Thanksgiving pictures

Pink

Monday we did some stuff out in town. Just before arriving home Nyla fell asleep. I took Cora out first and then came back for Nyla. When I tried to pick Nyla up without waking her I failed as usual. She opened her eyes and said "I have a pink train". About 30 minutes later she asked me if I could make everything pink. It makes me wonder what sort of pink dream she had.

Bohdin and Cora woke up early yesterday morning. Bohdin took a bath and then came in for a story. I stayed upstairs with Cora while Bohdin went downstairs. He lined up the shoes by the door, put the clean dishes, practiced writing the letter s, and emptied the dryer all without being asked. When the next load of laundry was done he and Nyla put it into the dryer without any prompting from me. Buddy says this shows what he is capable of doing. I wish every morning was like this. Bohdin and Cora were up earlier than Nyla again. Cora is sitting in my lap and Bohdin is reading.

Gavin came over yesterday afternoon for a few hours. The kids had done art in the morning but did more when Gavin came. They wanted to do art again in the evening but I had reached my daily limit of cleaning up paint and art supplies. Bohdin and Nyla had a lot of fun with Gavin. In addition to painting, they played castle and slide in the living room with the cushions, raced around the house with the balloon, and then did some quieter stuff in the basement. The quieter stuff was a nice relief from the messy and loud stuff.





Nyla has been complaining recently that she needs to be carried because her feet are too tired. To illustrate her point she will jump in the air and dramatically fall to the ground. This morning she is grumpy and complained that she couldn't walk because her feet didn't have electricity. Even after I gave her special electric socks she still couldn't' come downstairs. I hear her coming down now. Apparently they are finally working.

Fixed teeth

Nyla had dental surgery early Friday morning. Buddy stayed home with Bohdin while the girls went to the new children's hospital. Everything went really smoothly for her. I was a little weepy because I couldn't help but think what it was like when I went under anesthesia. I was scared it would be the same for her. One of the anesthetists came out and told me that she went under really smoothly. After I heard that I could relax. Well sort of. When we arrived at the hospital Cora woke up. I put her in the carrier and she was awake while I was registering. She had a gigantic poop and then fell asleep. It was so busy up until the time they took Nyla away that I never had a chance to change her diaper. Once Nyla was gone I had to wake a sleeping baby. The only flat surface in the room was the floor, my lap, and the chair I was sitting in. I thought I could change her while she was in my lap. The poop was more than I bargained for. A bit of poop ended up on Cora's clothes while I was trying to clean her up. I was fighting a losing battle and took her to the nice deep sink where I put her butt under the water. It's what I should have done in the beginning. So now Cora's clothes were a little dirty but I didn't have a change of clothes for her. She stayed up for about 30 minutes then went back to sleep. She woke up on occasion to eat and would fall right back to sleep. I read most of the time. At one point Cora woke up and ate a bit. I used Nyla's side which was really full since she couldn't nurse that morning. After nursing a bit I sat Cora up on my knee facing away from me. We sat for a few minutes and I watched a bit of tv. Then a gush of throw up came out of Cora. It soaked her clothes, my books on the floor, and my bags. It was everywhere. She seemed fine but now I couldn't keep her in a vomit and poop covered outfit so I put Nyla's shirt on her. I was thinking that Cora was trying to make the blog post about her. Nyla was back in surgery for over 3 hours. I was able to see her as soon as she woke up. She did surprisingly well. Once again she was docile and agreeable. I missed my animated and feisty Nyla. We came home and Nyla was grumpy quite a bit the rest of the day. The only thing that cheered her up was seeing Bohdin.

During Nyla's surgery Bohdin went to soccer practice. Buddy was off for Veteran's day. Bohdin is learning a lot of skills in soccer. We are going to enroll him again in January. The building isn't that pretty but I think they do a good job teaching him. He likes it and practices at home. Even Nyla is learning. She puts her foot on top of the ball to stop it just like Bohdin. The pictures below are prior to practice when Bohdin was just playing around.





After soccer practice Bohdin and Buddy went to a local mineral, gem, and fossil show. Bohdin loves that sort of stuff and had a great time. He came home with two geodes.

I expect the kids to take care of each other and Friday I saw them in action. Bohdin has discovered that Cora's favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When we came home for the hospital Nyla was tired and wanted to nurse. I had to pee first. She and Cora were on the bed and Cora started crying. Even though Nyla wasn't feeling that great she went over to Cora and sang Twinkle Twinkle. Nyla was grumpy until Bohdin came home and he cheered her up in seconds.

Yesterday we attended Gavin's birthday party at the Derby Dinner Playhouse. The kids enjoyed seeing Gavin and the show. We haven't seen enough of Gavin since he started school. In fact we've only seen him once for a few minutes since September.

Leaves

"Daddy I am glad you are home"  Bohdin doesn't feel compelled to complete a word on one line.  I was pleased to see that he spelled am and glad correctly since he has learned to spell both of those words.  Yesterday I was asking Bohdin about schoolwork.  He says he doesn't like doing it but he does like what he learns.  He enjoys the results but not the process.  I don't think it was a critique of our methods.  I think of it the same way I think of cleaning.  I don't like cleaning but I like how the house looks afterward. 



Nyla went to the pediatrician yesterday for her pre dental surgery checkup. It was funny telling them the reason she was going the anesthesia route was because she is so uncooperative. She could not have been more cooperative at her doctor appointment. It was like anti-Nyla was there instead. She sat quietly for her entire appointment with her head slightly bowed. She quickly and quietly did everything that was asked of her. When we drove to Buddy's office we saw bags and bags of leaves everywhere. I piled up the back of the minivan so the kids could have fun when we got home. They loved it. We also invited the neighbor girls over to our leaf pile. Bohdin had a lot of fun playing with them. They are both six. They will need to come over more often. I'm not sure why we waited this long.




I refer to Nyla as my special Nyla. Whenever anybody playfully threatens to eat her she cries out in alarm "but then mommy won't have a special Nyla anymore!". The other day Nyla was laying next to me while Cora was sitting on my lap. I called Cora my special Cora. Nyla started crying. I thought that she was sad that I used special to describe Cora when it was usually reserved for Nyla but that was not the problem. Nyla told me that Cora was HER special Cora not mine. Eventually we agreed to share. I hope she can make the same agreement with Bohdin because right now she does not do a good job of sharing Cora with him.

Fate

We went to soccer practice on Saturday this week instead of Friday due to a scheduling conflict. We had to leave much earlier in the morning so the kids were pretty quiet in the backseat. Bohdin had his eyes closed and the sun was just up past the trees in the horizon. When his head was facing out the window he could see through lidded eyes the variation from red to darker the sun was making. At one point he said "The pattern was like a big red book and the sun turned the page.". A minute later he said "The next page was when the car zoomed by. It was like the wind turned that page.".



When Bohdin was about Cora's age we visited his cousins. The eldest was around the same age as current Bohdin. We took a kid's game to his house and tried playing with him and his younger brother. He ended up losing and crying. I swore that I would not have a kid like that. I would do a much better parenting job. In the intervening years I've learned not to make such judgments. I've also learned it is easier to parent a hypothetical child than an actual one. Last night Buddy and I were playing a board game with Bohdin when he started crying about halfway through. I talked to him about it later. He was just sad that he wasn't winning. Five and a half years later I now have the child whom I smugly thought I would never have.

When we went to Costco after Bohdin's soccer practice we found a large Playmobil farm set.  It had the hay baler that Bohdin wanted and  house with accessories that Nyla wanted.  We decided to get it as a joint Christmas present.  The kids both saw it and wanted to open it immediately upon returning home.  We said no.  It's a Christmas present.  The next morning Bohdin asked to borrow a light.  Buddy said that Bohdin was going to use it to look for his present so I went down to the basement and found Bohdin with a pair of scissors about to open the box.   We talked to Bohdin again about needing to wait.  Finally Bohdin came up with a solution.  He asked if we could use that present as an advent calendar and get one thing per day.  It seemed like a reasonable solution.  I know he wants the hay baler to be item #1. I'm hoping he will be so occupied by his birthday presents that he'll forget about this.  That seems really unlikely though.

Playing

I was looking over the 2009 pictures and enjoyed seeing pictures with the kids playing. It reminded of the things they liked to do. Bohdin hasn't changed much. He still plays with treasure and Playmobil. The kids are still taking the cushions of the couch. Nyla has enjoyed playing school and boat. In the bottom picture she is dressed for school with a pink backpack on. She also has a fanny pack around her neck and a photo album in her hand. Future Nyla, please keep in mind that you dressed yourself. I didn't purchase that shirt or that fanny pack.

When Bohdin plays with a toy it is almost always Playmobil. Nyla spreads the love around. She plays with stuffed animals, babies, play kitchen, Playmobil, trains, and other stuff I'm probably not thinking of right now. She and Bohdin play with the Playmobil stuff differently. Bohdin's play involves treasure and stealing. He wants the Playmobil police station for his birthday to continue the fantasy. Nyla plays with the kids who usually go to school. Surprisingly she doesn't want the Playmobil school but wants the house accessories for her kids.

Bohdin and Nyla also spend lots of time not playing with toys. They enjoy chasing each other and doing various rough housing games. Bohdin is definitely moving more towards big actions. He jumps over cushions. He jumps on the chair to knock it over and roll off. Buddy is home now and it's dinnertime.

Luv yo

We have some cold weather coming so it's time to bring the tomatoes in. There have been chances of patchy frost in the past but I gambled. Actually I did wake up to a light frost last Saturday but they seemed okay. Nyla only helped briefly before she left in indignation. There was soil in her shoes or tomatoes. I'm not sure which. Bohdin picked many many pounds of green and almost ripe tomatoes. I found a recipe for green tomato bread. It sounds rather disgusting but it's supposed to be good. We'll find out.



All three kids are sick now but Bohdin seems to have it the worst. That doesn't stop him from playing. We've just been hanging around the house doing not very much. We're slowing down with the school work right now. He seemed to be getting confused with his spelling. He was making things more complicated than they ought to be. We'll stick to review for a few weeks; perhaps all the way into next year with the bust holiday season coming up. We're still doing geography and are finally done with Asia. He's forgotten many of the facts about each country but he does know that certain countries exist and can find them on a map. For some reason India is the one he has the most trouble remembering.



Bohdin wakes up early drowning in mucus. Yesterday when he woke up he came downstairs and wrote a message. It was originally just for daddy but then he added me as well. It reads: I luv yo dadi! I luv yo moi!. He ran out of space at the bottom. It was a wonderful
message to wake up and see.