Reflections

 We're two weeks into school, a month into daycare, and about 45 days to go until Jeff's election. The boys are taking the bus to school every day, staying at afterschool at their school building two days a week (for now) and the other three days, riding the bus home. Afterschool seems a whole lot more like relaxed, kid-centered fun and less like containment than last year's afterschool program at their old school. A new program starts in a few weeks so we'll see how that goes. It goes 4 days a week but then buses home, so we'll wait and see how they like it and whether they have the stamina for that four days a week. From what we can tell, the boys are working very hard at school. They come home exhausted. Homework is an annoyance, but it's not overwhelming yet. They are supposed to do 20 minutes of reading every night, which we do anyway, and a worksheet that takes 2-5 minutes that's something like sorting shapes or sequencing events or something. It ends up making the first 15 minutes after they get home a little chaotic, because they have to come in, take off their shoes, use the bathroom, wash their hands, get out their folders from their bookbags, sit down somewhere where Reed cannot mess with their papers, pencils, or markers, and do their homework (with us reading the instructions). Then we have to initial on four different sheets of paper that we have done what we were supposed to do with them. On the days that we are working, it makes the 5:30-7pm rush even more chaotic. But the biggest difference in them that I can see is that they are tired from working hard, from learning new things and adapting to new expectations, meeting almost all-new people, and from art and music and Spanish, all new classes to them. They need cuddles and hugs and kisses when they get home and through the evening, but they're also worn out of conversation and being "on". They like to play quietly by themselves or run around outside. We are trying to head upstairs to get ready for bed by 7, so we can have a relaxed wind-down period and have time to read (right now it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again) as well as watch a 12-15 minute movie before going to sleep.

Theo had a couple of night terrors a few nights ago that reminded us of when he was a little guy, probably around 2, and would wake up screaming and crying and inconsolable. It was very alarming for us as we tried to talk to him, gently at first but more and more panicked as he continued not responding. It sometimes lasted 45 minutes or so of kicking and screaming and crying. He does tend to have more bad dreams, or at least more that wake him up and spur him to come in to our room and ask to cuddle or to get tucked in again, than Beckett. When it happened recently he said his hands, arms and legs hurt, and he wouldn't stop crying and yelling. I finally took him outside, carrying him. He continued to cry and yell until he started saying his feet were cold. Then he quieted down and we looked at the stars and airplanes. It was like a switch was flipped, and he was making eye contact and responding to questions and asking questions. When I returned him to bed, his sheets were soaked with sweat.

Reed seems to be doing well at daycare. I still have a hard time with how many caregivers he has there, compared to Mindy taking care of the big boys for three years, and even Reed's caregiver Rachel for the past year. But he seems happy to get there and see his beloved Liz in the morning, and the photos and stories we get indicate that he's exploring and enjoying all there is to see and do at daycare. He is so attached to his blanket knitted by friend Taf that we bring it to daycare every morning and return it home every night. I recently commissioned some new ones but I'm afraid it may be too late to transfer his attachment to a new blanket, of which I had two made so I could leave one at daycare. Last time we went to the doctor Reed had lost a half pound, which also coincided with his starting walking. He's definitely losing some of his chub but still enjoying "sert" every night after dinner with his brothers, who never had dessert until they were at least three, at least regularly. I'm so enjoying all of his words and his ability to converse. It's frustrating when I can't understand what he's trying to tell me, because so much of the time I can figure out what he wants and is trying to say. They teach some baby sign language at school and recently he was doing what appeared to be a sign, and saying a word I couldn't recognize, until I realized he was just pointing to his own palm and saying "marker" because there was marker on his hand from when he got into the boys' art supplies (which I say as if it happened one time, but in fact happens at least once a day).

I had been trying to start the boys in a gymnastics class this fall but now given how exhausted they are at the end of the school day and how much our weekends consist of Jeff's campaigning and the boys just enjoying some home hang time after a week mostly out of the house, I've decided to put that on hold for now. We may sign them up for ice skating again this fall or winter and maybe if we find we're home a lot of Saturday mornings and would like some structured physical exercise time, we may get them back into gymnastics or something else. But we might just decide to keep it loose and go swimming in the indoor pools, or go to Billy Beez or the indoor water park or the science museum or something every once in a while instead.

At the boys' annual well-child visit this week they were pronounced "great" by their doctor. They have both grown about three inches in the last year and put on three or four pounds. Beckett is in the 40th percentile for height, and Theo is in the 20th. They have great vision and hearing and as always they wowed the nurses with their shot-taking ease. This time we only had to get the flu vaccine, which I was contemplating waiting another month or two to get since they got the flu at the end of the season last year after getting the vaccine early, but Beckett said he wanted to get it today so they got it.

Jeff is off at campaign events most nights now, and this is the first weekend when he's been out most of both days. He comes home tired but very happy to be with the boys, and the boys enjoy their time with him even more now because it's more precious.

Wild animal park

Last weekend we visited the Wild Animal Park in Chittenango, about 30 minutes from here. It's a small zoo-like private park that has some animals that we don't have at the Syracuse Zoo (giraffes, grizzly bears, ostriches, camels, alligators) and also has a large petting zoo and bouncy house area. It's very small and manageable for our three wild animals. We had a great time feeding the watusi, the giraffes, and the goats, cow, and camel. Actually, we all found it pretty gross to hand feed the animals but it was kind of fun anyway.

Fallow deer

Summer's last weekends

On September 11 we marked the occasion at the Strathmore Parks Run. The boys ran their first road race and enjoyed Gannon's ice cream afterward as a reward. Then we hit the playground and the swings in the park.

Last Sunday I helped my friend Heidi with registration at her first annual Walk for Apraxia at a park nearby. Jeff brought the boys later on in the morning to get their faces painted and enjoy some food. In the afternoon I took Theo and his friend Johnny to the Westcott Cultural Festival to buy some books at the library book sale and enjoy some live music. They got to pitch in with percussion.

Fun at home

Making sauce with the beautiful bounty of farm share tomatoes and having a brothers lego party at the table.

Saturday we went to the HABA outlet sale in Skaneateles, which was really fun but hot. They had bounce houses and facepainting and giveaways and a teacher from a paleontology institute with bones and skulls which captivated T&B.

Then we met Daddy at Gillie Lake for a wonderful afternoon swimming at our own risk at the closed beach. The water was perfect and there's no place I would have rather been.

On the campaign trail

At the Skaneateles Fire Department Labor Day Parade Sunday, and then the beautiful playground at the town park.

State Fair 2016

This year we hit the NYS Fair twice, which is a luxury of living in the same city as the Fair, just about 10 minutes away. We went last Friday with Grandpa Stu and Jeff and the kiddos. The highlight of the day was expected to be the Paw Patrol exhibit but the line was so incredibly long (some folks waited 5 hours to get in!) and the exhibit so lackluster (Jeff stayed in line while I went to check it out) that we decided to bag the line and the exhibit. We checked out the clydesdales, the old hot rods, an Air Force helicopter, a couple funnel cakes and fried doughs, and the fair fire station (always a favorite), and the 4H building for some crafts. Then as we were returning to the main part of the fair from the fire station area, looking to get into some lunch, we happened on the back of the Paw Patrol vehicle. There was a back entrance to the 18-wheeler that wasn't guarded or chained, and I saw a few other parent/kid combos just calmly walking in. So I grabbed Theo and Beckett and we walked right in. The truck was surprisingly empty, probably because there wasn't much to do there besides a small slide and a periscope in the hideout area. The lengthy line appeared to be for folks waiting for pictures with large human-sized Paw Patrol characters, which Theo and Beckett wouldn't have enjoyed anyway. The whole thing was bizarre and poorly-planned, in my opinion. But we stayed for about five minutes in the truck and then the boys were all set for Paw Patrol. I have friends who waited for hours in line before giving up. We certainly lucked out with the surprise back entrance and skipping out on the waiting. Jeff is pretty sure that we "sneaked" in and that it was not legitimate and indeed, the entrance was chained off by the time we left, but it wasn't like we were taking anything away from anyone who had waited, because there really wasn't anything going on in there anyway!

We also lucked out with some favorable weather--breezy and not too hot. We had lunch on the grass (PB for Beckett, hot dog for Theo, tempura veggies for me, a bacon bomb for Jeff--pork chop layered with sausage, all wrapped in bacon and slathered with BBQ sauce, and his regular Basilio's sausage for Stu) and hit some of the animal tents after. I also had my first fair wine slushie, which was everything I had hoped it would be except bigger.

Maybe Jeff has some pictures from that day that he will add here.

Labor Day Monday Jeff and the kids and I went back to the Fair for a focused day of eating and rides. Rides are only $1 on Labor Day Monday and we came prepared for a day of grimy, rickety fair rides and finding the best food at the fair. I think it's FAIR to say we crushed it. We rode every ride in the kiddie rides section (this year was the first when the boys are over 42 inches, a key height threshold in the ride industry) and found some great food finds--falafels, maple cotton candy, and maple ice cream (the BEST).