We were sorely disappointed with our trip to the mall. We went to the mall after stopping by the Collier’s festive Halloween party. It was fun watching all of the kids, and amazing at the same time, as they are all born within a few months of one another. Within a short few years, there has been an explosion of kids at Dave’s work. We didn’t stay too long (having arrived a couple hours late due to our nap schedule). We did take some pics, on the hay bale (totally cool!) and cool backdrop. Next, we went to our local mall, and saw Tony and Leeon just leaving. He told us the main trick or treating was from 2-3pm, and there were some signs that there would be candy at 6pm. It was not even 5pm, so we were stuck. I texted Michelle, Bonnie, and Jennifer to see what they all were doing. Michelle told us they were at another mall, an outdoor one. We decided to head up there, given its outdoor nature, and as Michelle put it, more open, fresh air (less germs!). We met up with Mckayla, Ted, and Michelle, but there wasn’t as much candy as we would have hoped. All this was teaching Brandon was rejection. And plenty of it. As well as lots of people. We decided to check out early, and actually try going through our own neighborhood. Dave thought it was time for Brandon to experience a REAL Halloween. We quickly ate dinner and headed out as it was already dark. We reviewed the rules of the road, and that Brandon had to stay with us. He did a great job! We took a few houses to get the routine, 1) “Trick or treat” 2) wait for your candy, or help yourself to ONE piece, 3) “Thank you”. In that order. And with every house. He was pretty frightened by some of the elaborate decorations. The fog machine got him! He got up to the house, did his routine as above, but was too scared to return. And Dave was standing next to him! He whined, and wanted Dave to pick him up to carry him back to me. Peyton was giggling at how scared he was. Dave and Brandon would go all the way up to the doors, while Peyton and I hung back on the street with the stroller. Some walkways were too narrow to go up with the stroller and maneuver around without rolling over the grass. We went to one home that had a sign “Scaredy cats welcome!” That was Brandon’s kind of house.
We had to take advantage of our neighborhood; next year we’ll belong to another neighborhood. About half of the houses participated with their lights on. Brandon realized too that the dark houses are not ones that we could visit. He said, “We cannot ring the doorbells on the dark houses.” Then he pointed to one and said, “But the car is here!” We stayed out about an hour. At one of the last homes we visited, he started running back to me on the sidewalk. I thought he was going to run into the street, so I was warning him to come over to me. Turns out he was just running to inspect on of the decorations at the end of the walkway. He stopped and said, “Don’t worry, Mommy! I’m just looking at this!!” We had a great time! We have learned that you get more bang for your buck at cul de sacs and that most corner houses turn on their lights. Next year, we’re going to have to divide and conquer as we’ll have a corner house. It is fun walking around together though, as we had PERFECT weather. It’s great family time, and also a bit of exercise, which is always helpful. Brandon didn’t fight our agreement of one candy per day (this was my mom’s rule when we were little, too). He came home, spread out his stash, and picked the plain M&M’s. He’s already looking forward to next year! I’m sure Peyton is, too.
Kid kicked off plane!
We just heard on the news that a mother and her 2-year-old were kicked off a flight when the 2-year-old wouldn’t stop screaming before takeoff. The mom asked the airline to reimburse her for diapers and a port-a-crib rental fee that she had to pay to stay another night here in town. She was given $300 but the airline stood behind its decision, citing that they were asked to leave for safety reasons. Not sure how it pertains to safety more than sanity. I hope that is NEVER us.
Today, at Brandon’s parade, there was one little girl who did not have a costume because her mommy was supposed to bring it and she was late. The poor girl was the only one left, and she was sitting on the teacher’s lap. The director of the school said the reason why the girl’s mommy was late was because she was on TV. It suddenly dawned on me who her mommy was! When she came in the door, apologizing she was late, I put it together and realized it was one of our local TV station’s anchorwoman. Later at home, Dave and I were watching the news, and it was confirmed! The little girl was one of Brandon’s first friends that he talked about at his new school. The parade was really fun; I’m glad I got to go in and help the teachers, as not all the parents were there to help their kids change into their costumes. The teacher asked me why I didn’t bring Peyton in; I told her it was much easier to help out without having her there. Dave picked her up instead, and I was able to watch Brandon closely. He still has trouble staying in circle time and keeping his body calm. But I did see other equally-active boys in the class. The teachers make it a point to separate all of them. After the parade, we went through the haunted house. For the preschoolers, they kept the lights on. Even then, Brandon was a big fraidy-cat. He was holding my hand so tight, and did not want to keep going. He wanted to turn around, until another parent (Vanessa’s dad), took him by his other hand. Afterward, he said, “I wasn’t scared; I want to go in it again.” He got a lot of candy, and as a consolation, I told him he could have one piece of candy. When we got home, true to my word, I let him pick one. He picked the grape sucker. Luckily, it was small. Dave asked him, “Are you going to share with Mommy and Daddy?” Brandon said, “Ah-hah. Here!” He let us each pick one thing. After a few licks of his sucker, he thrust it in my face and said, “Mommy, do you want to try?” I thanked him for his generosity, but did not share with him. I have a feeling he will be getting lots of treats this weekend.
Peyton-ba
There are those vacuum cleaners which are automatic, run on sensors, and will vacuum the carpets on demand. You just push a button, and it goes. I think that Peyton thinks she is one of those. I put her on the floor (because she hates being in the crib when she’s awake) while I run around the house with Brandon, getting him ready for school, preparing stuff for school, etc. She will find the smallest thing on the floor and put it in her mouth. I can barely see it; I just see her hand motion from the ground to her mouth. Then it’s time for me to go fishing. I sometimes pull out tanbark, small pieces of food that we’ve missed, and sometimes pieces of hair. Don’t get me wrong, we try to keep the floors pretty clean – we never know when someone’s going to come in to look at the condo. But she’s got great eyesight! Dave found her skipping the hand to floor to mouth action the other day. She was just lowering herself to the ground, and trying to pick things up with just her mouth. Ewww! We’ve definitely had to take more things out of her mouth than we did with Brandon – product of being the second child. Brandon is pretty good about keeping his small pieces and toys away from her. If he is on the ground, and she is approaching him, he’ll let out a whine to let us know she is coming closer to him. I found out yesterday that Brandon must have eaten all the googly eyes from his monster kit that Laurie had given to him. There isn’t a single googly eye to be found. I don’t even know when those disappeared. I thought I could trust him to eat only food. Apparently not. He told me he ate them when he was a baby. I highly doubt it given that she gave it to him probably six months ago.
A Day Off!
I’ve been working almost every Friday for awhile now, leaving early to go run errands, like flu shots, school functions, etc. Initially, I told my boss it would be for the summer since my mom was around to help out. But then Peyton went to school, and I found myself still with a lot of work to do, so I went in. Today, I decided to take a break. It has been pretty hectic and busy at work, so I just need to step back and let things go. I dropped off the kids without too much of a rush – Brandon just has to be at school before 9am so he doesn’t miss circle time. Even Peyton’s teacher noticed, as she commented, “A late start this morning?” It was nice. After I dropped Peyton off, I went to the store to buy a bunch of groceries so I could make Peyton’s food for the week. We always seem to be so busy on the weekend that we end up going to the grocery store after work on Monday, each of us dragging a kid along with us. I end up making her food while they are trying to sleep, and the blender whirring is enough to keep anyone up. I think I made enough food for a few weeks! Both ice cube trays are fill, and I have more puree leftover to fill probably another two more. I’m getting ready to go help Brandon’s school with their Halloween costume parade. They seemed to appreciate it when I went to help with the Walk a Thon. I think it’s because they don’t have to focus so much on him, and can worry about the other 29 kids in the classroom. This weekend is another busy one, with a Halloween party, hosted by the Collier’s, and then Mckayla’s 2nd birthday on Sunday. I also bought ingredients to make pumpkin bread (with applesauce) that we are making out of scratch – even down to making our own applesauce to put into the bread. Dave will also carve another pumpkin with Brandon, which will be Brandon’s first here at home. I think they have a carved class pumpkin they all helped with. Luckily (or unluckily), we are not having any open houses this weekend, so at least we’ll have a place to nap, etc and we’re not forced out of our home. Only four more weeks until we can move into our new home! I can’t believe it’s happening already!
Brandon’s Christmas List
All of a sudden today, Brandon asked me, “Mommy, do you know what I want for Christmas?” Then he said, “My two front teeth!” I asked him where he learned that from, and he said, “Miss Stephanie” one of the teachers in another classroom at his school.
Last night, Brandon told us he wanted both of his Thomas pillows out of his room. He put them out by the laundry. When Dave went to sleep, he put one of them back in Brandon’s room. This morning, there were two pillows again in the hallway. He must have noticed in the middle of the night, and came back out to make things right. Tonight, we tried to give him the pillow back. He said he didn’t want it because it smelled like “mold”. First of all, how does he know what mold is? Second of all, how does he know how it smells?
Bumblebee
We were at Target in the toy section, shopping for birthday presents, and Brandon wanted to look at the boys’ area. I usually let him go look, especially if he is cooperating. We were in the Transformer section, and he looked at one of the toys and said, “Look, Mommy, Bumblebee!” I looked down and was shocked that he knew who he was! We’ve never watched Transformers with him, not even the cartoon version. I asked him how he knew it was Bumblebee, and he just said, “Uh, I dunno.” I think it’s probably for the other little boys at school. Unless he’s a genius and read it from the packaging (highly doubtful).
Brandon-free (part) of the weekend
My mom took Brandon up with her on Friday night, as they were going to the football game the next day. My dad had an extra ticket, so he wanted to take Brandon. As for us, it was dinnertime, so we were left with only one kid and MANY possibilities of where we could eat. We decided to do a seafood buffet, thinking we could enjoy it more and not have to pay half-price for gigantic 3 year old (they charge by the height, not age like some other places). Peyton had fun being our only kid, and she did eat from the buffet – soybeans, and tofu (a little redundant, but at least it was food she could handle on her own). My mom had taken Brandon to a veggie buffet per his request (his favorite only because he gets ice cream at the end – which I told her to limit to a small scoop). I still called him at night to wish him good night. He reluctantly talked with us; my mom had to almost force him to say good night to us.
Otherwise, I got a great night’s sleep – from 11pm (when I went to sleep) to 7am (when Peyton woke up). It was our first restful night’s sleep in a long time. We woke up and got the house ready for open house, and drove up to my parents’ house. I wanted to see Brandon off, give him his hat, and make sure he was all set. He was so excited to be going away without us. He did willingly say good bye to us this time. My parents ended up picking up two more of their friends, and in total, there were 6 adults plus Brandon. They only had to ride about just the last few miles to the stadium, after consolidating their cars. Lucky for them because they were all treated to Brandon’s cartoons in the car (they totally cave into him). We were doing errands, then called up Gavin and Diana, and fortunately, they were free for lunch! Naomi and Peyton were both very good at lunch. Naomi enjoyed her parents’ “icee” while Peyton watched on, learning each step of the way, that mint chip shakes must be good. After lunch, we went home and tried to put Peyton down for her nap before going over to Laurie’s to celebrate Scott’s birthday. This did not happen until 2pm (the start of Scott’s birthday), but once she was down, she was down for the count. She can sleep (as can I)! I slept for almost two hours, while she lasted even longer than that. It was after 4pm, so I started getting myself ready to go out, and tried to be a little louder to wake Peyton up. Finally she did get up, and we all went over to the Bryan’s. The party was in full swing, and I thought Peyton may have a “bad” reaction to all the people. She did not! She was a little shy, and I held her while we visited, but she maintained composure (not like when May, Ed and Justin came over last week). We all ate dinner, watched Scott open presents, and then she started getting cranky, just before 8pm. It was our cue to go home. We caught up with Brandon before his bedtime, then we all stayed overnight at my parents. Sunday, we had lunch with Joyce, Tracy, and Christian (and the spouses/kids) for the September birthdays (yes, a bit delayed). We even saw Jennifer! Actually, they saw us first. They all walked over to us as soon as we sat down. Jesselyn came over to say goodbye when they left. We had to stay away from the house for a few more hours until the open house was over. So we walked around the mall, went to play in the park, and dropped Kenny’s birthday present off to him. We rested for a bit, then went back out to dinner with Kenny, Rachel and Cameron. We thought we were taking Kenny out for his birthday, when in fact, it ended up that they were taking ME out for my belated birthday. We ended our weekend with some homework. Brandon enjoyed it very much! We usually don’t start until later in the week, but we needed something nice and calm to do.
H1N1 update
After last night, Peyton was the only one of our immediate family to not be protected from H1N1. And she is probably the most at risk. We took care of that today. We didn’t do it last night since the wait was more than double what it was for Dave. I went to work today, and the plan was to take Peyton then go to Brandon’s school to watch his walk-a-thon. My mom was to meet us at the hospital, so I asked her to check the wait time. It was 1-2 hours! So we just dropped her card and we’d just come back after Brandon’s event. By the time I got back, her name was the next to be called! Great timing. Peyton took her shots like a champ. She cried less than Brandon, and she had two shots. Brandon only had one real shot. Wuss.
Today’s comics
Everyday one or both of the kids makes us laugh. Today, it was both! It started very early this morning when Peyton woke up at around 2am. She was inconsolable, even after being fed and changed. Dave started singing “Twinkle, twinkle little star” and she stopped crying. Nothing else up to that point had worked! She even started “twinkling” her hand, to which Dave said, “Hey, who taught you that?” He was sad because he wanted to teach her that. He got tired of singing, and stopped, but then she started crying again. We couldn’t believe it! Then he started singing again, and sure enough, she stopped crying! I rolled over and was going to go back to sleep. The last thing I said to Dave was, “Suck-ah!” She eventually fell asleep, and Dave put her back in the crib.
On the way home from picking up Brandon (Dave had picked up Peyton), he said, “Mommy, we have to go to the Halloween store.” I asked him why. He said, “We have to go get YOU a costume. I think you should be a doctor.” When I got home, and took off my shoes, he pointed to my sock and said, “You’re almost getting a hole! Poor, Mommy.” Then he said, “Poor Mommy’s sock!”
When Dave got home, I told him about the costume, and then Brandon said, “No, I think Mommy should be an angel.” Dave started making gagging noises, as I beamed after hearing what my son had said to me. Brandon asked what was wrong with Dave.
Follow up to last post
Last night, at about 1am, I heard noise from Brandon’s room, and I thought he had fallen off the bed again. When I went to his room to see what was going on, he was sitting up in bed. I asked him if he was okay, and he said, “I peed in my pants.” I told him to get up to get changed. He said, “I did already.” Turns out the noise I had heard was him taking his clothes to the laundry, but he fell a little short as the clothes were on the floor and not on the machine itself. To his credit, the washer was full, so it was closed. I went back and gave him a hug, then left his room.
I went back to sleep, then got up again when I heard Peyton crying. She cried a little, then got silent. The next thing I heard was, “Uh. O,” which was followed by me giggling and going to get her. Her diaper was soaked! I want to get her to tell me “Uh-oh” when she is wet. That just might be a little early now. After I fed and changed her, she was wide awake (maybe it was the ice tea I drank earlier). So I took the opportunity to start teaching her “Mommy” and “Daddy” as she was looking back and forth at us. By now, Dave had also woken up, and had heard Peyton “talking”. She had a hard time getting back to sleep, but by then, she was in the bed with us.
This morning, the whole ride to school, she was telling me “uh-oh,” and different variations – “Uh-O”, “Ah-O”, and “Aaah, ooo”. She was practicing! I hope she is not planning on having us say that too often to her; hopefully she is a good girl, and we won’t have to.