Health
Last time, I wrote about how I had to get my tonsils out — well, I did! It was as awful as everyone said it would be, to be completely honest. In my follow up appointment, my ENT said that my tonsils were “memorable” and that wasn’t a good thing. It turns out, that I had a pretty bad actinomyces infection in my right tonsil. We were lucky that Mark’s parents came and stayed with us the first week of recovery to help out with the kids because I was definitely down and out. I felt very fortunate to have friends who kept me in a constant supply of Coke Icees. I was so nervous about getting my tonsils out that I went out to eat almost every single night for the two weeks before just so I could cram in all the good foods before I was unable to eat for a few weeks. I’m fully recovered now, but sometimes I feel some phantom tonsil pain when I know I’m about to get super sick. I also saw a pulmonologist and switched up all my meds, and I think, maybe optimistically, that things are on the upswing with my lungs.
Family
Rory is just growing up so fast! She is a hoot – she has recently learned how to say “no” and express her opinions on what she wants to wear or eat. She has been gaining so many words so fast — most of them are related to foods still but she’s starting to say her numbers, letters, colors, and shapes. Her favorite thing is to watch Ms. Rachel on YouTube and we’re pretty sure most of her words come from there. Her favorite songs are the ones on the Ms. Rachel playlist on Spotify, and we will not be shocked if our top song is Icky Sticky Bubblegum. She is Miss Independent and will try to do everything herself like put on her shoes and socks.
Logan is Mr. Busy – his weekends are filled with birthday parties and playdates. He is doing tennis, singing lessons, and now t-ball at school! He still loves tennis because he gets 2 lollipops at the end of it. His class just started climbing on the climbing wall at school, and he’s trying really hard to make incremental progress so he can get to the top. He loves science class still, and he’s been working hard on getting the right pencil grip so he can write more letters. He’s also been slowly learning to read! It’s been really fun watching him learn more and more sight words. This age is so fun because he’s so enthusiastic and generally throws his whole self into everything he does. We’ve been doing a lot of science experiments together, and he’s still building a lot of lego creations on his own. Poor kid has been plagued with so many random illnesses but he’s been a trooper through all the doctor’s appointments.
Mark is still at OpsLevel just like last time! He took a week off of work to create a game called Ric Rac Rogue: https://katerberg.github.io/ric-rac-rogue/. It was super fun to play!
Work
Work is fine? Still at Stitch Fix, still pretty good. Basically the same as last entry for me!
Reading
GoodReads tells me that I’ve read 28 books so far this year, but I couldn’t tell you much about most of them. I am currently reading Atomic Habits and plan to get a hardcopy of it as I’m hoping to instill some good habits in myself and the family! I have mostly been reading fun stuff to destress from the day. I did just cancel Kindle Unlimited since I’m getting most of my books from the library these days.
Watching
I watched the newest season of Love is Blind with the rest of my friends, but I haven’t been really watching much else that’s new. We cancelled our Netflix in favor of YouTube Premium for the kids and travel, so I’m not even watching my favorite old shows either. I did watch all of Only Murders in the Building when I got my tonsils out and that was a fun show.
Parties
Well, this was sure a great quarter for some parties! Logan and I always plan his birthday party together starting in January. He chose a volcano theme, so we decided to hire a Mad Scientist to do a Fire and Ice presentation for the kids. About a week before, I started panicking because most of the kids said yes to coming to his party, and so I bought literally a dozen extra large picnic blankets so we could move the presentation outside and give the kids some space to sit. We got lucky — it didn’t rain on the day of his party, and we put out every blanket we owned so the kids could cuddle up under the blankets and watch the show. Electron Eli was phenomenal and all the kids were enthralled the entire time! Mark added in a surprise of cotton candy for the kids from the Mad Scientist as well. I ended up hiring a college kid to help out so I could enjoy the party and I’m so so so glad that I did!! It was a great party, and we’re feeling very fortunate that over 50 kids showed up, and it wasn’t total chaos!
We also became Kansas City Chiefs fans this year and threw a Swift Bowl party! Our friends love a good theme, and we had an incredible spread of food across four separate tables that were all themed after different Taylor Swift lyrics. Unfortunately, Mark got stomach flu right at the start of the party so he missed it. Everyone showed up in themed shirts/sweatshirts, and we had a blast cheering for Taylor every time the Chiefs scored. We were all enthralled when the Super Bowl went to over time, and obviously, so so happy when the Chiefs won in the end.
We also had an Eclipse party with Mark’s family and our friends Ashley and John. We went to Ashley’s mom’s house for the second solar eclipse — how lucky are we that we got to see it from the same location both times!! We were worried about cloud coverage but it was almost entirely clear the entire time! Mark’s brother came in from Chicago for a surprise visit which made the experience extra special and fun. Rory never really looked up at the sun, like usual. Logan learned about it in class, so he was very careful about wearing his eclipse glasses to look at the sun. Truly magical experience.
Travel
You would think with all those parties, where would we have the time to travel? And yet… we went to Atlanta for Logan’s spring break. We got to see my friends Snow and Elijah while we were there. Everyone had one activity – Rory’s was the aquarium, mine the Coke Museum, Mark’s the presidential library, and Logan was going to the Lego Discovery Center. We got an airbnb in a chill part of town that was very walkable, and it was overall a very fun trip despite us all having colds. The kids were great on the plane thanks to some old phones from their grandma.
This past weekend, we went to Innsbrook with a friend and her kids, and that was also surprisingly chill and filled with great food. The kids seem to be pretty good at traveling, and having disruptions to their routine. In two weekends from now, we’re going to Austin for my cousin’s baby shower, and the kids seem pretty excited to see my family.
Random Bits and Pieces
We’re really leaning into FaceTime calls so the kids get to know their family better. As Logan is understanding more and more about his surroundings and world, we’re trying to integrate the parts of culture that we want to spend time and energy on with both kids. I’m trying to focus more on how to start small but mighty habits that we can build upon. It’s hard with all the illnesses and distractions of life but I know it’s for the best in the long run. Trying to figure out a good balance of doing things with intention even if it’s not perfect. Knock on wood, but life is pretty chill right now, so I want to focus on thriving instead of just surviving.