Sally Says

Happy Thanksgiving! I am, once again, sick on this holiday. Thankfully, I don't have to do much besides eat. I don't feel particularly horrible, so I'm not having any trouble cooking, but I've completely lost my voice. It's a good thing David's parents are here to entertain the boys. I hope you all have a very nice day with friends and family.

The one with minor head trauma

Today was Tommy's long-anticipated field trip to the zoo with his kindergarten class.  Charlie and I met them there and were looking forward to a day with the class and many of the other parents.  We were just inside the front gates and waiting for everyone to use the bathroom when Charlie smacked the back of his head on the concrete.  Hard.  I was standing about 10 feet away and heard the thwack over the raucus sounds of hyper kindergarteners.

He cried really hard for about 10 minutes while I carried him.  Then he calmed down, and I asked him if he was OK.  He said "I hit my head, but I OK" so I put him in the stroller and continued on with the field trip.

Almost immediately after that, the ONE other little boy for whom I was responsible went missing.  The teacher found him pretty quickly.  I was more careful to keep him and Tommy in my sight after that.  His hat?  Not so much.  I'm hoping it made it home with him, because it's certainly not in my stroller.

Charlie's mood totally changed after his blow to the head.  He was absolutely not interested in getting out of the stroller or participating.  This made my chaperone job easier, so I didn't push it.  Then he started acting really sleepy.  He got up before 5 am this morning, so I wasn't too worried.  He's usually pretty sleepy in the stroller, especially after 10 am on a morning when he gets up really early. 

Now a GOOD MOTHER would have decided that a blow to the head combined with sleepiness was possibly a problem.  I was a bit concerned, but not too worried.

After about an hour, we all stopped for another bathroom break.  I took Charlie into the bathroom with me, took him out of the stroller and realized he couldn't keep his balance.  He was very dizzy and quite miserable. 

Now is the time to panic!

Charlie and I immediately left the zoo and headed for the pediatric urgent care, which is only a mile or so away from the zoo.  I'm glad it was so close because I was worried Charlie might fall asleep in the car.  David met us there because I didn't have our insurance card in the little wallet I'd packed to make carrying all the lunches and coats easier.  The triage nurse freaked me out a little bit by announcing that Charlie had a FEVER, but she was wrong.  Of course we didn't discover she was wrong until after she turned us out of the well-child waiting room and into the waiting room full of flu patients.  The doctor declared that he did not have a fever once we got to see him.  He also said Charlie definitely had some minor head trauma, but was pretty much OK since he didn't fall from a great height or have any immediate reactions like losing consciousness or vomiting.  Since Charlie was no longer dizzy and could stand and walk normally, we were good to go. 

Since he didn't have a concussion, he got to take a long nap this afternoon and seems to be feeling completely better.  I suspect that one of the three of us will have the flu by Thanksgiving day because that's they way we roll around here.  There were some very sick kiddos in that waiting room.  Someone in our family is always sick on Thanksgiving.  David's parents left this morning to come visit us, so it's too late to warn them away.  Maybe we'll be lucky this year (but I doubt it).

I'm just glad Charlie isn't in a coma.  I would feel so guilty for pushing him around the zoo in his stroller for an hour after he hit his head if he'd actually had a concussion.

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

I found my shoe!  It actually WAS with the drumstick.  I knew it!  Both were wedged behind the suitcases in the back of my closet.  I had to take everything out of the bottom of my closet to find them.  Now my closet is as de-cluttered as the rest of the house.

We had a nice night out last night.  We spent the majority of our time having a leisurely dinner at Scalo Northern Italian Grillin Nobb Hill.  We'd never been there before, and were quite pleased with our meal.  When I got into David's truck I was surprised to hear his "new" CD player for the first time.  I gave it to him for his birthday last March.  Since I only ride in his truck when we're out without the boys, that gives you an idea of how long it's been since we had a babysitter.  Some friends of ours watched the boys a few months ago for that semi-formal awards dinner, but we took my car that time.  Other than that, it's been over a year since we went out alone.  

We had 90 minutes or so to kill before our dinner reservation, so we went to Toys R Us to do our Christmas shopping for the boys.  I know that's not a terribly exciting thing to do, but it's more fun to do it together.  We like to get the important stuff early so that we don't have to worry about things being sold out or price hikes.  We bought a real drum set and a Tinker Bell play set for Charlie and the newest big Indiana Jones Lego set and a Star Wars Transformer (Vader to Tie Fighter) for Tommy.  I'm not sure about the Tinker Bell set for Charlie.  I may return it and get something else.  Now I just need to order their traditional book/movie/video-game combo gift.  I'm only mentioning it here because there's no way for me to delete or note the purchases on their wish lists without them noticing.  There is a downside to Tommy learning to read.  I used to just put notes on his wish list telling folks when I'd already bought something.  He would totally be able to figure that out this year.

We all absolutely loved the new babysitter, and have already arranged for him to babysit again in December.  David was impressed that he's worked as an EMT.  I was impressed that his top priority was playing with the boys.  Charlie's last words before he went to sleep last night were "I'm going to dream about Mister Isaac visiting again.  Ding dong!  Who's there?  It's Isaac here to play with Tommy and Charlie!  I'm going to dream about that."

In other news, Tommy lost his other top front tooth this morning.  What a cutie!

Pay up Tooth Fairy!

Speaking of money, have a told you that Tommy gets an allowance now?  It's five dollars a week, which seems like a lot, but I wanted it to be enough to actually buy something real if he saves for a few weeks.  We've tied it to five chores, and he has to do all five each week to get the full five dollars.  So far he's gotten all five a four times, and only four dollars one time, so I think it's a good system.  He has to clean and vacuum his own room, scrub the toilets (mwahahaha!  this one was his own idea and I'm stoked to no longer be doing it myself), put all of his own clean and folded laundry into his drawers, empty the household trash cans the night before garbage day, and practice reading to me or David.  That last one is kind of a freebie.  He's been doing a great job, so I don't mind giving him a bit of cash each week.  He actually had three weeks worth of allowance plus the $2 from his previous missing tooth in his wallet when we went to his school book fair last week.  He chose to spend it all on books.  I'm so proud.

Lesson of the week

Early this week Charlie started singing "Cock-a-doodle-doo.  Mommy's lost her shoe, and knows not what to do."  I told him that it was a nice song, and went about my business.

Now I can't find one of my shoes.

We cleaned the house from top to bottom this morning because a new babysitter is coming over tonight.  (Yippee!)  I couldn't find my shoe anywhere.  As I sit here in my completely uncluttered house, it occurs to me that maybe I should have followed up on that "Mommy's lost her shoe" thing.  He must have hidden it somewhere, hoping to play hide-and-seek with me.

It's probably with the 2nd drumstick.  How can a full-sized drumstick and a birkenstock sandal disappear so completely?

Sigh.  I really like those shoes.  Maybe I can get the babysitter to find it.  Would that be a reasonable test of his babysitting acumen?  Actually, I'll be happy if he can successfully navigate Charlie's tendency to run around naked (the little boy is in a nudist phase) and Tommy's tendency to burst into tears over silly things (the big boy is in a fragile and moody phase.)  I hope he wants to come back and babysit again next month!

Losing the battle only to (hopefully) win the war

Tommy: Will we have to give his giant toy gun back tomorrow?
Me: Yes. We need to return it.
Tommy: Why didn't you guys ever let me play with it?! It's not fair!
Me: (Long, well-thought out discussion of Tommy's Mennonite family background, pacifism, the idea of pretend-play preparing him for life, etc, etc.)
Tommy: So will a grown up from this family be coming to my playdate with me?
Me: No. I'll drop you off.
Tommy: Yes!
Me: Are you happy about that because you don't want me there to cramp your style?
Tommy: Yes. Plus, I want to play with that gun.
Me: You can play with it there, as long as nobody is getting hurt or scared. We just don't want to encourage that sort of thing at our own house.
Tommy: Ok.
Me: We're fighting a losing battle, aren't we.
Tommy: Battle? We're fighting a battle? Can I use the giant gun?
Me: No.

Daddy!

Charlie: Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!
David: Yes Charlie? What do you need?
Charlie: I don't need anything. I just want you to be with me.

Dinner

The lack of interesting stuff to write about these days is astounding.  I need to re-fresh my perspective or something.  I know there are funny and interesting things happening everyday.  For now, here are some photos of the barbarians eating dinner.

Sweet Smells

Charlie and I have been playing a game lately where I sniff him and tell him all the good things he smells like.  I tell him he smells like gingerbread cookies and peanut butter sandwiches and rain and freshly sharpened pencils and roses and little boys.  He giggles and shouts "I smell like Charlie!" 

He ran up to me yesterday, sniffed my hair, and told me "You smell like BUTTER."  I guess that was the best possible thing he could think of.  The boy really likes butter.  Then Tommy snuggled up to me and told me I smell like peaches, blue eyes, books and a new computer.  He knows what I like, but is still a bit vague about what things have an actual scent.

Um, these pictures are really old.

Charlie has a little cold today, but other than that we're all fine here.  It's been a strangly disjointed week.  We haven't been more busy than usual.  We haven't had the flu.  I think somebody aimed a temporal anomaly ray at us or something.  I've felt about 5 minutes late for everything all week. Anyway, here are some photos from the last week.

 My mom came last weekend.  They boys always have lots of fun wearing her out.

 Charlie's very happy that he didn't have to wait until Christmas for this guitar.  Grammy bought him this one, and he loves it.  Note the green pick in his hand.  Actually, I never get tired of looking at pictures of Charlie playing the guitar, so here are a bunch more.

   
 
 Tommy got some new Legos from my mom, and he never gets tired of doing legos.

He also spent a lot of time reinacting the boulder scene from Indiana Jones.  He really needs a better Indiana Jones hat.  This one makes him look like a Hillbilly Indiana Jones.

Tommy had a day off school on Wednesday for Veterans' Day.  He spent the morning with his best pre-school buddy Noah.  They were overwhelmingly emotional about seeing each other again.

His smile is pretty different with his missing front tooth, don't you think?

In other random news, Tommy's the tallest boy in his class.  I helped them do a chart of their heights at school yesterday.  He was at the top of the chart at 48.5 inches.  His friends Claudia and Chris were 2nd at 48 inches.  It's amazing to me that he and Claudia, who have known each other since birth, have been within an inch of each other in height since they were babies.

This is how Tommy and Charlie spent their rest time on Wednesday.  Charlie wasn't interested in napping with Tommy home, so they snuggled together on the couch and listened to a book-on-tape on my iPod.  They're such sweet little boys.

Can't get anything done

I obviously can't get anything done here this week.  Some weeks are just like that.  If you are interested to see how my mom's visit went last weekend,  you can read about it here.  I have photos from the weekend to post myself, but it's just going to have to wait a few days.

Three Conversations

Me:  Oh!  Look at the snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.

Charlie:  Noflakes?  Yesflakes!

Me:  SSSSS-nowflakes.

Charlie:  Oh.

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Me:  If I had a nickel for every sock you three leave on the floor I'd be rich!

Tommy:  If I had a nickel for all the clothes you leave on the chair by your bed then I'd be rich too.

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Me:  Grammy Nancy is coming tonight.

Charlie:  Yay!  Will her opposite come too?

Me:  Her opposite?  Who's her opposite?

Charlie:  Grandma Sylvia

Me:  No, sorry, just one grandma this weekend.

Charming the Lunch Ladies

Charlie and I had to swing by Tommy's school yesterday to straighten out his lunch money account.  It wasn't a big deal, but I'd much rather talk to people in person than make a phone call. 

Riding the bus is the highlight of Tommy's day, so we stood on the corner, watched him get on the bus, waved goodbye and then got in my car and followed the bus to school.  It probably took Charlie and me 20 minutes to drop some excess candy off with Tommy's teacher and track down the head lunch lady.  Some days doing stuff like this with Charlie just takes extra patience.  I wasn't in a hurry though, so I'd decided to let Charlie have a bit more freedom to meander than usual. 

When we left the head lunch lady's office, I caught sight of Tommy sitting at a cafeteria table eating toast with a group of older girls.  As far as I know that the bus drops them off in front of the school and then they play in the playground until the line-up bell rings.  I also know that the school provides a breakfast for the YMCA daycare kids and for anyone who wants to bring their kids early and pay for breakfast.  It's probably one of those low-income subsidized meals things, but I don't think anyone that goes to this school actually qualifies for that.  I could be wrong though.  I waved goodbye to Tommy as we walked out, but didn't go over to talk to him because I didn't want to cramp his style.

I asked him about it when he got home yesterday, in my best, casual, not-prying, motherly way.

Me:  So why were you in the cafeteria this morning?

Tommy:  Oh, I was hanging out with the group that used to be called The Tigers.

Me:  That group of older girls?

Tommy:  They're not that old.  I think they're in 1st grade, or maybe 2nd grade.  I was in the Tigers with them, but that group broke up. 

Me:  Were there any other boys or kindergarteners in The Tigers?

Tommy:  Nope.  Just me.  We went around helping people at recess.

Me:  Oh.  So why were you in the cafeteria?

Tommy:  I wanted some toast.

Me:  How did you get toast?

Tommy:  Did you know that the lunch ladies sometimes have leftover breakfast food?  They almost always give me some if I go in there.

Me: Do you have to pay for it?

Tommy:  Nope.  They just give it to me! 

Me:  Huh.  So how often do you eat a 2nd breakfast at school?

Tommy:  Just sometimes.  When I think of it.  Or when my friends are in there.

Me:  But I gave you two breakfasts yesterday!  You had cereal and then you ate a sandwich right before giong out to the bus. 

Tommy:  Well, I wasn't really all that hungry, but it makes the lunch ladies so happy to feed me.  I was just trying to be nice.

Me:  I see.

Halloween Costumes on Sale! (But Not That One)

Charlie and I made our annual pilgrimage to the after-Halloween sale aisle today.  I like to pick up cheap costumes for the boys' dress up boxes.  I found an Indiana Jones for Tommy.  Score!  He's going to be very excited about it when he gets home from school. 

Charlie was more problematic.  He wanted Tinker Bell.  He REALLY wanted Tinker Bell.  There were no Tinker Bells left.  People kept giving me funny looks as I made alternate suggestions like Ariel and Cinderella.  He just stood there sadly saying "no."  I kept explaining that he wanted Tinker Bell. 

We ended up walking over to the toy aisle, where I was pretty sure they'd have some non-Halloween Tinker Bell costumes.  The did, but of course they weren't on sale.  I gave in and Charlie is now the happiest little tinker fairy on the block.  It even has wings.  As I write this, he's wearing it while rocking out to Guitar Hero.  That's my boy!

Trick or Treating

There weren't that many kids out last night and everyone seemed to be done by 8:30, which is actually kind of nice.  We had a lot of fun going around our little part of the neighborhood.  Hooray for trick or treating!

Charlie LOVED trick or treating.  It took him about three houses to get the point, and then he was off.  He ran from house to house.  He demanded to be the one to ring the doorbell even though 75% of them were too high for him to reach.  He isn't quite as vivaciously outgoing as Tommy (but then nobody is) so his "thank you" and "trick or treat" as pretty quiet, but he said them. 

Tommy was pretty tired last night.  He started off strong, but was dragging his feet and whining about the weight of his candy after about 10 houses.  If you ask him, he'll say he really enjoyed trick or treating, but he was actually quite relieved when we headed home.  Getting ready for the time change really affects him.  He can stay up late pretty easily, but it's just as hard for him to sleep past his normal wake-up time as it is for me.  That means we'll probably spend the next week groggily sitting together on the couch at 5:30 am, wishing we were still asleep.