Kirland

Keeping Busy

  We've been gearing up for Halloween with various activities this week. On one hand it's been great because it keeps us busy and distracted and on the other hand it stinks that Keith isn't here to enjoy it with us. This is especially true because Halloween with a 19 month old is just SO CUTE. Really, the cuteness is just overflowing. 

Yesterday we went to "Trunk or Treat" at the kid's school. Which, has this whole trunk or treat thing been around a while? Until I saw all the cars lined up with their trunks open I still wasn't exactly sure what we were going to be doing. Kind of like a "sip and see." First I heard of that was a year ago - have those been going on forever too? Anyhow, it was great fun and watching Foster go around with his bag out and his sweet puppy dog face asking for candy was just priceless. 

We also went to the arboretum earlier in the day hoping to get some last minute pumpkin patch pics. I got some shots that I've posted here, but all in all it wasn't a great arbo day because the whole place was just a big mud pit. Hopefully we'll do better next year.

Gotta go get ready to teach my childbirth class. Blog at you later.

He's finally getting it

I have a bunch of pictures to post, but it's late so I'll save that for tomorrow. I did want to report on a conversation I had with Grayson today. We had been talking about all of the candy he's going to be getting over the next several days. I mentioned that he'd be able to eat a piece each day if he made good choices. He got quiet for a while and then, in a sad voice said, "Mommy, I don't think I'm going to get to have any candy." When I asked him why he said, "Because I think you're smarter than me." YES!!! Mommy is winning! (at least for today)

Crazy Bad Crazy Good

     It's sad how long it's been since I've blogged. I imagine there are very few people left out there who even come and check to see if I'm still around. Even though the blog has been sorely neglected, I would like to keep it up. I enjoy being able to go back through the years of posts and seeing how the kids change. Keith is out of town for two and a half weeks. Waaayyy tooooo loooong. I told him I would blog for him. So I will.

Today has been particularly trying with my dear, precious Grayson. Everyone told me that three and a half was bad but four got better. Haven't seen that come to fruition just yet. We have serious massive kicking hitting screaming hysteric fits on a regular basis. We do bedroom time, we take things away, we limit privileges, we leave fun events. We see little improvements and then we have days like today. Where every little thing sends him over the edge and no brilliant parenting technique quite does the trick. I know this gets better. I know it is just a season. And I know my job is to stay the course. To be consistent. But man it sucks.

He has had me near tears with a lot of tough questions lately. Things like wanting to know if I would die before him and then tearfully telling me he wanted to die at the same time as me and Daddy and Foster and Reece. He gets sad when he has to leave people or they leave him. He's told me he's worried he won't see them again. We talked once about boys and girls who didn't have mommies or daddies and he told me he's worried that when I leave to go somewhere I won't come back and he won't have a mommy either. I offer all of the reassurance I can but fundamentally it just breaks my heart on several levels -  that he's asking these questions that seem far beyond what a 4 year old should worry about, that some kids do lose (or don't have) one or both parents, and that he's right - one day (hopefully a good 70 years from now) - I won't be there. I hope that the more we talk about the things on his mind, the more he can find comfort. I can't help but thinking that the questions will just get harder though!

When he's not being a complete lunatic or pondering the meaning of life, he is sweet, polite,  funny, energetic, kind, thoughtful, sensitive and brilliant (aren't all of our kids brilliant? :)). He plays well with his brother. He loves his friends. He is great at school. He loves to dance and sing and recite dinosaur facts. He adores his bike and would spend every minute riding it if we let him. He still loves books and baseball. He's inquisitive and loves a new word or concept. He likes to pretend he's doing a triathlon and will pretend to swim on the floor, ride his tricycle and then run around the house - it's adorable how much he wants to be like Daddy. No matter how challenging he gets, I try hard to appreciate all of the great things about him. If you catch me on a bad day, you may want to remind me to come back and re-read this post though!

"I broke my toe bones"

As a mom, you are always worrying about the next tragedy. Or maybe, as a paranoid mom like me you are. I drive down the street and someone cuts me off and I think "See! There! We could have just been in an accident! My kids could have been hurt!" Or one of the kids gets sick and I start thinking that this could be the one rare illness that debilitates or kills my child and no one will be able to do anything about it. You may be surprised to hear that I think these things, but I do. I never did think though that one afternoon my son would accidentally pull the glass top of a kitchen table onto his foot causing the foot to break in three places and the table top to completely shatter all over the floor. Yeah, of all things that could go wrong, this was not one that I considered. That's because I hadn't considered that  we would have put a table cloth on the table for the first time so that we wouldn't have to clean it every 5 minutes and that then we'd be having the windows washed at my parents house and in order to get to one window they would nudge the table just a bit (not realizing that it was a glass top because the tablecloth was on it) thus completely destabilizing the table so that when a certain sweet 3 1/2 year old reached out and leaned on the table to grab his play dough it would slide down and break his foot. 

Oh my gosh. Seriously. Did this really happen? Yes, yes it did. I knew right away it was broken. I can tell the hysterical crying-just-to-cry crying and the real this-really-hurts crying and he was doing the latter. And then even as he was trying to get himself together he'd just melt down saying "Ouchie! Ouchie! Ouchie!" Within 15 minutes of it happening we were on the road to our trusty Alamo Heights Minor Emergency Clinic (We've been there several times before and love them. It's run by two former ER docs who both have young kids and they are always great). By the time we got there, Grayson had calmed down and we started talking about getting to see a picture of his foot and how cool it would be to look at his bones. Although the week of strep led us to watch more TV than I'd like, I'm grateful for Sid the Science Kid and his bones investigation. By the time we got in there I actually had him excited to get an x-ray! He was great but so was the staff. He was so good in fact, that everyone was surprised his foot was actually broken, much less in three places. He told me he wanted to get one of those cameras (the x-ray) to have at home. They splinted him up and gave him some lollipops and a script for tylenol with codeine and sent us on our way with instructions to follow up with a pediatric orthopedist when we get home. We were told he'll have to be carried until he is allowed to bear weight - so at least until he sees the orthopedist and gets the real cast (and I'm assuming longer). And then he'll have to be in the hard cast for 4-6 weeks. The one bright spot is that they do make covers so that he should be able to swim in a couple of weeks. 

It was a rough night. He wouldn't take the tylenol with codeine (not a surprise) so we just did tylenol every four hours. He slept in my room in hour long spurts. It was no fun to have my sweet baby boy wake up in pain that I really could do little about. He watched a lot of TV - thank goodness for all night kids programming (which I'm pretty sure we don't have in Dallas).

Today was much, much better. Went out for both lunch and dinner with the Acostas (Annie always puts a smile on his face). Daddy gets in tomorrow and we'll be well on the road to recovery.

I have to say that in all of this I just find myself thankful. That nothing worse happened even though it really could have. That I have so many great family and friends to help out. That we have great health insurance and medical care. That my little man has tolerated everything so well.

Yes, we'll miss out on little sluggers and quite a bit of swimming and sprinkler parks and play with friends, but it's a pretty brief period of time and if I do it right, it'll just mean we have more time for libraries and books and art projects and play at home.

Yes, I could use a 48 hour nap or so. But really, couldn't I always?    

(Oh, and if you expected a call from me today but didn't get it? Tomorrow! I promise!)

Picture Night at The Beach

 

The trip was winding down and we headed into Seaside for pictures on the beach and dinner at Pickles. Last year's family picture was so great there was no way to top it, but I think we got a couple of cute ones.

Meanwhile, back at the beach

While we were on our date night, Mary Helen and Mike and Paul and Alta braved taking the kids to the sprinkler fountain and then to the Sugar Shack for some pre-bedtime hyperactivity (fine with me as I wasn't putting them to bed!). From all accounts they had a great time. Both boys enjoyed the sprinklers which bodes well for a summer at the sprinkler parks at home. Foster thought it was awesome, of course. Thanks, Mike, for the great pictures. (The last pic I stuck in just for fun - it's G - same place, 2 years ago)

   

Where Bare Feet and Sandy Floors Rule

This is all going to be posted a little out of order, but I'm waiting on some pictures from Mike.
Wednesday night was our date night - woo hoo! We did a decent amount of research and decided to go with Cafe Tango. It got the best reviews for the restaurants on 30-A on tripadvisor hands down. We weren't quite sure what to expect as we read it only had 8 tables. It was adorable and YUMMY. By far the best meal we've had out here in any year. And the service was excellent.

Next we headed into Seaside and walked on the beach, got some yogurt at Dawson's and listened to a concert on the lawn. It was a gorgeous evening and felt a little Austiny (which I always appreciate) with the country/rock bad and the laid back atmosphere. I bought yet another Seaside shirt - I couldn't help myself. This one said "Where bare feet and sandy floors rule." :)

We ended up at The Red Bar for a drink and then headed home. While Keith had talked up staying out late, the sun and sand and food and drink made for a happily tired couple.

Dog Sitting

The great benefit of having 3 families on vacation together for a week is that, among other things, every couple gets a date night. Tonight Paul and Alta and Mary Helen and Mike went out while Keith and I babysat all of the kids. We decided to take them into Watercolor to see the children's theater group do another production - this time it was Go Dog Go. It went so well I almost think I could handle having 4 kids! Almost being the operative word.

Keith was a great babysitter. Here is the pre-play reading of Go Dog Go.

 

My little Pilot did great holding all four kiddos. I will resist the mini van forever! Incidentally, Annie is holding her nose because my car "smells like stinky boys!" Yep. It does.

The kids were enthralled. No misbehaving whatsoever.

Watercolor was a pretty little community

More Watercolor

The "Do you like my hat?" dog.  Annie got up to talk to her and froze. Pretty cute.

Post-play Go Dog Go reading. Nighty night.

Beach-a-licious

Spent the morning at the beach. Big surprise, I know! Saw dolphins like last year - my favorite part of the whole trip.

Lazy Does It

Yesterday the girls, Fozzie and I took a walk into Rosemary Beach to get coffee only to find our precious Starbucks's had CLOSED (gasp!). So we wandered into Alys beach (the newest community and hence the place to be these days) and found a nice little coffee shop that did the trick. The guys took the boys to the pool and by the time we were back from our coffee and walk everyone was ready for lunch. Everyone (including me!) took a nice afternoon nap and I made my Japanese Curry for dinner.

We headed into Seaside for the evening and the local children's theater group had just started a little play. Good timing that happens with no planning only occurs while on vacation :).  The kids were engrossed by the play and afterward the little lights Mike had the forethought to bring provided tons of entertainment. Nice lazy beachy day.