Early present

When we were going outside Tuesday we opened the door to see a large package. Bohdin knew immediately that it was playmobil inside because of the symbol on the outside. I put it inside and we went on our way. Due to the size of the box he knew the box contained either the pyramid or the cargo ship. He asked if he could open it early and I said no but since the present was from Nana she could decide yes. He didn't want to ask her on the phone. The subject was dropped until we arrived home. Once again Bohdin wanted to open it but wouldn't call. We talked about sending a letter instead but he only wanted to dictate it instead of writing it. I said no. I put the box on top of the refrigerator while I was making dinner. Bohdin lay on the floor looking up at it while being mopey and sad. After about 15 minutes he sat up and asked if we could email her instead. I said sure but I would need to finish making dinner first. Bohdin was in better spirits at that point and was about to help me with the food processor when Nana called. Bohdin did end up finally asking and she said yes. Bohdin was very excited and very impatient but he was able to wait until pizza was in the oven, he had cleaned the living room a little, and I made room on the camera for pictures. Both the kids seemed excited and they were playing with it as I was assembling it. Bohdin has had a lot of fun playing with it so far. Right now he is waiting patiently for me to play pyramid wth him. It will probably be a rerun of yesterday's play when my robber stole the treasure after some misadventures in the pyramid.






Sunday is when Bohdin usually receives his allowance. This past Sunday I wasn't sure I wanted to give it to him. He had misplaced his money purse and our best guess was that he had left it in the rental minivan. He has been saving since mid September so there was just over $20 in there. Bohdin was sad and I was disappointed. Monday morning after calling the car rental place with no luck I talked to Bohdin about the importance of keeping things in a safe spot. He received five dollars from Nana that day. I told him to put it in a good spot when he arrived home. I was so disappointed to learn later that he was playing with the money and had misplaced it Two misplacement in such a short time was too much for me. I told Bohdin that he was not responsible enough to have an allowance and we would resume it sometime in the future. I'm not sure I made the right decision. Later that night we found the five dollar bill and money purse. Right now they are sitting in my safe keeping.

Nyla copies Bohdin a lot. Last night when both refused to sleep they were sitting on the bed. Bohdin was peeling an apple for a snack and Nyla was butchering one with a butter knife. Bohdin cut himself at one point and said he felt it on his bone. Later Nyla with an imaginary injury came to me saying "Me. Hurt. Bone". She also stole Bohdin's knock knock joke with a punchline of tree come to wash you. Nyla said "Knock. Tree. Wash you! Joke. Funny?".

Nyla had another dentist appointment to take care of the cavity on her molar. It did not go well. The dentist was really patient but when Nyla bit her so hard she almost broke skin it was time to give up. Nyla just did not want to cooperate that day. She wouldn't lay down very long and when she did she wouldn't open her mouth wide enough.

Doggie Knight

At the fabric store a few weeks ago I found some shiny fabric in blue and gold. I bought a little of each thinking I could use it for some sort of costume for Nyla. When Bohdin saw the fabric he liked it and a subsequent return to the fabric store had us buying a lot of the shiny silver fabric because Bohdin wanted to be a knight. His original plan was to have silver pants, a silver top, and silver hat. That would have made him look like the tin man or a burrito. We eventually compromised. Nyla wanted to be a knight as well since Bohdin was a knight. She became a doggie knight and Bohdin was a Saturn castle knight. He chose the decoration for his. I chose the dog for Nyla. They both loved their costumes. Nyla wore her top several times before Halloween. I found it ironic that I had made that pattern for her many times but this shiny dog was the only one she wanted to wear. Bohdin was also excited about his costume.




Bohdin doesn't like talking to strangers and the thought of having to say trick or treat almost made him not want to go. In the end he did go. I refused to say it for him. Well that's not true. Earlier in the week I told him I would say it but he would have to give me a large percentage of his candy as payment. He hated that idea. At the first house he didn't really want to say it but both Buddy and I would not. He said it quietly. After a few houses he was getting the hang of it. I think he was proud of himself. He talked about how it became easier. I was certainly proud of him.



Buddy still has a lingering sickness. Friday night he was coughing so much it seemed he could hardly breathe. He wasn't feeling well Saturday either but after resting the whole day he was able to go out with us trick or treating. I still hear him coughing this morning but it's back to tolerable levels. I don't know what we've had but it's not like anything we've had before.

Dentist

Nyla had a checkup with the dentist because she had three cavities that need to be addressed. The dentist wanted to do her front teeth in one visit with no medication. I was really skeptical but thought it was worth a shot. I talked to Nyla about not moving and that it wouldn't hurt. She had her appointment yesterday and it worked. Nyla layed on top of me for the entire thing which took less than 30 minutes. She did stay still and kept her mouth mostly open. A few times she inadvertently (I think) bit the dentist and they assistant. I was really surprised. She was able to pick out a prize although Bohdin thought she was able to pick out two prizes since I also grabbed toothpaste for her. At our last appointment she chose a glow in the dark bouncy ball with an eye on it. She was mad that I wouldn't let her climb all over the chairs in the waiting room after the appointment. I carried a struggling girl out. Finally in frustration she threw her bouncy ball in the parking lot. She looked for it but couldn't find it. This time she didn't try to use the chairs as a jungle gym or throw her ball in the parking lot. She still has a cavity on her molar. The dentist says she will need medicine for this one. Once again I am skeptical if this will work but we'll see soon.

Afterward we went to the Children's museum in Annapolis. Bohdin was excited until we arrived. I don't know which museum he was expecting but he didn't want to go in. I told him we would only stay for 30 minutes. Ninety minutes later I dragged them out while telling them we could come back another time. It's not a big space. It's more like a rundown playroom but we expected it to be more popular. Bohdin and Nyla were the only kids there. They played with the train table, kitchen, and child sized tugboat the most.

Party pooper

Bohdin and Nyla generally enjoying being together. My presence is an interruption to their quiet play. Last week Nyla came out of the bathtub before Bohdin. I went to the kitchen to check on the bread and came back to find Nyla sitting on the stool in the bathroom "reading" a book while Bohdin played in the tub. As soon as Nyla saw me though she no longer wanted to sit and look at books. They play all sorts of things either together or near each other. I'm glad they have so much fun together.




Here is an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet. There are downsides to letting them play by themselves. I don't know when Nyla sneaks off to do something she shouldn't.


Buddy stayed home from work Tuesday. Well actually he went to work and they told him to go home. He did go to the doctor per Army regulations. They didn't perform a flu test but they did perform a strep test which was negative. There is no telling what we have. I still have an intermittent sore throat and cough. Buddy has a sore throat and cough also with the added fun of fever and mucus. He went to work yesterday and felt that he was on the mend.

Home

Buddy had Friday off so we drove to Kentucky to get a house. Buddy has been itching to get his own place again and we jumped on the $8000 tax credit. We rented a minivan and set off for Kentucky Thursday night. The drive that night wasn't too bad. We stopped just north of Charleston, West Virginia. We had to set out again early the next morning for a one o'clock appointmtent with the realtor. We had two stops on the way. As soon as we arrived it was time to see houses. We saw 11 houses that afternoon. We were all tired of being in the car and went to our hotel. Nyla was the most vocal in her objections. Bohdin and Nyla liked the view from the window. After walking to a restaurant for dinner Bohdin and Nyla found various ways to play in the room while Buddy and I went through listings. The funniest game they had involved using the top of the ice bucket as a shield.

Saturday we started mid morning and looked at I think nine houses. Of course no house was perfect but Buddy and I easily agreed on our top two choices. We made the offer in the afternoon. I had a sore throat on the drive out and by Saturday afternoon Buddy developed one also. He couldn't sleep and woke me up sometime after 3 in the morning to ask if we should just leave. We were on the road by 4am. It was a long long long drive back. We didn't get back until nearly 6pm. Hitting parking lot traffic in Marlyand didn't help.
We received news of the counter offer just after noon when we were in West Virginia. We had stopped at a lake about 2 miles from the Maryland border to run around. We countered again about 3 and we heard of their acceptance about 9pm. Now the long process of paperwork and inspections begin.

It was not a pleasant weekend for any of us since we spent the majority of it in the car. Bohdin handled it the best. He spent hours looking at his Playmobil catalog in the car. It's falling apart now. Buddy thought the Playmobil toys were worth it just for this reason. It's fun to even look at the toys and imagine playing with them. Nyla handled it the worst. She cried a lot and managed to get half out of the carseat a few times. I checked out a Backyardigans cd from the library and those sort of catchy tunes are stuck in my head. We listened to that cd countless times.

I only took one picture while house hunting and this is not the house we bought although it is in the same neighborhood. We went opposite of what we have now. The house sits on an acre of land and it has more room than we need. There is a small lake with fishing and a playground. It is the only neighborhood we looked at that has a playground. They just don't do that there. It's the opposite of Denver where they have one playground for every 10 children it seems. The house backs up to woods and there is a hiking trail through the woods nearby. It is quiet. I'm looking forward to not hearing so much traffic anymore. The best part is no downstairs neighbors so the kids can run as much as they want whenver they want.

Tired

Nyla has been surprisingly polite and pleasant recently and Bohdin has been grouchy, whiny, and mean to Nyla. I knew that Bohdin was pretty tired and we were going to put him to bed after Buddy and I watched Castle last night on the computer. A few minutes into the show we realized it was really quiet. Buddy went to check on Bohdin and found him splayed out on the ground with a sucker in his mouth. It wasn't even 8 yet. He slept until about 7:30 this morning. Nyla is taking a late nap and after she finally fell asleep I went to check on Bohdin. The house was super quiet. He wasn't in the bedroom or the bathroom. Finally I found him on the floor behind the tent asleep. So now it's 4 and I have two sleeping kids. I think I'll be up for a long time tonight.




Nyla has been acting quite unusual lately. Two days ago she wanted pink milk so she took the pink stuff from the cupboard and a cup. "Spoon please mama." I hand her the spoon and she puts a tiny amount of powder into her cup. "Enough. Milk please." I take the milk out and pour some into the cup. "Straw please." She takes the straw puts away the pink powder and goes on her way. That night she was eating dinner by herself. I asked her if she wanted me to join her at the table. She scoots over on her tiny child chair, pats it and says "come mama".

I wonder if is possible to have both children behave nicely at the same time. Now that Nyla is being gentle, Bohdin is being aggressive and antagonizing. Nyla just tells him "no kick me" or "no push me". It's strange to see the aggressor become patient and vice versa.

Bohdin is going to be a knight for Halloween this year and Nyla wants to copy him. While at Michael's today we saw a sword and Roman gladiator helmet. I told him we would come back if we didn't find a better one. Next door was the Halloween store. Bohdin was excited to go in but changed his mind quickly once we actually entered the store. There was a fog machine and they were playing eerie music. Bohdin wanted out right away. We looked around briefly anyway. When we came home Bohdin asked that we never go to a Halloween store again.

I bought Bohdin some random Playmobil parts direct. The thing he was most excited about was the hay. Once during our battle I stole his hay. He started crying and said without the hay his horses couldn't eat and would die. These are flying horses that require me to shoot them a thousand times before dying. It wasn't as fun to find the Achille's heel in these lopsided battles as I imagined. Because he was so excited about the hay I checked out a book from the library titled "Haystack". It talks about how farmers used to put the hay into one big pile in the middle of the field. During the winter the cows would eat the hay and use it as a shield from storms. Bohdin thought it was hilarious that they would eat their own shelter. Maybe my next Playmobil strategy will be to have my camels eat the hay hideout. While Bohdin laughs I'll capture the treasure.

Rainy

Last week we weren't sure if we would extend our lease here past October. If I was going to be moving away soon I needed to run some errands. We stopped at Penzeys to stock up on spices and Ikea for the easel paper. That was on Wednesday. It started to rain that afternoon and the rain didn't stop until late Saturday. We had days of cold gray drizzle so we didn't do much. Also Bohdin developed a fever Thursday night that didn't break until Friday night/ Saturday morning. He had only a fever and a headache which he described as somebody banging his skull. The headache lasted through Saturday. He's much better now and Nyla is glad that he feels well enough to play again.