Hiatus

Every year when the signs for flu shots pop up, I know that the winter "crud" season is right around the corner. None of us ever seems to be healty enough during the winter to actually get a flu shot. We're always just a little bit sick - though not the flu - and the warnings about people getting the flu from an actual flu shot make me just a little bit too nervous to risk. We've got enough drama.

This year is no different. We all have bit of a cough and runny nose. We're... musical. The coughing makes Will crack up, so at least we've got something going for us. About 2 weeks ago, Matt woke up from a nap with an infected lymph node in his neck that looked like an ostrich egg. Scared us all right to the ER. He's been on antibiotics since, and doing fine (though he tells me nightly that his medicine is "very very yucky.")

It was at that point that I realized that I needed to help out my immune system by getting a little bit more sleep. When you work and have kids and want some time with your spouse and to do your hobbies, the hours of sleep are often shortened. Doesn't do much to help fight that annual crud infestation.

So I took a small hiatus from the blog to allow myself a bit of sleep. I hope you haven't missed us too much. Things are going fine!

Because I am so far behind, I have a lot of photos to show. In fact, we were away this past weekend and I just downloaded the pictures off the camera. There were more than 400. From a single weekend. But don't worry, I won't upload them all.

Here are some of our photos from Halloween. Earlier this year, Luke was adamant that he be Super Why for Halloween. I was 2 minutes from ordering his costume when I checked with him again. It appeared that peer pressure may have influenced Luke's choice in Halloween costume, because he changed his mind to Superman! We decided to go with that as a theme - Will was Spiderman and Matt was Batman. Walking around for trick-or-treating, I felt like a very safe mom. Surrounded by so many superheroes.

This was the only individual photo I could get of Luke standing up straight. For some reason the minute he put that Superman costume on and I took out the camera, he crouched down. The foam muscles on his costume bent concavely and his chest looked... well... weird. Weirder than foam muscles on a 5 year old.

Matt's always been the king of the faces. Imagine my surprise when I jokingly told him to show me all his muscles and this is what he did. Notice the Kit Kat stuck strategically in his Batman belt. Matt fell in love with "Kitty Kats" during this Halloween season. Over the course of trick-or-treating, he would often lean over a bucket of candy at a house and ask the owner if they had any "Kitty Kats" in there. Most people were confused.

Though we live in a single story house, we live in a community with a lot of 2 and 3 story houses. A lot of them have 8-10 steps to get to their front door. This is not really so conducive to a trick-or-treating Spiderman in a wheelchair! Will was able to go to some houses, but he was really the happiest walking around with all his brothers and friends, and when the sun set, he really enjoyed watching the finger LED flashlights that the boys all got at the first house they trick-or-treated at!

It was a good year for the Slaviks! The candy bounty was plentiful and diverse. And aside from Matt's love for Kit Kats and Skittles, the the Slavik kids really don't have too much interest in candy. Good thing the Slavik parents do.