Dr. Dan the Bandage Man

It's been a busy several days around the Balas house as we prepare for our trip to visit Mike and Mom in Florida. Pip is super excited about flying in an airplane and I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it so much in advance of our trip. He keeps talking about how he's going to "rescue" me on the plane - he has it in his head that that is what you do on airplanes. I try to tell him we aren't flying until Wednesday and he just responds with "Ok Mommy, we'll go this afternoon". He's very impressed with himself that he understands "this afternoon" as in some time in the future.

We also averted near disaster when Pip sliced his finger with his little knife while cutting apples on Saturday. I was literally standing next to him watching him carefully saw the apple as I had showed him, marveling at what a great parent I am not to be afraid of things but to let my child explore safely. Yada, yada, yada. Then he got too close to the finger holding the apple and blood squirted everywhere. Up until this point bandaids were only used for fun. He was quite scared of using it for the real thing and luckily Daddy was around to help hold and calm him. Once the bandaid was applied he was quite proud of his brave self and insisted it stay on at all times. He also exercised great caution in using the finger going forward. Even ate a whole bag of Cheetos without getting the bandaid orange. Every night since then he's requested "Dan the Bandage Man" as one of his nighttime books.

Viv is also getting her share of bruises commensurate with her wild crawling and cruising skills. We'll be a formidable family in Florida, I think.

For the cute files, Pip and Viv went with me to get a swim suit for our trip Sunday. I had to cart them into the dressing room with me and as I put it on I instructed Pip to tell me how beautiful I looked when I asked him. A few seconds later I said, "Ok Pip, how does Mommy look?". He turned, looked me up and down, smiled big and said, "Mommy, you look so comfortable!". I guess I'll take it.

Here's Phil's morning report:
It was a pretty fun morning at the homestead. Pip was up by 6:45, but I opted not to get him from his room. He was being very cute and singing songs to himself, so I just lay in bed and listened for a while. He was belting out Old MacDonald verses like a champ! Eventually we got up and went downstairs for cereal and yogurt. He watched Handy Manny while I showered. Viv was still sleeping and finally woke up around 7:40. She was in a good mood, but hungry as usual. Once fed, she crawled around happily for the rest of the morning. It was very cold and windy, so I had to carry Pip to the car and then to school. He's a bit of a baby when it comes to that. He stated that he didn't want to line up, and fortunately the kids were already in PS1, so bullet dodged. It turns out that Isabelle and Morgan both had boo-boos on their fingers, so Pip swapped some war stories and was very excited. He almost forgot to say bye, but finally he ran over and threw a kiss at me and Viv. Viv had a good drop off and told everyone about her upcoming vacation. All the ladies were jealous.