So Proud, Man!

Tonight was R's parent-teacher conference at school. It's such a fun experience when your child is doing well -- and he is doing well. She even called him "profound" in how he answers questions. He's curious and loves to learn -- you couldn't ask for much more. R always wants to do his best, which leads to a bit of perfectionism (I really don't know where he gets this -- not from me nor M.) Anyway, sometimes he gets so caught up in doing things exactly right, that he gets a bit paralyzed and can't go on until it's perfect. This is primarily the case in spelling words. They have a journaling exercise in which the children write about whatever subject they're given. Spelling doesn't matter. The idea is to get thier thoughts down on paper. Evidently he has a hard time with the "spelling doesn't matter" part because he really wants to spell it right. I'll work on not being so perfect at home -- I certainly don't want his idea of perfectionism to hinder his creativity.

All in all, he's doing a great job and you can tell that the teacher just loves him. She asked him some questions about what he's learning and the proud and caring look on her face was precious as she was looking at him while he answered.

It warms a mom's heart :>

As we were leaving R's classroom, we saw Mrs Edwards, his kindergarten teacher from last year. Wanting to give T some attention in this R-filled night, I told Mrs Edwards that T would be in her class next year. She looked pleased and bent down to talk to T -- who immediately turned his back to her and refused to talk. Oh well, he'll learn...right??

Conversations from the bath tub:

The boys are in the tub right now. I just overheard R say "oh, careful T, I just tooted and it smells really bad!" T said, "that's okay, sometimes that happens."

Way Down in the Fall

The boys and I just had a discussion about the seasons. Around here, the leaves are definitely changing, the air is crisper (56 degrees crisp), and the squirrels are gathering nuts for the winter. In a Dolly Parton song, she sings about being cold when it is "way down in the fall." T says that it's not that late in the year yet and R says that he was cold at school, so maybe it is way down in the fall. We compromised and agreed that, right now, it's way in the middle of the fall.

We just went to a Fall Fest party at the home of one of R's classmates. Totally fun for the kids. Totally insane for the parents. They played a bunch of games with prizes for everybody for each game; they ate hotdogs; they decorated pumpkins; they had a pinata; and they wore costumes. Oh yeah, and there were 46 kids. 46. Kids. Yikes!

I had to go to the grocery store after the party and R said that he was embarassed to go in his costume. He's a vampire. Black pants, white shirt, red cumberbund, black cape, white face make up, red blood dripping from his mouth, hair slicked back, fang teeth. He wanted to take the cape off to go in the grocery store. I convinced him that he'd look better with the cape because then his face make up made sense. I don't think he really got what I meant, but he went in full-costumed anyway. He got lots of smiles. So did T, who was wearing a dog costume -- a different dog costume than the one he wore last year because he didn't want to be that dog, but he wanted to be a golden retreiver like Mackinaw. Too cute.

It's been a full on busy day. M and R had hockey team pictures at 8:00 am this morning. This means that they had to be at the rink by 7:40 or so to get suited up. M suggested -- and I quickly agreed -- that I stay home with T :> I took a long bath and read a lot of a great book (Julie and Julia) for an hour. Then, I cooked up some bacon and had a great breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast for them when they got back.

After our late breakfast, we all worked in the yard. M had tilled out a bigger area in the front yard for a flower bed. We got some tulips in the mail last week that I ordered from Holland, MI. Sixty bulbs in all. T and R helped me plant them six inches deep. They'll be so beautiful in the spring! T asked me to read the names of the flowers as we planted them. At the end of the morning, he said, "I can't WAIT to see the Pink Imaginations come up, can you mommy?" I didn't tell him, but I, actually, am most excited about the Red Cashmir and the White Trumpets...but I'm sure the Pink Imaginations that we put around the mailbox will be divine.

Fun with Uncle Dan in Our Second Corn Maze

We had a great weekend with Uncle Dan last weekend at another corn maze. In my quest to see all of the corn mazes within 50 miles of our house before the month was over, we discovered a really fun place. We all had a great time. I tried to post these pictures earlier in the week, but Blogger wasn't cooporating -- it still isn't cooperating, but I posted them the old school way. Enjoy!

T and R goofing around in the hay bale maze.

R, pretending he's a farmer and chewing on a piece of corn straw (he saw his daddy doing it earlier and thought that it was pretty funny.) 

A rare picture with me in it. I know, it's not the best of the boys -- but I don't look too bad! 

Uncle Dan with R and T -- all ready for the corn maze. (Yes, T picked out his own outfit, bandana and all.) 

Sleep is Good

I got a GREAT night's sleep on Friday night and last night. I'm such a happier person (and wife and mom) when I've had over five hours of sleep in a night :>

Uncle Dan came over this weekend and we had a really nice visit. He and M went skeet shooting yesterday, and last night we played 3-way pegs and jokers (after a tasty dinner of chicken, spinach casserol, and tomatoes with mozerella). Today, the boys took Mackie for a walk in the woods while I finished up some work and then we went to our second corn maze of the season. Lots of fun there -- I'll have pictures for you later this week.

I'm off for my last(!) business trip tomorrow at 4:00AM. Wish me luck!

So Tired...

I don't know how I'm awake right now... I don't think I've gotten more than 4-5 hours of sleep each night for the past three weeks with all this traveling. On Wednesday, I was up at 4:30 and in bed after midnight. That's a long day, especially when it included six hours of driving to Chicago and back. The crazy thing is that I was so wired, despite being exhausted, that I couldn't sleep that night. And the same thing happened last night. I didn't get to sleep until after three in the morning. Arghh! Tonight, Tylonal PM will be my friend....I better take it now so that I can be awake at 7:00 to get the boys ready for hockey.

I'm back from my third (out of four) business trips in so many weeks. I'm pooped! The boys made "welcome home" posters for me -- so cute. R wasn't feeling well today and had a fever -- that poor boy has been getting sick a lot. He still has a bit of a fever now (don't ask me how high it is; I dropped the thermometer in the toilet and threw it away and haven't replaced it yet). His only other symptom is a headache. Bummer.

M is at the Tiger Cubs meeting right now. I was supposed to help him, but I'm home with the kids since R is sick. The theme is Health and Safety. I organized the meeting and got most of the stuff together, with M's help. They will be making first aid kids and talk about safety. They'll also make firefighter hats and play a firefighter relay (they'll have to put on their hats and some big boots, run across the floor, blow out a candle, and run back to give the boots to the next boy.) Should be fun.

Meanwhile, I worked with R on his vocabulary words because he has a test on Friday. I'm impressed with his sight reading skills. Funny, though, they don't teach phonics at his school. When I asked him to sound out a word, he looked at me like I was weird and named the letters in the word instead of sounding it out. So, I taught him how to sound out words. I did this because he saw the word "car" and quickly said that it was "color". I guess that he just saw the first letter and quessed....strange. But, all in all, he got more than 90% of the words right on the first try, so I told him how proud I was of him.

I have a long day tomorrow. I have to drive to Chicago, leaving at 6:00am and I won't get home until about midnight. Some folks are spending the night, but I don't want to be away more than I already am. Then I'm home until Monday, when I'll fly to Cincinnati for one night. Then I'll be done traveling for awhile. Whew! By the way, M is being quite a trooper about all this traveling, which makes it so much easier for me. He says "well, it's your job" and "I know you're not doing this because you want to." He also appreciates all my efforts to get home quickly. I sure love that man!

Breakfast Conversation

I made eggs, toast, and bacon for breakfast this morning. R polished everything on his plate pretty quickly. T ate his eggs (and then some) and most of his toast. R, upon seeing that T was slowing down, said to T "can I have that piece of toast with honey on it?" T said, "sure you can. here you go." R got it and said, "Honey toast! Prepare for your doom!" and quickly took a bite.

Life with boys...such testoserone-driven drama.