Trick or Treat

Our neighborhood is not great for trick-or-treating under the best of circumstances, and tonight was not that -- it was cold and drizzly, and lots of people weren't home. But we had planned to meet up with some friends, so we walked around to a few houses.

James wanted no part of the whole thing. He didn't want to put his sweatshirt or his costume on, and once he was outside, he kept saying, "Back home. Back home." (This is quite unlike him; usually he jumps at any opportunity to walk around outside.) Mattie was also a bit reluctant at first, but we told him he could go to Blizzy's house, and he liked that idea. :) He also was pretty happy with the idea of getting to knock on doors. He didn't care too much about the candy (they don't really know what candy is yet), but he was pleased to pick up a rock from our neighbor's gravel walkway. (He put it in his bag, which led to perhaps the best moment of the night: Lakshmi looked in his bag and said, "Is someone giving out potatoes?")

 Before trick or treating, the boys were both very happy with the combination glow-sticks/flashlights that Mike brought home for them.  :)

Pumpkinfest

This year we made it to the Fearrington Pumpkinfest with some daylight left! It was fun to get to see the pumpkins both in the daytime and lit up after dark. We met our friends there, but with so many kids to wrangle, we didn't have too much time for catching up!

It was a cold evening, so fortunately the boys' costumes were pretty warm. We had a couple layers on them both underneath, so they didn't complain.  (Of course, following his Principle of Maximal Potty Timing Inconvenience, Mattie decided he needed to go after we'd been there for a little while, so Mike got to take off and put back on all those layers!)  Mattie also insisted on pulling the wagon quite a bit, so I'm sure he kept warm that way, too.

The boys seemed to have a good time -- they liked listening to the band, and James loved going around to see all the different pumpkins.  (He told Mike, "I like pumpkins!") As we were headed back to the parking lot, he saw one that was carved in a rather scary expression, and he just burst out laughing and pointed to it and said, "Funny!"  That's my boy, laughing in the face of danger.  :)  Mattie was most fascinated by the "broken pumpkin", the jack o'lantern that had somehow broken into pieces (presumably someone bumped it by accident -- sad, since so much work went into all of them).

When I was taking Jamesie around to see some of the pumpkins, another little kid (probably only a bit over a year old) was looking at the same one, and his mom was telling him that he needed to stop blowing out all the candles!   That cracked me up.  Maybe he was just in a birthday mode.  :)

Mall Surprise

The gym has cramped our style because they changed their Friday hours -- they now close an hour earlier, so it's harder for us to make it there in time. So imagine our delight when we discovered that the little mall near us now has a slightly gym-like play area for kids! (We were actually headed to the library, which is temporarily housed in the mall while they renovate their building, but we didn't end up going there because the boys were having so much fun playing.) One of the families we had met at swim class was also there -- small world!

James started out by jumping off the little red shape, and by the end was jumping off the taller yellow one.  (He kept running over to us to announce, "I jumping!  I jumping!"  Too cute.)  Mattie liked the "bathtub", and by the end was enjoying jumping off the bridge-type one onto the triangle-slide.  

Happy Four

Mattie told me he needed a pillow, and set himself up on the kitchen chair. :)

Another funny moment from today: Mattie brought in his book and pointed to a picture of a bear and said, "This bear is sad."
Me: "How about the one next to it?"
Matthew: "That bear's happy." (He was right on both counts; it was an opposites book.)
Me: "How about Matthew?"
Matthew: "I'm happy, too."
Me: "I'm happy three."
Matthew: "I'm happy four!" (Good going, kid!)

Look Out, Martha Stewart

The boys did a little Halloween decorating this morning with window clings.

Matthew especially had fun with the cat sticker. He put the magic wand on it and said, "Kitty cat have a band-aid. He feel better now." And then later he moved it to another window and put a pumpkin over the cat's head, and said, "Kitty-cat is hiding." James promptly took off the pumpkin and said, "I found it!"

After his nap, James was all about matching things up. He found the two pumpkins and put them together, and the two bats, and the two spiders, and the two pieces of corn (they were having so much fun that I let them do the Thanksgiving ones, too). It was very cute. (And then with his blocks he sorted all the white squares into his bucket, and then sorted all the pink pieces into the box.)

Sweet Brother

Mattie was an especially nice brother today. James had to go to the audiologist because one of his hearing aids wasn't working, and as he was getting ready to go, Mattie brought over a blue bear and said that James might want to take it to the doctor's office with him. :)

Then this evening, James was sitting on the floor, and Mattie came up and gave him a hug and a couple of kisses on his back, and said, "I love you, Jamesie!" Awwwww.

P.S.  Happy birthday, Aunt Ann!!!


[Photo from 10/19.]

An update to yesterday's post: it turned out James's prealbumin actually was fine, the nurse had just accidentally scrolled down to the previous test when she was talking to Mike last time. Yay!

As for Jamesie's hearing aid, it turned out that the hearing aid was working, but James had some "debris" in his ears that was blocking them up. I'm kind of annoyed by this because the gunk, which is not earwax, was exactly why we went back to the ear doctor this last time. He told us it wasn't due to granulation (scar) tissue, but guess what, just telling us that it wasn't that didn't solve whatever the actual problem is. After two hours in the waiting room -- or maybe it was only an hour and a half that time -- and a $70 copay plus whatever else they're going to bill us for that five minutes of actual time with the doctor, it would be nice if he would have at least given us some advice on what to do. Grrr. We'll see if our pediatrician can help.

Costumes at Preschool

The boys got to wear their costumes to preschool today. They were also having a little Halloween festival in their classroom. We were Parents of the Day today, and I thought we'd scored the best day of the year...but much to my disappointment, all the festivities were over and the kids were out of their costumes by the time we were there. (Parent of the Day duties don't start until after snack.)  I was soooo sad!  If only I'd known, I would have asked to stick around!   Oh well, I'm sure the boys had a good time.  :)  They got to play some games and had a little parade, and went trick-or-treating in the 3 and 4  year old classrooms. 

In case you can't tell, Jamesie is a puppy dog and Mattie is a dragon.  (The Jamesie pictures aren't the best, but I thought I'd have more opportunity at school!) 

When we arrived at the classroom, there were five princesses there.  :)  I was happy to find out later that one little girl was a ladybug instead!

James's Early Intervention coordinator came to visit the classroom today as well, and she was chatting with the teacher during the walk. The teacher said that James was starting to talk more "and starting to put words together, like 'more water'."  I was really surprised to hear that, because at home he's regularly speaking in 4-5 word sentences. I mentioned being surprised, and the teacher said that the difference was probably that at school he's one of ten kids, and he tends to defer to the other kids.  I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but maybe just that he isn't going to try talk over someone if they're talking.  (It's interesting; none of the kids seemed to be talking all that much last time we were parents of the day, and this time a lot of them were talking more.  Maybe they're just getting more and more comfortable with school!)

In other news, the boys also got to visit with their former babysitter J this afternoon, and we (finally) got the blood test results back from the GI doctor (everything looked fine -- except, oddly, the prealbumin, which the doctor had earlier told us was fine.  But the prealbumin is nothing to worry about, except insofar as the discrepancy makes me worry that they might have mixed up the results!)

It was so cute -- when I came home, the boys were sitting in their high chairs, and Mattie said, "Did you have fun at work, Mommy?"  What a nice boy!  (He's also gotten pretty good at "no, thank you", but we have to remind him about "please."  And the other day I heard him say, "Excuse me, Stanley!" as he was walking around the dog.)

Pumpkin Boys

The boys had a "pumpkin patch" at preschool today, where they got to pick out their own pumpkins. (They were also doing a pumpkin craft, had pumpkin seeds for snack, and there were little mini jack o'lanterns in the sand table. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me at drop-off!) Apparently there was also a puppet show, but Mattie didn't go into detail about the content. :)

I was at a work dinner last night, so Mike took the boys out to get a Really Big Pumpkin. He has plans for carving it sometime soon.

James looked so cute in his Halloween shirt -- do you think I can get away with putting him in it every day until Halloween? :)

James is now very into saying what things are not -- the old diaper is dirty, the new one is "clean diaper, not dirty!"  "That bottle brother's -- not Jamesie!"  "That water -- not milky!"

Mattie was really tired this afternoon (a combination of waking up too early and probably the tail end of the cold), so he was actually sleeping on the couch when I got home from work, and didn't budge despite James talking, turning on the TV, etc.  James said something like, "Brother is sleeping -- brother not wake up."  I had to correct him to say that brother wasn't waking up right now.  :)   (We ended up waking him for dinner and bath, and he still went to bed at the regular time.)

Weekend Sniffles

The little bears seem to have come down with a cold, so the rest of our weekend was pretty low key.  They were feeling well enough for a quick trip to the playground, though. :)

James is pretty much back to his usual cheery self (though he sounded pretty congested during his nap).  Hopefully Mattie will be on the upswing soon, too -- he's been okay in the morning but is more tired and clingy by the afternoon, and has dark circles around his eyes.  Neither one has been eating well (which is unfortunately typical for them when they're under the weather). 

Northbound

We were sad to see Grandma and Grandpa go this morning. They have a long drive ahead of them! It was a great visit -- thanks so much, G & G!!

State Fair

It was a gorgeous day for the State Fair -- cool and sunny.

Mike (and the rest of us) got to sample a great variety of Fair food, most of it very tasty.  The fried mac and cheese was not as good as it was last year, but to my surprise, the seafood was just as delicious as we remembered.  (I know, who would be crazy enough to get seafood at a fair?  But it worked!) We also had good luck with the roasted corn and the mini-donuts.  You can see where our priorities lie.  :)

The boys enjoyed seeing the model train and the animals in the Children's Barn.  (We didn't make it to the main barn this year.)  Mattie's favorite thing was the waterfall (bottom picture).  We caught a bit of a ventriloquist act where the dummy was a stuffed duck, and James enjoyed that.  (The performer was surprisingly good!)

We finished up at the Midway, where Mike and Grandpa both popped three balloons with darts to win prizes for the boys.  (One of the little balloons from that booth had escaped, and Jamesie and I picked it up.  It entertained him for a good long time, until he finally popped it.  It popped in a pretty noisy section of the fair, so I don't think he realized what happened -- he kept looking over the side of the wagon to try to find it!)

No rides for us this year -- by the time we got to that section of the fair, the boys were starting to get droopy.  Mattie insisted on being carried back to the car (despite the perfectly good wagon that Jamesie was happily riding in), and dozed off on my shoulder.