TJ's Elderly Parents

Christmas morning. My children are being fairly calm and we are taking turns opening gifts. Bill opens up "The Muppet Show: Season 1" and is quite pleased. We all just saw the Muppet Movie in the theater, and the boys are big fans of Beaker and Dr. Bunson Honeydew (because their mother has taught them well). Bill explains to the boys that the DVD is the real TV show, back from when we were kids. TJ commented, "Oh. So it's in black and white, huh?"

How old does he think we are??

This morning, we were doing some cleaning and organizing. In addition to working on the post-Christmas disaster that our house turned into, I was putting fresh sheets on Nolan's bed. He had a serious Pull-Up malfunction at 1 a.m. and his bedding was SOAKED. Dumb Pull-ups. Anyway, it was getting to be lunch time and I asked Sam if he would see if Daddy would get lunch started.

A minute later, a very disgruntled Sam came into Nolan's bedroom. I asked him what was wrong. His reply was totally confusing. "No! Daddy isn't making lunch! Daddy isn't even wearing pants!" Yep. That got my attention. I went out in the hallway, turned the corner in to our bedroom and encountered Bill, minus his pants. All I said was "Where????" and he explained that he had somehow managed to spill mineral spirits all over his jeans. So he took them off.

Bill wasn't painting. Or doing any projects involving mineral spirits. Yet they were all over his pants.

Just in case you were wondering why my boys are so unsusual...

Holiday Desserts

My mother told me I needed to update my blog. So here we are. It's been a little busy the past week or so!

A few days ago, Bill and I were discussing our favorite Christmas treats. We decided we should compile a list. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Cindy's Cranberry steamed pudding
2. Ellen's coffee cake
3. My mom's fudge
4. Pistachio bread
5. Grandma Knapp's S-cookies
6. Buckeyes
7. My mom's cream cheese bars
8. Frosted Christmas cookies (TJ contributed this to the list)
9. Those cookies with green frosted flakes and cinnamon red hots. Mmmm. Don't eat too many. They make your mouth green.
10. Presbyterian peanuts

Have I meantioned I'd like to lose 10 pounds before we leave for Hawaii? Gee. I wonder how I gained the weight????

Phrases you should never hear at the dinner table

"Take your sock off of the pistachio bread!"

"Put your shirt back on!"

Let's just say Sam wasn't using his best behavior (or any common sense) at dinner tonight.

Achievements, Discoveries, and General Oddities

TJ has taught himself how to snap his fingers. It is one of his more annoying skills to date. He snaps his fingers constantly. It's very difficult to have a conversation with a child who is snap, snap, snapping. It's like he's got a weird tic.

Sam found out the hard way tonight what happens when you open the brand new ketchup bottle and hold it upside down. In the air. And squeeze. And then walk through it.

I hope ketchup comes out of white socks easily.

Nolan picked up a large French fry off his plate tonight and said, "Check this out. It's humongous."

Weirdo. Definitely not your typical three-year-old.

After dinner, Nolan wanted me to open up his new container of dominoes. I told him I wanted him to go potty first. Before it could turn into a power struggle, I balanced the tin of dominoes on my head and told him I would get them down after he went potty. Nolan looked surprised, then serious. He pointed his finger at me and said, "Drop it, Cucumber."

Funny voice mail

When I got back to my desk after lunch on Monday, I had a new voice mail. I played it and heard a small voice say:

"Hi Mommy. The marble came out. It's all gone now. Bye!"

Best news I had all day!

When I was a little boy...

Nolan has show-and-tell tomorrow. He is supposed to bring a Christmas item in to show his friends. He was having a hard time deciding what to bring, so I rattled off several options for him. He settled on my roly-poly Santa. Santa looks a lot like a giant plastic Weeble. He has a bell inside him that jingles when you shake him. Santa is indestructible. I received him as a gift shortly after I was born. So, he is 35 years old and his jingle still works! Trust me, he's been dropped a million times, kicked, and endured various other forms of torture. Not that my siblings and I were intentionally mean to Santa...stuff just happens, you know? So, I wasn't really worried about Nolan bringing an antique toy to school. If I couldn't break him, no one can.

I wanted Nolan to be able to explain to his friends that Santa belongs to Mommy and she's had him since she was a baby, so he is a very special toy. I told him this, and then awhile later asked him if he remembered.

I said, "Who does Santa belong to?" Nolan promptly responded with, "He's yours, Mommy." I nodded and then asked how long I had had Santa. Nolan smiled confidently and said, "You got him when you were just a little boy!"

Close enough.

Why I could never be a stay-at-home mom

A recap of Wednesday, my one day off:

Sam and Nolan are happily playing with Magnetix in the living room, eating Cheeze-its and watching Backyardigans. I’m in here (bedroom) working a little bit. The boys start fighting, so I tell them it’s time to pick up the Magnetix. A minute later Sam comes running in the room and tells me Nolan swallowed a Magnetix marble. I can hear him coughing. I run down the hall and sure enough, Nolan has swallowed a marble. This is NOT the first time he’s done this. I start scolding him, he gags, and pukes up his Cheeze-its. I grabbed his snack bowl just in time to catch the puke. No marble came back, just cracker remains.

Bill comes upstairs, scolds all of us, and tells us the Magnetix are permanently off limits. Sam gets upset because the Magnetix are TJ’s, and he’s not even here to be blamed for this. Bill picks all of them up and puts them on my bed. He also reminds me that I’m in charge of watching for Nolan to pass the marble. Lucky me.

Flash forward to yesterday---Saturday morning. Nolan fills his pants first thing. I have had no luck with getting him to poop on the potty, but right now, that's kind of handy, since I'm looking for a marble. Nolan comes to me and asks me to change him. I said, "Okay! Did you poop out the marble?"

Nolan calmly responds, "Nope. This was just practice."

I couldn't help but laugh. And he was right. No marble yet.

It stinks when your brother is smart

This afternoon, Nolan and Sam were starting to squabble over something and it was turning physical. I heard Nolan shriek, "Stop that! I can't breathe!"

Sam's answer was very calm and very unimpressed. "You can too breathe," he said. "If you couldn't breathe, you couldn't talk."

How do you argue with that? He was right. And oddly enough, his calmness stopped their fighting.

Time to get my hearing checked

Last night at dinner, TJ blurted out the strangest phrase. I'm in the middle of eating my soup and he says, "You have to get a bald raccoon!"

I looked at him and he had a stubborn look on his face. I looked at Bill and he just shook his head and rolled his eyes. I just didn't get it. I asked Bill WHY TJ was talking about a bald raccoon. At this point, Bill started laughing and clarified something for me. Apparently, TJ said, "You HAVE to let me go to Cullen's!"

Oh! Yes. TJ got his first sleepover invitation. It's a Saturday night to a Sunday. We told TJ he could go to the party, but that we would be picking him up at 9:00 pm. For two reasons: 1. Bill and I both know very well that TJ wouldn't make it all night at someone else's house. He struggles when he sleeps at a grandparent's house. There's no way he'd make it at a friend's house. He's too attached to his parents yet. 2. It's a Saturday to a Sunday. We don't spend Sunday mornings playing with friends. We spend it at church, worshiping. I know some people might roll their eyes at our inflexibility, but that's how we were raised, and that's the way our children will be raised.

Maybe it would just be easier if I found him a bald raccoon.

Super Nolan

Nolan was up early this morning, as he had to go to the bathroom. It was shortly after 6:30, but he was wide awake, so when he asked if he could 'stay awake now', I let him stay in the bathroom with me while I put on my make up and fixed my hair. Bill has been sleeping downstairs for the past week, due to a lingering cold he has. At 7:00, he still hadn't made an appearance, so I asked Nolan if he would go downstairs and wake up Daddy for me.

Nolan is still at that awesome stage where he loves being given assignments. He was quite excited about having permission to wake up his father. I told him I would turn on the lights over the stairs before he went downstairs. Nolan promptly shook his head and pointed at his beautiful blue eyes.

"Mama", he said, "I have very bright eyes. I can see in the dark."

Now that's a pretty cool super power. However, just in case he is klutzy like his mother, I turned on the lights for him anyway.

Stating the Obvious

The other day, Nolan had a scratch across his cheek. I couldn't recall him telling me he'd gotten hurt, so I bent down, gently rubbed the scratch and asked, "What happened, Buddy?"

Nolan looked puzzled and asked what I meant. I told him he had a scratch on his face.

Nolan nodded. "Oh", he said. "I scratched it."

And that clears everything up.

A very brief snuggle

Today is Sunday. Otherwise known as Everybody-in-the-Baron-family-naps day. I was out running errands with Brianna and got home shortly after 2:00. Bill was nodding off on the couch and all the boys were in bed. I took advantage of the quiet house and quickly mopped the floors and prepared my grocery list before I laid down at 3:15.

Less than five minutes later, Nolan came in my room. It was a little early for him to be awake, and he had a rather dazed look on his face. I told him he had to stay quiet because everyone else was asleep, and that he could lay with me. He looked pleased, and crawled into bed next to me. He snuggled down.

15 seconds passed.

Nolan sat up, announced he would rather be in his own bed, climbed down and went back into his room. He must've gone back to sleep because I didn't hear a peep from him for an hour. I even managed to sneak a half hour nap in before everyone else woke up.

Tonight's Menu

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and my office is closed on Friday, I worked a full day today. Bill helped me out by starting dinner. I told him to cook up some boneless teriyaki chicken nuggets from Schwan's. I had never made them before, but someone recommended that I buy them.

The nuggets are already marinated in a teriyaki sauce. All we had to do was bake them for a bit. We served dinner and immediately the boys were suspicious of the darker-than-normal nuggets. TJ said, "What IS this??" I said, "It's teriyaki chicken. It's supposed to be very good."

Nolan immediately responded with "Terry Yucky chicken? I don't want that!!"

Ugh. We had lost control before dinner even began.

For what it's worth, it was NOT terry yucky. It was delicious!

Well...

We bought a quarter cow from one of my co-workers. Bill picked up the meat last week, and now our freezer is FULL! Yesterday, Bill made a roast. He tossed it in the crock pot with some onion soup mix, water, carrots, and redskin potatoes. When I walked in the door, dinner was done. I love this!

My children, however, did not. They didn't seem to mind the roast, but aren't a fan of cooked carrots or potatoes. Bill and I finished up dinner, and moved on with our evening while the boys continued to pick at their food (since I've never forced them to eat tater tot casserole, shepherd's pie, or cowboy supper, I don't feel they are truly suffering). I went in the bathroom, closed the door, and almost immediately heard Nolan playing in my room. I was surprised, because I thought he still had quite a bit of food to eat. I called to him, "Nolan? Did you finish your dinner?"

You have to imagine his little three-year-old voice. This is exactly what I heard, "Weeeww...not exactwy....but Daddy said I could be finished. But no dessewt." (Translation: Well, not exactly. No dessert)

I laughed. He talks in such an adult fashion. Even though he can't pronounce some of the words he uses.

Sam's to-do list

Once again this year, we are having the neighbor plow our driveway. He already does our street, so we pay him to do our driveway as well. That way, I don't have to worry about getting the driveway cleared when Bill is out of town.

Our neighbor's teenage son, Jordan, came over and pounded stakes along our driveway a couple weeks ago. Sam was fascinated with this. He and TJ also watched over the course of the week as Jordan carefully staked out Canterbury Lane and Canterbury Court. Then last week...disaster. One of our stakes was CROOKED! Knowing how people hate to back down our driveway, I think it probably got bumped. Anyway, Sam noticed immediately and volunteered to go straighten it out. Since then, he has been monitoring our stakes carefully.

But Sam had a problem. My parents mark their driveway with reflectors during the winter, and Papa had not yet put the reflectors out. My Dad has been dealing with a bad cold and bronchitis over the past couple weeks and hasn't been outside much. It's not a big deal, since we haven't had any accumulating snow yet. Yesterday, Sam, in his unsympathetic, authoritative way, informed my father that he WAS putting the reflectors out, and Sam WAS going to help. My dad humored him and the job, much to Sam's delight, is done.

Sam has a new bee in his bonnet. He has been excitedly watching as area residents start turning on their outside Christmas lights. He announced tonight that Daddy WAS putting up our outside Christmas lights tomorrow. Bill said it wasn't really on his agenda, but he was pretty sure he'd be putting them up tomorrow, just to keep peace in the Baron household.

After that, Sam is anxiously waiting for Friday. The day we cut down our Christmas tree. Sam's love of Christmas decorations has never wavered and he is almost giddy with joy at the thought of having the tree up again....

Duh

This morning, while I was fixing my hair, Sam waltzed in the bathroom. In his arms he carried his entire outfit for the day. On his body was nothing. Not one stitch of clothing. He was stark naked.

I said, "Hey, Sam! You are naked!"

He looked at me (like I'm dumb) and said very calmly, "I know. It's because I took my clothes off."

Sam's Conference

After TJ's conference, Bill and I ran (literally) across the parking lot over to Sam's school. We only had about 3 minutes between conferences. We made it right on time.

My concern with Sam has always been his socialization skills. The child has spent the last couple summers sitting in the driveway watching the sprinklers. It doesn't phase him at all not to play with other kids. I was afraid that he was playing by himself at school.

Thankfully, we were immediately assured that is not the case. Sam is apparently quite popular. The other kids are drawn to his cheerful personality and his willingness to listen. He's also an encourager, which the kids appreciate. In return, Sam is finally learning to play with toys and interact with other kids, instead of just educating them on weather and sprinklers. Sam has made a good friend in a little boy named Hank. Mrs. Benefiel told us that Hank is a very sweet little boy and an excellent match for Sam. To say I was thrilled is putting it mildly.

Mrs. Benefiel also said that Sam comes in the class with a huge smile on his face and greets her with a "Good morning, Mrs. Benefiel!". She said he truly loves to learn and she can literally see his excitement when he understands something new. She said he is far beyond his classmates in most areas. She sent us home with a list of his sight words for the rest of the school year. Sam has been studying them intently ever since so he can learn them all now.

Bill and I have never enjoyed conferences so much before. Both boys have teachers who understand them and appreciate their best qualities. We are so pleased!

TJ's Conference

Yesterday, Bill and I went to parent-teacher conferences. We were both really curious to see what Sam's teacher had to say, and sort of knew what to expect from TJ's.

We were extremely surprised and pleased with TJ's conference. Mr. Sagorski is a fantastic teacher. He completely 'gets' TJ. He doesn't call him hyper or antsy. He calls him 'excited'. He has also figured out that TJ is very bright, but that his attention span is short. So, when he is testing TJ, he has TJ take breaks throughout the testing process. As a result, TJ is flourishing. His reading is improving, math continues to be a piece of cake, and we aren't having any behavior problems. Bill and I were so excited to hear this. The only concern Mr. Sagorski had is TJ's speech. He thinks TJ's speech (he still pronounces some sounds incorrectly) problems are hampering his ability to spell correctly. So he will be screened by the speech pathologist. I also might have his hearing checked again. He's lost both of his tubes now. My theory is if he can't hear correctly, he's not going to be able to spell words correctly.

We did have to laugh with Mr. Sagorski and his student teacher. They both confirmed what Bill and I thought: they have never met another second grader who was more obsessed with the Hindenburg than TJ is. Every journal assignment TJ is given he turns into an article on the Hindenburg. And every piece of paper he gets his hands on turns into a lovely paper boat.

At this point, I would like to thank my mother for teaching him how to make paper boats. She must not like me very much.

The intellectual

Yesterday, I was assisting Nolan after he had used the bathroom. Apparently, he felt as though he had been in there too many times for the day. He gave a huge sigh and said, "First potty. Then poop. Then more potty. Then more poop. Potty. Poop. Potty. Poop. HEY! It's a patterin!"

'Pattern' is a tough word for Nolan to say. And that was by far the weirdest pattern he had ever made for me.

Genius is hereditary

Wednesday night is church night. We go at 6:00 for a quick meal (nothing better than having someone else cook for me!). From 6:15 to 6:45, there are a couple options for children who eat quickly. There is a sign by the entrance telling the kids that they may go down the hall to children's choir or upstairs to practice a short skit/drama to be performed for the rest of the kids later on.

After I finished eating on Wednesday, Nolan needed to use the bathroom. I took him out to the nearest restroom and observed a boy (around 8 years old), studying the choir/drama sign. He was reading the sign out loud. "'Chore' starts at 6:15".

His mother sounded amused and said, "It's 'choir', not 'chore'. You're mispronounciating it."

I managed to wait until I was out of the room before I started laughing.

My student

Sam continues to amuse and amaze me with his love of learning. He is suddenly very interested in drawing and writing. He also is enjoying painting. We are almost out of watercolor paints, so that is definitely going on his Christmas list.

This morning, he brought me a piece of paper and asked me to sign my name. I did so, after verifying that he wanted me to write 'Mommy' and not 'Beth'. If I did it wrong, we all know I would be in hot water with him. I wrote my name and he took the paper back. He said he had more work to do.

Awhile later, he brought me this. I did not help him ONE bit. He just knows how to do this. I'm so proud of that little guy!

Overly effective medication

It's been a few weeks now since Sam started his daily inhaler. It does seem to be helping. Over the weekend, I commented to Bill that I was pleased with the fact that Sam hadn't had a single breathing episode since we started the daily inhaler.

THAT VERY NIGHT (Coincidence? Or does God have a sense of humor?) I heard Sam coughing after I put him in bed. Every minute or so, he was doing his gaspy, frantic-sounding cough. I listened for awhile and then went to check on him. He was asleep but moving around restlessly and coughing often. I got out his albuterol inhaler, which is stronger and to be used in instances like this. I read the box and saw that Sam could have 1-2 puffs every 4-6 hours. I figured I'd start with two puffs since he was having such a hard time. It's a bit tricky to wake up a sleeping child, convince him to breathe in his medication and then get him to drink water (the medicine isn't good for his teeth) before he nods back off. I did it and slipped back out of the room.

About a half hour later, I noticed it was perfectly silent in his room. I opened the door and peeked in. I was surprised at how still Sam was. I went over to his bed and tucked him in. Typically, he rolls over when I do this. He didn't move. I bent down over him and listened. Nothing. At this point, I have a tiny bit of panic in the back of mind. What have I done to this child??? Finally, I held my hand over his mouth and was able to detect breathing on my hand. Whew. He was still alive! I can not believe how soundly he was sleeping after I gave him that albuterol. It definitely works...almost too well!

Four days of albuterol twice daily and Sam was as good as new. Not one single breathing treatment with the nebulizer, which everyone was pleased about!

Inappropriate content

Very early Thursday morning (around 2:45 a.m.), TJ got me up. I could tell something was wrong, because he didn't sound whiny or sleepy, he sounded anxious and a little frantic. He told me his tummy felt funny. I asked him if he was going to throw up and he said "Maybe!" and ran into my bathroom. He sat on the floor and started shaking. I was pretty sure he was going to vomit, so I stayed in bed. I could see him from where I was, and honestly, I didn't want to get any closer! Within a minute, Nolan stumbled in the room. He was very sleepy and confused and just wanted me to put him back in bed. I got up and was tucking him back in bed when I heard TJ vomit. My children very rarely throw up, but TJ has always been quite tidy about it. There was no mess to clean up. All I had to do was flush the toilet for him, set him up on the cot, hand him a bucket, and crawl back in bed.

The next morning, I decided I'd better keep him home from school. He was acting like TJ again, but I felt it was too soon to give him any food, and I didn't want him to vomit at school. So, I told Bill I would work from home and keep an eye on TJ.

TJ never did get sick again, so I guess something he ate had upset his stomach. He was pretty good about letting me get some work done and only occasionally needed something from me. He entertained himself by watching TV shows on Netflix and watching cat videos on YouTube (using our tiny netbook computer, since I was using the desk top).

At one point, TJ wanted to watch "Titanic" with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. He knows we own it (on VHS) and he has never seen it. I told him no, because of the inappropriate scenes in it. TJ was disappointed, but asked if I could find him a movie on the Hindenburg instead. I did a search on Netflix (I love that feature!) and found a movie called "Hindenburg" from the mid-1970s. It had George C. Scott in it. The movie was rated PG. I read the info on it and finally said, "I guess you can watch this TJ. I just hope there is no inappropriate content in it."

TJ replied confidently, "Oh, it's okay, Mom. I don't even think there was a toilet on The Hindenburg, so there won't be anything bad in the movie."

I laughed at his logic. He watched the movie and then came and told me it was done. He said there were a few scary parts. I asked if he watched those and he said, "Nope. I sat behind the chair until they were done."

Things that make me laugh

TJ sees a commercial tonight that has Justin Bieber on it. He turns to Bill and says, "You know, I don't think he's that cool." I laughed and was extremely proud of him!

I have some orange-scented hand sanitizer sitting on my dresser. I keep meaning to put it in my purse, but it hasn't made it there yet. It might not ever make it there. Sam and Nolan are obsessed with it. They keep requesting that I put some on their hands. Only, Sam can't say 'hand sanitizer'. He calls it 'hanitizer'.

Nolan is learning about letters and sounds, and how you go about sounding out words. But he doesn't understand the connections at all. This morning, he's sitting on the toilet thoughtfully saying, "Cuh, Cuh, Cuh...dog" "Buh, Buh, Buh...Cat". I tried to show him how to properly sound out a word "Cuh, cuh, cuh, CAT" and then of course, he thought it was hysterical to keep doing it wrong.

Nolan-isms

Nolan has just been a hoot to talk to lately. He uses such big words for such a small three-year-old.

**Yesterday, Grandma was on the computer. Nolan was playing behind her with Mia, my sister's dog. Suddenly, Nolan yelled out, "Grandma! We have a situation!" (Mia's dog toy had fallen in the pack-n-play and Nolan couldn't reach it)

**Last night, I was preparing to go to the wedding of a co-worker. I put on a new top and a long black skirt. Nolan wandered in my bedroom and watched me get ready. He said, "Mama, you look really nice!" I was genuinely flattered and started to thank him when he continued on, "You look JUST like Daddy!" Bill and I were both stumped by that one and Bill said it didn't sound like a compliment to either one of us.

**Nolan has still been struggling on the potty. He is afraid to poop on the potty, so he holds it in until he gets constipated. Then, his tummy hurts, but he's afraid to poop because he thinks it will hurt. Then he is simply unable to go more than teeny tiny amounts. We get stuck in a vicious cycle. I've been stuffing the boy with fiber and the other day, finally had to give him an enema because he was so miserable. I then got him comfortable on the potty and told him he needed to stay there until the poop came out. About ten minutes later, I heard his awed voice coming from the bathroom. "Mama. Come here! I did two huge poops. That was INCREDIBLE!" I laughed all the way down to the bathroom.

Music Lessons

A week ago Thursday, TJ began taking weekly piano lessons. Their only downfall so far is how expensive they are. Good grief.

Anyway, TJ was excited to start. He doesn't call them 'piano lessons', he calls them his 'music lessons'. Bill brings him right after work on Thursday and stays at the woman's home while TJ has his lesson. He says TJ seems to have a lot of natural talent, but he has a lot of trouble focusing and sitting still. (Like father, like son???)

To date, TJ has had two lessons. Tonight at bedtime, he was fretting over where he was going to keep all of the awards he is going to win for playing the piano.

Cocky or confident? You decide. I'm just glad he is enjoying them. I want all of my children to love, appreciate, and understand music.

Allergies

Last week, I took Sam to see an allergist. When I took Sam to the ER for a prolonged asthma attack in late August, they advised me that we might want to get him tested for allergies, to see if they were aggravating his asthma. I asked his pediatrician about this at his five-year check-up, and she agreed he should be referred to an allergist. Personally, I didn't think he had allergies, but I agreed to get him checked. I figured it would be nice to rule something out.

I took Sam in last week Wednesday. They told me to anticipate a three-hour appointment. Again, I didn't think he had allergies, so I figured once I described Sam's medical history (lactose intolerance, severe reflux, tendency to catch colds), they wouldn't do the testing and would send us on our way. Well, I was wrong. Apparently, the reflux, the frequent colds, and of course, the asthma, are somehow connected to allergies. So, they did the full testing. Sam and I were there for 3 hours, 10 minutes.

First, they did the testing on his back. 59 scratches. They weren't extremely painful, but poor Sam was terrified. His doubting mother had done a lousy job of preparing him and he couldn't see what was happening. He was cooperative, but sobbed into his arms. It was rather heart-breaking. I attempted to distract him with a video on the iPad, but was only marginally successful.


There were no obvious signs of allergic reaction, which meant we had to go to the pokes on the arm. 10 on one arm, 8 on the other. These were more invasive (like getting 18 TB tests), but since Sam could see what was happening, he didn't cry. He made awful (humorous) faces at the nurses, but held still. They marveled over how well he handled this. My Sam is a tough little boy. The fact that they gave him prizes each time we finished a round of testing helped. Why he selected a sparkly blue ring as one of his prizes was a mystery to me, but I certainly wasn't going to stop him!


When all was said and done, Sam showed allergies to: dust, dogs, cats, mold, trees, and grass. No food allergies, thankfully. We need to keep Katie out of his room, he needs a better mattress pad and pillowcase cover, and we need to use good common sense with how much junk we expose him to (we need to keep his bedroom window closed). He is also on a daily inhaler to try and keep his asthma under control. I have a second inhaler with stronger medicine in it for when he has colds or an actual asthma attack. We have time to decide if we want to do allergy shots. Frankly, I don't want that type of commitment, so I want to see if the inhaler works first. Sam doesn't mind it and says it is helping him breathe better.


After the appointment, I took Sam to Kohl's, where he got new pajamas (see picture above!), a decorative pumpkin that blinks, and a small, glittery Christmas candle that also blinks. He felt much better after our shopping trip, and I felt a little less guilty about the whole experience. Poor Sam.

In case you are wondering

The original title of my last blog post was "Who is reading to who?". You may now notice that the title has been changed to "Who is reading to whom?" The grammar police (also known as my parents) could not bear to see my drastic error. So, to save their sanity and blood pressure, I corrected my mistake.

TJ was reading to his brothers again tonight. Sam was sitting next to him, repeatedly interrupting every time he spotted one of his sight words from school. "There's one!" "There's another one!" It was rather distracting...and amusing. For some reason, TJ never got mad. He just kept on carefully reading about Mr. Putter.

Who is reading to whom?

TJ is starting to enjoy reading. You can see the light has turned on inside his head and that books are starting to come alive for him. I love this, because I read incessantly as a child, and want him to enjoy it as much as I did. On library day, instead of bringing home books on disasters (Titanic, Hindenberg, etc.) he is now bringing home books he can read by himself. It's not that he doesn't love the disaster books, he just suddenly has the desire to check out books he can read without much assistance from me.

But something strange is going on. Last night after dinner, I was helping TJ with his spelling words. "Escape" was one of his challenge words for this week, and TJ struggled with it a little (I can't blame him. It sounds like it starts with "s"). I pronounced the word slowly and gave TJ a second to think about it. Sam was sitting next to TJ at the counter, arranging tea light candles in different patterns (Sam is back on his candle kick, since it's too cold for sprinklers now). TJ continued to puzzle over 'escape' when Sam quietly said, "Eh, eh, eh-scape. It starts with an 'e', TJ". I stared at him and he said, "What? It does!"

Later, TJ was reading a book about Mr. Putter and Tabby the cat to his little brothers. Every once in a while, he'd stumble over a word, but overall, he was doing quite well. Then he got too a long word that completely had him stumped. Sam said, "The word is 'scooter', TJ". TJ agreed and went on reading. Sam didn't interrupt again; he just enjoyed looking over his brother's shoulder.

Part of me is as proud as can be. Part of me wonders what else that little boy knows that he isn't sharing with us.

Muzak

When I was a child, WOOD FM 105.7 played easy-listening music. You know, the kind that was always on in your grandparents car, or playing in JC Penney. I HATE easy-listening music. I've never liked it, and it's not something I've grown to like as I've gotten older.

Bill, however, grew up listening to WOOD FM and loves it. Strangely, his dad recorded hours and hours of music off of WOOD. Even more strange, Bill spent a lot of time putting that music into his computer. Finally, as the icing on the cake of weirdness, Bill broadcasts this awful music through a radio station. This stuff is now on every radio in our house! The boys think it's fantastic. Bill even had TJ record some radio spots, so every once in a while, you hear him say "You're listening to Baron radio" before the next song starts.

On Sundays, every member of the Baron family takes a nap. Today's nap was even more important because we have all been fighting colds. On Sundays, Sam sleeps in his bed, and TJ sleeps on the floor in our room (otherwise, he and Sam spent nap time visiting and being silly). TJ can't fall asleep unless that awful music is on.

I've gotten really good at sleeping with a pillow over my head. I slept for an hour and a half that way today. I woke up, and TJ was already awake and gone. Radio station was still blaring.

Did I mention that Bill's radio station is even set on my alarm clock radio? It wakes me up in a hurry and I shut it off as fast as I can!!

Sam's appointment

Sam had his well-child visit yesterday. It had been postponed, because his doctor had outpatient surgery.

Sam was perfectly willing to go to the doctor after I reassured him that he didn't need any shots. In fact, he actually seemed excited about going. He was extremely cooperative for the nurse and the doctor. While we waited for the doctor, he had fun playing with the doctor's rolling stool. He figured out if he slapped it really hard, it made a funny noise. He's a hoot.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 47.8 pounds (87th percentile)
Height: 44 inches (68th percentile)

Compared to last year, he's pretty steady in the percentile for weight, and gaining ground in the height area. To me, he looks so tall and slim! What happened to my chubby baby?

Spelling words

So it is now the second week of school, and we have jumped back in to our regular routine. It seems TJ will have small amounts of homework each week. I like that Mr. Sagorski sends his math homework home on Friday night. We have lots of time on the weekends to get that finished and out of the way. TJ also came home with his first list of spelling words. He has the regular list, and a challenge list. TJ is already complaining that he doesn't want to do the challenge words. According to the note from Mr. Sagorski, the challenge words are always optional. In TJ's mind, if he doesn't HAVE to do them, then he doesn't WANT to do them. I informed TJ that we never settle for good enough, and I expect him to always strive to be the best.

Yep. It's official. I've become my parents. Oh well. I want him to succeed!

One of TJ's spelling words for this week is the word "six". I was reading TJ's spelling words to him and he was carefully writing them down on a white board. I said "The next word is 'six'". TJ promptly wrote "6". I laughed and told him to try again. TJ looked at me calmly and said, "Why? What I wrote IS six."

He gets his logic from his father....

More evidence of my growing senility

So after I cleaned up the Potty Incident, I got the boys settled in at the kitchen counter, eating breakfast, and I walked around, opening curtains, turning off night lights, and gathering up laundry. I noticed Nolan had left a pair of dirty socks on his bed. I had a load of whites in the washing machine, but I hadn't started it yet. I shoved the socks in the back pocket of my jeans with the intent of tossing them in the washer before I started it.

The rest of the morning was hectic until we finally got all three kids out the door with Grandma and I left for work right afterwards. I had been at work for over a half hour when my co-worker Donna suddenly said, "Hey. Why do you have socks in your back pocket?" Yep. Nolan's dirty socks. I had completely forgotten about them. They would have stayed in my pocket all day if Donna hadn't said something.

I'm losing it.

Mr. Independent

Nolan continues to stay dry at night. He gets us up once or twice every night. Last night, he was up around midnight. I got up for work around 6 a.m. and was surprised that Nolan hadn't gotten me up a second time.

Nolan woke up right around 7 a.m. I told him he needed to get dressed before he ate breakfast. I asked him if he needed to go potty first. He replied with, "Nope. I just went". I was surprised. I hadn't heard him get Bill up while I was in the bathroom getting ready for work. I asked him if Daddy had helped him. His response gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Nope. I did it all by myself. And I made a big mess. Wanna see it?" Well, I didn't WANT to see it, but I knew I needed to. He led me into the bathroom where I discovered he wasn't exaggerating. He had apparently pulled the stool over to the toilet and attempted to go potty while standing up. There was potty on the stool, on the floor, on the rug, on the trash can, on the outside of the toilet, on the side of the bathtub, even on the plunger sitting next to the toilet. I think there was a little in the toilet, but it couldn't have been much. I cleaned it up with the help of several Lysol wipes and tomorrow I will mop and scrub it all again.

Part of me admires Nolan for his willingness to try things on his own, but most of me would prefer he just ask for help next time. Yuck!

Old and Senile

Today is my 35th birthday. It got off to a rather unusual start.

Nolan got me up around 3 a.m. to go potty. When a child wakes me up, the very first thing I do is reach for my glasses. Everything is far too blurry for me to function without them. My glasses are always sitting right in front of my clock radio so they are easy to reach. Well, this morning when I reached for them, they weren't there. I quickly felt all the way around my clock radio. No glasses. I then realized I could clearly see the numbers on the clock. I was puzzled and actually touched my face to see if I had fallen asleep wearing my glasses. Nope. Then it hit me...for the first time in 17 years, I FORGOT to take out my contacts before I went to bed.

But I didn't have time to dwell on my bizarre mistake. Nolan had to go! So I helped him in the bathroom and on the potty. With each blink, my eyes felt worse. It felt like I was blinking through sand. There were blobs in my vision and my eyes desperately wanted to water, but were too dry. The moment I had Nolan tucked back in bed, I went in the bathroom, took my contacts out and cleaned them thoroughly.

My eyes were no worse for the wear when I got up this morning, although they were less than thrilled when I put my contacts back in.

I have no idea how I forgot to take my contacts out. But for once, I was very grateful that a child had disturbed my sleep. I probably would have been blind by morning if he hadn't!!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for all three boys. TJ started second grade and is in Mr. Sagorski's class.


Sam started kindergarten and is in Mrs. Benefiel's Tuesday/Thursday class.


Nolan started Three-School and is in Mrs. Stegenga's class at Lamont Christian. He has not had a potty accident in almost a week. He is still working on going poopie in the potty, but he promised not to have an accident at school. He kept his word.

They all had a great day. But where did my babies go?

Sam part 2

Sam started kindergarten today. I'm still trying to figure out how that's possible. Wasn't he just born? I love all of my children equally, but Sam holds a different piece of my heart. I think it's because he had such a rough time for the first 18 months of his life. We spent so much time together at night, with Sam crying in pain, and me trying to comfort him. I remember sleeping on the floor next to his crib (both at our home in Comstock Park and while we were living at my mom's), holding his little hand through the rails, trying to give him some comfort. I remember rocking, rocking, rocking him trying to soothe him. I remember watching endless pointless television in the middle of the night with him. I remember how perfectly his little head fit in the crook of my arm when we inevitably passed out together. I remember the desperate frustration when he'd wake up in pain an hour or so later and we'd start all over again.

His diet now fixed, those days have been gone for over 3 years now, but I still feel very protective of my Sam. He's so sweet, he is so smart, he is so interesting. This morning, while he was getting dressed, he said, "You know Mom, the brain is like a big pink ball." All righty. That's exactly why this child needs to be in school. He wants to learn so much more!

Sam was so excited about school. He had absolutely no fear or trepidation. I grilled him to make sure he knew his name ('it's Samuel Baron, Mom!'), his brother's name (it's Theodore Baron, Mom!'), his bus number (12), his teacher's name ('Mrs. Benefiel') and his street name (we will work on the house number and our phone number shortly). But Sam had no problems. He wasn't even phased with the mix-up with busing, and his bus never came this morning. He willingly caught a ride with our neighbor. He had a fantastic day and was thoughtful enough to save his big brother a seat on the bus on the way home.

I'm so proud of my Sam. I love him so much. I just wish he wasn't growing up so fast.

Sam, part 1

Bill and I had big plans for Labor Day. We really love being up in the Laurium/Calumet area of the Upper Peninsula (it is between Houghton and Copper Harbor in the Keweenau). We were there for our anniversary in June, and decided to return there for Labor Day with Brianna and Nate. We also decided we wanted to take along TJ and Sam so they could experience the U.P. with us. We didn't tell them about our plans, because we didn't want them to be overly excited and bug us about it for ages.

My parents had plans to go camping near Muskegon and agreed to take Nolan with them, since he isn't old enough to stay at the bed and breakfast we like.

We made these plans back in late June. During that time, Sam started his obsession with campers and going camping. I was still confident he would enjoy our trip, though, since he and TJ seemed so intrigued with the Mackinac Bridge and seeing everything they had heard Bill and I discuss for so long with our trips to the U.P.

Last Thursday morning, we finally told the boys our plans. Nolan was leaving Thursday night with my parents, so the boys needed to know why I was packing. Nolan was pleased to hear the weekend plans, as was TJ. But not Sam. He cried. He sobbed. He was inconsolable. He couldn't even eat breakfast, he was so upset. It wasn't that he didn't want to be with Bill and I, it was that he wanted to go camping. This was not a child who was acting out or throwing a tantrum, this was a truly devastated child. Bill and I were quite shocked by his reaction.

After about a half hour, Sam pulled himself together and was very calm. He had decided that he was going camping. It didn't matter what my plans were, or what Grandma's plans were, he was GOING to go camping, and that was all there was to it. Again, he wasn't being rude, snotty, whiny, or anything like that. He simply HAD to go camping. He politely told me that he didn't need a ride to the campground; he could walk there.

By this point, I was waving the white flag, even though I hadn't said anything to him. I called my parents. They know Sam. They knew it was more important that Sam go camping than for us to stick to our original plans.

So, Sam went camping. And he had a fabulous time. He told me all about it when he got home last night. I had a few people criticize me for letting my five-year-old make the decision in this case, but I know my son. He is unique. His motives were sweet and pure. How could I force him to stick to my original plans, just because they were MY plans?

AARP?

So when I was at the store today, I bought one of those daily pill sorters. I cannot keep track of what I have and have not taken. I'm on 5 prescriptions, 2 of which I take twice a day, 1 I take 3 times a day, and 2 I take once. I can fondly remember the days when I only took a multi-vitamin.

So, now I've got all of my pills sorted for the week. I was quite proud of myself until I realized all I need is an AARP card and a Medic-alert bracelet, and I'm a full-fledged senior citizen.

In case I never blogged about it, I have orthostatic syncope and neurocardiogenic syncope. In a nutshell, the reflex that should keep my blood pressure steady doesn't work properly. It drops when I sit still, and it drops when I change position (it's especially bad then). And I have lower blood pressure to begin with, so when it drops, I black out and/or get dizzy. The medications are an attempt to raise my blood pressure and counter-act that faulty reflex.

Yay me.

Inconsistency is Thy Name

Nolan is all over the board with this potty training nonsense. Just when I think he's a hopeless case, he'll do something to totally impress me.

Case in point:

Friday night. Nolan has an accident after dinner. We rinse his pants and underwear and toss them in the laundry tub. My laundry room is beginning to smell faintly off urine at all times. So lovely. Bill and I were totally frustrated with him. Around 10:30 that night, a sleepy Nolan stumbles into my bedroom muttering that he has to go potty. I help him to the bathroom, and he goes and goes and goes. He then informs me he wants to go back to bed, which I was more than happy to assist with.

Quick Side Story: Saturday morning, 4:15 a.m. I hear Nolan crying in his bed. Nolan never gets me up. I went to investigate. I just removed the side rail from his bed and I wanted to make sure he hadn't fallen out. I also was wondering if he had to go potty again. I went in his room and Nolan said, "Mommy, I don't want to be awake yet." Well...that's good... So, I asked him why he was awake and said, "My door was open." Katie Cat had apparently gone in his room and then had the nerve to leave without shutting the door tight. How rude. I did think it was funny that instead of getting up and shutting the door, Nolan laid there and whimpered until I came and shut it for him.

Saturday morning: Nolan was dry from the night before.

Saturday afternoon: Nolan has a random accident. Argh. He also filled his pants. He's been totally hopeless with that aspect of toilet training. I'm trying not to lose patience.

Saturday night: I was feeling really lousy all day Saturday (splitting headache, extremely dizzy) and was having trouble falling asleep at night. Every time Bill moved in his sleep, it felt like the room was spinning. I was waiting to drift off when Nolan barged in my room at midnight, frantically telling me he had to go potty. I got up, assisted him in the bathroom, and tucked him back in bed.

Sunday morning: Nolan is dry from the night before.

Sunday at church: Nolan stays dry IN UNDERWEAR! First time that long out in public!

Sunday noon: Nolan wets his pants while playing outside rather than come inside and admit he needs to go potty.

Let's see what the rest of this week brings. Preschool starts in 9 days...and they don't change diapers there...

Hello?

One of TJ's privileges this summer has been that we allow him to go home from Grandma's at 4:00. He rides his bike over there in the mornings, and then at 4:00 he heads home. He is only allowed to do this if Daddy is working from home. I'm not ready to have him home alone for 90 minute stretches yet. TJ isn't supposed to bother Daddy from 4:00-5:00, but he is allowed to play, watch TV, etc. This makes him feel very grown up.

TJ has started answering the phone, especially if I am not home. I will occasionally call Bill on my way home from work...to ask him to pick up the kids, start dinner, etc. TJ has figured this out and will answer the phone, assuming it's me.

The conversation usually goes like this:

TJ: Hullo?
Me: Hey Buddy. Is Daddy home?
TJ: It's you AGAIN? Why are you always calling here?
Bill gets on the phone. "Is TJ harassing you again? You really shouldn't call here more than once or twice a week, apparently."

Well, last night, shortly after 5:00, our phone rang. TJ, assuming it was me, answered it. Only, it wasn't me. It was some guy. So TJ hung up on him. Nice phone manners.

A moment later, that guy called me. I answered in my car, using my totally awesome, hands-free, blue tooth. So cool. Anyway, Jared was looking for a baby-sitter for Clark and Miles. Once we made those arrangements he said, "Hey, I think TJ answered your home phone. But after he said 'hello', he wouldn't talk to me." I laughed and said TJ was still working on phone decorum.

When I got home, I asked TJ why he didn't talk to Uncle Jared. TJ said, "That was Uncle Jared? All I heard was a guy say 'Hello?' and then I didn't know what to do, because it wasn't you on the phone."

I laughed again, and told him next time to say 'hello' back and ask who the person wanted to talk to. But I was extremely impressed with TJ's impersonation of Uncle Jared. The kid was dead on.

Long-winded

Bill loves to talk. Seriously. He does most of the talking at home. I know you don't believe me, but it's true.

Bill also has a tendency to make short stories long. I like to tease him about this, but his children have noticed too.

The other night, Bill was starting in on a story, when TJ cut him off with "Hurry up, hurry up."

Bill was surprised and said, "What?"

TJ looked bored and said, "What's the point?"

Granted, TJ was being rude. Bill wasn't even being long-winded. But I was still amused...

Sorry, Honey!

Fuzzies

Most of you know that Nolan started out as a scrawny little thing. He was just five pounds when we brought him home from the hospital. Nolan has rapidly made up for his slow start and is one solid little boy. Solid, short little boys have fat rolls. Nolan has always had fat roll in his neck (although in the past few months, he finally outgrew that one) and two rolls under each arm. Dirt and grime love to hide in those cute little rolls. Nolan is a ticklish little boy, so when his mother has to clean out those wrinkly areas, he giggles and giggles. As long as he could talk, he has called the dirt and lint in his fat rolls his 'fuzzies'. We've turned it into a game. I will ask Nolan if he has any 'fuzzies' and he will immediately start giggling and hold up his arms so I can check.

We've found out the hard way that if a 'fuzzy' is left in his wrinkles too long, his skin gets chafed and sore. So, this is a game he enjoys, but one that his parents know is important. He understands this too, and will tell me if he feels his skin getting sore. This morning, Nolan informed me that he had a fuzzy and his lifted his right arm up. I checked, and sure enough, there was some dirt. I grabbed a wash cloth, but that was some stubborn dirt hiding under his arm. I had to rub pretty hard. Nolan stopped giggling and said very seriously, "Now be careful, Mommy. Don't hurt the fuzzy!"

An Ax-i-dent

Nolan has made tremendous progress with potty training in the past several days. I think he has only had one wetting accident in the past four or five days (bowel movements are another story, so we won't talk about that...). Nolan has even been dry overnight for four night straight!! It's wonderful! He's been holding it and telling us when he has to go, which is a huge improvement over us dragging him to the bathroom every 45 minutes.

This afternoon, after another successful trip to the bathroom, Nolan told me that he wanted to let Grandma know he hadn't had any 'ax-i-dents' all day. I told him I was sure that Grandma would be proud of him. Nolan looked thoughtful for a minute and then said, "You know, if I went potty on the floor, that would be a bad ax-i-dent. You wouldn't be too happy."

Smart boy.

New Car

Last night, we picked up our new car. I got to drive it home. The Cruze has lots of gadgets and gizmos on it. It wasn't until this morning that I figured out how to switch it from XM to FM on the radio.

We took the boys out to Grand Haven to pick up the car with us. They were very excited. The Cruze was parked right outside the front door of the dealership. I opened the back doors of the Cruze and they climbed right in to check everything out. TJ immediately stuck his head back out and said, "Whew! It STINKS in here!" I put my head inside and smelled only the wonderful aroma of 'new car smell'. I believe that one comes to appreciate and yes, even love that smell when one fully comprehends how expensive new cars and that smell are!

It took a little while to get all the papers signed and the salesmen were great about letting the boys explore the vehicles that were parked inside the dealership. TJ was particularly drawn to a fully loaded Chrysler Town & Country minivan. It was all leather, two TVs, it had satellite television (yes, now you can watch Sponge Bob while you drive down the road!). You name it, it had it. TJ suggested that we buy that van and get rid of our Quest. I checked the sticker price and informed him that the van was pretty pricey at $37,000. TJ looked at me seriously and said, "Yes, Mom, but it's totally worth it."

So if he doesn't wind up being a meteorologist, TJ will definitely have a career as a car salesman. Once he gets used to that new car smell, that is...

Too little, too late

So Nolan had regressed a bit on potty training, but in the past week, we've really cracked down on him. He has to be potty trained in order to go to preschool, and he is quite firm on wanting to go this year. So, we've put him in underwear. He's still having occasional accidents (yesterday was awful, today was much better), and we are dealing with the messes as they come.

Last night, on the Awful Day, Nolan sweetly asked me if it was okay if he told me when he had to go potty. I said, "Yes! Of course! That would be wonderful!"

His response? "Too late. I just wet."

Ugh.

High Standards

Last week, Bill sold our Mitsubishi Lancer (on Craigslist...second car we've sold that way!). He was pretty sure he wanted a Chevy Cruze, but told me we would just use the Saab as our second car until he figured out exactly what he wanted.

He made up his mind today and put a down payment on a 2012 Chevy Cruze ECO (yep, it's still a stick shift. I've got him hooked on those!). It's a blue car. We both shot down the red one that was sitting on the lot in Grand Haven. It looked too 'old lady-ish' for us. The blue is almost a royal blue and just looks more fun. Besides, we will now own a red car, a white van, and a blue car. How patriotic of us.

We were discussing this at dinner. TJ looked displeased when I said it was a blue car. He commented, "I don't know. I'm just not impressed with blue." Say what? Bill speculated that TJ would rather we get a green car and TJ nodded. Green is his favorite color after all. I told him that the Cruze didn't come in green, and that I had once owned a green car. The color reminded me of a bar of soap. TJ rolled his eyes.

He'll just have to get used to the blue car. In 11 years, it will likely be 'his' first car!

Tuesday Tidbits

**Last week, TJ was excited to discover he has a new loose tooth. He was trying to describe which tooth it was.
"Mom, it's this one! The, the, the white one!"

I don't want to know what color the other ones are!

**Nolan walked up to me late Saturday morning and said in a very authoritative voice,
"I want a snack. Please and thank you!"

**Sam was watching the radar last week when some mild storms were approaching. He found me outside and attempted to repeat what he had heard. He embellished it just a hair, to make it more interesting.
"Mom, we are going to have hail! It will be this big!" (He used his hands to measure what would be an over sized softball. That's some pretty serious hail). "We will also have lightning. Underground lightning!" Now, I've learned a little about weather over the years, but I have never heard of underground lightning. Bill came outside, heard the end of Sam's 'forecast' and said, "Sam, the weather man said 'cloud to ground' lightning, not 'underground' lightning."

**Due to vacations and scheduling conflicts, Sam's birthday celebrations have been rather spread out. We celebrated with Bill's dad & family on Sam's actual birthday. This past Saturday, we had a combined party for Sam, my nephew Clark, and my brother-in-law John. Next weekend, we will celebrate with Bill's mom & family. But this past Saturday, when I told Sam it was time to go to Grandma's for his party, Sam looked surprised and very excited. He asked if he was having another birthday party. I said he was. Sam lit up even more and said,
"I'm six already?!"

No, his mother is grateful that time doesn't go quite that fast!

Sam the Brave

Sam has always been a nervous, hesitant child. I've never pushed him to do things he was afraid of, but I have tried to encourage him to try new things. I've worried a little that some day he'd get teased. Well, he has certainly come out of his shell this summer. The boy who only got in the pool once last summer now cheerfully announces he is going to swim whenever he sees TJ getting in the pool. He either floats on a raft or moves around the inside of the pool by hanging on to the edge. What's more is he HAS FUN! He doesn't spend the whole time thinking of his potential demise.

On Sunday, he really shocked me. We were with the Gaikema-Platt family at Jim and Lois' home on Gun Lake. We were last there three years ago. Sam cried quite a bit last time and didn't want anything to do with the water. He didn't even want me in it (granted, he was only two years old). This time was completely different. He loved going on out on the pontoon boat. And when the adults jumped in a rather deep bay to swim, Sam got right in with us. He was slightly nervous and insisted on holding on to either me or Elisabeth, but he had a great time. Didn't shed one tear! Here he is, swimming:


After dinner, Jim took TJ out on the jet ski.


TJ enjoyed it, but Jim said TJ cautioned him several times not to go too fast. Nolan wanted to try it, but I said no. He is so short, I was concerned that he wouldn't be able to straddle the seat properly. I kept picturing him bouncing off and into the water. I told him he could go next time. I didn't expect Sam to want to go, but he informed me he DID want to go and he WAS going to do it. Not only did he do it, he loved it and proved to be more adventurous than his big brother. Jim reported that Sam kept yelling "Faster! Faster!"


I can't tell you how proud I am!

And here's a couple of the boys driving the Power Wheels vehicles at the cottage. Aren't they cute?

Backyardigans

Nolan's favorite show is Backyardigans. The rest of us rather enjoy watching it too. The songs are cute and the characters don't talk to you like you are an idiot. Nick Jr. has been airing Backyardigans at 8 p.m., which is perfect. It ends at 8:25, Nolan turns the TV off, and the boys go to bed.

Clearly, no one explained to the programming geniuses at Nick Jr. how important routines are to preschoolers. A few weeks ago, they moved Backyardigans to 7 p.m. This was very tragic. The boys are rarely inside at 7:00. I certainly am not going to call them inside to turn the television on. Nolan was struggling with bedtime, since his show was gone. His routine was in shambles.

So I DVR'd every episode for a few weeks. Now we have about 20 episodes on the DVR. Genius. How did we ever live without that gadget? So, whenever Nolan asks, I can turn on an episode of Backyardigans. He can even pick which episode he wants to watch.

He's still confused, though. The other night, he was watching an episode while his big brothers were at a carillon concert with Daddy. The show ended and Nolan wandered down the hall. All he said was, "But Mama, I don't want to take a nap yet." ('Take a nap' means bedtime in Nolan's language). I was puzzled. It wasn't bedtime, and I hadn't mentioned anything about sending him there. Then I realized...the episode was over. In his mind, it was bedtime. I laughed and turned on another episode for him. He thought it was a special privilege.

I'm Five Now!

Saturday, Sam turned five. He was much more interested in being a year older than he was in getting gifts (one of the reasons why I truly appreciate his quirkiness!). I was up early on Saturday to go to yoga with Brianna, but he was already up eating breakfast. I slipped down the hall, wrapped my arms around him, and whispered in his ear, "Happy Birthday, Sam!" He looked at me for a split second, let out a gasp, and shouted, "TJ, I'm FIVE now!" It was so cute.

After agonizing over what to buy him, Sam's favorite gift is a metal watering can I grabbed at Flowerland on Thursday. Go figure. He also likes his Lego set that he got, and is trying to copy TJ and create things.

On Sunday, I asked Sam what he wanted for lunch. He always says the same thing: a hot cheese sandwich (which you can make by preparing a genuine grilled cheese sandwich, or by making a cheese sandwich and microwaving for 10 seconds, or by toasting bread and slapping cheese on it. He's not picky). Usually, he and Nolan split a sandwich. But on Sunday, Sam came up to me and very quietly said, "Mom, I am five now. Five-year-olds eat a whole sandwich all by themselves."

Of course, I got a kick out of that. Bill and I decided to go for it and we made a whole hot cheese sandwich for Sam to eat all by himself. He proudly inhaled the entire thing and then informed Nolan that when HE turns five, he can have a whole sandwich too.

That night, my mom stopped by. They had been camping an extra week at Cran-Hill, so she hadn't seen Sam on his birthday. She wished Sam a happy birthday and asked Sam if he was different, now that he was five. Sam very seriously said yes. He informed her that five-year-olds can jump off of stuff, and on to stuff.

I have no idea what he will be jumping on or off of. I'll keep you posted.

P.S.

Sam just asked me if we could go out tonight and look at other people's campers. Alas, I cannot think of a legal and non-obnoxious way to do that. He'll just have to wait for an RV show.

Latest Obsession

Sam has a new obsession. No, it hasn't replaced sprinklers, it is something else for him to think about when there aren't any sprinklers around. Sam was fascinated when we got a trailer hitch installed on the mini van. He started noticing how many other vehicles had trailer hitches. Then, the process of picking up our rented trailer was interesting to him. He started paying attention to the other types of trailers we saw. Now, he's just plain obsessed. Trailers, pop-ups, fifth wheels, motor homes...he loves them all.

He shouts whenever he sees one on the road. It's July. It's Michigan. We're less than 30 miles from Lake Michigan. And today is Friday. While we were out running errands this morning, there were a lot of excited shouts coming from the back of the van. TJ loves to camp, so he can get on board with Sam's obsession. And if his big brothers are excited, Nolan is excited too. It was a rather noisy morning of errands.

Maybe we should take the boys to the next RV show that's in town. Then they can explore the insides of every type of trailer imaginable.

Sam and Bill

One of our annual events while camping is Hobo Pie night. We aren't very imaginative. We just cut up everything you could possibly want on a pizza, and then make pizza hobo pies. Brianna suggested that next year we splurge on cheddar cheese, so people can make ham and cheese hobo pies if they want to. Woah. Craziness. We also make yummy dessert hobo pies with pie filling. One the pie is made, you put frosting on the top and it melts. Heaven.

My boys love hobo pie night...just as much for the experience of cooking dinner in the fire pit, as for eating the hobo pies. Sam had trouble with the name, though. He kept asking if he could make or eat a "moto pie".

My children have learned their phenomenal listening skills from their Dad. They all have this uncanny ability to look at me, interact with me, respond to what I'm saying, and yet not hear a word of it. I have learned over the years to repeat important things, or have them repeat things back to me.

The other night, I was trying to get Bill's attention. Our conversation went like this:

Me: "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Are you focused?"
Bill: "No. But I'm listening."

For some reason, that struck me as hilarious. I forgot what I was going to say! Apparently, I wasn't focused either!

Camping

This is our annual camping week at Cran-Hill. We've been going there every summer since I was 13 (the first year my parents owned a camper). You do the math. That's a lot of summers.

My boys are definitely growing up, and it's very obvious on our camping adventure this year. TJ is everywhere. He's been good about telling us where he is going. He loves having his bike along, and the freedom and independence it offers. He makes friends easily, and was thrilled to be reunited with his dear friend Annaliese, whom he met last year while camping (lots of us stick to the same week each year, so there are many familiar faces). TJ comes back to our lot when he is supposed to, and checks in on occasion. I have no issues with his independence as he is very careful to avoid all bodies of water unless an adult is present.

Sam is growing up. I don't know who gave him permission to do so, but he's growing up just the same. The little boy who was so afraid of everything now goes across the street to the bathroom by himself, and usually remembers to wash his hands when he is finished. He then brings the used paper towel back in case Grandma wants to put it in the firepit. He rode a pony like it was no big deal. He got in the lake up to his shoulders. He's socializing and making friends. I can't tell you how proud and relieved I am!

Nolan isn't quite sure what to make of our camping trip. He has no recollection of previous trips. He is having fun, but he keeps asking if it's time to go home yet. He loves the playground and even allowed Uncle John to push him on the big swings. He's been doing pretty good with pottying and limiting his accidents. Grandma told him he was not allowed to wet the bed (we have a rented pop-up camper we are using), so Nolan has been staying dry at night. He rode his pony and waved at the bystanders like he was English royalty. He tried a s'more (but couldn't finish it) and could eat banilla ice cream until the sun goes down. Oh, and in case you ever wondered, the definition of a twist ice cream cone (according to Nolan) is as follows:

"There's banilla ice cream, and there's chocwate ice cream. And you know what's INSIDE the chocwate ice cream? Banilla!!"