Happy mother's day to all you mothers out there! Hope it was a relaxing day! We've had a fun weekend. We had Larry and Vicki (Damon's parents) over for dinner Saturday night. We had fun eating dinner outside on the deck, on our picnic table. The boys entertained us with their wagon rides down the little hills in our backyard. (See earlier post.) Today I received some homemade presents from Will. He made me a little book at school that made me feel very special. It's called, "I Love You." It has fill in the blank statements like, "Thanks for helping me...feel better when I am sick. I love it when you...care about me by making my favorite snack. You make me feel special when you...say good job to me." He also made me a card that has the little home-made-accordian-fold-pop-ups inside. I always used to make cards like that when I was little, so it's good to see that the art is alive and well! Damon got me an hour long maternity massage from a local spa! I'm looking forward to this so much! He knows how much my back and sciatic nerves have been killing me! Half the time I hobble around here like an old woman! After church we got some fried chicken and salads and headed out to Kent park for a picnic with my side of the family. Even Emily joined us via cell-phone! We brought some outdoor toys and the kids ran around and had fun. Then we came home and I took a nap. It was a relaxing day!
Lucy doesn't mind getting a bath. Sam loves to help. But is it a good idea to give a 3 year old the hose?!
Sam thought it was great fun to give Lucy a "bath" outside. He only got a little spray happy with the hose and squirted Damon instead of the dog only a few times. Watch out, she's going to shake! Playing in the puddles. I told Sam that it was his turn to stand in the corner so we could give him a bath. He thought we were serious, and was ready to get sprayed! After this picture he even laid down, right in the water!
For some reason, Sam tipped over almost everytime! It turns out it didn't really matter whether Will was pushing him or not! And it didn't deter him from doing it over and over again! He thought it was great fun! It was so funny - I never got tired of laughing everytime it happened. -Something about his little legs sticking straight up in the air!
...And I thought yesterday was long! Will woke in the night Monday night with a very painful earache. I took him to the doc yesterday and sure enough, he has an ear infection that's to the point of bulging. Hopefully his eardrum won't rupture. The doc even prescribed numbing drops - which we've never done before. He was in SO MUCH PAIN! He could hardly move, hardly talk, and couldn't tolerate any noise - which was bad news for Sam. He laid on the couch actually sleeping off and on - (unheard of!) all day long. He slept pretty well last night - getting up at 4:30 for more pain medicine and was up for the day at 6. (Maybe I can get him to take a nap today, although I'm not holding my breath.) Today, however, is a different story. This kid is talking my ear off. Every 5 minutes I hear, "Mom..." He's actually following me around the house asking me questions: Can I do this, can I do that, will you play a game with me, can we do something fun, when's dad going to be home? Kid, I almost liked it better when you were near comatose! It's only 9:30, and oh, it's going to be a long day...and a long summer.
Thank you God, that Will is feeling so much better! It was scary to see him in so much pain and to feel helpless to do much about it. Thank you God for Will's energy and humor and personality that are back in full force!
Here are some more pics from our time with Emily. She is flying back to Austin today at 3pm. Sunday we went bowling. The kids had fun and Sam got his ball stuck in the gutter almost every single time because it was going so slow! Monday we had dinner at the McCarragher's. The boys had fun playing outside and building a train track that went from the bedroom out into the living room. Jack was using his sword to take swipes at branches and bushes.
We had barbequed hamburgers and hotdogs and everyone spent time working on and admiring each other's blogs. I'm not naming any names, (because mine would be at the very top) but I highly recommend that anyone who has addictive personality traits steer clear from ever starting their own blog.
General silliness:
Sweet hands
Aunt Em with her nephews:
Sisters....awww....Forever!
We were getting so silly taking all these pictures and Will ended up in the hallway having a time out for something or another for only like 5 minutes, but he must have felt he had missed out on the fun. When we got home in bed, he started crying that he missed Emily and didn't get to spend enough time with her, and everyone was having fun without him, while he had to sit in the hallway for an hour, etc etc. I told him he could call Emily any time he was missing her, which he took to mean right that minute, so he called her, talked to her a few minutes, told her he missed her and all was well, (on our end anyway.) I think we left Em in tears!
Not to be overlooked - my sister-in-law Shelly started a blog for their family news a few weeks back. So I figured out how to officially add the Cole Family to my links as well- check it out! They are in Waterloo -but only for a short while longer as they are making plans to move to Austin TX! Now we'll have double the reasons to make a visit down there!
Hey, loyal blog readers (aka Carrie)! I've got some news that's going to rock your world - or maybe just make your day. I've got two new links on my blog because Laura and my mom each started their own blogs today - thanks to Em and her encouragement and tutelage. It was a bit touch-and-go, and Laura just about had a panic attack, (she claims she knows nothing about computers) but we talked her down. I keep telling her "if I can do it, you can do it!" So, do me a favor and link on over to their sites and leave them some comments welcoming them to the blog world. About 2 seconds after my mom posted her first entry, she was like, "But I don't have any comments." So I know they would be much appreciated! Patience, my child, patience! I'm home to pick up Will, put away groceries, while Sam sleeps in the van in the garage, and am headed back over to McCarragher's. So doesn't it just make sense that blogging about this and leaving the girls some comments on their new blogs is my top priority?! What?! I left the doors open - I can hear him if he wakes up!
Will and neighbor Alex like to put on shows for us. This is their grand finale. Notice how there's a slow introduction, and then it gets kind of peppy. I also like how Will gestures like, "take it Alex!" during the days of the week part. These guys crack me up!
We've been enjoying the company of aunt Emily this week as she visits from Austin. She is plenty busy seeing friends and getting ready to sing tonight and tomorrow at Parkview's worship services, but we still manage to spend time with her everyday too! Last night we had a game night at our house and had pizzas. The night before I made lasagna. McCarragher's have still been dealing with some sickness - this past week it was Lily then Joe and Laura- so on lasagna night just the McCarragher boys joined us. Emily had "little somethings" for the kids, which were actually "Texas-sized somethings." They were Texas-sized pencils and Texas-sized jelly beans. The kids thought they were great!
Went to the doctor last Thursday, and got to hear the baby's heartbeat once again. It was in the 150's - what does that mean? I'm now at 17 weeks. I had a little set back (mentally) when I went to the doctor at 13 weeks. For some odd reason, I thought that I was then at 16 weeks and was sorely discouraged to realize that I was only at 13. Yeah, I know, I know, nobody's keeping track. BUT I AM!!! This whole being pregnant thing is taking forever! Will asked me the other day, "How many years until the baby comes?" So I'm not the only one feeling time drag. I should be thankful I'm not an elephant. I'd never survive being pregnant for 22 months. I'm seriously not doing this again. I'm way too old, way too fat, way too cranky, way too uncomfortable. And yes I realize it's only going to get worse. On a positive note, we set up our ultrasound for next time! May 25, we'll hopefully find out if this sucker is a boy or a girl.
Just for the record, I think I'm most rooting for Joey Fatone, although I agree that it's so much fun to watch Billy Ray. Billy Ray just makes me laugh. He has that same quality that Emmit Smith had last year - they just enjoy themselves, and really put their all into it. Clyde needed to go, he didn't act like he was even trying, contrary to what he said. Heather needed to go. It's also fun to watch "Cliff" because he's lighter on his feet than you think he's going to be. I missed this week's episode, being out of town, but Don taped it, so I'm going to be borrowing that to get caught up. I guess I'll also admit that I'll be getting caught up on my not so secret addiction to the Bachelor that he taped for us (me and my mom) as well.
Unfortunately, it was Noah who got REALLY sick on our trip. The poor guy started out playing and swimming, but ended up with bouts of diarhea (I never can spell that word correctly, so I'm not even going to try) and then moved on to a night and day of vomiting. Since McCarragher's had had such a long night the last night, and Noah was still so sick, they decided to head home by noon on Tuesday. We had planned on staying through the afternoon, but our kids were so tired, they kept falling down and getting hurt, and Will was battling a bit of a cold, so we decided to head home early too. It was good to get home and regroup. Will ended up staying home Wednesday from school and laying around but went back to school today. This pic is on the huge multi-level fort where you can climb, squirt people, and there are slides at the top. The first (and only) time Sam went down this one he turned around at the bottom, with his feet up in the air, and the water pouring over his face. He was totally submerged, and needed help to get out. It was very scary! He stuck to smaller slides after that, but the bigger boys loved those slides.
Jack, standing in a spray of water:
Sam, tuckered out:
On the first day, everyone was more daring. Here Sam and Noah are going down a slide that later on Sam would not do because it was too fast: he'd lose his footing and go under at the bottom sometimes. His all time favorite slide was actually the one right next to it, that looks like an eagle. He called it the "Herky the Hawk slide." He liked it because it went almost painstakingly slow. Unfortunately I guess I never videoed him on that one. But it was funny, he'd almost stop sometimes, and had all this extra time to look around him as he leisurely slid down. He's not much of a thrill seeker I guess. Later on Noah convinced him to go back to the faster slide, but then he'd only do it if I caught him. Seemed silly after he'd done it so well by himself. But he was gun shy after going under.
Sam on a water-squirting "jet ski":
On the last day, Jack actually talked Mom into going down a water slide!
There was also a dry play area called Wiley's Woods. It was climbing structure with net ladders and tube slides. Plus there were foam balls that you could shoot at each other from air cannons. You wore an electronic bracelet that kept track of your score as you went to different kiosks and performed tasks like gathering a certain amount of "berries," (balls) and other games. The kids had fun running and getting sweaty, but it turned out to be a bit lame, as many of the kiosks were not working properly and the prize that was advertised to all who reached a certain score, was no longer given out. Here are some pics from there:
I know that Jack will be disappointed that the picture of him jumping out of the basket isn't here, because he really liked that one. (Actually, his awesome aunt is saving him the embarassment!) However, I can't resist putting in Jack's all time favorite highlight of the trip: "The Rhythm of Nature" show in the lobby. We made him attend something like three times. The little kids loved every cheesy minute of it and the corny music will be forever embedded in our brains. It's hard to see, but there are little robotic animals- an owl, squirrel, beaver, and turtle that all moved and "sang." Plus up top there was an indian girl and a pioneer boy. I've recorded some of it here, so that anytime Jack wants to he can relive his fondest memory over and over, as many times as he wants. Sam had to say this when the animatronic indian girl came "rolling" out of her door, "Here comes the angel, out the dining room door!"
The "Big Kids" had fun too. They went on the Howlin' Tornado which was featured in the video on the Great Wolf Lodge website. Jack, Joe, Damon and Laura went together on a four person raft. Evidently it was pretty intense. Laura and Jack definitely decided NEVER AGAIN! Joe and Damon went down Mountain Edge Raceway several times: a head-first mat racing ride. The "Yoo-hoo" you here is the characteristic yell that reverberates throughout the waterpark anytime Damon goes down any waterslide! Afterward, the life guard came over to Damon laughing because he said he'd never seen anyone switch lanes like that! Unfortunately I can't figure out how to rotate this video so y'all will have to turn your heads! Also, I just realized that the sound didn't make it to this video for some reason. Oh well!
Well, we're back! Tired and sick (some of us), but back. Like usual, I took a lot of pictures and videos! Will's favorite seemed to be the wave pool. Here he's doing some of his "moves." He asked Noah if he wanted to sign up to be in his Wave Moves Club, but Noah said no. The Wave Moves Club consists of standing in the waves and punching, chopping, or kicking the waves. Sam liked to "cut the waves in half" which is a downward karate chop-like move. What's so funny about this video is actually watching Damon in the background as he tries to get on his inner tube!
Some cute butts...
Will attacking (or is he being attacked?!) by a wave, while Noah looks on...
Tired girl "swimming" with her puggy, while Noah and Sam sit in the waves...
One of Sam's, Lily's and Noah's favorite slides:
Lily, trying to get the hang of it, ended up on her back, or turning around half the time! She was brave to do this on the first day, but as she progressively got more and more tired throughout our stay, she didn't want to do it anymore.
We're off for a little fun to the Dells, Sunday - Tuesday! Our annual tradition has been to stay at the Wilderness Resort, but this year we're trying something new and staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. We'll still be doing the whole indoor waterpark experience, of course! Sam was convinced we were going to the beach for the longest time, but I think he's got it figured out now. He is anxious to show Lily how to do things. He says he's going to hold her where it's deep, so she won't be scared. Yeah, right! It sounds like there's also a really neat dry play area that's like an interactive video game. It's called Wiley's Woods. There's also this cool looking clock tower thing in the lobby that puts on a little "show" a few times a day. It's probably highly cheesy, so I'll probably love it. Plus there's all the fun new things to explore in the 100,000 square foot indoor waterpark. Of course pregnant me won't be getting at all adventurous, but I'll be having fun watching the kids do their thing! I'm sure I'll have plenty to blog about when we get back. My big prayer is that no one gets sick, as has been our habit whenever we go on vacation!
Evidently it's Mr. Bacon's birthday! Will's class spent time yesterday making him cards. According to Will, this is how his card read: "Mr. Bacon, you are the best principal in the great state of Iowa! P.S. How old are you anyway?" This is really funny to me because I totally know why he wrote this. Mr. Bacon has a routine of things that he says during morning announcements and such and one of the things he's known for saying is something like, "If we all work together we can make Lemme Elementary the best school in the great state of Iowa!" So now "the great state of Iowa" has become this catch phrase! Also, like I've said before, every good letter/card/note HAS to have a "P.S.!" Inthe above picture, Mr. Bacon is on the right. He is standing with Arthur Lemme, Helen Lemme's grandson, who recently brought his family to visit the school. To read more about Helen Lemme, namesake of Will's school, and her contributions to Iowa City and the University of Iowa, click here.
Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend! Sam's all time favorite Easter gift seems to be the Spiderman umbrella, which he'd actually gotten the day before Easter from the McCarragher's but had to be in the Easter morning picture, and has been the first thing he's reached for every morning since! (Lily really liked it too, as you'll see in a later video.) She may have to get a pink one for herself!
Those naughty fingers at the end belong to Sam. He's says "Sorry, let me try again."
The kids were supposed to open the eggs and make piles of the loot, which would be later divided up evenly and fairly. But Sam kept popping every chocolate he opened right into his mouth, and Lily just liked throwing the eggs in the bucket, she didn't care to open them first. Will happened to have all the 5 dollar bills in his pile, so he hoped he was coming away $25 richer, but he really knew that he only got to keep one of those! Everyone had a great time! Jack decided that this year he was too old to hunt for eggs, so he hid them with Grandma and Grandpa, but he still wanted his pile of loot at the end, (of course!)
Sunday afternoon we went over to the Brown grandparents and the kids got to do another egg hunt with the Cole kids. This time, since Will had caught on that Jack had hid eggs this year, Will decided he'd like to hide the eggs. So he and Shelly hid eggs for everyone else to find. I guess each job is fun! Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera! ....and our boys were wearing matching shirts that day too! Oh well.
This is the song that's running through my head these days - incessantly! We rented this DVD from the library, and the kids love it! Damon and I used to watch this on Nickelodeon as kids, and it's not as great as I remembered. In fact, it's pretty lame. But the intro rocks! Does anyone else remember this cartoon - it was a british spy thing? There was Danger Mouse of course, and his hamster sidekick Ernest Penfold. Then there was Colonel K - a walrus who was the head of the british secret service. There were various bad guys including an evil toad named Baron Silas Greenback, who had a fuzzy pet caterpillar named Nero. The good news is it goes back to the library tomorrow!!!!!!!!!
I got the dreaded call from the principal yesterday. Evidently Will depantsed his best friend at recess. He was pulled inside, talked to by the principal, Mr. Bacon, and was supposed to spend the next recess with him as a consequence. Mr. Bacon was great about the whole thing. He talked to Will about the golden rule, and putting yourselves in Jack's shoes. When Mr Bacon talked to me he recognized that they were good friends, and that their silliness had just gotten out of hand, but he couldn't just let it go either. He knew that Will was remorseful and that the situation had made an impression on him to where he wasn't going to be doing that again. In the meantime, Will came down with a low grade fever, and I picked him up early, just as I had the day before. Since this was the second day of sore throat, and now a fever, I took him in for a strep test, which was negative. He's home today all day resting, and although he's not acting all that sick, he's being quieter than his younger brother! When I was first processing what Will had done to his best friend, I was so mortified and upset. I wondered if his friend Jack had been too. I quickly called his mom and assured her we'd be handling this at home. She was very reassuring - she knows how good of friends the boys are, and guessed that Jack wouldn't be feeling the absolute mortification that a little bit older kid would be feeling. I didn't want to minimize what Will had done, but yet I knew that he had not done it maliciously or to hurt his good friend. I was sure there was a reasonable - although silly, explanation for what had happened. Will's story goes like this: they were playing "Extreme Stunts" - coming up with stories of stunts they were going to pull, when Will said, "...and then I'll drive over you with my car!" and Jack said, "no, I know, then you'll pull my pants down!" (How you go from one thing to the next, only a 1st grade boy knows!) So Will says he was going to "pretend" to pull his pants down, only instead of pretending, they actually really came down. He says he didn't think they'd really come down - a classic example of my kid's lack of impulse-control, and not thinking things through. As part of his punishment at home, I had Will write Jack a letter. The original letter said,
Dear Jack, I'm sorry for accidentally pulling your pants down. Will you please forgive me? From your best friend, Will P.S. Were you wearing a belt?
Oh I was trying so hard not to laugh while I explained that whether or not Jack was wearing a belt didn't matter. After I nixed the first P.S. the second P.S. (because every good letter has to have a P.S.) said, "Please write back." After nixing the 2nd P.S. the 3rd P.S. said "Can we talk privately at school? I have to tell you something." When I asked him what that was all about he said he just wanted to make sure that he and Jack and were alright and that they were still friends. The tears were welling up in his eyes! That's when I knew we'd better go get that letter delivered as soon as possible, so that life could move on! Damon took Will down the street to Jack's house and all was forgiven. Jack handled the whole thing very well. He was excited to see Will, they shook hands, and that was that! Whew! Although Will still has to spend a recess with Mr. Bacon when he gets back to feeling better...
It was Fine Arts Night at Lemme school on Tuesday night. The 1st graders sang 3 songs, two of which he's reluctantly singing in the video (with Sam as back-up.) The other song was "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain." I was impressed that the songs they've been learning have a lot to do with having good character and making good decisions. Then we headed to the art room to pick up Will's clay sculpture: Lucy.
We also went to the library where they had computers set up to view the 1st grader's family portraits that they created on the computer program Kid's Pics. Hopefully they'll send us a paper copy of it or the file because it was pretty cute and this picture didn't turn out all that great.
Afterward we had cookies and lemonade and the kids played on the playground. It was a nice night!
Here's my sweet Sam, racing the sidewalks of our neighborhood. His favorite riding toy is actually his Big Wheel, but he likes this guy too. Who do you think he looks like in this picture? He looks like somebody, it's in the eyes, but I don't know who!
We've been taking advantage of the nice weather to do all the typical Spring things. Will wanted to do bubbles, but we couldn't find any wands, so we came up with some creative solutions. Will wanted to use tennis rackets, which were too big. We were however able to find plastic sand sifters, scoops you play catch with, as well as wiffle balls and some pvc pipes, all of which worked fairly well. Alex our neighbor was more than happy to provide the back-up music for this One-Man Bubble Show.
Can I just tell everyone how excited I am that Dancing with the Stars is back? Last Monday was the first episode of this season. I sat there with a silly grin on my face for two hours while my feet twitched like they had a mind of their own. If I were thinner, lighter on my feet and not such a clutz I would be a professional ballroom dancer. It's too early to tell who I am rooting for, but I'm quite looking forward to tonight.
This weekend we watched the movie Stranger Than Fiction, with Will Ferrell. I loved it - Will Ferrell is great in a little more serious role. Has anyone else seen it, and what did you think? I was most intrigued with the visual graphics that were displayed that showed what he was calculating and thinking. This is one of the few movies I could watch again, just so that I could catch more of the graphics. As a more literary person, I loved that he was trying to figure out if he was in a comedy or a tragedy, and all the references to writing techniques - and how the professor eliminated types of literature and characters with his odd questions. As a person married to a more orderly, number-oriented person, I could appreciate that aspect as well. I highly recommend renting this movie!
We were getting so silly taking all these pictures and Will ended up in the hallway having a time out for something or another for only like 5 minutes, but he must have felt he had missed out on the fun. When we got home in bed, he started crying that he missed Emily and didn't get to spend enough time with her, and everyone was having fun without him, while he had to sit in the hallway for an hour, etc etc. I told him he could call Emily any time he was missing her, which he took to mean right that minute, so he called her, talked to her a few minutes, told her he missed her and all was well, (on our end anyway.) I think we left Em in tears!
Will attacking (or is he being attacked?!) by a wave, while Noah looks on...
