Day 3

This is Day 3 of being homebound with my kids. Makaila does not have a fever anymore and is down to just the Tamaflu and cough medicine (which she doesn't like). I am so glad that tomorrow is Saturday because if I have to face another day alone, in the house, with the 2 kids, and with remodeling, I think I will hurt someone.

Okay, so the remodeling part isn't horrible, but it adds mess. As in dust everywhere and dirt on the floors from work boots coming in and out repeatedly. I understand it is part of the process, but since I'm home more hours constantly I have more time to see things that it is useless to clean. And I am constantly trying to keep my kids out of the worker guys' ("worker guy" is the official name in our house for any kind of constructor worker or actually manual laborer of any kind) way and telling them to shut their bedroom doors to keep the dust/dirt out of there.

So back to the kids. We're getting out things like playdough and toys they haven't played with in a while, we're doing puzzles, playing school (to get Makaila to do some real homework), having themed lunches, doing some baking, watching a DVD, playing video games, even going on a walk around the block, etc. . . but MAMA is the one who gets cabin fever easily. And being at home without an outside activity leads towards me expecting a lot from Makaila and being frustrated if I don't get it. Hmmm. . . I just really pray Cole doesn't come down with this next week. Tomorrow we get to go trick or treating, doctors says. Yeah!

Bathroom demo

We are in the middle of a bathroom remodel. These are the spots where the toilet and sink used to be. This is one of those times where a $5 repair turned into a bathroom renovation! To fix the toilet, Chad turned off the water. Turning off the water cracked some seal between the wall and toilet. Fixing that means taking out the toilet. Taking out the toilet means fixing the floor around it (the toilet sat crooked). If we are fixing the floor we might as well take out the floor tile I don't really like. If we are taking out the floor we might as well upgrade the shower that isn't that impressive. If we fix the floor we need to take out the linen cabinet to get under there. If we are redoing the shower, might as well take out the silly fur down (sp?) thing that was popular to houses of this area. Like my husband said, the $5 repair turned into an entirely new bathroom.

H1N1

We couldn't escape the virus. H1N1 came to our house. Monday Makaila got the cough. Tuesday she came home with a huring tummy that turned into a fever. Wednesday we stayed home and went to the doctor, getting the official word. Now we're on the mix of Tamaflu, Musinex, Tylenol/Motrin with an occasional Benadryl. Joy. Actually, if we keep the fever down she is doing quite well. The hard part is since she is doing well, she is wanting to play. I get to let her and Cole play while somehow trying to keep him from getting it too. Good news is doctor says we can trick or treat on Halloween. This is day 2 of not going to school or pretty much anywhere else. Mommy will be the one having the hardest time with this. I have this crazy urge to leave the house every day, even if it is for a browsing errand. But so far they are playing pretty well and so I am surviving. Playdough, puzzles, playing school, making pancakes (just Cole on that one), movie, reading, etc is keeping us busy so far. But tomorrow, of course, is another day. . .

Wish book

Cole was thrilled to get a "wish book" magazine from Toys R Us. He has looked at it quite a bit for the past 3 days. He was so excited. The first day he was litterally wowing over every page. He kept pointing at things and telling me, "Thomas is on sale", "Lightning McQueen is on sale", "army guys are on sale". The second day we had been out and came back home. He saw it and said he was going to look at his "book of awesome things".

Playing

Cole continues to like to know "what we are doing tomorrow?" and "what are we doing after that?". He asked me those questions yesterday and I told him we were going to Makaila's school to help out and then we were going to the gym. He looked at me with complete seriousness and said, "When am I going to PLAY?" Although I try to have several things in our week that we are doing because HE likes doing them, it is so easy sometimes to get into my agenda. It is such a struggle for me to just PLAY sometimes. Especially when we are at home. There are too many distractions of things I could be getting done.

I went to pick him up at the kid's area of the gym after my workout and I got to see him in action. I love this because I'm not real big on too much TV and often at the gym Cole likes to plop himself down infront of the video the whole time (which I have no control over like I do at home). Cole is really starting to get into the Superhero thing. There was the Batman face painting the other day. But he also talks about Spiderman and Superman too. He's never watched any of these shows so this is just from what he sees in merchandise or hears from other kids. He was playing with these other boys and he was being a "bad guy". He was in his I'm-fighting-you-from-far-away stance talking to these boys up on top of the climbing/slide structure. He was making his bad guy noises and then he did his best fire-is-coming-out-of-my-mouth sound. I love when you get to watch your kids play and they don't know you are watching. He also brought me a piece of paper to write Santa a letter so he could get some Superman clothes for Christmas today. Love it.

My Batman

Time for the annual trip to the pumpkin patch. This year it was just Cole and I since Makaila was in school. Weather was nice, but cool. Cole choose to wait in the really long line for face painting, but as you can see it was worth it. He saw a group of 4 boys all with the batman face paint, playing batman together. After his face was painted he was looking for them to play with. Since we couldn't find them (and didn't actually KNOW them), Mommy had to come to the rescue and help Cole find imaginary bad guys all over the arboretum for us to fight. I'm sure a few people wondered why we were punching the air, but if they saw the face paint, I'm sure they'd understand. It is so fun to see how boys are just wired differently than girls and that this superhero stuff is huge.

Soccer game 3

We were happy to say the H.T.'s were NOT rained out this weekend. This was the team's third soccer game, but only Makaila's second due to us being out of town. As Coach Chad and Coach C make their rotation of everyone in the goalie box, Makaila started the game as goalie. I think she just wanted to get to wear the yellow shirt. The first quarter was amazing! The girls did so awesome at keeping it out of the our goal and having several trips down to the other side. Unfortunately, it couldn't stay that forever. The experience of the other team won out. Makaila had on really good attempt at a save that she kicked away only to have it bouce back off the other team and go in. But they played hard and seem to be having fun. Here's some of the pics from a newbie soccer mom.

The Pre-game pep talk

The save (or really great attempt)
4th quarter field play

Everybody's favorite, the post-game snack.

Family in Colorado

Of course the main reason we went to Colorado was to visit family. My Grandma Maxine turned 86 while we were there.

When my Grandpa J was alive he always took my sister and I to Dunkin' Donuts once each visit. That same Dunkin' Donuts is still open, near their house. So Dad continued the tradition in memory of Grandpa J.

My Dad is also currently being treated for cancer. We went to encourage him in all he's doing. It was great to see what a great attitude he has. I got to go along on one of his doctor visit and even though we know how well he is doing, it was nice to hear his doctor rave about him.

Colorado trip 09

On our Colorado trip we went to a Fire Fighter museum at a local fire station. The was one of Cole's favorite parts of the trip. Of course he kept admiring a toy collection of fire trucks. We had pretty nice weather while we were there so we visited a Nature preserve in near by mountains and a playground by a lake (with beautiful mountains in the background).

Busy day

Last night at dinner Makaila starts off the conversation right away. "I have such a busy day tomorrow." We were intrigued. She then said, "We're making applesauce at school, it's picture day, and the fire trucks are coming." Man, I long for the busy days of first grade.

CO pumpkin patch

This past week we went on a quick trip to Colorado to visit Grammy and Grandpa T. While we were there we went to a pumpkin patch. The pictures actually look better than it was. We had to drive quite a ways to get there, they charged us each $7 and that didn't even include a pumpkin!! It was in a hill and the wind was very cold that day. The kids had a good attitude, even if was advertised as being better than it was. They did enjoy the slide. Once Cole got comfortable with it he did the smaller one over and over. Makaila had a great time sliding any position she could think of. They did have fun playing in the corn box (kernels of corn instead of sand).

Cheese Monster

Today Chad was stealing the cheese I was attempting to shred for lunch. It is a regular problem in our house. I was teasing him that he should be the Cheese Monster for Halloween. We could put "CM" on his shirt. He could carry a block of Tilamok and a cheese grater. After lunch Makaila came across some fake scary teeth. She told me Daddy could wear them as part of his Cheese Monster costume.

past C quote

One day I was being indecisive about what to do. I asked Cole if he wanted to go to the gym or go for a walk in the stroller and then go to the children's library and maybe Starbucks. He chose the children's library. I then said, "okay, I need to go get my shoes on so we can go on our walk." He apparently missed the walk part and just heard going to the library. He leaned over to me and goes, "I didn't vote for that."