Odds & Ends

I'm not sure if there hasn't been much going on or if I'm just too tired for writing, but all I've manged to do this week is scrape together a post with a few random little stories:

• Last winter, Buster had pneumonia in November and then was sick every other week until July. This year, Buddy seems to be on the every other week sickness plan. Since Thanksgiving he's had the stomach flu, a high fever virus & an inner ear infection. The current infliction of the week is a nasty cold & cough. Buddy's limited understanding of germs and illness has led him to believe that in order to get rid of germs, he needs to give them to someone else. He keeps blowing air at me and asking if now I'm the sick one. At least I think that's why he's doing it...or it could just be his way of getting revenge because I refuse to answer him when he speaks in a baby voice.
• As many children do, my boys love to be freed from the constrictive restraints of their clothing. Potty training has made me less inclined to put pants on them, so most days they spend running around the house in various states of undress. Other than worrying that one of them will decide to take their pants off in the middle of school, it doesn't really bother me. This is the only time in their lives they'll feel comfortable running around shirtless without thinking about what their stomachs look like, so why not make the most of it?
• Buster just went through a big "Why?" phase. "Why is this a cat?", "Why do we need clocks?", "Why is rain wet?", why, why, why, why, why....Recently, the whys have tapered off. Just as I was about to let out a big sigh of relief, he moved onto a different phase. Now everything is "How do we make chairs?", "How do we make tvs?", "How do we make chickens?"...
• I started something new this week - the afternoon bath. That post-nap, pre-dinner time of day is always our worst, especially in the winter when there's not many places to go. The bath is the perfect solution. It allows non-napper Buddy to sit quietly with a bucket and champion sleeper Buster to rambunctiously swim back and forth like the little energizer bunny he is. Yesterday they stayed in there for an hour and ten minutes and today they lasted nearly an hour. And here's the best part, I get to sit on the edge of the tub with my Nook. I spent the afternoon reading today!