At 7am, Evan was a baby. By 8am, he was a little boy.

Daddy performed his first haircut. And Mommy didn't cry (yay!). He did really well, actually. Just sat on my lap, wondering what was going on. He looks so different..... so.... so grown up. *sigh* (I could not get the kid to look at me for ANYTHING -- he's just so busy).

Before:

After:

GAHHH! This week got away from me! It was Sunday, then it was today. Now I have to try to remember what happened during the five days between Sunday and today.

I took Evan to the doctor on Monday. He'd spent several days acting not-like-himself. Clingy. Whiny. Not eating well (!!). Normally I probably would've just let it run its course, but this time I really wanted the doctor to check his ears because the last thing I want to do is to take him in an airplane with an ear infection. Can you imagine?

Well, his ears are okay. Not perfect, but not quite infected either. Story of his life. They wrote me a script for Amoxicillin with the instruction to fill it if he gets worse in the next few days. He didn't get worse. So I didn't fill the script.  He goes back on Monday for his regular 15-month appointment (at the ripe old age of 16 months) so we'll at least have one last look before the Florida trip.

Oh! And he weighed 26 pounds, 6 ounces (diaper on) Monday. I was surprised -- my arms told me he weighs more than that.

Tuesday, I joined the 21st century -- I got a Smartphone. I didn't want to, but my other phone died, and after exploring all the options (read: the other three options for non Smartphones), I caved. I admit, I think I'm falling in love. Soon, I won't know how I lived without it.

Wednesday, I started reading The Night Circus based on several recommendations from friends. It's a library book. I haven't borrowed a library book in years -- many, many years -- but it's too new to be in paperback, and it's $13 to buy it for Kindle (more than I want to spend, either way), and I wanted to read it. It's a darn good book so far too! I hope to have it finished before we go to Florida.

Thursday, Sean and I painted shark sun-catchers. Sean's turned out way better than mine.

Friday is just Friday. Enough said.

And that brings us to today, otherwise known as 7 DAYS TILL FLORIDA! Dan & the boys had peppermint patties for breakfast. Evan was a fan.

Saturday. 

Kerry, Kim, and I thought it'd be fun to take our kids to the circus. Ummm..... yeah. We won't be doing that again at this particular venue. 

When I took Sean to the circus last year, the arena was huge and could accommodate thousands of people, even though there definitely weren't thousands of people there. And the seats were chairs. 

The arena that hosted last night's circus was significantly smaller. With bleachers. But that didn't stop them from stuffing what seemed like thousands of people in there anyway. Can you say "sardine central?"

Good times. 

But really, the kids had a blast (well, except Myra who actually ended up leaving early because she couldn't handle all the stimulation and noise....). Sean loved the "moving balloons" (which were really people running around in huge inflatable costumes, but they looked like moving balloons to him), the animal acts, the trapeze artists, and especially the motorcycle stunts. Oh those motorcycle stunts. He would just gasp and scream and cheer and clap with every rev of the engine and trip up the ramp. His enjoyment was absolutely priceless and made the whole sardine-packing experience worth it!

(And we even got out of there without buying a ridiculously cheap-expensive light-up toy or balloon. All he wanted was a snowcone and a pretzel. Easy!)

Sunday.

I took the boys over to Grandpa & Grandma's this morning because I wanted to take some pictures over there. And of course, we had to take advantage of the fact that we actually have snow on the ground -- which shouldn't be a shocker during January in Michigan, but this winter has been whiplash-inducing with the temps ranging from zeros to high 40s (which melts all the snow we got when it was in the zeros) -- so I bundled up Sean and he & Grandpa went out to do some sledding.

Sean had a blast!
Grandpa had a blast!

Sean played outside for over 1/2 hour, even after Grandpa came inside to get out of the cold. Sean just continued to slide down the hill, then push the sled back up, and do it all over again.

He took a really good nap this afternoon. Haha!

(I added a January album to Shutterfly today... finally!)

13 DAYS TILL FLORIDA!

70 DAYS TILL VEGAS!

316 DAYS TILL FLORIDA (Part 2)!

Flights? Check.
Rental Car? Check.
Villa? Check.
Packing list? Check.
Kitty/house sitter? Check.
Day by day itinerary? Are you kidding me? This is a vacation!

I can't believe it's just 17 days away! The past several weeks have passed by quickly amid my preoccupation with getting the Vegas details hammered out. And now that Vegas is taken care of, I can sit back and bask in the excitement about the Florida trip.

Oh wait. There will be no basking. There will be prepping and packing and prepping and packing. But I'm definitely excited!!

And I confess: I'm nervous. Evan has never been on a plane before! Well, I guess he *technically* has been on a plane before. But as he was a 7-week embryo at the time, I'm guessing he has no recollection of it. I wonder if he slept (?).  I hope he's a good traveler as a 16-month old non-embryo.... and he doesn't do that S~C~R~E~A~M~I~N~G thing he likes to do when he's mad or frustrated or bored or happy....

Whiskey. That's it. We'll spike his milk with whiskey if he starts screaming. (Adding that to packing list as I type). Evan will take whiskey, I'll take Xanax, and he & I will watch the backsides of our eyelids so the rest of the passengers on the plane can try to enjoy the flight.

It's definitely different preparing for this trip as opposed to our 2010 Florida trip when we had half as many kids. But at least we're not leaving civilization -- that's what I keep reminding myself. Orlando does have Target, McDonalds, and Mountain Dew. We'll be just fine.