Random Kid Stuff

Last week the boys had VBS so I had my mornings full of a whole lot of nothing! It was wonderful!

This week the kids have been home. And a bit bored! I’ve been trying to get the house cleaned up (little by little). Next week we have Cub Scout Day Camp, then the week after that we go to visit my parents. The house has to be cleaned before we leave, and this week is the best time to do it. Poor kids have had to entertain themselves without making a mess!

Josh has decided he wants some money to buy things I won’t buy for him, so he put up a chore list the other day.

You will notice right under “make bed” is “Be nice 2 bro.”  Which technically, doesn’t qualify as a chore, but apparently Josh thinks of it as one.

It's All in the Marketing?

On Sunday we went to Borders to grab a "treat" at the coffee shop and do some last minute Christmas Shopping. We love going there on cold winter mornings because we can look around, the boys can get excited about what books they want and we can go get a coffee and a treat at the cafe!

As we were getting ready I said to Sam that he had to hurry up because we were going to Borders.

He said, "I don't want to go! You know WHY it's called BORDERS? Because it's BORING!"

Then later on in the car he said, "You know they shouldn't call it Borders because people will think it's boring. They should call it 'FUNNERS' because it's FUN!"

Perhaps we should let Borders customer service know.

Meeting Up With Old Friends.

Yesterday, I posted some pictures for Wordless Wednesday of the boys coming down a water slide. Today, I'm participating in "Tell Me Thursday" to explain the photos.

When we first moved here and I quit working, I made some friends through Josh's preschool. There were 4 of us with kids all about the same ages. Mary with Cade & Jack, Linda with Abby & Dylan, Val with Emma & Abby and me with Josh & Sam. Soon Val moved to Alabama (we miss you still Val!) and Linda moved to Canton which is only about 45 minutes away, but still a drive.

With the way life goes, the kids got together less and less. And while I still see Mary regularly and Linda from time to time, the kids don't all get together that often.

On Tuesday the boys and I went to meet up with Linda and her kids - she now has 4! Mary, Cade and Jack came too so it was almost a complete reunion of our old Gang!

Kids: Luke 3 months, Sam 4, Dylan 7, William 2, Abby 9, Jack 4, Cade 9, Josh 8

We met up at a Japanese restaurant for lunch - and I am happy to say the only spillage came from me when I spilled my ice tea all over the table (thankfully at the end of the meal!) The poor server - 3 adults and 8 kids!

After lunch we headed up to Linda's place to play in their community pool. They have the coolest pool. There is the water slide and an adults only pool and a really cool pool for the kids that has one end with a zero entry so you can walk in like a beach. The "kids" pool only gets to 3 1/2 feet too so it's not deep anywhere. And during adult swim (every hour for 10 minutes, same as our pool here) there is a water mushroom the kids play in. Our mushroom has a pool under it, is very cold and, according to Josh, smells like pee. Their mushroom had no pool, just a drain so there is no standing water.

I really wanted to get more pictures, but I was having too much fun going down the slide and talking to my friends.

We had so much fun catching up and hanging out. The boys were so tired on the way home and slept soundly that night! We're already planning a trip back before summer ends!

And Abby and Josh hit it off. I got an email from Linda that night saying Abby talked about Josh all night and how much she liked him! Aww...

A New Post Because My Mom Wants an Update

Yesterday was Josh's first day of school.

We had a little "getting out of bed" issue in the morning. All summer long both boys have been getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 -- occasionally they have "slept in" until 6:30 (thankfully they entertain each other and not me).

But of course yesterday I had to go wake Josh up at 6:00 for school. He gets up, goes potty, comes back, gets back under the covers and informs me he is "not going to school today."

I'll let you guess who won that discussion.

He seemed to have a really great day. He's still telling me things that happened. I always try to pry information out of him and get the inevitable, "I don't remember."

But if I let him be, he always tells me what happened in his own time at his own pace. You'd think I'd learn!

Apparently, he made a new friend that is "really funny!" and his lunch table is next to some of his friends from the neighborhood and class last year, so he's happy.

Today, the second day of school, he had a long awaited dermatology appointment. His eczema has been worse than ever this summer -- and that's bad. I brought him to his normal doctor two and a half weeks ago and she recommended we go to a dermatologist to help control it. Meanwhile, she gave us a 'scrip for yet more products to help control it and they seemed to be working. The eczema was better -- but still bad!

The whole trip today was just frustrating. We got there 15 minutes before our appointment (like they recommend) and then sat there -- me with two children in a waiting room that is NOT kid friendly -- for an hour!

Finally, we were taken back to be seen and the doctor seemed a tad put off by the kids because they were antsy. And in the end he didn't really help at all. Just gave us another prescription for another type of cream and told us, "well, it doesn't seem to be that bad...." Um yes but two and a half weeks ago when I tried to get in it was REALLY bad and bleeding....

It just really irked me. The main reason we were going there was because we have so many partial tubes of stuff that either half work, don't work, sting badly (and I know they do because I've used them on me), work for a while then stop working, or work great then I stop using it (because it's a steroid) and the eczema comes back immediately.

I just want something that will keep it under control most of the time.

You should see his poor hands and feet! They hurt just to look at.

So at any rate, we have yet another prescription to try and yet another combination of creams, lotions and ointments (yes, there is a difference) and a new plan of when to apply what type of medicine to see what works.

I dropped him off at school just as his class was getting out of lunch (at 11:00! Thankfully I gave him a sandwich in the car) and he finished the day at school and was just as excited about school today as he was yesterday! Yippee!

He and Sam are happy as clams playing on the PlayStation2 at the moment!