conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

…and the blog is ignored.

We’re counting down the days until school is out. Sixteen days, and three of them are half-days. We went to the pool yesterday, and plan on going after school on Wed, Thur, and Fri. Of course, now I still need bathing suits for both boys and a sun shirt for Jim and towels…

The garden is in, and in the ten days since I planted and transplanted, the seeds have been sprouted and thinned. The transplants are a different story. The basil is fine, the calendula (a flower) is OK, and the pumpkin is so-so but seems to be recovering. The tomatoes and pepper plants didn’t make it. I checked on them yesterday, and all the leaves were gone, and one of the tomato plants was all shriveled up too. Of course, I’m sure it didn’t help that the timer for the sprinkler was wrong, set to water for zero minutes. So it missed getting watered for two and a half days. But that’s all fixed now.

I also set up a pretty sweet sprinkler system. It cost about $125, but it’s run by timers, and the hoses run along the house, not the lawn. It makes edging a little harder, but it’s way better then having hoses on the lawn and brown grass! And eventually, the spots where the hoses run will be flower beds, and edging there won’t be a problem at all.

In Colin news, he’s now fully potty-trained. There were some setbacks early on, but the enticement of a new train and fear of what would happen to the train (going back to the store) if he kept backsliding, worked. He’s even dry at night!

Since Colin is a big boy now, I gave into the peer pressure, and gave him a streamlined summer haircut last night…

My moppet before his haircut….

…is turned into a hooligan after it:

Dad and I are wondering why the Easter bunny doesn’t clean the kitchen and make the coffee before he leaves.

After staying up past ten last night, the boys were up before seven, Jim got Colin out of his room to go to the potty, but wouldn’t let him get undressed.

Since we’re all having Easter candy for breakfast, I’m hoping they crash hard and early, so we can all get a nap in before Easter dinner.

Last night, at the Vigil Mass, Jim had a rough start, with the dark church (not liking the dark), and the smell of the incense and lilies (with his oversensitive sense of smell). We really thought he was going to be looking for an excuse to leave, since Colin got to stay at Matt’s with his awesome babysitter duo. Instead, he turned himself around, put down the comics, and followed along in the missal with me, and…

he sang. I don’t know if he was inspired because the psalm was familiar, or if he was just into it, but he sang with me. He loves music, he’s been making up songs later, loves when we blast the iTunes in the house. So this feels like another big step in getting for next year. I’m just bursting with pride.

I vowed not to go out of the house today, and just clean and do laundry. I’m enjoyed last night’s pot roast for brunch (a new weird trend of mine, dinner for brunch — last week it was cheesesteaks leftover from my b-day party). Also, listening to Don’s tape imports of his dad.

Took Colin “toy shopping” in the basement for puzzles, and he ended up coming up with a themed Duplo block set on the first run, and then more Duplo blocks and a matchbox car set on the second trip. He is just having a blast.

I got a free photo book from Snapfish, and I’ve been working on re-creating the ones I made in Shutterfly of the boys last year. Snapfish is cool because it links to Flickr, but I realized that my early Flickr imports were edited for size. So I have to re-import all the photos I want. And the Snapfish photobook layouts are just sub-par to Shutterfly. But free is free. Too bad it’s taking forever to get this done.

I am fascinated by the field across the street from Jim’s bus stop. It started last year, when I was waiting for the bus the day after a snowstorm. Anyway, I’m making it a photography project.

In the morning, the sun rises behind the trees. By the time we get there, it’s over to the right a bit….

By afternoon, with the winter sun behind me, the field and trees have a golden glow:

The clouds were moving fast, bringing in a cold front…

In a mad dash to GET IT DONE already, Colin’s room was ready to go live today. We got the old bunk bed out last night, and then I built the bed and had it waiting this morning.

And then I quickly found out the my original plan of using the crib mattress for a toddler style bed wasn’t going to work, as his crib mattress was too long and too skinny. So, I went to Plan B, which was to use just the mattress from Jim’s old old bed, which I think used to be Don’s bed before we got married. Anyway, our only non-IKEA twin bed. That mattress fit, but the bed was too long for the way I had the room laid out.

So then I re-arranged the room again, and again. Got it right on the fourth try. Brought in the rocker and the dresser and the toy box and some pictures. Etc.

Then it was time to go and we were out all day. Didn’t have time to put the curtains up until right before dinner. After all the effort I went through to get them (IKEA trip, so glad it’s so close), it’s obviously how “well”‘ they are made. They have an obvious horizontal pattern, and its repeats are lined up properly. So I have to re-do the rod pockets before hemming them.

Anyway, he’s in bed, asleep, in his new room, in his new BIG BOY bed. Go Colin.

jim: “I’m going to wear my glasses in case they teach us stuff today, not to look handsome…”

crazy caroller

Jim’s Christmas play was/is today. They split the school in half, and each grade performs part of the play. There’s a dress rehearsal in the morning that we attended.

While waiting, Colin decided to catch “humbugs”. I have no idea what these are (except for that they are invisible) or where he got the idea about them. Like Dad said last night, he’s our weird one.

I took a video of his part, he goes by in a flash (blue vest, blue-gray hat, gray scarf), but I was too far away for it to be clear.

The pics of him on stage didn’t come out either.

I’ve also been on a finishing frenzy with regards to knitting. Finished mittens for me, Jim’s sweater, the Carr baby sweater, and a shawl which I’m keeping for myself. It’s medium blue which is a weird color, and I ran out of yarn before the edge could be properly finished, so it’s a little wonky. I haven’t even blocked it, but it’s been nice in the afternoons for keeping warm.

Jim’s sweater:

Baby sweater:

Haven’t even gotten pictures of the others yet…

In the time of Facebook, the blog gets ignored. So let’s see what’s happened in the last few weeks…

We (I) got the upstairs hall painted right before Thanksgiving. It looks great, and it’s so nice to finally have color up there. Can’t wait to get the rest of the foyer painted. Still have one vents to put back and have pictures to hang.

Dad re-configured the living room including the “media” furniture. It has more of a media center appearance, keeps all the equipment cool AND out of reach, and we still have toy storage. Overall, it is just nice.

I’ve almost Christmas shopping. Got a great deal on a Flip Ultra camera. Thought I might let Jim try it out. Here’s the first video I made:

Cleaning the mess left over from Halloween costume making and organizing of the therapy bills for Jim (two a week since September).

Very happy with the progress I made yesterday on the painting prep and bookcase, but I paid for it last night with immense shoulder pain — same as I’ve had all my life. Luckily, as bad as it is, time with the heating pad and a night’s rest is enough to get rid of it. It’s just sore today, so I’m going to try and skip the hand sanding of the bookcase and walls.

Also, trying to find the “kid’s” camera that we got back in May, so we can have it for the trip to NYC this weekend. I’m bringing my camera, but I would really like the little one.

And Colin is on his third watching of Mickey/Disney’s Christmas Carol…

I woke up yesterday feeling completely revived and regenerated. I can’t explain it, it’s more than being over the flu. I had more energy than I have had in weeks.

So Colin and I made a mega-trip to Wal-Mart. A new one was hatched about two miles closer than the one that was hatched 18 months ago. So it’s nice and new and clean. (Although it doesn’t have an eyeglass shop like the other one). While the selection isn’t the best, I can get most basics I need, plus things like an aquarium, writeable CDs, and cold medicine. So, nearly one-stop shopping.

But bigger than that is that I got started on painting the middle room, what will be Colin’s room. I cleaned out all the stuff on the walls and the toys on the floor that didn’t get moved on the first pass for Jim’s migration. Today is spackling and other prep work. The bunk bed is still in there, but there’s just enough room to work around it. At the same time, I’m prepping the hall upstairs for painting. There’s not a lot of wall, but a lot of trim, but I think with Dad taking some time off for Thanksgiving, we should get it done.

We’ve got the next two weeks planned out. We’re taking Jim to NYC on Sunday for his birthday, he’ll be able to get his present at the Nintendo store or the Times Square Toys R Us. Monday I’ll be taking cookies to school for his snack. Tuesday or Wednesday he’ll be going to Chuck E Cheese with a school buddy. Wednesday I’ve got his parent-teacher conference. Then it’s Thanksgiving!

It looks like Jim is starting to have trouble with math. Rushing through his work is a problem, but it also seems like he’s forgetting simple addition. He’s definitely having problems planning out solutions to multiple problems. So I’m working on extra work after his regular homework (which is never much) to get him caught up.

so, yeah, if you’re not on facebook, you might not know that we all got the flu, most likely the oink oink flu. Only Jim was flu-tested, and it was only a rapid test that says yes or no — the swine flu test is more invasive and takes more time to get. So Jim got a Tamiflu script. And of course, as we’re putting coats on, I can tell that Colin has a fever too. That was last Tuesday, and over the weekend, Dad and I got sick. I’ve been splitting the Tamiflu between the two boys, and I think it helped keep their symptoms mild. It seems that I’m hit the worst. I’m just tired and sore all the time.

But laying low has it’s benefits, which is, I have time to start Christmas knitting. And planning Christmas knitting — Jim has too many teachers and therapists to make this easy on me, though.

Last night, after having it dangle and wiggle around all week, Jim “lost” one of his top front teeth. And by lost, I mean, I pulled it out because I was tired of it flopping around and having him stick his fingers in his mouth all day.

Not really a milestone, but cute nonetheless…. The Candy fairy brought Colin a Scooby-Do beanie baby. Today in the car he says, “This is my Scooby-Do. I love him.” Awwwwww.

Around 2pm, I get a call from the school, “Mrs. Garvey, Jim shoved….”

(Ok, I’m thinking the worst already, that he got in trouble for rough-housing again…)

“…. an eraser up his nose, and the school nurse is gone, and we can’t get him to blow his nose. So come get him.”

I call the pediatrician and can’t get through because they spend their whole message talking about how they don’t have any more flu shots. Call Dad and get no answer.

Go wake up Colin, pile into the van and go get Jim, who’s just scared that he is in trouble.

Out in the sunlight in the parking lot, I look up his nose and don’t see a thing, but he assures me it’s there. Got through to the pediatrician, and they say (of course) take him to the ER.

Drive to the ER, on the way, Jim falls asleep (of course, because the weirdo gets up a 6am every day). We get out, and he tells me that now “it’s really close”. I look up his nose again, and low and behold, there it is. We go inside, I get a tissue, have him blow his nose while I hold the other nostril shut and push on the “stuffed” one, and…. out it comes.

I just saved myself hours in the ER, but now I have to either kill two hours before his therapy appointments (ten minutes away from the ER), or go home, get a shower, and then come back up this way.

The shower won, we went home for 45 minutes, dropped Jim off at therapy, and then Colin and I got mexican for dinner.