Asthma Attack

My nail polish remover was sitting on the end table today (yes, my house is a mess). Ben saw it and asked "is that to give bugs asthma attacks?"
"No, it's for my nails. Why?"
"Well, we need to give bugs bad food so dey have asthma attacks and dey don't know where de doctow is so dey get dead."
"Why do we want them dead?"
"Cause we don't like bugs. Not spidews or bees or beetows, or odo (other- I can't figure out how to write it) spidows, or ....."

So funny.

Happy Birthday Ben!

My baby is four years old today. I know this is a worn out line, but wasn't it just yesterday that we went into the hospital to have him? Then he was a happy-go-lucky baby, a busy toddler, a feisty 2 and 3 year old. What is in store for us next? I really feel that school is doing him worlds of good (I just hope I don't suddenly find out that he has been awful there) and he is really starting to go places. He learned to snap the other day simply because his brother could do it. Now I wonder if he'll just start reading because he sees Joey doing it. Daddy's coming home for half an hour this evening so we can have cake on his birthday, but first we're going to Sapora Playworld and then the favorite McDonalds for dinner. He got a remote control dinosaur and a view-master projector from us, and various what-nots from grandma so far.

I have more to talk about, but saving it for a separate post- stay tuned for more details:)

1st Day Recap

The first day went really well. We had only two upset parents because they didn't have the physical that they had all summer to get so their baby couldn't start. One crying 3-year old in each class, but they both stopped in the first 10 minutes. A couple of kids who I can tell are going to be quite the handful. And mostly just a great group of adorable kids. We are going to have so much fun this year.
Daddy and Grandma managed to get Ben onto the bus this morning, and Daddy was able to pick up both boys with no mishaps (it was not a sure thing). Then Daddy walked out the door to go to work as soon as I walked in. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be a little hard because we won't see each other at all, but the other days we'll have a couple hours in the afternoon while both kids are at school. We have plans tomorrow afternoon to go shopping for Ben's birthday present. Poor Ben. I will never have another child with a September birthday. I have been so busy getting ready for school to start and getting all of us in a routine that I haven't even thought about what we're doing for his special day. And Daddy and Joey are going camping for the whole weekend so we won't be able to do anything then. Oh well, at least he gets to celebrate at school, twice, unlike Joey and I.

Carp-A-Thon 2008

We had the big Carp-a-thon yesterday allll day. We got up and woke the boys about 5:20 in the morning, were on the water by six, and didn't get home until 8pm. Here we are in the morning bright and shiny and still waiting for good things to happen. Shortly after this picture I noticed welts all over Ben's body and Joey started feeling sick. Ben was fine, but Joey ended up throwing up over the side of the boat a few times. After that he was fine and we stayed on the water. It was kind of boring and we didn't have too many bites, so the boys tried to rest and I tried to get some sun.
After a few hours we managed to get one fish for each of us. Ben got the biggest at 7.1 pounds.
Next was Joey with 4.14 pounds. Mommy's was 2.7 and Daddy had 1.7. Not the best fishing day but we did pretty good. The winner's fish was a record 27 pounds.
Ben ended up getting the trophy for his age group. We were all excited and surprised. (Joey was more upset and surprised because he didn't get one.) He was also on the local news last night.

You can watch it here (click on Carp-a-thon). The boys also won big tackle boxes (I'm trying to convince Ben to let me "borrow" his for my scrapbook supplies), and had fun playing games. It really was a great day because we were all together doing something (mostly) fun all day.

Recap

Allow me to recap the last few days. Friday I met the girls at work to write Thank-yous for a couple hours, then headed out to Poplar Grove to scrapbook with a new friend. I had decided to change my albums to 3-ring binders and intended to work on that, but when I opened my new albums I realized that they didn't come with page protectors. Oh well, I just checked out Dede's projects. She has the most awesome scrap room and she is an Uppercase Living consultant so she has lots of words in her house. I had to go home after just a few hours because the boys were coming home from vacation. I stopped for some page protectors on the way home and worked on organizing while I waited. The boys were late, of course. Didn't get home until about 8. We went out for dinner and visited with them for a while then off to bed. Saturday morning was swim lessons. Both are doing simply amazing. Joey is finally putting his head in the water and jumping in the pool by himself. Later I got to watch this little cutie for a couple hours. I don't have little girls at my house very often so had to get the camera out. Saturday night we went to the Riverhawks game (our local baseball team). The stadium is really nice and there are no bad seats, but the boys really didn't get into watching the game. They mostly played around in the seats and annoyed the people araound them. There was a cute little grasshopper to keep us occupied for a few minutes.We did see a few people we knew, and ended up sitting with an old student and coworker toward the end of the game. Sunday we did a whole lot of not much. Went to lunch at Tom and Jerrys, stopped at Menards for paint samples because I've decided to add some color to some of the rooms in my house, watched some episodes of our new favorite Deadwood, read a new book Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. Today I mowed the lawn then we went to the pool to cool off for a bit before Joey had gymnastics. He is also doing great things there.
So that's my fascinating life the past few days. Nothing too exciting, just life as it should be: steady, normal, boring, fun.

Mommy Guilt

Is it just the natural order of things to constantly worry about being "fair" and "equal" with your children when you have more than one? Part of it may be that I had (have) huge issues with how fairly I was treated by my parents. That is a story for another day, but it has left me feeling guilty about how I treat my boys. I know that I am much more physically affectionate with Ben: he sits on my lap, I still carry him sometimes, we exchange lots of kisses... Joey won't sit still when he's on my lap, is obviously too big to carry, and we do kisses but not as frequently. But Joey I think gets more positive verbal affection than Ben. Joe is my laid-back, smart, relatively calm, funny guy. Ben is my high-strung, sometimes angry, really cute funny guy. Sometimes I feel like all I do is complain about Ben's problems and praise Joey when that is not really how life is. Joey can tend to be whiny. Ben cracks me up with how he pronounces things still. They are just so different and have such different needs that I don't think I'll ever be able to treat them "equally." Is that ok? Are they going to grow up and hate each other? Or me? Do they even notice or care?

Like, Stuff

*The boys started gymnastics last night. Ben is in the Little Stars with 5 other girls, which I think is better because he has a better role model. He did really, really well. He listened to his teacher and when he did get distracted and start to wander, he came right back when she called him. Joey is in Boys Sport Readiness with 2 other boys. I am so glad I put him in this. He gets lots of one-on-one, he's already doing new things, he loves it and so far wants to do it forever, and hopefully he can make some friends in the process.
*This morning Ben got screened for preschool. He pretty much refused to do anything for a while, wouldn't separate from me, and even when he started participating he refused to do anything he wasn't sure he could do right. So based on that, he was admitted to Parker Center for the fall. Mostly I am very happy that he got in because I know he needs the extra help and I've faced the reality that I am not providing it. I'm just a little sad that my baby needs extra help and I can't solve it by myself for him. We haven't been able to get him in for the psych eval, so this makes me feel a little better that we are taking steps.
*Last night the whole staff at my school got together to discuss what we are going to do next year. We know now that Carol will not be back, so we can start to figure out who is going to take her place. Some of the ladies who have been there for 25 years or more feel very uncomfortable having someone new or young take over. This really is directed at me since I am the only director-qualified staff right now. The whole situation is just very difficult because no one wants to hurt anyone's feelings, but they also don't want anything to change. I actually don't have hurt feelings over being told that they don't want me to take over. I can step back and see their point, plus I really don't feel prepared for the position. One solution we are talking about is having 2 people be co-directors, but there are issues that go along with that too.
*On the subject of birthdays: I wasn't really going to talk about it on here because I don't want to be like "It's my birthday, please acknowledge!" But tomorrow I will be IN my thirties. Last year when I turned 30 it wasn't a big deal to me. I felt like I was in a good place in my life and doing the things I wanted to do when I was 30. But now I'm going to be IN my thirties. Thirty-one. That's old. And these past two weeks I've been in training for my summer job with mostly 16 to 18 year olds. They are babies. Seriously. Did I act like that? I don't think. Oh man, now I really sound old. But these kids were born when I was in high school. They were born in the 90's. Oh. My. God. I need to stop. No more thinking about it. Goodbye.

Kids...

Funny stories I have to share before I forget:
Ben just grabbed my measuring tape off the desk (I use it frequently. It has to be out at all times. That half inch I'm going to lose next week is the difference between life and death.) He said " I found your mejister."
"What?"
"The thing to see how high you are."
"But what is it called?"
"A mejister. It mejurs you."
"Oh. A mejister. I understand now."

The other day Ben saw a car that he said looked like his Grandpa's. Joey said Grandpa has a Jeep (he does), and I pointed out that this particular car was a Saturn. One of them asked me why we don't have a car like that. I told them I don't want a Saturn, I want a Mazda. Joey said "yeah, but Daddy wants you to have a Tortoise." Well, yes, Daddy has been pushing a Taurus.

Ok, one more not so funny:
I was just giving myself a pat on the back this afternoon for how well we've done with Daddy gone for two weeks (he gets back Thursday). Then everyone decided to go on a rampage. I spilled the milk gallon all over the floor, Joey waited for me to get it all cleaned and the floor mopped then dumped his plant and dirt from school all over the floor. Ben has been absolutely wild today. He's made Joey cry several times, and he ripped my tablecloth. I must admit that none of that sounds that bad, but I no longer get to praise myself for my patience. There was some "slight" voice raising and a "short" time-out for all of us. Tomorrow is another day.

Yay!!

It's here!! My Cricut arrived in the mail today and I have been checking it out. I can see already that I am going to have to spend more money to really enjoy it, but there are a few things I can do right now.

Ben really just liked the packing peanuts that came in the box. I let him play while I opened my new toy.

Unfortunately they are very static-y and it was a big mess to clean up. They were in his clothes, his ears, all over the kitchen. Then he decided to start breaking them into teeny tiny static pieces.
Oy. At least he had fun:)

And here is me playing my pink guitar. (Or trying anyway). Don't ya love it?

Now I'm waiting for some purchases to arrive from Creating Keepakes and from Dick's Sporting Goods (I had a gift card - I got a heart rate monitor and some new crocs.)

Last night and Tuesday night I had some training for my new summer job. I really cannot wait to get started. I am going to be working with inclusion services for the Park District, so basically I get to play with kids outside all day. My kind of job. At training, though, I realized that most people who need a summer Park District job are either just out of high school or still in it. I felt a little old. All of the coordinators are about 20, maybe. And they're guys. And they're goofy. Should be interesting.

I Jinxed Myself

So I stayed up pretty late last night which was an invitation for my kid to get sick. Ben woke up twice gasping and grunting with a pretty bad asthma attack. Both times I gave him his inhaler (thank goodness we don't have to do a 15 minute neb treatment anymore), and he was able to calm down enough to get some sleep. I could tell, though, that we would be needing the Dr in the morning. I called his regular Dr hoping we could get in, but no, they said head to immediate care. Fortunately Grandma was still at our house from my late night last night and was able to watch Joey while I took Ben (never, never, never take both boys to the Dr's office). The wait wasn't too bad and Ben was actually fairly subdued for the first while. Once we got into a room he started getting rambunctious, but the Dr came in pretty quick. Asthma attacks are serious enough to get us quick help. He listened and said that one lung was pretty rattly, then checked his ears and asked the $1,000,000 question: "Does he get ear infections often?" Why yes, pretty much every time we do this routine that seems to be a problem. So Ben is now on antibiotics and steroids for the next five days and we had quite a boring day at home today. Although I did organize all my pictures and created one scrap page with my new goodies.
Tomorrow we hope to get out to see Jim Gill. My sister is running a half-marathon in Madison, but I don't think we'll make it up there.