February Fun

My wine glass was a little too close to someone ... that someone proceeded to pour it all over her lap. Off to clean the couch now ...

This kid LOVES to read.

mmm mmm Nutella

4:00 is our least favorite o'clock.

Commence hiking season!

Superheros FLY! And also wear underpants on the outside.

E loves her Brownie troop. They only meet once a month but she asks every weekend if THIS is the Monday she has Brownies.

I cannot get my arms around the laundry situation here. Sometimes I have willing help. 

Cookie delivery!

My funny valentines

Elliott's puppet for the 3rd grade puppet show. 

Quinn loves Miss Cristina

Little Zach was impersonating the dead mouse they found in the toilet. HA!

Who doesn't love Hot Cross Buns?

Birthday do-over at the Massaro's house

Quinn has been having a tough time at bedtime. I asked Elliott to go give her a hug but she couldn't bear to listen to her cry so she took her out of her crib. After we got her back into her crib, she started crying and calling for "Ay-ee-ot." Poor E came downstairs and asked "should I go in there? She's calling for ME."

We have another swimmer who does not have a healthy fear of water. 

Spring is around the corner, I can smell it!

What a difference a year makes!

Worst stay-cation evah

It all started with a weird grey spot in the bottom corner of my vision ... that got bigger ... and bigger ... and by the time I called my doctor, found an ophthalmologist, and made it to their office (at first they said they didn't have appointments until May but once I described with weird grey spot that was blocking almost half my vision in my left eye, they made an emergency appointment for that day), my retina was 75% detached. Ugh.

Off to the ER we went -- what a romantic Valentine's Day! And guess what? Eye surgery isn't fun. And the recovery? Suuuuuuuucks. They put a gas bubble in my eye to hold the lasered retina in place and then I had to be FACE DOWN for EIGHT DAYS AND NIGHTS.  Yes, it was as boring as it sounds. Jas found a massage chair on amazon that was delivered the next day fully-assembled, and my friend lent me a massage table to sleep on. Oh the boredom. Oh the back pain.

I am not an island. This "being an adult and raising small people" thing is hard work and I am incredibly grateful to my husband, mom, and ARMY of mom (and dad)-friends who took over. The girls were whisked off to playdates almost every day and we had homecooked meals delivered all week. But I'm taking a rain check on my birthday this year. I'm still 37 -- in fact, now I'm only 36. I'll celebrate another day when I can be upright.

OH and because when it rains, it pours: Jas spent my birthday in the ER because he threw his back out (he's better now) and THEN E and Q had lice. Had to call all of the awesome families who took the girls for playdates to tell them to do a lice check. OMG. Calgon, take me away.

Yeah, this is for the first responders so they know I can't be air lifted because my EYE COULD EXPLODE. ANXIET LEVEL AT AN ALL TIME HIGH.

There was enough snow one day to make a snow wedding!

Emily is an OT and lent me these cool glasses with mirrors so I could look people in the eye. HA!

Still here ...

Everybody got a kick out of the glasses.

Another day? It was 74 degrees out, New England is so weird. Oh on this day, we were sitting outside having lunch and there was a bird chirping REALLY LOUDLY. It has been ... a week ... here and Jason clenched his teeth and goes: "Shut. UP. BIRD." My mom and I cracked up. We are looking forward to more sunny days but better moods.

E read me a whole chapter of her book.

Puzzle girl

This came with one of our meals. Perfect!

The nursing staff here is very cute.

I'm upright! We celebrated by going to the movies!

Aaaaaaand we have lice.

We decided to throw money at this problem. Q and E had to be treated. T and I were in the clear. Lice Aunties to the rescue! Salon day!

I earned every calorie of this. I actually lost 4 pounds this week but I am pretty sure it was all muscle. Two more weeks before I can resume normal life but at least I can sleep (on my side) in the bed now!

Aladdin

Another successful drama club production on the books! My friend and partner-in-drama Emily and I logged hundreds of hours getting this quadruple-cast bilingual elementary school production staged and it was worth every minute.  I am overwhelmed by how many reliable, funny, friendly, all-hands-on-deck parents there are in our village -- together we managed to get 240 kids to sing and dance (some of them even do both at the same time!). I am so so proud of all the rockstar kids who performed so magically this weekend. Our little Iago Elliott knocked it out of the park and I really hope Talie and Quinn like drama club as much as I like being in charge of a microphone because I'm here for the long haul. I don't know what I am going to do with all my free time next week ...

I had a sitter for most of the Thursday rehearsals for the little girls, but on Tuesdays, Quinn was in the backpack (or playing with a parent volunteer) and Talie? Well, sometimes Talie just joined in wherever she could ...

I hosted TWO costume-making parties and I will likely be finding feathers and sequins in corners for weeks to come.

Night one: 16 moms, 4 sewing machines, 2 hot glue guns, 400 feathers, 200 plastic jewels, 800 felt stars (OK so I fabricated those last numbers), lots and lots and LOTS of shiny fabric ...

Night two: 14 moms, an awesome Auntie, 4 of the greatest peacock costumes evah, 100 ziplock bags, 47 sharpies, 14 painted (and sawed in half) dowels, and 50+ pounds of ice melt. Oh, and the kids had a sing-a-long showing of both The Lion King and Willy Wonka. It was very loud.

This picture pretty much sums up the experience ...

Daughters of the Directors entertaining themselves ...

Sound check -- Quinn likes to wander around and she'll find a willing companion to drag around the auditorium. We were at school recently and as we walked through the 5th grade lunch period, tons of kids called out "Hi Talie!" She's kind of a big deal.

I got 10 hours of sleep on Sunday night and was lonely and bored by Tuesday. Emily and I are already planning next year's production -- we are so committed that she and Adriana walked a half mile through 2 feet of snow (uphill both ways!) to have a planning meeting!