Fuller's bad week

Monday- Visit to the dentist, lots of stress, anxiety and a stomach ache.
Tuesday- Runny nose and cough, but went to school
Wednesday- Woke up with worse cough, sore throat and headache. Stayed home and dozed on the couch all day. When it was time to go to Grayson's soccer game he said he felt ok to go watch, but started throwing up in the car on the way there. After we got home continued to be really sick to his stomach right up until he fell asleep.
Thursday- No energy or appetite, begrudgingly stayed home from school even though it meant missing a field trip and his favorite lunch. Irritable and tired all day!
Friday- This remains to be seen, but hopefully our quarantine efforts have prevented the rest of us from getting sick.

That's why they pay me the big bucks!

Or they would, if I actually got paid for what I do! Today I had to take all three boys to the dentist, by myself. I have only done this once before, since I usually talk grandma and grandpa into going with us. But last time we went they all did really well, so I thought I should just do it on my own. This was my first mistake. My second was scheduling the first appointment of the day. I thought this was a good idea since it would mean Fuller and Grayson would miss the least amount of school, but this really should have been the least of my worries today. We have a wonderful pediatric dentist who the boys really like and are very comfortable with, but her office is about an hour away (very close to our old house actually). So since we had the first appointment, and a long drive in Monday morning rush hour traffic, I had to drag the kids out of bed at 6:30 and start badgering them to get dressed, eat something and find all of their school stuff, so I could take them straight to school after the dentist. Lets just say everyone was in a bad mood by the time we started our drive. Fuller of course was a nervous wreck. Fuller has never had a cavity, but he worries about it so much he practically makes himself ill. Grayson and Rowan were just plain grumpy and argumentative, and they didn't improve too much once we got to our appointment. Rowan refused to let them take x rays, but then at the very end allowed himself to be bribed into it, and Grayson had the worst time with having to sit. For awhile it felt like I was stuck in one of those horrible dreams that you can never wake up from. The good news was that Fuller and Grayson had no cavities. Rowan got a good news bad news report. The good news was that the x rays showed that he actually does have all of his grown up teeth. (He has some teeth that are fused together, meaning he doesn't actually have all of his baby teeth.) The bad new was that he has to come back for a couple of fillings. His darn funky enamel just hasn't protected his teeth well enough. So I have more fun times to look forward to. I have a feeling he isn't going to cooperate too well with the whole filling process, even with the gas.

We love Aunt Barbara!

Wish we could be there to help you celebrate! I think it's about time you guys moved back to Oregon!

Nature

I think we've been watching too much nature themed television at our house. This morning while we were getting ready for school Rowan was intently playing with a little plastic snake. Suddenly he jumped up and ran to the toy box and started digging furiously. He finally found what he was looking for, a little stuffed rabbit left over from last Easter. He proceeded to reenact a very realistic encounter between snake and rabbit. The rabbit lost of course. The funniest part though was as he was having the snake try to down the bunny he kept saying, "don't worry, it will only hurt a little bit."

Soccer double header

We had a very busy soccer morning today. Paul had to work again, so unfortunately I was on my own. Fuller had a game at 9 and Grayson had a game at 10. Luckily they were both here in town, but they were at different fields. Fuller's game got off to a great start, with him scoring his team's first goal. They continued to play fairly well, but their defenders really struggled to help protect the goal. By half time they were down 3 to 1. Early in the second half a player on the other team took Fuller down with an intentional trip. Luckily the ref caught it and blew the whistle, but while Fuller was down he took a hard cleat to the leg as the other players scrambled for the ball. He got up and kept going, but eventually asked his coach to put a sub in for him. Fuller is one who would gladly play every minute of every game, so I know his leg must have really been hurting. He would never admit this to me in front of his buddies though. Unfortunately I had to leave Fuller's game early to drive Grayson over to the field where his team was playing. By the time I got him settled with his team and drove back to Fuller's game there were only 2 minutes left in the game. They finished with a 5 to 7 loss, so I missed a lot of action while I was gone. Then we headed back to catch the second half of Grayson's game. He was cute as ever and gave me a huge thumbs up when he scored a goal. Unfortunately one of the players on the other team took Grayson down with an illegal attempt at a slide tackle. He slammed the ground pretty hard and reopened an old scrape on his knee. So I got to head home with two injured players, one of them bloody, and a four year old that had pretty much had it with watching his brothers play soccer! Can't wait to do it all again next Saturday!(lots of sarcasm in that last sentence)

December 7- I know where I'm going to be!

This summer after I finished the final Harry Potter, and was feeling that void, caused by knowing there would be no more, my sister recommended "The Golden Compass" trilogy. It was a wonderful way to forget all about Harry Potter. I especially love that the hero is a girl! Now I'm so excited to get to see it brought to life!

He's a big kid now!

Off to school we go!

Rowan started preschool today. I was a little apprehensive about this morning, partly because last night Rowan said he wasn't going, and partly because I knew I would be emotional about him going. He is still my baby after all. I was totally shocked when he walked right in and got started on the craft activity his teacher had set up, with hardly a glance at me when I left. I also surprised myself by only being a little teary, and not at all weepy like I was last week with Grayson starting first grade. I guess preschool is easier for me to deal with since it's only 2 and 1/2 hours. When I picked him up he was smiling and happy, but had little to say about his day. He said they had cookies for snack, and everything else was "boring". He sounded just like Grayson when he said this, so I don't think it was his true sentiment. Hopefully today wasn't a fluke, and Wednesday will be just as easy.

Soccer starts!

Today was the soccer season opener, for both Fuller and Grayson. Unfortunately their game times conflicted, and Fuller's game was in a town an hour away. I ended up having to have Fuller catch a ride with his coach, and just being able to go to Grayson's. The guilt trip is already in full swing on that one. Fuller said it just didn't feel right not having me or Paul there. His team lost 3 to 1, but his coach said they really worked well together and she was impressed at their skills.

Grayson almost didn't make it to his game. He is so tired and grumpy from the first week of first grade that I almost had him stay home and take a nap instead. He did fine once the game got going, and luckily didn't show his coach any of the attitude I'd been getting all morning. He scored the first goal of the game, and laughed and smiled the whole time. I really love watching his level of soccer. The kids really don't get the game, which is just priceless. At one point one of the players on the other team was trying so hard to kick the ball in the goal, but just couldn't, so he reached down and pushed it in with his hand. All the other kids on that team applauded, oblivious to the fact that that's totally wrong in soccer.

Ninja Warrior

The latest obsession at our house is the Japanese TV show Ninja Warrior. The boys (all 4 of them) just can't get enough of this bizarre competition. Grayson has been busy trying to find his own ninja warrior feats that he can do at home. Here's his well known ninja doorway climb!

Sometimes....

I really wish I knew what was going on in Rowan's head. Today we went to Rowan's preschool open house to meet his teacher and see the classroom. This was old hat to him since it is the same room and teacher that Grayson had. They had a little activity sheet for the parent and child to fill out while they were there. It had questions like what's your favorite food, favorite thing to play, etc. One of the questions asked, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Rowan looked thoughtful for a moment, then simply stated "a human". It cracks me up thinking what the other possibilities in his head might have been!

First day

None of us can really believe that summer is already over. It was so weird to have to get everyone going early, and then to not see them for so many hours. Rowan had a particularly hard day. He kept asking "when are we going to go get the kids?" I think it will be good for him to start preschool next week so he won't have so much time with just mommy to play with. Grayson was very brave this morning, up until about 5 minutes before it was time to go. Then he asked me what we were going to do after we went to meet his teacher. I guess he thought it was like kindergarten where you just go in for a few minutes the first day to meet the teacher and see the classroom. He apparently wasn't prepared for a full day. Suddenly his stomach hurt, then his side, then he needed to spend a lot of time in the bathroom. Finally he ran out of stall tactics and got in the van. Luckily his kindergarten teacher is only 3 doors down from his new class, so we stopped and said hi to her first. She was excited to see him and told him how nice his new teacher is, so that seemed to really put him at ease. By the time we got him to his seat he was feeling better. His teacher seems nice, and we are hopeful for a good year. Fuller started fifth grade today, can't believe he's really that old. This was the first year since he was in kindergarten that I wasn't able to take him to his class on the first day. Sad for both of us. He and Grayson go to different schools, and they start at the same time, so there are going to be some conflicts. Luckily I have a nice neighbor who walked Fuller to his class today. At the end of the day both boys said they liked their teachers and were glad to see their friends. We did learn that Grayson doesn't share Fuller's love of hot lunch, and would prefer a sandwich tomorrow.


Here are a few highlights from our final weekend of Summer. We ended up scrapping our plans to go to the beach, Paul was just too worn out from his 60 hour weeks.


We finally got around to buying Fuller the loft bed that he's been wanting. Everyone was excited to spend time up there! (this took Paul more hours than he thought to put together!)




Rowan moved from the trike to the big bike (with training wheels).





Grayson lost his two front teeth, and now thinks he looks just like a vampire- and likes to try to make scary faces, and see what food items he can stick in the gaping hole.




We all enjoyed a nice lunch out at TODAI. It is so fun to have kids who are adventuresome diners. Fuller and Grayson pretty much stuck to their usual gyoza and california rolls, but Rowan surprised us all by eating some grilled calamari and "green mussel dynamite". He said he likes "all that sushi stuff".





I finally got to go check out the new IKEA. The boys spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday (thanks again) and Paul and I went shopping on our way to pick them up. Lets just say- it was everything I'd imagined! (ok, I know I'm a total dork, but this was really exciting for me!)