thanksgiving

W decorated her own branch with the Christmas lights

She looks like she could go pro, right?

T being a fabulous little brother and pulling his big sis.  She had a blast

E also got lots of rides from his brother and had a blast too

W made most of this large star herself

T pulling his bro

It is a little cold mom

 

I love the lacy look right after a snow storm

I read a comment about how we are not honest in our online conversations.  We only share the best and none of the worst.  I agree.  I totally do not blog about personal struggles, days full of temper tantrums and the days of rain and freezing sun.  It is not uplifting to me in the slightest.  So if anyone is comparing their life to this, don't.  It is one sided on purpose.  To talk about the FUN part of having kids.

This week we went to the grocery store.  And then went again because we forgot some ingredients.  And then went again to adjust recipes to Papa's tastes.  But each time, T was so very careful and helpful.  He did a normal awesome job at pulling the grocery cart.  A few more old men noticed how good T is at helping.  It still surprises me at his skills.  I needed a few of them the other day.  I hit a parked car.  Pathetic.  Pretty sure T would not have done that had he been driving the car.

T also can be so conscious and careful with E.  I let E out of the cart and T wanted him to walk with him, so he took his hand.  Usually if I take E's hand, he protests and says he can do it himself.  But if T takes his hand, E is very content.  T also didn't think E could walk from the store to the car.  He can.  It is just usually not in straight line.  So I usually carrying E.  But my hands were a bit full, so T took it upon himself to protect his brother and carried him from the store to the car.  E didn't complain, protest or even have a face that showed he was in distress.  In fact he looked like he was the newest crowned king.

When we got to the car, T instructed W to help and the two of them hoisted E in the car.  Then T put E in his car seat.  I had no idea they were big enough.

They have been playing accident this week.  Pushing big boxes from Costco down the hall and throwing all the toys in a big pile, then crashing into the toy pile.

T has been instructing me on what to say on various topics randomly.  He tells me my parts and then waits for me to repeat them, just like a primary program.  Except it occurs any time of the day.

E has been playing train with the boxes too.  He gets his own box and pushes it around the hall behind his big brother.  He mimics his big brother a lot.  T was telling me about some spices and was pointing to his fingers, so E did the same thing a little later.

E thinks T is soooo funny!  He laughs at pretty much everything T laughs at.  He even laughs when T plays train in the dark and T turns off all the lights.  He doesn't seem to be afraid of the dark then.  It is kind of nice in that I can tell the same things are funny for each other.

W did almost all the cutting on a paper snowflake craft.  All I needed to do was to show her once and she did the rest.  I couldn't believe that.

E is saying lots. things like "CAT!" and then making the cat noise.  He also does it with owls, especially if he sees the Owl Baby book.  My mom has a faux fir lining on her hood.  Ethan was petting it and saying Meow!

T went on a walk with Grandma, who took him in a partially complete home.  Boy was he excited!!!  He was checking out all the details and then came home to tell me about the different pipes and what stage of being built. He was so, so excited.  He couldn't stop telling me about all those exciting things.

They all went puddle splashing today.  It turned into a huge mud pile, but they all had a blast and came home wet and muddy.

W wanted to make the table beautiful so she worked hard on making placemats for the table. 

They are counting down to Thanksgiving.  Purely for the Thanksgiving chocolate turkey to eat.  That definitely helps inspire a grateful heart.  I think I will have to think of something more sustainable.

Having Grandma and Grandpa leave is sad. Good thing we had a few things to distract us.  Like decorating for Christmas.  But then that started the Christmas countdown.  I admit, this year I am not really ready for Christmas to be popping up.  I feel I need more Thanksgiving.  Probably has more to do with the fact that my brain has literally been in another country.  W loved to help me with the lights.  It made it loads more fun to have company instead of decorating alone.

We really just had a blast today!  It snowed in the morning. I rushed them out the door to enjoy it because I knew iw would wrate.  I also just enjoyred listening to E say "no no" to himself, watch him do the fake laugh he has when something is funny or thinkds we should think is funny and galloping around the house.

T helped Push e up and down ever so quite.  E has sitting balance to lean forward going uphill. 

T also helped scan the items from home depot himself. And made prize presents for us all with the lights

T doesn't like walks much, but this made it better.  Later Grandma took just him to a house under construction and walked around inside of it.  He couldn't stop talking, he was so excited about all the stuff he saw

E riding in style with Grandma on a Sunday walk

W made everyone a Thanksgiving placemat

Grandpa got ready for the walk, but E needed a quick read from the Thomas book before he was ready for his walk

Creating together

E's first Din tai fung experience.  Loving it like the rest of it.  Dad was excited too

Life isn't worth living without grandma snuggles

Chocolate turkery T didn't eat all of it.  He saved the feet for later

This is W's favorite part of Thanksgiving.  She saved half of her turkey for later.  Partlybecause she wanted to enjoy it and partly because she was told she could eat only half

Primary program

Jumping into leaves after running down the hill.  Then flinging them in the air.

Then raking the pile up again.  We also did this during learning box school

Cute E

E just makes me laugh when I see him pulling this wagon around

big kids balancing on the rock

E loves to say cones and stack them

Sometimes I find E in his "boat" when I can't hear him.  He is the one that said boat

E put the dog in the wagon and gave him a ride around the driveway

I love this pic because E is working so hard with his friend Thai.  Thai is already 5.  E loves to follow Thai around and do just what he is doing and Thai loves it.  They were working on drilling holes in the yard

 

The big kids were in their first primary program ever.  I was so enthralled!  Had a blast watching them.  Since I was watching the kids I realized the younger ones wiggle in their seats more, but are generally pretty good and the older ones don't wiggle as much, but whisper and make faces a bunch since they have done it lots before and are kind of done with the whole thing, so everyone is evenly irreverent.  But it seems so much more reverent to me because the noise isn't next to me any more. 

Anyway, the big kids knew the words to the songs and remembered their parts even though they hadn't ever practiced.  They were gone during the practices.  The leaders didn't know it, but T told them.  One of the sisters started helping him but he leaned way away from her and said "I know my part and can do it myself!"  Right in front of the microphone.  And he did!   He said it clearly, evenly and into the microphone without getting too close with the biggest smile on his face.  It was a surprise to me because at home he didn't want to practice much and would say it really fast and loud to get it over with. 

W remembered hers but stood too far away from the microphone so no one understood her.

And of course there is always one funny event, if not many. The kid that got everyone laughing was saying his part and somehow started saying "and then I will be able to grow up and marry a beautiful girl that knows how to cook"  then he pauses, looks out into the audience, and gets this silly almost apologetic look on his face, laughs, and says "my dad wrote THAT part".  He is 9.  Everyone was dying.

I thought having just E during all of church would be easy, but E was super grumpy and noisy.  Not so mom!!  It 's ok.  He ended up sleeping during all of YW, so it worked out for the best for me anyway. 

W decided to show me how she can count to 100.  What?!  I don't think I taught her that.  Something she must have figured out with all the pattern stuff in preschool with numbers. 

Preschool is also doing this thing with sight words, something all the other mothers that have kids in kindergarden know about.  But both T and W are remembering them and when I point them out in books we read, they know them. 

W also is getting the concept of spelling.  She asks me how to write a word and can do all the letters, even asking me if they are lower case or upper case.

Nothing earth shattering but it still amazes me that my children get these milestones seemingly suddenly and without help.

E is doing it too with talking and copying.  J and I keep asking each other if T and W talked this much, and especially this early.  We don't think so.  We are guessing it is because E has a constant stream of conversation between two, and sometimes three, people all day long.  It never ever stops.  So he gets lots of practice listening and mimicking.

He says all sorts of words.  Nothing anyone outside the family can understand for sure, but just lots of words and corrects himself in pronunciation.  Book, shoe, sock, more, food, no, bye, side, poop, done   It is getting more and more clear every day and he continues to express himself well with emphatic no's by shaking his head and yeses with sounds of supreme contentment, like when he sees his fuzzy.

It looks so cute to me how he carries his huge fuzzy down the hall to W's room in the morning to wake her up.  He is always excited to see her.  T he can see as soon as he wakes up, but it always surprised and happy to see W.

I love how he picks out his favorite books (animal or train books) and brings them to us, then settles himself down into our laps for reading it at least 5 times in a row.  He never did this before being at grandma's for two weeks.  I got a good picture of him very intently studying the pages of a train book while Papa read to him.

Another fun skill T and W have is that when we face time with my parents, T holds conversations with them without any help from me.  He now has a bond.  W continues to ignore people unless it is convienent for her to talk, so I don't see it as much as I do with T.  E smiles pretty big when he sees my parents on face time.  And then promptly pushes that bright red huge END button and hangs up.  Whoever invented face time doesn't have kids. 

I was still really struggling with jet lag this week, even though it has been over 7days of being back, my anticipated end time of this body craziness.  It is a huge struggle to stay awake.  T and W have made games out of keeping me awake and I tell them to help me out.  Ridiculous.

So I haven't done much else other than teach pre school and keep food coming for the kids this week purely for lack of energy.  I don't want to be driving around during any sleepy times either.  But the benefit has been that I have mostly watched the kiddos play.  And they are so cute.

E is just being cute.  I have thought many times of getting out the video camera and just videoing him, but then I look at the situation and it would be a very boring video of him just being a kid.  Why would someone have hours of video of a kid repetitively running up and down a hill with his preschool friends?  Or pulling a pull toy turtle behind him?  Or pulling a wagon around the yard and picking up balls and cones and saying the words?  No reason except mommy is in love. 

T is a bit jealous of this toddler love I think. He has been trying to get my attention more even though we do mommy time each day.  Poor T.  He just doesn't remember when I did the same thing to him when he was this age.  Fascinated by just watching all the miraculous things he can do all by himself.

I get a huge kick out of E carrying this huge blanket down the hall in the morning to wake up W.  Or saying "no no!"  to himself when he isn't doing something quite right.   Or saying poop!  and then giving his diaper a tap to tell me he just filled his pants. Or watch him stack blocks.  Or see him drag the kitchen play toys box over to me again so I can open it and he can scatter everything around.  He also watched the neighbor's gardener for quite a spell today.

T and W have also been amazingly good and so fun to be around.  All the leaves are down and pine needle season is just about over, so I am finally cleaning up the debris.  T figured out how to use the snow shovel and dump the leaves into the wheelbarrow.  He helped me with it for an hour.  It was a huge help.  Then we would run the wheelbarrow back to the compost pile where the wheelbarrow would "go potty" and run back.  E walked up and down all those hills and uneven surfaces right along with them.  Then we celebrated and jumped in a huge leaf pile over and over.  They played raining leaves and burying the toys.  E jumped too, although his feet don't leave the ground yet.

T pushed E in a "train" (box) around the house for about a half hour today.  T was so very cute, gentle and thoughtful about it.  He went slow enough for E, not playing too wild.  E would whoo, whoo like a train whistle intermitantly.  One time E was crying and T said "Oh! you need fuzzy?" and found a turn around spot to go get E's fuzzy for him.  T also got him laughing really hard by throwing the baby wipes into the train over and over.  I'm not sure what was so funny, but it was.

The stuff they practiced saying for the program sunk in.  That is good, because that is the point of the program.  But it came in a funny way how I know this.

W was crying a bunch and getting impatient one day lots.  So T informed her that she needed to say her lines again to "help her remember to be kind"  Her part was "I use my body to be kind and follow Jesus's example.  When E cries or is sad, I go get his big fuzzy.  This helps my mommy to be kind"  Then he quoted his part just to help her out.

They are soooo excited for Thanksgiving and Grandma to come for it.  T kept asking when she was goining to get there.  He kept asking where her plane was and said " I bet grandma can't wait to be here because she I can't wait for her to be here.

back to real life! And excited to be there

Boy was I so excited to see my kids again!  They were a lot less enthused than I was when I picked them up from the airport.  Can you blame them after being with Grandma so much?  I'm sure they feel like we all do after going on a cruise.  They know life can't always be that good, but missing it for sure.

When I saw them, I wanted to run up and give them hugs and kisses, which I did.  But no response.  Ok.  Fine.  W did finally tell me the next afternoon that she missed me the first night I was gone.  But she didn't say anything about the rest of the nights.

My mom took us all the way to the train part of the airport, which included an elevator ride.  E apparently has a deep seated fear of elevators that developed from this trip.  He screams as if something is biting him when he gets in them.  Same with the train.  Same with the airplane.  Even when we walk by the elevators in the airport and didn't

E got up here himself.  He was very impressed with himself.  So was I.

E is very intently studying the pics in this book.  I think he is also trying to read along

We got E minion socks.  He loves them.  He points to them and says minion.  We showed him the minion banana mini movie on You Tube.  Aunt H's influence lives on.  She showed this first to T and W

I am not particularly a huge fan of the dark and rain of winter.  However, I've finally come to realize there is nothing I can do about it.  So I have started to think of things I can look forward to doing just because it is dark and raining.  This is one of them.  Using our umbrellas.  They like to use their umbrellas. I rarely let them use umbrellas.  It is hoods or bust.  T invented a game where his frog umbrella was eating him

It's ok Mom!  Here is my cute face again!

get in them.  I'm guessing that it is because it triggers his last memories of what he was doing before Mommy left him in the car with Grandma without getting in.  Maybe that is why T is so afraid of toilets.  One time I left them with J for 5 days.  That was when J was potty training W.  Maybe all that toilet flushing reminds T of when he was left.  Who knows.  Only theories.

Anyway, when we all got in the elevator, E turned toward my mom for comfort.  W kept saying "Grandma, I mean Mom" for a day and T didn't really want any snuggles from me for about a day.  Slowly recovering.

W was such a huge help getting around the airport.  She pushed the stroller and her booster seat all the way back to the car.  It was a long way, but I couldn't have done it without her I couldn't balance the stroller or that last booster seat on the luggage cart back to the car.  Two suitcases, two carry on bags, three car seats, one stroller and one baby.  We went very slowly. 

W remembered our gate number and helped find it with T.  The plane wasn't there when we got to the gate, so we had a great time watching it park on the lines, the man directing it, the poop truck hooking up to the belly of the plane, the baggage truck and the food trucks.  All of the kids had lots of comments about it. The next day T used these ideas in his play by lifting a big box and moving it up and down like the food truck to dump in "food" (toys) into the "plane" (E's crib).  They had so much fun they dumped all the toys they could find in E's crib.  They only got to play that game once.

They did amazing on the plane ride back home.  They were telling me all sorts of stuff about their time with Grandma.  T was telling me about playing with Madison and how she is too big for him to pull in the wagon because it makes him go backwards.  W asked me about Thailand and wanted to hear stories from the trip.  She asked me if Papa taught me any words in Thai.  I taught them all 10 phrases I know to date.  Badly pronounced I'm sure, but they did remember the word for 5 and have incorporated it into play. The word is ha.  So T says "hahaha!  That means 555".  Yep.  They all fell asleep around 9:30 pm, but got up right on time the next day.

Fighting jet lag is an interesting experience.  It feels like I am in the very early stages of pregnancy for half the day.  I am exhausted and can't keep my eyes open if I am still for any length of time.  But only for part of the day.  For me it is from 3-9 pm, the time I was sleeping while in Bangkok.  And then there is the bit that, even if I force myself to stay up until 9 pm, I can't sleep past 2 am.  Whatever.  I have no idea how to make it stop sooner, but I think it will be like any other time change.  One week.  I am so exhausted and don't have energy and I also can't remember much or concentrate on any conversation of any intelligence during the afternoon.  Thank heavens I teach preschool in the mornings. 

The kids have said so many cute things and done so many cute things, but I can't remember them for the life of me.  Silly jet lag brain.  I have no idea how my husband is able to go to work and get anything done.

I have noticed that E is much better at pronouncing some words.  Like bath and more.  He also is better at showing laughter.  He laughs more animatedly at things, especially when he thinks he is being funny or silly.  He is continues to be good at clearly saying no.  He also clearly said bye to Mina and waved at her.

We got him a pull snake.  He thinks it is funny.  The first night he couldn't decide between his push vacuum and his pull snake, so he walked backwards pulling both.  So cute. He is also better with his animal sounds and wants the stuffed woof woof to be his stuffed animal, not T's.  T is conceding.

E is also better at copying.  He wants to join in at preschool.  He puts his hands out for hand sanitizer when all the other kids line up.  T was playing "give mommy hand sanitizer" in the tub, filling up old shampoo bottles and giving me just a bit.  E showed me what I was supposed to do with the hand sanitizer once it was on my hands, since I didn't do it right away.  Then T asked E if he wanted to give mommy some. So E filled up his bottle and gave me some. 

E has figured out how to open bottles that snap open and shut.  Like toothpaste.  Careful.

E has also figured out how to get on the couch by pulling a chair over.  He is always so impressed with himself when he does that.  He did it during pre school in our lazy boy and then proceeded to rock with glee, impressed that he got up and then that he could have so much fun rocking.

During preschool we were reading a book and all the kids were sitting in their chairs looking intently at the pages.  So e did the same.  He pulled his chair over really close and peered closely at pictures, just like everyone else.  Except he was too close and someone started yelling that they couldn't see.

E does lots of copying.  W has noted it and quoted the Olivia book.  In the Olivia book, there is a page that says her little brother is copying her all the time and it bothers her.  So she has to be firm.  W remembered that page and quoted it the other day.

W was super cute with T at lunch.  Everyone wanted their manderins peeled.  The big kids are big enough to do it, but often forget.  So I told T that he could wait until E's were peeled and then it would be his turn.  W stepped up and offered to peel all of T's orange peels.  T encouraged her by saying that she is better at peeling oranges than him and if she could peel them all.  She was happy to help. 

W can count backwards from 60 by herself.  I have no idea how she suddenly has that skill.  She also has noticebly improved on how she writes her name.

T got a pair of wings from the flight attendant.  It is a sticker that has the southwest heart on it.  He gave it to me so that I "can remember that I love you Mom!"

T got out the smaller of his bikes, the ones without training wheels.  He rode around the driveway a bit without training wheels!  Very exciting.

I have no pictures of this week with them.  I think it was because I was snuggling and hugging them instead of trying to capture the moment.  Just enjoying the moments.

Vacation is fun but being with family is more fun.  I told J no more long vacations without the kids.  I'm sure my mom would second that.

their trip

"Snack" at Penelope's

While we were in Thailand, my kids went on a cruise.  Not really, but they might as well have.  They went to Grandma's.

This was E's first plane ride.  He watched everything with a keen eye.  Our flight was at 6:45 am on a Wednesday morning before Halloween.  It was a perfect flight.  We had the whole back half of the plane to ourselves.  E had paid so much attention, it must have worn him out.  He fell asleep in my arms for half the flight.  I couldn't believe my luck!!!  W and T were very well behaved playing games and eating meal bars.

T was paying very close attention because when we got off the plane, he informed me that "if someone needs to smoke they should do it outside the building"  He was just repeating the announcement made over and over to me, but with such seriousness.  Yep.  You are right, T.

W was sooooo excited to go to Grandma's.  They told their learning box school friends every time they saw them, two weeks in advance.  W was awake when I came to get her at 4 in the morning to get dressed and go potty.  She usually only does these tasks if fully supervised and at a very, very slow pace.  But I think she had everything done and wanting to get in the car in about 5 minutes.

I went to put everything in the car as it was ready.  Luggage, E, and W ran in the car.  Poor T.  He was having a hard time coming out of a dead sleep.  I went to go back in the house to help him and found him literally running out the door, crying.  He thought I was going to leave him.  I was surprised at how fast he got ready, so I just locked the front door and helped settle him down in the car.  But when I got home, I realized how much he really thought I was going to leave him.  His pj bottoms were in the front entry hall.  He is meticulous about putting his pjs in the laundry hamper.  Not that day.  No time.

They went everywhere with Grandma.  First they went with Grandma to vote.  Why my mom didn't send in a mail in ballot is beyond me, but she didn't and dragged all the kids with her.  They had a blast.  T got down and looked at the voting booth's legs, shook them a bunch to see if they were sturdy.  They all got stickers at the end that said they voted, so it was worth it.

I facetimed that evening with them.  I was thinking E would have the hardest time being left.  I've never done it overnight, and definitely not for 12 days in a row.  I thought everything was good.  On Facetime, he brought the ball over to show me and didn't seem distressed or uncomfortable.  Seemed right at home.  Probably helped that we had been there 2 months previous.

I didn't realize how hard it was for him until I brought him home.  He screamed as if something were pinching or biting him every time we got in an elevator or walked by one.  The plane door also looked closely like an elevator.  He is still very nervous in elevators.  He has never shown that before.  My guess is that the elevator must be the last thing he remembers before being abandoned by mom.  Who knows. 

W settled in with a craft.  They made glitter pumpkins.  W's had every inch of the pumkin covered in glitter.  No pumpkin skin showing. 

T was in charge of the wagon at the pumpkin patch.  They got really good at checking for squishy pumpkins.  Good thing.  Second to last day to buy and those pumpkins were in the end stages of life.

Oliver loves it when they come to visit.  He gets lots of food from rejected items.  And so he shares his food, too.  E likes Oliver's dog food.

My mom put what my dad calls "decals" in the house.  There is a ladybug painted on the wall in each room.  W is finally old enough and noticed the ladybug painted behind the TP in the bottom bathroom.  So she did the hunt.  They didn't find all the ladybugs painted in the house, but are now on the lookout.

Grandma took them gardening.  She was very surprised at how many gardening skills they already have.  They pruned a bunch of bushes, T hauled away the branches, they planted tulip bulbs and T used his mini wheelbarrow to move stuff around.

They also picked apples from the tree and fed them to the horse that is there.

They might be asking for an animal when they get older.  They all got a turn snuggling with Oliver at least once, until Oliver fell asleep with his head on their lap.

My mom's dad came to visit.  One morning T popped his head into his great granpa's room and yelled "it's morning time!" and slammed the door shut again.

E adjusted well to his private suite.  One afternoon, he had had it and ran into my parents closet and cried to be let into his crib.  It was time for a nap.

My dad thinks it is so funny how vehemently e says no.

They had slinky apples for snack everyday.  And then made a pie too.

They love the book "Owl Babies" and "old black witch"  My mom changed the names in the Owl Babies to their names.  They ate it up.  E came home saying owl and making the noise.  They made a whole pie the next day.

They loved having new play mates.  Neighbor Maddie and Penelope kept them entertained with sharing so many toys and new games to add to their repertoire

W showed Grandma that she already has planting practice.  She knew which way to plant tulip bulbs and how to get the pansies out just right.

T noted that "at Grandma's house we pray for rain and at our house we pray for sun"  I guess we all need a lesson in gratitude and to pray for that.

They picked apples of course.  How could Grandma leave that out of the activity list in the fall?  They also fed the horse at my mom's friend garden place.  And ate a slinky apple every single day for snack.  Even E.  Who loves variety.  Can't get tired of slinky apple apparently.

They also played "tormento" every day. It involves swinging up wildly in the hammock just like a regular windy storm

They visited with Grandma An, too.  Of course they played outside!!  On the swing.  I asked them about being with Grandma An.  All W could remember is that she got two different kinds of drinks.  Apple juice and grape juice.  And she had a grilled cheese sandwich.  That was all very, very exciting, let me tell you.  T just noted that Uncle E wasn't around.  I had to get more reports and pics from Grandma An.

T working hard

Penelope in her playhouse, with T and W to the right of her

Grandma snuggles

Uncle R and E play time.  Oliver supervising

E, T and W awaiting the plane that would take them to Grandma's.  I believe this is E's first plane ride.  He was fascinated by the plane.  And terrified of the airport

First day at Grandma's.  Having a blast without you mom!  T liked the gas tank cap

Picking out pumpkins at the patch

Working in the yard at Grandma's

Chowing down on fresh picked apples.  Even E.

E and T fed Oliver like this every single day

End result of the pumpkin carving

Made an apple pie together

Working as a team to make their leaf pile bigger

Little bro in training

Snack time at Grandmas

This is serious raking that needs to be done

With real rakes needed

If they only remember this tire swing from Grandma An's, it is for a good reason.

They do this the whole time they are there

No E in the leaves.  Ohhh!!  He was busy taking an Aunt H snuggle nap

Ready for the party.  Do I really have to wear this??!!