Back in the flow of things

Well folks, hope I haven't lost too many of you due to the lack of posts. Here's what has been happening:

It's been a regular infirmary here the past two weeks. Myer was out eight of the last ten week days with a virus of some sort that he passed on to me. He had pink eye then a fever for several days and icky poo, while I was the lucky recipient of a double inner ear infection. I took my last course of antibiotics tonight and got my hearing back (second ear popped in the car on the way back from Costco this afternoon). Also today, Myer's stools resumed normalcy - hopefully that's the last of runny, green, fetid goo for a while. Lovely. Isn't it summer almost? Shouldn't we be past the flu/cold season??

Man United won both the Premiership and the Champions League! Here's Rory pre-Champions final last week. In fact, from the week leading up to the final Premiership game until the final Champions league game in Moscow, Rory was donning the Man United kit almost every day after school, only consenting to removing it for dinner and bath time. Like father, like son.

Last weekend we took the boys to Toro regional park, which I had never been to. It's quite expansive, with lots of oak trees and different sections in which to amuse oneself: grassy, picnic and playground areas. The new banner image is a picture of the boys refueling after some exploration - lots of moth caterpillars out around the oak trees.

Everyone was better this week just in time for the jam-packed first 24 hours of the weekend, which kicked off last night at our local pizza joint for Bryce's 4th birthday. He, Ardan, Skylar and Rory are pretty much the Tide Pool posse, inseparable whenever together. Us parents get along nicely as well, so it's always fun to spend time all together.

Then today it was off to nearby Archer Park just before lunch for Nikos' 3rd birthday. Lots of kids, soccer balls, hot dogs, hamburgers, grapes, running, sliding, chocolate cake with strawberries and ice cream cones. Funny thing about coincidences... Almost exactly one year ago we were at a Sanctuary bonfire down on Carmel Beach. Bill and Matt were throwing a football ('puni' in Roryspeak, and why he first called it a 'puni' is still a mystery to us, but the name has stuck) and a wayward pass of Bill's tagged Rory upside the head. This afternoon, the two of them were playing catch again - which I don't think they have done since the incident last year - when another pass from Bill caught Rory on the cheekbone. Luckily this time it was with Rory's own soft mini puni, instead of the adult-size pigskin of a year ago. Little trooper was soon right back out there, though.