Feeling good enough to type...

...and upload pictures. We are still not out of the woods, but we're feeling a wee tad better today. This is the first day toys came out, albeit briefly. Ben ate a whole orange, a granola bar, bowl of grapes, and two pieces of toast. Progress. He has a cough, and battled a fever all of last night. I let him sleep with me so I could monitor whether or not he had blankets on, etc. Hunter's nose is a fountain, and he's ultra whiney still. We've been parked in front of the TV watching Thomas, Elmo, Barney, Shrek, and Barney, of course. Today I had enough energy to dust and disinfect.

Here are some pictures of the boys at their newest favorite snack spot. They both run here to snack, I think the table height is just perfect for them. FYI: Ben put his crust on Hunter's plate.

A picture of Hunter with his haircut (I clipped them last night, when they were both tired and sick--see, they hold still better that way).

Ben had a little sparkle back in his eye today.

These pictures are from last week, before the cold had hit anyone of us. Maybe Friday? I was sick by Friday night. Anyway, the boys were just hanging out with dad. I always try to take mundane pictures so the kids can see what their daily life was like. Plus, when you go a whole year without dad around the house, pictures of dad doing completely normal things help make him real and memorable. I tested this theory with Benjamin. He was 13 months when Theo left last time. My mom laminated some pictures of Theo alone, and Theo with Ben. I videotaped Theo doing things like Ben's diaper changes & baths, and also going to the park. Ben watched the video and played with the pictures. Theo came home on leave for 3 weeks, but a whole year from his initial deployment, Ben had just turned 2, and he knew Daddy when Daddy came home. At the airstrip he was able to look face to face with Theo, and he reached out and touched his face to see if he was real. He gave him kisses and warmed up to him shortly after. Hunter will be 2.5 when Theo deploys again, so we're building up footage and pictures now.

Here are the pictures from last week, now that I'm done rambling.

Ben runs in to break up the peaceful setting:

Now, I should warn you, you are about to view the cutest pictures of Hunter I've taken in awhile! I was sick, and pretty out of it, but I think Hunter was standing on the kitchen chair having breakfast with dad and he just peed all over the chair. No idea how the pee got out of the dipaer, but he needed a bath. So glad he did, because he was so cute when dad was drying him off.

This was during Ben's battle fever battle began. I tried to keep as much of this fleece pjs off of him to keep him cool.

Here is Hunter with his beloved Mickey Mouse phone. But first, a shot of his massive head and dire need for a haircut:

Step One: dial

Steo Two: greetings "Heh-woh"

Step Three: adjust the phone so I can hear better

Step Four: give kisses to the phone

Step Five: more listening to me saying "hi" over and over and over... (as if he can read, he's sitting here doing what I typed as he sees the pictures, LOL).

Step Six: Act surprised, to keep the conversation interesting. Keep saying "hi."

Step Seven: You sound disinterested? With me? Impossible.

Step Eight: Come in? Can yooooooo hear me? World's cutest boy on the line here.

Step Nine: Forget this man! Bwahhhhhhhhhhh! Hahaha!

Have a great rest of the week everyone!