Today the boys and I drove to Oklahoma City to the state capitol building, for the last time, to get the apostilles for our post placement reports. Everything went great, up until the time we arrived at the capitol building, after an hour and a half of driving, and I was just getting ready to get out of the car. That is when I realized I had forgotten my purse. Apostilles cost money so this was definitely a problem. Also, it was now around 11:30 and we still had another hour and half to get home. I had brought snacks but I had planned that we would eat out for lunch while we waited for our documentation to be completed. We were all disappointed that we would not get to eat lunch:(. Fortunately I had packed a lot of snacks, of which the boys had already had quite a bit on our way to OKC. There was still a bit left for the trip home.
I called the husband and told him about my situation. I wondered out loud to him if maybe they would take a credit card number without the actual card, but I didn't really think they would. It is a long walk from the parking lot to the building. It would have taken another 30 minutes to walk with the boys into the building and back so I was almost ready to just head home, when I realized that we would need to take a bathroom break anyway.
It was incredibly windy in Oklahoma today. I struggled against the wind for the entire hour and half drive to OKC. Nick really hates wind and he started to cry when we got out of the car. Fortunately I had brought their warm hats so I bundled them up really well and then we did OK. Ben is a slow walker and I basically have to pull him along whenever we walk anywhere. Between him and the wind, it was a very long walk.
We made it into the building and through the metal detectors. We stopped by the bathroom and then headed to the Secretary of State's office. As it turns out, they had no problem taking our credit card number without the actual card, much to my surprise. The lady behind the desk started looking through our paperwork, as I called the husband to get the credit card number. After I got off the phone, she told me that some of the papers (agency and social worker licenses) were copies, rather than originals and they must be originals in order to be apostilled.
So, we headed home with no apostilles, no lunch, no money, etc. As we were driving out of OKC, I called the agency and told them about the situation. We had driven about 30 minutes when they called back and told me that we did not have to have the licenses apostilled, only the post placement reports. We had to drive a while to find the next exit so we could turn around and head back to OKC.
Now the good news was that we could definitely get the apostilles that we needed and not have to make another trip. The bad news was that it was another 30 minute drive back to the state capitol building. By the time we got back, it was around 1:30pm. We were all getting very hungry, we needed another bathroom break and I was not sure we would have enough gas to make it back home. Once again I called the husband to give him an update. I also asked him to call a pizza hut we had passed near the capitol building to see if he could order some food and pay for it over the phone. Unfortunately they would not do that. The boys and I were all disappointed.
We wrapped back up in our warm coats and hats and made the long walk in the blustery wind again. Through the metal dectector, to the bathroom and back to the Secretary of State's office. The lady behind the desk had no issues with doing the apostilles without the licenses. We walked around the capitol buiding for 15 minutes while she completed our paperwork. We picked up our paperwork and headed back out to the car. By this time, the boys and I were all getting tired, hungry and cranky.
We got back into the car and headed out. I passed out all of the snacks we still had. Fortunately I had brought the little DVD player we have for the car so the boys had entertainment. This turned out to be a very good thing, since we ended up spending about 4 hours in the car today. It also helped them take their mind off of not having lunch.
We made it home safely and, thankfully, we had gas to spare (barely). The light was on when we got home but we still had about 10 or 20 miles of gas left in the tank. We arrived home around 4:00ish. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed back out to Fed Ex the reports to the agency and fill the car up with gas.
It was a stressful day that did not go as well as I had hoped. But it could have gone so much worse:). I am so thankful that we were able to get the apostilles without having to make another trip, that I packed a lot of extra snacks so the boys were not starving, that we had enough gas to make it there and back and that we did not have any car trouble or other trouble where the lack of money and/or ID would have been a huge issue.
The great news is that we never have to do that again. Our adoption process is finally 100% complete. No more home visits. No more post placement reports. No more trips to OKC. Yay!! We still have the court date on Friday for our Oklahoma readoption but that is just a formality to get OK birth certificates.
So that was our day. We were all very tired when we got home.
Hope you had a good Monday. Goodnight.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
January 21, 2010
The other day the boys and I were sitting at the island counter eating lunch. The boys were playing around with their grapes. Ben put one grape in each cheek so he looked like a little squirrel. He said, "Mommy, look, I have nipples", as he pointed to his cheeks. I had to think about that for just a moment and then I asked him, "Do you mean dimples?". He did and we both had a good laugh.
The dad and I took the boys to the 'family swim' time on Sunday. The place where they take lessons allows families who are paying for lessons to swim on the weekends for $2 each. I think there is a two hour time frame on Saturday and on Sunday both. So we took them on Sunday afternoon and we were in the pool for about an hour and a half. In retrospect, we realized that was too long for them, when Nick was completely falling apart before bedtime. We both agreed that next time we will only swim for maybe 45 minutes; definitely no longer than an hour.
The boys had their second swimming lesson Tuesday and it went very well. They both did well even though they were being encouraged and pushed a bit to put their faces in the water more. I was surprised at how well they did. I think the swim time on Sunday helped a lot too.
When we first got into the pool on Sunday, Ben was very tentative and careful about his movements and he wanted to stay on the steps. It was not long at all before we had moved to another area where the water came up to their necks and they were both jumping in off the side and getting splashed in the face a lot. The difference in Ben at the beginning of family swim time versus at the end was amazing. He was cautious again when getting in at his lesson on Tuesday but I think it is a bit less and less every time. They are both having a great time and have a smile on their faces the entire time they are in the pool (so far). I really enjoy watching their lessons too. It is fun to see them learning something new and watching how they behave with someone else in a 'teacher' role.
Our last post placement report is almost finished and I will be taking it to OKC for apostilles next week and then mailing it off. We also received a court date for our Oklahoma readoption. It's kind of funny because everyone treats it as if it is this really big deal, as if this is THE adoption, or so it seems. Meanwhile, I really want it to be this low-key, non event kind of thing. The only reason we are doing it is so that the boys will have Oklahoma birth certificates. It is a formality, to make their lives (and ours) easier for those occasions in life when one must present a birth certificate or one loses their original and must order a new one. I don't want them to remember this as a big event. The big event took place 3 years ago and it was very special. I don't want them thinking they are just now being officially adopted. So, I will definitely be downplaying it as much as possible.
And now that I have brought it up, I missed posting about our 3 year anniversary of adopting our sons. We don't think about it much these days, although it does come front and center when we have to another home visit and they start asking what we are doing to help the boys keep their Russian culture. Hmmmm. Right now, we are not doing anything about that. I know there are day camps available in the summer where children adopted from Russia can get together and learn about Russia's culture and get to know others with whom they have this in common. Maybe some day, when they are old enough, they might want to do that. We will leave it up to them.
The dad and I took the boys to the 'family swim' time on Sunday. The place where they take lessons allows families who are paying for lessons to swim on the weekends for $2 each. I think there is a two hour time frame on Saturday and on Sunday both. So we took them on Sunday afternoon and we were in the pool for about an hour and a half. In retrospect, we realized that was too long for them, when Nick was completely falling apart before bedtime. We both agreed that next time we will only swim for maybe 45 minutes; definitely no longer than an hour.
The boys had their second swimming lesson Tuesday and it went very well. They both did well even though they were being encouraged and pushed a bit to put their faces in the water more. I was surprised at how well they did. I think the swim time on Sunday helped a lot too.
When we first got into the pool on Sunday, Ben was very tentative and careful about his movements and he wanted to stay on the steps. It was not long at all before we had moved to another area where the water came up to their necks and they were both jumping in off the side and getting splashed in the face a lot. The difference in Ben at the beginning of family swim time versus at the end was amazing. He was cautious again when getting in at his lesson on Tuesday but I think it is a bit less and less every time. They are both having a great time and have a smile on their faces the entire time they are in the pool (so far). I really enjoy watching their lessons too. It is fun to see them learning something new and watching how they behave with someone else in a 'teacher' role.
Our last post placement report is almost finished and I will be taking it to OKC for apostilles next week and then mailing it off. We also received a court date for our Oklahoma readoption. It's kind of funny because everyone treats it as if it is this really big deal, as if this is THE adoption, or so it seems. Meanwhile, I really want it to be this low-key, non event kind of thing. The only reason we are doing it is so that the boys will have Oklahoma birth certificates. It is a formality, to make their lives (and ours) easier for those occasions in life when one must present a birth certificate or one loses their original and must order a new one. I don't want them to remember this as a big event. The big event took place 3 years ago and it was very special. I don't want them thinking they are just now being officially adopted. So, I will definitely be downplaying it as much as possible.
And now that I have brought it up, I missed posting about our 3 year anniversary of adopting our sons. We don't think about it much these days, although it does come front and center when we have to another home visit and they start asking what we are doing to help the boys keep their Russian culture. Hmmmm. Right now, we are not doing anything about that. I know there are day camps available in the summer where children adopted from Russia can get together and learn about Russia's culture and get to know others with whom they have this in common. Maybe some day, when they are old enough, they might want to do that. We will leave it up to them.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
January 10, 2010
I am happy to report that things are still going very well around here from a behavior perspective. Ben is very seldom sassy these days and Nick is throwing very few fits. Nick's current challenge is that he is more likely to hit Ben or take a toy Ben has and Nick wants.
Today B started crying and told me that N had pinched his neck. After comforting B, talking to N about it and seeing that he apologized nicely, I reminded N that he needs to use his words. He told me in a frustrated voice "I used words 20 times!". There was an ending to that sentence (I used words 20 times and...) but I can't remember it. I was so surprised that he said the first part that I didn't hear the rest. I found his response pretty funny but I did not let him see that:).
To be fair, every once in a while B will hit or hurt N in some way or will take a toy or something but it is more likely that N is the culprit these days. Overall, we are seeing much better behavior, less of the bickering and much more playing together nicely for longer periods of time. What more could a mom ask for? I am pleased.
As for the potty training front, we still have an accident once in a while. N is more likely to have one than B but both boys will have one at times. It is funny that we can go a couple of weeks without any accidents and then we will see two or three within a couple of days. I think it is because, when we are in our normal schedule, I tend to tell them to go before certain events (an outing, a meal or quiet time, for example) and I tend to remind N at times. During weekends or holidays when we are not in our normal routine, I forget and they get busy doing something exciting so we see more accidents. Overall, I would say they are both doing pretty well with it though.
Unfortunately, night times are not coming along at all though, or so it seems. B was wetting through his pull up so often, waking us both (me and B) up at night, that we are now waking him up around 9:00 or 10:00pm, just before we go to bed, and having him go once more. Since we have started doing this, he has stopped wetting through and will sometimes wake up dry. N is hardly ever dry, although I think he may go in his pull up after he wakes up. I think he often wakes up early and hangs out in his bed for up to 15 minutes before coming down. So he may be dry when he initially wakes up but is not motivated to go to the bathroom. I just keep thinking it will come with time, although I know part of the problem is likely that we don't eat dinner until around 6:00pm normally and we normally start getting them ready for bed around 7:30.
Now that we are no longer doing naps, they are going to sleep at night very quickly, which is nice. We are doing one hour of quiet time each afternoon and then they watch a movie. It is a nice amount of rest time for me too, which is nice.
Yesterday they wanted to do math and science. So we did a lesson from our Right Start math program and then we did two science experiments. We made two wind vanes and played with and talked about them for a short while. Then we learned about static electricity using two balloons. We rubbed them on a static-y blanket and observed how they could stick to the wall. Then we took them into the dark bathroom, rubbed them on the blanket again and held them close to each other so we could see the spark of electricity they created. They liked sticky them to the wall better and B was more interested than N. N wanted to play with his balloon, hitting it to keep it in the air.
N asked me to play soccer with him the other day. We have a soccer ball that is pretty soft and small that we play with in the house. So we just start kicking it everywhere, chasing it and trying to be the first to kick it again, all over the house. It was very fun and we both had a lot of laughs. B was pretending something at the time but, towards the end, he jumped in and kicked it a couple of times too. N is very good at it and we really need to get him involved in soccer in the spring. I need to check into this. I think he would really love it and he would definitely excel at it. It is clear that he is a natural athlete. I'm not sure with B yet whether he will like athletics or not. I am hopeful that he will but he does not show as much interest as N at this point.
On the other hand, B definitely excels at academics. He still amazes me at how quickly he learns academic related things. Today I was working on a new way to get them excited about learning to read. I was copying a lot of the words on to index cars and copying the sentences into a notebook because they seem to have an aversion to the book we use to learn reading. They were both excited about the cards. They have always liked that sort of thing. They climbed up next to me at the island and started reading the cards. B is really doing well at it, considering how little we do it. He can sound out the cvc words very well, although he will try to guess the ending at times (rat instead of ran, etc.). N got excited about it too and was trying to sound out words. He did very well at the first set of words (ending in at) but less so with the second set. He is still learning how to sound out each letter and run them together to make the word, such as sssssssaaaaaaaaat. He is impatient and if he does not get it right quickly, he gets frustrated. But he did try today for a little while and he did pretty well during that time. For his age, I think he is doing great.
Officially, we are not really doing school yet. Only when they want to, which is why I am trying to make learning to read more fun:). I am really glad they have late year birthdays (end of September and November). They just missed the official cut off which means that they would not actually start Pre-K4 until this coming fall, which means they would not start K until the fall of 2011. That gives us lots of time to be ready emotionally and for them to be a bit more mature. My number one goal is to have them reading very well by the time they are ready to start first grade and I think we are easily on track for that. I also have my eye on a good K homeschool program (My Father's World), when we are ready. They might be ready to start K in January of 2011. One nice thing about homeschooling is that we can start when they are ready. We can start earlier than they would have at public school and take it at a slower pace or we can start later and play catch up during the summer. It is nice to have the flexibility and to know we can go at the pace that fits them.
In other news, I am going to call our architect with our final (minor) changes to the plan tomorrow. So we are almost done with this part of the process. However, we have not sold our house. It was kind of funny. As the husband and I were finishing up the review our final changes last night, we both agreed that we will believe it when we see it. We both seem to have this feeling that it might not ever happen. I think that is more due to the state of our economy and our concerns that it is going to tank very soon, in which case it may be next to impossible to sell a home. We'll see but we don't believe it is looking very good.
We discussed what we could do to our current home to make it more energy efficient, in the event we end up staying here. We still really like this home and we think it is very pretty and functional, although it is a bit more high maintenance than we would like. Of course, any home that you design specifically for your family in mind will likely be more functional for your family and the one we have designed would be extra energy efficient, which would be nice.
I am still of a mind that God is in control, He knows what is going to happen and what the best plan is for us. I tend to believe that, if we end up staying in this house, it is because that is where God wants us for now. That sort of thinking is aways a positive for me, regardless of what ends up happening, since I would rather follow God's plan for my life than my plan.
I read two or three articles within the past week or two about the possibility of the government forcing us to convert a least a portion of our 401K's into annuities. Have you read about this? Take a look at these two links, although beware of bad language in the first one.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1830-401kIRA-Screw-Job-Coming.html
http://expectedreturns.blogspot.com/2010/01/coming-confiscation-of-401ks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ExpectedReturns+(Expected+Returns)
If you want to hear the truth about what is going on with the economy, don't rely on the news. Search the Internet. Two good sites that I watch are:
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
although the market ticker site does have foul language at times, so beware.
So, what do you think? Is Scott Brown going to pull out a win the special election in MA for Ted Kennedy's old seat? It is an interesting race to watch. I think it will be a miracle if Brown wins it but it is interesting that he is doing as well as he has so far.
Enough for tonight. Time to get ready for bed:). Good night.
Today B started crying and told me that N had pinched his neck. After comforting B, talking to N about it and seeing that he apologized nicely, I reminded N that he needs to use his words. He told me in a frustrated voice "I used words 20 times!". There was an ending to that sentence (I used words 20 times and...) but I can't remember it. I was so surprised that he said the first part that I didn't hear the rest. I found his response pretty funny but I did not let him see that:).
To be fair, every once in a while B will hit or hurt N in some way or will take a toy or something but it is more likely that N is the culprit these days. Overall, we are seeing much better behavior, less of the bickering and much more playing together nicely for longer periods of time. What more could a mom ask for? I am pleased.
As for the potty training front, we still have an accident once in a while. N is more likely to have one than B but both boys will have one at times. It is funny that we can go a couple of weeks without any accidents and then we will see two or three within a couple of days. I think it is because, when we are in our normal schedule, I tend to tell them to go before certain events (an outing, a meal or quiet time, for example) and I tend to remind N at times. During weekends or holidays when we are not in our normal routine, I forget and they get busy doing something exciting so we see more accidents. Overall, I would say they are both doing pretty well with it though.
Unfortunately, night times are not coming along at all though, or so it seems. B was wetting through his pull up so often, waking us both (me and B) up at night, that we are now waking him up around 9:00 or 10:00pm, just before we go to bed, and having him go once more. Since we have started doing this, he has stopped wetting through and will sometimes wake up dry. N is hardly ever dry, although I think he may go in his pull up after he wakes up. I think he often wakes up early and hangs out in his bed for up to 15 minutes before coming down. So he may be dry when he initially wakes up but is not motivated to go to the bathroom. I just keep thinking it will come with time, although I know part of the problem is likely that we don't eat dinner until around 6:00pm normally and we normally start getting them ready for bed around 7:30.
Now that we are no longer doing naps, they are going to sleep at night very quickly, which is nice. We are doing one hour of quiet time each afternoon and then they watch a movie. It is a nice amount of rest time for me too, which is nice.
Yesterday they wanted to do math and science. So we did a lesson from our Right Start math program and then we did two science experiments. We made two wind vanes and played with and talked about them for a short while. Then we learned about static electricity using two balloons. We rubbed them on a static-y blanket and observed how they could stick to the wall. Then we took them into the dark bathroom, rubbed them on the blanket again and held them close to each other so we could see the spark of electricity they created. They liked sticky them to the wall better and B was more interested than N. N wanted to play with his balloon, hitting it to keep it in the air.
N asked me to play soccer with him the other day. We have a soccer ball that is pretty soft and small that we play with in the house. So we just start kicking it everywhere, chasing it and trying to be the first to kick it again, all over the house. It was very fun and we both had a lot of laughs. B was pretending something at the time but, towards the end, he jumped in and kicked it a couple of times too. N is very good at it and we really need to get him involved in soccer in the spring. I need to check into this. I think he would really love it and he would definitely excel at it. It is clear that he is a natural athlete. I'm not sure with B yet whether he will like athletics or not. I am hopeful that he will but he does not show as much interest as N at this point.
On the other hand, B definitely excels at academics. He still amazes me at how quickly he learns academic related things. Today I was working on a new way to get them excited about learning to read. I was copying a lot of the words on to index cars and copying the sentences into a notebook because they seem to have an aversion to the book we use to learn reading. They were both excited about the cards. They have always liked that sort of thing. They climbed up next to me at the island and started reading the cards. B is really doing well at it, considering how little we do it. He can sound out the cvc words very well, although he will try to guess the ending at times (rat instead of ran, etc.). N got excited about it too and was trying to sound out words. He did very well at the first set of words (ending in at) but less so with the second set. He is still learning how to sound out each letter and run them together to make the word, such as sssssssaaaaaaaaat. He is impatient and if he does not get it right quickly, he gets frustrated. But he did try today for a little while and he did pretty well during that time. For his age, I think he is doing great.
Officially, we are not really doing school yet. Only when they want to, which is why I am trying to make learning to read more fun:). I am really glad they have late year birthdays (end of September and November). They just missed the official cut off which means that they would not actually start Pre-K4 until this coming fall, which means they would not start K until the fall of 2011. That gives us lots of time to be ready emotionally and for them to be a bit more mature. My number one goal is to have them reading very well by the time they are ready to start first grade and I think we are easily on track for that. I also have my eye on a good K homeschool program (My Father's World), when we are ready. They might be ready to start K in January of 2011. One nice thing about homeschooling is that we can start when they are ready. We can start earlier than they would have at public school and take it at a slower pace or we can start later and play catch up during the summer. It is nice to have the flexibility and to know we can go at the pace that fits them.
In other news, I am going to call our architect with our final (minor) changes to the plan tomorrow. So we are almost done with this part of the process. However, we have not sold our house. It was kind of funny. As the husband and I were finishing up the review our final changes last night, we both agreed that we will believe it when we see it. We both seem to have this feeling that it might not ever happen. I think that is more due to the state of our economy and our concerns that it is going to tank very soon, in which case it may be next to impossible to sell a home. We'll see but we don't believe it is looking very good.
We discussed what we could do to our current home to make it more energy efficient, in the event we end up staying here. We still really like this home and we think it is very pretty and functional, although it is a bit more high maintenance than we would like. Of course, any home that you design specifically for your family in mind will likely be more functional for your family and the one we have designed would be extra energy efficient, which would be nice.
I am still of a mind that God is in control, He knows what is going to happen and what the best plan is for us. I tend to believe that, if we end up staying in this house, it is because that is where God wants us for now. That sort of thinking is aways a positive for me, regardless of what ends up happening, since I would rather follow God's plan for my life than my plan.
I read two or three articles within the past week or two about the possibility of the government forcing us to convert a least a portion of our 401K's into annuities. Have you read about this? Take a look at these two links, although beware of bad language in the first one.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1830-401kIRA-Screw-Job-Coming.html
http://expectedreturns.blogspot.com/2010/01/coming-confiscation-of-401ks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ExpectedReturns+(Expected+Returns)
If you want to hear the truth about what is going on with the economy, don't rely on the news. Search the Internet. Two good sites that I watch are:
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
although the market ticker site does have foul language at times, so beware.
So, what do you think? Is Scott Brown going to pull out a win the special election in MA for Ted Kennedy's old seat? It is an interesting race to watch. I think it will be a miracle if Brown wins it but it is interesting that he is doing as well as he has so far.
Enough for tonight. Time to get ready for bed:). Good night.
January 12, 2010
Today the boys had their first swim lesson. It was suppose to be last Tuesday however I confused the days and thought it was Thursday. On Wednesday I decided I had better check, just to make sure. In retrospect, I should have done that on Monday:). Oh well.
So today was their first lesson, although it should have been their second. There are two little girls who are in their group and they all appear to be around the same 4 year old age.
The boys and I had made two visits to the swim school and had watched lessons. After each visit both boys seemed very excited to take lessons. Yesterday I reminded them that today they would have their first lesson and Ben started to cry, telling me he just wanted to watch Nick take lessons. We talked about it and I encouraged and reassured him a lot and then we forgot about it until today. He did fine, until we drove into the parking lot, at which time he reminded me that he only wanted to watch. Again, I encouraged him and reassured him that it would be fun.
We went in and got them changed into their swim trunks and then went into the pool area. We were about five minutes early, which was perfect because I did not want them to feel rushed or nervous about being rushed. They have mats along the edge of the pool (back a little ways) for them to wait until it is time for their lesson so I told the boys to sit on the mats. I was talking to the coordinator lady, telling her I wanted to talk to their teacher when Ben started crying. I got on my knees next to him (he was standing at this point) and hugged him and reassured and encouraged him again. The coordinator lady found him a toy boat to play with, to take his mind off of his fears. That worked great and then the two little girls arrived and we were making introductions and then the teacher came over and we were making more introductions and he was still playing with the boat so he forgot about being scared. I spoke to the teacher and told her Ben had had a traumatic water experience and was scared and had been crying and then I left the pool area and went to the viewing room. They have two large rooms for people to watch, one on each of the long sides of the pools, with large plate glass windows and lots of chairs so it is very parent friendly.
I am happy to say that both boys had a great time and their teacher was absolutely wonderful. She made it fun and neither of them were scared. They both had smiles on their faces the entire time and she obviously took special care with Ben. He even gave her a hug and kiss when we were leaving. They both talked about it all day and couldn't wait to tell daddy about it. They are so excited to go again and each of them, at different times today, told me he wished they could go again tomorrow.
I am so relieved and it was an answer to prayer. We had been practicing having more water in the face when we have taken baths recently and I think that paid off. They each put their face in the water several times and they were fine with it. She had them do things, such as jump in from the side of the pool, while holding her hands, in such a way where they would splash big enough to get water in their face and they did fine with that too. She is definitely an ace at teaching kids and I sat and watched in awe. They really know how to do it in a fun way, without making the kids feel scared or threatened at all. I am still amazed...can you tell?
The boys will have one lesson a week through sometime in May I think. They probably have one week off during that time for something or another and then we are planning a trip to Arizona for sometime in Feb. or March also so they will miss one more week. Hopefully that will be the only week they miss, other than the first one that we missed because I didn't have my act together:(. They also open the pool for family swim time on the weekends and we can go for $2 each and I think we can go for free if we miss a lesson for whatever reason. So hopefully we can fit that in some time too.
So, that's the scoop on the swim lessons. We are all excited and happy about the first day. Yay!
So today was their first lesson, although it should have been their second. There are two little girls who are in their group and they all appear to be around the same 4 year old age.
The boys and I had made two visits to the swim school and had watched lessons. After each visit both boys seemed very excited to take lessons. Yesterday I reminded them that today they would have their first lesson and Ben started to cry, telling me he just wanted to watch Nick take lessons. We talked about it and I encouraged and reassured him a lot and then we forgot about it until today. He did fine, until we drove into the parking lot, at which time he reminded me that he only wanted to watch. Again, I encouraged him and reassured him that it would be fun.
We went in and got them changed into their swim trunks and then went into the pool area. We were about five minutes early, which was perfect because I did not want them to feel rushed or nervous about being rushed. They have mats along the edge of the pool (back a little ways) for them to wait until it is time for their lesson so I told the boys to sit on the mats. I was talking to the coordinator lady, telling her I wanted to talk to their teacher when Ben started crying. I got on my knees next to him (he was standing at this point) and hugged him and reassured and encouraged him again. The coordinator lady found him a toy boat to play with, to take his mind off of his fears. That worked great and then the two little girls arrived and we were making introductions and then the teacher came over and we were making more introductions and he was still playing with the boat so he forgot about being scared. I spoke to the teacher and told her Ben had had a traumatic water experience and was scared and had been crying and then I left the pool area and went to the viewing room. They have two large rooms for people to watch, one on each of the long sides of the pools, with large plate glass windows and lots of chairs so it is very parent friendly.
I am happy to say that both boys had a great time and their teacher was absolutely wonderful. She made it fun and neither of them were scared. They both had smiles on their faces the entire time and she obviously took special care with Ben. He even gave her a hug and kiss when we were leaving. They both talked about it all day and couldn't wait to tell daddy about it. They are so excited to go again and each of them, at different times today, told me he wished they could go again tomorrow.
I am so relieved and it was an answer to prayer. We had been practicing having more water in the face when we have taken baths recently and I think that paid off. They each put their face in the water several times and they were fine with it. She had them do things, such as jump in from the side of the pool, while holding her hands, in such a way where they would splash big enough to get water in their face and they did fine with that too. She is definitely an ace at teaching kids and I sat and watched in awe. They really know how to do it in a fun way, without making the kids feel scared or threatened at all. I am still amazed...can you tell?
The boys will have one lesson a week through sometime in May I think. They probably have one week off during that time for something or another and then we are planning a trip to Arizona for sometime in Feb. or March also so they will miss one more week. Hopefully that will be the only week they miss, other than the first one that we missed because I didn't have my act together:(. They also open the pool for family swim time on the weekends and we can go for $2 each and I think we can go for free if we miss a lesson for whatever reason. So hopefully we can fit that in some time too.
So, that's the scoop on the swim lessons. We are all excited and happy about the first day. Yay!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
January 10, 2010
I have not been too timely with pics lately but, here they are, better late than never:).
Here are some pictures of the boys that I took in front of our tree before Christmas.
Here are the boys, putting the icing on their Christmas cookies.
Playing in the kitchen sink is a fun way to pass the time on a cold winter day.
Here is a picture of the outside of our house with our Christmas lights up.
This was Christmas Eve at my brother's house at the farm. The boys were excited about the pistols that my sister and her family gave them for Christmas. B has reminded us several times that he also wants a rifle. Not sure where they get this, as we are not gun owners. I guess they can't miss it though, since many of my relatives are hunters and we often talk about who got a deer and how big it was, during the hunting season.
Here are the boys, enjoying Christmas Eve lunch with Papa (my dad).
Here is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. All that snow fell the evening/night before.
Our knight in shining armor:).
Our two knights in shining armor. Note, they have the breastplates on upside down:). These are the "armor of God". The breastplate says "righteousness" on it, the shield says "faith", the helmet says "truth", etc. It comes with a pamphlet with ideas of how parents can use it to teach them the word of God. We have not covered that yet but they really enjoy the armor, especially Ben, since he has been in to the whole David and Goliath thing for quite some time now. Now he pretends he is Goliath sometimes, since David did not wear armor when he fought Goliath. Since we have recently read Peter Pan, Ben now keeps talking about the bow and arrow he will get when he turns 8 years old (or 5 years old, depends on the conversation). He talks about it often:).
A friend of mine gave the boys these little Chia-pet things. One is an elf and the other is a raindeer. When watered, they grow grass as hair. It keeps getting longer and longer so the boys get to give them hair cuts:). They really enjoyed this.
I just hope it does not give them any ideas:).
This was our Happy Birthday Jesus cake. The kids enjoyed decorating the cake, singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles....oh, and eating the cake of course:).
Fun in the snow. This was the day after Christmas and we still have a lot of this snow on the ground now. Very unusual for this part of the country. I am ready for it to be gone. We are expecting some much warmer weather early this week so we should start seeing the ground again.
Here is Nick in the sandbox.
This is our front yard and the street that goes by our house.
If you look closely at the boys wrists and feet, you can see the duct tape we used to hold their mittens on and to make the water proof "boots" to cover their good leather shoes:). I described this in a earlier post but am finally posting the pics.
I was working in the kitchen and overheard the boys playing. They were staging their own nativity scene, just under the mantle where we had our nativity scene displayed during Christmas. By the time I had gotten the camera, Nick had taken the "baby Jesus" (yes, that is a small monkey he is holding in the air - forgive us Lord) and was pretending He was going up into Heaven. I think he got a couple of the stories mixed up.
Ben was not happy about Nick's ending of the nativity story, since he still wanted to pretend the baby Jesus was in the manger, so he got another baby Jesus, which was a Winnie-the-Pooh in PJ's. Hmmm, we might need to invest in a toy nativity scene. We actually have three nativity scene's. The one that was on the mantle is one my husband got in Israel, when he visited there. The one we had in the library is one my mom gave us and it was the one we always put out when I was a child. The one we put in the foyer, at boy height, is one we received as a wedding gift and the pieces are not breakable so the boys can play with it.
Last night the boys and I built the structure below with the straws and connectors they got for Christmas. This toy is great (thanks for the tip CEP!) and I have more ideas of things I want to build when I have time:). I know this will be a popular toy for years to come. The only caveat is that we have to be very careful not to leave pieces out where the cats can get them. Our female cat loves to play with straws so this is heaven for her. If we accidentally leave some of these where she can get to them, she shows up on my side of the bed at odd hours during the night, playing with these on top of me while I am trying to sleep. I am a light sleeper, so this does not work well for me. One night she brought me three of them before giving up. I just kept taking them from her and putting them in my bedside drawer. She has brought me two already, as I have typed this post so I will need to search the house for them before going to bed.
Nick is pretending he is in jail. He is giving us his saddest "jail" look:).
Ben was pretty happy about his jail adventure.
Then we enlarged it so they could both easily fit. They had such fun with this and would turn it over and lay it down so they could play with it in different ways.
That's it for today:). Hope you all had a great weekend.
Here are some pictures of the boys that I took in front of our tree before Christmas.
Here are the boys, putting the icing on their Christmas cookies.
Playing in the kitchen sink is a fun way to pass the time on a cold winter day.
Here is a picture of the outside of our house with our Christmas lights up.
This was Christmas Eve at my brother's house at the farm. The boys were excited about the pistols that my sister and her family gave them for Christmas. B has reminded us several times that he also wants a rifle. Not sure where they get this, as we are not gun owners. I guess they can't miss it though, since many of my relatives are hunters and we often talk about who got a deer and how big it was, during the hunting season.
Here are the boys, enjoying Christmas Eve lunch with Papa (my dad).
Here is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. All that snow fell the evening/night before.
Our knight in shining armor:).
Our two knights in shining armor. Note, they have the breastplates on upside down:). These are the "armor of God". The breastplate says "righteousness" on it, the shield says "faith", the helmet says "truth", etc. It comes with a pamphlet with ideas of how parents can use it to teach them the word of God. We have not covered that yet but they really enjoy the armor, especially Ben, since he has been in to the whole David and Goliath thing for quite some time now. Now he pretends he is Goliath sometimes, since David did not wear armor when he fought Goliath. Since we have recently read Peter Pan, Ben now keeps talking about the bow and arrow he will get when he turns 8 years old (or 5 years old, depends on the conversation). He talks about it often:).
A friend of mine gave the boys these little Chia-pet things. One is an elf and the other is a raindeer. When watered, they grow grass as hair. It keeps getting longer and longer so the boys get to give them hair cuts:). They really enjoyed this.
I just hope it does not give them any ideas:).
This was our Happy Birthday Jesus cake. The kids enjoyed decorating the cake, singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles....oh, and eating the cake of course:).
Fun in the snow. This was the day after Christmas and we still have a lot of this snow on the ground now. Very unusual for this part of the country. I am ready for it to be gone. We are expecting some much warmer weather early this week so we should start seeing the ground again.Here is Nick in the sandbox.
This is our front yard and the street that goes by our house.
If you look closely at the boys wrists and feet, you can see the duct tape we used to hold their mittens on and to make the water proof "boots" to cover their good leather shoes:). I described this in a earlier post but am finally posting the pics.
I was working in the kitchen and overheard the boys playing. They were staging their own nativity scene, just under the mantle where we had our nativity scene displayed during Christmas. By the time I had gotten the camera, Nick had taken the "baby Jesus" (yes, that is a small monkey he is holding in the air - forgive us Lord) and was pretending He was going up into Heaven. I think he got a couple of the stories mixed up.
Ben was not happy about Nick's ending of the nativity story, since he still wanted to pretend the baby Jesus was in the manger, so he got another baby Jesus, which was a Winnie-the-Pooh in PJ's. Hmmm, we might need to invest in a toy nativity scene. We actually have three nativity scene's. The one that was on the mantle is one my husband got in Israel, when he visited there. The one we had in the library is one my mom gave us and it was the one we always put out when I was a child. The one we put in the foyer, at boy height, is one we received as a wedding gift and the pieces are not breakable so the boys can play with it.
Last night the boys and I built the structure below with the straws and connectors they got for Christmas. This toy is great (thanks for the tip CEP!) and I have more ideas of things I want to build when I have time:). I know this will be a popular toy for years to come. The only caveat is that we have to be very careful not to leave pieces out where the cats can get them. Our female cat loves to play with straws so this is heaven for her. If we accidentally leave some of these where she can get to them, she shows up on my side of the bed at odd hours during the night, playing with these on top of me while I am trying to sleep. I am a light sleeper, so this does not work well for me. One night she brought me three of them before giving up. I just kept taking them from her and putting them in my bedside drawer. She has brought me two already, as I have typed this post so I will need to search the house for them before going to bed.Nick is pretending he is in jail. He is giving us his saddest "jail" look:).
Ben was pretty happy about his jail adventure.
Then we enlarged it so they could both easily fit. They had such fun with this and would turn it over and lay it down so they could play with it in different ways.
That's it for today:). Hope you all had a great weekend.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
January 7, 2010
We have been busy and it is VERY cold here right now, although I think it is that way just about everywhere these days so I guess that is not new news.
My niece came for a visit and stayed with us for a few days. She is in her second year of college and is home for Christmas. It was so nice having her here. The boys really enjoyed her and were sad to see her leave. I really enjoyed her company too. We stayed up one night until midnight, catching up and just talking about life. It was so nice. She is so easy to be around. So many times when we have company, I end up feeling more tired because of the introverted-ness of me:). When I am around people a lot I just need some down time to regenerate. But when Jana was here, I didn't feel that way at all. She just slips into our routine and is very easy to be with. It was quite enjoyable.
On Sunday afternoon, she stayed with the boys for a couple of hours and let the husband and I get away to a movie. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and we both really liked it and agreed we would like to see it again when it is out on DVD. The dialog is so quick that it is easy to miss some of it. Good flick though.
This morning we had our last home visit for our last post placement report. It went very well and was very low stress for everyone involved, I think. After the boys spent a few minutes trying to show off and gain everyone's attention, they went off to play and played nicely while the dad and I talked with the two ladies from the local agency. This was the first time this agency has done a report for us so they had a lot of questions for us, in order to come up to speed on our history. I enjoy telling our story and remembering our adventure so the questions were welcome. It also makes us think though the differences between the boys and what makes them tick.
After our home visit this morning, we had a real estate agent come by to show our house to a couple of people moving here from Texas. They were OK with us staying here so we got to meet them. They are a very sweet couple who are moving here to be closer to their grandchildren. It was clear they really enjoy kids and didn't mind having the boys around while they looked at the house. I enjoyed visiting with them and hope they find the best house for them.
After showing the house, the boys and I had lunch and then they wanted to take a bath. They have a couple of fish that suck up water and, when squeezed, squirt it out and they are having fun with them lately in the tub so they were asking for a bath. So, they took a very long bath and had a fun time playing. I had to reheat the water at one point and they played until it cooled a second time. They were real pruney when they finally got out.
After the bath, we had our quiet time. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we no longer do naps now. We have worked our way up to one hour quiet times, which is nice. The boys take turns, one in the library and one in the living room. They can play with whatever they want, as long as they are quiet and stay in their room. I normally hang out in a chair or on the couch in the living room and read. It is a very peaceful time and, although they sometimes complain, they seem to enjoy it in the end.
After quiet time the boys watch a movie. They take turns picking the movie and they really look forward to this point in their day. Some days they get to watch a longer movie (longer than the typical 30 minutes) or they each get to pick one. This tends to happen more in the winter months, since it is often too cold to play outside or we are nursing colds or whatever. We have to be careful not to do it too often though or they start to expect it. They just watched one movie today and then we read a book and then the dad came home and it was time to start dinner.
It was an easy, relaxing afternoon, which was nice after having to-do's this morning. Today was very very cold here. I think it was in the single digits this morning (not including wind chill factor) and I noticed it was around 17 degrees in the late afternoon, when the dad got home. It was a good day to stay at home and play in the bathtub. We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground from our big snow storm on Christmas Eve. This is unusual for Oklahoma and I am really ready for it to go. I think we may have a few 40 degree days coming up early next week so maybe that will be what it takes to melt this stuff away.
I am happy to report that behavior all around (Ben, Nick and me:) has been exceptionally good lately. I think (I hope) we have found our new normal because this is a very good thing:). I have pictures to post. I need to post them. I will. Maybe tomorrow.
My niece came for a visit and stayed with us for a few days. She is in her second year of college and is home for Christmas. It was so nice having her here. The boys really enjoyed her and were sad to see her leave. I really enjoyed her company too. We stayed up one night until midnight, catching up and just talking about life. It was so nice. She is so easy to be around. So many times when we have company, I end up feeling more tired because of the introverted-ness of me:). When I am around people a lot I just need some down time to regenerate. But when Jana was here, I didn't feel that way at all. She just slips into our routine and is very easy to be with. It was quite enjoyable.
On Sunday afternoon, she stayed with the boys for a couple of hours and let the husband and I get away to a movie. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and we both really liked it and agreed we would like to see it again when it is out on DVD. The dialog is so quick that it is easy to miss some of it. Good flick though.
This morning we had our last home visit for our last post placement report. It went very well and was very low stress for everyone involved, I think. After the boys spent a few minutes trying to show off and gain everyone's attention, they went off to play and played nicely while the dad and I talked with the two ladies from the local agency. This was the first time this agency has done a report for us so they had a lot of questions for us, in order to come up to speed on our history. I enjoy telling our story and remembering our adventure so the questions were welcome. It also makes us think though the differences between the boys and what makes them tick.
After our home visit this morning, we had a real estate agent come by to show our house to a couple of people moving here from Texas. They were OK with us staying here so we got to meet them. They are a very sweet couple who are moving here to be closer to their grandchildren. It was clear they really enjoy kids and didn't mind having the boys around while they looked at the house. I enjoyed visiting with them and hope they find the best house for them.
After showing the house, the boys and I had lunch and then they wanted to take a bath. They have a couple of fish that suck up water and, when squeezed, squirt it out and they are having fun with them lately in the tub so they were asking for a bath. So, they took a very long bath and had a fun time playing. I had to reheat the water at one point and they played until it cooled a second time. They were real pruney when they finally got out.
After the bath, we had our quiet time. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we no longer do naps now. We have worked our way up to one hour quiet times, which is nice. The boys take turns, one in the library and one in the living room. They can play with whatever they want, as long as they are quiet and stay in their room. I normally hang out in a chair or on the couch in the living room and read. It is a very peaceful time and, although they sometimes complain, they seem to enjoy it in the end.
After quiet time the boys watch a movie. They take turns picking the movie and they really look forward to this point in their day. Some days they get to watch a longer movie (longer than the typical 30 minutes) or they each get to pick one. This tends to happen more in the winter months, since it is often too cold to play outside or we are nursing colds or whatever. We have to be careful not to do it too often though or they start to expect it. They just watched one movie today and then we read a book and then the dad came home and it was time to start dinner.
It was an easy, relaxing afternoon, which was nice after having to-do's this morning. Today was very very cold here. I think it was in the single digits this morning (not including wind chill factor) and I noticed it was around 17 degrees in the late afternoon, when the dad got home. It was a good day to stay at home and play in the bathtub. We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground from our big snow storm on Christmas Eve. This is unusual for Oklahoma and I am really ready for it to go. I think we may have a few 40 degree days coming up early next week so maybe that will be what it takes to melt this stuff away.
I am happy to report that behavior all around (Ben, Nick and me:) has been exceptionally good lately. I think (I hope) we have found our new normal because this is a very good thing:). I have pictures to post. I need to post them. I will. Maybe tomorrow.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
December 26, 2009
We had a wonderful, blessed Christmas and are now enjoying a relaxing weekend.
My extended family meets together on Christmas Eve at "the farm", which is the area where two of my brothers, my dad and his wife and my uncle and aunt live and where my grandparents used to live before they passed away. It takes us about an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there from where we live. There are other family members who live further away, however they were all staying with relatives nearby so we had the furthest drive on Christmas Eve this year.
We had planned our get together for around noon time however, after listening to the weather forecast multiple times, I started calling family members first thing on Christmas Eve morning, asking if we might move up our start time to around 10ish. Fortunately we were able to contact everyone and make it work out because the bad weather was going to moving into our area sometime between noon and 3ish, according to the forecast. The day before Christmas Eve, we were enjoying 60 degree weather:). Huge change from one day to the next.
We had a wonderful time seeing the whole family, enjoying the holiday feast that my sister and others put together. My sister always makes her homemade lasagna and it is absolutely awesome. One of the nieces read the accounting of the birth of Christ from the Bible and then it was time to open the gifts. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we headed back towards home around 1ish.
It is a good thing we did not wait any longer because the last 20 to 30 minutes of our drive was in sleet and the closer we got to home, the worse it got, until the point where we were having to drive very slowly because it was so icy. The road that leads to our subdivision is one that has not yet been widened and it is a small, windy, uphill two lane road to get to our home, regardless of which direction you are coming from. Our subdivision is at the top of a hill. There was already a car off in the ditch on that road and a fire truck blocking one lane of the traffic so we ended up having to turn around and go around to come in from the other direction. We were very glad to finally get home and we were surprised that we made it up our driveway without any issues.
Later that night I heard on the news that they had closed all of the major highways around us. It was a pretty treacherous blizzard, one of the worst in our state's history....but was it ever beautiful! Once we were home, we could really enjoy it. We all enjoyed watching it turn into snow and it was really windy so it was blowing all over the place. It was very pretty to watch and we ended up getting about 8 inches in our neck of the woods, although with it being so windy, it is much deeper in places and you can see the grass poking through in other places.
We had a lovely Christmas present opening together the next morning. I spent a good deal of the mid-morning preparing our Christmas dinner (my first real holiday meal!) and the husband spent about three hours outside, shoveling the driveway. We invited friends to come over to join us for Christmas dinner around 2:00 so we had preparations. The boys enjoyed their new toys while we worked and everything came together quite nicely, although I did have to call my mom a couple of times to ask her how to do some things. I made the traditional ham, mashed potatoes, corn, deviled eggs and salad and my friend brought a wonderful green bean casserole. I also made a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and we let all the kids gather round and decorate it and put on the candles. We all sang happy birthday to Jesus and the kids blew out the candles and then we all had cake. It really was a lovely get together and I was very pleased (and very very thankful) that everything came out so well. The food was great and the company was even better and my friend and I ended up wondering why we had not had our families together more often....and promised to do so in the future.
She is a good friend of mine and we have spent a lot of time together, off and on, over the past year or two. She has twin girls who are 5 years old and she has a new baby girl who is 7 weeks old. They go to our church and her husband sings in the choir and has an amazing voice. They only live about a mile from us (as the bird flies, as they say:) and we used to have play dates a lot with the kids, when our boys were 3 and her girls were 4. Now her girls are in school and she has the baby so it had been a while since we had gotten together.
Today I have been reorganizing things, getting rid of more toys that have been out grown or are no longer played with and organizing new toys. The boys have been playing upstairs yesterday and today and they seem to be doing pretty well with it now, which is nice. It gives them a lot more space to run around and there is carpet up there, which is good for certain kinds of play.
Earlier the dad took the boys outside to play in the snow. They wanted to go out so badly yesterday but we just did not have time, with everything we had to do. Plus the wind was really gusting yesterday and the wind chill factor was in the single digits so I don't think they would have enjoyed it much or lasted very long.
We normally get so little snow in these parts and it usually melts so fast that we do not usually spend the money to buy snow boots or snow suits for the boys. So getting them ready to play in the snow was a big task. They each wore two pairs of sweat pants and a T-shirt underneath a sweat shirt. The only shoes they could really wear were their good shoes that they wear for church, which are leather (kind of like dock siders but they lace up). Their sneakers are wearing out and I need to get them a new pair but I knew they would not be as warm as their leather shoes. So, after putting on their leather shoes, we had them step each foot into a large ziploc bag and we used duct tape to seal it to their sweat pants. We also put some duct tape on the bottom to give them a bit more traction. By the time we were done, they kind of looked like they were wearing boots, duct tape boots:)! It was pretty funny and very effective. We also tucked their sweat shirts into their sweat pants and put some duct tape around their waist to make sure they didn't get snow up their shirts or down their pants while making snow angels. Then we put their coats, hats and mittens on. We tucked their mittens into their coat sleeves and put duct tape around them so their mittens would not fall off (they fall off very easily, for some reason). Then they went out and had a great time!
When they came back in, their outer layer of sweat pants were soaked and their inner layer was also wet around their knees. The rest of them, including their shoes and their pants where the duct tape was (just below their knees) were perfectly dry. All the duct tape held perfectly. It was really quite impressive:). They had an amazing time and probably would have stayed out longer, if the dad had been willing. They made snow angels and enjoyed walking through the snow drifts and getting in their snow filled sand box. They were all over the place and they loved rolling around in the snow. It was very cute to watch and the dad got some good pics so I will post some later.
When they came inside, we read some stories, including one that was all about how castles were built, which we all enjoyed. And then it was time for quiet time...which is almost over and then it will be time for a movie.
This is long enough (too long) so I better say good bye for now. I hope your Christmas was blessed.
My extended family meets together on Christmas Eve at "the farm", which is the area where two of my brothers, my dad and his wife and my uncle and aunt live and where my grandparents used to live before they passed away. It takes us about an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there from where we live. There are other family members who live further away, however they were all staying with relatives nearby so we had the furthest drive on Christmas Eve this year.
We had planned our get together for around noon time however, after listening to the weather forecast multiple times, I started calling family members first thing on Christmas Eve morning, asking if we might move up our start time to around 10ish. Fortunately we were able to contact everyone and make it work out because the bad weather was going to moving into our area sometime between noon and 3ish, according to the forecast. The day before Christmas Eve, we were enjoying 60 degree weather:). Huge change from one day to the next.
We had a wonderful time seeing the whole family, enjoying the holiday feast that my sister and others put together. My sister always makes her homemade lasagna and it is absolutely awesome. One of the nieces read the accounting of the birth of Christ from the Bible and then it was time to open the gifts. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we headed back towards home around 1ish.
It is a good thing we did not wait any longer because the last 20 to 30 minutes of our drive was in sleet and the closer we got to home, the worse it got, until the point where we were having to drive very slowly because it was so icy. The road that leads to our subdivision is one that has not yet been widened and it is a small, windy, uphill two lane road to get to our home, regardless of which direction you are coming from. Our subdivision is at the top of a hill. There was already a car off in the ditch on that road and a fire truck blocking one lane of the traffic so we ended up having to turn around and go around to come in from the other direction. We were very glad to finally get home and we were surprised that we made it up our driveway without any issues.
Later that night I heard on the news that they had closed all of the major highways around us. It was a pretty treacherous blizzard, one of the worst in our state's history....but was it ever beautiful! Once we were home, we could really enjoy it. We all enjoyed watching it turn into snow and it was really windy so it was blowing all over the place. It was very pretty to watch and we ended up getting about 8 inches in our neck of the woods, although with it being so windy, it is much deeper in places and you can see the grass poking through in other places.
We had a lovely Christmas present opening together the next morning. I spent a good deal of the mid-morning preparing our Christmas dinner (my first real holiday meal!) and the husband spent about three hours outside, shoveling the driveway. We invited friends to come over to join us for Christmas dinner around 2:00 so we had preparations. The boys enjoyed their new toys while we worked and everything came together quite nicely, although I did have to call my mom a couple of times to ask her how to do some things. I made the traditional ham, mashed potatoes, corn, deviled eggs and salad and my friend brought a wonderful green bean casserole. I also made a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and we let all the kids gather round and decorate it and put on the candles. We all sang happy birthday to Jesus and the kids blew out the candles and then we all had cake. It really was a lovely get together and I was very pleased (and very very thankful) that everything came out so well. The food was great and the company was even better and my friend and I ended up wondering why we had not had our families together more often....and promised to do so in the future.
She is a good friend of mine and we have spent a lot of time together, off and on, over the past year or two. She has twin girls who are 5 years old and she has a new baby girl who is 7 weeks old. They go to our church and her husband sings in the choir and has an amazing voice. They only live about a mile from us (as the bird flies, as they say:) and we used to have play dates a lot with the kids, when our boys were 3 and her girls were 4. Now her girls are in school and she has the baby so it had been a while since we had gotten together.
Today I have been reorganizing things, getting rid of more toys that have been out grown or are no longer played with and organizing new toys. The boys have been playing upstairs yesterday and today and they seem to be doing pretty well with it now, which is nice. It gives them a lot more space to run around and there is carpet up there, which is good for certain kinds of play.
Earlier the dad took the boys outside to play in the snow. They wanted to go out so badly yesterday but we just did not have time, with everything we had to do. Plus the wind was really gusting yesterday and the wind chill factor was in the single digits so I don't think they would have enjoyed it much or lasted very long.
We normally get so little snow in these parts and it usually melts so fast that we do not usually spend the money to buy snow boots or snow suits for the boys. So getting them ready to play in the snow was a big task. They each wore two pairs of sweat pants and a T-shirt underneath a sweat shirt. The only shoes they could really wear were their good shoes that they wear for church, which are leather (kind of like dock siders but they lace up). Their sneakers are wearing out and I need to get them a new pair but I knew they would not be as warm as their leather shoes. So, after putting on their leather shoes, we had them step each foot into a large ziploc bag and we used duct tape to seal it to their sweat pants. We also put some duct tape on the bottom to give them a bit more traction. By the time we were done, they kind of looked like they were wearing boots, duct tape boots:)! It was pretty funny and very effective. We also tucked their sweat shirts into their sweat pants and put some duct tape around their waist to make sure they didn't get snow up their shirts or down their pants while making snow angels. Then we put their coats, hats and mittens on. We tucked their mittens into their coat sleeves and put duct tape around them so their mittens would not fall off (they fall off very easily, for some reason). Then they went out and had a great time!
When they came back in, their outer layer of sweat pants were soaked and their inner layer was also wet around their knees. The rest of them, including their shoes and their pants where the duct tape was (just below their knees) were perfectly dry. All the duct tape held perfectly. It was really quite impressive:). They had an amazing time and probably would have stayed out longer, if the dad had been willing. They made snow angels and enjoyed walking through the snow drifts and getting in their snow filled sand box. They were all over the place and they loved rolling around in the snow. It was very cute to watch and the dad got some good pics so I will post some later.
When they came inside, we read some stories, including one that was all about how castles were built, which we all enjoyed. And then it was time for quiet time...which is almost over and then it will be time for a movie.
This is long enough (too long) so I better say good bye for now. I hope your Christmas was blessed.
Friday, December 18, 2009
December 18, 2009 Part 2
Below is Ben, a.k.a. 'David', as in David and Goliath. He plays this all. the. time. and he frequently insists on being called David. In the picture below, you can see the panda bear hanging from the waist band of his sweat pants. But that is no ordinary panda bear. That, my dear friends, is David's harp. And you can also see the sock hanging from his waist band (it is actually a balled up sock inside another sock). That is David's sling shot. He stays very busy being David (and it is absolutely adorable).
Below is Ben again. You may think that my son is playing with my old purses but you would be wrong. That brown thing across his chest is David's shield and the small bag on his arm is David's small pouch that he puts his stones in before he uses them in his sling shot. I'm sure he also has his sling shot tucked into the waist band of his sweat pants but we can't see it because his shield is in the way. He has also memorized all of the words from the David and Goliath story in one of the children's Bibles that we have. He corrected me the other night when I was distracted and said one of the words wrong. He says all the words when he pretends to be David. He asked the dad to be Goliath the other night. They normally play this in the dad's office because it is carpeted (Goliath needs to have a soft landing in our play:). The dad was in his office ready to play and Ben walked away so the dad started doing something else. I was in the kitchen and saw Ben come into the living room, pretending to talk to Jesse and the other Israelites, according to the words from the story in the Bible. It was too cute. When he finally went back to the dad's office, ready to slay the giant Goliath, he found the dad doing something else but he soon got back into the act and was slain by our hero David. David then came to the kitchen to let me know he had slain Goliath and made sure I said the right words, which I never can remember correctly but David is oh too happy to tell me what to say:). It is really something how much of it he has memorized.
Nick loves hanging upside down, climbing on the dad and jumping off the dad. You can also see Ben in this shot. He has pulled up his shirt so he can put his sling shot into the waist band of his sweat pants:). It is a constant theme these days.
And here is our Merry Merry Merry Christmas picture for all the blog readers. You can click on it if you want to see a closer, larger view. Merry Christmas everyone!
Below is Ben again. You may think that my son is playing with my old purses but you would be wrong. That brown thing across his chest is David's shield and the small bag on his arm is David's small pouch that he puts his stones in before he uses them in his sling shot. I'm sure he also has his sling shot tucked into the waist band of his sweat pants but we can't see it because his shield is in the way. He has also memorized all of the words from the David and Goliath story in one of the children's Bibles that we have. He corrected me the other night when I was distracted and said one of the words wrong. He says all the words when he pretends to be David. He asked the dad to be Goliath the other night. They normally play this in the dad's office because it is carpeted (Goliath needs to have a soft landing in our play:). The dad was in his office ready to play and Ben walked away so the dad started doing something else. I was in the kitchen and saw Ben come into the living room, pretending to talk to Jesse and the other Israelites, according to the words from the story in the Bible. It was too cute. When he finally went back to the dad's office, ready to slay the giant Goliath, he found the dad doing something else but he soon got back into the act and was slain by our hero David. David then came to the kitchen to let me know he had slain Goliath and made sure I said the right words, which I never can remember correctly but David is oh too happy to tell me what to say:). It is really something how much of it he has memorized.
Nick loves hanging upside down, climbing on the dad and jumping off the dad. You can also see Ben in this shot. He has pulled up his shirt so he can put his sling shot into the waist band of his sweat pants:). It is a constant theme these days.
And here is our Merry Merry Merry Christmas picture for all the blog readers. You can click on it if you want to see a closer, larger view. Merry Christmas everyone!
December 18, 2009
Well, we are one week from the big day and I think I am almost ready. Our Christmas cards should go out tomorrow, which is a miracle (if you only knew), and I only have a couple more gifts to find tomorrow morning and then I am officially ready. Then I can relax and enjoy the season a bit more:).
We made Christmas sugar cookies the other day and it was a family project. I was cooking stew & cornbread so the dad and the boys mixed the cookies up, cut them out and put them into bake. After dinner, the boys and I decorated them. The boys really enjoyed the whole Christmas cookie experience, most especially the eating part. Unfortunately the left over ones that we had not decorated yet seemed a bit stale the next day. I should have put a slice of bread in the ziploc with them before closing it and I didn't think of it.
The boys had their 6 month check up at the dentist the other day and their teeth looked great, which is such a blessing. I think it is so hard when little kids have to have major things done to their teeth. I am very thankful the boys seem to have healthy teeth. We try to take good care of them. They were both little champs at the dentist.
Today I printed all the required pictures of the boys for the last post placement report. We are very bad about not printing pictures often so I have to go back through pics from Jan-Dec to find all the ones I want. I ended up printing 141 pictures, although most of them were for Christmas cards and a bunch of them were for family who have been wanting pics (I will send you some soon Dasha:). We are scheduled to have our post placement home visit in early January. The company who has done all of our home visits and reports to date went out of business this month and can't do it so we will have a new company doing it this time, which is kind of a bummer. The lady from the old company was very laid back and the new company will likely not be at all. Oh well. At least this is the last one and I am so glad.
The boys have already received their first Christmas present from Aunt Dasha. Dasha, they love their magazines and trade them back and forth to look at the pics, when we are driving in the car. It is such a great gift, thanks so much! We are really looking forward to seeing you soon.
The next post will be a picture post:). Merry Merry Merry!
We made Christmas sugar cookies the other day and it was a family project. I was cooking stew & cornbread so the dad and the boys mixed the cookies up, cut them out and put them into bake. After dinner, the boys and I decorated them. The boys really enjoyed the whole Christmas cookie experience, most especially the eating part. Unfortunately the left over ones that we had not decorated yet seemed a bit stale the next day. I should have put a slice of bread in the ziploc with them before closing it and I didn't think of it.
The boys had their 6 month check up at the dentist the other day and their teeth looked great, which is such a blessing. I think it is so hard when little kids have to have major things done to their teeth. I am very thankful the boys seem to have healthy teeth. We try to take good care of them. They were both little champs at the dentist.
Today I printed all the required pictures of the boys for the last post placement report. We are very bad about not printing pictures often so I have to go back through pics from Jan-Dec to find all the ones I want. I ended up printing 141 pictures, although most of them were for Christmas cards and a bunch of them were for family who have been wanting pics (I will send you some soon Dasha:). We are scheduled to have our post placement home visit in early January. The company who has done all of our home visits and reports to date went out of business this month and can't do it so we will have a new company doing it this time, which is kind of a bummer. The lady from the old company was very laid back and the new company will likely not be at all. Oh well. At least this is the last one and I am so glad.
The boys have already received their first Christmas present from Aunt Dasha. Dasha, they love their magazines and trade them back and forth to look at the pics, when we are driving in the car. It is such a great gift, thanks so much! We are really looking forward to seeing you soon.
The next post will be a picture post:). Merry Merry Merry!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
December 15, 2009
Things are busy around here these days. We are getting ready for Christmas and also working on finalizing our plans for the new house. We still have not sold our current house but, if it is God's will, I know it will happen in His timing. In the meantime, we still have much to do before we would be ready to begin building anyway. I have hopes that when we are finally ready, we will be in the process of selling our home but I know God's timing is perfect and He knows so much more than we do so I will continue to trust in Him.
Tonight I am sitting with the boys as they fall asleep. Most of the time the boys still take naps these days, although sometimes we just can't fit it in. On those days, I always end up feeling badly because Nick just ends up falling apart and his behavior is just really bad and then I feel bad because I know he normally does not act that way when he has had a nap. And if he has to skip it two days in a row, look out. It is going to be really bad. He still needs his nap so badly but Ben really could go without it now and do pretty well probably.
In other news, the boys will start swimming lessons in early January and go once a week through the second week of May. It is a great place and they like what they have seen there (we have been there twice and they have watched other kids taking lessons). I anticipate the first 2 or 3 weeks might be a bit difficult, from what other moms and the people who work there have told me, but after that the kids usually start to really enjoy it and learn fast.
Merry Christmas!
Tonight I am sitting with the boys as they fall asleep. Most of the time the boys still take naps these days, although sometimes we just can't fit it in. On those days, I always end up feeling badly because Nick just ends up falling apart and his behavior is just really bad and then I feel bad because I know he normally does not act that way when he has had a nap. And if he has to skip it two days in a row, look out. It is going to be really bad. He still needs his nap so badly but Ben really could go without it now and do pretty well probably.
In other news, the boys will start swimming lessons in early January and go once a week through the second week of May. It is a great place and they like what they have seen there (we have been there twice and they have watched other kids taking lessons). I anticipate the first 2 or 3 weeks might be a bit difficult, from what other moms and the people who work there have told me, but after that the kids usually start to really enjoy it and learn fast.
Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 11, 2009
December 11, 2009
Overheard this morning, as boys were taking turns jumping on the mini-trampoline:
Nick: "Ben, the timer is over (the 3 minute timer they use to take turns). Now we can jump together!" (Ben had just finished his turn jumping.)
Ben: (said as he was walking away) "I don't want to jump. I have a head ache and my pants keep falling down."
The dad and I both had a chuckle over that.
Nick: "Ben, the timer is over (the 3 minute timer they use to take turns). Now we can jump together!" (Ben had just finished his turn jumping.)
Ben: (said as he was walking away) "I don't want to jump. I have a head ache and my pants keep falling down."
The dad and I both had a chuckle over that.
Monday, December 07, 2009
December 7, 2009
We have been quite busy lately. On Thursday evening we went to the husband's work Christmas party and the boys had quite a good time. We had a nice dinner and then Santa came and the boys each sat on his lap and told him what they wanted and then they each got a bag of goodies.
On Friday we had a play date with friends in the morning at our house. We actually went to their house, got their two boys and brought them back to our house. Their mom had to stay home and watch over things, as they had to have all of the carpet in their new house replaced, as it was defective. So I had all four boys with me at our house and I was very impressed with how well they all got along. After playing for a while, I served lunch and an ice cream cone for dessert, which was a big hit. Then we took them home and came back and watched a movie, as it was too late for nap because we had to be at the circus by 4:30.
Some friends of ours got tickets to the circus and invited us to go too. It was actually better than I had expected and the boys loved it, especially the flying trapeze, which was pretty neat.
On Saturday the dad took the boys up north to a Christmas tree farm where they picked out our tree and the dad cut it down. They got to take a hay ride on a wagon pulled by a tractor to find the tree and haul it back so that was a big hit. I did some Christmas shopping that morning while they were tree shopping and then we decorated the tree and inside of the house in the afternoon. The boys were so excited and they love the tree. They helped decorate it, which was kind of funny because they like to hang the bulbs from the cord for the lights and they hang many bulbs side-by-side in a row. They enjoyed helping though and it was cute.
Saturday afternoon we went to a Christmas play at our church. The boys enjoyed it at first but did not last too long. Part of the problem was this was the second day in a row without a nap for Nick and he was getting really sleepy and not wanting to fall asleep. So he kept saying he was hungry. So I took the boys out and we wondered over to the kitchen and the cooks were busy preparing food for the dinner that would go with the dinner theater that night (we were at the matinee). They generously offered the boys some crackers and drinks and the lead cook also had a couple of fun toys (a cash register and groceries and a pretend bar-b-q grill) for her granddaughter that the boys really enjoyed playing with. I gave them a bunch of pennies to play with and sat and watched them. They "cooked" many things for me to eat and also let me buy lots of groceries from them. They enjoyed themselves.
Sunday we went to church and out to eat and then had a relaxing day at home, which was nice.
We have been trying to wrap up our architectural drawings but we still have a couple of things to do before we can do that. We are waiting to hear back from the Kitchen Idea people on the kitchen design and also the master bath design. Things really slowed down when I got sick and then they just did not pick up again because of the holidays, I guess. Anyway, it seems like things are moving very slowly.
We were at Home Depot for a while and one of the sales ladies who was helping us noted the boys were bored so she got them a couple of coloring books and some crayons. I let them get out of the cart and get down so they could color on the floor, but warned them to keep their coloring on their books and not to color on the concrete floor. At one point I looked at Ben and he had this major look of guilt on his face. So I asked him if he had colored on the floor and he said no but he was still looking funny so I started looking and, sure enough, he had. He was covering it up by sitting on it. He was not happy when I took his coloring book and crayons away and made him get back into the cart. He is usually a pretty well behaved child but, for some reason, he has a really hard time not writing on things that he should not write on. The last time we left the boys with the sitter, he had her pen and wrote a few big marks on our couch. Fortunately I was able to get it off with some fabric cleaner but he just cannot be trusted yet.
In other news, I called our local agency today to schedule our last post placement home visit, only to discover they are shutting their doors as of December something (one day last week) and will not be able to do it. The funny thing is that I was not at all surprised because, for some reason, I had thought of this the other day, that it would not surprise me to find out they were going or had gone out of business. Anyway, they are trying to work with another agency to provide us with what we need and we are just waiting now. It has to be done in January, dated in January and sent in by the end of January. Hopefully we will hear something soon.
The dad is off this week for a week of vacation. The boys are upstairs napping. It is very very cold here right now. I need a warm spot and a nap myself.
On Friday we had a play date with friends in the morning at our house. We actually went to their house, got their two boys and brought them back to our house. Their mom had to stay home and watch over things, as they had to have all of the carpet in their new house replaced, as it was defective. So I had all four boys with me at our house and I was very impressed with how well they all got along. After playing for a while, I served lunch and an ice cream cone for dessert, which was a big hit. Then we took them home and came back and watched a movie, as it was too late for nap because we had to be at the circus by 4:30.
Some friends of ours got tickets to the circus and invited us to go too. It was actually better than I had expected and the boys loved it, especially the flying trapeze, which was pretty neat.
On Saturday the dad took the boys up north to a Christmas tree farm where they picked out our tree and the dad cut it down. They got to take a hay ride on a wagon pulled by a tractor to find the tree and haul it back so that was a big hit. I did some Christmas shopping that morning while they were tree shopping and then we decorated the tree and inside of the house in the afternoon. The boys were so excited and they love the tree. They helped decorate it, which was kind of funny because they like to hang the bulbs from the cord for the lights and they hang many bulbs side-by-side in a row. They enjoyed helping though and it was cute.
Saturday afternoon we went to a Christmas play at our church. The boys enjoyed it at first but did not last too long. Part of the problem was this was the second day in a row without a nap for Nick and he was getting really sleepy and not wanting to fall asleep. So he kept saying he was hungry. So I took the boys out and we wondered over to the kitchen and the cooks were busy preparing food for the dinner that would go with the dinner theater that night (we were at the matinee). They generously offered the boys some crackers and drinks and the lead cook also had a couple of fun toys (a cash register and groceries and a pretend bar-b-q grill) for her granddaughter that the boys really enjoyed playing with. I gave them a bunch of pennies to play with and sat and watched them. They "cooked" many things for me to eat and also let me buy lots of groceries from them. They enjoyed themselves.
Sunday we went to church and out to eat and then had a relaxing day at home, which was nice.
We have been trying to wrap up our architectural drawings but we still have a couple of things to do before we can do that. We are waiting to hear back from the Kitchen Idea people on the kitchen design and also the master bath design. Things really slowed down when I got sick and then they just did not pick up again because of the holidays, I guess. Anyway, it seems like things are moving very slowly.
We were at Home Depot for a while and one of the sales ladies who was helping us noted the boys were bored so she got them a couple of coloring books and some crayons. I let them get out of the cart and get down so they could color on the floor, but warned them to keep their coloring on their books and not to color on the concrete floor. At one point I looked at Ben and he had this major look of guilt on his face. So I asked him if he had colored on the floor and he said no but he was still looking funny so I started looking and, sure enough, he had. He was covering it up by sitting on it. He was not happy when I took his coloring book and crayons away and made him get back into the cart. He is usually a pretty well behaved child but, for some reason, he has a really hard time not writing on things that he should not write on. The last time we left the boys with the sitter, he had her pen and wrote a few big marks on our couch. Fortunately I was able to get it off with some fabric cleaner but he just cannot be trusted yet.
In other news, I called our local agency today to schedule our last post placement home visit, only to discover they are shutting their doors as of December something (one day last week) and will not be able to do it. The funny thing is that I was not at all surprised because, for some reason, I had thought of this the other day, that it would not surprise me to find out they were going or had gone out of business. Anyway, they are trying to work with another agency to provide us with what we need and we are just waiting now. It has to be done in January, dated in January and sent in by the end of January. Hopefully we will hear something soon.
The dad is off this week for a week of vacation. The boys are upstairs napping. It is very very cold here right now. I need a warm spot and a nap myself.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
November 24, 2009
It's been a while so here is a catch up picture post.
This first group of photos are from the later half of October.
The boys went through a phase where they loved playing in the closets. I think they were pretending it was a house.
Nick built a tower taller than he was, although as fast as they are growing, it might not be taller today.
Nothing like catching the Pooh train first thing in the morning.
Happy Birthday Honey!! The boys are happy for any opportunity to help someone blow out their birthday candles.
I think I was in the hospital on this day. It appears the boys are building a fort out of blankets and books.
And the rest of the photos are from November.
I love these pictures. I was either in the hospital or sick in bed at home when these were taken. Not sure which but they were a nice surprise when I uploaded the pictures from the camera today.
Here is my mom (MaMa) reading to the boys. This was just after I came home from the hospital, when my mom was staying with us for a few days.
Happy Birthday Nick!!
Ben got to open a couple of small presents also. The problem was that they were opening the same gift and Ben was faster at opening his than Nick was so Nick kept finding out what it was by looking at what Ben just finished opening.
Nick, like Ben, had two birthday cakes. This one was made by Aunt Kathy and then daddy put the icing on when he got home from work (I was still feeling very sick at this point). Aunt Kathy also brought a small cake when she and MaMa came for the day to visit. So Nick had a small party and cake with them and then we had another one with daddy when he got home from work. Lots of cake and lots of fun.
I don't know where I was when this one was taken. Another surprise photo on the camera. Our little cutie Ben playing dress up.
And, last but certainly not least, did I mention that David and Goliath are back again, in full force. Everything with Ben is about David and Goliath these days and, if he can talk us into it, we would be reading the story over and over and over again every day. Nick gets tired of reading the same story over and over but Ben still gets to hear it pretty often. Tonight, when Nick complained, Ben said "you don't have to listen". Now I know most of you would not see the connection to David and Goliath in the picture below. But you just have to use your imagination. The purses are Goliath's armor! Did you guess that? He didn't happen to have his sock/slingshot with him for this picture but he had it with him later, in addition to his 'staff', which was made from the marble run. He pretty much knows everything there is to know about the David and Goliath story now. This afternoon he was pretending to be Goliath and didn't know I was watching him. He was making motions with his hands and then made one hand come up and whack his forehead and then he fell down. He is quite the pretender.
I can't believe how big they are getting. I still feel that I am so missing out. I still feel like Yuck from this cold. I'll get down and start playing with them and within 5 minutes I am ready to stop and rest. And my patience is just not what it should be. I am such a bad mom when I am not feeling well and I hate that. I am so ready to get back to normal and start feeling GOOD again.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
This first group of photos are from the later half of October.
The boys went through a phase where they loved playing in the closets. I think they were pretending it was a house.
Nick built a tower taller than he was, although as fast as they are growing, it might not be taller today.
Nothing like catching the Pooh train first thing in the morning.
Happy Birthday Honey!! The boys are happy for any opportunity to help someone blow out their birthday candles.
I think I was in the hospital on this day. It appears the boys are building a fort out of blankets and books.
And the rest of the photos are from November.I love these pictures. I was either in the hospital or sick in bed at home when these were taken. Not sure which but they were a nice surprise when I uploaded the pictures from the camera today.
Here is my mom (MaMa) reading to the boys. This was just after I came home from the hospital, when my mom was staying with us for a few days.
Happy Birthday Nick!!
Ben got to open a couple of small presents also. The problem was that they were opening the same gift and Ben was faster at opening his than Nick was so Nick kept finding out what it was by looking at what Ben just finished opening.
Nick, like Ben, had two birthday cakes. This one was made by Aunt Kathy and then daddy put the icing on when he got home from work (I was still feeling very sick at this point). Aunt Kathy also brought a small cake when she and MaMa came for the day to visit. So Nick had a small party and cake with them and then we had another one with daddy when he got home from work. Lots of cake and lots of fun.
I don't know where I was when this one was taken. Another surprise photo on the camera. Our little cutie Ben playing dress up.
And, last but certainly not least, did I mention that David and Goliath are back again, in full force. Everything with Ben is about David and Goliath these days and, if he can talk us into it, we would be reading the story over and over and over again every day. Nick gets tired of reading the same story over and over but Ben still gets to hear it pretty often. Tonight, when Nick complained, Ben said "you don't have to listen". Now I know most of you would not see the connection to David and Goliath in the picture below. But you just have to use your imagination. The purses are Goliath's armor! Did you guess that? He didn't happen to have his sock/slingshot with him for this picture but he had it with him later, in addition to his 'staff', which was made from the marble run. He pretty much knows everything there is to know about the David and Goliath story now. This afternoon he was pretending to be Goliath and didn't know I was watching him. He was making motions with his hands and then made one hand come up and whack his forehead and then he fell down. He is quite the pretender.
I can't believe how big they are getting. I still feel that I am so missing out. I still feel like Yuck from this cold. I'll get down and start playing with them and within 5 minutes I am ready to stop and rest. And my patience is just not what it should be. I am such a bad mom when I am not feeling well and I hate that. I am so ready to get back to normal and start feeling GOOD again.Hope you enjoy the pics!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
November 19, 2009
Things are getting back to normal around here. I am not 100% yet but I am definitely moving in that direction. I can do quite a bit during the morning and afternoon but I have a lot less energy as the day goes on and I am really exhausted by the time dinnertime rolls around. It makes a day like today challenging. A real estate agent wanted to show our house between 4:00 and 5:00pm. The good thing is that he called the evening before so I had all day to get ready. That helped a lot.
As for the boys, they are doing well. Behavior is slowly improving, as I try hard to be consistent. Sometimes it really tires me out. Also, when I am not feeling 100% (I still have some pain in my lung at times) I am not always in the best mood and I am not always the best role model, although I am trying and I am praying about it. I feel bad that I have not been able to really spend a lot of time playing with them lately but hopefully I will have a lot of time next week for that. Today I had to spend a lot of time on the house and we had to go grocery shopping. By the time you add in lunch, nap and after-nap-movie, there is not much time left. We spent some time reading a couple of times and I built a very nice castle and moat with all of the blocks this evening and they both enjoyed knocking it down and then they had fun building lots of stuff and doing "mommy look at..." over and over, as I sat nearby watching them.
I want to start playing more games with them and I am hoping to be in a position to start doing a little school work with them in January. Ben is so so ready to learn to read and write. He has learned how to write the names of all four of us. He loves trying to write and I really need to get on top of this before he learns bad writing habits. I have also seen him trying to sound out words that are past where we have learned in our book. He is so ready and I am feeling a little bad that I have not taught him more. Hopefully I will feel like getting back to it soon.
As for Nick, he is so ready to be in some sort of sports program. I am hoping to have them both in something in January. Nick is such a natural athlete and he is always trying to do hand stands, flips and other gymnastic-type moves, plus he loves playing any kind of ball that someone will play with him, that I feel bad that we don't have him in some sort of sport or class where he could really have fun.
So, I need to get on the ball but I am still feeling like my ball is not completely filled with air. Hopefully we will be there soon. Really, yesterday evening I was starting to worry that I was having a relapse. I had not been having pain for a while and yesterday I started having pain in my lung again. By bed time it was hurting even when I was sitting still, not doing anything, which had not happened in quite a while....to the point that we were considering getting me into seeing someone today. Today it was back to hurting only when I take a little deeper breath or yawn or sneeze or something. Actually, I can't sneeze because, when I start to take that deep breath in to sneeze, it hurts so much so quick that the sneeze goes away. Until yesterday, it seemed more like I had a tightness in my lung when I tried to take a deeper breath or sneeze or yawn. But as of yesterday it was back to a pain, which is very frustrating and makes me wonder what is going on in there. I don't remember having this much of an issue the last time I was recovering from pneumonia.
Today Ben happened to see one of my bras laying somewhere and he came to me and said "mommy, you don't have your breast on" " I saw your breast laying on the bed". It was very funny. And then, later, when we were at Walmart, I was shopping for some new socks when Nick noticed all of the bras nearby. He said "mommy, look at all the breast-es they have here" "they have a lot of breast-es here". Very funny boys.
They are very excited because tomorrow we have a play date with friends we have not play with in quite a while, due to my sickness and also the H1N1 flu ran through their family at the same time I got sick. Actually, the husband of their family works with my husband. He called my husband and asked him to call in Tamaflu for their youngest son (2 year old) on the same day that I started having chills and aches, way back in the beginning of my ordeal, when I thought I was coming down with the flu only to realize a couple of days later that it was pneumonia and ended up at the ER. We kept in touch with our friends through our ordeal and theirs and that flu ran through their family very quickly. Everyone got it and it was pretty rough. So, now we are all healthy and we are finally able to get together again and they are going to treat us to the bouncy play place for Nick's birthday. The boys are very excited and it will be nice to get together with friends and feel somewhat normal again.
I am really looking forward to the weekend, since it will be the first that we have not had an open house (except when I was really sick). So it will be a "normal" weekend for us and it has been a very long time since we have had a normal weekend around here. And I am really looking forward to getting together with my family on Thanksgiving. It is hard to believe it is already here.
Hope you all have a great weekend. I still need to post pics and a birthday update for Nick. It is coming, I promise:).
As for the boys, they are doing well. Behavior is slowly improving, as I try hard to be consistent. Sometimes it really tires me out. Also, when I am not feeling 100% (I still have some pain in my lung at times) I am not always in the best mood and I am not always the best role model, although I am trying and I am praying about it. I feel bad that I have not been able to really spend a lot of time playing with them lately but hopefully I will have a lot of time next week for that. Today I had to spend a lot of time on the house and we had to go grocery shopping. By the time you add in lunch, nap and after-nap-movie, there is not much time left. We spent some time reading a couple of times and I built a very nice castle and moat with all of the blocks this evening and they both enjoyed knocking it down and then they had fun building lots of stuff and doing "mommy look at..." over and over, as I sat nearby watching them.
I want to start playing more games with them and I am hoping to be in a position to start doing a little school work with them in January. Ben is so so ready to learn to read and write. He has learned how to write the names of all four of us. He loves trying to write and I really need to get on top of this before he learns bad writing habits. I have also seen him trying to sound out words that are past where we have learned in our book. He is so ready and I am feeling a little bad that I have not taught him more. Hopefully I will feel like getting back to it soon.
As for Nick, he is so ready to be in some sort of sports program. I am hoping to have them both in something in January. Nick is such a natural athlete and he is always trying to do hand stands, flips and other gymnastic-type moves, plus he loves playing any kind of ball that someone will play with him, that I feel bad that we don't have him in some sort of sport or class where he could really have fun.
So, I need to get on the ball but I am still feeling like my ball is not completely filled with air. Hopefully we will be there soon. Really, yesterday evening I was starting to worry that I was having a relapse. I had not been having pain for a while and yesterday I started having pain in my lung again. By bed time it was hurting even when I was sitting still, not doing anything, which had not happened in quite a while....to the point that we were considering getting me into seeing someone today. Today it was back to hurting only when I take a little deeper breath or yawn or sneeze or something. Actually, I can't sneeze because, when I start to take that deep breath in to sneeze, it hurts so much so quick that the sneeze goes away. Until yesterday, it seemed more like I had a tightness in my lung when I tried to take a deeper breath or sneeze or yawn. But as of yesterday it was back to a pain, which is very frustrating and makes me wonder what is going on in there. I don't remember having this much of an issue the last time I was recovering from pneumonia.
Today Ben happened to see one of my bras laying somewhere and he came to me and said "mommy, you don't have your breast on" " I saw your breast laying on the bed
They are very excited because tomorrow we have a play date with friends we have not play with in quite a while, due to my sickness and also the H1N1 flu ran through their family at the same time I got sick. Actually, the husband of their family works with my husband. He called my husband and asked him to call in Tamaflu for their youngest son (2 year old) on the same day that I started having chills and aches, way back in the beginning of my ordeal, when I thought I was coming down with the flu only to realize a couple of days later that it was pneumonia and ended up at the ER. We kept in touch with our friends through our ordeal and theirs and that flu ran through their family very quickly. Everyone got it and it was pretty rough. So, now we are all healthy and we are finally able to get together again and they are going to treat us to the bouncy play place for Nick's birthday. The boys are very excited and it will be nice to get together with friends and feel somewhat normal again.
I am really looking forward to the weekend, since it will be the first that we have not had an open house (except when I was really sick). So it will be a "normal" weekend for us and it has been a very long time since we have had a normal weekend around here. And I am really looking forward to getting together with my family on Thanksgiving. It is hard to believe it is already here.
Hope you all have a great weekend. I still need to post pics and a birthday update for Nick. It is coming, I promise:).
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
November 18, 2009
The boys got their shots today and it went as well as something like that can go. They both handled it very well and I was proud of them in their efforts to have courage about the situation.
About a week before hand, I talked to them about having their 4 year old shots, that they would have them sometime next week and that they would each have 4 shots, 2 in each arm. We discussed the fact that shots hurt and are not fun and that nobody wants them but that we have to have them to stay healthy and to prevent some bad diseases. After that discussion, we all forgot about it for a week.
Last night the husband reminded me that the boys should go in for their shots this week and we decided that today would be the best day. So this morning, after we were all well awake, I let the boys know that today was the day. We had pretty much the same conversation over again and then we had parts of it again several more times before shot time. Nick in particular would bring it up and say that he did not want to get shots so we would talk about it again and each time I would finish the conversation with the fun we were going to have afterwards. We also talked about courage and what it means and also that it is OK to cry and that lots of kids cry when they get a shot.
As it turned out, it seemed to be really good preparation for them. There are some ladies at the front desk that are always so happy to see them and give them candy so they both got a lollipop on the way in. They have a television in the waiting room that they keep on Animal Planet and it had a pretty good show on about a black panther being raised by some people that was cute and kept their interest while we waited, along with their lollipops and the babies that we watched.
So neither of them really worried about it or thought about it while we were waiting. Before we arrived, we had already discussed that they would go in one at a time and they could pick who they wanted to go in with them, mommy or daddy. We also discussed who would go first. Ben was in a very brave mood and said he would go first, he wanted daddy to go with him and he was not going to cry, to which I replied that that's fine but it is OK to cry too.
This arrangement worked out well because Nick did not want to go first, which was a first for him I think. Normally he thinks he always has to be first at everything:). Ben went in first without any hesitation, although I did see a bit of nervousness in his expression. He kept a brave face though, with a bit of a half smile. We could hear him screaming from the waiting room, which might have made Nick a little nervous but I couldn't tell for sure. I just acted like it was totally normal and some people cry more than others and whatever. Nick had said he wanted daddy to go with him but he changed his mind while they were gone. I was a little bummed because I don't like the whole shot thing myself:).
When it was Nick's turn, on our way in I reminded him again how they would push his sleeves up and use a cold wet cotton ball to wipe his arm clean. He was fine until we walked into the room and he saw the shots sitting nearby, at which time he said something like he didn't want to do this. But he did it, they were quick and they hurt and he barely cried, although he really didn't want to switch arms and let them give the 3rd and 4th shots in his other arm (can't blame him at all).
In retrospect, it seems a bit barbaric to give that many shots to such a small child (with such little skinny arms) at one time. The husband said that these are all the shots they are suppose to have between the ages of 4 and 6, which made me think it might have been better to get two today and then two more 6 months later, or something like that. After Nick got his shots, the lady said they don't have to have any more until they are 11 years old. That's a long time, which again makes me think why in the world do they do it this way, where they get that many shots at one time. If I had known before what I know now, I think I would have insisted they split them up and give them 6 months or so in between to forget about it. I think 4 shots at once would be a lot even for an adult, much less a just-turned-4-year-old.
Anyway, it's over and I'm glad it's over, although we do have some complaints of sore arms. Both boys woke up crying a little after nap, saying their arms hurt, although I have not heard any complaints this evening so that's good.
After the shots, we went to Chick-fil-la for lunch and play time and they were giving away balloons, which is always a really big hit around here. The boys had not had any balloons in quite a long time so they have really played with them a lot this evening.
About a week before hand, I talked to them about having their 4 year old shots, that they would have them sometime next week and that they would each have 4 shots, 2 in each arm. We discussed the fact that shots hurt and are not fun and that nobody wants them but that we have to have them to stay healthy and to prevent some bad diseases. After that discussion, we all forgot about it for a week.
Last night the husband reminded me that the boys should go in for their shots this week and we decided that today would be the best day. So this morning, after we were all well awake, I let the boys know that today was the day. We had pretty much the same conversation over again and then we had parts of it again several more times before shot time. Nick in particular would bring it up and say that he did not want to get shots so we would talk about it again and each time I would finish the conversation with the fun we were going to have afterwards. We also talked about courage and what it means and also that it is OK to cry and that lots of kids cry when they get a shot.
As it turned out, it seemed to be really good preparation for them. There are some ladies at the front desk that are always so happy to see them and give them candy so they both got a lollipop on the way in. They have a television in the waiting room that they keep on Animal Planet and it had a pretty good show on about a black panther being raised by some people that was cute and kept their interest while we waited, along with their lollipops and the babies that we watched.
So neither of them really worried about it or thought about it while we were waiting. Before we arrived, we had already discussed that they would go in one at a time and they could pick who they wanted to go in with them, mommy or daddy. We also discussed who would go first. Ben was in a very brave mood and said he would go first, he wanted daddy to go with him and he was not going to cry, to which I replied that that's fine but it is OK to cry too.
This arrangement worked out well because Nick did not want to go first, which was a first for him I think. Normally he thinks he always has to be first at everything:). Ben went in first without any hesitation, although I did see a bit of nervousness in his expression. He kept a brave face though, with a bit of a half smile. We could hear him screaming from the waiting room, which might have made Nick a little nervous but I couldn't tell for sure. I just acted like it was totally normal and some people cry more than others and whatever. Nick had said he wanted daddy to go with him but he changed his mind while they were gone. I was a little bummed because I don't like the whole shot thing myself:).
When it was Nick's turn, on our way in I reminded him again how they would push his sleeves up and use a cold wet cotton ball to wipe his arm clean. He was fine until we walked into the room and he saw the shots sitting nearby, at which time he said something like he didn't want to do this. But he did it, they were quick and they hurt and he barely cried, although he really didn't want to switch arms and let them give the 3rd and 4th shots in his other arm (can't blame him at all).
In retrospect, it seems a bit barbaric to give that many shots to such a small child (with such little skinny arms) at one time. The husband said that these are all the shots they are suppose to have between the ages of 4 and 6, which made me think it might have been better to get two today and then two more 6 months later, or something like that. After Nick got his shots, the lady said they don't have to have any more until they are 11 years old. That's a long time, which again makes me think why in the world do they do it this way, where they get that many shots at one time. If I had known before what I know now, I think I would have insisted they split them up and give them 6 months or so in between to forget about it. I think 4 shots at once would be a lot even for an adult, much less a just-turned-4-year-old.
Anyway, it's over and I'm glad it's over, although we do have some complaints of sore arms. Both boys woke up crying a little after nap, saying their arms hurt, although I have not heard any complaints this evening so that's good.
After the shots, we went to Chick-fil-la for lunch and play time and they were giving away balloons, which is always a really big hit around here. The boys had not had any balloons in quite a long time so they have really played with them a lot this evening.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
November 14, 2009 Part 2
We have two videos of David & Goliath that were given to us and the boys, most especially Ben, really love to watch them. But what Ben really really likes to do these days, his very favorite game, is to play David & Goliath.
He gets a pair of socks, wads one up and stuffs it inside of the other one. Then he takes the outer one and, holding it by the top of the sock (these are socks that reach to mid shin), swings it around and around, pretending it is his sling shot. He does this ALL THE TIME and we are going through socks very quickly around here these days. Nick will do it too once in a while but he is not nearly as intrigued with this game as is Ben.
Ben tries to talk everyone into playing this game with him. What that means for anyone who agrees to play is that they are Goliath to Ben's David and they must pretend to get hit in the forehead with a stone and fall down dead. Ben knows most of the wording that goes with this event and also knows that the winner of the battle, David, puts his foot upon the slain Goliath. It is funny to watch and to listen to but everyone soon tires of playing the role of Goliath. Ben tries to get Nick to play this role but Nick does not like this idea. When Ben is really hurting for a Goliath, he pretends that the play fire station is Goliath and he knocks it over with his sling shot. Thankfully it is a very durable toy.
The issue with Ben's infatuation is that he tends to want to really hit people with his sling shot. We have discussed it many times and he has lost his sling shot several times because he could not seem to resist the temptation to hit someone with it. This normally happens when nobody wants to play Goliath. I don't think he has ever actually hit Goliath when someone has agreed to play the role (but I could be wrong about that).
This evening Ben again had his sling shot. He hit his daddy in the back with it a time or two, lightly I think but enough to cause daddy to tell him to stop because it hurt. The dad and I were busy putting away all of the play dough at the time and were not paying enough attention, as the sling shot should have been taken away when it was used on daddy.
A little later Ben hit Nick with his sling shot and it hurt enough that Nick was none too happy about it. I was nearby and paying attention this time and I took the sling shot away from Ben, only to find that this time, instead of a waded up sock in the sling shot, he had a hard toy inside of it. No wonder it was hurting so much when he was hitting people with it. So Ben sat in time out for a short while, while the dad and I discussed what should happen next.
The final decision was that there will be no sling shots and no type of David of Goliath, play or video, allowed for three days. Ben was very unhappy about this decision and made the bad choice of throwing fits and being a bit sassy. Sassiness has been a real issue with him since around the time he turned 4 and we are working on this issue.
So, overall, it started out being very cute and funny to watch Ben's infatuation with the whole David and Goliath thing. It is now very tiresome and I am happy that we will have a three day break from them:). Hopefully our little one will learn a little more self control from this three day break. Time will tell.
In other news, the dad and I had a few hours to ourselves while the boys had fun playing with their favorite babysitter. I am continuing to feel much much better and am starting to think that I am almost back to myself. I didn't do a whole lot today though so we will see how much stamina I have when I really dig in again, which will probably be on Monday.
He gets a pair of socks, wads one up and stuffs it inside of the other one. Then he takes the outer one and, holding it by the top of the sock (these are socks that reach to mid shin), swings it around and around, pretending it is his sling shot. He does this ALL THE TIME and we are going through socks very quickly around here these days. Nick will do it too once in a while but he is not nearly as intrigued with this game as is Ben.
Ben tries to talk everyone into playing this game with him. What that means for anyone who agrees to play is that they are Goliath to Ben's David and they must pretend to get hit in the forehead with a stone and fall down dead. Ben knows most of the wording that goes with this event and also knows that the winner of the battle, David, puts his foot upon the slain Goliath. It is funny to watch and to listen to but everyone soon tires of playing the role of Goliath. Ben tries to get Nick to play this role but Nick does not like this idea. When Ben is really hurting for a Goliath, he pretends that the play fire station is Goliath and he knocks it over with his sling shot. Thankfully it is a very durable toy.
The issue with Ben's infatuation is that he tends to want to really hit people with his sling shot. We have discussed it many times and he has lost his sling shot several times because he could not seem to resist the temptation to hit someone with it. This normally happens when nobody wants to play Goliath. I don't think he has ever actually hit Goliath when someone has agreed to play the role (but I could be wrong about that).
This evening Ben again had his sling shot. He hit his daddy in the back with it a time or two, lightly I think but enough to cause daddy to tell him to stop because it hurt. The dad and I were busy putting away all of the play dough at the time and were not paying enough attention, as the sling shot should have been taken away when it was used on daddy.
A little later Ben hit Nick with his sling shot and it hurt enough that Nick was none too happy about it. I was nearby and paying attention this time and I took the sling shot away from Ben, only to find that this time, instead of a waded up sock in the sling shot, he had a hard toy inside of it. No wonder it was hurting so much when he was hitting people with it. So Ben sat in time out for a short while, while the dad and I discussed what should happen next.
The final decision was that there will be no sling shots and no type of David of Goliath, play or video, allowed for three days. Ben was very unhappy about this decision and made the bad choice of throwing fits and being a bit sassy. Sassiness has been a real issue with him since around the time he turned 4 and we are working on this issue.
So, overall, it started out being very cute and funny to watch Ben's infatuation with the whole David and Goliath thing. It is now very tiresome and I am happy that we will have a three day break from them:). Hopefully our little one will learn a little more self control from this three day break. Time will tell.
In other news, the dad and I had a few hours to ourselves while the boys had fun playing with their favorite babysitter. I am continuing to feel much much better and am starting to think that I am almost back to myself. I didn't do a whole lot today though so we will see how much stamina I have when I really dig in again, which will probably be on Monday.
November 14, 2009
Just a quickie post to let everyone know I am now feeling so much better. I definitely got some kind of infection from the pneumonia shot and it is now getting better very quickly. My energy is starting to return and, as you can imagine, I am feeling better from an emotional perspective too. It is soooo nice to see our family starting to get back to normal.
We had a bad event last night that had me very upset though. A real estate agent called the day before and wanted to show our house yesterday evening at 5:30. Since we don't have a lock box on the door, the boys and I just head out the back and we leave, as the real estate agent and people are arriving out front and then the agent calls me on my cell when they are finished. The boys and I just drive around the neighborhood for a few minutes while they are looking at the house, as it usually does not take very long. The people yesterday actually took quite a long time, which we thought was a good thing, although we have not heard anything since so who knows.
Anyway, as I was pulling out of the driveway, I stopped next to the agent's car (she was waiting for her clients to arrive) and told her that we have a cat who likes to try to escape. I told her to just kick her foot at him and he would get back away from the door. Unfortunately, she was on the phone, although she had quit talking to the person and was listening to me (I thought). I think she must have been thinking of other things and was not really listening after all.
She finally called to tell us they were finished. By that time the dad had arrived home and was sitting with us in the van just up the street from our house. He got back into his car and we drove up to the house and into the driveway as the agent and clients were leaving. As we came into the house, I saw Zoe, our cat who normally does not try to escape, but I didn't see Dancer so I started calling for him right away. He loves to eat and loves special treats so normally he comes right away (even if he is sleeping soundly) when I call him from the kitchen. When he didn't come, I thought he might have gotten into one of the attics so I headed upstairs while the husband got a flashlight and headed outside. I didn't find him or hear him in the attic so I called the agent and left her a message on her phone. When she called back a few minutes later, the husband had my phone (which was probably a very good thing). She confirmed that the cat did dash out the back door and she said she thought he was an outdoor cat, as I had not said he wasn't. I just couldn't believe it. By this time, Dancer had likely been outside for about an hour and it had been dark for about as long.
We looked and looked for him and called for him all over the place and we never found him. I brought the kids inside and started fixing them something to eat, all the while I was crying my eyes out. I have had my two cats for about 12 or 13 years now, since they were just little bitty kittens. It was really heart wrenching for me to think that I might not see him again. We also live very close to a very busy road, so that was very concerning to me. The husband was still out looking and he finally came back in empty handed too. He took over finishing something to eat for the boys while I came to the bedroom, still very upset.
I heard the boys shouting and I could hear the husband saying something loudly also, including Dancer's name, and I knew he had returned home. I had left a very smelly can of chicken on the step, hoping it would lure him home. He might have returned anyway but he does love to eat so I'm sure the chicken probably helped a little. I was so relieved. His return was an answer to many prayers and I thanked the Lord.
So, it was an emotional evening but it had a happy ending. Today we have the boy's favorite baby sitter (our only baby sitter:) coming from 3 to 7 so the husband and I can have a few hours to ourselves. It should be a relaxing kind of day around here and I am going to bask in it.
I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to be feeling good again. I am so thankful and it really does make one take stock of what really matters in life. I am going to enjoy this day:).
We had a bad event last night that had me very upset though. A real estate agent called the day before and wanted to show our house yesterday evening at 5:30. Since we don't have a lock box on the door, the boys and I just head out the back and we leave, as the real estate agent and people are arriving out front and then the agent calls me on my cell when they are finished. The boys and I just drive around the neighborhood for a few minutes while they are looking at the house, as it usually does not take very long. The people yesterday actually took quite a long time, which we thought was a good thing, although we have not heard anything since so who knows.
Anyway, as I was pulling out of the driveway, I stopped next to the agent's car (she was waiting for her clients to arrive) and told her that we have a cat who likes to try to escape. I told her to just kick her foot at him and he would get back away from the door. Unfortunately, she was on the phone, although she had quit talking to the person and was listening to me (I thought). I think she must have been thinking of other things and was not really listening after all.
She finally called to tell us they were finished. By that time the dad had arrived home and was sitting with us in the van just up the street from our house. He got back into his car and we drove up to the house and into the driveway as the agent and clients were leaving. As we came into the house, I saw Zoe, our cat who normally does not try to escape, but I didn't see Dancer so I started calling for him right away. He loves to eat and loves special treats so normally he comes right away (even if he is sleeping soundly) when I call him from the kitchen. When he didn't come, I thought he might have gotten into one of the attics so I headed upstairs while the husband got a flashlight and headed outside. I didn't find him or hear him in the attic so I called the agent and left her a message on her phone. When she called back a few minutes later, the husband had my phone (which was probably a very good thing). She confirmed that the cat did dash out the back door and she said she thought he was an outdoor cat, as I had not said he wasn't. I just couldn't believe it. By this time, Dancer had likely been outside for about an hour and it had been dark for about as long.
We looked and looked for him and called for him all over the place and we never found him. I brought the kids inside and started fixing them something to eat, all the while I was crying my eyes out. I have had my two cats for about 12 or 13 years now, since they were just little bitty kittens. It was really heart wrenching for me to think that I might not see him again. We also live very close to a very busy road, so that was very concerning to me. The husband was still out looking and he finally came back in empty handed too. He took over finishing something to eat for the boys while I came to the bedroom, still very upset.
I heard the boys shouting and I could hear the husband saying something loudly also, including Dancer's name, and I knew he had returned home. I had left a very smelly can of chicken on the step, hoping it would lure him home. He might have returned anyway but he does love to eat so I'm sure the chicken probably helped a little. I was so relieved. His return was an answer to many prayers and I thanked the Lord.
So, it was an emotional evening but it had a happy ending. Today we have the boy's favorite baby sitter (our only baby sitter:) coming from 3 to 7 so the husband and I can have a few hours to ourselves. It should be a relaxing kind of day around here and I am going to bask in it.
I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to be feeling good again. I am so thankful and it really does make one take stock of what really matters in life. I am going to enjoy this day:).
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