February 23, 2014

Last week, Rob and I took turns with the illness both boys had previously had.  Not fun.  I don't like having a fever and aching and just generally being miserable.  Not a whole lot happened that week.  The boys got extra wii and tv time and could do pretty much whatever they wanted when they were home from school.  Valentines Day was a non-event.  Justin and Ryan did get quite a haul from Grandma though. :)  The boys made us valentines, but I think Justin's was out of obligation since we gave him one.

I think Ryan put a bit more effort into his valentine than J did.

I guess if J had changed his mind he could just replace the sticky note
and give the heart to someone else.

This has been a pretty good week.  We are all pretty much over the crud and getting back to normal.  We still cough a lot, but we are able to sleep at night and have been fever free.  I think Monday was my last day with a fever.  We are also hopeful that spring is on the way.  On Friday it got up to 60 degrees.  It has been nice to be able to enjoy being outside again.  It's cool enough in the mornings that the boys need coats going to school, but they don't in the afternoons when they are running around.


Ryan soaking up a little sun

 Things even went well with grocery delivery this week.  They had everything that the website said they had and didn't have to call me to make adjustments to my delivery.  Bread, eggs, milk...  Of course they were out of chicken, but at least I knew that so I didn't try to order it.


Coke Zero from Poland.  Perhaps I can now choose between Coke Light and Coke Zero.

They had lettuce in the store!  Good thing it is for tacos and not
main course salad because you can see you don't get much in a bunch!

 One night (morning?) I woke up about 4:45 to go to the bathroom and Ryan was already up and playing in his room.  I have no idea how long he had been up.  He took a 20 minute nap later that day.  Miraculously, he still went to bed around the usual time.  I was afraid he would think that 20 minutes meant he should be up until midnight.


Someone had a rough night and an early morning.

Justin checked out one of the Captain Underpants books from the school library.  Both boys enjoy the flip-o-rama action on some of the pages.  I pulled out a book that Meredith had given us and they enjoyed that too.  Obviously not quite as much because it didn't involve lunch lady zombies or a guy in underwear and a cape.

Both boys enjoyed flipping through the book.

Meredith gave us this book a few years ago

 A quiet Saturday with sleeping in (for me) while the boys enjoyed some wii time.  Later we went outside to enjoy the nice weather and play with the stomp rocket Justin got for Christmas. 

November 3, 2013

Justin went back to school this week.  It was good to get back into our routine.  Of course since I couldn't sleep in, the boys were much quieter in the mornings.  Grrr...

Justin won an award for best fantasy book (really a story) in the school contest.  I don't know what the age categories were.  I knew there was a contest, but I hadn't know that he had actually been using his free time at school to work on his story.  Unfortunately, by the time I retrieved the story out of his backpack, some of the pages were missing.  I never told him because I figured he would have a fit.  He was so excited about receiving recognition for his writing that I didn't want to ruin the mood.  The story was based on one that he had written last year in kindergarten.  A man buys a bag of jellybeans and one by one they escape from the bag and cause some sort of trouble.  A lot of their mischief involves noises such as bam, pow, ow, and boom.  In the end, the man is able to enter a secret code into the computer to make them normal jellybeans again.  I was just thrilled that he wrote and used lowercase letters appropriately instead of all caps.

 

It was a busy week to prepare for all of the Halloween festivities.  I was not foolish enough to volunteer to be in charge of the Fall Festival at J's school, but I did try to help as much as I could.  That meant assisting with decorating and making up over 200 treat bags.  I am glad that it is over.

 

 

Wednesday at about 3:00 AM I found Ryan standing by my bed crying.  He had thrown up on his hand and foot while trying to get to the toilet.  He had been complaining about his stomach on and off Tuesday, but in typical Ryan fashion he generally complained when it was time to do something.  We had some bile and raisins come up again, but Ryan is pretty good about getting it into the toilet or a bowl so there was minimal mess.  Because he had thrown up and been up since 3:00, I told him that he could stay home from school and rest.  He cried and promised that he would be good at school.  I explained that if his tummy hurt he shouldn't go.  He acted like I was crazy and told me that his tummy didn't hurt anymore because he threw up.  I let him go to school.  He seemed fine except for not wanting to eat.  We went to the Embassy for trick or treating and he continued to act fine.  We went to the Marine House to watch a movie and have some treats and he was excited for popcorn.  He chowed down and the promptly told me that he didn't feel well.  We went outside and he puked on the lawn.  Poor kid.  He wanted to go in and have popcorn, but I said it was time to go home.  Such a mean mom!

 

This is Justin in what he calls a dancing zombie costume.  The wig didn't last long because it was hot inside the Embassy.

Ryan got another year's use out of the alien costume.  People thought he was adorable.

Here are my boys getting ready to get their candy and sit down for the movie.



On Thursday I made cupcakes for Friday's Fall Festival and went to Justin's school to help decorate.  When Justin got out of class, we came home to get ready for Halloween.  We went to the little community party, but didn't stay long.  Ryan was enjoying the games, but Justin was annoyed that they were speaking Armenian most of the time.  Imagine that, speaking Armenian in Armenia!  I told him to just watch what the other kids were doing to know how to play the games.  They were translating too, but Justin was just not that into it.  The boys were both a bit tired from the previous night and excited for trick or treating in a couple of hours, so that didn't help either.

Zombie cupcakes with bones

Some of the decorations ready to be put up.  Dagny MADE all of them by finding patterns online and cutting the pics out of tissue paper.  I think there were about 60 of them total!

These boys are impossible to get a picture of because they are always playing around.

Here's Ryan the pirate and Justin the skeleton.

Ryan got into the games and the dances.

Could it be Justin participating?!?!
 

FINALLY after Rob came home it was time for trick or treating and the party and Cyrus' house.  The boys were incredibly loud and hyper as we went through the neighborhood looking for houses that were participating in trick or treating.  Even though Armenians typically don't celebrate Halloween, there are enough expats in the community that it has caught on.  I was out with the boys while Rob stayed home.  Our house had over 100 trick or treaters which is MANY more than we had in the US.

Hansen's house the day of the Halloween party.

My knight and Batman out trick or treating.

Back home with some treats. :)

Friday was Fall Festival day.  I went over to help with final preparations and then back home with the boys to rest a bit before the big evening.  I was hoping they would rest too since they had a late night on Halloween, but they were pretty excited.  We went back to Justin's school and the boys played games, ate some treats, and went through the haunted house TWICE!  Before I went through with them, I told Ryan that if dressed up people jumped out and made noises to scare him, he should just roar right back.  He did and he came out wanting to go right back in.  Daddy took them back in while I did a few other things.

My cute Luigi!  The mustache didn't last long.  He said it hurt and it sure did leave a mark!

Mario's mustache didn't last long either.

Aren't they cute?!?

J did well on the egg walk, but Ryan wouldn't try it.

Waiting in line.

Ryan made it across the spooky swamp.

Finding prizes in the haystack.

Waiting to fish for a prize.

Pumpkin bowling

Pumpkin bean bag toss.  It took Ryan MANY tries, but he didn't get up and he finally got one in and won a prize.

Justin's teacher (Honest Abe) had the kids eating apples off a string.

Friday's party ended with a bonfire.  Rob took the boys home while I helped to clean up.  Another late night for the boys.  Saturday was a chance to have a laid back day.  The boys rode bikes and scooters outside and played a little basketball with Dad.  We had breakfast for dinner so everyone was happy.  So far it looks like we are going to have a calm week coming up.  Yay!

August 18, 2013

This week at church we learned that some of our friends will be returning back home to the Philippines.  While this is good news for them, we will miss them.  The Hansens decided to host a little get together for them on Monday so we could have a chance to spend some time together and say goodbye.  Justin and Ryan were thrilled with the news that they would get to go over to Cyrus' house to play.

Monday morning I received a call from Sienna.  She had caught the stomach bug and was not feeling up to having people over at her house.  She asked if we would be willing to have it at our house instead.  We have a big enough house and live across the street, so it made sense and I could see no reason why we couldn't have it here.  Sure the boys would be going to bed a bit later than usual, but no big deal.

It was nice to have everyone over and have the chance to talk.  The Reeses decided to wow us with their mind reading ability.  We put out nine DVDs on the table and had Elder Reese leave the room.  We choose which DVD we wanted to be "it" and called him back in.  His wife would point to different DVDs and he would have to say when we got to the chosen DVD.  I knew how it was done, so I went out next.  As people caught on, they would go out and take a turn reading her mind to determine which was the chosen DVD.  Finally, Justin shouted out that he knew how it was done.  People were pretty impressed with him until he explained.  He told everyone that it wasn't really mind reading, but some kind of trick like a magic trick.  Everyone laughed and laughed and he didn't get what was so funny.

Next we played fruit basket and the boys had so much fun.  Justin had such an expression of joy and triumph on his face when he would get a seat ahead of someone else.  He also enjoyed being it, so really he couldn't lose.  Ryan laughed and had fun too.  In fact, the next day he asked if our family could play the game.  I told him that four people really wasn't a big enough group for that game and that he could find a different game that we could play instead.

On Tuesday I got up early when Ryan came in to get me at about 4 AM.  He said that his stomach hurt.  Sure enough, later that day he was puking.  Joy.  At least he seems to know when it is coming and was able to get in into something rather than all over the floor like Justin does.  He needed a lot of extra cuddles that day.  He seemed back to normal by evening except he wasn't hungry. 

Wednesday Cyrus came over to play for a couple of hours.  The boys had a good time, but Justin sometimes gets frustrated with some of the things Cyrus does.  Cyrus is often guilty of the offense which boils down to the fact that he acts like a three year old.  Since he IS a three year old, there really isn't much to do about it.  After about 2 1/2 hours they were getting to the point where there was going to be a meltdown soon. I called Sienna to come get Cyrus so they could part on good terms.  Of course when she came Cyrus did not want to go and my boys did not want him to go.

The rest of the week was pretty much routine.  We aren't very exciting people.  We spent time playing outside in the back and riding bikes and scooters in the front.  I can often get yard work done while the boys entertain themselves.

Friday I got a call from a woman who just moved here with her family.  She said that she has a 10 and a 7 year old and wanted to know if my kids were interested in meeting her boys.  Well of course they are!  Justin heard me talking on the phone, so even though we weren't getting together until Saturday, he wanted to walk to find their house.  I wasn't exactly sure where it was, so we ended up walking the long way.  It was about a ten minute walk and you would think that I was torturing my children.  It was in the 90s, but there was a nice breeze.  We were able to walk back in just over half of that time because I knew where we lived and had no trouble getting back.

Saturday morning the boys were anxious to meet their new friends.  I was a bit less optimistic because of the age difference of the ten year old.  Can I just say that the four of them had a blast!  The boys are going over there on Monday, we will see them at the Embassy kids' outing next Wednesday, and then they will come here again on Friday.  Once school starts the older boy will likely find friends his own age, but I think that at least Justin will still spend time with them at school and probably at other times too.  I sure hope so.  It is nice for the kids to have other people to play with.

Saturday afternoon I told the boys to show Rob how they have gotten better on bikes and the scooter.  Justin rode the balance bike and I was able to convince him to let me take the training wheels off of his bike.  Guess who rode down the hill and then back up!  I was so excited.  He has a ways to go before he can do it without having to think about it so much, but I am just thrilled that he can do it.  I didn't think he would ever learn because he doesn't like to take risks in front of other people.  Both boys are getting better on the scooter too.  Yay!

Ryan was in desperate need of a haircut.  Rob assured me that even if I really messed up that Ryan is only four years old and would not be scarred for life.  I got off a lot of hair and think that he will feel much better.  I am still not brave enough to just shave it off like Justin's.  I think with his big forehead he would look strange.  I also worry that it would make him look even older.  Ryan's hair isn't bad enough that people will stop and stare, but Rob said that he would be really upset if he had paid money for a cut like that.  I agree.  Maybe next month when it has grown out a bit I will take him to the Embassy for a haircut.  I got a picture of the hair I cut off, but I forgot to take a pic of him before bed.

April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!  Today in church when he was asked what was special about Easter, Justin responded that it was getting lots of candy.  The teacher said that we do sometimes get eggs and sweets, but that we celebrate Jesus' resurrection at Easter.  Justin said, "yeah, and we get lots of candy!"  Funny enough, he didn't even really get a lot of candy.  He and Ryan each got a fun size bag of M&Ms, a small 120 calorie chocolate bunny, and a kinder egg.  They got some small toys in their basket as well.  The favorite part of the Easter season is probably hiding the eggs.  Yes, I hide some and they find them, but the boys love to re-hide them and have me (and/or Rob) find them.  We do this over and over and over and...

This week we decorated eggs.  The boys really enjoyed it this year.  In the past it has been a quick activity hardly worth the mess in my opinion.  This year they really got into it.  No, their eggs weren't particularly beautiful or special, but they had a blast.  Ryan got dye on a pair of Justin's new shorts (Ryan was wearing them) but thanks to Shout, it came out! 

We made bunny cookies again this year and Justin and Ryan made little bunny baskets to put them in for their friends.

I guess since this isn't the blog about how I entertain the kids I should talk about life in general.  I had a lovely 24 hour stomach bug.  Glad it was short!  It overlapped with a cold(?) which consists primarily of me having very little voice.

It is kind of a strange weekend here.  Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays, making it a nice long weekend for Rob.  EVERYTHING was closed on Good Friday, yet for some reason open on Easter morning.  Don't get that, but whatever.  Things around town are very quiet as almost everyone has fled the city for the coast or to visit family.  Easter weekend is kind of like Labor Day weekend in the US.  This is the time for the last hurrah of summer before we admit that it is over.  In the US (and northern hemisphere in general) Easter is a time of light, rebirth, spring!  Here it is just the opposite and kind of a bummer.  I am so northern hemisphere biased!

Time for bed.

Not Much To Say (And I Lost My Voice)

When we were in Idaho, Justin got into the routine of cuddling up with his Papa and watching "Green Anaconda" and some other favorites on YouTube. He would watch with other people too, but Papa was his YouTube buddy. When we returned to Japan, we went for quite some time without watching what Justin refers to as his shows. He kept talking about them, singing songs from them, and asking for them. Now he often gets to watch them after his bath. He sits on the couch and some combination of the family watches Justin's shows. It will be fun for him to get to watch them with his Papa when we are back in Idaho this September. Even Tiny is enthralled by the Green Anaconda song. I thought it was cute to have him watch it while holding his green stuffed snake toy.
For those of you who don't know the video, here it is.

Justin's cough still lingers. Tiny is sounding less and less like Darth Vader each day. Now I have a cough and have lost my voice. No voice since Thursday night. I think I just need to not talk at all for awhile. That isn't happening when I have to keep after Justin. I have developed the yell-whisper voice. I look forward to him returning to school on Monday. At least three hours right there when I can rest my voice.

Don't really have much to say about this week. Here are some pictures and rather rambling captions for them though.
Is he truly interested in the nutritional content of the formula? Nope. The can is a favorite toy of his AND Justin's. I think Justin likes it because Ryan does. Why spend money on expensive toys when empty formula cans are so entertaining? Since Ryan is primarily breast fed, he doesn't go through much formula. Guess that's why we have to bother with the toys.

Aren't my boys cute? I hadn't realized how much fairer Justin is than Tiny until they started bathing together. Justin is one pale dude. Maybe Justin will look like Rob and Ryan will look like me.

Doesn't show up very well in the picture, but mosquitoes were eating me alive! Ryan got a couple of bites. Justin is free and clear. He's the one outside the most too. I guess he moves too fast for the little suckers. I bought some little stickers that are supposed to repel mosquitoes. They seem to make a difference.

Guess what Tiny has been enjoying lately? That's right, he loves the swing. Justin likes to make sure I know that Tiny is just a baby and can't go fast like he can. Justin constantly reminds me that even though Ryan is getting bigger, he is still just a tiny baby. Justin, on the other hand, is medium. When he can't do something by himself, he is "too medium" and not too small or too little or any of the more common things children tend to say. Luckily, Justin agrees that Ryan is big enough to swing so everyone is happy.

Justin and Ryan seem to like each other. They can already crack each other up and seem to like to be on top of each other, hitting at each other, squealing at each other... Justin gets so mad when Tiny kicks him or pulls his hair. He doesn't seem to find it fair that Ryan doesn't get punished for actions that are off limits to Justin. To protest, he will often go into baby mode. He will lie on his back and say, "Goo Goo! Ga Ga! I'm a baby!" That lasts until it is no longer convenient to be a baby. Lucky me.

Since we are moving early in September, we are not bothering to work on the whole toilet training thing with Justin yet. What's the point? Leaving here and then traveling to various homes and hotels across the US before a hellish day (as in about 24 hours) of flying to our new home in Namibia. We will worry about it there. Well, Justin has started showing interest in poopies. He wants to see his, the baby's, anyone's. He will rate them in terms of color and size. He will tell me he is having one and that he doesn't want to sit on the toilet. Once he is finished he does want to sit on the toilet so I don't have to put on a clean diaper. Doesn't work that way though. Sometimes he requests to sit on the toilet. Yesterday he said he needed to sit on the toilet and he actually had to pee. He was so excited. Great. We will probably be missing our toilet training window of opportunity and our child will be a freak and need therapy. Just one of many ways I will screw him up for life. Good thing I have a second child to try to get it right--or at least better. :)

Justin came home from school on Friday looking just exhausted. He fell asleep almost immediately, and when he woke up he asked for water. He had a temp of just over 103. He drank and drank and continued to run a fever unless he was on motrin. He didn't have much of an appetite and was extremely needy, but nothing else seemed to be wrong. It just made for a long weekend. Sunday afternoon he seemed better, but since he didn't sleep well, I am keeping him home from school today. I am very disappointed. He had a slight fever again this morning, but is acting pretty normal. He is tired of being cooped up and is quite obnoxious.

Meanwhile, Tiny's two top teeth finally broke through last week. I swear they were the slowest teeth in the history of baby teeth. He had a HORRIBLE night last night and I had no idea why. Surprise! This morning I looked in his mouth and it looks like he is getting FOUR more. Two more on top and two more on bottom. It is going to be a very, very long week I fear. He hasn't been nursing well and I end up smelling like sour milk as my clothes get soaked with milk he is crying for and then rejecting. Ah, motherhood.

Guess I better tend to the whiners. Not that I can do anything to soothe them right now, but at least I won't feel as guilty if I am trying.