I guess sometimes things happen in threes....

I wouldn't have believed it unless it happened here first, but the kids were in for a doozy of a weekend. And by weekend, I mean Thursday - Sunday. As I wrote about earlier, Gwen had a crazy ear infection that except for the medicine you never would have known she had. She is so unlike Trevor with ear infections. It is a good difference, and maybe it is because by this time, Trevor also was trailing off of his ear infections.

So anyway, on Friday, Gwen and I were playing around, and she always loves going upstairs, sometimes to pretend to tell someone to go to bed as if she is the mom. Anyway, I heard a thud at the top of the stairs and I knew she was coming downstairs, not of her own power. I looked up to see her on her head flipping downwards. Thank goodness our stairs are carpeted or it would have been a much harder fall. She landed on her knees and fell forward to her face, but caught herself a bit. She was crying after she landed, but by the sound of the cry, it wasn't from pain, it was because it scared her. I double-checked and asked her if she hurt anywhere and she said no. I wonder if her balance was a little off because of her ear infection, but regardless, she wasn't hanging onto the railing, and I reminded her that she probably should be doing that. And now she does.

Then on Saturday, Trevor was able to go golfing with Russ and his family as well as to a Wild preseason hockey game. According to Russ, he was fine at golfing, and then when they got to the hockey game he was complaining about his stomach hurting. He didn't eat much at the game and was saying he was tired. They left after the three periods were done and stopped by McD's for some food because Trevor will never turn down McD's. He eats three bites and asks Russ to pull over so he can be sick. But he doesn't get sick. He is probably really zoned out by the time they get home and he changes into his pj's and goes to bed. When I get upstairs to get ready for bed at about 11:30, I can hear Trevor getting sick. I go into his room to find him on the floor, out of bed getting sick. I rub his back, put him back in bed, clean up the mess and go to bed myself. Nothing else happens that night.

The next day, I had him eating a bland diet of toast and noodles, and he wasn't really that hungry. But when I told him that he got sick last night, he didn't believe me. He told me that he felt like he was going to be sick in the car coming back from the hockey game, but he did not remember being sick that night in his room. Sorry bud, but I would not make that up. Anyway, he never was sick again, but does now seem to have a cold. Don't really know what that is about.

So things happen in threes for the kids this weekend. I'm done for another year or so, thank-you-very-much!

What is with ear infections, anyway?

So Gwen has had a cold for a week or so, and the coughing started a few days ago. Trevor and I also have the cold, but no one (including Gwen) was really run down all that much. No fevers to speak of. Gwen had taken a nap yesterday and woke up with her ears hurting a little bit. But no big deal, she woke up, we had dinner, we went to get Trevor's hair cut and came back home. No complaining at all. We made some chocolate chip muffins for dessert and all of a sudden she went down to her knees and cried out that her ear hurt a lot. It really freaked me out and because we recently changed clinics, I immediately started wondering if I was going to have to take her to the ER or if I had any other options since it was so late. Then I started thinking what I was going to have to do with Trevor.

But once I calmed down and called the nurse line, I remembered these times with Trevor way back when. Again, like Trevor, no fever, but didn't want anyone near her. I gave her some tylenol and let her watch some Super Why. I brought Trevor upstairs for his shower and bedtime when 10 minutes later Gwen yelled upstairs that her ear felt all better.

Unfortunate timing, I had to get Trevor down and attend my last class of this session, so Gwen going to bed had to wait until 10. She was able to stay awake no problem. The Tylenol put her in perfect spirits. After class we got her ready for bed and said goodnight. I thought for sure I was going to have to give her another dose of tylenol mid-night, and surprisingly I was wrong. She slept all the way until almost 7:30, but did wake up and say her ear hurt again. More tylenol and she was her normal self. I made an appointment for 9:45 this morning and called to say she wouldn't be in school. Trevor went to school and we went to the doctor shortly after. I think when we saw the doctor he was surprised at her normal attitude and lack of even pulling on her ears, but the second he looked in her ear there was no doubt.

I can't quite remember how long it has been since she had an ear infection. The last one I can remember for sure was at 18 months. I think I might have taken her in one other time to Urgent Care because I thought she had one, but she didn't. At least now she can clearly tell me that her ear hurts, and if she does, I know what that means. And because she has had so few infections, she is still on ammoxicillin.

Seriously though, what is with ear infections? They are so strange. I had heard one of our previous doctors say that ear infections can inflame in a manner of 15 minutes. Crazy.

Glad to know that she should be good by her birthday. Actually, she has had one dose of her medicine and she is her normal self again. Strange....

So what are the kids up to?

Before I remember to write what the post is going to be about, I just wanted to say what a fun, and even lucrative wine tasting we had at our house on Friday! It was really cool to see everyone's favorite wines of the bunch and to hear everyone say they wanted to do it again next year. Hopefully it will be a tradition for many years to come!

With birthdays and Christmas fast approaching, I think it is interesting to take stock of what the kids truly play with and how they play with it before new toys and games come into the mix. I have yet to really weed through the toys, but it is coming in about a week or so. I'm mostly getting frustrated with all the accessories of Gwen's toys that she can't even play with yet, and the dolls that go with the accessories are so beat up that she isn't going to want to play with them by the time she is old enough to. So that will probably be the biggest group of stuff to go.

First of all, Trevor has gotten rid of his rectangle tv of past, and while he does play out a few different Mario baseball games, or maybe they are Twins baseball games, he doesn't jump on the trampoline much at all. What he does do, when he remembers, is take a little notebook that Russ once used to write notes to himself, and create a batting order and field position for the Twins baseball team. It is pretty cute as he has been learning the why of certain positions in the field as well as your number in a batting order. Rather than have him go into the Children's Liturgy where he usually messes around, I let him stay in church with me and plot the next batting order or two.

Gwen, on the other hand has plenty of toys, and she does use her old stand-bys of dollhouse dolls, princesses and fairies, but what she is really interested in is her food. Not really cooking it, but using the food like a grocery store. She takes the food out of the grocery cart, and puts it on an arm rest of either the couch or recliner and wants me to take it off of the arm rest. That means she bought it. Then, I have to buy it back. I put the food individually back on the arm rest and she puts it back in the cart. This game literally can go on for over an hour. I have no idea why it is so interesting. Maybe I should introduce the bagging concept? I have a lot of little bags she could use. But really she just wants to keep buying the food.

Then today, the best thing happened....she started playing "preschool". I always thought it was the cutest thing when Trevor did it, and when I volunteered at his preschool I loved to see all the kids playing preschool. Today she was mimicking music time and library time. She said "Boys and Girls" a lot so I knew right away what she was doing.

So anyway, that is what the kids are up to for now. I'm sure it will change soon, but for now, it is what they enjoy.

So much to update

My classes are almost wrapping up and greatly increasing their projects and papers and such. Add to it PTA responsibilities and Fall Fundraising Chair stuff, it makes for a very busy time. It was the first full week of school and it has been flying by. I can't believe we are halfway through September. Practically two weeks until Gwen's birthday, then we have to get ready for Halloween. If I haven't said it lately, I love being crazy busy like this. I had a wine tasting party yesterday and I did some crazy cleaning for the previous 3 days and it was really nice because I know it won't be as hard to keep up for another two weeks, then another 7-8 weeks for Thanksgiving and Trevor's birthday as long as I can quietly and secretively get rid of the really little toys or pieces of toys that we don't even have the whole set for anymore.

I digress.... Gwen has become very attached, as has most of her class actually, to being in preschool. I went to pick her up on Thursday and she practically refused to leave. I did have to talk with her explaining again and again that she could not stay because school was "closing" but she also knows that they have childcare next door that she toured and it is obvious she wants to stay there after school is done, or go back so she can spend more time there. What is crazy to me is that while she is only at school for two days a week, and while I get anxious for her on Thursdays, having to wait and explain that she doesn't have school for another 5 days, but the time goes so fast, I don't think it really occurs to her to think it is something she is missing out on. We do grocery shopping on Monday, I have an envelope stuffing thing at Trevor's school on Wednesdays, and we run errands on Friday or just hang out with a friend if we can. She started library day on Tuesday and he brought home her favorite book from the lake house. Then when we read the book she wanted me to take out the folder that held the check-out card stating who checked it out. It is a pretty fun time for her to tell us what she learns in school.

So for Trevor, I have spent a good chunk of my time at his school. I am a volunteer that stuffs all the kids' weekly envelopes on Wednesdays. I am the chair for the school's fall fundraiser. Thankfully the previous chair is sort of helping me out with my job since it has almost been done for most of the year. I have set up 3 display cases at school prior to school starting, picked up the envelopes and applied labels to them with each kid's name only to find out that because of our enrollment increasing over the previous year, we don't have enough packets. Minor problem, but had to get the vendor guy on the phone to drop more off the morning of the first day of the fundraiser. We had a PTA meeting that evening to boot. Between the weekly envelopes, labeling the extra envelopes and attending the kickoff for the kids, I was at school a great deal. I think Trevor got a big kick out of seeing me at his meeting and his teacher let him say hi to me afterwards.

Our fundraiser is unique in that they don't offer individual prizes for the kids, it is a group goal that the principal offers things he will do for the school. It is pretty nice, he likes to promote the team feeling.

Trevor has been doing well, settling in, and seeming to have a good time. He came home with his first math homework on Friday, which he tried to convince me he didn't understand it. So we are slowly remembering the old routine. I heard about the whole Silly Bandz craze a while back, and Trevor has never shown an interest. We got a note from the teacher that she is considering banning them from her classroom because they are causing a lot of distractions for the class. I asked Trevor about them, and he says that there are a lot of kids getting in trouble but he isn't one of them. Mostly because he doesn't care I'm sure, but it is such a welcome change for the way last year started out for him. Another change from last year is that they are having teacher conferences in two weeks so that we can talk about year goals now rather than in another two months of school. I think it is smart.

I'm trying to get a sense of Trevor's school life, and it is pretty hard. It seems like he sits with different kids at lunch and plays with different kids at recess. He always tells me which of his former classmates he sees during the day. I'll be interested to see what his teacher has to say about the social side of class. She called me after the first few days of class and said that he is such a sweet kid. That day she had given him a kleenex because she thought he might need a tissue. Later that day, she had a few sneezes and after their math lesson was done, he told her that he didn't use the kleenex but that she might want it for her sneezing.

It will be interesting to see where the next days go.

First day of school time!

I have to say that it was pretty special to have both kids start school yesterday. I think it was that much more special for Gwen to be able to head over for her first day of school right after Trevor. She was very tired at the end of the day, but she could talk about her own first day of school and teacher right along with Trevor. It will be another few years before they have their first days of school on the same day again. Kindergarten starts a day later to avoid the craziness of the other kids on the first day of school. Makes sense, but she is not going to be the same day because of it.

I had to wake both kids up, although Trevor was already up, he just didn't want to get out of bed yet. On those cold mornings, neither do I. Gwen was pretty happy to get up, which is a change for her. Trevor took a bag lunch for his first day because I wasn't sure that he would like whatever they had for the first day. I had also sent a few papers with him to bring to school. I dropped Trevor off first and had to head out to drop Gwen off right away. We were a little later than I wanted to be because it was a little tricky to get both kids smiling together. This is the best I could do:

Gwen only has 11 kids in her preschool, and I got a good report for her on the first day. No crying or anything. She was happy to know she would be going back again soon. It was nice to have a few hours of quiet time that day. I didn't really think about it, but when Trevor first went to preschool, I had about 3 weeks before I had Gwen that were those quiet hours to myself. I think I was too preoccupied to actually enjoy them. But now they are back.

Trevor had a great time at school as well, although I wasn't really worried about it. He was able to talk to all his friends, and talked about how he saw all of his Kindergarten classmates at lunch and recess. We will be working on the new schedule and doing things like bringing papers to class. I asked him where the papers I sent with him ended up and he doesn't remember. They could be in his desk, they could be somewhere else, but they are not in his bag anymore. Also, he said he couldn't find his snack that I packed him. Of course I put one in where he had had snacks during his summer classes, but he didn't look there. So we'll try again next time. He also wants to do lunch today. I explained that we still don't have a menu so I'm not sure what it will be. He explained that he is sure he can find something. We'll see what he comes up with after today.

It's time to get ready for day number 2!

The Last Hurrah

Well, it is the last day of Summer Vacation, and we all made it relatively unscathed. Surprisingly Gwen is a little more anxious/bonkers than Trevor has been. The past week has been kept busy by going to the State Fair, Back to School night, and taking one more trip to the cabin for the summer. I went with the kids to the State Fair on Wednesday. We got into the grounds at 9:00 and left after 1:00. It was my first time going solo, so rather than even attempt the rides this year we just walked around leisurely. We did go on the sky ride, the big slide, and sat down to eat, but otherwise the kids were on their own power walking around. They both did really good. I think we are starting to get a good routine down where we do the animals and a few snacks first, then end with the kids rides. By the time we were going to do the kids rides, I could tell the kids were running out of steam. But it will be a good goal to have for future years.

Then on Thursday evening, we were able to go to the back to school night at the Elementary school. I had already introduced myself to Trevor's teacher earlier in the week, so it was nice to know that I didn't need to try to talk to her for longer to get to know her more. As is normal Trevor, I'm pretty sure he would have chatted with his teacher forever, but he was easily distracted as soon as he saw a few of his former classmates. I think it is really going to be a different situation with him really knowing a few of his classmates, knowing his school, and being really excited to be at lunch and recess. That and I'm sure he has matured since last year too. Gwen was surprisingly timid and a little scared by the whole thing. I think she wanted Trevor to go back to his old room with his old teacher. We put Trevor's supplies in his desk (first year for that!) and picked up his paperwork and then headed out to the cabin for the weekend.

We had been really lucky this summer to get such warm weather at the lake. Both so we could swim and that the water temperature was so warm. We were hoping to be able to swim one last time this summer, but no such luck. Looking back over our family Labor Day vacations up to Brainerd, we never had warm enough weather to swim, or at least it was rarely. I will take the summer weather we had over being able to swim on Labor Day anytime. Although I am sad to be chilled and have to get out the long pants and shirts for fall.

So this closes another summer vacation. I know we will have many more adventures in the next year. Here we go!!!!