Skiing, seven days of solstice and a sebaceous cyst.

Jon came home from work last night and said he planned to take the day off today and take Sollie (and himself) skiing. We decided we would all go up and try Margo out in a beginning ski lesson, with me close by to help her out if need be. A little boring for me walking around the ski area with the baby or hanging out in the lodge but I thought it would be nice to get up to the snow and the mountains. It's usually a lot clearer and sunnier up there. Okay... cue the violins, Mira woke up last night around 11:30 and screamed bloody murder until around 2 am. She has a slight runny nose and a very slight, occasional cough, so our best guess is that she's a little sick and having a hard time sleeping.
This morning I decided I had better stay back with her in case she decides to do some more screaming and to make sure she gets some regular naps today. Big drag for me! Margo decided to stay with me and to wait to take lessons until someone (Jon or myself) could be close by.
Margo and I decided (mostly me) that we (she) would not spend the day making outrageous demands of each other and then yelling at the other other when said outrageous demands were not immediately fulfilled.
So far it's been a little shaky.

Today is the third day of solstice. The first night the kids got some new games. Sollie's is a little kid's backgammon game, which he loves! Margo's is a marble game, which she wasn't as crazy about. Last night was the second night and also the last night of Hanukkah. I gave the kids their joint gift early, which was a beeswax candle rolling kit and they made candles for the menorah, which we lit at sun down. We also made some potato latkes for dinner and we talked about Hanukkah and other winter holidays. Then when Jon got home from work we opened the other presents. Solomon declared his "boring", which I of course told him was rude. His present was some water color pencils, I figured out that he thought they were more ordinary colored pencils, once he figured out what they were he set to working on a picture. Margo's present was some lacing animals, which I thought would be good for demonstrating to the kids different stitches. They both are pretty good at working with sharp needles and threads but I thought this was a good unsupervised version for practicing with.
Tonight they are getting an actual toy! Solomon's present is a set of Lego worker people. Jon decided he needed more people, so we found this set- hopefully he'll like them. Margo is getting a Playmobil fairy set, which goes with her advent calendar. I can imagine Sollie will probably be disappointed to not get more Playmobil also.... but hopefully he'll be excited about his Lego people.

Tomorrow we are going to work on some lanterns for our solstice lantern walk. I thought I would buy a set of window markers or glass markers and let them go at some jars and then use some wire to make handles. The soy wax I ordered for making candles isn't here yet, which is pretty irritating! They emailed me to tell me the little "flutter dyes" were out and wanted to know if I wanted to wait and have it shipped together. I said yes but I did need it by a certain time, which they assured me it would be in by then... and now solstice is on Monday and still no wax!
Saturday we are taking the kids to see Peter Pan up at the Seattle Children's Theater. I think we will look at the train display and have dinner up there as well. We'll see, maybe we'll spend most of the day up there.
Sunday Jon's boss/friend/bad influence ; ) is coming over with his wife. I think this will be the day I spend trying to relax and do some homey baking and stuff. I think I'll have Jon make his lasagna for dinner. I wanted to get some whiskey and try making some homemade Irish Cream stuff to give away... and just to have some whiskey to put in my coffee when the need arises... and Monday of course is the solstice! This is the "big" present day. Jon is taking the day off from work, we'll hang out, make cinnamon rolls, play with big presents... which hopefully they'll like! Okay, I got a little indoor trampoline for Margo, which I'm not exactly sure where to put it... and a "sparking" razor scooter for Sollie. Another day home, knitting, baking and relaxing... hopefully!

Okay on to the sebaceous cyst... (like the photo it is behind my left ear but thankfully not nearly as large as the one in the photo) So about two and half years ago I noticed what I thought was a new mole on my head. It seemed a little weird and squishy though, I thought I'd have my PCP look at it but never did... Recently I noticed that it's definitely growing larger, so I called and made an appointment it was diagnosed as a sebaceous cyst. I have an appointment with a surgeon on Tuesday. Since my appointment with the PCP it's pretty obviously become infected, as it hurts! And it's still growing. It seemed to reach a point the other day though (I was actually near tears at the end of the day because of the pain from it) and now it seems to be getting a little better. I can not wait for this appointment on Tuesday! I'm sure they will just look at it and make some plans to have it cut out and not actually do it that day... which is a drag because I want it gone! I'll let you know what happens... it's no fun but my friend had one a few years ago on her face. So it could be worse (it can always be worse). She had to see a plastic surgeon because it was on her face, she said he showed it to her after he cut it out, it looked like a slimy marble. Fun. I'm wondering if they are going to shave part of my head? Wouldn't that be fun? I might have to get a new do, which is bad timing because my thin, fine hair is already in bad postpartum shape with lots of odd short bits here and there... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it though. Right now, I'm just trying to not think about it, it sort of has it's own personality when I think about it too much.