We're not dead; just buried under mounds of snow

For those of you who don't live in the DC Metro area, you may not have tuned in to the fact that we here in Virginia have been hit with three blizzards. The first hit the night before Andrew's 7th birthday and his entire birthday it snowed and snowed and snowed. Most recently we had two back to back storms which dumped a combined total of over 40 inches of snow on us. In the past two weeks my kids have only had two days of school, because of these snow storms. They still have President's Day off from school and so far a one hour delay on Tuesday.

Our roads in the neighborhood are AWFUL. We've had plows come through a few times, but it has not been sufficient.

We had a great Christmas and New Year. My sisters and their families came to town for Christmas and my kids enjoyed a big Lee cousin fest.

Andrew and Maddie started their basketball season and we've had fun watching them play. Andrew is surprisingly aggressive and has made baskets, grabbed rebounds, and even stolen the ball from the other team on occasion.

We've scheduled a trip to go to Disney World with my dad at the end of May. My kids are very excited to go and Zack and Andrew come to my room to have me measure them almost every day so they can figure out which rides they will be tall enough to ride. The other day Ben and I got a good laugh out of watching Andrew use his hands to try to pull his head higher and make himself taller. Then Andrew got very angry at the fact we laughed at that, because he "wasn't trying to be funny."

During the snow days lately, we've been busy repainting bedrooms and reorganizing furniture. Our bedroom situations tend shift based on which children are getting along. Two kids share rooms, two kids get their own rooms. Currently, the two girls get their own rooms. The boys had been getting along for a few weeks. Their truce ended once their new shared bedroom was finished being painted. We're hoping that they can strike their friendship back up and restore peace in the home. If not, we will just enjoy the fact that their bedroom is in the basement.

Zack has had more hearing issues lately. His ears are filled with fluid again and he failed his hearing test at the pediatrician's office. We took him back to his pediatric otolaryngologist (Ear, nose and throat doctor). He said we needed to give Zack two more months to see if his ears could drain on their own. If not, then the doctor will need to figure out what is up with Zack's ears and maybe put another round of tubes in his ears. Zack's hearing test at the otolaryngologist with a specialized audiologist showed that Zack has 25% hearing in one ear and 30% in the other. Clearly, this is a major issue and is really impacting his life. Zack has so many speech issues and it is hard to resolve them without being able to hear well. He is also SOOOOOO loud, but doesn't realize it. It is hard when he is really loud in church or out in public and I can't just softly ask him to quiet down. I do think he may be reading lips, though, because even the doctors were surprised by how reduced his hearing is, because he is managing it fairly well.

Mylie is hilarious these days. She has a delightful personality and a silly sense of humor. She likes to make faces at us and she loves to bring her my little ponies (or her "Mylie Ponies" as she thinks they're called) everywhere we go. She also carries around her five Backyardigan beanie babies and her two baby Disney princess dolls. Lots of times she pushes the whole lot around in a toy shopping cart. I hope she's not destined to be a bag lady! She's also quite into drawing and eyelashes are her specialty. No eyeball is complete without eyelashes that often extend longer than the arms she draws.

We're all doing well, despite suffering from a mild case of cabin fever. I'm looking forward to a normal schedule where kids go to school and sports practices and I can get things done without a million "I'm bored" and "I'm hungry" interruptions.