Gold Rush Competition

I've been told by many folks here that you need to get out in the snow in order to appreciate it and enjoy winter. "They say" that if you don't, you just end up despising it and hating winter all winter long. That isn't hard with my family, all of the boys (including M) love the snow and winter sports. Last weekend was a big one which included a Cub Scout outing called Gold Rush.

This is an all-council activity in which the scouts form dog-sled teams to pretend to go into the Yukon during the gold rush. Each team has 4-8 boys, with one being the musher and the others being the "huskies." The boys had been studying for this for a month and M had his den take a test to see who would be the musher. R was the only one in the den to get 100%, so he was the musher. It's a very important job because only the musher can speak to the judges. The musher is the leader and the scoring includes leadership points. R did great! They had 5 different activities: first aid, where they had to make a stretcher out of a blanket and poles; "cooperative skiing' where all six of the kids were on these long wooden skis and they had to travel 20 feet: tree and animal track identification; trading post purchases where they had to make smart decisions on what to buy; and they had to save a wooden "man" who fell in the ice. What a fun day it was! R was amazing. The trading post judge said that he showed the most leadership of all the teams he saw that day. He listened to his teammates and then made great decisions. We don't know who won yet, but we're very proud of his den!

R poses with his team before the first competition. He's holding the clipboard (in a plastic bag) which he had to give to the judges at each station. No adults were allowed to coach or even talk to the boys once the competition started.

R tries to regain his balance while leading his team on the cooporative skis. This was the hardest event for the boys. They had some ups and downs, but did make it!

Another view of the team on the coop skis.

Transporting the "victim" on the home-made stretcher. Evidently, it was quite funny.

R and his team pulling the sled to the next station. The sled is full of the provisions they'd need in the Yukon, including a first aid kit, water, blankets, and so on.

Ice Storm Redux

You may have heard that the Midwest was hit by a huge ice storm this week. It was actually on Monday, which was a holiday so there weren't tons of accidents on the highway. (You can tell that I'm adjusting to this midwesterner thing 'cause I said "highway" an not "freeway.") Anyway, we saw on the news that this crazy, slow-moving storm that started in Texas was working its way up towards us. People in the Plaines States had been without electricity for days. (This is the same storm that caused freezing weather in 'ole sunny California too.) At about 11:00 pm on Sunday night, M was worried that we'd lose our electricity too and freeze right inside our house. We had highs of 17 degrees for three days. We have a gas heater, but it's triggered by electricity to kick on. So, M took off to find a heater. He went to get an oil heater, but ended up getting a butane one because there was no one selling oil at midnight. Meanwhile, I got some flashlights and candles together and put them in strategic places. When he got back, we discussed our plan for heating the house if we were without power for days. (We decided that we'd hole up in the kitchen because the oven could help keep us warm and it has low ceilings (easier to keep the heat where we need it.) Then we went to sleep.

We woke up at 4:30 AM to the clicking sound of our clock going on and off. We also noticed that the nightlight outside our room kept glowing on and off, which was kind of eerie. It had happened as we thought -- the electricity was dead. I pulled up the covers, rolled over and went back to sleep. M tried to for a few minutes, then said "I'm going to Walgreens to get batteries and cash." I woke up right away because I was nervous about him driving. Remember, this is an ICE STORM, which meant that there was ICE everywhere, including the streets. He said that he needed to go, just in case the electricity stayed out for days -- we'd need the batteries and cash. So, I said a little prayer and watched him pull away ever so slowly on the ice-covered streets. By the way, did you know that 4-wheel drive does squat on ice? You just slip and slide. For this reason, he took our car that has manual-transmission so that he could just down shift to stop instead of applying the brakes.

He came back about an hour later and soon the boys woke up. They were very excited to have the lights out because they got to play in the playroom with flashlights. Their excitement did wear off five hours later when they realized that the TV, video game, and computer all need electricity! I was terribly disappointed to realize that our gas oven wouldn't work without electricity because it has a computerized temperature control thingy. I was really bummed! I had planned on baking cookies, bread, and all sorts of things all day long -- I was really looking forward to it. Anyway, after reading books and playing board games, we got our electricity back on by about 1:00. We're calling it an adventure! Here are some pictures that we took. They don't do the beauty justice, but it gives you an idea of the wonderland that we had in our back yard for a few days.

You can see the mini ice cicles hanging off of the crabapples on our tree below:

I tried to get a close-up so that you folks on the West Coast could see something that you've never seen before: ice frozen all over these branches. They completely cover them -- like the branches have little ice socks on them.

Look at the ice "fringe" on this patio chair.

A winter wonderland in my backyard.

All Dressed Up with A Place To Go

Boy, did my boys look good -- and I mean ALL of my boys (M, R, and T.) They were all in Uncle Dan's wedding last week and they all wore tuxedos! M was a groomsman, R was the ring bearer, and T was a greeter, passing out programs.

First, was the rehearsal on Friday night. The boys (R and T) wore matching sweaters that Gramma gave them (she gave them to my boys and to her other grandsons). We brought in the boys Leapsters (educational handheld video games) and headphones so that they could be quiet and occupied in the church when they weren't needed. This is how they looked for the half hour that they had to wait before R's turn to practice. (T never had to practice, so he happily played the whole time.)

Then R was called to practice walking in with H, his cousin and the flower girl. They took their jobs very seriously and walked as calmly as they could down the aisle after all of the bridesmaides walked down. They also had to stand up with the wedding party during the whole wedding. Here they are waiting to practice. (H is holding the "practice bouquet" that we made at the bridal shower.)
After the rehearsal, we dropped the boys off at M's cousin's house so she could babysit them (and get them to sleep) while M and I went to the rehearsal dinner. It started at their bedtime and we wanted them to not be too tired for the wedding the next day.

On the wedding day, M had to leave with the other groomsmen bright and early at 8:00 AM. I'm not sure why they had to get together so early, the wedding wasn't until 2:30. My boys had to be at the church at 1:45, so we had a nice morning together. First we had a great breakfast at the hotel buffet (made to order omlettes, waffles, plus more.) Then we read four chapters of a book that R got for Christmas. After that, it was an hour swimming in the pool. After swimming, the boys took a quick shower and I bought them a crazy-expensive hotel-movie ($11.99) so that they'd have something to occupy them while I showered, dried my hair, curled my hair, and put my make up on -- all in peace. Somewhere between drying and curling my hair, I fixed the boys some lunch -- a floor picnic of a banana, apple slices, cheese and crackers, and chocolate milk. (The fruit and milk was snuck up from the breakfast buffet. Shhhh.)

I took the boys to church in their street clothes, bringing the tuxes along to put on when we got there. (Who knows what dirtiness could happen on the 30 minute drive!). We joined the groomsmen in the church basement, which the boys loved because it had a pool table, air hockey, and foosball game.
The wedding went without a hitch. I forgot to mention that I was also in the wedding. I read a poem and successfully got through it without crying. Though, I did cry plenty later on in the wedding. How is it that I forgot to pack kleenix in my purse??? Anyway, everybody did their job wonderfully. T was a hit in his handsom tux passing out programs; R didn't trip or run as he walked down the aisle; and M looked great standing up with the groomsmen.

After the wedding, there were pictures at the church and pictures at the reception. The two-hour dinner was four courses, with sorbet before the main course to cleanse the pallate. (T was excited because he thought it was dessert and the dinner was over.) It was pretty late by the time dancing started (9:00, our time) so the boys were bushed. R could have dance all night, but T got pretty tired. R danced with the flower girl all night -- they were so cute. T danced with whoever would dance with him, getting a bit crazy when he did. Here are some great dancing pictures.

The ring bearer and the flower girl, dancing the night away:

The mother of the groom (gramma) and T doing the swing:

R and H looking pretty darn proud, cute, and adorable:

At 10:30 I took them back to the hotel so they could crash. They were pretty proud for staying up until 12:00 EST like big boys!

Sickness-Christmas-Recovery

Last year I got really sick on Christmas night and was sick for a week. This year I got really sick on the Thursday before Christmas and was sick for a week. I hate this trend! On the Wednesday before Christmas, I was up with T from 12-3 while he proceeded to throw up on every bed he laid on (specifically, his bed on the very-hard-to-reach-top-bunk, and the guest bed). When I went into his room the first time he got sick, he was kneeling over this mound of barf (sorry for the details, but if I had suffer through it, I'm gonna make you suffer through it!). So, he was kneeling over this mound, and he looked up and said, "I got sick, but I didn't get it on any of my stuffed animals!) He was right, he didn't. Amazing. I got him out, cleaned him up, and got him settled in the guest bed -- with a big bowl next to him. I also gave him some good 'ole Pepto Bismol. After he fell asleep two hours later, I went down to bed. A half an hour after that, he came down and said, "I did it again and it's really pink!" ARghhh! After getting him cleaned up and settled down again, I went back to bed feeling a bit queasy. Sympathy nausea, I thought. I was wrong! I called in sick on Thursday and thought I was better on Friday, so I got a bunch of stuff done. By Saturday I knew I was not better and on Christmas day I thought I was going to die! I managed to take enough Imodium (we should be stock!) to make it through the three and a half hour car ride to M's folks' house, where I crawled up to bed and slept for three hours. M felt crappy too -- he had it too, but thankfully not as bad as I did. And, even more thankfully, nobody in the Smith house caught it!


Enough about me, now here's Christmas.

We each picked a present to open on Christmas Eve morning. I opened a present from my boys, which was researched and purchased by M. It's a new digital camera. I'm so lucky!! My old one frustrated me to no end because it didn't take good pictures indoors and I always missed the good pictures because I had to wait so long for it to take a picture after pressing the button. Here's the very first picture I took -- it's through a dirty window in the house. Yep, those are wild turkeys in our back yard!



The boys made cookies for Santa and got a carrot for Rudolph. (I'm still learning that I have to manually turn on the flash on my new camera, so some of the pictures are dark, but you get the idea.)

Here are the boys on Christmas morning -- seeing the wonder that Santa left them below.

M and I gave R a new bike. It's red and has really cool pin striping on it. He loves it and can't wait to ride it.

M designed and built an awesome art work bench for T. I had the joy of stocking it full of fun supplies. T loves it!
On the 27th we went with the cousins to the King Tut exhibit at the museum. All of the kids really love it. Here are all five cousins doing their best "King Tut impression." (R is pretending his hands are the cobra on the head-dress.)
It was a fun time with the cousins!

Tis the Season

It's been a fun weekend. It started off with my company Holiday Party at a local hotel. It's a huge bash with over 2000 people. Last year, M and I ended up at a table with people we didn't know and it wasn't much fun. So, this year M and I hosted a pre-party in our hotel room -- that way, we could all go down stairs together and sit together. Our preparty was a hit, with about 20 people crammed into the room, drinking wine and eating the appetizers that we brought. It worked like a charm too. We were at a table with friends that M knows too and gets along with well. We had tasty wine. The food wasn't that great, but it's hard to serve that many people. After dinner, there were lots of things going on in the different ballrooms -- kareoke, casino room, two rooms with DJs and dancing, and a comedian. We spent most of the time in the casino room, gambling with chips that they gave us when we walked in the room. Just after midnight, M and I went to our room and I had a nice bath in the huge jacuzzi tub. We called for a wake-up call for 6:00, crashed into bed, and woke up way too soon to get home and get the boys to hockey practice. But it was totally worth it!

R and T stayed at home with our new favorite babysitter -- a good friend of Miss Ellie. We had sooo much fun at the party.

Here we are all dolled up

Yesterday while M was hunting (came up empty again) R went to a birthday party and T and I worked in my craft room. I made Christmas cards while T did a craft that he'll give to R for Christmas.

We also went and Santa Clause 3 today. But before we did that, we needed to rent and watch Santa Clause, and Santa Clause 2. So we did that yesterday and this morning. Then, we surprised the boys by taking them to the newly released Santa Clause 3. It was a pretty funny flick. After that, we took the boys to get measured for their tuxes for the big wedding after Christmas. This afternoon, we had a photo session for the pics that will go in our Christmas cards. Here are the out-takes...

Naughty or Nice

T and I were watching R's hockey practice today and I asked him about Santa Clause's list:

Me: T, which list are you on...naughty?... or nice?
T: Hmmmm. I think both...kind of medium, you know what I mean?
Me: I think you're a very good boy. You're probably on the nice list.
T: I'm still thinking the medium list, mom.
Me: Which list am I on?
T: You're on the I-Love-You list!

Winter is Here

We've had interesting weather lately. In early October, it snowed 6 inches -- EARLY OCTOBER, as in BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY -- it snowed. Crazy! That was all the talk in these parts, for a couple of weeks. Even now, in early December, you might catch someone saying, "remember that October snow storm? It was a doozy." So, after that early snow, we had beautiful weather in October and November -- it was in the 60's for a lot of it. Usually it's in the 40's or so in November. So, two weeks ago, M put up the Christmas lights. I think he might have even been wearing shorts 'cause it was in the low 60's. (By the way, don't worry. We aren't THOSE people who have lights on all year or even frightenly early in the season. The way you do it around here is put the lights up before it freezes so that it isn't a life-threatening experience. But you don't turn them on until after Thanksgiving. I remember that just a few days after we moved in two years ago October 20th, M was getting antsy about putting up Christmas lights. I just could not understand it being from California and all when you don't have to worry about ice and stuff.)

Anyway, last weekend it was in the 60's and today it was 32 degrees. December came in like a lion with an amazing ice storm. Except for the fierce danger and all, I really love ice storms because everything, I mean everything is so beautiful! The whole neighborhood turns into a fairytale. Every single tree is covered in ice, which makes them look magical. They are all coated in a beautiful, shiny, ice covering that shines and twinkles in the snow. It took my breath away to look at the woods in our backyard. (Unfortunately, M had the camera today and I couldn't take a picture. Hopefully we'll have another ice storm so I can share the wonder with you.) The danger of the ice storm is the downed power lines and fallen trees, but as long as nobody gets hurt and folks aren't out of electricity for too long, I totally think it's worth it!) Because of the bad weather, the boys got a Snow Day yesterday. R was jumping up and down with joy and T was bummed because he loves Kindergarten. He soon got over his disappointment when he learned that R was going to be home to play with them. They helped M bring all of the Christmas decorations up from the basement, so I put most of them out today. I love how the house looks with Christmas up!

Today was a good day in the Smith household. T had his first hockey game -- usually he just has drills and practices. Although he claims to not like hockey, he had a huge smile on his face the whole time he played. He even got a goal! R had a good hockey practice too, ending it with a red, sweaty face, smiling as always. After hockey, I came home with T and made three gallons of hot cocoa for M to take to an outdoors Cub Scout outing. It was at the local Boy Scout camp and the older scouts ran the activities of the day -- archery, bb gun target shooting, tomahawk throwing (do you see a weapon theme here for some reason??) crafts and games. They had a blast! R even earned his bb gun badge because he was such a good shot -- he needed to get 35 points to get the badge and he got 37. Way to go R!

I leave tomorrow for a business trip to LA. I have an 8:30 AM meeting there on Monday, so I have to travel on Sunday. I hate traveling on the weekend, but the bonus of this trip is that I get to visit my sister! She's going to meet me at my hotel and we'll have some time together, which will be great.

Here is a picture of R learning how to throw the Tomahawk.

Remember when T did the Aboriginal Art last month? Here is his masterpiece.

The Wishes of a Seven Year Old

Here is R's Thanksgiving wish that he wrote in school:

I wish for no wars because people get killed.
I wish that no one was poor because they need food.
I wish for no litter because it hurts the invirenment (his spelling.)
I'm thankful for everything that I have

So Much To Blog, So Little Time

I used to always blog when the boys were taking their nightly bath - a nice 15-20 minutes that I had to myself and the computer.

Things have changed -- R takes showers now, often in the mornings.

While T takes his bath, R reads to me. Then we continue with our regular night-time routine -- get pjs on, brush teeth, R's allergy meds, books, song, bed. So, you see, my blogging time has disappeared. I have to find a new time for me to blog. I'm working on it....

• R is doing great in school (he's literally at the top of the class in math, science, reading, and social studies) but he still gets stressed out on Sunday nights. He gets a variety of aches and pains in anticipation of a long 5-day week of school -- poor boy. But, the time that these pains last is much shorter than before -- they last 10-20 mintues now versus the 3-4 hours that they used to last!
• T is a happy boy and a lot of fun. He still loves dogs, steam trains, and art. As a matter of fact, the other day he and I sat down to so some painting and I asked him what he wanted to paint. "Well, I want to get a really old piece of wood and do an aboriginal painting on it." "Really?" I said, "what is aboriginal painting?" "Oh, it's the kind of art that the aboriginese in Australia do. I saw it on that TV show that I watched with Dad." So he proceded to do this cool art piece using lots of dots -- as he was doing it, he said, "this is kind of like stipling, but bigger." When I asked him when he learned about stipling, he told me that I taught him. Good for me! My camera isn't working right now, when I get it up and running, I'll take a picture of the aboriginal art piece that is on display in our kitchen right now.
• Both boys are having fun in hockey/skating (remember, T doesn't want to play hockey, but he does want to know how to skate.) R even played goal tender at the last game and had a blast.
• M and I went to a BNL concert a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. We ran into one of his cousins and she offered us ticketst to a concert in Chicago that is tomorrow night. We got Uncle D and future Aunt J to babysit and we're going! It will be a blast!
• Today is the first day of deer season, so M is out freezing in the blind that he and Mr H built. Hoepfully he doesn't come home empty handed -- that venison summer sausage we had last year was great!

Big T

T has been actually enjoying his ice skating and hockey class (though he says that he's only skating and not playing hockey.) Anyway, he is pretty enthusiastic about it, listens to the coach (M) and tries his best. We're pretty proud of him. The classes are fun to watch because the kids are so small (ages 4-6) and fall down often. Luckily, they have tons of padding on and don't get hurt; when they fall, they just pop back up. Here's a picture of Big T in a race during practice...what a big boy he is now!

Apple Picking Rewind

Remember all of those apple dishes that I've recently baked? Well, here are some pictures of that outing, which was over a month a go. The sun was shining and it was a glorious day. I love doing good, wholesome family activities like this :>

We started off picking HoneyGolds. I was sure I'd forget what they were called, so I had the boys stand by the sign. Evidently the sun was very bright, because I have a couple of squinty faces here. (Also, notice the dog stickers on T's jacket? He gets one of those stickers each time he goes to hockey practice -- as long as he does his best and has a good attitude. It's amazing how that incentive has worked -- and he's even having fun now!) After the Honey Golds, we moved on to some Macintoshes.

R liked going in the middle of the trees. That's where the best apples are, he said.
T is always available for a good pose.

Have of our haul for the day... Ready to go pick another half-bushel.

Catching Up A Bit

This is going to be a bit of a catch-up post. We had a beautiful Fall day today.

• You never would have known that on Wednesday and Thursday of last week we had about four inches of snow! Crazy! T was thrilled -- he loves snow -- and played outside in the snow for an hour before school and an hour after school. He build a snow mound that was going to be a snowman at some point but never quite made it. He got hot chocolate both times when he came inside, which he appreciated greatly. R likes snow fine, but he agreed with me that it was too early in the season for snow. The basil and zinnias outside didn't like the snow at all and are officially dead. The mums, however, faired quite well.
• The honeymoon of getting the new glasses is over and R continues to have issues at bedtime. They aren't as drastic as before, thank goodness, but they are still there. Now there is the pretty consistent stomach ache (tornado in the stomach) that comes on at bedtime, as well as random things like a pain in his arm or itching all over -- all of which can prevent him from going to sleep before 9:30 or 10:00. His lack of sleep has given him some good circles under his eyes and makes him more emotional than usual. Other than that, though, he is doing well. He is getting more work done during class than he was and he's really enjoying hockey a lot. He played a little scrimmage today and scored nine goals!
• T is doing well. He likes kindergarten and is making friends there. We were in the grocery store yesterday and he saw a boy from his class. The boy said hi to T and T confidently said Hi back. He loves to do arts and crafts and really enjoys spending time with me in my craft room. He works on his own projects while I finish up mine.
• I was sick most of the week. I started getting a scratchy throat on Sunday night and woke up feeling bad on Monday. I had to go to some meetings on Monday morning and I went home at 12:30. I didn't go back to the office until Thursday, and I only stayed until 2:00 then. I managed to make it through the whole "half day" Friday. I had a cold/flu -- stuffy nose, plugged up ears, cough and fever. Luckily, I didn't have my usual sore throat, but I still felt HORRIBLE. It's a bug that is running rampant in my office. Two people who had it before me call it "the plague." I'm a lot better now, but still have a nagging cough. I have to sleep propped up with three pillows or else I end up hacking away all night or I move into the living room and sleep on the sofa.
• M has been fighting what I had. He had it a bit before me and has it a little bit now. I pray that he doesn't get the whole shebang like I did! He's been really busy with getting the yard winterized, coaching hockey, preparing Cub Scout meetings, and attending his two board meetings (and making me tea when I was sick).
• We picked apples a few weeks ago -- a whole bushel of michlimacs and honey golds. I didn't realize how big a bushel was until we brought it into the house (it didn't seem as much when we picked them!) I've made three apple crisps, two apple cobblers, one batch of apple sauce, two desserts of baked apples and we've had apples in every lunch. I think that I'm only through half of the bushel.
• Speaking of baking, T and I made pineapple upside down cake yesterday. (His choice.) Yummy. We had that after we ate chicken and dumplings. Yummy, again. Tonight we had leftovers and some baked acorn squash -- we are so in the Fall spirit around here :>

I have to go and read to the kids. Usually I also take requests and sing them each a song. I can't sing because I break out coughing, so the boys take requests and each sing me a song. It's pretty nice.

What a Difference Some Specs Make!

R is almost a new boy. We picked up his cool new glasses on Wednesday and he is thrilled with them. He had them on in the car and was looking at some of his hockey cards (he's collecting them.) Here's an excerpt from our in-car conversation:

Me: How are those glasses doing R?

R: Mom, they're great! Everything is brighter now!

Me: Great, can you read those hockey cards better?

R: Yeah, I can even read the tiny letters where it says "goal tender" and "center" now. And I can read those Canadian last names that are hard to read.

Me: Great! I'm glad you like them and that they help.

R: I know, it's like I'm looking through a telescope at my hockey cards. Everything is close up and brighter. It's like it was dull before and now it's not. The words look cleaner or something.

Me: (By now I had tears streaming down my smiling face.) I'm so glad for you R. I'm so glad for you.

I've had tears a few times this past week for R. Tears of happiness that my boy can see so clearly and he's clearly so much happier. I've had tears of sadness that he has had to go through this tough time and we didn't even know there was a problem. But the tears of happiness outnumber those of sadness, by far. This part of his vision problem is such an easy problem to fix -- glasses. It's that simple -- glasses. We're still working on the other part of his vision problem, and now that he has glasses to correct two of his vision issues, it will be much easier to just focus on one thing instead of three.

Oh, and by the way, here is his dinner time prayer the first night that he got the glasses:

Dear God, thank you for my great glasses. They make it so I can see everything brighter and that's really good. Thank you for them too because I don't have headaches anymore and I'll be able to have good nights of sleep. Amen.

The psychological effect of getting the glasses cannot be denied. He had only worn them for about twenty minutes before he said this prayer -- and he believed that he would no longer have the headaches. Wouldn't you know it, he hasn't had a headache since getting them -- or a stomach ache either :>

He also loves them at school. He only needs to wear them for "up close work" -- so reading and writing. Basically, he wears them in the class room, but not at recess or at gym. He says that things are a lot easier now and that he can even see everything the teacher writes on the board AND he can see his papers up close.

I say, Thank You God, for giving my great boy clear vision!

(Note: My camera is acting goofy when I use the flash, so I put this picture in B&W. I'll take a color one outside so you can see the color of his glasses, which is green, his favorite color.)

Of Determination and Headaches

I know, I know. It's been forever since I've blogged. Well, a lot has been going on in this household. I have so much to tell, but it's hard to know where to begin. It's a story of a boy who is so smart and has so much determination, that he's fooled a bunch of professionals. It's a story of a boy who wants to always do his best and gets frustrated when he's not doing as well as he should. It's a story of a first born who wants to please all the time. It's a story of a boy who is worried and frustrated and stressed and he's only seven years old.

It's a story about R....

R historically has loved school. Then came the night before school started this year and he cried because he didn't want summer to be over. But, to his surprise, school is fun (remember, "it's even more fun than first grade!") He has lots of fun in school and generally wakes up happy and ready to go to school. However, this year, he's had either a headache or stomach ache every night. Some nights are more severe than others. Some nights, he just mentions it in passing and then goes to sleep. Other nights (like last night) he's up really late -- past 10:00, which is two hours past his bed time. Sometimes his neck hurts; sometimes his jaw hurts; sometimes his chest hurts. He has great descriptions too -- a tornado in his tummy, a fire in his head; a magnate has a hold of his jaw.

As these seemingly random pains progressed, I thought maybe it was stress. I'd ask him about his day -- everything was fine. School was fine. I'd ask about friends. He had friends that he plays with. I'd ask him about hockey. Yeah, hockey is cool -- he loves it. We thought maybe it was his eyes giving him a headache because he reads a lot, but he passed the school vision screening with flying colors. Sometimes I'd give him Tylonol if his head was really bad; sometimes I'd give him Pepto Bismo if the "tornado in his tummy" felt like he was going to vomit; once I gave him Tums because he had a "fire in his chest and throat." Eventually, he'd fall to sleep.

On what seemed to be a totally separate front, we had R seen by an occupational therapist (OT) at school for his horrendous printing skills. We suspected that he had slow development of his fine motor skills. He has horrible writing. He also hates to draw and does it poorly. At first glance, the OT thought he was fine, but then dug further and found some issues. We were dismayed and elated to learn that he has issues with his visual-cognitive integration, or as I explained to him, his two eyes and his brain don't work together as a team. One easy thing that she showed us is that if you put your finger out in front of him and then move it to his nose, he doesn't cross his eyes. One eye crosses and the other doesn't. Some of the issues he has are with teaming, tracking, and visual motor integration. Here is a great website that shows you how he sees sometimes and explains it a bit more: http://http://www.childrensvision.com/learning.htm#Teaming

This was a bummer to learn because my poor boy has a really hard time on doing pretty normal stuff. I was elated to learn this because there is a solution: vision therapy. The OT would work with him each week and he should progress and be fine after two years. If we wanted to, she said, we could take him to a vision therapist outside of school and we would get faster results. She also said that it would help him with his sports (how did she know that poor R can't catch a ball for the life of him?)

Great. I did lots of research on this and read lots of testimonials from other parents that have gone through this. I was super excited! Oh, and when kids have these problems, the very often get headaches from the disconnect between their eyes and their brain, and sometimes they get stomachaches from the stress of not performing up to par. Allelluia! We might have an answer. Let's get this thing going!

By the way, the OT was absolutely amazed that R can read and likes to read. She was very proud of him, saying that he is very smart and has so much determination to persevere despite his problem. It just warmed my and M's hearts.

Of course, this news didn't stop the headaches and stomachs and other various pains. One day last week, we actually kept him home from school one day because his stomach was hurting so bad. M and I thought that it might be stress still, but decided to eliminate anything medical just to be sure. So, M took him to the doctor that day and I made a slew of appointments. I made appointments with the: vision therapist and eye doctor (they won't do vision therapy without a complete eye exam), allergist, and dentist. The pediatrician made an appointment for him to have a CT to check out his brain and sinuses to rule out anything that might affect his headaches. M and I felt a lot better -- we were on the road to a solution. We would talk up everything that we were doing to R and sometimes he was okay and some nights he wasn't.

Fast forward a couple of days to last Saturday when R had is VERY thorough eye exam. T and I were in the exam room too. The doctor would ask R to read the first letter of the third line: F, R said. The doc would ask, Is that the first letter of the third line? Oh, it's an E, R would say. T looked at the board an looked at me and said, "that's a T, Mom." I know it is. Shhh. We have to be quiet.
I would say that R missed about 40% of the letters. The final word: he is farsighted and has astigmatism. The poor boy can't see!

The doctor asked again, How is his reading? Great, I'd say. He's very good and loves to read. Wow, he said, he is a very determined boy.

Then the doctor did some more tests to check out his visual-cognitive integration and confirmed the OT's diagnosis. R's eyes don't work as a team and don't transmit the same image to his brain. The doc gave R a paper that had a small outline of a circle on it and asked R to take a pen flashlight and move it under the paper so that the light was right in the middle of the circle. Each time he did it, the light was always about a half an inch outside of the circle. When the doctor cover one eye, R could do it no problem. Crazy, huh?!? The doctor had me look at R's eyes when he was doing some "center line" tests (making R look right in front of him) and showed me that his left eye moves from side to side very slightly in an effort to focus and work with his right eye. I was amazed. The doctor put his hand on my arm and said, R is making his eye focus. He's trying to get it in the middle. He does this every second and every minute of every day. He is working so hard just to see. I nearly burst out crying! My poor baby!!

The good news is that glasses will help the farsighted and astigmatism, which will make it easier for him to see and should lessen his headaches. We still had to get him to the vision therapist to get going on the whole working-as-a-team issues. (did you count that he has THREE things wrong with his vision! Can you believe it?)

So, here's this week's appointment schedule:
Tuesday: 2-hour vision therapy evaluation, get fitted for glasses
Wed: Total physical by pediatrician
Thurs: 7:00 AM CT scan

Next week is the allergist; the dentist is in three weeks. I think he has allergies similar to mine and I think that he clenches his jaw at night like I do when he's stressed. Stay tuned...
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By the way, I'm looking into doing the vision therapy at home. There are some books, software, and kits that I can buy online. I'd like to work with him everyday for 30-minutes on it at home instead of twice a week for an hour at the office. R already feels like he "has no time to play" between hockey and Cub Scouts. I don't want to overschedule him. He'd have no free days if we go to the vision therapist. However, if I don't think we can do it at home or if we start and it doesn't look like it's working, we'll march him right over!

Thoughts from T

T had just finished his skating practice (he doesn't go to hockey practice because he says that he doesn't like hockey -- but he does go to skating practice...which just happens to be hockey practice for everybody else except him.) So, we were sitting in the bleachers watching R at his hockey practice (he loves everything about hockey) and T said to me out of the blue with his cute little smile and his loving eyes with the beautiful long lashes:

T: Mom, you're the best mom any boy could ever have.
Me: Oh, thank you T; your a great son too.
T: Well, that's because you're such a good mom.
Me: Ahhh, thanks T. You are such a good son.
T: You deserve it mom.
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In the car on the way home from practice, T said:
T: We learned all sorts of things about the letter "A", mom. Things I never knew before!
Me: What did you learn?
T: So many things...like that "A" makes two kinds of sounds -- a long sound and a short sound. And lots of words start with "A" and lots of more things that I can't even think about now.
Me: That's pretty great, T. Mrs. Edwards is a great teacher.
T: She's the best kindergarten teacher I've ever had!
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At dinner tonight, T said something that makes me wonder if he gets a finder's fee or something:

T:Mom, don't you hate it when you try to fit everything in your closet and you can't fit it all?
Me: I suppose, but I have a nice big closet now.
T: Well, you can have even more room in that closet for the low price of 19.99.
Me: Really?
T: Yeah, you can buy this thing that you hook up to an ordinary vacume...and they'll give you two large bags, three medium bags, and one extra large bag absolutely free! Can you believe it? It's not available in stores, though.
Me: That sounds pretty cool, T
T: Yeah, are you going to get it. It is a low price....
Me: I'll have to think about it

T's Big Day

I took the day off so that I could accompany R and T to their classes on the first day of school. T kept making sure that I really wasn't going to work.

T: Mom, you're taking me to kindergarten, right?
Me: Right, T. I'll hold your hand and walk you into the classroom.
T: Right. Good.

Two hours later....

T: Mommy, you're not going to work, right? Because, you know, today is the first day of kindegarten and you told me you'd take me in.
Me: You got it, T. I'll be right there with you.

So, it came time and we loaded up in the car (me, M, and T), drove to the school, parked the car, and walked hand-in-hand-in-hand into the school. We waited outside the classroom with other slightly nervous kids and their parents (some of the parents were slightly nervous too, I could tell.) We parents introduced ourselves to each other and tried to introduce the kids to each other..."Oh, hi Jimmy, it's nice to meet you. This is T, he's in your class too." T looked down at the ground; Jimmy looked down at the ground; the other mothers and I just smiled and shrugged (what are you going to do?)

When it came time to charge, I mean walk into the room, it was a bit chaotic. There were moms, dads, kids, backpacks, newly purchased school supplies, and papers to turn in everywhere. It was a bit chaotic. All the moms and dads were carrying their kids' backpacks and the teacher was announcing that the Children Should Carry Their Own Back packs. It's Their Responsibility Now Moms!

Whew!

After the backpacks were hung up and the papers handed in and the school supplies put away, the kids were told to get a book and sit on the carpet and look at the book. M and I took that as a cue for the parents to leave. We gave little T a kiss and told him that we'd meet his bus after school. He had a bit of the deer-in-the-headlight look on him, but I knew he'd be fine.

He had a smile on his face after school and even sang us a song about an acorn, along with this question:

T: Mom, do you know what the part of the acorn that a squirrel eats is called?
Me: No, what is it called?
T: The "squirrel meat!" Isn't that crazy? I learned that in kindergarten!

Yes, that's crazy...and I love kindergarten.

New Beginnings

T and R started school today. T started kindergarten ( I know, I can't believe it either!) and R started 2nd grade. I took the day off so that I could see them off to their new classes. R starts at 8:09 (mind you, it's not 8:00, not 8:15, and not even 8:10, but it is 8:09). The parking lot was mayhem, so M and T stayed in the car, while I took R in.

We had to walk through the parking lot and I have a you-must-hold-my-hand-in-the-parking-lot rule, so R grabbed my hand. After we crossed the parking lot and started seeing some other "big" kids, he looked at me and pulled his hand away a bit. I said, "you don't have to hold my hand here if you don't want to." He gave me a little smile and a nod and held on to my hand firmly. As we walked into the foyer of the school, we saw two kids from hockey and cub scouts... Hmmm, I thought, what will happen now with the holding-hand thing? He looked up at me with a little smile as he pulled his hand out of mine, and said "Hey, Andrew, Hey Zach!" We all chatted a bit about the summer while we waited for the principal to let us in the hallway. As soon as she let us in and we joined the crush of people, R grabbed my hand again as he strolled past his old kindergarten and first grade classes, confidently saying Hi to his teachers of years gone by. He's a big kid now, my boy. (But he still needs his mom.)

After school, I asked how it went. "It was great. I love it. I can't wait to go back tomorrow!"

That's what I like to hear....

More tomorrow about T's big day at kindergarten.

Bike Math

One bike purchased two years ago: $69

Shrek band-aid to cover owie: $0.12

Pride on son's face after riding bike by himself for the first time: Priceless

R was realy nervous about riding his bike. The second time out, in the Spring, R wore a lot of his hockey gear (elbow pads, knee pads, gloves) to protect himself from getting hurt. This time out (last week) M gave R a pep-talk explaining that he had to have confidence in himself. As I took the picture above, I could hear R saying under his breath "I can DO it. I can Do it. I can DO it." We've taken him out a few time since and he can even start by himself. R says, " I can ride two miles without any help, maybe even six miles. I'm really good now." I'm so proud of my bike-riding-boy!

Of Hinges, Hopping, and MRIs

This morning, while I was settling in at work, I got one of those calls. You know, the kind that make your stomach drop; the kind that begin with "Honey, everything's okay, but I'm taking T to the emergency room right now."

It seems that a bathroom stall door had fallen off its hinges onto T's head. M became aware of this by the blood-curtling scream that T let out on his way to go to the bathroom. M bolted away from his table at the restaurant right outside the bathroom door and went into the rest room, finding T on the floor with the door on top of him. He had stopped screaming by then, and was looking a bit removed from the situation. He already had a big 'ol bump on his head and now has some beautiful colors around the bump.

The manager of the restaurant wasn't there, so M made the waitress write down what had happened so that there was a record of it...just in case.

After getting a baggy of ice to put on the bump, M loaded the kids in the car and started heading toward the hospital, which would mean that he would pass my office.

"Do you want me to pick you up on the way?" M asked.

This was a tough one. OF COURSE I wanted to go, but I also had a job to do, which meant leading a meeting from 8:30-10:00 (he called at 8:20.)

My mind raced....Is this something where I'm needed? Or Is it just something little and M's just taking him just to confirm that everythingis okay. M assured me that it didn't seem too bad -- T was talking coherently and whimpering a bit because it hurt. M said his pupils were fine too, but he wanted to have him checked out anyway.

What to do....What to do?

I asked to talk to T. "Hi T, how are you doing?" I asked
"Not good, mom" he said, "the ice isn't even working! It still hurts." (He actually sounded pretty good to me...a little pain was expected when a door falls on one's head.)

I talks to M again and he said, "hon, it's probably nothing." Okay, I said. You go and I'll go to this meeting. I'll call you when it's over and if needed, I'll join you at the hospital." After all, he probably won't even be in to see a doctor over the next hour and a half.

So I went and led the meeting.

As soon as I got back to my desk, I called M's phone -- no answer. Three minutes later, I called again, no answer. Two minutes later, I called again -- no answer. Now, I asked him to leave his phone on even though the signs at hospitals say to turn them off. Hmmmm...now my stomach was hurting. Where are they? What's going on? I should have gone!!! (It turns out that he didn't have reception at the hospital. He had left the phone on.)

I googled the hospital's phone number, got patched through to the ER, and got patched right on into Examining Room #1. M answered the phone and sounded worried.

It seems that T had not passed the hopping test. They had him hop on one foot and he would fall over after two hops each time. Now, this is a boy who has been hopping and skipping since he was two years old! This lack of balance is a symptom of a concussion. He was waiting for the doctor to come in with his test results.

To find out if he had one or not, my little baby had to have an MRI. They tried to tell M that he couldn't be in there with T, but M would have nothing of that.
He told them, "Look, I am going to be in here, so if you want to get me a lead apron, that would be fine, but I am staying with my boy." T was nervous to go in the machine that the nurse called the "big donut." But my baby boy did okay.

While M was telling me this, he told me "honey, I used the visualization technique that we used on you when you were in labor. I took T to his happy place."

"Oh, where is his happy place?" I asked.

He answered, "I just took him to your happy place, I figured he'd like it there too. I took him to the beach and described the warm, warm sand and the cool water lapping at the beach. He liked it there and he did great." What a great dad!

So, T does have a mild concussion. We've been watching him all day and making him take it easy. He hated it when R got to go outside and play "monkey in the middle" with the neighbor kids and T had to stay inside with me. Evidently, the "Benji" movie we watched together, making cookies with me, and doing a pottery project with me just didn't make up for the monkey-in-the-middle-fun that his brother was having. "It's NOT Faaiiiirrrrr!" he would wail at different moments throughout the afternoon.

M and I will be taking turns waking T up every couple of hours tonight to make sure that he is okay. I told T that we'd wake him up a few times in the middle of the night and ask him some questions. "What kind of questions?" he asked, looking a bit worried -- like it was a test and he wouldn't know the answers. I told him that we'd just ask him something like what is his name or what is the name of his dog. He looked at me for a minute, "My real dog or my stuffed animal dogs?" he asked.

I think that he's going to be just fine.

Seven Years and One Week

R's birthday was a week ago today (I know, I'm a bit slow here!). He's getting so big! The above picture just cracks me up -- a tie dye shirt with a gun?? The funny thing is that this picture represents him so exactly -- he loves guns, any kind of guns . But he hates the idea of hurting people and he wears his heart on his sleeve.

Last year, R took up reading by storm. He reads everything possible -- signs, lables, blog comments, and of course, books. (Sometimes he watches over my shoulder while I read blogs and check the comments on my blog. I had to hide his birthday-list blog so that he couldn't read the CaliforniaGrammy comment about his present.) He used to be really proud of this ability to read, visibly proud. I'm sure he's still proud, but he's much more non-chalant about the whole thing. It's like, of course he can read.

He is sooo looking forward to hockey this year. I can't belive it's his third season! Amazing!

He looks up to his dad so much and wants to be just like him. Besides being just like dad, he also wants to be a pilot, a police officer, and a soldier. Such ambition!

He's like a fish in the water and just recently earned a dollar for swimming from one dock to the other at the yacht club (about the length of a swimming pool). He gave up a couple of times, but after his little brother made it, he quickly jumped back in to try again -- and made it.

R is very dramatic. I little injury means that he's dyyyyinnnngg. Can you tell that he isn't too happy with the rain on this boat trip?

Along the same vein as his drama is his ENTHUSIASM. When he is excited. He. Just. Can't. Contain. Himself. He jumps up and down quickly and kind of shakes his hands in front of himself, all the while having a gigantic grin on his face.

I just love this boy (even if it did take over 70 hours of labor to get him into this world!)