Dave left at 5 am this morning, sleeping downstairs so as not to wake us upstairs. I didn’t even hear him leave! We got up at our usual time, and for the first time this week, Peyton was out of bed before I went into her room. Granted, she was lying on my floor, and said, “Um, Mommy, I’m here.” It took a little convincing to have her get dressed, but definitely easier than it has been this week. As a result, they both got breakfast downstairs, around 645am, and we were able to leave a little after 7am. When Brandon arrived at CDC, it was dark. He didn’t think anyone was there, but we saw the gate open. It was raining, and Monica came out to open the door. She told us the lights were out, and that the school, power company, and police were notified. I didn’t know if he’d still have school, but it was okay for me to leave him there for the time being. Peyton’s been staying in the car, so it saves me a little time. I lock it behind me, and she’s happy to stay in the warm. I got back in with her, then we drove to her school. I half-expected to hear back from them to pick him up again (later, I found out that they would be without power for about 3 hours, taking tests through the light from the windows). Drop off for Peyton went well, and I got in to work by 745 am. I worked for about 4 hours before leaving to go to Brandon’s parent-teacher conference. I was at it solo, since it was in the middle of the day and not feasible for Dave to attend. It went well, and I didn’t hear anything I didn’t already know, other than Brandon’s behavior has been doing really well at school! The teacher has seen improvement, and her new request of him was that he not tattle on others. I told her I used to get tattler reports regarding Brandon’s behavior from other kids last year, so maybe now that he’s doing well, he’s taken it upon himself to point out others’ misbehavior. He just needs reminding to mind his own business. But she mentioned he LOVES to help, which is something his preschool teachers recognized and took advantage of to keep him occupied. Penmanship and neatness is something we also have to work on, but this is definitely doable compared to behavioral issues. She even gave me a self-report he did, and he identified that he enjoys and is good at math and reading, while he needs work on “tether ball and tag”. I told him I’d seen his self-evaluation, and when I told him about what he identified he needed to work on, he said, “Yes, I still do. Did I spell it correctly?” I did tell him he spelled the words correctly. We went to the book faire, and he brought me the book that he had been eyeing all week. It’s the last day of the faire, and he attended with his class yesterday, and maybe has been checking things out in the morning before school. He brought me a spy book, and he wanted it mostly for the gadgets. I denied his request since it didn’t have much “book” to it. He told me, “It is $9.99, but $10.24 with tax.” I thought it was funny that he did the math with the tax, like he’d asked already. I think he was a bit off, but he definitely knew that tax was needed. I asked him how he knew the price, and he said that he’d asked so he could bring his money from home. We did find two books for the same price, and another book for $2.50 about Star Wars. We also got one for Peyton. So we headed out with our books and headed home. We talked a bit about what occurred at the parent-teacher conference since he’d wanted to attend when he found out. I told him it wasn’t a parent-teacher-student conference, but just the two former. When we got home, he did his homework because I told him he had to do this before we went to the Kao’s. He agreed, and while he was doing this, Dave came home. He wanted to get ready for the home inspector that was coming over for the appraisal for the re-fi. I wrapped Brandon’s homework up, and we headed out to get Peyton. The inspector was outside, and so was my car. As we went outside, Brandon said loudly, “What’s that girl doing here?” He didn’t know she was in our garage, and he turned the corner to see her there, and suddenly got embarrassed. He started giggling, and then got quietly into the car. He knew he’d been overheard! So, we headed to get Peyton, and Brandon still had his book. He was only at Chapter 2, but stopped reading. I asked him why, and he said, “Um, I’m creeped out.” I had a feeling he’d been too scared to read the books (Goosebumps series). When we got to school, we headed straight to Tarez. It’s been awhile since he’s seen her since the holidays and before that. She saw his book, and she told me SHE’d read the entire series when she was younger. Ms Elena said the same! We caught up with both of them, and by the time we knew it, almost 20 minutes had passed! I lost track of time, and we headed out, got Peyton, and drove home. I think we were home a little after 4pm, but Dave had wanted to be at the Kao’s at 430pm. I had planned to give both a shower when we got home, but since we were late, there was no time. I changed the kids’ clothes, but neither wanted to wear their UCLA gear at first. Dave was prepping the last of the food while I did this. Brandon said, “I want to wear Oregon colors, you know, yellow and green.” I was surprised he knew the connection of the colors since we rarely see the team. But, he definitely knows how to get under Dave’s skin! Dave said something to him, and then he changed his tune. So, we ended up all wearing our colors to support the team. We headed up to the Kao’s and only Ted was there to greet us. The kids hung out in the kitchen, but both wandered into the living room. Peyton had no fear, and went into the slightly darkened room alone, while Brandon followed. Most of these claims should be validated before you generic sildenafil uk buy a product from their website. wouroud.com order generic cialis Moreover, services exist that post hundreds of comments with links on DoFollow blogs. If somehow the credit card number falls into the wrong hands, financial loss sildenafil 10mg is minimized. To check diabetes that occurs tadalafil best prices during pregnancy (gestational diabetes). Since it was just the two of them, I asked them to play with the toys that were out. Peyton wanted to go to Mckayla’s room, but I told her to wait until Mckayla arrived back from her swim class. Soon, the doorbell rang, and the kids followed Ted to see who it was. It was the Brown’s! Logan and Brandon had fun playing together, while Peyton tried to chase Connor around. At multiple points of the night, I heard Peyton calling for BOTH Connor AND Logan. Dave was NOT okay with it. Boy Chaser! Soon, Marcus came back, and he looked a little concerned there were so many kids playing around with his stuff. He did come join in on the fun, especially after his bath, and after Mckayla came home. The boys played with the cars, and though Peyton had waited for Mckayla’s arrival, I think she was playing hard to get. She preferred to continue playing with Brandon and the other boys. Soon, Mckayla convinced her to hang out in the room, and Peyton went along with her. All the kids played nicely with one another, though Peyton had a little tantrum when playing with Marcus. She hadn’t napped ALL day, since I learned they didn’t go outside due to the rain, so she wasn’t as tired out as she normally would be. I knew I was in for it, and expected a little more of a difficult time with her. She recovered quickly, and joined in the fun again. We took a break to enjoy the yummy food! Ted had grilled some yummy beef, while Dave made broccoli for the kids, and brussel sprouts for the kids and helped me put together the salad I’d also brought for veggies. We were all looking forward to Bonnie’s chocolate brownie-like pie, but the kids didn’t know what was in store. Brandon ate a ton of salad – three helpings! Peyton needed a bit of convincing to eat her meat, but she did eat her veggies. The kids went back to play, while we continued to eat. We were all stuffed, so we needed a bit of time to digest before bringing out the dessert. We told the kids they could watch “Brave” after dinner. They mostly forgot about it, but Logan came in to ask about it. So, we gathered the kids in the family room, and all sat on one of the couches. Peyton was warning everyone it was “a little bit scary”, but she told them the beginning was okay. She told them it was the witch that was a bit scary. I told her to not give away the movie. Brandon chose not to watch, instead he wanted to read Marcus’ Cars book. It was an encyclopedia of all the cars in the story. I think he was avoiding devoting 100% of his attention to the movie, since he was the only one who’d seen it in its entirety. The last time we watched it, Peyton checked out, since I think she thought it was too scary. We enjoyed dessert, with chocolate pie a la mode. The kids slowly figured out there was dessert, as I think they could smell it! Peyton chose Brave over dessert when I told her she couldn’t eat it out in the family room. She did later have some, but the rest of it fell on the floor, so she went without. She dropped some ice cream, too, when she was leaning away from Auntie Bonnie. I’m not sure if she thought Bonnie would eat her ice cream, but she was making a mess in any case. After she was done, she went to join the others. Brandon came and went, inhaling his dessert in what seemed to be two bites. Toward the end of dessert and the movie, Logan came to tell us it was a bit too scary, and asked if I would go and watch it with them. Peyton was close behind him. Bonnie was helping Connor with dessert, so I went out there with the kids. At one point, Marcus was on Brandon’s lap per Michelle’s report! When I got there, Mckayla and Brandon were sitting one end of the couch, so I took a seat next to Brandon, pulled Peyton on my lap, and Logan sat on the end next to us. As the later part of the story started to darken, Logan told me he was scared. I asked him if he wanted to hold my hand, and he nodded. Peyton saw me holding his hand and got jealous, so she wanted to hold my hand, too. I told him we could share, so I held both of their hands (good thing they are little!) Then Brandon got into it, and said he was scared, too. I held his hand in my left hand. So, I had Peyton on my lap, with each of my hands occupied. Mckayla looked a bit concerned on the end, and I asked Brandon if he could hold her hand. He extended his hand, but she gently declined. She was the Bravest!! Connor, too, as he was standing by the other couch, just watching quietly. When the scene wasn’t as scary, both boys calmed down a bit and sat back on their own, but Peyton remained on my lap. He did point out, “Big Bear!” when the bear entered the scene. He went back to watching quietly. With about 15 minutes left, everyone else came to join us. It was getting late, but the kids seemed to be into the movie. Since it was almost over, we rode out the rest of the movie. The movie had a happy ending, unlike the football game that was on. Since everything was already packed up, we were able to leave fairly quickly. Ted came up to me and said, “I got a hug!” Peyton had the Brave sleeve, and I told her to get the DVD from Ted. I told him she probably exchanged the hug for the DVD. So, he tried again, and told her, “Can I have another hug? You can come over again next time, okay?” Again, she hugged him. He’d wanted us to see it in real life. He has come a LONG way…with all the effort he’s put in in the last 2.5 years, since she was old enough to interact with him meaningfully. I was pretty amazed how comfortably she did hug him, and with a grin, too. There was no prodding on my end, that’s for sure! Next time, he said he won’t offer a carrot, but will just ask for a hug, straight up. She is definitely getting more comfortable around others, except she was trying to show Dave this dance that I’d caught her doing earlier in the day while Ted was out of the kitchen, but as soon as she started, Ted walked into the kitchen, and she plopped back on my lap and played it off. Brandon was fading in the car, and Peyton was still wired, but I’m not sure how since she hadn’t slept. She was egging Brandon on, “Brandon, are you sleeping?” Brandon told her to leave him alone. No sooner than he said that, she, too, was asleep! We only live a few minutes away, and when we got home, both were out. Dave poked her to wake up, since we needed to at least brush teeth. It was almost 10 pm, so it was definitely late. She looked so drunk, rolling out of the chair. I got her inside, and she said, “I just want to go in my bed and snuggle up.” I did change her clothes, got her to brush her teeth, and got fluoride in her before she sacked out. Brandon went straight to his bed, and I had to get him up and brushed as well. He changed his clothes, then was down for the count. Dave fell asleep, too, since he had woken up so early, but I enjoyed some coffee, with mostly milk, with dessert (my FAVORITE pairing), and am now paying for it. Luckily, it’s giving me the energy to blog about it all. Thanks to the Kao’s for hosting us all, and I was able to have a great time, but it may take Dave a few days to get over it. The kids had a great time, too!
Here’s a preview of Peyton’s upcoming winter performance. She sung it in the car on the way home from school, and I was a bit surprised she knew most of the words. They must be really practicing!