Where have you been?

Perhaps some check this blog from time to time, and you've been wondering outloud: Why haven't they blogged? Actually, my wife asks me this question about every other day. I've told her repeatedly that she's can blog herself, but she demurs. So the simple answer as to why you haven't seen anything new on this blog recently is this: I've been a busy man. Conferences, meetings to prepare for, meetings to attend, with pastoral work in between; a visit from my sister Beth; a birthday for Lucas; and two sick kids.

I won't bore you with details about the professional aspects of my life over the past several weeks, but I will expand on Beth's visit and Lucas' birthday. My sister came last Tuesday on the train and was able to be here for Lucas' birthday. We took Lucas to Toys 'r Us so that he could pick out a birthday gift from his aunt Beth. He chose a Thomas the Train set that ended up not being built very well. Tarren returned it the other day, and Lucas picked out a couple wooden Thomas trains instead. Beth's visit was short, but we enjoyed the time we had to spend with her.

Lucas officially turned three. We had a small party the weekend before with Tarren's family; a nice, cool afternoon. Naturally, Lucas got many more presents than he needed or deserved (can someone who is leaving their "terrible two" year behind really deserve anything?). He's at the point where he appreciates the gift he just opened for about a nanosecond, and then he wants to open another one. Once he has all of his unwrapped gifts in front of him he's able to be a discerning judge as to which is his favorite, though I can't honestly tell you what judgment he's made. As of this moment he seems to enjoy the wooden Thomas trains that he picked out last week best. Actually, the gift he asks most about is the Toby train that Tarren and I purchased for him for Christmas when we were at Toys 'r Us. (For the uninitiated, Toby is one of the engines from Thomas and Friends). They had a nice sale, so we decided to buy a few. He wonders daily when he's going to get Toby, and we tell him that he needs to wait until Christmas. So, of course, now he wonders daily whether today is Christmas. He's beginning to make more and more of those types of logical connections these days, and his Mom and Dad are noticing. He's growing up to be a nice, three-year-old boy!

After the birthday festivities came to an end, both of our children received one last "gift," an upper respiratory virus. Grace was running a fever around 102 and had a dry cough. One day she slept for about 18 of the 24 hours, which was a little cause of concern, especially for Momma. But once again, we noticed a difference between our two children. When Lucas is sick, we often have trouble getting him to sleep. When she's sick (granted, this was her first real bout with illness), she sleeps. And even though she was sick, she was quite liberal with smiles.

Lucas got it next, and he developed croup. He sounded pretty bad for a few days, but now he's almost entirely cleared up. One thing that was surprising to me was that the doctor didn't prescribe any antibiotics. I'm not complaining about that, but we've become so used to running to Walgreens in this family that I expected yet another trip. But both children have overcome without any prescription assistance, which is just fine by us!

So there's the update. I'll add a couple pictures since it's so easy to do.