Best Grandpa Ever, Halloween, and other random musings.

Friday, October 31, 2008

My grandpa died last week. It's a surreal feeling. For most of my life, I've had 2 grandparents. My paternal grandpa died before I was born, and my maternal grandma died when I was 6 - I remember her, but not really well. So it's surreal that he's gone. He's been sick for a while - congestive heart failure and COPD, I think, but he'd always pulled through the various illnesses he got. This time was just too much for him. I'll miss him. In the line at the visitation quite a few people made comments about how he was a good grandpa, and he really was. The best.

Explaining it to Ethan was hard, but easier than I thought it would be. Of course he knew who Papa Curt was, but since we didn't see him on a regular basis, it's hard for him to grasp the concept of him being permanently gone. But he understood that we were sad, and gave me a lot of hugs. I'm sure he'll always love John Deere tractors because of Papa Curt. :)

Yesterday was our last day of parent/tot gymnastics. I almost got teary - we've had Miss Beth as our teacher for 2 years and while she does teach the Preschool class, we've decided that it'll be better for Ethan if we move to a new teacher. He's so familiar with her that he doesn't listen to her very well. And besides, when Logan is ready to start next year, I'd like him to be in her baby gym class. :)

We're skipping this 10-week session of gymnastics because we'll miss quite a few classes because of holiday traveling. So in January he'll be in the class by himself, and I can't WAIT! Plus, after Thanksgiving he'll go to Preschool by himself, and I will have 4 glorious hours a week where someone else can deal with him. :D Don't get me wrong, I love the child more than life itself, but Momma needs a break!

Ethan is a UPS man for Halloween this year and we've been getting our money's worth out of the costume, for sure. Yesterday we went to my mommy group's Halloween party. It was at my friend Carrie's house, and she is a braver woman than I, because there were like 70 people in her house at the same time and it was NUTS. Pandemonium. I couldn't do it, I'd have a panic attack. But it was a fun time, and I think she escaped with her sanity intact because she offered to host the holiday cookie exchange. LOL

Today was the preschool Halloween party, and let me tell you, it is damn near impossible to have a party for 12 two/three year olds in only an hour. I think we ended up going 15 min. over. They did the usual circle time with dancing, then a parade to the other classrooms and office. I hear they wanted to play with the toys in every room. LOL Then back to our room to decorate treat bags and bats, and then the bags were set up on the floor and they were supposed to help us pass out treats. Yeah, that didn't go so well. I ended up doing it myself after Ethan whipped the little can of Play-Doh into a bag and almost ripped it. Whoops. LOL Then they decorated sugar cookies and had juice. I was hoping there would be extra cookies for the parents, but no such luck.

Tonight we did pumpkins - I hate carving, so I got some of those Mr. Potato Head pumpkin decorating things on clearance at Target. They turned out pretty cute - Ethan's is a pirate and Logan's is a vampire. I did carve a Barack O'Lantern last night just so I could get on YesWeCarve.com. My picture isn't up yet but I'll be sure to link when/if it goes up.

Tomorrow we have ToTing at Streamwood's Safety Town, then I guess we'll come home and pass out candy. We got like 5 kids last year, so I'm not expecting much. Then there's a Boo-nanza at Schaumburg's rec center that sounds fun, and we might go to that. They decorate the gym and have all kinds of games and stuff, and ToTing in that Safety Town (which is behind Ethan's preschool and he begs to go there every.single.day).

I can't believe it's time to turn the clocks back already. I'm so not ready for winter. This summer went by way, way too fast. I doubt we'll ever leave the Midwest, but it sure does seem like an attractive option about this time of year. LOL

Here's a couple of pics of the boys yesterday - Ethan in his UPS man costume and Logan in his little devil outfit. Gosh, they're cute. :)

A farewell to summer...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather today and went to the beach! That would be Illinois Beach State Park in Waukegan, along Lake Michigan. We went last year around this time of year and it was quite a bit chillier!

I hadn't planned on it being warm enough to swim, so Ethan wasn't dressed for it, but he ended up getting wet anyway. He had a blast! Logan seemed to enjoy himself as well - we dipped his toes in and he didn't scream! LOL I wish this place wasn't so far away, so we could go more in the summer. Maybe gas will be cheaper next summer.

Speaking of gas, we allllllmost paid $2.99 today, but the station's credit card network was down. Bummer. We ended up paying $3.19 instead - not that I'm complaining, it's still $3.49 across the street, and both prices are better than the $4+ from last month.

I actually have some pics to share for once! Shocking, eh?

My kid, the guard dog.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Ethan is currently standing at the back fence, peering through and yelling BARK BARK BARK! to people that walk by.

In other news, Logan is 4 months old today! Gosh, he's growing fast. Too fast. And he just keeps getting cuter every day.

I love my kids.

Cuteness.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I was coming here to post something cute about Logan and now I've forgotten. :( This will teach me to procrastinate.

In happier news, I've finally unloaded my camera's memory cards. One step closer to posting new pictures!

This is going to bug me. What was it? He squeals when he's happy and it's the cutest thing ever, but that wasn't it. I love when he wakes up in the morning and is all happy in his little burrito made of swaddling blankets - best thing in the world to wake up to. But that wasn't it either. I thought of it when he was sitting next to me on the couch.

Bah. I forgot. Maybe I'll remember later. Hopefully if I do, I'll remember to come here immediately and post about it.

Long update...

Friday, October 3, 2008

I'm already really bad about updating this thing. Someday I'm really going to regret not writing more about Logan, I know I am. :(

So, let's see. What's happened since Ethan's birthday? We ended up having to cancel his friend birthday party because Shawn and I both woke up sick that morning. :( So he was pretty bummed about that. So instead of a party, we took him to the library for the first time, and it was a hit! They have trains that you can check out and play with on a table, and of course he loved that.

For his actual birthday, we went to lunch at the All Aboard Diner in Downers Grove. It was awesome! The counter has a train track running around the inside edge, and a model train brings your food to you! Ethan was a little freaked out at first, but our server was awesome and she let him push the buttons that control the train, and after that he wasn't so scared. They gave him a free cupcake for his birthday, too, which was great! They also have a little model train setup where you push buttons to run the various things, and Ethan loved that as well.

After lunch, we went to the Toys 'R Us a few doors down and played for a while. We still hadn't bought his birthday present, so we were trying to find something good while we were there. No dice. After that we went to the mall and let him play in the play area for a bit, and then went to Target to get a cake and look for presents again. We ended up getting a Viewmaster with Thomas and Incredibles discs, and a Play-Doh Fun Factory. He loves them both! And it's a nice change from his beloved cars. Though, I was hoping in the last 20 years since I had a Fun Factory, that they'd have made the hole round instead of square. Sadly, no. And it's still just as much a pain to clean out as I remember.

He picked out a Spongebob Squarepants cake, and he did a fabulous job of blowing out the candles. :) My big 3 year old!

We'd been planning to get Ethan a Power Wheels at some point, though we didn't think it would be for his birthday as they're a bit pricey. But I got extremely lucky and happened to check Craigslist at the right time - someone was selling 2 Power Wheels - a Jeep and a Silverado truck - for $25! What a deal! So we went to get them on Tuesday of that week. She said they wouldn't come with a battery, but she did end up giving us one that didn't hold much of a charge so we could at least be sure they worked. Ethan didn't take long to catch on to how to drive them and he's been having a lot of fun! Shawn got lucky and found a like-new battery and charger on eBay for $22.50, so now we have one good battery and one not-so-good battery, and a charger, plus the two vehicles, all for less than $50! I love Craigslist and eBay!

The following weekend we headed to Iowa City/Kalona for Iowa's homecoming - it's an annual tradition among our college friends. We got there on Thursday night so we'd have plenty of time to get to Iowa City for the parade on Friday. We met up with friends at the parade, and didn't really watch much of it. We were in kind of a bad spot for watching, and I got in a little fight with some other parents while trying to find Ethan a spot to sit, so he ended up watching while Grandma held him. After the parade we went to the Vine with Jon and Daisy and family and had wings, just like old times. :) And I breastfed in a college bar. THAT was interesting. LOL

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to go to the BBQ. It was going to be at City Park, but CP got flooded pretty bad in June, so we moved it to a different park. Well, nobody from the parks dept. came by to unlock the water/electricity, which sucked. They also told Daisy when she called that there was a grill - well, they were wrong. So we ended up bringing a portable propane grill from Shawn's mom's house. So no harm done, though it did suck having to rely on game updates from Bobo's Blackberry instead of being able to listen on the radio. The Hawks blew it anyway, so it's not like we missed much. Sigh.

It was good to see everyone, though, and lots of babies have been born since last year so it was fun to see all the new little ones. Ethan had fun playing with the other kids and was quite worn out when we got home - he crashed and took a 4 hour nap.

Unfortunately the day's excitement wasn't over yet, as Shawn's aunt Shirley, who was down for Ethan's b-day party, had a fainting spell in church and we ended up having to call an ambulance for her. Margaret went with her and was at the hospital until 3am, so we had to do a rush-job on the party preparations. I went to bed around 3:30am, Shawn finally came to bed around 6am, and Margaret didn't sleep at all. But everything got done, and the party went off without a hitch. Ethan was very excited to see everyone, though having 4 different grandmas in the house was a bit confusing. LOL (Margaret, my mom, my grandma, and Shawn's grandma)

And now this week, which hasn't been the greatest week. I'd forgotten that Abbie needed booster shots, and she was almost past the point of being able to get them without re-starting the series, so she had to get those on Tuesday morning. Then Ethan had preschool, of course, and I had scheduled a root canal for Tuesday afternoon. Too much activity for one day! To top it off, Logan has been really fussy and not sleeping well this week, so Shawn had his hands full taking care of him while I was out running around and didn't get a lot of work done that day. Oops. The pain from the root canal/temp crown was payback enough for me, I think.

Ethan started out having a great day in preschool yesterday - he didn't fight me when it was time for the art project, and he was playing with more than just the cars, as he usually does. Unfortunately, one of his classmates was bothering him while they were playing with the fake food, and Ethan shoved him down into the corner of a cabinet. It was very scary, and I felt absolutely awful. :( I never know if I do the right thing in situations like that - I ended up putting Ethan in time-in (holding on to him and talking to him about what he did and why it was wrong) and I think I got through to him, but I always second-guess myself. At least the other boy wasn't hurt.

Not sure what's going on this weekend - I have book club tonight, and Court and Tara are supposedly coming over tomorrow, but other than that we don't have plans. Maybe a trip to the library, or to one of the apple farms. That'll depend on the weather, I suppose. I love fall. I hope we have a nice long fall this year, because I am SO not ready for winter yet.

Will attempt to work on pictures tonight. Don't hold me to that.