Halloween Fun at School

I've mentioned before that being the mom of 2 or more school aged kids means that pretty much all you do is drop off and pick up from school. Factor in two different schools with two different start and end times and holiday celebrations on the same day and you are forced to make some tough decisions.

Hannah had her class Halloween party on Friday at the same time Sammy was having his costume parade. All I can say is YAY for Samuel being able to leave work early and go with Sammy to his event. (I won' t say party because apparently they don't have Halloween parties in Kindergarten at the school Sammy is in---how sad is that??)

Anyway, I went to Hannah's party. They did their annual walk down to Alegria Street to see all the Halloween decorations. Although most of the houses weren't set up yet.

Don't you love Hannah's shirt?
BOO is spelled out with little candy corns!
Her friend's pumpkin shirt is cute too!

They were all smiles despite walking in the 90+ degree temps!500 lb pumpkin!

Her entire class.
Notice there are NO boys?? So funny!YUM!

Helene was pretty content to sit in the stroller and eat some peas.
Mmmmmmmm....her favorite!

Circle time!A copy of her foot made into a ghost.
So cute--who thinks this stuff up?!
Singing the "goodbye" songSAMMY'S TURN!
All dessed and ready for the parade Are we having fun yet?Back in the classroomApparently, they had juice and lollipops after the parade,
I guess that's as much of a "party" as they do.

This is just a random picture that was taken back
at home by Sammy, but I just adore Hannah's face.

End of Summer Trip

I decided to take a last minute trip up to Oregon to visit my friend Heidi and her family. The last time we were there was in July of 2008--you can read about it here.

Samuel had to stay and work, so my mom drove up with me and the kids. We actually had a smooth drive up with very few stops. I think I had to stop and pee more times than Sammy did. The older kids did really well thanks to the DVD players in the car--and Helene had her moments, but was pretty content overall.

We lounged by the pool and read while the kids played...

Helene had her first taste of prunes...mostly due to a severe case of constipation. Poor little girl--it was so sad...although she LOVED the prunes!

We hung out with Louie the dog...

and a few chickens...Played with wire whisks at a kitchen store...

Helene found a new toy...

So much fun!

We had lunch at the pharmacy, complete with an
old-fashioned soda fountain counter...

and then browsed though an antique store to walk off the milkshakes...
Helene got some tummy-time in...

and even did a few baby push-ups!
She'll seriously be crawling any day now! YIKES!

We went to Wildlife Images and got close to these animals...

Seriously close, as the only thing separating us
from the grizzly bear was an electric fence...

a bald eagle...again, just the electric fence separating us
from these 5 black bears...
Sammy needed a break from all the walking
and took a rest with Grandma

We decided to sit for picture

Then we had lunch again. I had the best chicken sandwich with avocado and blue cheese--and some fried zucchini on the side. Good thing Heidi and I went on a few walks at night to counter all the food we ate on this trip!

On Monday night for FHE, we had a family band and played instruments and sang.
It was so much fun for all!

It turned into a marching band around the house...

We had such a good time, as always. So relaxing and fun. The kids loved having Scott and Kjersten to play with 24/7 and I loved they were totally worn out from playing at the end of the day. We spent the evenings painting our toes, watching Flight of the Conchords (so hilarious), Mamma Mia, and Pride and Prejudice--and eating either brownies, cookies, or ice cream, depending on the night. Yep, a total girls night for an entire week. So great!!

I missed a few photo ops of the beautiful scenery, the kids playing Wii, the kids playing outside (besides the pool)--I'll have to be more diligent next time.

The trip home was a bit crazier with more potty stops than I can count--plus Helene was crankier due to a severe diaper rash from the constipation problem. I've definitely learned that she can't handle bananas very well...maybe I'll try again in a few months.

And we just HAD to stop in here for an authentic San Francisco hot fudge sundae treat...in Lathrop of all places. Random, but delicious.


It was a great end to a looooong summer of Sammy being in casts, and I'm glad we had a chance to hang out with such good friends and play for a bit. Thanks so much to my mom for braving the long drive and going with us--we loved having you!! And thanks for babysitting the kids for Heidi and I so we could get in a few of those desperately needed walks after dinner.

The best part was coming home and finding a spotless house. Samuel steam cleaned the carpets, scrubbed the stove (which needed some serious help) and the rest of the kitchen including the fridge and pantry, AND cleaned the bathrooms. YAY for Sam! I need to leave town for a week more often apparently!

School starts next Thursday! Wow--summer really is over.

Update on Sammy plus a few woes of motherhood

I thought I would give an update on Sammy for my own records, if nothing else.

He had a fever of 102.5 the day after we took the casts off. If the casts were still on, I would have been concerned about possible infection, but everything looked good on his legs. I have no idea where he picked up whatever he had, but I was just relieved that no one else came down with it--especially Helene.

On Saturday, he was pretty out of it and vegged on the couch most of the day, but did make some walking attempts, albeit only very timidly and with the assistance of the furniture. His fever was still pretty high that day and he was so sad about it. I felt so badly for him...he finally gets his boots off and then he gets sick.

His fever was gone by Sunday morning, but I still kept him home from church because it had been less than 24 hours since his fever had gone away and I didn't want him getting anyone else sick.

He's been walking more and more this week, but he still can't keep his balance very well and prefers to hold someone's hand or hold onto something. The other issue that has come up is that he is drastically turning in his left foot while he walks. REALLY turning it in...it reminds me of how Kevin Spacey walked in The Usual Suspects (great movie, BTW). I'm not sure if he is doing that to help his balance issue, but the turn in problem is pretty much the reason why we did this last surgery and it needs to be addressed ASAP.

As of today, in addition to turning in his left foot, he is still very unsteady on his feet, cannot do stairs or even maneuver a small curb without holding onto something, and walks extremely slow. He was so frustrated today while we played at the park and asked me "why am I so slow?" It just breaks my heart time and time again.

So, it's back to CHLA on Thursday for an evaluation and I already have a physical therapy appointment scheduled for Friday if needed. School starts in a month and I don't want him still having walking/balance issues when starting out at a brand new school. And don't even get me started on my school woes--they are a plenty these days, but I just can't deal with them right now.

And I've been passive-agressively potty training Hannah. It needs to be done before preschool starts, but it has been such a game and never-ending power struggle with her that I am just done with it--without ever "officially" starting. I think I just need to take the plunge and put her in underwear and tough it out for a day or two...or a week. I know she can DO it...she just would rather see me tear out my hair. That girl can dish out some serious sassiness.

Helene, while still my sweet and serene baby, has become so grouchy at night. It all starts around 8pm and nothing makes her happy. She'll fall asleep and then wake up 45 minutes later screaming. She never wakes up screaming during the day or in the middle of the night...only between the hours that the older kids are in bed until I finally go to bed. Maybe she's just trying to get me to go to bed before 1am.

I went to movies with my friend Jean last Thursday night, and was gone from 9:15pm-12:30am (Harry Potter...long movie!) and Samuel said Helene screamed and cried the entire time. I fed her before I left and left a little bit of breastmilk for Samuel to feed her if he needed it. When I finally got home, she was literally shaking from being so upset and had a scratchy voice from crying so hard. No clue what that was all about, and yet she STILL wouldn't go to sleep until after 1am. I thought for sure she would have passed out from exhaustion from all the crying the minute I took her to bed and nursed her, but nope. It was so unlike her. I felt so badly for Samuel--nothing worse than a crying screaming baby. I'm sure that's the last I get to go out without her for a long time.

Anyway, here's hoping that this coming week is better and that Sammy can make some progress with his walking.

No Trader Joe's Tuesday today...but my husband rocks!

I've had a migraine since Thursday and some type of muscle spasm in my neck since Sunday. You know, the kind where you can't move your head and have to turn your entire body when you want to look to the side. Yeah that along with the headache. Tylenol doesn't help and neither does vicodin. Not good.

But I just have to post how awesomely great my husband is. He has been working double shifts since Friday and has had about 3.5 hours of sleep a day. I know he just wanted to come home and sleep after work, but instead he took the kids to the park for a bit and then to El Pollo Loco for dinner so I could rest. Then he did all the dishes (which was quite a lot since our dishwasher broke on Friday and they have to order a part for it) as well as cleaned the kitchen tonight.

And just as he was about to rest on the couch to watch basketball after his 90 minute cleaning spree, he got called to go into work at midnight. Poor guy. So he is off to take a quick 90 minute nap before heading off to work again. I don't know how he can function on less than 4 hours of sleep a day, but I am so blessed to have husband who works so hard so I can stay home with the kids.

Thanks for all that you do for our family!