He's a funny little guy

"I'm dead," he announced.

 "Nice balloon," I said.

"Thanks," he said.

A week in the life

It's becoming increasingly obvious to me that this semester + regular blogging = not happening. So instead of the every-couple-days schedule I used to adhere to, I'll be posting when I have time. So there you go. And here's what's going on with us:

1. We went to our township's annual fall festival with my mom and stepdad and had a super time. This would have been a terrific picture if Gummy Bear could keep the stupid lei out of his mouth. Oh well. Then we went home and put the kids to bed and I went to study with a friend. My life is kind of a cycle right now that revolves around taking care of the kids, going to class, and studying. Poor Ry.

2. We celebrated Gummy Bear's half birthday. Happy 4.5 Bear! Because we went to the same festival mentioned above last year on his 3.5 birthday, his assumption is that the festival is for his half birthday. This year, he called it his "4 and a half festival" for the entire week before we went. Also, there was cake.

3. The boys are playing together. Actually playing. Together. Here Gummy Bear was reading Cheeky Monkey a book about ticklish animals. We've read it so many times that Cheeky Monkey starts giggling every time you turn the page, anticipating the tickling that is soon to come. It's crazy cute, and even cuter when it's his brother "reading" him the book.

4. More playing.

5. Duck feeding.

Quack

Of course, Monkey kept eating the stale crackers himself.

6. Ry is preparing for a monstrous bunch of traveling for work. He's gone 3 days this week and 2.5 weeks of October.  He may be in Hawaii during the week of Thanksgiving. We've been trying to figure out a way that I can accompany him. Sadly, I don't think we're going to be able to swing right now.  I'm glad that I'll (probably) be working again in a year.

7. I have finally hit a wall with nursing school. Pure excitement about my chosen career has carried me through the past 3 years. This semester, however, is a grind. I'm finding the material this semester particularly challenging (hello, endrocrine system?), and our clinical rotations are all on general medical surgical floors. I miss my boys. I hate being a drag on our finances. Blah blah, bad attitude, blah. I know I'll be better next semester, when we have rotations in Critical Care, School Nursing, Community Nursing, ER and have our "transition", where we shadow a nurse in our chosen nursing specialty for 60 hours. I just have to get through the next 3 months. With my sanity mostly intact. Mostly.

The first soccer game

One word: hilarious. OK, lots more words. Gummy Bear had his first soccer game of the fall.

He looks very dapper, doesn't he?

While I'm amazed by how far the kiddos have come in the past few weeks, it was still a lot of this:

Everyone ... after the ball!

There was a kid on the other team who was clearly the star player. He made several goals and was the only one who seemed to have a clue beyond "kick the ball." There was a kid on Bear's team who was pretty good too. He would get the ball away from the pack and dribble it all the way down the field ... into the wrong goal. Three times. They play something called "small-sided" games. What this means is that there are 4 players from a team on the field at any given time. The 5th sits the sidelines until a substitution is needed. Thank goodness for that, because at 4, substitutions are frequent ... for meltdowns over water, because they couldn't touch the ball with their hands, because they were "tired," and because they saw something distracting on the sidelines (squirrel!).

Doesn't he look like he knows what he's doing?

He had lots of support. My mom and stepdad were there, as were some old friends who had come to spend  the night with us. My voice was actually a little hoarse last night from all the cheering.

Go Bear, go!

While Bear spent the first half of the game in the pack, he spend the second half guarding the goal. Unfortunately, at this age the teams aren't allowed to have goalies. That didn't stop Bear though. He's a born goalie in the land of no goalies.

Ready!

Cheeky Monkey was a bit hard to contain. He ran out onto the field twice. Thankfully, Gpa was there to distract him with a muffin and a hat.

Puffy vests are very slimming.

When the game was over the kids all got goldfish and Capri Sun. I'm pretty sure this was Bear's favorite part of the game. Still, it was a funny, funny 45 minutes. I'm looking forward to next week.

Baby curls ... gone

This weekend I decided it was finally time for Cheeky Monkey to get a haircut. As cute as the baby curls are, his hair started looking messy all the time. It was also time for Gummy Bear's second haircut. Yes, he's 4.5 and this is only his second haircut. He was super excited. I think he was mostly excited because he got a lollipop when he was done.

The old pro.

Cheeky Monkey, on the other hand, was pretty unsure about the whole thing. The guy who cut the boys' hair is the owner of the shop, and a super nice guy. He was also lightening fast and gave the boys cute cuts. One of the things he said about Cheeky Monkey is that he wouldn't put the cape on him because kids his age tend to freak out if they can't see their hands.

It's something I never would have considered, but seemed to be good practice, as Cheeky never freaked out. He did, however, seem quite concerned about the whole thing. He got this look on his face as soon as we lifted him into the chair, and didn't lose it until a good 15-20 minutes after we left.

 Here's where I got all teary. Watching those curls fall to the floor was hard. The cut really changes the shape of his face and makes him look much older.


Still, I have to say that I have the two cutest boys in all of New Jersey.

Don't you agree?

The independent streak

My Gummy Bear is what you might politely call independent. He has unfortunately gotten the worst of my stubborn streak, and we often butt heads. My constant struggle with him is how to mold this independent, stubborn spirit without breaking it. My mantra has been someday I'll be grateful. 


For the first time, I'm starting to see someday.

Chatting with my girlfriends, I'm learning that kids Gummy Bear's age are beginning to get cliquey and exclusionary.  Apparently, most kids notice and care. I don't know if Gummy Bear doesn't notice or doesn't care. It doesn't matter to me, because he doesn't get his feelings hurt.

We went to a birthday party today for a friend who he is not close friends with. One of the other boys looked at Gummy Bear halfway through and said, "Do you even know [birthday boy]?" Gummy Bear looked at him like what are you talking about, and walked away to finish his mini golf game. He's far more interested in doing stuff than talking, being part of the in group, or worrying about what other kids think of him.

For that, I'm grateful.

Murphy's Law and small children

My child will ...

1. Poop as we're walking out the door to daycare 10 minutes late.
2. Wet the bed 3 hours after I changed the sheets.
3. Scrape his face the day before picture day.
4. Find the wettest possible chair to sit on right before getting into the car.
5. Take a 30 minute nap on the day I really want to get some studying done/clean the house/take a nap.
6. Pour the cat's food into his (full) water dish as soon as my back is turned.

Totally unsafe for work

Oh, but I laughed until I cried.
 

Lovely, and yours?

We had a really lovely Labor Day weekend. It was one of those weekends where we had some stuff to do, but not so much that you want another weekend to catch up on sleep at the end.

Ours included a little soiree at our house Friday, a pool party at a friend's house Sunday, and a lot of relaxing in between. Oh, and several hours of school work ... but I'm trying to forget about that. Lovely weekend. Sad to see the summer end. Sigh.

Before and Ahhhhh

Sometime in the last year, our fence went from being an eyesore to being a safety hazard. We had boards down, nails coming out, as as Irene proved, one good storm almost took it down.

Yuck.

But now? Oh, now I double plus heart our fence.

So clean. So straight. So not going to impale one of my boys.

Before

Erg.

And aaaahhhh.

So pretty.

It totally changes the way the backyard feels. Now I feel like we have a private, cozy little space.  We weren't going to install a vinyl fence because it's more expensive. We figured out however that if we're in this house for longer than 3 years it's cheaper to have the vinyl because of the maintenance required with a wood fence. Since this was our 5 year house and we've now owned it for 6 years I figure there's a fair-to-middling chance we'll be here at least 3 more years. And in the meantime .... Ahhhhhh.