I also enjoy:

A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal – Panama!
A car, a man, a maraca!
I'm a lasagna, hang a salami.
Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?
Yo! Banana Boy.

You're having fun already...I can tell.
Until next time....
~Regnis Arac (not a palindrome but me backwards)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We love Christmastime. Though that should be 'enough said,' here are 10 reasons why, this year at the Singer home we truly can say, "it's the most wonderful time of the year."

1. We made our 2nd annual batch of Christmas cookie countdown chains. I love these things; they're so darned cute, though I missed Megan severely this year as I did most of the chain making solo.

2. We've had a couple snows here in New England this December. Hard to pass up a good snowman opportunity.

3. Annie has become a walkin' girl. She loves the Christmas tree and has been very good with it actually. She has figured out which ornaments are bells and likes to whack at them but for the most part, things have gone untouched.

4. Christmas doesn't feel as much like Christmas without being around family. We were glad we got 1 1/2 days with Uncle Phil.


5. We had our Preschool Christmas Program--a fun night with friends and pretty much our CT version of Music and the Spoken Word, 4 year old style. Followed up with nachos and desserts, it made for a great evening.

6. A friend gave us a ticket to go to Bright Nights up in Springfield, MA. This was our first time going and we thought it was great. The kids absolutely loved it and it brought back many a memory for Matt who attended a similar light display every year growing up.

7. One of my favorite parts of Christmastime is setting up our nativities. We have 9 or 10 of them that we have collected over our marriage from different places we have been. Matt has gotten them from his travels to Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Mexico; I have added to our collection with ones from Israel and Puerto Rico; and we have our combined memory nativities from Argentina and the good ole U.S. of A. (though probably made in China).

8. I love putting up Christmas cards we receive on the wall. I guess since we are so far from so many that we love, I love getting to see pictures and have memories right there in my kitchen all December. It helps me think of everyone more and I love it.

This was last week...we had a lot more late comers this week.

If you zoom in, maybe you'll even see a card from you! If not, we'd love one next year. Hint hint! :)

9. What could be a better way to spend Christmas Eve day than to head to Chuck E. Cheese with the neighbors. It was a great way to relieve some of that Christmas excitement that was building up and bouncing off the walls at our house. Plus it wasn't too crowded...a bonus!

10. New PAJAMAS!!! Aunt Megan has begun the tradition at our home with a PJ present that gets opened on Christmas Eve. Mary had it figured out what the present was and Andrew kept saying "I'm just so excited b/c Aunt Megan always does crazy things." (?)

The trivia question that goes along with these pictures is this: can you determine which of our children has the hardest time taking a 'normal' picture. While the answer seems to be 'all of the above', one actually seems to stand out a bit here.

Wow! 18 hours later, there you have it. Yea Christmastime.

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

Thanks to Mary, this song actually has meaning in our home this year.

As has been typical with her now 5 teeth lost, it was anticlimactic. A really wiggly tooth for a few days and then I looked over at Mary one afternoon last week and it was gone. No clue how, when, or where. The biggest thing that puzzled her was why saying "Merry Christmas" didn't sound exactly like "Merry Chrithmath" the way the song told her it naturally would. She said "Merry Christmas" at least a half dozen times before she finally went to the mirror to double check it was gone.

Merry(?) Mary(?) Christmas, to You

A cute Christmas something is happening at our house again. It happened when Mary was 2, when Andrew was 2 and now that Whit is 2, it's happening again. And I love it.

When Mary was 2, she was constantly walking around saying 'Merry Christmas', 'Mommy Christmas', and 'Daddy Christmas'.

And now, a typical conversation at our house these days is like this:
Me: "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas"
Whitney: "No Mommy, Ho Ho Ho Whitney Christmas"

Can't wait to hear Annie next year.

Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

This was Whitney's theme song for moving from the crib to her toddler bed this week. While we took things down and set things up, she kept singing "Tonight's gonna be a good good night." And it was...we're 3 nights and counting now and there have been no troubles, no tears, no middle of the night visitors. Awesome.

America's Got Talent...

Actually, better said is "Rita's got talent." Just wanted to show off the oh so adorable things my mother-in-law made for the kids.

Skirts for Mary and Whitney:

A jumper for Annie: (the face is deceiving...she loves it)

Dinosaur PJs for Andrew:

Thanks so much Rita. We love them!