at this very moment, i *thought* i would be sitting with lauren in a large room with lots of other parents and grandparents.  i *thought* i would be watching as mikey and allie and the rest of their classmates stood on risers in front of us and sing their joyous easter songs.  i *thought* i would be simultaneously snapping pictures and trying to keep lauren from wandering off.  i *thought* i would later bring home my pictures and video footage and post them here, to relive a happy event in the kids’ lives. but all that was not to be. instead, we’re now quarantined. this morning started off like any…

i hope i’m not there yet, though some days i feel like i already am.  : p  so, i had a birthday this past weekend.  unfortunately, phil was on call (which means he works a 24-hour shift in the hospital and doesn’t come home til the next morning) on my actual birthday.  he had to work three weekends this month and so we both agreed that he should work this past weekend in order for the big bear trip to happen earlier in the month. but!  thanks to a wonderful little thing called “parents’ night out” (pno), we were able to have a dinner date the evening before.  once or…

we were all pretty wiped out after allie’s party.  and what happens when the whole family is wiped out?  i’ll tell you what happens.  it starts a chain reaction of events that goes something like this: phil sleeps through his 6 am alarm and in his sleep stupor, wakes up to my alarm set for an hour later (we share one clock radio which is on his side of the bed), turns it off, and rushes off to work.  i blissfully stay sound asleep the whole time.  could be due to the earplugs i wear every night.  could also be due to the allergy medicine i took the night before…

so last week, allie-girl turned four.  i still can’t quite believe it.  i mean, she’s still got those cubby, chubby, baby cheeks that i go in to kiss every night after she’s asleep.  did i lose a year?  how can she be four already? apparently, i’m still wrapping my brain around it.  it might take a while. to celebrate her birthday, we threw an art party in the park for her.  i might have mentioned this a time or two, but the girl loooves to draw, and cut, and glue, and tape like nobody’s business.  so i knew she’d love nothing more than to have a whole afternoon doing her…

[about one hour ago.  out of the blue.] mikey:  any babies in your stomach, mom? me:  no.  why? mikey:  oh.  just asking you. me:  do you want more babies, mikey? mikey:  yeah.  because babies are so cute. ******** hmm.  apparently mikey thinks our family is not complete yet.  at least he’s consistent- several months ago he informed me that he didn’t think we had enough kids in our family.  that we needed five kids because our family was too small.  but whoa nelly.  five kids?! but.  i LOVE that mikey totally wants more siblings and is so kind-hearted like that (he has two little sisters, so he knows what having…