where does time go?

Hard to believe it's been five days since I updated here. We've had a busy couple days, as I am sure most people have. Christmas Eve Andy worked a half day and we opened our presents and went to the Christmas Eve service at church. The night before I'd taken time to pull apart Stephan's little Thomas train set and get it all ready for him to play after opening. The wooden train set we found at Target came with a battery operated Thomas, which worked when I opened the box and then for about five minutes of Stephan playing ... then he stopped, not to chug again. I was pretty miffed. At this point all the stores have nothing in stock so there wasn't much hope for a replacement and the company website says they don't help with replacement parts, you have to take care of it where you purchased.

We attempted to check Target for a replacement and, of course, nothing. Our next hope was that Papa could maybe somehow fix Thomas, so we bought Stephan the Percy engine with a gift card from my aunt so he'd at least have something to play with in the meantime. We then moved on to enjoy the Christmas Eve service at church and head home to play with presents. This was a bit interesting since Andy and I both got video games for the Wii, but I won out since his was World at War and inappropriate to play around Stephan. I easily got sucked into Super Paper Mario. Played for a couple hours since a couple of the "puzzles" had me stuck for a bit. I think I'm going to "cheat" as my older brother would say and get the game guide. With that I might have a chance of enjoying the game and getting past places where I get stuck! I also got a fun copy of Grease, a movie I enjoy but haven't purchased yet. My stocking contained some fun mechanical pencils (the lead automatically keeps coming out as you use it), a new book by Kristin Billerbeck, The Trophy Wives Club, and some yummy Dove chocolate covered almonds.

Chrismas day we eventually got our act together and headed up to the in-laws. Andy and I rolled out and fried our lefse while Nana finished prep on dinner. After eating Stephan napped and when he woke up we did presents. He got a fun rocket ship with astronauts from Uncle Dan and a Geo Trax train that he can control with a remote from Nana & Papa. He loved the space ship and will once in a while say he needs to check on the astronauts to make sure they are okay. The train didn't come with tracks and cannot be played with on the carpet, so we drove it around on Nana & Papa's kitchen floor. They went out on Friday and found some tracks so when we get back from Chicago he'll finally be able to have fun with that train and the guys and garage and station that he has. Andy was super excited for his GPS, which is much cooler than I originally thought, and I got Animal Crossing so I was happy as a lark. I also got some fun hair towels that I'll have to try out here soon.

Friday I went to take one of my students to the museum and zoo. Someone didn't do their paperwork so that made it fun to pick her up, but we made it to our planetarium show and had fun wandering around the musuem, eating lunch, and then heading to the zoo. After dropping her off and heading home we played some and then got ready for the Nuggets game. The youth group at church got a bunch of tickets and the tix came with a drink and hot dog, so we went and Stephan had a blast. He was fun to watch and by the end was chanting "de-fence" along with everyone else and clapping.

Saturday we began to notice some eye goop and weren't sure quite what to do about it. We played and ran a few errands and finally called to talk with a nurse who sent Andy out to get some eye drops, determining he had pink eye. I now have it too, so Stephan and I are both taking the eye drops and I'm hopeful that all will be cleared up here before we head to Chicago on Tuesday. One of the fun parts of my day was finally getting to play Animal Crossing with my sister. We had fun, it's nice to be able to play and spend time together even when we are miles apart.

This morning we are watching Thomas and playing while Andy headed to do the 2yo class, since so far he doesn't have the goo. I can't believe that we are already thinking about packing and getting ready to head off to Chicago in two days. I'm excited to go see my family and get to a couple museums too since our membership can get us in to four of the musums for free. Parking might suck, but we'll figure that out.