beware the ides of march

Poor Jimmy. We, his bad, naughty parents, decided it was high time he not have a bottle anymore. He had been in the habit of drinking himself to sleep (water) and then wetting himself awake. It was beginning to be a very out of control cycle; and tired of middle-of-the-night sheet and pj changing, we decided to go cold turkey and withhold his beloved "B.B.Bah". Sadly this happened when he had "hot spots" or little red blisters on his feet from his brace (however, to our credit we thought we had that situation fixed) and a double ear infection (which of course we did not know until later on). Now, several days (and nights later) I am happy to report we are now sleeping - all four of us - through the night and are certainly hopeful this will continue (although I guess seeing our history of the last two years, I shouldn't bet on it).

But what I will bet on is my NCAA brackets. Nate and I have been doing the bracket thing for the last ten years ago, and according to my calcuations I have won all but once (which happened to be last year). The bet - winner gets to pick the restaurant for dinner. Not a big bet to most, I realize, but then you must know I am not that kind of woman. Grace keeps asking Nate, "Daddy, when will all of this Madness start?" and Nate (who says he saves all his TV time for March, happily replies "very, very soon." My strategy for picking the winners - base it all on colors and geography of the teams and if it comes down to it, their mascot. I stay as far away from basketball during the regular season so I won't be too influenced by what the ESPNers have to say. Last year I learned a bit too much, and now you know my downfall.

Grace wanted to know what St. Patrick's Day was all about, and instead of bogging her down with details I told her it was a day we celebrated our Irish heritage. She then said, "You mean, were some Irishes?" On Sunday we celebrated my Irish-American-Chicagoan heritage and invited our neighbors over for corned beef and cabbage. They were an important part to our feast, as they contributed to Guinness (yes, you got it a fine Irish Stout). This is what I cooked our brisket in this year and I have to say it was incredibly good. It also allowed me to say the following to my mom as she was about to hang up her cell phone and head into church, "Enjoy church, Mom, I'm just going to pop open a Guinness over here."