Oh Hello.

We're still here.

Apologies for our absence, especially when this month started out so promising. It's certainly not been for lack of stories because there are plenty.

I was still hanging in there pretty well after we all got sick at the beginning of the month, but when we all got sick again before most of us had even recovered from the first round staying up late to post was about the last thing on my mind.

And of course, somewhere in there some serious birthday planning somehow managed to take place.

The party is on Saturday, but we've got some pretty fun things on order to celebrate the big day tomorrow – and at least one thing on order that I hope will turn out to be a fun thing (or at least something we can look back on and laugh about).

Since we're saving the party for the weekend, and since the boys have long since reached the point of needing a haircut, and since getting one's first haircut is rather a rite of passage kind of a thing it seemed fitting somehow to plan it for their birthday – so tomorrow morning we're off to the barber to say goodbye to Seth's mullet and see if something can't be done to tame Nate's wild mane.

Of course, between now and then there just might be a couple of new posts tomorrow morning – at say, 8:53 and 8:54 AM.

- L.

PS. Odds are good that the boys will barely be awake at their respective birth-times this year, much less fully dressed and at play like they were last year. I can't even say with any certainty which bed they might be found in these days. For all I know, tomorrow's pics might look an awful lot like the one I took this morning when we all woke up:

For the record, Nate found waking up next to Seth and Mommy especially amusing today, but plenty of giggles from both my boys preceded this shot.