Canoeing on Town Lake

Yeah, I know it's Lady Bird Lake now, but whatever you choose to call it, Saturday morning was our first time as a family unit to take a canoe out on the lake. We set off relatively early, but it was probably 10:00 AM before we hit the water, and man oh man, that sun started beating down around 10:45 or 11:00 and Spencer said he was ready to go back to shore.

Canoeing on the lake is one of those Austin experiences that when you do it, you keep asking yourself, "Why don't we ever do this??" Anyway, we saw lots of turtles, fish, some ducks, a couple of swans and of course loads of hydrilla. Spencer was such a gentleman, remembering not to move around too much or lean over the side and he helped paddle from time to time. It was a super way to start the weekend!

p.s. Spencer got sick again Friday night. He woke up around 10:00 PM and puked more than I thought one preschooler was capable of! But it was one-n-done, so I think his dinner just didn't agree with him. (I think his tummy is a little off because of the antibiotics from the last illness.) Anyway, when I was cleaning him up in the bathroom, he said in the sweetest, sleepiest little voice, "I like canoeing..." He was already thinking about our Saturday morning plans, and when I told him that we'd have to see how he was feeling the next morning, he started to cry a little bit. I'm glad we didn't have to disappoint our little guy.

Sick Boy

Spencer has been fighting some sort of sickness for almost two weeks. He would have fever for a day or two, then it would go away. His nose would be super runny one day and pretty normal the next. But this week he developed a wet cough and his fever spiked a couple of times. Since we found out a few kids at school were diagnosed with RSV, we decided to pay a trip to Dr. Bayer. The visit culminated with a finger prick blood test and this is how Spencer felt about that:

Sick People and Computers, Plus a Train Exhibit

Oh my stars! Where has this month gone? The last week has been nutty. First, Spencer stayed home from school last Friday because he said his tummy was hurting. He ended up "spitting up" as we say several times throughout the day and night, but seemed fine the next day. He got to hang out on the couch watching Frosty, Rudolph and all sorts of fun stuff so he didn't mind being sick. Then around midnight Sunday/Monday, I got hit with whatever he had. It. Was. Bad. And then Spencer had a little relapse Monday night. Poor Dave was such an MVP taking care of us and everything else, including my computer, while trying to fight a touch of the bug himself. Yes, my computer crashed - that's the other reason I've been absent from the blog. But now we are slowly getting back up to speed and determined to squeeze every bit of holiday magic out of the next week!

Jenni and I took Spencer to a neat model train exhibit downtown on Sunday. There were lots of trains to look at, plus Spencer was able to "drive" one for a few minutes and he thought that was really neat. Afterwards, we got some hot chocolate and a sandwich. It was a super fun afternoon with Jenni! I hope this video works the way I've uploaded directly here...

On the way home, Jenni had the awesome idea of stopping at a business on S. Lamar that has a bunch of old fashioned lawn decorations in their front lawn - including the elusive Baby Jesus display! Yes, Spencer has been on the lookout for Baby Jesus and I'm glad Jenni was able to help us fulfill that request.

We have more holiday activities scheduled this weekend and I promise to update the blog sooner rather than later!