And so it begins...

As most of you know, I love winter. I love autumn. I love when the weather turns cold, and there's nothing better than a beautiful snowy day.

Having said that, I've had a shocking amount of fear about this winter. I've really not been looking forward to the end of summer. The problem is: germs. And my boys' ability to catch all of them. For the past two winters, we've had a tough run from about November until May, with all of us catching lots of colds, and croup, and ear infections, and pneumonia, and other yuckies. And that's with the boys home with me, without even having the exposure to a day care or other group of children germ factory.

But this year my boys are in preschool. Needless to say, I've been worrying about how bad the winter will be. The boys made it a week and a half, but today I didn't send them to school. On Friday afternoon, their noses started running, and it's continued all weekend. They definitely have colds, that they've since passed along to me. It's not a bad one. No fevers, not much coughing, pretty happy demeanor despite the cold. Just some stuffiness and lots of calls of "Mommy! I have BOOGERS!"

So while I'm glad this cold is mild, I'm still feeling a bit conflicted about this winter. I'm trying to hope for the best, and not borrow trouble, but I can't help but be worried about what this winter holds. I hope my fears prove groundless!

As an aside, for all you more experienced moms, when do you send your kids back to school? I kind of think my boys were probably okay to send today, even though their noses are a bit runny. But really, their noses could be runny for the next week or so, and with B-man's asthma, he'll probably develop a cough that hangs on for quite some time. So what's the rule on when to send kids back after a cold?

_______________________

Replies to comments on You're Not Going To Believe This!:
BrendaJean: I seem to have the same power to turn scratch tickets into losers!
Jongirl (or jongir, if you so desire): Yes, it is a weird tradition to exchange lottery tickets for Christmas. Fun, but you're still weird!

Replies to comments on Why do I need an Ipod?:
Wow, did I get mixed reviews! I guess it confirmed my belief that we don't *need* an ipod. Having said that, I can see how it would be fun, as long as I managed to load my music on it. Yesterday, N-man was in a mood where he kept asking for songs from different CDs, so we had to play DJ for him. And I was like, "Hey, we need an MP3 player with a kids' songlist!" Who knows what we'll ultimately decide. We just may decide to get one of for Christmas/Hanukkah! Thank you all for sharing your opinions!

Replies to comments on Arrr!:
Giovanna: How awesome are the Backyardigans? I must admit, *I'm* a little obsessed, too!
Bridget: I've never even heard of Lazy Town! I'll have to keep an eye out for it!
LauraC: Aw, cute pirates! And no worries about Firefly, although I still contend you're missing one of the best shows ever! Maybe you just want to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog online. Odder than Firefly, but no western themes. Well, except some brief singing cowboys. Very brief.
Juli Smith: Thanks for stopping by! I visited your blog, and it made me wish I was at all crafty. A pirate themed party must have been fun!

Wheeee!

We got a wii yesterday. Okay, technically, we got a wii quite some time ago. I stood in line for an hour or so one morning a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. It was right in the middle of NaNoWriMo, though, and I didn't want the distraction of it pulling at me, so we put it away until December 1, as a kind of reward for finishing my novel.

December 1 rolled around, and we got out the wii, set it up, and....nothing. It didn't work. After much talking on the phone to the Nintendo repair department, the gist was: it was broken. Thanks.

So, we sent it back, and just yesterday got our new one.

I wish I could say we got it for our kids, but at 2 and a half years old, I don't think they're old enough to act as cover for us.

So I guess we're part of the "old people" video game movement. Okay, maybe it's not that dire. We're part of the Nintendo generation. I played plenty of NES in my youth. We even own a Playstation (the first version, from way back when) that we pull out from time to time. While I was pregnant with my twins and on "couch rest" I even pulled out an old video game and played for hours.

But I still feel somehow apologetic for playing video games, like I should be doing something more important with my life. But I guess instead of saving the world, I'll be honing my wii tennis skills, or trying to build my brain at the Big Brain Academy (current grade: B--). At least for a little while.

Random unrelated thought:

It's snowing. Again. After years of living in Georgia, and hating the fake winters there, I swore once we moved back to a normal climate, I'd never complain about the snow. I do like the snow, but we have a lot to do today, and sitting inside while 8" falls wasn't exactly on my list.