New camera

Our camera took an unfortunate tumble down the basement stairs this weekend so we bought a new one. I’m never happy when we buy new cameras. They’re always smaller and sleeker, with bigger, more impressive numbers, but I think the picture quality looks worse and worse :( I’m going to have to see if I can fine-tune the settings or something. It’s SUPPOSED to be superior to the old one (and it is, in a sense, because it functions!) but I’m not impressed so far. The subjects in the below photos are top quality, of course!

An apple-a-rific day

Lex went on his first field trip today! To the apple orchard! He was so excited. I was so excited for him. I was also a little (just a little) but sad because it’s a milestone that I wasn’t really able to join him in (and take pictures of!) Together with the kindergarten class, they took the bus to a local apple orchard, picked apples, had a snack there (apples, of course!) and came home.

At breakfast this morning I told Lex that I wanted to go over some bus safety rules with him since it would be the first time he’s even ridden on a bus. He started the conversation with all of the things his teacher had already told him! Which pretty much covered what I had in mind and then some! Sit still, wear a seatbelt if it’s available (apparently not all of the buses have them), don’t stand up until the teacher or bus driver says it’s ok, etc. I was happy to hear that they had already reviewed that in class, probably more than once because Lex had them memorized. When I picked him up after school he told me that when the bus went down a big hill he slid out of his seat, but he got back in quickly when his teacher told him to. Visualizing that made me giggle :)

Lex came home with 10 apples and said he ate one for snack. He told me at breakfast that he was going to have an apple-a-rific snack at the orchard. Silly boy. He doesn’t eat apples often these days, but he told me all about the one he ate today and what he did with the apple core (there was a lady standing there with big red bag and we put our apple cores in the big red bag) so I’m inclined to believe him. Any day that he eats an apple is a good day.

Then he said he wanted to make an apple pie with his apples (a boy after his daddy’s heart!) so we spent the afternoon (between not napping and visits from family) making apple pie. I didn’t have any handy-dandy Pillsbury crust on hand so I did it the old fashioned way. The final pie looks beautiful and Alan says it tastes amazing! I’m pretty sure I’ll be having a piece in just a few minutes :)

An apple-a-rific day!

An apple-a-rific day!

Early morning excitement

Kid collage

We had an exciting morning. Our basement project began today with an insulation delivery on a big flatbed truck. Boy were we excited! It was cold (40°F !) so Lex decided he needed to get “the hat that keeps my chin and cheeks warm.” This is a hat that I bought a few weeks ago from a lady selling off her kid clothes. I didn’t think for a minute that he would ever wear it, but he ran right in and put it on, and brought a hat for Eve. A few minutes later they decided they needed gloves. I guess the cold weather has officially arrived. It was fun watching them unload the truck, but more fun watching the kids play so happily on the porch. (I can email individual pics if anyone wants them.)

L E X

L E X

The other day Lex said, “Mommy, look what I can do!” and he spelled his name with his body. I was so happy. I asked where he learned that and he couldn’t tell me. He said not school, not daycare, he just made it up. :) Such a smart boy! He has been very camera happy (or at least cooperative!) lately and that makes me even happier!

Then Eve wanted to play too and they tried to make a W. Eve needs a little work on her straight arms, but the kids had a blast anyway :)

The kids make a W

Tough questions

Lex has started asking some pretty funny, sometimes tough, questions lately. Questions like, “What would happen if our faces were flat?” or “What would happen if there was a very big giraffe in our house” or “What would happen if this roll of toilet paper was sooooooo big it couldn’t even fit in the house.” Sometimes we get into good discussions and other times (when I’m tired) I end up just saying, “I don’t know Lex, what?” and then he moves on to different topic. The other day he asked “What would happen if Eve died?” Whoah!! Not what I was expecting but it did initiate our first (ever, I think) discussion about death. Yuck! Tonight’s question was “What would happen if our world was sideways?” It’s funny because you can answer these questions so many different ways, depending on how you choose to look at it. I chose to give him a demonstration on how the Earth (a plastic pumpkin on the table) rotates around the sun (a candle). He was impressed. Then I showed him that the Earth IS sideways (well, a little crooked anyway) and he was amazed! :)

A playdate!

After preschool today we went on Lex’s first official requested playdate. What I mean is that we have playdates all the time with MY friends and their kids, but this week Lex specifically asked if he could have one of the boys in his class over to play. I called his mom and we worked out a visit at their house today after school. It was really nice. Lex was confused at first because he wanted to go home and have a nap first (our normal routine) but he quickly warmed to the idea of playing first :) They played on the swings, rolled down a giant hill, ran around, fed the horses, pulled Eve in a wagon, threw sticks into a pond for the dog and everyone had a good time. I’m so happy to see him playing with other kids and even requesting it! Yay for school!

A big day at the dentist

I’m so tired, but I know everyone will be looking for this in the morning, so here goes!

We had an exciting day at the dentist today. As planned, I gave Lex a small dose of Valium an hour before our appointment and he was nice and relaxed… until it came time to get in the car! Then he fought like he hasn’t fought in along time! It was rough. We got him buckled in to the carseat and he settled down. We did a lot of talking about what would happen and the process. When we got to the dentist he just cried. I carried him in and he cried (thankfully the hitting and kicking had subsided) and, amazingly enough, when we got into the dentist chair he calmed right down. He was intrigued to go into a different room than they normally put him in. For cleanings he’s in an open-ish room with several chairs, for this procedure we were in a room with a closed door. Soundproof, perhaps? :) I was really impressed with how well the dentist did. He tends to talk down to Lex a bit and I think that confuses Lex sometimes, but it seemed to work well and he did an amazing job of calming Lex and he seemed really tender and attentive. No medical talk over Lex’s head, no “sit still!”, nothing. He called Lex “Lexi” many times, but that’s ok. He stayed in the room the whole time, with me and two nurses. He had me sit on the chair, legs off to the side, and Lex lay across my lap with his head positioned in the chair. I think Lex was really comfortable and I got to hold his hands. I had to turn my head a few times (needle injections in many places around his tooth, tooth pulled, something stuck deep inside the hole, eek!) but the whole thing went so well. They even gave Lex his tooth in a little green treasure chest because Lex told them that green is his favorite color.

I know you’re all wondering if the tooth fairy will be visiting our house. I’m sorry to disappoint, but I think she’ll be flying right by tonight. Alan and I struggle (ok, I think I struggle and he’s ok with it) about how much to encourage the lies/fantasies. I usually have no problem playing along, but I can’t bring myself to bring it up. Lex knows nothing about the tooth fairy and he’s a pretty logical guy, so I couldn’t figure out a way to build the story. So I didn’t. He is excited to take his tooth to school tomorrow and I think that is a better solution for all of us. :)

He wasn’t in the mood for a photo this afternoon, but I’ll get one for you soon. We spent the day relaxing. Lex napped and then played with play-doh for hours, I baked bread and mini carrot cakes (and I’m ill from my complete and total lack of will-power!), and made dinner. Eve was bored silly by the end of the day. She’s protesting daycare tomorrow, but I think it will be good for her. I’m hoping all goes smoothly getting him to school and daycare tomorrow. He’s still awake up stairs now though (it’s 9:49pm) so we’ll see how tomorrow goes!

Trout

Alan and I went out to dinner tonight and left the kids with a new babysitter. Well, newish, she was here last week too and they LOVE her. We came home to find them playing hangman. Lex picked the word and she was guessing letters. Guess what he picked? Trout! So funny! None of us grownups could really believe it. :) Not fish, or bird, but trout. We don’t eat fish around here (obviously) so the fact that he was so specific was just humorous. I asked why he picked trout and he said, “That’s just the word I thought of.” Can’t argue with that. The babysitter was very impressed, and amused!

Baaa!

Baa, baa cotton ball sheep...

Baa, baa cotton ball sheep...

Want some text with all these photos?  I’m just having fun with Picasa :)  The other two posts (below) don’t require much detail, but I’ll give you the story on this one.  Lex saw a cotton ball sheep project in a Stonyfield Farm flyer he got last weekend and was eager to try it.  Over the course of a few days he read the instructions, found all of the supplies he needed and gathered them on the table.  The one thing he couldn’t find was the glue (which was buried in the pile of rubble I call the dining room counter!) otherwise he would have done the project all on his own.  Yesterday I found the glue for him (and gathered supplies for Eve’s sheep) and we sat down to make sheep :)  Like the results?  I like that Lex finds craft project he’s interested in doing and does them!  Not everything interests him, but when he finds something he likes he gets it done.