My, er, I mean, Evan's latest school project

Evan's latest big project for school was to build a home for an animal. We settled on a lizard, but with the craziness of Joel's birthday this past weekend, we didn't work on it until yesterday - and it was due today. It was explained as a "family" project so we all got involved. Steve and the boys went to the lake to find sand, but came up empty. We used sandpaper for the bottom instead. Sand was important because this is a desert lizard (at least in our world). We investigated what lizards need in their home and discovered the essentials to be: a place to bask (and a heat/light source for basking), a place to hide, and water. Of course they also need food every few days, so we put that in our house, too. Evan did help, but I did most of the cutting and all of the glueing (since a lot of it was done with hot glue).


Can you see my contribution to the lizard itself? You may have to click on the picture to see it, but I added a little something to it. (It's not the coloring; Evan did that.) The directions said to have fun, so I tried to. Alas, Evan did not get to deliver his project to school today. He woke up around 2:30am with a fever, aches, and nausea and came to my room to share it with me. A few minutes later, Joel joined the "party" in my bedroom. (Joel seems fine, but has had a fever most of the day. We think it's just from the vaccinations he got yesterday.) They didn't sleep well, so they both stayed home from school today.

Poor Evan obviously hasn't felt well most of the day. This is how he has spent most of his time today (with a throw-up bucket nearby, just in case).


Doesn't that face just make you feel bad, too? It does me!
But ...

every now and then he perks up just a little and that makes me smile, too.

Birthday Shots

Unfortunately, I am talking about the kind you get with needles, not a camera. The downside to having a birthday at Joel's age is the vaccination shots. He got FOUR today. I have to say that he was very brave and didn't start to cry until the third one. It was a full-on cry after the fourth one. I know they had to hurt! He did use it to his advantage later today, though. When he didn't want to do something, his legs would hurt, and he couldn't move them. Magically, they were okay when he wanted to run and jump. I have had shots myself recently, so I know the pain can come and go, but it does seem like he might be milking it just a little.

As for the rest of the birthday check-up, he is doing well. He is over 41 inches and over 38 pounds. He is in the 75th percentile in both categories. (He had been in a lower percentile for weight, previously. This is the first time either of my boys have been in the same percentile for height and weight.)

Tuesday he got to celebrate his birthday at school, along with two other boys in his class. They had cupcakes, juice boxes, birthday crowns, and a birthday pin. (They wore the crowns and pins all day.) I got to see him that day at the book fair at the school, and he told me that was his favorite part of the school day. Talk about making his mama's heart melt! This boy knows how to work it!

That should end all of the birthday happenings for a while. He is very excited that he is now really 4. It seems we've been talking about this birthday for a while. I know everybody says the time goes by too fast, but it really does! Here are a few pics from the last 4 years.

Few Minutes Old

One Year Old

Two Years Old

Three Years Old

Four Years Old

Happy 4th Birthday to Joel!

Joel's birthday is today, but as far as he is concerned it was Saturday when we had his party. He decided a couple of months ago that he wanted to have a pirate birthday party, so we obliged.
It was a lot of fun, and Steve really got into this theme. He even helped with the cake decorating! Joel liked licking the beater and batter bowl. Can you tell?In our family, the birthday boy or girl gets to pick out the meals for the entire day. When I was making the grocery list I asked Joel what he wanted. After I bought it, he changed his mind. I told him that was too bad. He started to have a fit that morning, but then something changed and he was excited about his waffles and the "little meat" (aka canadian bacon).
I don't have pictures of lunch because I was busy getting ready for the party, but that was chicken nuggets and tater tots.

The party started with getting the guests dressed in their pirate gear, complete with tattoos, and then they went into the backyard to play in the pirate ships. (Steve made these and he did a great job! They are even still in one piece.) After everybody got arrived, we split the kids into teams and they had a cannonball fight. I think that was everyone's favorite game.They also got to decorate some treasure chest picture frames. Somehow we managed to lose two of those finished crafts by the end of the party. We found one while cleaning up, but still haven't found Kate's. (Sorry, Melody!)We had the obligatory "pin the ..." game, which was Pin the Patch on the Pirate. One of the kids kept trying to put the patch on me. The winner was the second one to go and she just went straight to the right spot and put the patch right on. She was so fast and sure I was wondering if she could see through the blindfold. No one else got that close, though.

Steve helped me make the cake by kneading the colors into the fondant, rolling the tentacles out, and rolling out the fondant for the octopus body. I had never worked with fondant before and would not have been able to knead the color in myself (at least not in the amount of time I left myself to finish the cake). Thanks, Steve!


Then it was time for opening the presents. Joel seemed to be making exceptionally quick work of the presents. I couldn't even get pictures of the last few. After he opened the last one, I figured out why. He was looking for one certain present that he had been asking for for a couple of months. It had been purchased by Grandpa and Grandma but was going to be opened after the party. Instead, Joel burst into tears and started crying that he "didn't get my golden knight! I want my golden knight! I was supposed to get a golden knight!!!"* I was mortified, but the other moms around just laughed/smiled/understood that he was being a 4-year-old. I tried to convince Joel that he had other presents to open later, but he wasn't even listening. I asked Grandma to go ahead and bring out the present. When he saw it, he immediately calmed down and said, "Is this my golden knight?" with such expectation. He was very excited when he opened it and saw that it was. He even carried the box around for the rest of the party. He started putting it together that night and played with it most of the day on Sunday, too.
*I would like to add that he started acting tired just before the party, so that was part of the reason for his outburst.

While dinner was cooking, Joel opened (the rest of) the family presents. He was very excited about them all, especially the tattoo that Evan gave him.
He also liked his knight dress-up set, so that he could be a golden knight.
He hasn't been allowed to take baths recently because most of the water ends up on the bathroom floor. His last gift from us was some bubble bath, bath paints (made by Steve) and some time in the bathtub before bed. It was a great ending to what had been a (mostly) great birthday celebration for him.
Yesterday Grandma took us out to eat. When the waitress asked if we were going to be wanting dessert Steve said no because we had some birthday cake still at home. We told the waitress it was Joel's birthday, and she was sweet and talked to him about it and told him Happy Birthday. Somehow I got around to asking if they did birthday stuff, and she said she would check. A little later she came back with a little piece of warm chocolate cake topped with a little vanilla ice cream served in a wine glass. Joel's eyes got big and he asked if it was for sharing. I said, "Oh, do you want to share it?" He usually is very good about sharing, but this time he emphatically and enthusiastically said, "NO!" He gobbled down every little bit as fast as he could. I think it was the first time he had his own dessert at a nice restaurant, and he thoroughly enjoyed it!

Fall Festivities

My blog entries have been a little sporadic lately, so I will try to catch up on our October in this post. We were supposed to go to the Smoky Mountains to see the glorious fall colors and visit family, but illness kept us at home. Steve took the scheduled time off from work and got some things done around the house. Joel helped Steve. Evan went to school. I took lots of naps and hung out with the family when I wasn't sleeping. All in all, it was a nice "stay-cation".

Steve had taken the boys to the Pumpkin Patch earlier in the month to pick out their pumpkins. I was hosting a baby shower at the house, so I didn't get to go (and that also means there are no pictures from this day). They guys also went to a carnival at a local nursery (tree and plant nursery, not baby nursery) and a "spooky" party at the library. They had a very exciting day!

That Sunday we decorated the pumpkins, or at least started on them. Joel wanted to paint his as a clown. I did the eyes, but he did the rest. Today he decided that it was the Joker, but it had been a clown for the last couple of weeks. Evan wanted to make a blue panther. I could not persuade him that panthers are black, so his is blue. First, he and Steve carved it. Then he painted it. Last, I cut out ears for it. I guess it was kind of a group effort, but let's just call it Evan's.

About a week later, Joel painted a smaller pumpkin at school and then added stickers to it at home. I picked up some pumpkins at the store, but didn't decorate them. I just used them to round out the display a little.



On Halloween the boys dressed in their costumes and we started the evening's activities with a trip to Sonic. They had fifty cent corndogs, so we loaded up on them for dinner. Then it was time for our church's Kids Karnival. It was full of inflatables, games, and food ... and friends and fun!!


After we were karnivaled-out, we headed home for some trick-or-treating. The boys had been checking out a house on our street that was getting really "tricked out". They remembered this house from last year, too. Joel was determined to be brave, but found it a little intimidating in the dark and with all of the spooky noises, lights, and last-minute additions. He finally made it up to the goody table, and was glad (I think). We didn't hit a while lot of houses, but the boys found it to be a highly successful night. They both declared their bags to be too heavy and too full. Steve and I have been trying to help them with that problem.


Now we are gearing up for Joel's birthday celebration next weekend. Stay tuned for further updates on that momentous occasion. ;)

For today's news, Evan is making up jokes. Here are a few of them:

Q: What do you call a ball that gets snowed on?
A: A snowball!

Q: What is a kid that has snow on it?
A: A snowkid!

Q: What is a football player that plays tennis?
A: A kid!

And Joel is making up good excuses. He couldn't pick up because: 1. his ear hurt 2. he couldn't move any part of his body (which he said as he was walking in a circle).

He also demonstrated a newfound ability to do the twist. I didn't get any video, because he was supposed to be in the tub when he demonstrated this (read "naked").

Well, I suppose this post is long enough and Steve has the boys bathed so I better get going. Until next time!

A Fright in the Night

This post was submitted in Scribbit's monthly write-away contest for October.

It was a quarter 'til midnight and I was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep. Then I heard it ... the sound that could be innocuous, or could be the beginning of a long, scary night. I waited with baited breath for more clues as to what my night would hold. The rustling continued, but on its own that was still innocuous. In a minute or two, my fears were realized as the rustling was joined by cries ... the irrational wailings of an almost-4-year-old who has awoken in the middle of the night!

My husband tried to handle the situation, but I could soon tell that the wails were not going to be stopping soon. These cries could have been the result of a night terror, or a nightmare, or anything, but the child was clearly not fully awake and would not be consoled. I decided to take over so that my husband could go back to sleep, since he did need to get up earlier than me in the morning. I tried to hold and rock the wailer, but I soon realized that he was wet. (He is potty-trained, but still needs training pants when sleeping.) He had refused to go potty before bed, and had already filled up his training pants and leaked onto the bed, pillow, blanket ... you get the idea. I stripped him first, and once he was clean and in new training pants I moved him to the floor. Then I stripped and re-made the bed. I think that this bothered him because his new sheets were white. (His now-wet sheets were blue, and he liked them because it is like "sleeping in the water".) It was hard to comprehend what was actually being said, I mean screamed and cried, so this was just a guess. (He did comment on it the following morning, though. "Blue sheets are like sleeping in the water, yellow sheets are like sleeping in the sun, and white sheets are like sleeping in nothing.")

I do know that he was upset that his wet blanket had been taken away. It was replaced, but the new blanket was unacceptable. At least, it was unacceptable until the following morning. When he saw it then he was very excited about the "new, fuzzy blanket" and began playing with it immediately.

At any rate, I couldn't get him to calm down, and he was getting dangerously close to waking up his older brother. That would have been even scarier, so I took the wailer to another room where I could close the door and try to calm him down. He likes to have his back and face rubbed, so I tried that. In his highly agitated state, however, he did not want for me to touch him. So, I just lay down beside him and let him do his loud, annoying thing. At one point he seemed to become aware of himself and started to wipe his nose on a sheet. I quickly said, "Uh-uh," and he stopped and looked at me. I think that the screaming even stopped. I asked if he wanted a tissue to wipe his nose and he said yes. I got him one, and after his nose was wiped, he quietly lay down and cuddled up next to me. This was the same child who had been loud, inconsolable, and untouchable less than a minute before! What had happened?

I pondered this question as I tried to get comfortable and go back to sleep. I hadn't done anything to help. I just waited patiently and quietly. For some reason, he seemed to become aware that he had a problem that needed some attention - a runny nose. He tried to fix it on his own, but, thankfully, allowed me to take care of it in a better way. He then let me show my love for him in a more practical way, by getting close to me and letting me cuddle and caress him.

As I thought about this, it reminded me of my own relationship with God. I have (and probably will again) become angry, sad, irrational, etc. with the mess of my life. It could be because of circumstances out of my control or it could be because of my own bad choices, but the result is still like lying in a wet bed. It's uncomfortable so first I pitch a fit about it, but then that doesn't really help. It only causes more problems - like not making sense to those around me and a snotty nose. I try to clean up the mess myself, but being smack dab in the middle of it can make it hard to clean it all up. All the time, God is waiting patiently there. He has offered to help, but I have pushed Him away and said I can do it myself. I am smart enough to figure it out. I have enough self-discipline to do it on my own. He knows the truth, and He offers help, but He waits. Eventually, I realize that I can't do it. I turn to Him, and He wipes my nose and dries my tears. He holds me. He loves me. I can finally rest in His peace.

Couple of updates

Evan has become quite attached to his football. I am constantly reminding him that we don't throw the ball in the house. (Of course, it's been so rainy here that he hasn't been able to play outside much.) He thinks that he would make a good quarterback (and I do, too) and that the quarterback is the most important person on the team. (Have I ever mentioned that we don't have to worry about building his self-esteem?) He keeps talking about when he can play football with a real team - when he is 7. He knows that we missed our chance this season and we will have to wait until next year. He is already discussing which team he will be on next year, too. He has a friend playing this year, so I guess he has learned some of the names. Speaking of teams - he is learning about the difference between NFL and NCAA teams, but this is a harder lesson for him. He has gotten several books from the library about football, so he is also learning a lot about the history of the game, the positions, the plays, and some of the players. He has already decided that he wants a football jersey for Christmas, but which jersey he wants keeps changing. He has also added a real (full-size) football to his "want-list". He didn't spend all of his birthday money yet, so I think he is considering using some of it for a new football. For now though, he is staying attached to his smaller one. He even holds (cradles) it while he is doing his homework.

Evan also received a school assignment last week to make a restaurant (using boxes or other materials readily available at our house). I swear that he made the decisions and did most of the work, but I did help some. Some days we worked well together, other days not so much. But we survived and he had a finished project by the day it was due! (The colors were supposed to be green and orange, but our printer needs a new color ink cartridge.)

Yay, Evan!

Today was the Awards' Assembly for the first 6 weeks of school at Evan's school. He received three awards today - perfect attendance, all "E" honor roll (which is equivalent to all "A" honor roll), and Pearson Pride. The last one is for "academics, actions, and attitude" and was given to one boy and one girl in each class. He was so excited, and we are so happy for him! We are even trying to take him out to eat now to celebrate!