Mending for real - piss off Murphy!

So apparently I jumped the gun the other day when I said we were mending - either that or Murphy's Law paid us a visit.

We woke up 'normal' to a busy Friday ahead. I had 133 people to feed for the PTA Holiday Staff Appreciation luncheon from 11-2:00. I was feeling under the weather but forged ahead. Emma went to school, Ben came with me to the luncheon. I wasn't sure whether I was going to send him to his afternoon preK or not, he looked fine all morning but still had a juicy cough - I honestly didn't want to be the cause of him infecting some other kid for the holidays just because it would make my afternoon clean up of the luncheon a little bit easier. He ended up staying with me the whole time and was an absolute stud even though he wasn't feeling 100%.

By 1:00 I could feel myself losing energy fast. I was hot then cold then hot then cold all the while faking a smile on my face for the staff and other volunteers. By cleanup at 2:00 I was getting that feeling I was going to faint and my skin was wicked sensitive to the touch. I held on, got the minivan loaded up and came straight home and crashed on my bed by 3:00. Ben knows hows to turn on and manipulate the Wii, so I gave him free reign as I collapsed. I didn't get up except to pee and rehydrate until 7:30 the next morning!

Here is the funny thing, Emma came home from school and by 5:00 without any dinner, crawled into bed with me where she stayed until 7:30am right next to me. Ben, the one I was worried about, played the Wii and hung out with Dad all happy until his normal bed time.

This was one crazy flu. Do I regret my decision not to get everyone the flu shot? Not one bit.

Am I glad the worst of it is behind us? You're dang right!

My mentor always reminds me, "In every adversity lies the seed of a benefit - but only if you look for it." The bright side of this flu? I got to snuggle with Em for 14 hours - I forgot what a good spooner she is, warm and toasty, too, that kid.

Benefit #2? I finally invested in one of those fancy ear thermometer's that many hospitals use. Boop! And you have an instant reading. Em was the only one high tonight at 99.6. No complaints knowing that we were all rocking the 102+ earlier...

Two weeks of vacation started today!

Midnight chat

It's 1am. Why am I awake? Possibly because I went to bed at 8 with the kids... Actually Ben fell asleep on my lap at 5:45, poor kiddo is still fighting the flu! I was all ready to send him back to school today. Both kids slept through the night last night and were happy go lucky this morning. I got Em on the bus, came back inside and played with Ben for a while. I hopped in the shower around 10 and then came back into the living room to find him curled up on the sofa, eyes glazed over with a fever of 100.3 again (it was way higher earlier in the week). I gave him some tylenol which seemed to help break the fever. By 2pm he was no longer warm, but had little energy and spent the afternoon on the couch in this position watching PBSkids (see pic). Notice the scarf? Em is knocking out scarfs daily now. She hand knits the long pieces and I weave them together for the perfect warm scarf. How's that for teamwork?

Both kids missed their holiday parties in class this year. I actually had to go to Ben's all by myself at 2:45 today because I am the class Mom and had the teacher gifts! It was adorable and I taped the kids performing their songs. I'll play it for Ben tomorrow and get him to put on a private show for us.

Don't worry about me, Mommy, this cozy scarf is making me feel better.

Mending

Emma's aches on Monday after school = strep throat again. Because she just did a course of amoxicillian over Thanksgiving she had to use a different drug, Cedifir (or something like). Or what should really be called Liquid Goldifir because it cost $50 vs $8!! And that was for the generic. Forgive my language here, but that was one of the first times I said "Holy Shit!" out loud in a public place in about 6 1/2 years...

Ben is absolutely on the mend. He slept great last night and could have easily gone to school today as he has been fever free for more than 24 hours EXCEPT I am now down for the count with a gnarly chest cold and I did not have the energy to drive him. So, it is 2pm and we are still in our pjs - actually Em and I are still in our clothes from yesterday - yep, it is that bad...

We were supposed to have our meeting with special services at the school this morning for Ben but the school had a 2 hour delay due to ice and we obviously weren't in the best shape for it, so we rescheduled for Jan 9th.

Em seems to be bouncing back pretty quick as well. At least the liquid gold is working. She was disappointed that she missed her holiday party in the classroom - they were going to make gingerbread houses. So we made some with basic ingredients we grabbed at Walmart while waiting for the liquid gold to be mined at the pharmacy. Both kids chose to use chocolate frosting vs vanilla so our houses are very unique...

Taken yesterday, not to be confused with today even though I am wearing the same clothes...

Part two, taken today - yep, still in jammies.

 

 

Our village is growing...

Rut-roh

We love Sundays - Family day! We woke up and played away as usual. At about 4:30, our normally happy go lucky Ben had a weird look in his eye. It was almost instantaneous - he went from sweet fun guy to sicky go licky in the flip of a switch. He snuggled into the crook of my arm and I could feel him burning up. I tried to get him to take some ibuprofen - nope - little turkey refuses medicine!

He did not eat dinner, drank some milk and went to bed. He woke up at 3am delirious, still refused to take medicine. I pulled him into bed with us. It was like that song my sister and I used to sing with our parents when we were kids, "...and they all rolled over and one fell out, there were two in the bed and the little one said..."

Benny crawled in and Daddy crawled out and was banished to the (comfy) couch. Ben and I tossed and turned the rest of the evening which is why we looked like this in the doctor's office the next morning:

We need sleep!

The doc checked his ears and throat - not red. She chose to swab him for strep as Em had it three weeks ago; she also swabbed him for the flu (a quickie boogie swipe in each nostril) AND HE LET HER. The verdict? Yes on the strep - and his throat wasn't even red! And positive on the flu. She asked if he had gotten a flu shot - NOPE! She confided she didn't personally believe in them either (ha!). We left the doctor and headed to Walmart with his strep prescription in hand. The poor little man was a total zombie - except when we passed by DUNKIN DONUTS, "Mom, did you forget to stop for donuts?" Hahahahaha! (A freakin' DD opened up about a block from the dr office. We may or may not have stopped there both times Em was at the dr last month... IT'S NOT MY FAULT!) Seriously though, talk about Pavlov's dog - Ben totally expected DD even in his "walker" state. We got home, he drank the amoxicillian without a fight AND chewed some ibuprofen - that is how sick he must have felt - he actually took the medicine!!! And then did this on and off all afternoon:

Come snuggle me, mama.

At one point he woke up and ASKED FOR A DONUT. I apologized and told him DD was closed (liar!). He suggested we MAKE our own donuts. I asked him how I should do that? He said, "Take a bagel and put chocolate on it and sprinkles." I gotta tell you, in all of my 42 1/2 years I NEVER THOUGHT TO DO THIS (and I LOVE donuts, people!!!). So what did I do? I grabbed a bagel. I melted some of my Trader Joe's dark chocolate. Smeared it on the bagel, and sprinkled some of our Christmas cookie decoration sprinkles on top. He ate the whole thing. I am possibly up for Mother of the Year. Yep and Yep. Thank you and good night. (Oh, wait, poor Emsadoodle came home from school complaining her leg muscles hurt. She didn't eat much dinner and passed out on the couch at 7:30... Say it ain't so!!! Daddy and I spent the night with our hands wrapped around cleaning spray and paper towels and Lysol...)

We shall forever and ever call this recipe THE BEN.

Winter owies

Emma has had bloody nose after bloody nose the past few weeks. I finally busted out my WARM mist humidifier for the Winter, and wala! No more bloody noses. Her chapped lips have disappeared and her dry crusty nose is also gone. Toss your cool mist humidifiers in the trash, people! Warm misters are our best friends.

The only thing I have to be careful of is mold - the room they share is small and the moisture build quick. If I open the slider to the deck of their bedroom for a few minutes every morning it seems to not only give us a burst of fresh cold air, but keeps the moisture to a minimum. As we don't pay for the heat and it is quite powerful, I don't mind the cold blast every morning! Ha!

Getting Ready...

The great toy purge of 2013 happened this morning after Em got on the school bus. Peg+cat comes on at 9:00am so I knew I had 30 good minutes to make it happen. (I approve so very much of this Math show! Check it out!)

I was able to pack up 7 TJs bags for delivery to the local thrift shop with only one Ben interruption.

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!

After he spied me packing up toys for "kids who don't have any", he pulled out his train set just to be sure I was aware that I was NOT TO give it away. Ha! Whatever works...

I am still an engineer, ma!

The great toy purge was necessary as this red guy is coming to town soon. We went to visit him on Saturday. It was freezing and windy at our favorite spot where you have to wait in line OUTSIDE to see him, so we opted to find him at an alternate location - a fire house the next town over! The kids were so well behaved, got to chat with him for a bit, then eat a ton of cookies and climb all over the big fire truck. Sweet!

You better watch out...

Getting behind!

Time is flying. Em was a midnight pukarino on the Wed / Thurs turnover, then woke up complaining her throat and ear hurt. We kept her home from school, coughed up yet another copay to simply confirm she had the stomach bug that was going around. The "my ear hurt" threw me a bit - I'm not one to rush to the doctor, but she has had so many ear infections over the years I wanted to be sure. By lunchtime she was her insane self and I was all, "Can I send her to school now?" Instead after dropping Ben off to preK, she was my Christmas shopping buddy - we hit up a few stores for the PTA staff appreciation luncheon I am chairing, and also a store to get Daddy some gifts. Daddy, she picked everything out, so you cannot give me the eye! I most certainly turned her down on many choices like a superman t-shirt - yes, you are our superman, but I know you wouldn't necessarily want the shirt...

Santa decided to send "Elfelina" to us this year as our children can sometimes be behaviorally challenged and in need of an Elf apparently to whip them into shape. She has proven to be excellent at playing hide and seek. Emma is so far winning the seek Elfelina out every morning game, but is most certainly losing the "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why," game. Daddy and I must say 50 times a day, "Elfelina's watching!" Ben's favorite Elfelina spot so far was finding her looming a Christmas bracelet early one morning.

It's any easy one to loom.  Maybe I should have given her the iPad to watch youtube videos...

Speaking of presents, Gramma Lou gave Emma this wagon on her 2nd birthday and it still gets play. Nothing like a good 'ole red wagon to pass the time after school before the neighborhood kids get called in to do homework.

We love our culdesac friends.

Food: as Daddy's turkey was beyond amazing on Thanksgiving, but we didn't take nearly enough leftovers home, we decided to give his butterflying the Turkey recipe one more shot to ensure it's deliciousness was not a fluke. Nope, no fluke. It was juicy and mouthwateringly perfection. Proof positive:

Our sweet cavegirl...

Posh (that's a fancy word for fancy) Daddy popped by our local french bakery and picked up a loaf of sourdough to accompany the veggie chili he made for dinner Thurs night. He also picked up mini fruit tarts. Emma chowed hers, Ben took off the real fruit topping and (surprisingly) ate the custard and the (not surprisingly) shell. Delicious once again!

I look at least 8 in this pic.

The annual Charles Dickens Festival began tonight in our village. It was rainy and cold, but that did not deter these kids from wanting to walk around port. This is a shot of them at the Masonic Temple's Gingerbread house exihibit.

Sooooooooo should have been our Christmas pic!

Em's parent teacher conference

Daddy and I enjoyed Emma's parent teacher conference today. I have a new found appreciation for her teacher after our 15 private minutes together.

Let me explain: Last year, Em's K teacher Mrs Shannon was PERFECTION. She set the bar VERY high. Long story short, the half dozen or so encounters I have had with her current teacher (who Emma LOVES, by the way) have left us less than impressed. (Again, I reiterate, that dang Mrs. Shannon has probably skewed our perspective of what a teacher should be for life!!! She really is that good...)

Today her 1st grade teacher was everything we think a teacher should be. She looked us in the eyes (never did that before), was confident in her explanations of Emma's achievements so far, engaged our questions with enthusiasm, etc etc. Today she moved up a few notches on my scale of who I "want" my kid spending six hours a day with.

As for Emsadoodle, the report is similar to all the evaluations we have heard in her short school history thus far. She is very bright, very social, very nurturing. She is well like among her peers. She is engaged in learning and excels academically. She gets high 5s all around.

Her only challenge - as it was last year - is taking "pride" in her work. She simply rushes to get things done so she can move on to the next thing. That ultimately means her penmanship can be improved upon - surely she gets that from her father as my handwriting is the bees knees...

We left the conference as we always do when it comes to Emma with a smile on our face. As "challenging" as she can be in the home, the kiddo is a super stud in the real world, and ultimately, what more can we ask for. WE LOVE YOU, EMMA!

Gobble gobble

Kids go back to school tomorrow - hooray! A little normalcy for three weeks, then BAM! 14 days of madness, family, coast to coast travel, cold weather, warm weather, vision stretching, food, and surely blog worthy memories. Thanksgiving week was a blast. We left for PA right after picking up Emma from her half day of school and got on the road by lunch to avoid the traffic. It worked. We whizzed across the island, through the city, across Jersey, and up into PA stopping at Grandpa's house to say hello and see how he was feeling. Blessedly we were all healthy and could give giant hugs and kisses and not compromise his immune system which I was very concerned about when Em came down with the strep and crazy rash!

We bounced Tues / Wed / Thurs between Grandma and Grandpa's houses cousins in tow. There was a lot of silly play and lots of love flying around. Good times! The adults celebrated Aunt Lisa's birthday Wednesday evening at a new restaurant in town while the kids hung out with their cousins and a few pizzas at Grandma's.

Daddy and Grandma got their cook on Thursday and made a spectacular meal for all to enjoy. Daddy was on turkey duty and outdid himself this year - it was the juiciest turkey I had ever eaten! He brined it as usual, but before cooking it, he butterflied the bird - it cooked quicker, thereby not drying out the breasts - it truly was outstanding!

There is a turkey brining away in there!

The finished product - I love how the breasts look like a heart! It was certainly made with love.

I stole the chef for a quick pic after I realized we only have TWO pictures of us together all year long.

My plate - the before!

My plate - the after, and Ben's UNUSED plate - such a turkey this kid! Next year we may just cook him up!

We were all in bed by 9pm and slept until 7am the next morning while our tummies took 10 hours to digest!

We came home on Friday after breakfast. The traffic was great again and we made excellent time. We chose to take the Lincoln tunnel through the city to get to the island so we could stop and get a hot dog at a red light from a corner vendor - I LOVE this tradition and don't care one iota that they have zero nutritional value - it only happens once a year! :)

Upon returning home from our mini-trip we found a package on our door step. Santa sent us our very own Elf on a Shelf to report back to him over the next 25 days. The kids are very aware what the elf means, many of their friends have them, so it was fun to name her (ours is a girl). We went back and forth on a few names and finally settled on a combination of what they both wanted, ELFELINA. She's quite the character. The first night she snuggled up next to Santa on our tree. Emma found her the next morning immediately. Last night she got her gymnast on and flipped herself up into a Chinese lantern. The kids couldn't find her for ages, until Ben finally spied her - he was quite proud of himself for being the one who found her.

Cheeky little Elfelina.

Our village hosted a Santa parade yesterday afternoon. It was freezing out - we literally showed up right at the start of the parade and booked it as soon as it was over. Today was much warmer, so we hung out in the harbor park for a while late this morning, then popped by a pizzeria for a slice for each kid, then headed to our pal's cheese shop for clam chowder and a cheese plate (see below!) then hung out at the maritime explorium for an hour getting our science on. My kind of family Sunday!

Cheese, anyone?

We were sending notes back and forth to each other.

This is an old boat filled with RICE! So much cleaner than sand. Love it!

Parent Teacher conference #1

Daddy and I went in for Ben's parent teacher conference on Monday before the holiday week started. His teacher, Mrs Giglio, is super sweet and she went on and on about how smart he is. They expect preK kids to finish the year recognizing only upper case letters and the numbers 1-10. She showed us how he knows all the letters - upper and lower - and could find 1 through 20 on the page. He knows all his shapes, could identify patterns, could follow two step directions, etc etc. We already knew all this from his recent evaluations, but it was nice to see his teacher is very aware of where he is at academically. She also said he was improving in developing his social skills - meaning trying to make conversation with his classmates vs hanging out on the periphery. She asked if we had heard anything regarding the scheduling of the meeting with us, her, the outside evaluation team and the school's special services department. I told her I would follow up with them, which I did and our big meeting to decide his fate is Dec 18th.

Now, that makes me laugh a bit - decide his fate - Ben will be fine no matter what "the committee" decides. The kid is an absolute stud! But basically his teacher said during our conference that he would be so much better off in the classroom if he had his own one on one adult to work with him. What I take from this is simple, if the class of 16 kids can have 3 adults vs 2 adults, everyone wins as there is more hands on instruction to go around. I will push for that - I may even call the outside evaluation folks and tell them just that so they can do what they need to do to get the school on board.

OT evaluation

Ben had his final evaluation on Friday morning - occupational therapy - you know, fine motor skills and sensory fun.

Guess what? Aced it. He blew her away with his scissor skills and his threading skills and drawing ability and writing his name, etc etc etc. She said he is doing things normal almost 5 year olds struggle with (rainbow loom - weaving - 3 dimensional building). She was absolutely unconcerned with the sensory stuff - the only thing she found was his lack of diet, but since it doesn't seem to be a texture thing, she isn't bothered with his picky eating.

I am beyond fascinated as to the agencies final report to the school. What is this kid doing in school that is so opposite to what he shows us in the home?

Case in point: Wed Ben's class had their Thanksgiving Feast to which the parents were invited. When we arrived, all the kids were adorable in their pilgrim hats - Ben was actually wearing one!!! AND, he was wearing his heavy woolly coat. What the heck? It was 80 degrees in the room and the kid was wearing his Winter coat. Daddy went up to him and said, hey bud, let's take your coat off and Ben did. WHY COULDN'T THE TEACHER DO THAT? What am I missing? I am sure they encouraged him to take it off and he said no. But at what point is someone the adult in the situation and says, Dude, take off your coat or you go to the principal or something of that nature.

That is a silly example, but as kids, if we fooled around or acted out we went to the principle who had a big fat wooden paddle he wasn't afraid to use. Do I want someone whacking my kid? No. But there needs to be a fear of "being sent to the principle" in addition to stickers for "random acts of kindness" (which I adore, by the way...).

Ben doesn't want to do what he doesn't want to do. I appreciate that and even encourage it in certain circumstances. But I also remind him that in certain situations he needs to be part of the "team" and do what the team does...

Such a fine line, this parenting thing.

On another topic, Em is the first to fall as the germ season is upon us. Strep throat it is - 10 days on amoxicillan - fun! What is crazy is the wicked rash that has decided to accompany it. I've never seen anything like it - head to toe - the girl looks like her skin is some crazy lizard skin. It's not just patches here and there - I'm talking about every bit of her is covered. And boy is it itchy! Benedryl and lots of warm baths. Poor kid. At least the antibiotic kicked in and she is feeling good minus the itching.

Next!

Ben had his speech evaluation last evening. The Speech Language Pathologist (from a private outside company - not the school) said he was there checking on two things: a) can he communicate and b) is he comprehending what he is hearing. To make a long story short he deduced Ben communicates very well and comprehends what he is hearing. We were pretty confident about those two things going into the evaluation but, if you've been checking in - we've been surprised before!

The Speech guy also opined that 5 years ago Ben would never have been singled out for an evaluation, but now because a) more is known about childhood challenges and b) so much more is expected from kids at such an early age, he sees how the lack of focus on doing something he doesn't necessarily want to do can be an interruption to the class and to the teacher who has demands on her to get through x amount of work every day / week / month...

He had his psychological evaluation this morning. It was the same therapist who evaluated him 2 years ago before he did that short 3 month stint of early intervention speech therapy. She was incredibly impressed with his brain - called him very intelligent for his age and noted his quick sense of humor. She did this evaluation in our home - one on one - with him, me and daddy. She then went to the school this afternoon to watch him in the group setting. I am fascinated to see what she finds with her time at the school as she commented that he was very focused 1-1 (yes, he had some sillies and wiggles, but what 4 year old boy doesn't?).

Which leads me to funny story for U2 Ben #7.

Ben went to preschool last year with twins, Lily and Tyler. They lived in the next school district over with their parents. Sadly, over the Summer the parents split, and one happened to move next door to us. They have joint custody of the kids, but our next door neighbor has "residential" custody - so they luckily got the twins into our coveted school district with it's spectacular preK program.

Ben has been on a play date at their home in the next town over and of course he knows they live next door, but here is where his alternate universe (parallel universe, maybe?) kicks in - he is convinced (or at least he has me convinced he is convinced) that there are TWO SETS of Lily and Tylers - one set that lives next door in the brick house and one set that lives the next town over in the white house. He even refers to them as the white house Lily and Tyler and the brick house Lily and Tyler. When I suggest to him they are one and the same, he is adamant they are two Lilys and two Tylers!

On the ride home from school today knowing he was going to be observed by the same therapist in school that came to our house this morning, I asked him, "Did you see my friend, Monica, at school today?" "No, she wasn't there, but another Monica was, a 'teacher' Monica was watching all of us in class." When I asked him if he thought she could possibly be the same lady, he was confident once again that they were two different people. I'm curious if she changed her clothes??? She was wearing  very bright orange outfit this morning at the house - surely he would have recognized it - he is "very intelligent for his age" !!!

He is our quirky kid that is for sure. Ben, please don't ever change. You make us so dang happy!!!

Randoms

1) When we were in FL last week I made the kids go to the grocery store with me. The parking lot was full so we had to park quite a ways from the entrance. The kids were lagging behind as we strode across the lot and Em called out, "Slow down, Mom! We're just kids!"

2) As Ben splits his time between here and an alternate universe, I am often amused by the things that come out of his mouth. The other day we were talking about Grandpa (vs Grandpop) and Ben jumps in with, "I talk to Grandpa all the time. He is the one who told me about portals." I have no doubt that in U2 (otherwise known as Ben's alternate universe) he and Grandpa travel thru portals to other places together. 

3) Ben will also out of the blue reference a conversation we had months (years, even!) ago. I will have no idea what he is talking about, but Emma will jump right in and clarify it for me. She totally speaks his language and I adore it!

4) While waiting for our return flight to NY on Wed evening, the kids asked if they could get a donut because they had "behaved so good". I agreed and we got in line at the kiosk Dunkin. As it was 6:30 pm the selection was pretty limited. They both chose a vanilla star donut with vanilla frosting filled with Boston creme. Emma housed it real quick, Ben took his usual nibble-fest of a time. He ate 90% of the donut leaving just the squirt of creme inside a part of donut. He handed it over to me and I chomped it down. (Free calories!) He then said, "Hey, where's my donut?" I ate it. "But you were only supposed to eat the yucky part!" (I.e. the creme!)

5) Ben rocked a serious bloody nose Wed am in FL. I'm talking crime scene drips and smears all over the guest bathroom. It took me at least 30 minutes to clean up all the splatters - mostly because instead of grabbing a tissue and blotting at his nose, he chose to blow raspberries with his lips to remove it and got it EVERYWHERE! Then on the plane about 45 min from landing he had a giant sneeze. I looked at him to bless him and what seemed to be a giant coagulated woolly bear caterpillar was hanging out of his nose. He started the raspberries again, but I stopped him in time to keep the clean up to a minimum. I rang the call button. The stewardess came over, "Csn I help - oh my GOD!" And ran away to grab me a whole box of tissues and some wet wipes. His shirt looked like he'd been shot up with an assault rifle - and came out perfectly clean in the wash the next day, thank you Oxy clean. Amazing stuff. 

6) This was the first flight I trusted Em to use the airplane bathroom on her own. I figure she is tall enough now to slide the lock herself and she came back with clean hands so all is good with the world. 

Grandpop-sitting in FL

Abuelita needed to go out of town on business for 5 days, so the kiddos and I volunteered to go to Florida and Grandpop-sit while she is away. It has been exactly 82 degrees every day - or at least that is what the car thermometer tells me when we get in the car (it may be broken... not even 81 or 83, every single time it says 82!) sunny and warm and - surprisingly - humid! I thought the FL humidity went away in Winter! We are apparently missing the first snowfall of the season back in NY - no complaints here!

They did good on the direct flight here, 2 hours and 40 minutes. Thankfully Ben did not FREAK OUT like he has been on take off. I tried to distract him with the pot holder loom...

As we can't wander too far from the house here in FL, we have been doing A LOT of the following:

Ben does the first layer, Em does the weaving, I do the edges. Teamwork, I tell ya!

Watercolor painting in those oversized books, markers, too. No crayons though. Why do my kids hate crayons?

90 minutes at the park every morning while the nurse is getting Grandpop out of bed. Fresh air time!

Em has been playing the piano every day and a lot of ballet practice.

Ben's is more of an Interpretive Dance...

They sleep sideways in a King Size bed. Once again, I have NO ROOM TO SLEEP.

Writing music! Complete with Pianissimo and Fortissimos!! LOVE it!

Oh, yeah, and LOTS of technology. No choice, really. *sigh*

PT evaluation for Boogles

Friday was the first of 4 (5?) evaluations for Ben, this one with a physical therapist. When she entered the penthouse, he ran right up to her and said hello with great eye contact and enthusiasm. We spent the first five minutes getting to know each other before starting in on the tasks she was to observe him in.

We told her we had absolutely no concerns whatsoever with his physical activity. He is wildly active and very coordinated. Or. So. We. Thought. 

Remember when the PE teacher at school reached out regarding Ben in her class five weeks into the school year? Her comment wasn't that he wasn't participating, it was that he was making his own way and not following directions.  

During the evaluation (which Daddy got to be a part of, too), Ben completed the tasks, but it took a lot of "Ben, please listen / Ben, please follow directions / Ben, no, we need to do it Miss Sue's way not the way you want to." Etc. Holy moly. I was exhausted after 45 minutes of coaxing him to stay on track. How have I never noticed this to this extent before???

She pointed out that he favors his right leg when he does things. His left calf is tight compared to the right one, so she suggested we do stretching exercises with him. She also feels he will qualify for PT services as his balance wasn't quite where she thought it should be. More than anything, she felt the one to one PT would help him gain focus in others ways, which is obviously our biggest concern. 

She is going to suggest he go to a PT place for kids for a few months where they will run him through a series of fun obstacle courses, stretching, coordination etc. Next week he has a few more evaluations, then the outside agency providing the testing makes their recommendations to the school. I'm fascinated to see how the remaining ones go... What more will we learn about our sweet little man?

Halloween goodness

Abuelita does such an amazing job of clothing our children each Halloween. The kids LOVE her spoiling and I have no problem whatsoever letting them wear the costumes day in and out so they can enjoy her giftings. (I made a new word!)

Last Sunday (before Halloween) our village hosted their annual Harvest Festival. The kids get costumed up to trick or treat at the stores along main street, then there are various points of interest through out the village to enjoy. We stumbled upon our village's Maritime Explorium during this year's Harvest Fest and I have to tell you, I am already a HUGE FAN. So much so, I requested the front desk gal apply our entrance fee to a year membership and we WILL be spending every cold winter weekend afternoon here getting maritimed (another new word!) up! In the pic below, the kiddos are learning about the qualities of magnets - north and south poles, etc and they each built a "magnetic go cart" that rode an opposite pole track down a cool hill. (That is how science COOL this place is!)

Merida and Red Bird in the early stages of go cart building.

Wherever he goes, whatever he does... it involves constructing! Look at what our little engineer did with weighted blocks at the explorium...

I swear, ma, I will take care of you AND Aunt Miki in your retirement with all my engineering designs...

Merida decided to shed her costume for the SLIME making table. Good idea, Scottish Princess!

Look closely at my top two teeth - they are BOTH ready to come out and leave me singing for Christmas...

Did I mention that Emsadoodle last week tripped on our friend's front stoop and went teeth first into their storm door knocking very loose her two top teeth? Shall I also interject how grateful I am that these are BABY teeth and ready to come out vs adult teeth requiring titanium implants? (I speak from experience...) The timing oddly couldn't have been better - her top gums were/are BULGING with permanent teeth just waiting for the parking space. When these teeth come out (I'm guessing in the next week...) I need to be sure to get pics immediately as the gaps will be filled quick just like her bottom ones were!

Halloween was a GOOD day. The weather started out sunny, then got cloudy and spitty rainy but ended up perfect trick or treating weather. (I remember knocking on doors wearing my heavy Winter coat as a kid - this  day was perfect - 60s and no need for a jacket!)  Daddy and I dropped Ben at 12:40 for preK, and went straight to Em's for her 1st grade party. We got to meet / socialize with a bunch of parents we had not met before which is always a good thing in my "it takes a village" opinion. The Elementary school parade began at 1:30 - the entire student body paraded around the school for the parents to enjoy. We got these great pics of our kiddos:

Ben (holding Aayan's hand - you can't see it from the pic - tooooo cute!) and showing off his Rainbow Loom Action Figure in this other hand!

Emma, in perfect form - I'm a princess - hand raised - waving at my subjects!

Holy guacamole - that reminds me of THIS awesomeness... Sunday while trick or treaing at the stores during the Harvest Festival, complete strangers kept awesomely complimenting our children on their costumes. At one point, after ANOTHER compliment, Ben yells, "Mom! They LOVE me!" which absolutely brought tons of smiles and giggles to the street of onlookers!

We chose to hang with some of our best pals and hit up one of the exclusive subdivisions in our village, Jefferson Landing, for trick or treating. It is a giant circle of beautiful homes housing some very generous and friendly people. Our kids - and the 7 pals we treated with - got a giant bounty each of the good stuff: you know, real chocolate goodies versus the high sugar oriented lolly pops / smarties etc. They were in heaven - as were daddy and I: you know, you only have kids so you can "police" their stash and get first choice of the goodies.... (Wait a minute! Was that just my dad's rule that I am now generationally (another new word!) enforcing. I like it!)

Needless to say, Daddy and I enjoyed a lot of stolen kit kats and reese's...giggle! (Ssshhhhh, don't tell the children...)

The new Montley Crew. Seriously, our best pals are truly the best!

We are now in gratitude mode: should be this way year round but somehow November reinforces the remembering of why we do what we do... Before I describe the pic below I need to mention tonights shower conversation with Ben. He was toweling off when he randomly said (and he randomly says AWESOME things all day every day - I just wish I was as diligent as I once was about recording them... sigh...), "How did Cassidy do that?" (talking about our dog who passed away 18 months ago...) Me, "Do what, buddy?" Ben, "Get to a different Earth." Me, "How do you think?" Ben, "When she died, her energy went up, up, up and now she is on a different Earth." Me, "That's right, buddy!" Ben, "I don't want to die." (with a giant big cheesy grin by the way!) Me, "I don't want you to die either. I want you, me, daddy and Emma to live a long happy life together!" To which he answered by jumping into my lap and giving me the biggest squeeziest hug ever! I love me my kids...

We decided to pinterest it up and make a gratitude tree for the month. Every day we will add one new leaf with the things we are grateful for that day. Day one gratefulness: my healthy kids, my family, Deeit (Em's security blanket), Aayan and candy corn (Ben's pal and food he will NOT eat - don't ask me, ask the alternate universe Ben.) Day 2 - My awesome neighbors, my beautiful wife, friends, and angry birds. (You decide who was grateful for what!)

At the end of the month this tree is sure to look GREAT and grateful.

2005-2013

8 years ago I purchased a home with the intention of flipping it for fast cash with a man that I had only met 3 (4?) times. Within two weeks of hanging out with him deciding exactly what we wanted to do to remodel the home, I knew I was in trouble. The boy and his big vision and his giant heart, not to mention handsome exterior: Stole. My. Heart. My sweet Mandy saw it before I did and called me out on my googley eyes - "You are going to marry this guy!" I believe were her exact words as we did our yoga in the giant master bedroom I had claimed as my own in the house on Clark that made the Batter Bunch.

It took just 4 short (I mean 4 of the LONGEST months of my life because Mandy made me know first!!) months for us both to finally admit we had found our true partner in crime and off we went. We have been blessedly together for 8 years now - today being our 6 year wedding Anniversary. I love you, Daddy Batter. Thank you for being the perfect husband, daddy, friend a girl could ever ask for!

So, what's been going on in the Bunch world? Hmmmmm. Autumn is here! The trees are gorgeous and the temps have dipped. I have resisted wearing my heavy Winter coat knowing I "just" put it away not long ago (April!) - but at the park today it was 55˚ with a cold breeze and I was cursing the fleece that just wasn't doing the job! We hit up Windy Acres as we do every Fall - play time on the wooden old school toys and pumpkin patch lovin'.

I still like trains, MOM!

Of course the princess can always be found overseeing her kingdom:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!

So many pumpkins to choose from...

Sad admission: we did not find the perfect pumpkin here - but at the local supermarket on our drive home... Zoinks!

Daddy, with his mad pumpkin carving skills did this: (should I add pumkin carving skills to the top paragraph's resume of why I adore him???)

Sadly, she just got tossed over the deck due to mold! We may need another trip to the market!

Ben... Ben... Ben... What to report on Ben... Well, reports from school are not improving anymore. I inquired a few days ago from his teacher via email and this is an excerpt from her reply. "Ben is really trying his personal best to attend and to stay on task.  He continues to have difficulty in this area.  He is easily distracted and has trouble attending during small and whole group instruction.  I continue to work one on one with Ben to help him complete classroom activities." She encouraged us to have him "evaluated" so I am heading to the school Monday to get the paperwork process rolling.

Here is my current take: Ben is super smart. Ben is super independent. Ben thrives on one on one attention. (Remember, he has a big sister with a big personality who commands attention from all when she is in the room.) He is at his personal best those few hours after she hops on the bus until he goes to afternoon preK. We will get him "evaluated". If he qualifies to have his own personal aide in the classroom for the entire year - so be it! He will only thrive because someone is focusing on him and him alone.

Again, as I learned from my first "defensive" meeting with his teachers - this school district is all about catching challenges quick and dealing with them, so as the kiddos get older, they can go forth with confidence in their social and academic skills. I am embracing the "evaluation" - no more stigmata clouding my decisions.

Daddy sent me this pic that Ben drew of their morning activity: He and Ben had been playing Connect Four (or Checkers, as Ben calls it...) - so Ben drew a journal entry about the fun.

Our freakin' Picasso - or was it Van Gogh that was the challenged artist? :)

Last evening was the PTA's big preK-K event. We chose "Trip Around the World" as the theme and it was a huge hit! In America, Ben happily signed his name on the declaration of independence. Below in France, Ben channeled his inner Monet and painted an awesome water color that will take up precious frig space for at least a month!

Monet, Mom? Really? I was thinking more Matisse!

In Australia he decorated a boomerang with sharpies, then immediately threw it across a gym filled with 200 people... possibly not the smartest activity the PTA came up with for the evening...

I am about to take out an eye or two!

In England, he enjoy a lovely tea party. Seriously, look at that smile. That is what happens when tiers of cupcakes are waiting for four year olds to devour them!

What Alice in Wonderland character could I be?

It was such a fun event. We snuck out early to meet up with Daddy and Emma at Molly's daddy's 40th birthday party. Ben had fun but all it took was one mention of going to Molly's house to get him to stop digging in the giant sand box filled with buried treasures in Egypt (skeletons, jewels - seriously, it was awesome!) - this kid has an affinity to our Annie-esque red head pal aka Molly and her awesome toy collection in the basement of their home. This afternoon he randomly announced, "I love Molly, Mommy. I should go to her house tomorrow and the next day..."

Happy Anniversary, Daddy! How lucky are we that we got to have our kiddos come with us for our special night out. (Seriously, read with no sarcasm - we really are blessed.) We chose Indian cuisine, and pigged out. The kids stuck to the chili cheese naan minus the chili calling it "Indian Pizza". Whatever works... And we have tons of left overs that I am now about to attack!! Good night! xoxo

Pizza is good in any country.

I'm trying to be Fancy Nancy drinking with my pinkies out!

Wait a minute. Did we just eat dinner in a train car that "was killed and made into a restaurant?" (Can you guess which kid said this?)

Train car dinner crashers.