Grant's Turn

Grant got to enjoy a few more weeks of summer with his preschool starting after labor day.  He was so ready to get back to school (or maybe just away from crabby mom and his frenemy, Lilly).  I love his first day of school pose, with his hands on his back pack straps and I love that he still lets me pick out his clothes.  Kyle is so far beyond that, it is nothing but t-shirts and athletic type shorts and pants.  He made one exception for picture day, when he wore his Easter shirt and tie with shorts and tennis shoes.  He looks so good when he wears nicer clothes, but I want him to feel good at school so I don’t press the issue (at least I try not to).  He is not super into school this year, he doesn’t hate it, but he doesn’t love it and I think he really misses seeing grandma.  He has spent a few Saturday’s with her, so that helps, but it is just not the same.  I am already having to play the “no school, no sports” card which is effective because he LOVES his sports.  Soccer is going well, they are playing on a bigger field with a goalie this year.  The first few game were rough, but the week before he scored 3 goals and an assist and this week he scored on and played goalie one half, stopping all but one rocket.  No wonder Lilly and Ryan seem to worship him.  Ryan does not consistently say mama or dada or anything really, but more often then not, he will joyfully sound our “Eye-el” when he sees his big brother.  I think I am going to have to break down and record that as his first official word. 

 

I did not stand in the grocery store checkout line reading some gossip magazine about the stars of the Twilight movie while Kyle placed all of the groceries on the conveyor.  I would never set such a bad example and get so sucked into an article of that nature.  I also didn’t in the very same store take Grant and Ryan for lunch and allow Ryan to spill an entire bottle of milk because I was reading another magazine, I mean, enough is enough, isn’t it?

Birthday Party Blues

I think I have put of blogging Grant’s birthday because there really weren’t many blog worthy moments.  Notice in the picture the kid wearing a jacket…in August.  The sub-70 degree weather kind of ruined our plans for a waterslide party.  We had so much fun at our back to school water slide party that I was pretty disappointed.  We tried setting up some outside games, but nothing really took off.  We did have a nice dinner and all Grant really cared about was having his friends around while he blew out the candles on his spiderman cupcakes and opened presents.  He also got to end any disagreement with Kyle by stating “I’m the birthday boy”.  His actual birthday went a little smoother with a trip to Paradise Park with Grandma and lunch at McDonald’s with me.  He kept saying “I’ll be 4 later”.  That night, Kyle offered to buy ice cream at Sonic with his own money.  I was pretty surprised, he normally holds onto his cash for dear life, but he knows how much Grant likes his ice cream.  Maybe next year will work out for the waterslides.

Keeping Ryan Out of Trouble

I think I alluded in my previous post to my now constant struggle to keep Ryan out of mortal danger.  This picture illustrates this fact to some extent.  He is never content to stand beside something, in his eyes, things are meant to be crawled on top of.  The older boys would stand for hours by the train table playing.  Ryan instead prefers to find his way to the top, sit down in the middle and play.  I really don’t even fight that anymore, if he falls during his dismount, it is only a few inches.  Tonight marked the first night that I ordered a baby proofing product on-line and paid extra for speedy shipping.  This event was brought about by dinner.  His new found obsession is opening the door to the over, so I consciously decided to cook the chicken in the counter top toaster over, knowing I could slip for a second and he would open the hot over door.  Up until now, he had merely opened the door, but tonight, in the time it took me to wash my hands after cutting up chicken, he opened the door and climbed on top of it so that he was eye level with the burners.  I yelled no and grabbed him and sat him down in the hall way.  For about a minute, I think he was actually trying not to cry, a one year old, trying to act tough.  But eventually he lost it and I lost it and now we are just saying prayers that the aftermarket oven door lock work and he can move on to his next disaster.

Impomtu Animal Encounters

I think it was not last weekend, but the week before the unseasonably cool weather inspired us to take trips to both the farmstead (on Friday) and the zoo (on Sunday).  The pics from the farmstead include my friend Janet’s kids (actually just her youngest 3!,Alex, Garrett and Erica).  They were able to meet us and a good time was had by all.  It was a strange to be there without Kyle since he was in school all day.  Even though the farmstead has lost some of it’s magic for the big 7 year old, we missed him and he is getting to where he is pretty helpful keeping Ryan out of trouble (a one and a half person job at least).  On Sunday, we felt somewhat caught up and decided to venture as a family of 5 to the zoo.  It feels we so seldom do that (travel in a pack) and it was nice for a change.  I love how close you can get to the kangaroos at our zoo and Ryan was busy pointing at everything.

First Day of First Grade

Not much to report, Kyle seemed the usual combination of nervous, excited, apprehensive, hopeful that tends to arise with the first day of school. His nerves seem to be manifesting in major silliness and I have been working hard on patience. I didn’t go to the school, he was confident he could get off the bus and find his classroom and I was sure this would. He also had our neighbor Owen in his class. He was upset about some friends that ended up in different classes, but had enough friendly faces not dwell on it for too long. I have gotten few details as to the goings on in first grade, other then he had a corn dog for lunch and they get two recesses. I am excited about how the logistics have worked out this year. Mom takes everyone to her house early and I have all day to work (on my work days) until Kyle gets off the bus at 3:30. Since I don’t have to pick G and R until 5, Kyle and I have a stretch of time with no interruptions that we can work on his homework, get ready for the next day or practice reading. I think we have gotten more accomplished in these precious slivers of time then we did in the entire year last year. I hate making him keep at it after being at school all day and he frequently gets mad because he wants to play with Owen, but uninterrupted time is just to precious not to grab and hold on to.

I have not been in a deep state of despair over my sudden realization that I will have kids in elementary school for the next 13 years. I always look on the bright side of everything and have a positive attitude. Also, I don't harbor any secret annimosity towards my seemingly endless array of friends who now have all of the kids in school all day.

Catching Up

I have decided the my blogging fiscal year will coincide with the start of school and since that was TODAY, I need to make one final post to wrap up 08-09. After vacation, the big event of the summer was Kyle’s 7^th birthday. There was a great deal on Royals tickets this year, so we decided to take him and some of his buddies to the game. Whether or not that was wise depends on who and when you ask, but I do think the boys ended up having a good time, it was just a little stressful for me keeping track of everyone wanting to go to different places and it was pretty late when we got back. Some parents were already in pjs when I dropped the kiddos off. Kyle watched most of the game even though he informed us that he is now a St. Louis Cardinals fan (we watched one great Cardinals game on vacation). On the way home, the conversation in the back seat of the van seemed to center around “jokes” involving different combinations of people on an airplane and things coming out of their butts. Apparently to 7 year olds, this is the height of humor.

Our other big event was hosting a back to school party for our friends and collecting items to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. Kyle had been wanting to do something for “Ryan’s Hospital” for some time. We had originally planned on having a party mid July to celebrate Ryan being home for one year, but it never materialized, so we came up with this idea and did it during the day and invited our friends. It turned out to be great fun, the kids played on the waterslides for hours and the moms got to enjoy some time to relax. Kyle had a party at the pool directly after, so him and Grant were basically wet and playing from 1 – 7 on Friday. You would have thought they would be exhausted and to bed early, but not really. I think they both have my sleep genes (or lack of sleep genes). In addition to being water bugs, Grant has taken to proclaiming at random times “I’m a good boy”, sometimes followed by “and Kyle is a bad boy”. It’s really quite cute. Ryan continues to imitate his brothers non-stop. He loves carrying around their big plastic bats. One time, he actually dug a ball out of the garage, brought it to me and toddled a few steps away and turned around to look at me. We also witnessed him trying so hard to put a small ball on the tee while holding the aforementioned big bat. I think he would have stood there for an hours trying to get the ball on the little tee had I not intervened.

I have not been neglecting this post (along with numerous other household tasks) because I have gotten hopelessly, shamefully sucked into the Twilight series which I just learned was written for teenagers. Had I gotten sucked into these books, I would at least draw the line at reading the books and not stay up until 2 Saturday night watching not only the movie, but the deleted scenes and interview with the author.

There's no place like away from home

We have been talking for some time about a family vacation and we finally did it last week.  I got my act together and found a place on Table Rock close to Silver Dollar City.  After what is quite possibly the worst start ever, we had a really good time.  The week preceding vacation was not ideal.  Most weeks I feel very lucky to be a work at home mom with lots of flexibility; however, this was not one of those weeks.  I was busy with work, not swamped, but busy enough and it was registration week for school which meant lots of PTA stuff.  I got to the point where I felt like I couldn’t breathe.  I finally broke down and asked my step mom to come up and help with the boys.  I was glad I did, but it was still a tough week.  I didn’t start packing until the morning we were due to leave and I didn’t relax until, well, it never really seemed like I relaxed, but like I said, the boys (at least the older 2) had a really good time.  We went to SDC the first day and Kyle got to experience his first “real” roller coaster.  Grant was pretty meek, which surprised me, he usually seems so daring (as evidenced by his head first descent of the water slide in the picture above).  I guess if it involves wearing a seat belt, he would just prefer to pass.  Kyle also enjoyed the magic show, something he has been into for some time now.  We didn’t stay all day, choosing to go back to the hotel for some swim time and dinner.  Tuesday was spent on the lake, renting a boat in the morning and then just hanging out in the afternoon.  Grant opted out of the boat ride, but at least it gave Ryan a chance to get his only decent nap of the trip.  I forgot how much fun it can be just hanging out by the lake, the kids spent lots of time piloting the kayaks, jumping off the docks and just floating around.  Poor Ryan is just not a big fan of the water and looked miserable most of the time, the only bright spot being a brief game of pushing Grant off the dock.  We grilled again and watched a baseball game on tv, which I think was my favorite part, just sitting together, no distractions of home, no feeling like I should be cleaning or sorting or all of the other millions of things on my at home to do list.  Wednesday we left after spending another morning at SDC and headed home, just one day before Kyle turned 7.  Will post later about that because it is indeed a story deserving of its own post.

 

I did not forget to pack my swimsuit of all things.  I did not, the week before vacation eat ¾ of a peach crisp I made.  Had I done that, I would not have said that I gave ½ of it to my step dad.