Happy birthday Miss Faith!
Faith had been talking about her birthday since last summer. But when I asked her first thing this morning how old she was, her immediate response was two. I told her she was now three. She protested, as most two- to three-year-olds do, until she realized the day had finally come. She'd been waiting for months and it was finally her birthday. She wanted to put on a fancy dress and a birthday hat. The closest thing we had was the cone-shaped hat from her dress-up set that you see in the picture. But that was good enough for her. And we made her cupcakes this morning, in super-duper strawberry pink. Waiting until Daddy came home from work to eat them was agonizing for both her and Dorian. But they held out, and I'm sure the reward for their patience was sweet.
Poor Quinn felt a bit left out.
I'm not sure what we're going to do for his birthday. Dorian and Faith each smushed around a cupcake for their first birthdays, but Quinn will be the equivalent of 9 months old, which just doesn't seem old enough to me to be eating cake. I still have about 5 weeks to figure this out. But on the other hand, we only have 5 weeks until Quinn's first birthday. That also means we only have about 5 more weeks of winter. Hallelujah! We definitely need some fresh air.

Illness has struck our family. Everyone but me has had the same respiratory complaints for going on two weeks. Dorian got it first. He woke up hoarse and coughing and spent the day curled up on the couch with a fever. The next day he was better. Then two days later, Faith and Quinn were both feverish, followed by coughing. Kurt too is stuffy. I'm ready for health to be restored.

Quinn being sick of course has me worried, especially with a respiratory illness. Our doctor isn't too concerned. I talked to her, and she confirmed what I thought, that there wasn't much that could be done for him with a viral infection. We're just watching and waiting. And really, other than the periodic coughing, he hasn't slowed down at all. He's just as energetic and alert as ever. I took this picture of him earlier this week.
That little booklet was sitting on the edge of the table. He pulled it off and began to "read" it, turning pages and everything. He can be an intense kid. But he's also a happy and social one.
And life is good.

Where oh where did the Fackrells go?

The short answer is nowhere. I've just felt like since my life is on eternal round right now (is that blasphemous?) that I didn't have much to report on anymore.

Let's see, uh, there's this:

He's not crawling yet, but he's up on hands and knees and rocking. And then, look out world!

There's this:
Kurt had a birthday February 4. And yes, that's a carton of ice cream with candles stuck in it. Kurt isn't a big cake fan, and decided he'd rather have just ice cream this year. Made my job easy. Faith's birthday is next, in 2 weeks.

And just for fun, there's this:
Among the things we've done to keep busy is to celebrate the season. These are heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, made by rolling in both edges, instead of just one. My sister Brittany passed that along to me, as well as a recipe for red play dough. For the last two days, Dorian and Faith have commandeered the kitchen table for use with this play dough and cookie cutters.

My mom came to visit about two weeks ago. It was fun to have Grandma time, and to go out and about a bit. Dorian and Faith and I got to almost resume our old ways, going to the library and out to lunch. And Kurt and I got to go on several dates. Real dates! It was amazing! And old man winter brought us a snowday for the occasion. My mom enjoyed that, since it's a novelty to her. The kids were sad to see her go. We're looking forward to summer and time with all grandparents and cousins.

In other news, I got Dorian registered for kindergarten last week. I'm still ambivalent about this. Our district just decided to go to full-day kindergarten, and I'm apparently in the minority of parents who are not happy about this. But more than anything, the process of getting him registered has emphasized the fact that I'm a little bit cracked after this past year of my life. After being expected to basically hand over a child to medical authority (which we didn't entirely do, but anyway) I actually have quite a bit of separation anxiety from any of my kids. And here again, I'm sort of expected to just let Dorian go for most of the day. And yes, I know I can be involved, volunteer in the classroom, do PTA, etc. But let's face it. This is a major change, and I don't think I'm handling it well. I've been a bit vocal in my disappointment at the change to full-day, and all that has really done is make me known to the school board. We haven't even started school there, and they know me. Of course, I have considered homeschooling. And to some degree, we've done that already. Dorian can read a little and count, though he's less keen on writing. And Faith knows a lot too, since she refuses to be left behind in anything. But for multiple reasons, I'm not convinced continuing with it is the right thing to do. Oh, the decisions to be made, and made soon.