Soooo... How's it going...?

Anooj keyed me last night about not having blogged in... well... nearly a year. Truly. Where on earth have I been?
Dax not only says "ma-ma" now, he says it like he means it... in the same sentence as "Mommy... I just need that balloona. I just need that happy balloona." He's amazing. Which reminds me that I've been writing him a letter in my head - you know, the one in all baby books, with only one page (like that could be enough to write how you feel about your child), like you could just jot it down, really quickly, and succinctly, and like, in one afternoon. Whatever.
I've been writing that letter since he was born. Really, since before he was born. And I promise to put words to paper one of these days.

Anooj recently landed a job that now covers us all with health insurance - and not too soon, either, since we're expecting "Take Two!" in February. *whew* But now we can finally put our fears to the test, or literally, Dax's little allergy-body to the test... when we take him in for his well-baby visit next month. We will finally know if he's outgrown his milk and egg allergy. WOW. I keep thinking that I'll just test him myself, one day, just scramble up some eggs and see how he does... but I just couldn't muster the courage. So my weakness will finally be moot. :) Yay!

Dax has been going to "school" since he was bitty (maybe I mentioned when he started school in here somewhere - because I just can't remember when we started him there) - off and on. My job duties and hours have steadily increased over the last year, but we've managed to only have him in school for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. (How could I eek in 35 hours of work last week, with only 12 hours of childcare time, you might wonder...? Me too... I have no idea how I did that).
Next year, though - in just a month - this will change. And he will be enrolled in two NEW schools, each taking him 4 or more hours, two times a week. I'm sad that I won't have lunch with him on those days. But I'm excited for him to sit and have lunch with other children. And see how mealtimes actually work - people sit, and EAT. :) Sweet boy, just loves to run down our hallway, hop back to the table, take a small bite of something, and then run off again...

He's growing up so fast... I know it sounds cliche. But it's true. And what's awesome is that I don't feel like I *missed* anything... even though he was in school... I feel like I got to see so much happen, I got to watch him learn so much, and participated with him in it.

I DO feel like I've been slacking at home, though - when he IS home, we don't focus on learning, or activities... we play with trucks. Or we color. OR, I make a meal while he watches a "movie." I just haven't been the arts-and-crafts-learny-mcschoolerton mom I thought I would be at this stage - when he can actually participate and engage in activities. So I need to work on that.
Tonight, I was supposed to be working, and what I ended up doing was surfing a ton of toddler activity websites - some moms and teachers are just SO creative... I'm so grateful that they felt like they wanted to bless the world by giving their ideas away to moms who've just hit a rut, like me.
Here are just a few, by the way:
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/toddlercrafts.htm
http://www.seabirdchronicles.com/adc/crafts-for-young-children-and-swap.html
And my all-time favorite:
http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/

Anyway, I guess that's enough for me tonight.
I'd normally make the hollow promise that I'll be back again soon with more ThakkerHappy, but... hehehe
I'll start slowly.
:)