Oh me, Oh my, OMA!

Today is my mom's (and my children's Oma's) birthday! I wish wish wish we were there to celebrate with her. I know if we were, though, she would focus less on her and more on us, so this way hopefully she can really celebrate her special day. Just a few thoughts on what makes her special...

Owen likes her back scratches and snuggles.
Henry says "WHAT!!??" and then that he likes her costumes.
Aidan likes her cinnamon rolls.

I like all those things too! Thanks, mom, for always taking my calls. Some days I don't know where I'd be without them. You raised me right and gave me wings, but I still need to talk to mom!

Now mom, go have dad dress up in a costume, give you a back scratch and make you some cinnamon rolls.

We love you!

1st Badge and other events

Aidan got his 1st Cub Scout badge tonight. He seemed pretty neutral about the whole thing, actually. He was waaaaaay more excited about building a Lego Santa. When he finished, he followed me around in his anxious way. "Mom? Do you think Santa will steal him?" I reassured him that Santa was not a thief, but that was not enough. I must have heard the same question three more times. Finally I said, "What kind of guy do you think Santa is? He brings presents, he doesn't go around the house stealing things."

It really is a very cool Lego Santa. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to move images from my camera to this computer and you all can see for yourselves.

It's a very exclusive club

Owen was overcome with emotion today while he was coloring. "Mom, this is my BEST day. I love to color," he said while coloring a poster-sized image of Ahsoka and R3. "I'm going to start a coloring club. To be in it, you have to like to color. And you have to like me."

Not ok

From a young age, we worked with the boys on apologizing and accepting apologies. We may not have worked hard enough on the acceptance part.

Scene 1:
Aidan and Owen, in the front yard playing football. Aidan tackles Owen with too much force, Owen crumples. Owen's sobs get louder and louder; Aidan's grin doesn't subside. I finally intervene. First I hug Owen, then I pull Aidan close. I make him apologize, and I explain to Owen that this is football, albeit from now on one-hand touch football. They have to "hug it out" and Aidan says he's sorry. Owen's response? "It's not ok."

Scene 2:
A few minutes later, still in the front yard. Aidan decides to roll down the hill. Owen decides to do the same. Of course, OF COURSE, they crash into each other. Owen was more to blame, so I tell him he needs to apologize. Aidan's response? "It's not ok."

Scene 3:
Bedtime with Henry. He's giving me 100 kisses, and I brush some hair out of my face. I accidentally scrape Henry's cheek in the process. "Sorry," I say. Henry's response? "It's not ok." But he continues with the kisses.

Silly boys. They really don't harbor grudges, despite how it sounds.

Bad mama

Who: Henry D, talking (shouting) to me.
When: 12:30 A.M.
Where: Upstairs

Henry stumbled out of bed the other night, crying and shouting. I ran to him and scooped him up. He yelled at me, "Why you leave me in that room!!" Poor baby had a nightmare.

Then I slept with him the rest of the night.

This and that

Aidan's fear of weather has subsided over the past few weeks. In fact, he's been discussing barometric pressure with us, and seems calmed by the fact that there is a scientific way to prove the weather will, in fact, be safe. He gave a presentation to his class about different forms of moisture, and about barometric pressure. Who knows? Maybe a little additional knowledge was helpful in this case. It's not always the case, though. He won't even acknowledge the existence of his own ear wax, he's so squeamish about anything related to the body. More knowledge does not seem to reassure him there.

I took Henry to his church program yesterday, and as I was signing him in, he danced into the room. Really. He pranced on his toes, wiggled his hips side to side, and raised his arms above his head. No clingy goodbyes from him. He seems really happy there, and I love hearing about the friends he's making. He's so good with their names...better than I am, I think.

After I dropped Henry off, Owen and I had a few hours before he had to go to school. We went to Kohl's and Target in search of the perfect Christmas ornament for Owen. He was determined to get one yesterday. Why? No idea. He thought he wanted an ornament from Kohl's that was the earth, but decided to check out the options at Target before fully committing. So we went to my second home, and sure enough, he found an ornament he liked there. It's a Nascar car. His choice is intriguing, as we don't watch racing. I didn't have any expectations, though, since Owen is full of surprises. It was really nice just hanging out with him.

I feel like I haven't been home much the past two days. Yesterday was a fun day, but I was gone a lot, and today I have my early childhood committee meetings. Those are fun too, but I'm hoping to be around a little more tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo is kicking my butt

So let's see. Friday night we took the boys to a new hot dog place a few miles from our house. When we were in South Carolina this past summer, we ate at this place, and we all liked it so much that we had to eat there three more times during our one-week stay. Well, the place near our house didn't really compare, so we won't need to go back there three times in the next week.

Not only do I feel like I do way too much laundry, I also feel like I grocery shop way too much. So I had everyone come with me on a Friday night and we loaded up the cart together. Can you get enough of this excitement??

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner, and getting ready was an all day event. Well, not really. Andy took Oce to a friend's house for part of the day, and then he and Aidan did more birthday returns and shopping. I did get an outdoor run in, because I do believe it may be possible to fall asleep while running on the treadmill. Running outside is waaaaay better. The boys did help with cleanup, and for now at least, we have an organized basement. Will it stay that way until Santa comes? Stay tuned!

Our dinner was a success...funny to me though is that we have to have people come over at 4:00 so everybody can go home by 7:30. But everybody ate, some people ate more, we had fun conversations, and the meltdowns didn't start until the evening was almost over. Success! On tap for today is football and maybe a little shopping. Oh, and I have gotten a request for chex mix. Should be a mellow, fun day.

Yo mama...

I took Owen and his friend E to the bus at noon. When we got to the bus stop, the air reeked of cow poop, which is not a normal occurrence. The boys decided it really was dog poop that they smelled. I yelled "Bye boys!" from across the street, and E responded by saying, "Bye dog poop!" I didn't really think anything of it, but it really pissed Owen off. He shoved E, hard, and gave him a really nasty look. Then he looked at me with this combination of still being angry and something else... almost like he wished I hadn't had to hear that.

Better not talk bad about Owen's mama.

Soon he'll have a starring role in The Big Lebowski part II

Owen was discussing his bowling prowess. "Mom, did you know? One time I knocked down eight pins and then the ninth pin fell over because it fainted from my awesomeness."

So long ago

Aidan was reading a book about dinosaurs last night. He asked me, "Mom, can you believe dinosaurs were alive 65 million years ago?' I said no, that that amount of time is difficult to comprehend. He agreed. "Yeah, because I thought they were alive, like, 300 years ago."

Good times

Good times were had by the boys today. I took Owen and Henry to an indoor playpark this morning, where we met some old friends and some new ones. The boys played hard for about an hour and a half. Then Oce went off to school, Henry took a nap, I did paperwork, SIX loads of laundry (generated in just! two! days!), cleaned out our planters on the front step, and just an enormous amount of other housework. After school Aidan had a friend over. Poor Ace is still getting over his cold. He and his friend played so well, but so physically! Aidan wanted to snuggle me tonight, and he wanted to go to bed at 7:15. I hope he feels refreshed in the morning.

Owen is currently working on a packet of homework that his kindergarten teacher thinks will help him with hand strength. There is lots of coloring and cutting and matching of shapes and finding your way through mazes in this packet. If he's in the right frame of mind (i.e. not grumpy), he gets really focused on his work. He is definitely proud of what he's done so far.

Today Henry followed me upstairs while I was folding laundry. He got in my room about three seconds after I did, but I still greeted him with a "Hi, big boy!" to which he responded, "Hi, little mama!"

Dear Oma and Ompa, did you know

That Aidan so loves that teddy bear blanket that shows grandma bear giving baby bear a hug that he insists on sleeping with it every night? And not just sleeping with it. It has to be the layer closest to his body. No sheets! Give me the blankie!

No? You didn't know? Well now you do.

The weekend

This weekend was a total blur. And the thing is, we didn't do anything! Aidan had a slight fever (which I think is going to end up being just a bad head cold) and we all just stayed around home. Yesterday Owen did have some friends over; twin boys who live in our neighborhood. He had been waiting for SO LONG to have a playdate with them. They all had fun.

Today we all stayed near home again. I went and got Tori this afternoon and we had a turkey dinner, which was delicious. But a ton of work. We did have a moment of worry when Andy was carving the turkey...the mysterious bag of giblets was found. Dag nabbit, I cooked them in the turkey. I have no idea where they were hiding when Andy and I both looked for them before we put the turkey in the oven. We also watched Ice Age 3. That movie got chuckles from all of us. It was actually quite cute.

Henry D has been coming in our room for several nights now. He wakes up and just decides he's had enough of being by himself. Most nights I'm so tired I don't even know when he came in. But last night I was more awake, and knew that it was only 12:30!! So he's basically sleeping the whole night with us. I ended up leaving and sleeping in his bed last night. Musical beds around the household.

I hope Ace feels better tomorrow. But if not, we'll play games, read, and watch TV. Not a bad way to spend my day.

Friday Fun

Well, Friday was funner for some of us than others. Baby Bird woke up with a fever, and was all out of sorts (crabby and veeery sensitive) until Andy figured out what was going on. We spent the morning in our pj's, playing video games, reading, and snuggling. Owen did a great job of taking care of Henry while I took care of Aidan. They played trains together, snuggled each other, and took turns on the Wii. Owen got to go to school, which was good for him, because he loves school. Today was extra special...it was Fun Friday! Owen's teacher let them watch an Arthur movie, eat popcorn and drink chocolate milk.

I felt bad for Aidan today, but he was really sweet. I got lots of snuggle time with him, and game playing time, and even a little bit of nap time. I took him to Target late in the afternoon and he bought another Lego set with his birthday money. He worked on it diligently until it was finished a few hours later. This one is a tall robot with light-up fire coming out of its mouth.

Owen practiced reading tonight with Andy...and he did great! He was reading all kinds of new words by sounding things out. He has been reading books that he brings home from his classroom, but this book was one of ours.

Henry D had a quiet day. I was feeling sad earlier this morning, missing my family in Iowa, and he yelled at me to get happy. Everything really is all about him. He did fall asleep on Andy last night, which Andy really thought was super sweet.

Looks like it will be a quiet weekend, but a really nice one as far as the weather is concerned. We shall see what we make of it.

NaBloPoMo

Or something like that. It's November, also known as National Blog Posting Month, also known as "post every day during the month of November." So here I go. Four days late.

We had a fun weekend with Oma, Ompa and Tori here to celebrate Aidan's birthday as well as Halloween. Aidan enjoyed opening ALL of his presents (for which we are slowly working on thank you notes) and building dozens (or so it seemed) of new Lego sets. We had cupcakes with Lego logos on them, but Aidan didn't eat any!! He shares his dad's lack of a sweet tooth.

For Halloween, Henry was a dinosaur, Aidan a storm trooper, and Owen a clone trooper. Henry clearly didn't know what was going on. As we left our house, he scooped up a bunch of candy from our bowl. When we got to our neighbor's, he tried to hand them candy as he said "Trick or treat!" So funny. Daddy ended up taking the bigger boys around the whole block while Henry, Ompa and I stayed on our street.

Sunday was Aidan's birthday. He opened our gifts and then in the afternoon, we had an enormous kid party at the nature center nearby. We had a sunny and moderately warm day for it. I made a cake (with help from Tori and my mom) in the shape of a fort. It turned out really well, and was a hit with all the kids. We hiked and had smores at the party, and played games and yes, opened more presents. It's Thursday, and he still hasn't played with all his new stuff.

Oh, there we are!

Wow, not only is summer long over, it looks like fall is too...at least around these parts. We are back in a routine. We take Aidan to the bus at 8:00, then Owen to the bus at 12:00, then Henry takes his nap, and then we're all together again at 3:00. The adjustment to 1st grade hasn't been easy, but Aidan is doing really well now. He's making lots of friends (we've invited 17 of them to his 7th birthday party!) and doing well in school. He's also gotten started with Cub Scouts and has played soccer this fall.

Owen thinks kindergarten is just so fun. He talks about riding the bus and free play time, and how much he now loves to draw (which is definitely a change from the past.) He also has made lots of new friends and we are so happy he's doing well in school too. He's been quite the soccer player this fall, scoring goals and doing happy dances when he does so.

And then there is my baby Hen. He's back in his Monday program, still getting his sea legs there. I think it is completely bewildering to him that he's going to the same place, and yet he has all new teachers. He does ask for "my Miss Jodi" (his teacher from last year), which makes me sad for him. Hopefully he'll love his new teachers just as much.

Last weekend Henry crawled into bed with us, at approximately zero dark thirty. I told him it was the middle of the night and that he needed to go back to bed. He said, "No, mom, you need change my diaper." Thinking his diaper was full from overnight, I asked him, "Why? Did you pee?" His response? "No! I pooped!" Nothing like a 6:00 am dump to get me out of bed.

Also last weekend, we went to a local plant store to get our pumpkins. It was spur of the moment, and it was fun! The boys went through an inflatable haunted house as well as a straw maze. They did the straw maze approximately 1563 times. They each got a good sized pumpkin, and Henry, Owen and I thoroughly enjoyed our popcorn. Then we ate a late dinner at home and I silently lamented the fact that we only had one day left of our weekend. I really enjoy spending time with my ever-growing boys.

Summer so far

I want to jam as much fun as I can into summer. To that end, I have a hard time figuring out which activities we should do this week. Sprinkler park? Park programs? Pick strawberries? Mall of America? Bowling? Movies? Water park? Too many choices.

Today the boys had their morning park program, and during that time Henry and I went to the zoo. He played in the sprinklers for a while and then we headed inside to see the fish. He's been getting scared lately, and as we went around a somewhat darkened corner, he said it was scary. I reassured him and we went on. I laughed out loud when, after I had stood him up directly in front of the glass, a big fish swam down right toward him. He started to get scared (I could see it in his whole face) and then I said, "Henry! He's coming to give you a kiss!" So Henry puckered up and kissed the glass! So, so cute.

Later our neighbor Jennifer stopped by. She knew we had gone to the zoo, so she asked Henry if he and I had gone someplace special. He knew exactly what she was getting at. "We go to the zoo and I saw fishies! Lots and lots of fishies!" He went on and on, quite the storyteller.

Ace wasn't feeling well after the park program today. It was so blasted hot, and he had apparently spun around too fast on the tire swing. The combination really made him feel sick. He laid around without much clothing on under the fan for about half an hour and then ate a little lunch. He was well enough to play the rest of the afternoon, although mostly inside. Poor guy wilts in the heat, just like his mama.

Silly and sweet boys

Aidan, Owen and Nathan were building legos in the family room, and I was in the living room. All of a sudden Nathan belted out this song: "Boys go to college to get more knowledge! Girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider!" I think my boys were astonished, because all was quiet for a second. Then Aidan says, "Oh yeah, because girls are stupid. Well...except my mom." To which Nathan replied, "No, all girls!" Then Owen spoke up. "Except our mom!"

Way to go, my boys!

Owen, you are so cute

Tonight I was reading to the boys before their bedtime. The book was about very basic human anatomy, and it referred to males and females. Owen looked at me with a smile on his face. "Oh, I know! Male like I go get the mail, and female like email!" We both giggled.

Magic Trick

Aidan has show and tell every Wednesday. Mrs. Lindeman usually has the kids do student's choice, which is to say they can bring in pretty much what they want. But this week she wanted the kids to do a magic trick. Andy and Aidan figured out a trick where you clip two paper clips on either side of a folded up (in the shape of an "S") piece of paper, you pull the paper, and voila the paper clips end up together. We got to see the trick several times. Aidan performed it today for his class, and we think it went well. It would probably be more of a Magic Trick to get Aidan to tell us more about it.

What do you call it?

Aidan and Owen are in their second week of baseball. They seem to be enjoying it, and they enjoy it even more when they do well. Andy reports that they each had several hits tonight, which always buoys their mood. What they enjoy most of all, though, seems to be the snacks. At our house, we try to stick to a "healthy snack" rule after a certain time. Basically, if you want a bedtime snack, it's not going to be a candy bar or chocolate chip cookies. But baseball has turned this rule on its head! Practice gets over at 8:15, at which time the boys are normally in bed. As the boys are leaving practice, they get a juice box and a snack. Tonight the snack was...well, let's hear Owen's description.

"They're kind of like Twinkies, but they're chocolate. And they have a white swirl in the center that looks kind of like the Milky Way."

Did you guess? I call them Debbie cakes; Andy calls them Swiss cake rolls. I like Owen's description the best.

Fun time

Normally after school, the boys like to play with any number of kids in our neighborhood. There are days where Aidan and Owen are outside after school longer than they were in school. It's good for them, and I'm glad we live in a neighborhood where there are so many other kids to play with. Today was different, though. I wanted to drive up to Bloomington to pick up a mirror for the bathroom. I did get a few complaints, but in general they were pretty good. To reward them, we stopped at REI after I picked up the mirror. The climbing wall was closed, but the little indoor park was open. In the park there is a cave that has a sleeping family of bears inside. To a two year old, the bears must look pretty realistic. When I suggested to Henry that he go in the cave, he looked at me like there was no way he would do that. I asked Owen to show Henry that the bears weren't real, and Owen was such a sweet big brother - he marched right in the cave. Then Henry immediately followed. The last I was able to see, they were hand in hand on their way to an adventure. Every couple of minutes after that, Henry ran out to me and began every sentence like this: "Mom! I never see..." He was telling me of all the things he'd never until now seen inside the cave and tunnel. After so much fun in the park, the boys were hungry. Either that or they smelled a good opportunity to get some sugary snacks...they got a tube of cookies and we were on our merry way. Safe to say a fun time was had by all.

He must have an Inner Compass

I had a really nice morning with my boys. We went to the Eagan Civic Arena, a place where, for two months every year, they cover one of the indoor ice rinks and just let kids run and play with various balls, stilts, frisbees, etc. We had a great time. As we were walking in, Aidan was remembering how much fun he had playing there with old friends (when he was 3!). We played for about an hour and a half, with me playing frisbee or tag or finding the boys after they'd hidden themselves behind the goals at either end of the arena. Then we ran a couple errands, and the boys convinced me to take them to McDonalds because they are OBSESSED with the toys that are currently there (Monsters vs. Aliens.) Lunch went really well; I actually managed to stay relaxed the entire time. Too relaxed, though. My phone rang, I picked up and noticed the time. We had about 10 minutes to get to Aidan's bus stop. We scooped ourselves up immediately, but by the time we had coats on and walked across the parking lot and got buckled in our seats, we were down to four minutes. Aidan loves the bus. I could very easily have taken him to school, but he really, really loves the bus. He suggested I just tail the bus and he'd eventually get on at someone else's stop. Great plan, except by the time we made it to our neighborhood, we were 5 minutes past our pick-up time. I had no idea where the bus would be at this point. His next suggestion? "Well, Margaret's house is the last stop. We could just go there and wait." Which really is brilliant in and of itself...but where is Margaret's house? "Turn left at the stoplight at Diamond Path." I was so skeptical, but I did it. Then I turned right when he told me to. We continued down a neighborhood street, and lo and behold, I soon saw a bus in my rearview mirror. Then we saw Margaret! Aidan did it! He navigated me to his friend's house, all by himself, at 6 years old. I cannot describe how impressed I am with this.

Celebrate and sick

I hope to get to a better post later this week. Yesterday was Henry's 2nd birthday, and tomorrow is Owen's 5th. We've been doing a fair amount of celebrating already, and more is to come tomorrow and this weekend. But we've been thrown for a loop with various sicknesses. I've been to the doctor last week once for a cold-stricken Henry, and today for Owen. Why? Because after he ate lunch, he burst into tears and said his mouth hurt. After some looking around, I saw his tonsils were enormous and bleeding. Bleeding! I got him an appointment right away, and he's on antibiotics for...an ear infection. ??!! Strange manifestation. I'm keeping an eye on those tonsils, believe you me. In the meantime, Aidan has developed a cold which turned into a cough with fever, as well as aches and chills and the occasional vomit-y feeling, although no vomit has shown up as of yet. I'm really worn out, but trying to keep my spirits up. The boys are getting older! Pics to come soon.

Now, that would be SOME kind of anatomy

Henry hasn't been feeling well for the last few days. He's so stuffed up, his nose manages to run constantly despite being stuffed up, and he's got a bad cough. Under better circumstances, Henry is demanding. When he's sick, he's an angry little dictator. This morning he saw me get out of the shower. Although I stopped breastfeeding a while back, the memory must remain strong. He pointed and said, "Booby! Booby!" It was incessant, and all the while I was trying to explain in terms he could understand, "Boobies don't work anymore!" He got angry and sad, and then angrier and sadder, and finally I thought, "What the hell." We climbed into my bed, he snuggled close, and tried to nurse for all of about 3 seconds. Then he pulled back, gave me an angry scowl, and said, "Working!" As in "It's not working." So he switched sides, tried again for just a few seconds, and frantically looked about, saying "'Nother one? 'Nother one?"

I've heard about the boys liking large breasts...but liking three of them??

Funny

6:00 came way too soon this morning. Henry kept calling, "Mama," so I went in, he held his arms up, and I laid down with him on the big bed in his room. He was very sweet, giving me lots of kisses and snuggles, but it was clear he was not going back to sleep. I had brought him a cup of milk when I went in, but he also spotted his water on the dresser. At his request, I gave him the cup of water too. He laid back down next to me and giggled. "Funny," he said. "What's funny?," I asked. He grinned at me and said, "One, two. Two cups. Hehehehe." Cute little boy is a comic genius.

Time flies...

The other day I was driving Owen home from school when we had a discussion. I'm sure, based on Owen's personality, that I will have many more discussions with him like this in the future.

Owen: You shouldn't have picked me up from school yet! It was SO SHORT!

Me: Well...

Owen: And yesterday it was short too!

Me: Honey, school is always the same length of time. Isn't it funny how sometimes, if you're bored, it seems long, but if you're having so much fun, it goes really fast? You must have been having fun today.

Owen: Yeah.

(Pause)

Owen: But it was still short.

I gave up. On the one hand, yes it is short - believe me, I know. Two and a half hours doesn't let me get much done other than drive, eat lunch, clean up, and then drive some more. But we are clearly not in agreement about the absoluteness of the amount of time involved. I've learned that with Owen, it's best to let the little things go.

What have we been doing?

Well, stuff. Henry has been waking up at 11:00 and yelling "Mama!" and I cannot resist. Either that or he just refuses to go to sleep to begin with. Either way, I go into his room, he reaches his arms up to me, I pick him up, and he says "Henry big bed?" And then we spend the rest of the night kissing and kicking each other, as in it's 2:03 am and Henry's in my face, saying "Kiss neck?" He knows I'll ALWAYS kiss on his neck, no matter the crazy hour. Or I'm shoving him away from me because his head is in my ribcage or his foot is kicking my neck. Needless to say, we don't feel refreshed on those days. But this morning, I was pleasantly awakened not until...6:30!! Three cheers for Henry!

Yesterday I volunteered at Aidan's school. So fun! I wanted a chance to see how Aidan's class works, and I gave up my one chunk of free time that I get during the week so I could do that. It was so worth it. I'm planning on volunteering at least one Monday per month. I sat behind Mrs. Lindeman's desk, and occasionally would get up to get things. Aidan would grab me every time to show me his writer's workshop stories (he Loves writer's workshop, he tells me) or to point out the schedule of things they were doing that day. Once he came behind the desk to show me a story that he had written about going to the doctor and getting 5 shots. That happened last summer, before kindergarten. Must have made some kind of impression on him. Anyway, when it came time for me to go (I had to get the other boys) Aidan didn't want me to leave. And I didn't want to! He's very sweet.

Aidan has been working a lot on Legos lately. He's building sets in the 8-14 year old range, which speaks to his engineering talents, true, but also Lego's incredibly good instructions. This doesn't mean building these is without frustration. Or tears. But I think if we could give him a steady supply of Lego sets to build, he'd be happy. Here are two of the sets he's built recently: Republic Fighter Tank and Republic Attack Shuttle.

Oce has been a sweet boy. We spent most of the afternoon last Friday pretending...to be postal employees as well as creating a Dora/Diego/animal/astronaut story and using all those characters to act it out. Owen loves the outdoors, which is good, because the little man cannot sit still. I've never seen someone actually not be able to be still. Anyway, we got blasted with snow, cold and wind all at once last night, and Andy went out to snowblow. Nobody else wanted to get near the front door, let alone deal with the ritual of putting on snowpants, mittens, hat, coat, boots, scarf before going outside. But that didn't dissuade Oce! Oh no. He helped daddy by shoveling the sidewalk. Then he played out there, in that 10 degree weather, in the dark, until I called him in half an hour later. He came in rosy-cheeked, happy, and considerably calmer than before he went out.

A&O have started swimming lessons again. It's insanely cold outside, and it feels a little bit insane to be putting on swimming trunks this time of year, but it's really good for them. I have to figure out a way to handle Henry's pleading, though. He'd watch his brothers for a bit, and then turn to me with an uncertain smile on his face, saying "Henry? Turn?" It broke my heart a little bit.

Just catching up

Will get back to posting soon. In the meantime, just a note to say that we had a wonderful two weeks off, all spending time just being relaxed and enjoying our family. I really love having all my family around me. The boys enjoyed going back to Iowa, seeing lots of family, and of course all their presents. I do believe we may need to keep Aidan on a steady diet of Legos from now on. The boys are having so much fun, in fact, that it's tough to get them out of the house for anything other than school.

TTFN. I'm really tired and need to go to bed. Better posts later.