He Said, She Said (September 2014 Edition)

Nathan: My hair is tan.
Mommy: Most people would call it blond.
N: Don’t call it blond. Call it tan!
(In previous years he was convinced that his hair color was “gray”!)

*  *  *

Mommy: Sarah, we need to trim your nails. They are long and dirty.
Sarah: But not this one! (pointing to the thumb that she sucks)
M: That’s right because its always in your mouth.
S: (Looking at her other thumb) But this one is dirty.
M: Right, because you don’t suck that thumb.
S: No, I DON’T suck-a this one. (pause) Its not comfortable!
(Later, when trimming nails).
M: We don’t need to trim that nail (referring to her sucking thumb, which always seems to be short)
S: Because I suck it! (Then referring to the other thumb) I don’t usually suck this one, I usually suck the other one!

(Maybe its normal for her age, but it still somewhat surprises me when she uses big words like “comfortable” and “usually”.)

*  *  *

Nathan: (As if making a proclamation) Its Mowing Day!
Daddy: Nathan, Uncle David just mowed our yard on Monday.  What do you mean its mowing day?
N: I need to mow out there (pointing to front yard) with my little mower.  (Turning around to walk away) If you need me, you can open the window and talk to me.
N: (A minute later, he knocks on the window) You need to open the window!
Mommy: Nathan, I'm not going to leave the window open right now.  Its warm outside and cool inside and we don't want all the cool air to go outside.  I can leave the front door open and if you need anything you can open the storm door and ask.
N: Ok...well... if YOU need ME then you can open the door and talk to me.

(Nathan, thanks for making sure I can find you if I need you!)

*  *  *

Sarah: My painting is not dry.  After it dries I will pick it up and hand it to Nathan and he will be de-why-ted to have it.
Mommy: Delighted?! (Surprised at her new word.)
Sarah: Yes.  Happy.  He will be happy to have it!
(Thanks for defining "delighted" for me sweet girl!)

A Mini McDonald Family Reunion

My "little" brother James drove down from Chicago this weekend to visit the family and we sure had a wonderful time hanging out with him.  The kids and I were over at Gran and Pawpaw's lake house on Thursday afternoon when he arrived and then Brian was was able to join us for a dinner of Nunberger wurst and German potato salad.  Then on Friday evening we all met over at Grandmother and Granddaddy's house for a delicious dinner of two types of pasta (bowties with sage and browned butter and gnocchi with Gorgonzola) plus salad, bread and dessert.  Saturday morning we headed back to the lake house for one more visit and lunch (pizza!).

This last visit I finally had my camera with me and brought it out to take some pictures! This, of course, was the one I was really interested in making sure we got.  I thought I had missed out on our opportunity for cooperative kids, since Sarah had a meltdown at lunch right before we were going to take the picture, but she rallied beautifully and both kids were super cheerful when it came time to pose.  Hooray!

But to back up, we had a few pressing tasks to take care of while we were out at the lake house.  Our first activity involved firing up the chainsaw and cutting some birch logs to length to brighten up our fireplace.  I told James that I was taking a picture just to test out the light (which I was), but then I liked this so much I decided to keep it!

Once everyone was equipped with hearing protection, Pawpaw started up the chainsaw and got to work on the logs.  He had a rapt audience!

Then it was time to take rides on the UTV.  Nathan is always thrilled to take rides with Pawpaw!

Next it was Sarah's turn.  She picked Gran's lap to ride in and Daddy as her driver.  She, Nathan and Gran had collected acorns from Granddaddy and Grandmother's house the day before to spread around the property, so her job during this ride was to throw them along the road as they road.  Gran said that she took her job very seriously!

Of course, quite a few games of "pool balls" had to be played for this to qualify as a thorough visit to the lake house!  Nathan LOVES playing with anyone who's up for a game.  

Thanks so much "Uncle James" for coming down for a wonderful visit!  We are eagerly anticipating the next time we'll get to see you!

This and That: Driving, Car Work and Halloween Costumes

This is a typical meal for the kids and me when Brian's away - a meal outside on our old coffee table, with the kids coming and going on their four-wheeled seat of choice. Especially at dinner when Brian's working late, we are all in a better mood outside with the fresh air and added entertainment of the riding toys.  Anything to make the end of a long day (or that last stretch before naptime) go more quickly and smoothly, I'm all for it!

The kids are still loving riding the lawnmower with Daddy, but in a new twist the kids are now taking turns driving!!  This was Nathan's second night driving (the first night Sarah was sick so the two of us girls stayed inside to cuddle on the couch). 

I love the wave from Sarah!

I took pictures Nathan driving so that I could text them to the grandparents, and I got a text back asking if I had taken a video.  So on Sarah's turn I did just that!



This is a favorite activity of the kids - washing the tires on the cars.  Nathan and I were talking about how Daddy knows all about cars and how to fix them.  I asked Nathan if he wanted Daddy to teach him so that Nathan could fix cars by himself when he gets older.  He responded with enthusiasm, "Yeah!  Then I'll be able to wash the cars AND fix the cars!"

Brian had the day off Monday and spent some time working on the brakes on the white Avanti (or "rah-vanti" as Nathan still calls it).  To do this, Brian put the car up on ramps to have more room under the car to work.  So the next day, Nathan's goal was to get some ramps set up for his ride-on dump truck (Aunt Karen, does that look familiar?!).  The toy-up-on-ramps was a constant activity this whole week.  We discovered that the zoom-zoom doesn't balance well ("it's not stable") on the ramps due to a different style of wheels, but the bubble lawn mower is a great candidate.  One day Sarah tried to take Nathan's ramps and then pitched a fit when I told her she had to give them back, but Nathan was able find for her two other pieces of long wood in the garage (which looked like broomstick handles).  These circular rods were then precisely lined up on the drive way and she was able to drive the tricycle over so that the wheels straddled the broomsticks.  Thankfully she was happy with that arrangement!

I never know what these kids are going to come up with!  Nathan started cutting on some foam/paper/stuff that we have in our craft dresser and made the pink person all by himself (not visible, all the differently colored shapes he cut out and taped to the back to make it "stable" - apparently "stable" is a new favorite word that can be applied in many different circumstances!).  Then Sarah wanted a person, so I helped her make a purple girl, which meant then that Nathan wanted me to cut out a green man for him.  When posing for the picture he told me that the green man was the daddy and the pink one was the mommy.  Unrelated - I was really surprised at how cooperative Nathan was this week about posing for pictures when I asked!

Halloween costume sewing has begun. Nathan wants to be a "rainbow alligator".  I knew about the alligator part, but the 11th hour addition of "rainbow" kind of threw me for a loop.  I showed him an inspiration picture and he told me that he wanted the belly to be rainbow colors.  On the inspiration picture I showed him (just trying to make sure that what he imagines and what I'm trying to make is somewhere in the same universe), he pointed to where the "belly" of the alligator costume had horizontal lines sewed in it.  At first he asked "how many sections are there?" so he would know how to plan out his "rainbow" dreams, but I told him that we didn't have to have the same number of sections and that he could just pick out what colors he wanted.  So it turns out "rainbow" translates in his mind to striped belly with light green, light blue, yellow and red.  Sarah wants to be a black kitty cat... one that may or may not end up being decorated with pink and purple polka-dots.  I stopped at Joann's this week to purchase some of the fabric I need, though I didn't get all the colors - first, because I wasn't sure about the "rainbow" and "polka dot" requests and second so the kids could help me pick out some of the colors.

Sarah was SO SICK last week and this week!  She's been clingy and fussy and coughing up a lung and just pitiful.  I think this is the first time she's really been pretty sick.  I've been sick too - I got hit with the bug worse then Nathan but not nearly as bad as Sarah.  Brian, amazingly, still hasn't come down with it so we hope he's in the clear.  But thankfully Sarah and I are both on the mend and felt much better on Thursday and today, which meant that Sarah went back to school for the first time in a week and a half.  So between crying/whining/fussing fits from Sarah and encouraging Nathan to please just leave his sister alone, these were the lunches I packed this morning - "jelly" sandwiches (with sunny butter and strawberry jelly), watermelon, cucumbers for Sarah and carrots for Nathan, chocolate chip cookie.  Pretty standard lunch so far this year.  The kids also like for me to send "egg and burrito" filling (basically breakfast burrito filling - scrambled eggs with cheese and pureed greens and black beans) in a thermos.  So far I haven't given the kids food poisoning by holding eggs warm in the thermos for 3+ hours, so hopefully that will hold!

Life Right Now

I keep thinking that this week I'll get back on the blogging band wagon, but alas its still hasn't happened.  But I'm forcing myself today to just sit down and WRITE SOMETHING and share SOME PICTURES.

Brian and I went on a fabulous road trip vacation (sans kids, obviously) the first week of September.  We flew into Denver, drove to Wyoming and spent a few days driving around Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  We saw so much beautiful, amazing scenery, got pretty sunburned (literally red-necks in a convertible), and I took way too many pictures... and videos because I got a crazy idea into my head that I was going to put together a little movie with all the video clips that I took.  Yeah, right!  Brian knew I was crazy to think that ever was going to happen, but he just went along with my ridiculous scheme.  And seeing as how I haven't even started sorting through all the hundreds of pictures that I took, much less watching all the 5-10 second clips of videos, this may be a project for after the kids are in elementary school (or never).

That's Old Faithful back there... I know you're impressed!

The Grand Tetons out the window.

One guess who took this artistic shot?

The week after we got back from vacation was the kids' first week of preschool.  I posted about the first day, but here's the rest of the story.  For the next three days, Sarah was almost constantly saying things like "Mommy, I don't like school", "Mommy, I don't want to go back to school", "Mommy I want to be in Nathan's class" with a pitifully sad look and a quivery bottom lip.  She definitely wore my patience thin because (poor thing) she could NOT let it go.  Friday we made it until 20 minutes before school when the heart-wrenching pleading came at me full force.  On the walk into school from the car, she impressed me with her wishful thinking "Maybe my school is already finished!"

We made it to her classroom doors without tears, but when she refused to walk into the classroom and I picked her up to hand her to her teacher, the floodgates opened!  Thankfully overall she did much better, settling down much faster and after about 30 minutes was fully cheerful and engaged with class activities for the rest of the day.  Our sweet preschool director sent me an encouraging email update a few hours into the day, though unfortunately I didn't see it until right before pick up.  But I had been busy painting and running errands, so its not like I was sitting around worrying about her.

I moved the kids' "desks" down to the study - now all four of us have desk space in this room!  They're used multiple times a day now since the kids are obsessed with printed coloring pages off the internet. 

A pre-dinner snack of red pepper sticks while sitting in a box? But of course!

The haul from our/Nana's garden this week.  I fried okra two nights ago, today my house smells heavenly of roasting tomatoes and we'll have eggplant maybe tomorrow night?

On Saturday morning Brian had to take his Peds Anesthesia Boards (which he had been cramming for the whole week before), so instead of being stuck with the kids by myself for another day I took them over to Gran and Pawpaw's lake house.  Turned out that Brian's test went much faster then anticipated and Nathan started feeling bad - complaining of a headache - so we headed home for naps after lunch.  That afternoon Nathan was feeling puny and running a temperature, but was fine again the next morning so we decided to go ahead to church.  But then in the afternoon the temperature returned, and then Monday the rasping cough started.  Brian diagnosed it over the phone as possibly croup, but his temperature definitely meant no preschool for Nathan (and we decided also Sarah) on Tuesday.  We made it through Monday and Tuesday ok, with Nathan's fever breaking on Tuesday.  So today we ventured out to the library since we had books due and more waiting for us on hold.  Right as we were beginning to check out, Sarah got all weepy for her Kitty-Cat (her comfort object) so I picked her up and she proceeded to puke all over both of us!!  I hurried to the bathroom with her and cleaned us up as best I could, then returned for Nathan and our books.  Thankfully I had a change of clothes for her in the car, but I had the strange experience of driving home in just my bra!  I kept telling myself "its just like you're wearing a bikini top, just like a bikini top..."

Playing on the statues at the library about 45 minutes before Sarah got sick this morning.

In other news, Brian bought me a new computer and he spent all afternoon yesterday installing a different (even bigger and faster) hard drive in it, so now I'm in the process of trying to move all my files over to the new computer, figure out how it works (oh Windows 8, our family is NOT a fan) and reinstall all my (mainly photo-editing) programs on it.  So right now I'm actually typing this post on my old computer while I'm trying to upload photos onto my new one. 

We've also been busy trying to take care of all the "I've just moved and have to figure out all our new health-care related stuff" business this month.  Brian and I went to the dentist, I went back to have a broken filling fixed, I have an eye doctor appointment scheduled for next week, I've got the kids in with a recommended pediatrician and their well-child visits scheduled (that quickly jumped up in priority when Nathan started getting sick and we didn't have a doctor to take him to if necessary), and I think we have primary-care physician recommendations for Brian and me - whew! 

We have also been working on some house decorating items in our free time - one of which was replacing all the old knobs in the kitchen.  Now I don't feel like my cabinets are staring at me all day!

So... that's all the craziness going on in our lives right now.  I can't believe September's already half-way over, but after looking back at this post, I can see why its flown by so far.  I hope next week life will settle down a bit... I need a break!

First Day 2014!!

After-school update added at the end of the post...

The kiddos started preschool today!  They were both really excited, even last night I had a hard time getting them to calm down and go to sleep.  This morning they did great getting ready quickly and both were super cheerful and cooperative for our first day of school picture.

Daddy was on 24-hour call yesterday so was home this morning to see us all off, which was a nice bonus (then he headed straight back to bed for some more sleep).

I was confident that Nathan would do great, it was just Sarah that I was concerned about tears at drop off.  But on the way into school, loaded down with her gear (backpack, lunchbox, Kitty-Cat and nap mat cover), there was still a HUGE grin on her face.

She stopped to talk to the man holding the door for us "Na-fan is going to one school and I going to another!" (by "school" she really meant "room"), then gave Nathan a big hug and kiss (his room is first when you go into the building).  I barely got a "good-bye" from Nathan before he dashed into his classroom to find his cubby.  He had told me yesterday "I love school!", which thrilled me and made me hope we can keep that excitement going for years to come.

Sarah was still pretty cool as I escorted her into her classroom.  I was so close to making it out the door before the waterworks started, but I had forgotten to sign her in and had to come back into the classroom to do that.  At which point Sarah wailed "Mommy, I want to go with you!" and the tears began flowing.  So I flashed her another confident smile and wave and then skedaddled!   Of course, then I realized that I had left my keys on top of Sarah's cubby, but I was able to get one of the dads still in the room to snag them and hand them to me so my face wouldn't be seen again.
 
And then... glorious freedom for the next 5 1/2 hours!!  And I didn't get a phone call at the hour mark, which means Sarah probably calmed down and is hopefully enjoying herself today.  I've ran some errands, cleaned the kitchen, did some dinner prep work, now updating the blog, then I'll consult my (huge) to-do list to see what I should accomplish next.  Probably I'll wade through the hundreds of pictures that Brian and I took last week on our Out West road trip - the reason that the blog's been silent again lately.  So more details to come on that... sometime!

After-school update:

As expected, Nathan did stellar and loved every minute of his day.  He also has a friend in his class who's in his Sunday school class at Hardin Valley C of C, so that's pretty cool!  

Sarah, also as expected (though I was hoping for a small miracle), had a rough day.  Apparently she cried on and off all day.  They brought Nathan in at least twice to try and comfort her.  Apparently she was one of three in her class that was having a rough time, so I'm sure they were setting each other off with the crying.  She was cheerful when we picked her up and matter-of-factually told us that she woke the other kids up at naptime because she was crying (though her teacher said she did fall asleep about 20 minutes into naptime).  Her daily report also noted that she was "sad and grumpy", to which she also readily agreed.  This afternoon was a little rough because it was obvious she was tired from her too-short naptime, and she's told me more then once that on Friday "I want to walk with you down the hall" at school (ie. leave with me when I drop off Nathan).  So... yeah... that's where we're at!