It would seem that most everyone we know has had a touch of some type of illness, be it a stomach flu or just the standard aches and pains. I was sick last Wednesday evening, although it seemed to pass pretty quickly. Deuce started getting sick on Saturday, and he’s still not 100%.

Dana and I were heading to the Pens game on Saturday night, and Grandma and Grandpa A. were going to babysit. We headed to Napoli’s for some pizza before the game, but when we went to leave, Deuce got upset. That’s pretty atypical, he usually likes when Grandma A. watches him. We chalked it up to him being tired (he had just woken up from a nap) and went to the game.

On the way home from the game, Dana called to check on Deuce. He was very lazy and developed a bit of a fever. So we took him home, got a bath, and went to bed. Sunday and Monday he ran a pretty good fever and was really just cranky, but who can blame him if he’s sick. Yesterday he felt a little better, but not good enough to go to school, so he was home with me.

I woke up before him to get to the office this morning. Dana called and said he woke up, peed, and went right back to sleep. So no school again today. He spent the morning at Grandma A’s, and he’ll be home with Dana most of the afternoon.

He seems to be getting better, but it is a pretty slow process. Hopefully tomorrow he’ll be able to make school.

We’ve never been really comfortable with taking Deuce to the movies. It’s mostly the worry that he won’t like the movie, get bored, and start carrying on (or want to go home). Given the cost of movies today, that’s $20 down the drain (matinée prices, not the “prime” prices). But we had to take a chance once, and Bee Movie looked like a pretty good bet.

So Dana, Deuce, and I went to the movies on Sunday afternoon. Deuce was incredibly well behaved and was genuinely interested in the entire movie. Granted, the popcorn and pop may have helped get his attention, but he did very well. The movie was really good, with just enough adult humor to be entertaining while still being fun for kids.

The only thing that’s left is figuring out what movie we’ll go to next!

As if it’s a huge shock to anyone, Deuce will be Thomas the Tank Engine for Halloween. Hopefully it doesn’t pour down rain like last year.

With Grandma and Grandpa A gone all week, Deuce had his first full week of school. Sure, he’s been there a week at a time before, but it’s been quite a long time since that happened. As is typical of school, he had a field trip yesterday to the local orchard for a hayride through the pumpkin patch, which they said he enjoyed very much.

I haven’t posted much about Deuce’s development, but it seems as though the change was overnight. He went from not potty trained to completely potty trained in about a week. Granted, the time before that was “Do you have to go potty?,” twenty times, with “NO!” being the answer every time, and then him peeing his pants. I think it was more his willingness to do it than anything else. Similarly, his speech seems to have picked up overnight. He’s starting to speak in full sentences and he’s not “parroting” nearly as much. According to his teachers at school, he’s also interacting much better with his classmates, which is very nice to hear.

So that’s the Deuce update for the time being. I’m sure the holidays will bring new and exciting news (or at least some new and exciting toys ).

That’s right, I finally got of my lazy butt and uploaded some of the pictures we’ve taken this year. It’s been a pretty light year as far as picture taking is concerned, but hopefully I’ll make a better effort to take the camera when we go places.

Below are the links. Remember that you have to login and register to view these. Nothing more than trying to protect some of our anonymity.

• A Day Out With Thomas : That’s right, we went on a real train ride with Thomas.
• 2007 in a Nutshell : Just a bunch of miscellaneous pictures from 2007.

Pictures from Topsail 2007 will be posted when I can teach Dana how to upload them. Hopefully if her and I both are capable of doing it, it will get done more. But I’m not making any promises.