Pre-Halloween

I had a lot to say, but now I can't remember, so I'll start with the first thing my Mom would like to know...Gwen is sleeping in her new bed! Now I just have to wait for Nate to transition to Gwen's old bed and I can get out that extra mattress! YAY!
Gwen made this at school, we saw it when we went if for conferences, I think it is really cute, so I am posting it here. I like how she made the sun look angry.
For Halloween we took Gwen and Nate to the library for there Halloween party. They read stories, danced/sang, made a craft and got a snack. Then they went home with a free book, our crafts and other stuff.
I tried to get a picture of them together with their crafts, Gwen cooperated, that is Nate's craft and Nate, well he was rather distracted by Gwen's craft...

Nate, trying on his mask...he loved his costume.

Here he is in his costume. He was a little confused about this Halloween thing, he wanted to go out Monday for candy also and wore his costume all day Tuesday.

Nate liked Gwen's hat also, there are several of these pictures, because I couldn't pick just one to post, they are all so cute.

I have decided maybe he would rock the beret, or the chef's hat...maybe we should give him this style of hat for winter.

This might be the best picture I have taken of the 2 of them, the most cooperative, anyway.

Of course now that I re-look at it I remember when I was taking the picture I was trying to make Nate smile and was making faces and he mimicked me. Pretty funny. I should mention, if I haven't already, Gwen's costume was made by Grandma.

Interesting

Grandma's gone, we are all a little sad. We had a busy time with her, I am not sure the whole time she was here was busy, but the last 3-4 days were packed. I will likely spend a couple posts on her visit. Today was a busy day, but yet I didn't leave the house, interesting, isn't it? Ok, maybe not. I drove Gwen to school and then did some entertaining of some children. I feel bad for my friend who drove back and forth from school 4 times, at least once with an accident blocking her path. But let me get to the kids, kids are funny, aren't they! It is very convenient to make this new friend, my kids are the same age and gender as 2 of her kids. Gwen got a new bed and I wanted to get the bed together and set up before they arrived because Gwen, not so good with change, but I knew she wouldn't make a HUGE fuss with her friend over. My friend dropped her son off and he is not pleased when she drops him off, let me tell you. I thought today was a success because he only cried for about 10 minutes. She came picked him up after she volunteered and then picked up the girls from school and dropped them all back off and went back to school, conferenced and then picked up the kids. WOW! Busy. The kids were funny though. Her daughter wanted to know why our table was in our living room. I had to explain to her that it wasn't our living room. But 4 kids, wasn't so bad, if the 2 youngest weren't 2. The girls are all about princesses and we didn't have enough dresses/accessories for them both. Gwen hasn't shown much interest in dressing like a princess, but now that she has the new friend she got all accessorised up and her friend was rather disappointed to not to have a crown, so I fashioned one out of 2 hair bands and a plastic bracelet. Not much to look at, but when she put it on her head she was a princess! There was a point when the princesses wanted to dance, so I played some music on the piano and they danced with their "princes" which weren't their brothers. It was fabulous for me, I could play and no one would interrupt my playing, or so I thought, I might of played a little too long. I wish I could have played and taken video, but I couldn't do both, needless to say, I picked songs I could crane my neck and watch the cuteness. Fortunately this time, Gwen did not ask to go to her house next time because she wasn't having any fun. Success, for me!
We have set up the room in a new arrangement. Eric spent some time trying to get the kids excited about there new beds (technically Nate is getting Gwen's old bed), but I decided to keep Nate's mattress in there because, well Gwen doesn't like change, and we want this to be a smooth transition. Sadly Eric spent time making Gwen's old bed into a fort, who would want to sleep in the boring new bed when you could sleep in your old comfortable bed, which was made into a fort! But, now Gwen has a twin bed, Nate has Gwen's crib, we'll be securing him some non-pink Dora sheets for him, at some point.
So now that Mom is gone and Halloween is over we will be getting the kids back on schedule, Nate took a late nap, intentionally, but he really needed it! I just wanted him to have quiet time, finished my book and he was asleep...oops, but he really needed it, I tell you, he could use another nap tomorrow!
I think that is enough random babbling for now, I think I might need to go to bed, but Eric is doing school work in our room...

Halloween

I don't know if you know this about me, but I like to go with a theme and then follow that theme. Like, Halloween for instance, I mean you might as well go all Halloween on Halloween, right...see our dinner!
Sadly, there was an incident involving the food coloring and not reading the directions, but I think it still turned out well...I am finished it up for lunch today, I am not complaining! The kids liked the crust!

We took the neighbor girl trick or treating with us, we tried to get a picture with all 3, but well, 1 little boy might be difficult to take pictures of right now! Since the little girl coordinated with the kids outfits, I said, what the heck! (we would have taken her anyway, but still, it was cute)
The kids and Eric, Mom and I took them trick or treating, Eric stayed home and drank beer...I think he was excited about that, ahh quiet!
Bye Daddy! Have fun!
Nate is excited, put some candy in my BAG!
Time to go! Catch up little one, you don't want to miss out on the candy!
I think I have one of Nate dragging his bag, he was so tired and he loves this candy! He even woke up crying because he thought Gwen had eaten some, I am pretty sure Gwen isn't who he should worry about! He is happy to share if you ask him though, but they were both pooped, we packed a lot in Halloween weekend and I will likely write more about it later, like tomorrow, we'll see!

Gwen's school "performance"

One morning last week, the preK dressed up in their uniforms and did a couple Halloween songs for the school. Sadly no one could really hear them. But it was cute. Here they are.
Since none of the parents could here them, they got off the stage for pictures and then decided to sing again for us.
Nate decided to go down the "slide".

pre-Halloween treat

We have had a busy day today, busy, busy busy! But I think the kids have had fun, we ended their day going to a local mall and "trick-or-treating" at the different shops. The kids had a great time. I think we might do that again, it was fun! We were warm, the walk wasn't that far and several of the workers dressed up.
This is the scene on the way home! Someone made up their own song...

HYPED UP! from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

In case you needed an interpretation "Can I eat from my bag? nah, nah, nah Can I see?" We obviously gave them some candy, but apparently some little kids didn't think it was enough! He wanted to get more candy from his bag! He also wanted to look at himself on the camera, I did let him do that.

2 snippets from yesterday

"Gwen why are you smiling?"
"because this is a predicament"
"yes, it certainly is"

"Nate, do you have something in your mouth?"
"uh-huh"
"what"
"a tongue"

Free time?

Since I have a soundly sleeping boy, a girl not home, a husband at work and well the last 2-2.5 hours of peace and quiet, I thought I would do another blog update. I had a conversation this morning with the kids I thought would be funny to put on here, but now I've forgotten it. It was a rather hectic morning this morning, the kids got up at 5:30, apparently the internal clock was off by an hour. I promptly went back into bed and thought, well maybe we'll be early today. The only problem was Gwen didn't put her shoes back in her closet so we spent 10 minutes searching for them. UGH! I have started reading a new parenting book. As I am starting to get out of the fog of the move and adjusting and making new friends, I've realized that I don't like the way my parenting is going. I know that my stress level has been high, but making friends has helped with that, now is the time to focus on my kids and making sure I am a better parent. I think the kids are responding to the new parenting and I think it works nicely with Gwen's school's discipline routine. We'll see how it goes, I need them to listen and follow directions better and I hope this helps.
Nate is such a smart little pistol, it is a great thing for his future, he needs certain amount of attention though and watch out if he is tired or hungry, that is when the trouble begins. This is the toughest part of our new schedule is that it reeks havoc on Nate's schedule. Nate would really like to nap at 12ish. He falls asleep in the car or gets so over tired and then can't get to sleep. Nightmarish. I still put him down for quiet time. But about the time it is time for me to make dinner, he starts to lose it. Today he fell asleep in the car on the way home from Bible study, I had to run into the grocery store, still out cold, then I brought him home, still asleep now...3 hours later! I have to admit, I love his cuddly ways. He likes to sit on the couch read books or watch TV all cuddled up next to you. Eric has about had it at dinner time, his shirts will never be the same from Nate's wanting to snuggle at dinner time.
Gwen seems to be doing well with school, as I mentioned she has had the play date today. She still struggles with being tired and oh my GOSH the whining. "Don't look at me, don't talk to me!" Of course, she is talking to Nate. The other day it was really terrible she was just crying and crying. I knew I had to do something, so we baked muffins. It worked out really well, whinies gone! I don't think I will be able to do that every time, but it was a quick fix, plus we got some yummy treats out of the deal. Gwen tends to get cuddly when Nate is cuddly with Eric, it is the funniest thing.
Eric seems to be doing well, had his first committee meeting and is working along on an idea for his thesis. He is looking into some funding so he has to start the application for that. He seems to be much happier about the whole process now that he has a concrete plan, well as concrete of a plan as you can have in science!
We are gearing up for a trip from Grandma and Halloween, but don't have much else planned. I had a lot of free time today, so I guess just a little vacuuming and laundry and we are ready for Grandma! Have a great weekend.

Playdate

I am ashamed to admit that I've never really done playdates for my kids. It is not something that has occurred to me to do, set up playdates. But since we have moved here, I have started learning about playdates. I am now learning about the after school playdates for Gwen. Some of the Gwen's friends have shown interest in having Gwen over after school. Conveniently the 2 that have shown interest will pick her up after school and then drop her off at our house. SWEET! But, today was the first day I had one of her friends to her house. I thought we would, well I don't know what I thought, but I didn't plan anything to do. I just thought we could think of stuff on our own. But, Nate I didn't know what would happen with him. This house is small, and most the toys are in their room, so I didn't know what I was going to do for his nap/QT. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we ended up having a picnic lunch outside while he slept in the car. Then he woke up so we went in the house. Lana wanted to know if Gwen had any princess dresses, (have I mentioned she's 1 of soon to be 4-3 of which are girls). And then they seemed to not get a long for a little while, Lana was playing with something in the kids' room and Gwen was upset that she didn't want to do what Gwen wanted them to do and said she didn't want to have any more playdates at her house, only at Lana's. I asked her what would make her play date more fun, what did she want to do? So we went out back but I think the girls were tired. We played outside for a little bit, we came back inside they laid down for a little bit, like a minute and then all was right with the world and they wanted nothing to do with Nate. So I kept Nate occupied and they played and then when her Mom came, they didn't want to be separated. I guess I will ask the Mom how it went, and maybe improve our next playdate. Gwen has her second after school playdate tomorrow, I guess I will try to pump Gwen when she gets home to see what I can do to improve her home playdate experience. The only thing I did learn from Gwen's playdate is that her princess dress is itchy, I am wondering if she should get a new one for Christmas, that is less itchy?

This picture is for Daddy

This first picture though is for my Mom! We skype usually but Mom didn't have a chance to see what Eric and the kids did for me a couple weeks ago, I am a little late, sorry! He looks sweet and innocent enough, doesn't he? Well he's not!
Look where I found him, the little man of destruction that he is, as Daddy says, you are getting too tall, combined with his monkey like climbing, he is quite destructive, see!

Don't worry Mom, he'll clean it out before you visit!

Duck Race

E and I found out that we could take the bikes are ride downtown, while we were downtown we found out they were going to have the duck races. E got excited, we should go to the duck races. So, we planned to go, we talked it up to the kids, they got excited. Especially Nate, he kept asking all day, to go to the duck races. But, that was a busy day for us, Eric had to work that day, but we did manage to make it about 5 minutes before the race started. We missed all the fun stuff, family activites but we made it to the bouncy house, so all was not lost, at least in the kids mind. They tried to keep it entertaining for the parents also, they had announcers, from the local tv station, they made lots of duck jokes.

The race was for a good cause, well 3 good causes. You could purchase a duck from one of 3 causes then you could decorate it, there was a decorating contest. The first 3 individual and corporate ducks won prizes. They had people in the "river" helping the ducks finish so that you could claim your ducks. Seemed like a fun time. Maybe next year we will make it for more of the fun during the day.

RAIN!

We have been living under drought conditions for a while. We couldn't remember the last time it had rained, so we were thrilled when it finally rained, during the day, when we could play outside in the rain. Ok, I don't know if we were thrilled, but we took the opportunity to play outside in the rain, with an umbrella, no shoes and a raincoat...it's how we roll.

No Naps

We have started the transition to no afternoon naps for Nate. He totally needs them, and wanders around her from about 3-7p in some kind of crazy 'I need to sleep, but I gotta keep moving or I'll fall asleep' daze. This is pretty terrible for me, he loses all ability to listen and if Gwen looks at him the wrong way he cries...and then she cries too, because she is overtired also. I've decided to go with it because then he goes to sleep really early, and Gwen goes to sleep really early and he doesn't wake her up. It is pure silence around here by 8, 8:30 at the latest, it used to be much later than that...
Gwen sometimes likes to help out with cooking. I have gotten a sesame street cookbook from the library so she could help me cook, but of course she didn't want to help tonight, but we did get everyone to eat dinner, so that's a start.

My kids are pretty affectionate. Gwen goes through these moods where she wants to hold her "baby" Nate often obliges. (I can't help because I'm slaving away over dinner)

Eric has become quite the waffle maker. We seem to be having a lot of waffles on the weekends and occasionally during the week, if it is a special occasion. Gwen takes her syrup pouring very seriously! Nate is apparently taking lessons.

I don't know what is going on here, but it appears Nate wants to cut up one of Eric's old GI Joe's. He actually told me what he was going to do, but needless to say, I took away the scissors.

We also have ghosts in the house, so if you come to visit, PLEASE be watch out!

Sometimes having an intelligent child is a problem, or maybe it is having literal children. Never tell a literal child you want his peas in his belly, cause this is what he does!

I guess if we didn't want these shenanigans at the dinner table, we shouldn't have pulled out the camera.

Fast ride

A couple weeks ago we realized that we had an excess of quarters and a Mall that has a train ride. So we thought we'd take the kids. The thing is we had no idea how fast this train went.

I couldn't take a clear picture because it was going so fast!

Nate seemed to enjoy it, but Gwen since she was sitting backwards was not so sure.

We then took them to the outside part where they have these water fountains, the kids really enjoy playing in them.

The trouble

I have this child, he is a cute, cuddler and possibly a sponge (I don't think he misses anything and he learns quickly!) Sadly this keeps me on my toes. My cousin tells me she likes hearing of his antics and I know she needs a cheerful antic story (HI CUZ!). So this is the story of the cute, cuddly, troublemaker. As you can see he like to climb and loves the look of the dryer, it is apparently his height now.
He climbs away when his Mom calls to him.

He pulls stuff down from my dresser and then plays with stuff he pulls down.

You've been caught, little man!

Ok, so this isn't so much him doing anything bad, he really wanted to cut his own hair...fortunately he couldn't and sadly it made his hair cut take longer.
He's gotten taller which is a problem.Ok, so maybe he's not that much taller...If he can't get to something, he'll stand on anything to get what he wants to get.
And he will drag something to where ever he needs to get whatever it is he fancies. Seriously not enough spaces in this house to hide stuff from him.
The problem with the advanced troublemaker is his age, he is too young and he definitely embraces the trouble part of personality when he doesn't take a nap. He needs to keep moving so he won't fall asleep. Sadly today he didn't get a nap. Which means that he was all over the place and when I stepped into the bedroom to take a phone call, he got into real trouble. He went into the refrigerator got out the chocolate syrup and he and Gwen were trying to get out all the chocolate syrup. I did not get a picture, but maybe you can envision 2 kids with chocolate syrup all around their mouths and a chocolate puddle on the table and chair, maybe on the floor. I should have known when I heard nothing coming from the other room, maybe a giggle...

A joke

We have been working on having the children sit and eat dinner with us. It is a struggle to get them to sit still for a long time. But, sitting down together for a meal is very important to me. These days we are often having breakfast at the same time as each other, well 3 of the 4 of us, and sometimes Eric and I will also sit together. We are also working on eating dinner to get dessert, but that will likely be a struggle for a long time. Nate will usually sit with us for about 5 minutes before he's off, unless it is pizza or enchilladas. Tonight was a more quiet evening, Nate was playing quietly, and Gwen sat and made conversation with us. Told us a little about her day and then broke out with her first joke...(that she had heard earlier on PBS kids)

Why did the banana go to the doctor?

because he wasn't peeling well.

Eric thought it was hilarious and laughed. So then she said

Why did the ban ap cherry go to the doctor?
because he was getting squeezed.

Eric and I both laughed, it was so random and spontaneous. This broke down into her trying to think of different fruits and some random punch line that didn't make sense trying to get us to laugh. It was so cute and funny. I then tried to cut her off (after the 15th joke) because it was getting old and said Daddy she's learned new songs and broke out with Johnny Appleseed...which is an old prayer we used to sing in Girl Scouts when we wanted it to rain and it always worked (sadly it has not worked here, I've tried it.) So then she started praying the prayers they must say at school, she made us close our eyes and busted out this prayer that they must encourage at the beginning of the day. She started out Thanking God for her friends and her teachers and then said Thank you that I don't have to wear my backpack to school today...We could not help it we laughed again. I think the random stuff we hear from her taken out of context is so funny and I can only imagine what goes on in a school room full of 4 year olds who have almost manage the full meaning of the English language, but not quite...I don't wonder why during our orientation the teacher said "If you only believe half of what they say to you we'll only believe half of what she tells us". Dinner was a lovely meal and it is a small glimpse of the random fun I hope to have at the dinner table as our family grows into more understanding of conversation...hopefully by then they will appreciate my dinners or at least eat it!

Busy or lazy

We are continuing on with life with a preschooler. Wow, this whole new schedule is reeking havoc on our lives. If we could just get the kids to sleep you know when they are tired and wake up when we need them to. Sure they are cute when they sleep...

I thought I should update you on the kids. Nate is quite the talker, a motor mouth really. People ask me all the time, how old is he and when I say 2, they comment on how well he talks. He is stubborn and will full. He is smart sure, but he can only point with his fingers and count to 5 on his hands...he can't hold up his thumbs. I keep trying to do the song "where is thumpkin?" He can't do it! He can count and he sings a lot, I have started to take him to story time at the library, he gets very excited and wants to go all the time. He still loves to read books and loves to do puzzles. He is good at it. He is still terribly stubborn about food and eating. Maybe he'll come around, one day, planning meals is very frustrating. He is still a sweet cuddler, which I am happy about...no sign of losing the blue eyes and blond hair yet.

Gwen, what to say about Gwen. My sweet girl. We had a play date at the park with most of the kids from her class. She was SO excited! I didn't tell her that we were going until she got into the car. She was so cute, her "best friend" (she doesn't use the term yet, but she only talks about Lana) was there first and she was happy to see her (it has only been about 15 minutes) they squealed and clasped hands and Gwen said "Mommy, this is my friend Lana, Lana this is my Mom". It was so sweet, until I realized she wasn't going to introduce her other friend. When I would have to come into the playground she would introduce me to all her friends, so excitedly. You'd think they wouldn't have just left school and spent hours together. It is so funny. She seems to love school, although everything that happens at school is a "secret" and she won't really tell us anything. She has started singing a lot of songs. And her Spanish, just atrocious. I am a little embarrassed. But she is learning and has brought some stuff home that she's done at school. I just hope to learn what she is actually doing there!

I have taken over a group from the Church that was going to fizzle, with another Mother. We had our first meeting the other night, so I have been busy with that. We also have to do service hours for the school, I have been trying to figure all that out. It should be interesting because you are not supposed to bring siblings. I am also training to do another ministry for the Church this weekend. So I suspect my time is no longer my own. The husband is still going to school/work and working on getting his thesis started. We are still adjusting to life here as best we can...my gardening experiment is almost over. I have learned a lot and am already starting to plan my garden for next year. I have been having a problem with my plants it has been so hot here. I thought fall was upon us, we were able to turn off the air at night, but now hot again. I have 2 eggplants growing and we have lots of sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. Eric is about tired of cucumbers, I guess I will only plant 1 next year instead of 3!

Can you see me now, 4yr old edition

As we watch Gwen grow you begin to appreciate how kids learn things, you know like the peak-a-boo and hiding under a blanket means no one can see you. We have gotten to a new level with Gwen. She LOVES to play hide-and-seek...ask my Mom! The only problem is that she doesn't really get it yet. She tells you what number to count to, where to hide and usually giggles or yells when she is hiding so you can find her. Always in very obvious spots. I am sure she will learn how to really play hide and seek, oh it is fun. She honestly asked my Mom to play every hour of every day she was here, my Mom might now say, wow that was fun, but I think at the time she was a little overwhelmed. Nate doesn't really participate. Gwen has also learned to hide under stuff and she thinks it is great fun. While Mom was here Gwen decided to hide, we had to pretend we didn't know where she was...Mom might have gotten a little carried away with her shoes...
After 10, ok maybe 2minutes wandering around pretending to look for Gwen, I think Mom's figured it out, she's so smart!

Some thing's in there!

HI! Grandma!

Gosh, don't you wish you could visit and play with us!