Let us all now pause for a moment to admire Daniel's first shiner. It happened at daycare on Thursday when he was attempting to maneuver around another child seated in a chair at the table. The other child decided to get up, Daniel lost his balance and "biffed it"--the exact words of his teacher when she called to report the injury. Apparently his misery was short-lived--he was back to playing after a few hugs and some ice--but the evidence remains. This photo was taken the next morning--a little puffy, but otherwise no big deal.

We're in the middle of our annual February thaw--it's 50 today and not supposed to dip below freezing until Tuesday night. We took the opportunity for some "outdoor" play yesterday--on the screen porch. There's still enough snow that full snow gear would be required outside, but it was warm enough that this probably wouldn't have been too comfortable. Plus, it's so much less effort to just throw on jackets and shoes and play on the porch. They did go out to the "melted" part of the yard for a bit, but it was pretty muddy. It actually was a little chillier than I thought because Ed asked for mittens and his hat. His mittens were still soaked from his morning play at school, but I got the hat and he seemed happy. In the end, it was Daniel who tired of the endeavor first. Both had to change pants when we came in--the porch may not be snowy, but it's still damp if you sit on the floor. Ed was disappointed that all his comfy sweats were in the laundry but he pulled out shorts and asked if he could wear them? Why not? This excitement carried through the whole evening, especially when John came home and decided he'd follow suit after changing from his work clothes.

Speaking of excitement, it seems the stars have aligned for Ed to attend his first Hawkeye basketball game later this afternoon. It's a rare 5 p.m. start time, which means no conflict with sleeping (usually they're earlier in the afternoon conflicting with naps or later in the evening conflicting with bedtime) and the team is SO abysmal this year that they've actually started selling tickets for $10 each just to get people in the seats. Attendance has been hovering at around half the arena capacity, a sad commentary on fair-weather fans, but honestly, would you pay $30+ to watch the 10th ranked team in the Big 10? We wouldn't pay that much for a three-year-old EVER. We'll see how it goes. John is hoping they'll make it through at least the first half and anything after that is gravy.

A brief update on my academic pursuits. I'm taking statistics this semester and have already made it through 1/4 of the class (3 weeks.) It's pretty boring so far, but that's almost welcome after my challenges with finance last semester. The book is open on the desk next to me, but I'm not terribly inspired to work on the homework. The time required for reading and homework (at least so far) is much more within my comfort zone.