conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

We got home from Jim’s therapy last night, and Colin was suddenly sporting a pretty high fever. I got Jim to bed, dosed Colin up with some Advil, and hung then Dad and I hung out with him until we were sure it had gone down and it wasn’t getting any worse. Of course, he’s got no fever this morning, and is up and about like nothing is wrong…

To get him to drink his juice last night, Dad told him that he’s got a little bug inside him that is running around and making him hot, and he needs to drink to get the bug out of him. So now, all the talk is about the bug(s) in him and what they are doing.

So far this week, the boys got their flu shots, I got my flu shot, Jim had school pictures taken, Jim got in trouble in school (although it seems to have resolved well). I got our cpap scripts and an appointment to have a weird mole removed. Still trying to finish up a knitting for this Sat’s baby shower. I need to get over to Blackwood at some point to see about getting the cpaps. Plan was to do it today after visiting Jim at his school Book Fair, but Colin’s illness scratched that. Sent Jim to school with $6 and permission to get one book, with plans to go to Family night tomorrow (hoping that Colin will be completely better or Dad will be home on time.

I spent all last week painting and building, and Friday Jim came home to a big surprise — his new bedroom! It’s got a new bunk bed that kind of low to the ground, and yet has a fun hideout underneath (instead of a bottom bunk). I picked out a color called “Fountain” and it looks like the inside of a swimming pool. Add in his royal blue curtains and his blue bed, and you’ve got the blue room.

Today I figured out what to do about his books, and then I hung up all his Pokemon posters that we’ve been saving. He decided that he wants to keep it a Pokemon room.

Will get pics up as soon as I clean up my mess….

It’s been a long week. Dad’s on vacation, yay! However, it’s been filled to the brim with the unexpected. A friend’s sick baby (made them some dinners and then had a long visit yesterday). Doctor’s checkup for me. Trees planted in the yard.

We rented an aerator and did the lawn this morning.

Had a looooong PTA meeting and back-to-school night. New principal is very funny and smart, and the school and PTA seem to be pushing hard for a strong values education and family involvement. Love it. Got the terrible news that the dad of one of Jim’s first school friends has been in the hospital the past month with a terrible cancer. Radiation treatment may leave him paralyzed. My heart is just breaking.

On the other side, I found that another karate mom enrolled her two boys. Neither are in Jim’s class, but one is in the other first grade class. So it’s nice to have another mom-friend there, especially since some have dropped with the move to first grade.

Talked to Jim’s teacher a bit. She’s very sweet and organized. She’s open to helping us out with some of Jim’s behavior work, and is going to have him be a helper so that he doesn’t get bored — already we see that he may have the problem with being bored in class.

So tired now. Dad took Colin out, so I’m going to rest with some knitting and a movie.

School has tired Jim out enough so that he is no longer waking up at 5:00 – 5:30, but instead, a more acceptable 6:00 – 6:30. When he goes to full days next week, I may have to start waking him up.

Last night, about an hour after I put the boys to bed, I hear a bunch of bumping noises, meaning that Jim can’t fall asleep for whatever reason. In these cases, I give him half a melatonin tablet, and he’s out in about 15 minutes. So I go upstairs, and find out that Jim is sound asleep, and Colin is banging around in his crib. But thankfully, not crying his head off, which is his usual mode of operation.

He lets me know that his diaper is wet, so I change him, cuddle him, and then nestle him in among all his bedtime paraphenilia. Which includes his latern “nightlight”. his new ghost “nightlight”, Shock the monkey, Ernie, Shaymin, three books, his blanket, my rattle from babyhood, his radio, and his toy train engine. He’s as bad as Jim these days.

He’s on the bus…

It went really well, considering that yesterday was a not so good Jim day. He woke up around six, took a long shower, got dressed, etc., without any real complaints at all. His backpack was too heavy, which I agree with, so I took out some of the school supplies (I don’t think he’ll need ALL THREE containers of Handi-Wipes on the first day).

We really weren’t 100% sure we were going to have a bus today, since we first got a letter saying that they couldn’t get a bid. Then a week or so ago, we got the notice of where his bus stop is and the service they’re using. My guess is that last year’s company decided to take the minimum, because that’s who has his route. And Jim has the same bus driver and she’s got a new bus, so everyone’s happy.

Here’s the big guy (notice that for both boys, it was haircut day yesterday):

2009 photos

Apparently it’s been out for a couple days — the last day I know it worked for sure was Monday. And the phone company won’t be out here until next Wednesday to look at it.

Please use email or our cell phone to get us.

Colin has this new commanding tone of voice that pops out once in a while. It isn’t whining, which is probably the best part. But he sounds like he knows exactly what he wants…

“Stop it, Jimmy”

“Don’t get up, Mommy”

and so on… it’s so darn cute.

Since we had to cancel our vacation next week, I’ve been looking for some creative ways to keep the kids entertained. Since we moved, I’ve looked into swim clubs, but unlike our old neighborhood, where there were about 12 different ones, around here I only found two. And they both say that they have waiting lists to get memberships.

Well, I decided to try and get a non-bonded August membership at the club that offered them. I emailed the membership-whosit and got no response. I kind of forgot about it until a week later I got an email saying that they didn’t have any August memberships left…. but, I could get a pro-rated bonded membership if I wanted!

It took a couple weeks for the membership to get processed, but we got to go for the first time last night. The boys were great, very well behaved. We started out in the 1-foot baby pool, but we’re also able to go into the big pool, because the shallow end is just three feet deep, and that section is very large. The problem was actually that Colin wanted to do everything that Jim was doing (i.e., standing). But I got Colin to hold my hands and plop into the pool, and got him to go completely underwater too. And hopefully, Jim will get some swim lessons before the end of the summer too.

Before all that, I did a marathon laundry session, and worked on getting the office painted — everything is out now, and the second of spackle is up, and just needs to be sanded. I took the doors off, and I think it’s going to stay that way — there’s a good place for mounting the big gate right inside the doorway. This will really help with the overall circulation of the house. I just have to figure out how to deal with the door hinges.

Colin stuck his finger in a bowl of just cracked eggs, while helping me make brownies, and declared them “YUMMY!”

Last night was a disaster in the sleep department. Because I had one little iced tea around ten, I didn’t get to sleep until after one.

Colin woke up around four, soaking wet. So, I changed him, went back to sleep. He woke up again around five, just because. I got him to lie down, but then he freaked again as soon as I was back in bed.

All of a sudden it’s 8.15, and Don is back upstairs ready to leave for work, wanting to know if he can go get Colin to say good-bye. I told him fine, but warned him that since he’s could be facing disaster, if Colin has been awake and alone for any period of time.

Sure, enough, the diaper is off again, although it and the surroundings are dry. I was ready to put on his diaper but did the math in my head aobut how long he’d been dry, and asked him if he wanted to use the potty.

He said yes, so I toke him in and sat him down. Nothing happened. So I got him up and he turns around to face the potty, and claims, “I’m peeing”. And yes he is, standing up, just like big brother Jim!

We just missed our chance to try #2 on the potty, but that could be asking for too much at this stage.

Colin singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to Jim, asleep in the car on the ride home from camp.

Jim has been going to this social skills/OT camp in the afternoons three days a week for the last couple weeks. We signed him up instead of just keeping up with social skills in the summer, to get him a little more intensive therapy, and to mix it up a bit with the kids in the class, and older kids as well.

The downside is that it’s a half hour away, and it’s during Colin’s nap time. Colin falls asleep on the way there, we down Jim off, and then Colin sleeps in the car for anywhere from 0 minutes to an hour. We can’t really come home and go back. It would really waste gas, and we wouldn’t be home long enough to do anything. The first week we went to places like the bookstore, but that lead to spending too much money.

With being sick last week, I did my best to try and rest in the driver’s or passenger seat, but the sun was hot and the seats uncomfortable.

The seats in the back got re-arranged over the weekend, and now the third row is fully in place. And wow, it is comfy to stretch out on. With Jim’s’ backpack as a pillow, I could read, knit, and even snooze a little. And it’s cool and shady. The only I have to do next time is turn the radio down a little bit. And when Colin got up, I let him out of his seat, and he sat with me (on my legs, actually) and watched the GeoTrax DVD until it was time to get Jim.

Makes me long for a road trip so I could stretch out back there for a couple hours….

Last week I found out that my cold was really bronchitis. So I’ve been on five different medications that are making me even worse. So even now that the cough is mostly gone, I still feel tired and light-headed most of the time.

The boys are very tired of me being sick. Especially Jim. We both know that we’re missing out on some good weather, and he’s really tired of sitting around the house all day. And not playing DS while doing it. He has even resorted to playing trains with Colin. Which results is a grand disagreement every 50 seconds over who gets which train, but who I am to complain, they are playing together. And dispite the constant headaches it gives me, I can actually get them to clean up before bedtime. So hey, even if the dishes aren’t getting done, we can walk in the living room.

The house is undone enough right now to also drive me crazy. The boys had been digging away at the buckets of crafts and games I was storing in the old office, so that it turned into a two-inch thick pile of loose flash cards, game pieces and popsicle sticks. In a fit, I threw it all back into the buckets, got nearly everything of the walls, so that now I could actually start the painting process if Dad would take the last two shelves off (that I can’t reach).

I felt well enough yesterday that I didn’t want to sit around on the couch for once (although not well enough to go outside or mop the floor) to work on the curtains for the living room. I got very far, until I was thwarted once again by not having matching thread. Stripes are nice for matching seams, but not so great when you need three different colors for each seam.

Despite my huge stash of yarn, it apparently doesn’t contain enough yarn to make sweaters for the boys, so I picked up some blue yarn for my next project. (It was on sale AND I had a coupon). I’ve been trying to find a good pattern for the next baby gift, and found a pattern for my babies instead. Although I do have two leads on some patterns. And I will soon have a finished project to show.