Cousin time

The big siblings trying to get their little brothers to cooperate for picture time.

My parents watched lil' peanut and my niece Michaela so we could go with my brother and his wife to take the big kids to see the ne movie Frozen.  (so cute, by the way!)  Our little pumpkin baby came too.  He's been to three movies already in his short life and he's done perfect every time.

I told them to make a Batman face.  Haha!

Doing some crafts after Thanksgiving brunch.

Baby Love

People just can't resist a baby! :)  Pumpkin got plenty of snuggles while we were back in Kansas.

 

My brother's girls were so excited to get their hands on their new baby cousin.

The baby whisperer.  Papa has some serious skills.  My sister and I decided that his hands must be coated in some kind of magical substance that children can't resist.  Like catnip for kids.

While the big boys were at the farm with hubby I had some time to myself.  I spent one evening catching up with my sweet friend (little sister) Hannah!  It's hard to believe she wasn't much older than pumpkin when I would ride my bike down to our pastor's house and "babysit" her while her mom caught up on housework.  So neat to see the lovely woman she's grown up to be.

 Of course I had to get my own snuggles in too. :)

Meeting the cousins on hubby's side of the family.

My other little sister, Lizzy.  She will also be my daughter-in-law someday if C has his way.  He has said on numerous occasions that he hopes she waits for him until he's old enough to get married.  Haha!  After our last visit to KS he told me "Mom, I used to think Kaylee was the one.  But, I forgot what Lizzy looked like."  Oh my! 

Thanksicklings 2013

Oh man, what a time we're having!  We started our trip back to KS for Thanksgiving with one boy with a cough.  Over the course of our visit all three big boys ended up at urgent care clinics and on antibiotics (one diagnosis of an ear infection, one sinus infection, some bronchitis, and plenty of all around crud)  I was so hoping the baby and I wouldn't succumb, but trap us in a car for 15 hours with each other and there's bound to be some germ sharing.  I felt awful Monday night and most of the day Tuesday but turned the corner faster than any of the boys had.  Then yesterday morning baby started coughing. :(  He went downhill quickly.  By that evening he was burning up and I had to wake him to eat (after a 4 hour snooze!).  The fever combined with lethargy in a baby that young is cause for concern so our peds office advised us to head to the ER.  I was already on my way to the hospital when the nurse called me back.  She called ahead and the hospital was expecting us.  When I walked in I thought, oh no here we go.  I have spent my fair share of time in the ER and it is always, always a last resort-hubby is telling me to get up off the floor and go because even he is concerned kind of a situation.  I don't take up space in an EMERGENCY ROOM when I have a cold.  If your child can chatterbox it up with fellow patients and jump off of chairs GET OUT!  Ok, rant over.  But, I was seriously questioning my judgment in going to the closest hospital versus the children's hospital farther away.  The waiting room was full with people chatting, taking smoke breaks outside, and laughing.  Oh, I forgot, if you are laughing in the emergency room, get out!  The screen said the ER wait time was currently 86 minutes.  We actually only waited about 10 minutes to get back to triage where I was glad they seemed to share my concern about pumpkin's high fever.  We went straight from there to the pediatric section of the ER.  I was surprised and very happy to find that they had a separate peds area where they already had a room ready for us after getting that phone call from the doctor's office.  The two nurses were wonderful throughout the 4 hours we spent there.  They wanted to do lab work to rule out some more serious conditions like RSV and the flu.  Which meant urine and blood and mucous samples.  We both cried our way through that awful ordeal.  All his labs were negative so we came home to ride out this nasty virus (in all likelihood it's the same virus we've all been sick with but it is much, much more terrifying to feel your tiny infant's skin burning up against your chest than it is to put your toddler to bed early because his fever is making him mean and cranky.  Pumpkin's congestion is bad and it's causing a lot of gagging/choking which is all part of clearing the gunk out, but man it scares me!  I've never had a sick baby before so this is new to me.  I'm probably overreacting but that's just what's gonna happen until he kicks this thing.  We followed up with the pediatrician today and he agrees it's just a nasty virus.  The only concern is that with the little ones what starts as a head cold/congestion can move to the lungs and cause breathing problems or other complications.  So, we're keeping up with the tylenol to keep his fever under control and watching him closely.  I do hope he turns the corner soon.  It is so sad to see those classic red rimmed, watery fever eyes on my little baby!

 

In the meantime (he is sleeping the day away right now, by the way.  I want to wake him just to ensure that I can!  But, I know that when I feel like crud I just want to sleep all day too, so trying to let him rest)  we finally got some pictures of the five of us while we were back in KS.  These are from the morning we had pastor Joel dedicate lil' peanut and pumpkin...more pictures and a pretty great story from all that to come.



ABC Feast

"First grade is so fun!" is a phrase I've said often this year.  I'm sure first grade everywhere is pretty neat, but C's class seems to be doing so many neat things.  They do a lot of project based learning and the students often get to make suggestions for and vote on their subject matter.  Their first project was about donuts!  I think the first time I told C first grade sounded fun was when he told me they made donuts at school. 

 

Another fun thing?  The new book club they started for the few advanced readers in the grade.  C gets to go to the other first grade classroom for this and he just LOVES it.  I spoke with this other teacher and she said C is constantly asking her, "What time is book club today?"

 

And then there was the ABC Feast.  C had been talking about it since the class started preparing.  He was so excited that we were ALL going to come.  (He likes showing off his little brothers...this particular time he got lil' peanut to say poo-poo and pee-pee at the lunch table and had his friends in a riot.  Classic.)

 

Anyway, the ABC Feast...each kid was assigned a letter and they brought in a food that started with that letter.  C is for Cupcakes!

They were all lined up with their hats and cards to read.  When I got him to practice reading his card the night before he was hamming it up so much I told him he needed to use a normal voice because I couldn't understand him.  Then surprise, surprise when it came his time to read his card he got all shy and I couldn't even hear him!  Ha!

 "My name is Christopher.  My letter was C.  The food I brought was cupcakes.  I chose this food because it's yummy.  It's important to give because you give on Thanksgiving."

 He finally looked up and smiled at the very end.

 All of the first graders!

After they all read their cards we went into the classroom and filled our plates with ABC food and then went back outside to eat and play.

The teachers asked the parents to help out with any kids that didn't have a parent there and C snatched this little girl up.  As they walked beside me (holding hands!) C proclaimed "Mom, Lydia's my girlfriend."  Oh geez, another one. ;)  She is a little spunky one that Lydia.  She sat beside me at lunch and asked "What were you doing under there?"  "Under where?"  "Haha you said UNDERWEAR!"  Owned by a first grader.

Lil' peanut thought he was big stuff hanging out with the older kids.  I mentioned his potty talk performance already, right?  And of course hubby is always a hit with kids when he wears his uniform.  I don't think any of them said anything to him this time, but one day when he picked C up a kid walked up to him and asked "Are you in the army?"  "Yep."  "How are you not dead yet?"  That was followed shortly by "Have you every killed anybody?"  Oh boy.  I told you...first grade is fun! ;)



Veteran's Day

C actually had school on Veteran's Day, as do most kids I think, but hubby decided to keep him home and give him a bit more real world education.  We went to the national cemetery in Houston where my grandparents are buried.  It is really a stunning sight, so many headstones, representing just a fraction of our country's veterans.

We reminded C that he was given his middle name in honor of his great grandpa.  We also talked about how only the most awesome vets have spiders hanging out on their headstones.  The boys thought the spider was very cool. ;)

Only some of the graves had flags so the boys went in search of one so they could give it to grandpa.  They came back with bundles of them and together we walked the rows, speaking each veteran's name out loud before placing a flag in the ground.

C is not the only one named after a veteran and one day this little one will learn of his namesake, a dear friend and remarkable man who lost his life while serving our country.

It was a beautiful day and a meaningful time of seeing my husband share his heart with the boys as he spoke about what it means to be a veteran.  When we got in the car to leave hubby turned to me and said "We're going to do that every year."  I readily agreed.  I hope this small act of service, of placing those flags, will foster an appreciation in the hearts of my sons for the brave men and women who serve in our nation's military.  It's important for us to be grateful, not just on this one day set aside for our veterans, but every day.  They certainly deserve that.

A sweet season with my sweet boy

This kiddo is amazing.  He has gone through so much change over the past year and a half and he has come out on the other side of all that transition just beautifully.  He's weathered a deployment, a move, a new school...and lest we forget that after almost 6 years of being an only child he became a big brother TWICE in less than 18 months. 

Although not nearly as exciting as his first few weeks of kindergarten, the start of first grade did present some challenges.  It took him awhile, and some extra effort on his teacher's part, but he is owning first grade these days.  Parent-teacher conferences were last week and she had so many glowing things to say.  His behavior has improved so much she said it's not even an issue anymore and she just expects him to earn all his minutes each day (part of the behavior chart we worked up at the first of the year).  Maybe this is actually a secret strategy of his...go in all crazy so he can impress them with his vast improvement later. ;)  Academically he's above grade level in all areas.  He particularly excels in reading.  She mentioned that she needs to retest him for his reading level because she used the top level test she had at the time and he blew it out of the water (her words.)  She's never had a student reading beyond that level this early in the year.  They have an online reading system which is broken down into levels aa-z.  He's just about done with level z, which is considered 5th grade reading level.  Crazy, right?!?  I don't think people would observe C and think, I bet that kid reads at a 5th grade level.  Lol!  It presents unique challenges when he can read on a 5th grade level, but the books for 5th graders on their online system are about hp addresses and fiber optics (two things I remember him asking me to explain.)

Another thing he is currently owning?  The big brother role.  He and lil' peanut definitely spend a lot of time pestering each other, but they actually play together sometimes too.  Given their rough start, I'm still floored when I hear C say something like "Come on! Want to play in my room?  Go get your plane we can play airport."  Did he just invite him to play?  In his room?!?  Mind. blown.

And as far as his littlest brother goes, C is just completely smitten.  It's incredibly precious and such a gift to have their relationship start out so smoothly.  It's like the baby brought out a new goodness in C.  He's a bit more kind and helpful...more loving, more patient...more grown up. 

I love that we are in such a sweet season right now.  I'm bottling it up!

Halloween 2013

After hours of a torrential downpour, the skies cleared up just in time for trick or treating last night.  Hubby suggested they ride in the gator, but C said he wanted to walk.  So, we went old school and set out on foot.  We were definitely spoiled on base the past few years.  It made for super efficient trick or treating and everybody hands out candy there!  Not so in our new neighborhood.  We kept having to skip houses that didn't have their porch light on.  And they even got turned away at a woman's house who opened the door saying "sorry."  Turn off your light lady!  They still came home with plenty of candy though so I think it was a success.