pause

"Just when I figure out how to mother a kindergartner, it seems, I have a first-grader standing before me instead. I have just learned how to love and live with a nine-year-old when the nine-year-old vanishes leaving a preadolescent in his place. They don't stay still long enough for me to have my fill of them ever, at any stage. "Stop!" I want to shout. "Let's just do it this way for a while, let's stay right here." But the movement is inexorable--up and out, away, into the future."

-from Feminine Appeal.

(it's been a fun & fast 3 months!)

A New Bit of Fun

I stumbled across this fantastic resource of a site, called FREELY EDUCATE.

And the name speaks for itself.

It is chock-full of educational & fun links, lessons and ideas for children.

And while there, I found a golden nugget called, POISSON ROUGE.

An activity page, perfect for pre-schoolers & kindy-gardeners that entertained my boys (5 & 3) for over an hour! (with mom's watchful eye since they were on the new laptop!)

At first it seemed flat---one dimensional. But the discovering continued on & on! There are no directions, either. Just start clicking away and you'll soon figure it out.

Well, at least my 5 year old did. Sometimes, he figures things out better than I do, so I should speak for myself!

It did, however, have us all laughing and squealing with delight. And I only had to intervene one time---for a mousepad violation.

Enjoy.

Caiden's Diary, entry 1

YESTERDAY:

Woke up on the wrong side of my crib.

Seemed out of sorts.

Gleeful brothers in the morning did not help.

Then add to that a shot + extra crankiness + errands with mommy & brothers + very cold weather + a fever = A BAD DAY.

The worse one yet.

TODAY:

Went to the dr. office with brother, Jack. Mom slipped in a word about me. The dr. said let's take a look. Still had a 102* temp. Not good. Then, when I thought it was all over, I was poked. In my hand. And while the dr. was trying to get the elastic band off my wrist the needle flew out, leaving my hand profusely bleeding. I was trying to be brave, but it was hard. I had a swab stuck up my nose (but thankfully, no flu), and the best part yet:

I.had.to.pee.in.a.bag.

What is this? I'm only 3 months old! And I refused. Just plain out refused to do it. It was so scratchy and hard and I was all exposed and all. So after an hour of waiting, mom told me what they would have to do if I did not pee in the bag. A cath-a-what? (mom explains) Ooh. That's not good. As I was contemplating the choice before me, the dr. came in with the works. Bags, needle-looking things and I had little time to spare. So I thought I'd surprise everyone and when they laid me on the table to get things going, I decided to be a good boy and cooperate. There. I filled the bag. Everyone was happy. I think mom would have literally jumped for joy if she weren't holding on to me.

So that was my afternoon in a nutshell. All 4 hours of it. And I heard the dr. say it didn't seem to be anything alarming. They just wanted to try and rule things out since there are no other symptoms other than a fever.

Guess there are a few bumps in the road of this life. And I think I better get used to it! After all that, once we returned home, I was my happy, jolly self again. Even though I left mom a bomb shell in my diaper. But then I got a nice warm bath. See?

We're good.

We're all good.

(oh. and I got lots of extra RM3---Ready.Made.Mommy.Milk. And mom & I actually got a cat nap in the office. She was happy about that. I could tell)

p.s. a huge hurray for daddy, for watching my brothers with a busy work day going on.

and another huge hurrah for bop-bop, for doing a last minute play date with my brothers when daddy had to get back to the office. this life thing is a group effort! Whew!

p.p.s. kudos to aunt stephanie for my adorable sweater outfit (that, thankfully, I did not have my bomb shell in. or it would have been ruined)

*update: the dr. called to say all the blood work came back negative, nice and clear. mom needs to keep an eye on my temp. and hopefully this should clear up soon. glad that's in my past, though short it may be. mom was also seen doing strange yoga-like moves. I think it was the fact that she held all 14-sleeping-lbs. of me for over 2 hours with no arm rest. thanks, mom. you're the greatest. and when I'm a teenager, I'll give you a back rub every night for a week for this one!

xoxo