Desperate Times...

This morning Ben was playing with his train tracks and managed to get one stuck on his finger. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal to remove, since he obviously didn't have much trouble getting it on. But when I tried sliding or twisting it off, it wouldn't budge. Ben was crying and his finger kept getting more purple as the minutes went by. I tried butter and cooking spray to grease the track, but to no avail. I briefly considered taking him to urgent care, but then realized that they'd probably just do what I was considering as my next step. So out I went to the garage and pulled out our full-sized saw (we don't have anything smaller) and proceeded to have Ben lie on his stomach with strict instructions to not move as I sawed the track off his finger. Yes, you read that right. I hope no one from CPS is reading this and the thought crossed my mind of how I would explain using a saw on my son if any blood was spilled.

Thankfully, I managed to make small motions and within a few minuted had cut enough that I could then snap the side off the track and free his finger. I thought Ben would be relieved, but his first words were: "Mom, you broke my train track!" I guess he didn't quite understand that it was either a broken train track or a broken finger.

Before the procedure began. You can see the saw on the counter.

Poor red-eyed Ben after his beloved train track was amputated.

A fairly clean cut with no bodily harm done.

Feeling the Love

Sorry for being such a blog slacker lately, these pictures are only a week late. Quite an accomplishment for me it seems.

I love traditions and we don't have that many in our family, so I decided that this year we'd make heart-shaped pancakes. Since Ben has to have different ones, we dyed his red to add to the festive mood.

Andy's free-hand heart-shaped pancake. I started trying to make the pancakes in a tiny heart-shaped cookie cutter, but it was taking too long so we decided to free-hand it. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for a large heart-shaped mold for next year.

My feeble attempt at a heart pancake. Thankfully, Ben didn't seem to mind.

Mixing the batter...

Ben's haul from his first-ever school Valentine's Day party. I had a bout of nostalgia, getting excited for him to show me each different Valentine. Did anyone else love doing that in elementary school? Decorating your little V-day letter box or envelope then awaiting anxiously to see who would give you what card? My most memorable was in the fifth grade when I got an unsigned Michael Jordan valentine enscribed with the words, "I Like You." I spent the rest of the day looking around the room, wondering which boy gave it to me. I have my suspicions, but never found out the giver.

Kicking Myself

Aargh!!! I waited too long to sign Ben up for the Hilliard City Preschool program and now there's basically no chance he'll get in. It's a really high demand program because the curriculum is good and it's four days/week for only $100 since it's partly subsidized by property taxes. So now I have to scramble and find something else that will be twice as expensive, farther away (the HCSD preschool is literally a mile down the road), and with none of his friends. Why am I such a slacker????? I hesitated because it's four days a week and I worried that it might be too much, but can see now that Ben would do just fine.

Wanted: School suggestions/ideas from the locals. Or from those of you who live farther away, what did you do for preschool for your kid(s)? Was it as ridiculously expensive as I feel like private preschool is?