Tricks and Treats

Halloween was a monster success! The kids partied at school and came home ready to hit the streets and get those treats! The cold temperature did nothing to chill their enthusiasm--they begged for candy for almost two hours! Afterwards, our neighbor hosted a group of us for pizza, so bedtime definitely got pushed and pushed a little more. Can't say this morning was much fun, but seeing their joy last night made up for it (or at least it will when I have those memories years from now; thankfully it's the really good ones that seem to stick!)

The one blight on the evening was some prankster took our bowl of candy we left out on the step. And I mean the actual bowl!!! I know it's always a risk that some older kids are going to take all the candy in one fell swoop, but do they have to be total jerks and take the bowl too? Perhaps it was someone's trick when they happened upon a treatless bowl. Sigh...

In other unfortunate news, Nick got a trick played on him in the form of a nasty stomach bug. He's been throwing up since three o'clock this afternoon. I'm just glad he didn't get hit with this bug yesterday! That would have crushed him!

Hope everyone had a fun-filled Halloween!

The water is dangerous, but the streets are safe!

Check-out that tail!

The crew!

Nicks says...

Nick talks from the moment he wakes up until the moment he drops to sleep at night. Even after we’ve turned off the light and left him alone, we can hear him chatting away or singing a song he’s made up. He’s taken the game of “why?” to new levels, relentless in his follow-up to each answer with another “why?”—it’s exhausting.

 

So many of his thoughts come out of thin air and, with his deadpan delivery and amazing comedic timing, he keeps us cracking up. I really wish I could just have a running transcript of all the things he says in a day. Not so practical, but I’ve been trying to be better about jotting some gems here and there. Here are a few from the past week or so…

On multi-culturalism…

 

Nick talking to Lainey—“‘Duh’ means ‘you should know that already’ in Spanish.”

On taking care of his things…

“I’m going to break the iPad!” Pauses and smiles. “I’m just being silly. What would we do if the iPad was broken?”

 

On physiology…

Nick: I’m not going to grow for 35 days.

Me:  Why?

Nick: Because that’s just how my body works.

On keeping it on the sly…

 

Nick was being too loud (as always) in a public place.

 

Lainey:  Nick whisper.

Nick: <whispers> So, Daddy doesn’t hear me say the bad words?

 On family bonds…

 “Can we get rid of Lainey and get a boat?”

  

Really, putting these down on paper don’t do them justice. You need to see his big brown eyes, tiny hand gestures, and impish smile to really understand his charm. But, I can see all that when I read these and I know I’ll be happy to have these on paper one day, when this little guy is all grown up.

Pumpkins and Puddles

Well, we've had some really beautiful weather this week! Too bad we didn't have it last weekend while Dad and Sharon were visiting. I poured rain all day on Saturday, making for a muddy mess for our annual trip to Didier Farms on Sunday. The mud wouldn't have been so bad, but it was overcast, windy, and cold! Even with the yuck weather, we still had a blast. The kids probably could have stayed the whole afternoon!

We picked out our pumpkins, per usual, and even though Mark and I had agreed each kid would get one pumpkin, we ended up leaving with six! Two big, two small, and two really small. Nick was excited to find a large one that was shaped like a heart--later realizing it also looked like a butt--oh the laughs that ensued from the wee ones! He then found it's twin among the tiny pumpkin bin. How could I say no?

We've been really lucky the past 4 years to have amazing weather, so I suppose we can take a year of clouds! Thanks for treating us, Dad and Sharon! Another tradition carrying on!

Uncle Chris! Uncle Chris! Uncle Chris!

 

Uncle Chris rolled into town last Friday and our house was almost shattered with Nick’s excitement. This is not to say Lainey wasn’t also enthused, but Nick was just off-the-wall. He had been counting down for the past week, asking multiple times a day if it was Friday yet, before launching into all the things he was going to do with Uncle Chris. It was really sweet, and luckily, Chris delivered on Nick’s expectations. There was lots of Star Wars play, and we watched Episode II: Attack of the Clones, something Nick was particularly anticipating. (I will say, however, he seemed just as into watching Girls Just Want to Have Fun.) Both of the kids were really sad Uncle Sean couldn’t make the trip and are anxious to see him at Thanksgiving. Lainey did get to do some texting fun with him yesterday, which she loved! She’s already a tween, that one.

                The big event of the weekend was hitting the Jurassic World exhibit at The Field Museum. It was pretty cool—even if a little on the intense side at times for younger kids. We had the bad luck of crossing paths with a couple and their son asking for a refund, because the son decided it was too scary to go in. Doh!! So, that put Lainey on edge before we even inside (to put it very, very mildly), and both kiddos had a hard time at the Raptor and T. Rex portions. Even so, I still highly recommend it for any families with kids who are into dinosaurs. The real trauma for poor Nick came in the gift shop, when I refused to buy a $35 stuffed dinosaur. With lip protruded and hot tears on his cheeks, he said, “You ruined my whole day, Mama.” As it turns out, his day was, in fact, able to recover from this brutal blow.

                The rest of the time we just lolled about hitting the park and the forest preserve. It was a great weekend and Nick took Chris’s departure okay. (I was worried after he wept when Chris left to meet friends for dinner on Saturday night.) A big thanks to Chris for making the trip and the memories! We all love you!

I Mom So Hard

Guys, I know I often write about what a mess I am, but I gotta' say, right now, in this moment, I AM KILLING it. 

After the first week of school, I made some adjustments to our evening routine and--BAM--we're working like a well-oiled machine. Homework? Handled. Extracurriculars? Got 'em covered. Family dinners? Still happening. Bedtimes have been stretched a wee bit and our already loose shower schedule has picked up even more slack, but the kids aren't struggling to wake up and flies aren't following them, so we're good. 

And this weekend? Let me TELL you about this weekend...

• Kids' Halloween costumes picked and bought. 
• Flu shots administered. 
• Birthday present (for next weekend) bought and wrapped. 
• Banana bread baked. 
• Errands done.
• Laundry washed, folded, AND put away.

And I just wrote this blog post. AND it's only NOON! Say what? Don't mind me, I'm just going to be reading leisurely the rest of the day (because I also already have dinner prepped and ready for the oven!)

However, even as I bask in the glory of an impending afternoon with nothing much to do, I realize it's only possible because we've had two weekends in a row with nothing on the calendar (and last weekend we scored play dates for the kids on both Saturday and Sunday.) All hell breaks loose again starting next week and probably won't let up until after Thanksgiving...which means after Christmas...which means after Nick's birthday. So, that's cool. At least I'll have material for this blog...

First Day of First Grade!!!

Looking sparkly and ready to shine!

Lainey’s off to first grade! So far so good! Her besties are all in her class again this year (for better or worse—we shall see), and I’m really happy with the communication style of her teacher so far (although the bar wasn’t set that high from last year).

We may have been a bit over zealous with fall activities, however. She will continue swim lessons on Thursday nights and gymnastics on Wednesday nights. We switched her from lessons at the YMCA to a real gymnastics school, because she just wasn’t learning much. From just one class at the new place she made a huge skill leap (same thing happened with her swim lessons). It’s nice to have another option, but it also means I can’t take advantage her afterschool program at the Y to fit-in the lesson.

She’s also signed up for Girl Scouts (only one Friday a month), and I promised her last year she could take the afterschool cooking class (also on Wednesdays). For her to participate, I have to leave work 30 minutes early to get her. I piggybacked gymnastics for the same night, because I know I’ll be home early and we’ll have time to get ready for class. I am so relieved that the YMCA basketball league we signed her up for isn’t moving forward, because there aren’t enough kids. It would have been TOO much! Seriously…what were we thinking?

Right now, everything takes place on week nights, but I can move swim or gymnastics to the weekend if it becomes too stressful. I’m trying to take advantage of the early years with little to no homework and keep extracurriculars during the week, so our weekends are free. Free to sign-up Nick for something that is…

Welcome back to school!

Farewell to Foxy

While our Florida getaway was fantastic, we returned to sad news on the home front. Nick's fish, Foxy, swam off to the bluer sea of the beyond. And judging by the condition of the mortal remains, he met his maker about five minutes after we walked out the door last Saturday. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Foxy had been looking a little worse for the wear lately, so we had been preparing Nick  that he wouldn't be around much longer, but we weren't sure how he'd take the news. When we told him Foxy died, his first words were, "who's Foxy?" Mark and I couldn't help but laugh, which made him think we were kidding about the whole thing. But, when we explained that we were talking about his fish and that he really was dead, his little face dropped and his shoulders deflated. Mark picked him up in his arms and Nick raised his head stoically and said, "Take me to the office." We told him we'd already removed Foxy from the tank, but he needed to see it for himself. In the end, we let him see Foxy's body. He found it more interesting than disturbing and had lots of questions on why Foxy looked the way he did (but, thankfully, no questions about what happens after you die.)

He chose a spot to bury Foxy in the backyard, marked the grave with some sticks, and that was that. We told him he could get a new fish this weekend, but he hasn't mentioned it again, so we aren't either. Molly (Lainey's fish) better beware...with one fish out of the picture, I think Mark is mulling the easiest way to send Molly on her final swim...

R.I.P Foxy