Halloween Cookies & T-Shirts with Landon, Gilian and Jacob

Ok, by the time I took the pictures Jacob wasn't up at the table anymore. Sorry about that! Jenny brought the kids over and I had made the dough and frosting the night before, and I should have brought them out of the fride a little earlier than I did, because the dough was really hard to work with and the kids were ready to use those cookie cutters! Of course, they had to wait for the best part - finger painting on the frosting (and eating the cookies).

Earlier this week I took Michael and Connor over to Jenny's and we made tie-die t-shirts for Halloween. See below for what they turned out to look like. Of course, you had to marker-in the 'face.'

Fun With Daddy

The kids have not seen a whole lot of Mike lately due to his tight training schedule. So, this Tuesday, when he had an evening off, he played hard with the kids and they had a blast. This particular evening the kids got basket rides in the living room.

See a short clip below. I think Mike was spinning the kids around for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-School Day

Once a month I host a 'Pre-School' day, rotating with three other mothers, from 10am - 1pm. The kids all bring their own lunch boxes and we let the kids have a play date and do something educational. When I host the 'Pre-School' day I like to focus on sign language, and I use Signing Time videos as part of my lesson: http://www.signingtime.com/. I also like to incorporate arts and crafts projects. The theme today was 'On the Farm' and learning signs for farm animals. The kids made a puppet mouse and colored farm animals. I printed these out from http://www.dltk-kids.com/.

Boys Behaving Badly!

Wow. Today was full of mischievous incidents staring my children... Hitting, Biting and Being Messy...

Hitting...

Michael Jr. is rather possessive of his (and Connor's) match box cars. He likes to line them up or dump them from bucket to bucket, hide them in the couch, etc. Well, today, like many other days, Connor wanted in on the action and decided he'd like to play with a car or two. Big Mistake! Michael grabbed a car and proceeded to hit Connor over the head - just going at it! I of course intervened as soon as I heard Connor screaming at the top of his lungs. All was quiet after the 'I'm Sorry' and hugs and kisses. It wasn't 15 minutes later and I caught Connor picking up a car and he proceeded to bang Michael Jr. on the head. I had to explain to a 14 month old (in very short terms) that we don't hit anyone, then explained to Michael Jr. it was his fault that his brother was hitting him with a car, because he started it earlier. I'm sure this won't be the last time they hit each other. It was pretty difficult NOT to laugh out loud, as I was secretly cheering on Connor - he's finally at the age where he can fight back.

Biting...

Well, Connor obviously didn't get enough 'pay back' with the car incident so he decided to bite Michael Jr. on the back and left a pretty good mark. Connor is teething and getting two more teeth in.

Being Messy...

I had let Michael Jr. have some lotion and then a friend called me and I was on the phone with her maybe 5 minutes and in this short amount of time Michael Jr. smeared lotion all over his head, Connor's head, the fridge (and magnets) and the garbage can! Of course, this was all minutes before I was to start hosting 'Pre-School.'

Michael Jr's Haircut

Today Mike shaved Jr's hair. I always get up tight about it because of the big hairy mess, so I had Mike put Jr. in the tub to try to contain most of the mess.

Connor's Favorite Spot

Connor really likes to hide behind the chair and sit in the basket of toys, emptying the basket. So, if Connor's quiet - I know where to find him!

Mike's Continued Training Schedule

Well, it turns out we'll only be seeing Mike on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday nights for the next 30 days, unless Mike's brother needs his help and he'll have to work like he did tonight and didn't get home until 7:45pm. As it is Mike works from 7 to 3:30, so he leaves the house before the kids wake up, and then when he gets home he only sees them for about an hour and a half before he goes off for his training.

Mike has his regular Fire Fighter Training on Thursday nights. Now he's got ETT (Emergency Trauma Training) Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. ETT is apparently the precursor to the EMT that goes with the ambulance, and Mike wants to pursue that as well.

Mike's status is a 'Brown Tag' which means he's Scene Support / Exterior and he's working towards his Fire Fighter 1 which will allow him to go inside buildings. His FF1 test is in January.

It's a bit of a challenge to sleep with the beeper - it's basically a scanner going off every hour or so and you hear the tones and then the dispatcher. I think I'll have to try to go to sleep before Mike comes to bed so it won't bother me once I'm out.

When It's Quiet...

There's usually something happening when it's quiet. Michael is climbing EVERYTHING. I finally had to take the changing table out of the bed room. Michael was consistently getting into the baskets above the table that contained diaper supplies, and it's a mess to clean up Desitin, it sticks to everything! Plus, when Michael isn't getting into the Desitin he's on top of his armoir getting into his piggy bank or what ever else he can get into. He also climbs into the armoir and takes out all of his clothes and hangs them on the cribs, or when he's not feeling so neat he'll toss all of them on the floor. Ugh. The next thing I really need to do is replace the pulls on doors of the armoir and put some on that I can put a lock onto to keep him out.

My Mom's 52nd Birthday Dinner

Tonight we had everyone (Chris, Lindsey, Grandpa Maurice, dad and mom) over at our place for my mom's 52nd Birthday Dinner. Dad made the cake! Michael Jr. helped wrap the present and glued pictures of himself and Connor all over the gift and he also made the card. Michael also licked the birthday candles of course, and after he was done with his own cake and ice cream, he went after everyone else's.

One picture is of Michael Jr. sitting on mom's lap. He's got Vaseline all over his fingers and smearing it all over his nose and face! It's hard to photo Vaseline.

Firefighter!

Last night about 11:30 Mike woke me up with enthusiasum proclaiming that he had recieved his beeper and badge (for his hat) from the Fire Cheif last night. This morning he took his gear to work with him, he can't wait to get a 'call' to a scene. The only thing he's waiting for are the stickers to put on the vehicles.

Voting or is it Boating?

Tonight I took Jr. with me to Vote in the local municipal elections. It was so cute! On the way there I was explaining to him that we were going to Vote. He kept thinking I was saying 'Boat' and kept asking if we were going fishing. We got to the polling place, which was a church, and he had a blast. There was a water fountain conveniently with a stool so that occupied his time for a few seconds while I was waiting in line. Then on to look at the walls and he found a rainbow and proudly proclaimed it to everyone in line. He proceeded to check everything else out and checked out a few (empty) polling booths. When it was finally my turn he held the ballot and chose the booth and when I was finished he got to put the ballot in the box and got a sticker. When we left to go to the car he asked 'are we going fishing?' He apparently still didn't connect the whole 'voting' experience with what we just finished, he must of had 'fishing' on his mind.