Halloween 2012

Trick or treat! We had some fun this year with trick or treating and costumes! The twins have reached the age where buckets full of candy have some real meaning! Rush was beyond excited to go trick or treating, and Frannie was all fired up, too!

Note to self: Do not put the Halloween decor out quite so early next year. They thought this meant trick or treating was going to be happening relatively soon. It is a LONG way from Sept. 30 until October 31. A looooong way... filled with many, "Is it trick or treat day yet?" :-)

Our neighborhood had the cute little carnival that we have visited for the last couple of years. The kids had fun! They played a few games, decorated cookies, and took a few whacks at the pinata. They had a "little kids" pinata and one for the big kids. My two are still "little kids". The little kids don't really understand the whole concept of a pinata, so when the candy fell out, rather than attacking the candy and stuffing it into bags, they all calmly walked over and were very selective about what they placed in their bags. When the big kids got their turn, it was an all-out FRENZY to grab candy. Wonder when that desperate-ness for candy kicks in?

On Wednesday, after a whirlwind of forgotten ballet tights, ballet class, and homemade pizza, we finally made it out to trick or treat in our neighborhood. Just as a side note, it is a universal sign that you trick or treat at houses where the porch light is ON, right? Even though trick or treating had started in our neighborhood, we had our light off because we were trying to get the twins dressed, eat dinner, etc. Our doorbell rang NON-STOP even though the light was off. Kids were banging on the door and screaming for us to open it. Unfortunately for one group, I did open the door once. I may or may not have used a teacher voice to explain to them why we were not giving out candy at the time. Ooops. I felt kinda bad afterwards, but we were frantic inside, and the incessant ringing and banging just frazzled me even more.

Anyway, back to fun, cute, Halloween memories... We were doing just fine with trick or treating until we ventured to a house across the street where there was a young girl dressed as a witch. She was probably around ten years old. Didn't matter. Fran shimmied up her Daddy's side and firmly planted herself around his waist. She does NOT like anything in a costume that is remotely scary. Who are we kidding? She doesn't really like anything in a costume. Period. And the girl wants to go to Disney World. That would be a pretty pricey trip to spend with your face buried in your Daddy's shoulder. We have told her that we will consider planning a trip to Disney when she hugs the Easter Bunny and the Chick-fil-a cow. I think the Disney Budget will remain safely intact for some time to come. Rush, on the other hand, went right on up and got his candy.

After about ten minutes, she moved past the witch experience for the most part. I am pretty sure her heart rate stayed up for the rest of our little trip around the neighborhood.

When we got back home, we sat out in front of our house and passed out candy to the trick or treaters that were still out and about. The little boy in the Scream mask that arrived at the door just about did Frannie in for the night. She didn't cry, but she just stared at him. When he walked off, she told me she was ready to go inside. So, we called it a night.

Even though SF was a little scared, we had a good time! Rush had an absolute ball. He ate his first Tootsie pop when we got home. He loved it! For him, Halloween was a great success!

My Favorite Little Alabama Fan

I took my favorite little guy to his very first Auburn game yesterday. We just totally pretended like he wasn't an Alabama Fan. We had such a good time. He loved riding the bus! We got to see many of the same things his sister saw. We watched the band march around the field. He chose a hot dog, popcorn, and water (my choice) for his stadium food. He had the best time having that giant popcorn all to himself. He also really enjoyed having his own water bottle.

Riding the bus to the game



We had two special treats last night. The first was that it was Military Appreciation Day. Several fighter jets did a fly-over during pregame. It was SO cool! Rush was AMAZED! He loves when we see small planes flying in at the airport, so you can imagine how thrilling it was for him to see and hear those jets. Rush was so looking forward to seeing some "Army guys". We got to see some, and we also checked out an antique Army jeep that they had displayed on campus.

In our second big moment, Spirit was the eagle that flew during pregame. She really put on a show! She flew for the longest I have ever seen one of them fly. She even left the stadium for a few seconds. (I actually thought she might not make it to the center of the field for a minute.) It was very exciting! Rush LOVED IT!!! I think he will be disappointed with any flight that is shorter in the future. Spirit set a high standard. :-)

In our seats before the game!

We had more fun than Rush's face looks like we had! Ha! We had a hard time getting a good picture together. One of us always had our eyes closed. :-)

I don't have any pictures of the pregame festivities because I had to hold Rush up so that he could see everything. My arm was a spaghetti noodle by the end, but it was worth it.

It was a chilly night game... great football weather, but Rush only lasted until about half way through the first quarter. We didn't have much to cheer about, so some of the excitement left the stadium after pregame. I hate it when fans leave a game early because the team isn't doing well. And we didn't do well... When you have a four year old, though, you have a legitimate excuse, right?

We ended the night waiting a while for our transit bus. Thankfully, Batman and the Riddler made the trip to their first Auburn game as well. So Rush sat at the bus stop and played with his toys. Total sweetie the whole time!

Game started at 6:00... we were home by 7:15. :-) Fun night!

Breakin' the law

I'm sure there is a Federal Law or an amendment to the Constitution that states that this is strictly against the law. But, my kids love it, so I am taking my chances. On Friday afternoons, after we turn into our neighborhood, I let them get out of their car seats... inside the car. They crawl (giggling the whole time) into the back of our car. They get to ride back there all the way home. It is a highly anticipated event all week long. Also, as I am driving 5 mph down the one street it takes to get home, they are accidentally thrown all over the back of the car. It also causes them to roll around and laugh hysterically. Will we still do this when they are fifteen? I know.. probably not, so we will enjoy it while we can.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

There is only one thing a travel bowl full of candy corn and peanuts can mean! PUMPKIN PATCH DAY!! The weather was beautiful, and we had so much fun! We went to the same patch that we went to last year. Apparently, they didn't have much luck with growing their own pumpkins this year because the "patch" was just an area cleared in a field of corn with a bunch of pumpkins from Walmart lying around. The kids didn't care, but Phil and I laughed about it. Last year, they were near the vines from which they actually grew and were of varying sizes. This year.. pick a pumpkin... they all pretty much looked the same. It is clearly a very exciting thing to do when you are four, though! They looked at many of them before Phil finally guided them to one that was somewhat round and decent looking. It was a fun day!

Rush's favorite part of the day: "Riding the tractor and picking out a pumpkin" (We were pulled by a tractor.)

Frannie's favorite part of the day: Riding the pony

On the hayride heading to the pumpkin "patch"

Sitting with their chosen pumpkin

Rush getting his head squished by a "self portrait" with the cell phone... makes me laugh!

Hayride on the way back

They had an old piece of farming equipment that had been turned into a slide. Rush wanted to climb up in the "driver's seat". He was SO happy!

Sliding!

Sliding!! It is so funny to me that they have so many "farm/pumpkin patch" things to do, and the slides and swings are the most popular attractions. :-)

The ponies were a bit disgruntled yesterday. They were side-stepping poop and pulling against their restraints. It was a short pony ride. We definitely didn't get our $5.00 worth. Yes, I said $5.00 PER CHILD for about three loops around a circle with a diameter of about 15 feet.

Watching the chickens

Rush is wishing he could climb IN the chicken coop. He loved the chickens. Thought they were hilarious!


Petting Joe and Moe, the baby goats (Rush loved it. Fran...eh... not so much.)

My babies... where does the time go?

An Eventful Week

Last weekend was such a fun weekend! We got to hang out with Kate, Aunt Ivy, Uncle Tony, and Tom (Tony's brother-in-law from NY). Tom was in town to see the Tigers play. That was a bit of a disappointment. I hated that Tom had to experience THAT game (and season for that matter) as his first game, but I think he enjoyed pregame! :-) We got to visit with our cousins that were in town for the game. My cousin Lewis's kids were in town with him, and my two LOVE Jillian and Trey. It was a good family weekend!

Rush was acting kind of cranky on Saturday and Sunday. He had a little bit of a runny nose, but it seemed fairly typical of a cold that kids get. By Sunday night, he was running a temp of 101. We made plans for him to stay with my Mama so we could go to work. Early Monday morning, he came into my bedroom and woke me up. I thought it was just his same habit of getting up early, etc. I walked him back to his room and put him in the bed. I could hear and see his little stomach trying desperately to get a full breath. I could tell this was not just a normal cold. We changed plans, and I made him a doctor's appointment for that morning. I took him in expecting to get some antibiotics and to take a couple of days off work to get him well.We saw Dr. Johnson, who is not our regular doctor, and he listened to Rush for a long time. I could tell something was up. The doctor heard pneumonia in his lungs, and he said he would give him antibiotics for that. He said he was just going to get his nurse to come in and check Rush's oxygen saturation levels. She came in with the monitor and tried it on about 5 different fingers hoping for a different result. I spent enough time staring at monitors when the kids were in the NICU to know that 91 percent wasn't going to be good enough. While we waited for the doctor to come back, I was sending frantic texts to Aunt Ivy, R.N. Dr. Johnson came back in and said that Rush would need to be admitted to the hospital for overnight observation. My eyes immediately filled with tears. I just wasn't expecting him to say that. I recovered without Rush seeing me, and we prepared to head to the hospital. I tried to downplay it all for him. He said, "I don't fink dis will be much fun, Moooom." I wanted to tell him I totally agreed.

Day 1--watching Toy Story:

It took forever to convince him to put on the hospital gown. He said gowns are for guhls (girls).



Of course, when you have a little one in the hospital, someone has to stay with them in their room. After a very traumatic experience (for him and me) of having an IV inserted into his little hand by two very sweet nurses, I fully expected everything to be better by the next day. He had several breathing treatments and a couple of doses of high-powered antibiotics. The on call doctor was Dr. Fuller. He went to high school and graduated with Ivy. He wanted to run a lab on Rush to test for the presence of mycoplasm. He said that it was a bacteria that causes "walking pneumonia". I always thought that walking pneumonia was when people tried to keep going (or walking around) with pneumonia when they really should be home in the bed. It is an actual type of pneumonia often called "atypical pnuemonia". And if you have to pick a kind of pneumonia to have, it is somewhat mild in nature. After that diagnosis, they changed his antibiotic. Unfortunately, despite the definite diagnosis, Rush's oxygen levels would remain acceptable during the day, but at night, they would drop into the 80s. Doctors and nurses do not like this. Neither do Mamas of four year old, fuzzy-headed little boys. So, one night turned into two. On our third day there, Dr. Johnson came in and said he would be comfortable sending us home with the oxygen numbers from the previous night (with only a little supplemental oxygen in his nose). We ate yucky food off cafteria trays (although breakfast wasn't so bad). We colored in coloring books. We watched many movies. I even had to break down and let him play in the "toy room". Y'all know I don't like public toys. There was little choice, though. We had to have something to do during the day, and the doctors and nurses encouraged him to get up and move around and play as much as possible.

He got many balloons and stuffed animals while he was there. I think he kinda enjoyed himself. Those nurses spoil their little patients. Popsicles whenever you want them... grilled cheese sandwiches ordered between lunch and dinner..

Truthfully, because Rush is a twin, he rarely gets that kind of undivided attention. If we had been in any other circumstances, I could say that I loved spending that time with him. I will say I enjoyed hanging out with my little guy. He talks so much when you have him one on one. He is funny and entertaining. (Except for about an hour after every albuterol breathing treatment where he turned into a little devil with horns and enough energy for every adult in that hospital to share. Mama witnessed this with me one afternoon. It was unfortunate.)

All is well, now, though. We are so thankful and happy to be home. He is doing much better. A cough still lingers, but overall, he is back to his happy little self.

Taking goofy cell phone pictures with his sister after bath time last night...

Fall is in the Air!

Truthfully, I really wanted to see if I could get the pictures from my phone on my computer to use on the blog. I totally can. I had heard stories of syncing and other bits of unfortunate-ness when it came to downloading phone pics onto the computer, but mine was just like connecting a camera. So, I guess I should include a phone pic or 8 so you will believe me.

A little Halloween Costume Preview... I never thought I would be able to get them to dress in anything "twinnish" again for Halloween, but they dreamed this one up right by themselves. After repeated readings of The Cat and the Hat, they decided they should be Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween. After Fran moved past the fact that she would be Thing 2 instead of Thing 1 (determined by birth order), we had a plan.

Miss Fran would also like to demonstrate how she can write her first name now. She has been putting all of the letters in there for a while, but they were in the wrong order. I thought maybe it was just developmental, and it would come with time. (Depsite my education/teacher background, I know very little about early childhood learning.) One day, I showed her the correct order, and she has been doing it correctly since then. I am sure she was probably thinking, "Why didn't you show me this a few weeks ago?" My favorite letter is the "N". I love the "stick" coming out of the top of it. :-)Rush can also write his name, but as with everything else over the last four years, he absolutely refuses to perform on command. So, I will have sneak up on him next time and snap a picture of his name to show you. Love that little man!

We are firmly enjoying "Fall" around here. I have Autumn Sunset burning in my Sentsy oil burner. I was feeling crafty and decided to update my wreath for the front door. Even the fireplace is already adorned with spider webs, mini-pumpkins, and orange lights. We have made pumpkin muffins, potato soup, and have already eaten half of the pumpkin jar full of candy corn and peanuts. I even got to enjoy a day on the Plains with Ivy and Tony. Never mind that it is still close to 90 degrees outside most days.

(I know I am no Martha Stewart, but if you had seen the wreath before the redo, you would be proud. :-))

Regarding the candy corn and peanuts mentioned above...
From Rush this morning:

Rush: Mama, you can not eat any more of that tweat. We need to save the tweats.
Me: Why, Rush?
Rush: You are eating it all, Mooooom. We need to save some for Hallo-wing.
Me: We can make more.
Rush: You need to do dat, Mooooom.

So there you have it! A little taste of fall, some name-writing, and one last favorite phone picture:

The first day of dance... who was excited and super-sassy with her hand on her hip?

First Auburn Game!!

I have found a little extra time to blog this morning. Unfortunately, this time comes with a price. My little Frannie is home with me today because she has a "sick tummy". Rush is hanging with us, too, although I think he is ok and possibly had this little bug earlier in the week. I just didn't know it because I started giving him Fiber Gummies as a part of his morning regimen. Just thought they were REALLY working... Oh well.

I have been wanting to post about our trip to the Auburn game last weekend, so this morning as I sit here with my coffee and Max and Ruby in the background, I have the time to put it all down in words.

Miss Fran was so excited when I told her that we would be heading to the game together. One of the most exciting parts? We would be riding a bus. She nearly exploded when I told her we would get to ride a bus to the game. My kids have always loved buses. I used to love it when they were first learning to talk, and they would call out "BUS!!!!" on the way to work/daycare in the mornings every time we passed a yellow school bus. So you can imagine the excitement of realizing she would actually ride on a bus. It wasn't a school bus, and I am afraid this air-conditioned, cushion-seated, uncrowded bus may have set her standards for her first school bus ride way too high. {The transit system that drops you off on campus on game days is AWESOME if you just want to go for the game and are not planning to tailgate.}

So, we enjoyed our little bus ride to campus. I let her have the window seat. :-) After we got to campus, we stopped to watch a few AU Cheerleaders that were cheering near out bus drop off spot. We saw my one of my former lab students that worked in my classroom with me a few semesters ago. She is a cheerleader, so Fran got her picture made with Abby. Unfortunately, SF had also seen the Chick-fil-a cow nearby. That dang cow. She H-A-T-E-S that cow. She calls all costumed creatures "pretend animals". And she doesn't like them... not one bit. So, she frowned through her picture taking session with Abby. :-) Then, she said, "I am ready to get out of here, Mama. What is that cow doing here?" It turns out, she was also slightly bothered by the AU decal on Abby's cheek. Later she kept asking me why in the world she had that on her cheek. :-)

After we walked across the street, we got to see the band doing a short exhibition. The majorettes and flags were there, so we got to watch them playing War Eagle and Glory. Brought back some fun memories for me! Yep, I was in the band for three of my four years at Auburn. Go piccolos!! :-)

Next, we walked down to Haley Center. This is where I spent most of my time in classes at AU. We went to the book store and picked up shakers, spirit buttons, and fans.

It was time to head into the stadium to watch the band march around the field. We got to see two of my former fourth graders that are a part of the AU flagline now. So proud of Allie and Rachel!

A frozen lemonade then helped to pass the time until pregame started. I must say, there is so much fanfare before the games now that it is hard not to get fired up for the game. Even if the football team is just doing ok. They sure do make you feel like you are about to be a part of something big and really special. They even have clips of the band that make it look so cool. I mean the band is cool and I know that, but let's face it, more often than not, we band-folks were called "nerds". According to that clip on the jumbo-tron, though, the band is SUPER cool. I LOVED it! Fran loved it, too! She shook her shaker and sang "War Eagle". I showed her how to put her hand over her heart during the Star Spangled Banner. She watched Nova fly over the stadium and land in the middle of the field. I watched her. She was precious and so excited.

We had hot dogs (she didn't eat hers)and drinks. She got her own bottle of water which feels like a treat to her. We watched the first half of the game and the band at halftime. Then, she was ready to go. We hopped on the air-conditioned, not a school bus and headed back to our car. I couldn't have asked for a better day. On the bus on the way back, I asked her about her favorite part of the day. She looked down and smiled her shy-smile. "Seeing Abby", she said. Hahaha! Can't you tell from the picture above? Now, she wants to be an Auburn cheerleader. Go for it, girl! :-)


And in case you thought I forgot about my cute little Alabama fan, his Dad has agreed to let him attend a game with me another time. He will get to experience the big-game feel and excitement of it all... even if he won't have on orange and blue. :-)