Trick or Treat

Or as the little guy would say, "Fireman. WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO!!" (over and over and over again...)

Today my son discovered pancake syrup...

...and he has the hair to prove it.

Two days ago he realized everyone else at the table was using ketchup and his plate did not have the fun, messy, red stuff. I am now going to have to purchase stock in Johnson and Johnson. We are going through the shampoo by the caseload.

10 on Friday

I'm late...again. Oh, that phrase doesn't sound good. No, I'm not pregnant, I just can't seem to post "10 on Friday"...on Friday. I have a great excuse this time. Friday was my son's 5th birthday. And being the wonderful, loving, devoted mother that I am, I just couldn't bear to take 2 minutes away from him to spend my own time on the computer.

OK, the truth is, I was cleaning like crazy for his birthday party because the house was a disaster. Normally by Sunday, I would just let my top 10 list rest until next week, but I can't skip my son's birthday. That's just not nice.

Here are 10 random memorable facts of life with my 5 year old:

• After nearly three years of trying for a baby, three miscarriages, and the loss of his twin (early in pregnancy), he was late. Days late. I was tired of waiting for a baby. It felt like an eternity, but after a week I coerced my doctor into inducing me. The hospital was already full for that Friday, so he told me he would induce me on Saturday morning under the following conditions:

1. I arrive at the hospital at 5:00 a.m.
2. I don't interrupt any exciting moments of the K-State game that afternoon.
3. I deliver before his Saturday night date was supposed to begin.
4. I wouldn't tell anyone that he did Saturday inductions. (oops, there went that one.)

Much to my doctor's delight, our baby entered the world at 1:51 p.m. My son and I are such a rule-followers.

• He hated getting dirty when he was little. No walking barefoot in the grass or sand, no messy food, and absolutely no finger painting. When we tried to finger paint, he asked for a paintbrush. The payoff -- he mastered silverware at 15 months of age.
• He talked really cute. One of his favorite toys was a bulldozer - he called it a "bulz-a-bozer." Also, unfortunately for him, the "sc" sound was a "p" sound when he spoke. When looking for his scoop, he ran around the house shouting, "Where's my poop? Where's my poop?"
• My son's favorite colors have always been green, yellow, and white. They have stuck for three years now. These seem like odd favorite colors to me. Then someone said maybe it's because he likes farm equipment (John Deere colors). That might explain it, except my husband's family refuses to be seen in John Deere farm equipment.
• Sleep deprivation was never an issue with this little guy. I think he got up in the night a total of 7 times between the ages of 7 weeks and 3 years. Then he turned 4.
• My son was never too happy with me working. Grandma was okay, but no other babysitter quite measured up. Just ask my friend Casey. He was worse than superglue. Superglue that cries for mommy.
• He has a huge cowlick in the very same spot as his father and mother do. Only it's about 100 times bigger than ours combined and causes his hair to be forever standing straight up. It also seems to grow larger with each passing birthday and will soon take over his entire head.
• My child is as logical and analytical as they come. He's been playing computer games for years, but can't figure out how to spit out the toothpaste when he's done brushing his teeth. What's up with that?
• He has a hand blanket that I believe will go to college with him. He calls it his "hand" blanket because it used to have little handprints on it. They faded about 200 washings ago.
• He has a sweet and gentle spirit. I love that he wants to cuddle in the morning, play hard all day, and rock with me in the chair before bed at night. I love you buddy!

I'm Going Back to Work...

...for three days. Tomorrow morning I will get up early with the professional people, rush around to get ready, load my van with all my needed supplies, and run out the door before anyone else in the house is out of bed. If I accomplish it all quietly enough, my husband will have to get the kids up and dressed, feed them breakfast, and get them to grandma's without me. Sounds delightful, doesn't it?

For the next three days I get to go back to school and work with my former colleagues (and some new ones whom I've never met) and laugh and talk and have fun and, oh yeah, lead teacher in-service.

For the next three days I get to speak like an adult all day long, have lunch without cutting up anyone else's food, and eat M&M's without sneaking around so the kids don't beg for any.

If you think I sound excited, you are absolutely right.

However, I also know that for the next three days no one will do any laundry, but everyone will keep making the clothes dirty. No one will do any dishes, but I bet my family will want to eat. I will also have no time to tackle the list of little things I've been wanting to do - like try to figure out where in the world my picture went that is supposed to be in that little box up there.

I also know that for the next three days I will miss my kids. I will wonder how things are going at grandma's house, if they are being good or not, or what cute new thing they just figured out that I didn't get to see.

Yes, the grass is always greener...so since I only have three days, I will enjoy every minute to its fullest. And I will try really hard to refrain from begging for my old job back.

10 Things

The thing I've learned today: Don't read your friends' blogs before posting your own. When you find out someone else had a similar idea to yours for "Friday's 10", then you feel like maybe you shouldn't still do it. I said maybe. I'm not creative enough to figure out a new idea at this late time of day. So, similar to Jamie, here are my ten favorite things about October.

• My oldest son's birthday.
• Finding costumes for my kids.
• One month until Thanksgiving.
• Even better, only two months until Christmas.
• We are finally back in a comfortable routine. I like a little routine in my life.
• And also like my above mentioned friend, it's birthday kickoff season for all the guys in my family.
• I have no idea why, but it's usually one of my best months for dieting.
• We can usually squeeze in one more trip to the lake.
• The wheat gets planted. No more farming until June.
• Bedtime is easier because it is darker earlier.

Happy Weekend!

Simply Beautiful

When I saw this out my back door 20 minutes ago, I momentarily forgot about all the sleepless nights this week, the hours of stressing over silly birthday party games (they're just "silly" now that the party is over), the endless cleaning, the long to-do lists, the lack of money until the next paycheck, or the large number of meetings I have to attend this week.


There was an added bonus when my little tyke ran into the room shouting, "RAAIINNNBBOOOWWWW!"

Birthday Party Shots

My son's birthday party was supposed to start today at 11:00. At 10:56 a.m., torrential rain starting falling from the sky. He sat on top of the couch looking out the living room window at 4 vans with all his friends inside. Poor guy. Thankfully, he hates to get poured on, so he understood their desire to wait until Lake Superior stopped pouring on our house.

We didn't let the rain ruin the party fun. Here are the living room relay races...



And driving in for present opening time...



And, of course, his favorite party past time...

I'm Learning More About Me

Just when I really think I know myself, I keep on learning more little tidbits about my personality that I probably should have already figured out. I've been overly busy lately with two big projects - of completely opposite natures.

Last month I was asked to serve as a "consultant" of sorts for the school I used to work at. When I was there several years ago I helped with the process of school accreditation - a multi-year, monstrous amounts of work kind of project. Now the school has a new administrator who has not been through this process. Re-accreditation is on the horizon, so, my phone rang. I said I would help, and this "consultant" role has turned into me leading a three day teacher in-service next week. I've been spending my time reading information, organizing material, and preparing to teach the staff everything they need to know about writing curriculum guides.

My other big project - getting ready for my son's first "kid" birthday party. He will be five this month, and now that he is in preschool, it seems that all his friends are having kid parties. I thought this would be no big deal, and I started thinking of ideas. Bowling? Swim party? Chuck E. Cheese Pizza? A few friends gave me advice - start small this year and invite the number of kids as the age of my child (5). So, I threw the more expensive party ideas out the window and decided to invite some of his friends over to our house. Little did I know, this would cause me so much stress. Now I have to clean my house (because of course I invited the moms too - that's the part I'm looking forward to most), figure out a food plan, make the goody bags, and plan party games. Ugh, party games, the bane of my existence. I'm hoping that the kids will run to my boys' rooms and just play like crazy while the moms sit around in awe of how well they are all getting along. But, just in case that doesn't happen, we have party games.

Which project would I rather be working on? That's easy, I would rather lead a 30 day teacher in-service than be in charge of any more kid parties. Next year we are going bowling, the year after that - Chuck E. Cheese. Next, I'll probably rent out a hotel swimming pool. It doesn't matter what it takes, as long as I don't have to find any more party games.

10 on Friday

10 Things I've Tried That Didn't Work Out Like I Thought They Would:

1. That new cough medicine I wrote about yesterday -- Nevermind, it isn't the miracle cure. I was up all night again. I deserve a big "I told you so" comment from at least one person.


2. Running early in the morning -- I'm a cold weather wimp and saw way too many skunks. I'm in search of a new plan at least until next spring.


3. Acne medicaitons -- Let's just say that my entire top ten list could be for this alone. I must have really ticked God off to be dealing with this (still) AND finding three white hairs on my head this month. He meant to write a commandment about this: "Thou shalt not have face issues and gray hair ever at the same time."


4. Teaching my almost 5 year old how to spit out his toothpaste -- Anyone I ask tells me their kids just naturally knew how to spit. Even the dentist looked at me funny. My child has ASD (automatic spitting dysfunction).


5. Making cinnamon rolls - They never turn out like my mothers or mother-in-laws.


6. Staying on a daily house cleaning schedule--I'm still attempting this, but it definitely hasn't worked out all neat and tidy like I thought.


7. Being a stay-at-home mom -- Some part-time job always keeps trying to find me.


8. Having plants in my house -- I manage to kill even the plastic ones.


9. Teaching 18 month-2 year old Sunday School -- I'm a trained educator for goodness sake. These little tykes were just a little too young for my teaching style.


10. Buying a smaller size of jeans to motivate me to shrink into them -- yep, still hanging in the closet 6 months later.

Yesterday

Now and then you just have to post a warning: this one could get a little gross.

The night before last I was up again for most of the night with my 1 year old. He was coughing. And coughing and coughing and coughing. Finally, after a breathing treatment and some Triaminic (I'm not sure which one actually helped), he settled down and went to sleep at 5:30.

Of course, being the worrying mom that I am, I called the doctor that morning. Two weeks ago he had croup, last week he had two days of 103 fever, and now here were again, up coughing all night. While I was waiting for the nurse to call me back, I came to a life-altering conclusion. My child is probably sick all of the time because he never stops sucking his thumb. He plays with toys in the church nursery, he sucks his thumb. He falls down in the nasty, dirty garage, he sticks his thumb in his mouth. He digs something out of the trash, and in goes his thumb. Why haven't I thought of this before?

The nurse called me back and of course said with all that has gone on the past few weeks, the doctor will want to see him. We made the appointment for 3:40 p.m. Between the time I hung up the phone at 9:30 a.m. and left for the doctor, I think my kid coughed maybe two times. I arrived at 3:38 and almost fell over in shock when they called my name within seconds. My shock wore off quickly as I sat and sat and sat AND SAT in the little room waiting for the doctor to arrive. My son was bouncing off the walls, acting better than if we would have been at home playing outside with his favorite toys. We waited some more. At 5:05 p.m. (I am not exaggerating at all), the doctor finally came in. Oh wait, I take that back, he did come in once before and realized he had entered the wrong room and left again.

I love my doctor and many other people must love him too considering the vast number of children he sees each day. I trust him completely with my children's health, which is obviously what is keeping me there. Each time I started to get a little frustrated at his tardyness, I reminded myself that I am completely wasting his time (and mine) having this kid in his lineup for the afternoon. As is normal, he listened to him, the lungs sounded clear, and he sent me on my merry way with some drug samples (I love that!) and the name of a new cough medicine for my kid to try.

Oh, and that thumb thing. The doctor noticed my child's thumb-sucking talent while we were there. I mentioned the astronomical orthodontist bill that we would have someday. He told me that he has actually had a few dentists tell him that thumb sucking has improved the shape of the mouth and has prevented dental work. I'm sure the odds are not in my favor, but that will be my new thumb-sucking mantra. It will make me feel better.

Anyway, I raced out of there when we were done and sped home in time to pick up my mother and my other son to get the oldest kid to Wednesday night church. It was my brilliant idea to grab a bite to eat at Wendy's since I didn't think starving a one year old was a good idea. We had a huge list of things to do, so when the little guy wasn't finished in our adult eating time, we packed up the chicken nuggets and hit the road again.

That was a bad idea. My child thought it was great to be munching on the rest of supper -- until he had another coughing attack. Just so you know, chicken nuggets and coughing attacks do not complement each other.

First I thought he was going to choke to death, but soon I realized that, no, he would be okay...after he threw up every single thing he had eaten in the last 3 days -- twice. It was all over him and ALL over the car seat. I have to admit that at that moment I was secretly very thankful that we had chosen to drive mom's van complete with her very own car seat. I'm not sure she was so thrilled about the choice.

I will spare you the details of the clean-up because it was nasty. The only thing that made it stomachable (I'm sure that's a word) was that I was pretty sure this wasn't actually the flu. Getting home and getting him tucked into bed was more glorious last night than most.

And that cough medicine - I just want to kiss my doctor for that tip. My child slept all night without a single coughing fit. It may have been a fluke, but for now I will believe that I have found the miracle cure.

My son and his friend like to play out on the porch with bowls of water and all my kitchen utensils. Today when his little friend left, he decided it was time to come in.

Him: "Mom, I'm done, come help me bring everything in!"

Me: "Gather up the stuff and bring it to the kitchen."

Him: "Will you get the bowls in the grass?"

Me: "You threw them down there, you can go get them."

Him: "But they're in the wet grass."

Me: "I know. Hop down there and get them."

Him: "I don't like walking in wet grass."

Me: "Then you shouldn't have thrown them in wet grass. Go get them."

Him: "No, I don't want to."

Me: "You know telling your mom 'no' doesn't work. Now go get the bowl."


This is what I walked back outside to see.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

More Pictures of the Little Guy

This is what happens when I have nothing to write about. I just post more pictures. At least this time he isn't wearing the same shirt he seems to be wearing in EVERY picture I post. He does have clothes, really.

I am a bad mom. Somone should turn me in for neglect. Apparently I have not given my son enough exposure to the finer things in life - chocolate, to be specific. The other night after dinner I got out some chocolate chip cookies. My son took one bite of his cookie, looked at it, and started screaming:

"BUGS IN THERE!! BUGS IN THERE!!"


And that was the end of the cookie eating.

10 on Friday

10 Things I've Done In This Life That I Never Thought I Would Do:

1. Live outside of city limits - Didn't matter what city (or town), just thought I'd always stay inside the green population signs.


2. Be an administrator in a school - technically this was only an interim "help, we're desperate" position, but I still did it!


3. Experience infertility/miscarriages - I guess no one ever thinks they will have to do this.


4. Adopt a child - I love it when something amazing happens that you never expected.


5. Quit my job and stay home full time - Nope, not me, I was going to be a career woman all the way through.


6. Experience a time of severe anxiety and depression - Again, not on anyone's list of "40 before 40."


7. Build a house before the age of 30 - Not recommended at an early age due to $$$, but when it's all done (someday...), it will be worth it.


8. Have emergency surgery.


9. Want to throw my husband-t0-be (at the time) off a mountain - This was when he was trying to teach me how to snow ski. It may be more accurate to say that HE wanted to throw ME off the mountain, but the feeling was pretty mutual.


10. Travel to a foreign country - I know, I haven't actually DONE this one yet, but I leave in 29 days. That has to count for something.

When I started this topic, I thought my list would be full of more "fun" things like ride in a hot air balloon, go snorkeling, etc. I soon realized I haven't done ANY of those kinds of things. I think it's time face the sad fact that I'm not very adventurous.

If Cheerio Jumping Was An Olympic Sport...

...my son would win the gold medal. Even with a 103 degree fever.

He looks pretty sick, huh?

I Need a 12 Step Program...

...for my 19 month old. He has an addiction, and it's starting to control his life - and mine.

Sunday morning he woke up at 7:00 a.m. By 7:10 a.m., I had heard each of the following phrases:

"Watch Lightning"

"Watch Beggie Tales"

"Watch Wittle People"

"Watch Barney"

"Watch Bideo"

I guess since I said no to the first four, he thought he make a more general "video" request with try #5. It still did not work, much to his chagrin. He is officially addicted to the television.

I'm not sure what to do about this. I've always been pretty strict with the amount of TV watching that my children are allowed.

The biggest problem is that I've noticed how much I can get done while my child is sitting in front of his favorite shows. He will watch the entire hour of Sesame Street without hardly moving a muscle. I can shower, get completely ready, talk on the phone, do laundry, clean the house, scrapbook, read...I could probably even go out for a jog and he wouldn't notice.

So, I'm wrestling with this one, and thinking that it just might be time to adopt a new parenting philosophy about TV.

Then I'll only have one more addiction to tackle:

"Want pop sicle!"

"Want mor-or (more) marshmallows!"

"Cookie! Want cookies!"

"Want Marties (smarties)!"

But, really, the kid has to eat.

Happy (and some not-so) Moments

I don't usually enjoy reading blogs that give a play by play of regular, everyday life; you know, the kind that go like this, "I just returned from taking my daughter to preschool and now I think I'll dig out some pledge and dust the 16 shelves in my living room...". But, today I'm writing one a bit like that. Hopefully not quite that bad, but similar.

Nothing hilarious has happened, nothing horrible has happened, nothing even totally aggravating has happened to me in the past three days, so I will share some happy moments that I've had since I blogged last.

I had the privilege of helping some friends move on Saturday. They bought a house on the edge of town after years of renting. They were so excited to move into their own place, complete with a toy room and 4 acres of land to play on. It was fun to be part of their special day.

After the moving expedition, I got two solid hours of cleaning time without any kids trailing me around destroying everything I just did. They were taking naps at grandma's. Ahhh...it was wonderful.

I will refrain from griping about the fact that on Saturday evening our very expensive, stupid water treatment machines in the basement spewed water all over the storage room floor; therefore, causing my husband to spend three hours in the basement cleaning up the mess while I corralled the kids upstairs. That would be when the children destroyed all the cleaning I did. Oh man, I guess I can't refrain from griping about it.

On Sunday, one child went to a birthday party and the other child went to grandma's house to nap again so my husband and I could go shopping for a few glorious hours. We did some birthday shopping for our son, camcorder shopping for us, and also bought primer for our basement. Even better than primer was that I started collecting paint samples. Now I have to start dreaming - and stressing - about what color to paint the family room and bedroom down there. Any advice on color? I'm terrible at that.

Today my freshman year college roommate came over with three of her six children. She is a saint. They have adopted all of their kids, who ranged from 9 months to 10 years of age at the time of each adoption. Now they are 6, 12, 15, 16, 17, and 19. And the amazing news is they are opening their home to more children if God so chooses to bring more to them. They have a special calling. It was great to visit with her.

Tonight I went back for a little more shopping - with my mother-in-law this time - and actually bought a camcorder for us. We figured that with a child's birthday in October, a trip to England in November, Christmas in December, and another child's birthday in February...now might be a good time to replace the archaic memory keeper (it's too old to even be called a camcorder) that does not work any longer. There is a good chunk of our sons' lives missing due to this problem.

Now I am happily sitting in front of my computer waiting for my husband to return from the fields. You know he's been on the tractor a lot when I start to get jealous of the farm machinery.

Never thought I'd say that in my lifetime.

Thus ends the excitement (or lack thereof) of my life!