Adverb

I think Christopher already shares my love of diction and grammar. This morning he said, "Look, Mommy, I can open this eas-awee [easily]."

Homework with Grandma Judy

Once a week John goes to "Math Superstars." It's an optional program at each grade level at the school, and the first graders go for half an hour on Mondays before school. I also volunteer. Each week they receive a worksheet of different kinds of age-appropriate word problems that they are supposed to attempt on their own. The next week, we talk through them and hand out a new worksheet. Sometimes we play math-related games.
Anyway, this week, Grandma Judy helped John with a couple problems via Facetime (the Apple kingdom version of Skype).

Go, Grandma! Go, Math!

John

Ever since we read part of the first chapter of "Beezus and Ramona," by Beverly Cleary, John has been interested in getting his own library card.
Today, Tony took him to get it!

Sick Boys Update

Christopher was sick and miserable all week. Actually, city of Clemson had a boil water advisory on Thursday and Friday, and they closed his school Friday (because they couldn't provide adequate handwashing), so that made having him home Friday easier to take. Last night was miserable, and I finally melted down from being stuck in the house practially glued to Christopher since Sunday. I slept in his room because he was waking up a couple times a night, and so it has literally been only at an hour at a time that I have been in a separate room from him. I pretty much thought he was going to be sick for the rest of our natural lives... but his fever was finally gone this morning. He was cranky and fussy, but I finally told him that we've been being extra nice because he was sick, but he had to start being happy again. He mostly has.

Needless to say, I'm very glad he's on the mend. I think it was the 100% juice flavor-ices that cured him. He had about 5-7 a day the last couple days. It was the only way to get fluids into him.

 However, John asked for his temperature to be taken this morning, and it slowly went up from 99.7 to currently 101. Sigh. Round two. I hope he is not as sick as Christopher was. Also, Tony's classes are over, so hopefully I can get to the gym this week, and not be stuck in the house so much.



Thanks to Miss Kerri for the race track. The boys had fun with it!

Sick boys

Christopher and John were both home sick today. Fevers with coughs and congestion. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it's not flu. They'll both be home again tomorrow, and I don't have a lot of hope for Wednesday, but we'll see.
Christopher is having the worst of it. His fever is higher than John's. But I think he's one day further along also.

John kept feeling John's head, saying "He's burning, it's like he's on fire." Tony said that means Christopher is the red ninja.

Daily John and Christopher

Life here.

John labeling his Cub Scout scrapbook of family pictures.

Christopher and Daddy assembling a car kit from Grandpa Mike and Grandma Mary.

Master Malaprop

John: "I can hear my heart beeping."

Halloween

The boys and I were on our on Halloween night. We walked down to James and Andy's house around 6:30 and then trick-or-treated our way back to our house.
Christopher did not like the jack-o-lanterns on everyone's porch, even though we have three of our own.
John was more into it this year. Christopher needed company and had to be coaxed. Maybe next year, I can stay up by the street...

Christopher and I went home to hand out treats (funny straws, glow sticks, and stickers) and John, Andy, and James continued around the neighborhood.

 

This is a picture of John in his costume for Storybook Character day at school. He was the pigeon from "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." Christopher thought it was hysterical and kept saying "No, you can't drive the bus."

 

John's homework

One of John's weekly assignments is spelling. He has ten words a week and he has a list of different activities to do with the words.
This week he took a written test via dry erase board, with Pa via Skype as the test administrator.
It was great!

 Christopher got into the act. He mostly drew "elephants."

Life is good

Here is a picture of John jumping off the climbing wall at the Children's Museum. We took several shots to get the best action.

 

Here are the boys having dinner/snack at a concert at the botanical garden.They have free concerts each Friday in September and October. 

On Friday and Saturday nights, we let the boys sleep in the same room. That way our early bird (Christopher) can get up without help getting out of the crib and and they go downstairs and gorge themselves on cartoons without our help. The parent elves leave accessible breakfast (cheerios, fruit, granola bars) on the kitchen table, and the boys are told to let us sleep and work out their problems together. Sometimes we get extra sleep, sometimes we don't. Usually one of us gets at least an extra hour...

Apple Festival

These pictures were from the Walhalla Apple Festival in September.
The upstate is great for small local festivals. You can count on lots of fair food, local vendors, live music, and traveling amusement park rides.

This one also had a 5K and Fun run. Tony was in Louisville for Dracula. I signed myself, John, and Christopher for the one-mile fun run. I had no idea how it would go, but I was hoping we could finish in under an hour. We did. It took about a half hour. It was a battle though. I bribed Christopher with M&Ms to wear the number. He was very excited as we lined up, but the second the race director shouted "Go!" he started crying. Then it was basically a sort of taffy pull: I would go a little ahead and then coax the kids to me, then a little further, for the entire loop. Not our best teamwork, but I was too ambitious. I was hoping John would come through for me... He was excited about the number at least...

Unfortunately, I misread the web site and we had to wait an hour between the time that we got there and the start of the one mile... that didn't help us either. Thank goodness for portable DVD players.

After we put the run behind us, we went to downtown Walhalla for the festival itself. And how can you have an apple festival without ice cream at 9:30 in the morning? The boys liked the swivel stools on the ice cream cart.

Christopher rode the "roller coaster" by himself. It was a caterpillar that went around a loop, complete with small tunnel. He held on like that the whole time.

John enjoyed the strawberry with another 6-year-old. I was just happy I didn't have to ride with either of them!

Then of course, apples!!!

However, the big score were the Lions Club mini-brooms. After we walked the length of the main street, we sat and they practiced light saber and ninja moves with the brooms for a good 45 minutes. And I do mean "good."

Then another break for apples.

They went through the 10 pounds of apples I bought in about a week and a half!

John waiting for Miss Kerri to drive him to school

"Manny" Pedi

Christopher loves toenail polish. He tried the nail polish also, but wanted it off after about 5 minutes.

Just the boys

Tuscaloosa

For the long Labor Day weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to take the boys to see our friends in Tuscaloosa. Tony had tech, so I figured road trip would be a good way to occupy us. I was wrong and right. We did have fun with Nicholas, Christine, Olivia, and Leo, but traveling with a toddler is very un-fun. Christopher did not do well at the hotel, which made him tired, which made him cranky... oh, well. Lesson learned.

Our friends near the end of a great cul de sac, which is just perfect for playing after a rain storm. The boys really needed some running around time after being cooped up in the car and hotel.

 John watched and loved a "Dino Dan" DVD, so I took the opportunity to stop at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta on the way home. It was a hit.

 

They had the most fun running around in the Nature Quest room, which had hands-on exhibits, a plank bridge, a spiral rope climb inside a pretend tree and lots of telescopes. 

There was also a "scoop on poop" exhibit. The exhibit was actually a little too small for the room it was in, so it felt kind of thrown together...

 On balance, the trip was good, and worth it, but it made me swear off traveling until Christopher can sleep without drama outside of a crib, is potty-trained, and a lot less tantrum-y...