Just the Five of Us

Helicopters

Yesterday, Owen and I were outside getting the carport cleared for our wood delivery. I heard a really loud helicopter noise, and looked up to see three Army Blackhawks (I guess that's what they were) flying formations around our neighborhood. Living near an Army base, we occasionally see this. The helicopters come out every year or so. The last time they did this, we were on a walk and Owen was too little to really notice them.

This time, they were just the thing a truck, train, plane, and vehicle loving toddler wanted to see. I showed Owen, and he was riveted. He ran from the front yard to the back yard, watching them and asking over and over what they were. Then he asked me where his helicopters were. I told him I thought they were in the living room, and he disappeared inside the house. He came out with his two helicopters. He held them as he ran back and forth watching the real ones, babbling to himself and pretending to make his helicopters fly. They were so low and loud and flew around the neighborhood for over half and hour.

With the recent addition of my part time job, Owen and I have been home a lot more. On the days I'm not working, I find myself trying to get caught up on everything else. And while I try to make sure we go somewhere at least once a week, we aren't running around nearly as much as we used to. We're spending more time at home, and yesterday, I was glad for that. Glad to enjoy a warm fall day watching Owen's amazement at the helicopters.

 

The choice to put my career and education on hold to be at home with the kids was not an easy one to make, and there are times when I wonder if I had done the right thing. It's times like this that make me realize I made the right decision.

Wood

We had a cord of wood delivered yesterday. Owen and I were outside when Mr. Wood (yes, that's his name) came to deliver. We watched the truck bed dump the cord onto the ground, and I swear Owen jumped six inches at the sound of it. It was LOUD. He went over to inspect it, and he told me, "I want to jump in the pile!" I explained that a pile of wood wasn't quite the same as a pile of leaves.

I got the whole cord stacked yesterday, with some help from Emma. Jake took one look at the pile and informed me he was going inside because he "didn't like the smell of wood." Owen spent most of the time playing with his trucks.

The wood still needs to dry out a bit--it's been such a wet fall--but it's great wood. It's the same supplier we used last year, and the price hasn't gone up ($150.00 a cord). We'll have lots of great fires this winter!

Weekend in Bethlehem

We took a quick trip home to Bethlehem this weekend. We got home around 2:00, rested for an hour, and then my mom and I took Jake and Emma to the library book sale. I got a TON of new books to read, and the kids picked out some too. They both love it when Gram goes to the book sale and brings them books, so they were pretty psyched to go to it themselves. I think I'd like to try to get them home for the next one.

 

My books. Some I've read already, but for a dollar a book, I'll read them again.

 

Jake's pile.

 

Emma's.

And Owen's.

After that, we went to Nana and Pappy's for dinner. The kids played in the big leaf piles, ate food, enjoyed the soda they are allowed to drink there, and played the Wii. Owen did really well, helping Pappy feed the dogs and having a great chat with him. Emma was brave enough to perform some of her Irish step dancing, and even Jake showed us his interpretation of the steps, which much falling of course. It was a wonderful evening.

 

 

 

The leaf piles were really big. Owen played in them a bit, but he really enjoyed moving handfuls of leaves from one pile to the other.

 

On Sunday, we made a huge leaf pile for the kids at Gram's. We collected a bunch of sticks for kindling, and Jake and Doug worked on cleaning out the gutters. Emma had a blast playing with Travis, and Owen loved that he learned to break sticks. We took a small break from outside to decorate cupcakes, and then the kids played outside again until it was time to leave. We made sandwiches for the trip home and left shortly after 1:00 to get home in time to get unload the car and get to Emma's soccer game. We were thankful the game was at 3:00 so we didn't have to rush too much.

 

 

Emma loved playing "merry go round" with Travis. She spun in a circle with the stick as he ran in a wider circle, chasing the stick until he finally caught it.

 

I have a similar photo of Cris is this same coat holding a stick and smiling.

 

Breaking "ticks" requires lots of concentration.

For some reason, everyone has enjoyed throwing leaves on Owen this year. He's such an easy target! If you look closely, you can see a stitch of green. That's Owen!

 

Owen loved adding to the leaf pile.

 

This photo really captures the kids. Jake is acting like a monster, stomping around and trying to scare Emma. Emma is doing a goofy dance, and Owen is doing his own thing.

 

Even Travis had some fun in the leaves. He wouldn't go any deeper.

And the leaves were DEEP.

 

All three happily playing together and enjoying each other. Doesn't happen often, so we relish it when it does.

 

Had to drag him away from his books to join us, but he had so much fun once he got outside.

 

And he even helped clean out the gutters.

It was a busy and tiring but wonderful weekend.

Another Goal

Jake scored another goal this week in his game. I wasn't there because I had to take the girls to art and go home to pack for our trip to Bethlehem. I'm so glad Doug got to see it because he was dealing with Owen when Jake scored last time and missed it. Jake was VERY proud of himself, and these past two goals have definitely increased his confidence. He plays offense almost all the time now and likes it better than defense.

Playdate

Owen's friend Cayden came over to play for a bit Friday morning. They did really well together--Owen shared his toys for the most part and they seemed to have a good time. They played downstairs for almost an hour while I did some laundry to get ready for our weekend. Then, we went outside for a while before coming back in for a snack. It was cute to watch them interact.

First Sleepover

Jake went to a sleepover on Friday, so we took the opportunity for Emma to have her first sleepover. Gianna came over at 4:30, and the girls played like crazy until dinner. They had pizza and salad and were hungry ten minutes later so they each had a clementine. They played some more, did some drawing, and spent hours giggling about who knows what. Emma was not very tolerant of Owen wanting to join in, and I had a hard time enticing him to play with me. I reminded her about how sad she would be when Jake excluded her, but a full week of school and now a playdate and sleepover didn't do much for her willingness to be kind. I let them have some non-Owen time, and he reluctantly played with me until they would let him join in again. We lit a fire and roasted marshmallows for dessert, but they mostly ate them raw.

We started getting them ready for bed at 8:00. Such a difference from Jake and his friends! We said to brush their teeth--and they did! We told them to go potty one last time--and they did! We tucked them in at 8:30, and they were up five times in the next hour. First, they were having issues being so close to each other on the floor, so we moved the beds near each other and put them each on a bed. Emma had some of her usual nighttime issues, and wanted someone to lie with her. I reminded her that Gianna was over, and she was okay. Then they came down for a snack--more clementines. Then Gianna didn't like Emma's ghost light. Then water spilled. Finally, they came down for one final potty break. At that point, I turned the big night light off so it was darker, and we didn't hear anything from them until 7:15 the next morning.

In the morning, they played and then had breakfast. They ate like horses--4 pancakes, 2 sausage links, 1 clementine, 1 drinkable yogurt, 1 bag of popcorn, and 1 mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows . . . each! All withing the span of an hour. It was nuts! They got dressed, I did hair, and then we took them to art class.

It was a wonderful time, and I'm sure it's only the first of many!

Milker

Emma was playing with the cow and LEGOs one night last week and made a milker for the cow. One side collects the milk and the other side stores it.

 

I'm just amazed she got the cow away from Owen. It's one of his favorite toys lately . . . favorite like he even brings it to bed with him.

 

He even "eats" at the table with him . . . accompanied by all the other favorite animals, of course.

M&Ms

Seven years ago, Jake dressed as an M&M for Halloween. Last week, it was Owen's turn. In some photos, they look like twins. Here, I'm amazed how different they look. Owen's looks are changing again, and I think he's looking less like Jake. At the same time, I look at these photos, think about the face that they are seven years apart, and I wonder where the time went.

 

Owen almost didn't go trick or treating . . . until a few hours before, he refused to put his costume on. Eventually, I forced it on him, gave him a piece of candy, and he was good to go.

Detailed Halloween wrap coming . . .

Leaves

We played yesterday. I raked up a big pile of leaves and all three kids went crazy.

Jake enjoyed burying Owen.

 

Owen, however, is big enough this year to get some revenge.

On the Mend

So everyone is pretty much better. Some coughing and fatigue, but that may linger. Owen is eating again and his tummy has settled down . . . he's actually eating like a horse to make up for almost a week of not eating much and losing even more. Both kids are illness free and bouncing off the walls and fighting like crazy--back to normal.

My fever peaked on Sunday at 102.5 and crashed within a half hour to normal and never went up again. That was was a weird experience. I was very happy to be done with fever! Jake missed school Monday and Tuesday and drove me nuts each day . . . and he was VERY unhappy to miss school and Sr. Maureen's visit on Monday. We had no idea she was coming, and I'm glad of it. If he had known, he probably would have crawled to school, hacking cough and all, just to see her. Monday was a rough day with Owen . . . he was very listless and unresponsive and slept most of the day. At one point, the doctor told me to call 911 if he didn't respond to juice--they feared low blood sugar would cause seizures. Thankfully, a couple cups of juice did the trick and he even ate some Cheerios that day.

My favorite part of our illnesses? On Sunday night, we all sat in the living room and watched the end of Happy Feet togehter. Emma and Owen were on the chair and Jake and I were on the couch. My fever was so high my eyes were burning, but the kids were all happy and at one point, we were all laughing so hard at the movie and no one was fighting and it was wonderful and I didn't care if I never felt better because we haven't had enough moments like that around here lately. We've had such a hard time foserting family unity lately with the kids all going in differnent directions and being so far apart in age . . . it's nice that we could all connect somehow.