It was a beautiful day out! Finally! It was so warm that we didn't need mittens, which is about the point at which Kayli enjoys being out. She doesn't like mittens, but her hands get cold without them, so going out when it is colder never lasts very long, even though she's desperate to go out until she finds out how cold it is. We had such a great time being outside! We were out for about two hours. Lovely.

I went to check on Xander and he was so cute, sleeping as if he had fallen asleep playing with his Lego car, so of course I got a picture. One good picture of a sleeping kid deserves another, so I got a picture of Kayli, too.

The kids were so cute, snuggled in the chair watching Between the Lions together. Kayli was in the chair first, and Xander climbed in to snuggle with her.

Xander and I put glow-in-the-dark stars on his bedroom ceiling, and it was the most fun I've had with him ever, probably. I LOVE glow-in-the-dark stars. I bought these before he was even conceived, for my own use, but I never put them up because I knew we were moving eventually. It had taken me a while to find the perfect ones (read: the same ones I had as a kid) so I didn't want to waste them on a ceiling I wouldn't have forever.

We used a ladder, and we both climbed up there. Xander could reach the ceiling easily, and loved putting the stickers up. We did a fantastic job. The stars cluster around the center ceiling light and become more diffuse farther away from it. It looks lovely. I'm so excited! Travis checked when he got up in the middle of the night and found that they were still glowing, six hours later. Good stars!

Xander had so much fun. He put some of the stars/comets/planets in clusters and said that they were all friends. Then he made up names for the games that they were probably playing. It was so adorable that I had to use the videorecorder to record our conversation, even though we had the lights off so there will be no picture. He said, "This one is Mars and this one is Pluto!" I said, "Xander, how do you know the names of the planets? He said, "Schoolhouse Rock!" Well, of course. We've also talked about them a few times, and looked at the displays at the Boonshoft, but yes, I guess it would be Schoolhouse Rock. I didn't break the news of Pluto's demotion to him. He's too young for crushing disappointment.

It took us a lot longer to put the stars up than I had thought, but we were laughing and chatting and having such a great time that I didn't notice. He finally went to bed at 10:00.

It was a wonderful night. I am fascinated with Xander right now. He is so brilliant and funny and clever... he's a real person and he's so much fun! Is this how it will be until he turns into a sullen teenager? If so, I'm thrilled. How lucky am I?

We went to get my battery changed at Hidy Honda. It took a LONG time. Much longer than you would expect it would take. Luckily, they had The Wiggles: Yummy Yummy to watch, so Xander was entertained most of the time, anyway. Afterwards, we had lunch with Travis at Great Wall. We don't have lunch as a family very often anymore, so that was nice. And now my car will start reliably, which is also nice.

Kayli already wants to be just like her big brother. Tonight, he inexplicably wanted to put on his Tigger costume from Halloween. I was getting him snapped up, and Kayli comes out of the closet with his other (identical) Tigger costume in her hands, which she handed to me. She was very intent on getting it on, too, and wouldn't let me finish snapping him up before putting it on her.

Xander's preschool went to a concert at Wright State University. It was the Dayton Philharmonic and they did a children's classical concert. It wasn't Xander's usual school day, so we took him. He enjoyed it, but didn't love it. The kids all sat on the floor, which was good because Kayli wandered all over the place. Xander's favorite song had parts that the kids were supposed to interpret as "sneaky", so they had their fingers walking on the palms of their hands. Then there was a "surprise" part, so they were supposed to throw their hands up in surprise. Very funny!

Afterwards, we all had lunch together at Great Wall, then the kids and I went to the library in Fairborn. On the way back from the library, we saw a park, and of course we had to stop. It was a pretty nice day, so we stayed for hours. We checked out the train tracks, too, which was pretty exciting for Xander, but scary for me, because Kayli wanted to go wandering down them.

Xander loves to do work. His booster seats have lights in the headrest, so he can read in the car, but they need batteries. All by himself, he got a screwdriver, opened the battery compartment, put batteries in, and tested them. Success! He's going to be an engineer for sure!

Grandma came to visit for a night, and Travis and I got to go out to dinner. We went to Jay's Seafood and used a gift certificate that Travis had to enjoy a very nice dinner together. It was wonderful! I had crab legs, and dessert!

It's cold out, but tolerable, so we went out to play. Xander's new trick is to climb up the ladder and then lie up there, reconfiguring the swing height and such. It makes me nervous, so I think I'll make him stop. He has such fun, though.

Beautiful day! We went to Gerspacher Park and played there for a while. Dave and Nancy stopped by the chat with me, and it was nice to have the company.

We had left the sandbox open, and when we got home that evening, someone had left us a secret message! "Happy St. Patrick's Day!", it said. Xander thought that was very cool.

Kayli actually picked a book up and took it to Travis to read to her, then made herself comfortable against him. I love this picture.

Xander's first full at my parents' house included a visit to a farm. It was very cold day to be outside!

Months ago, I said I would run this race, which I had run twice before. I hadn't trained since then, for various reasons, so I wasn't planning on running it. I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to run it. I gathered all my things together and set them out, and in the morning, I got up, woke Travis to watch Kayli, and headed off for the race. It was under 30 degrees, but I went anyway. My only goal, considering that I hadn't trained at all, was to run the entire race without walking. I managed that, so I was happy. Afterwards, I went out to lunch with my friends Becca and Becca, who had run the race also.

While Xander was gone, my big goal was to paint the dining room. It took me the longest to decide which color to paint it. I wanted to paint it blue, but I couldn't decide which color to paint it, so I went with taupe. It looks pretty classy, I think.

My dad took Xander over to his friend Gerry's house for a playdate with Gerry's grandson, Nathan. They played in the big dirt pile with really cool cranes!

My dad took Xander to the Scrap Box.

Cute little Kayli with a runny nose and a vaccuum.

My dad's pictures.

My great-aunt and uncle, Anna Jane and Paul, came to visit us on Friday night. My parents brought Xander back from his week up north. They had given him a bike for his birthday, and they carried him into our house in the box. He thought that was hilarious, and kept getting back into the box and asking someone to hide him in the box.

After Xander went to bed, my parents played bridge with Anna Jane and Paul.

My dad's pictures.

A very relaxed day. We just sat on the deck and enjoyed the weather.

My dad's pictures.

Another beautiful day. We spent most of the time outside.

We played cards after the kids went to bed. We played in my newly painted dining room, and played Tripoly.

Delia needed to have a cracked tooth examined, so I watched her kids at the park. First we went to Shoup park and played for a while, and ate lunch, then we headed to Gerspacher park while Delia was at the dentist. She was there only briefly, so could come back in time to take the kids geocaching. It was Xander's first time, and he loved it!

We met at Shoup Park for playgroup. That was nice because I didn't need to clean my house. It was also nice because Kim and Rachel came, and we hadn't seen them in a long time!

I took Xander (and sleeping Kayli) to go see a puppet show called Dinosaurs! at the Victoria Theatre. It was a fun show, but Xander got scared halfway because the Tyrannasaurus Rex was chasing another dinosaur. We went in again when that sequence was over. After that, we went to lunch with Holly at Pizzeria Uno's. Xander got to make his own pizza! That was pretty cool.

Aoife came over that afternoon to play with Kayli.

Aoife came over to play with Kayli and Xander.

I got to see Will Navarre! It was awesome. I drove down to Cincinnati, where he was for a job interview. I had such a good time chatting with him again. It was very cool how little we both felt like we had changed, and how easily we fell back into everyday conversation mode. I don't think I had seen him since 8 years ago.

My dad's aunt, my great-aunt and my grandpa's sister, Janet, died on Wednesday. I drove up to Michigan for the funeral, and I was so glad that I did. I left Xander home with Travis and just took Kayli because I was only going overnight. Xander enjoyed having a day alone with dad, he said.

Aunt Janet was so young and vibrant and fun; I can't believe that she's gone. I remember one time when she visited my grandparents at their apartment, she and my grandpa sang a song their parents had sung to them: Josephus and Bohunkus. My aunt Kathi reminds me of Aunt Janet, and I think that she models a lot of her behavior off of Aunt Janet. My dad and all of his sisters really appreciated all the time she spent with them when they were kids, and my dad spoke at the wedding and read many humorous stories from his sisters. It was a beautiful funeral, with a lot of laughter. I think Aunt Janet would have liked it.

The family did a wonderful job collecting and displaying photos of Aunt Janet. I archived them here for my dad's sisters, who weren't able to attend the funeral. I also videotaped the funeral for the people who couldn't come, including my aunts and Aunt Janet's friend that she took road trips with before she got married.

I drove home for my great-aunt Janet's funeral. It was a short trip: I headed up at bedtime on Friday, so Kayli would sleep, then headed back immediately after the funeral on Saturday, so I was home by 5:00.