Cream of Potato Soup

Tonight was Evan's open house at school, and Mike went up to check out his classroom and meet the teacher. Call me crazy, but wasn't open house always just for the parents? Because I thought it was, and I thought Evan was handing me a line when he said kids were supposed to go too. That is, until I got a call from Mike in the parking lot that he was the only one there without his own little kindergartener. Crap.

Mike had a good open house anyway. He really liked the teacher, and the teacher had great things to say about Ev. She said Evan is always smiling, and that he's really good at following directions. He's one of the best readers in the class, but he needs to work a little on fine motor skills (like staying on the line when he writes, or staying in the lines when he colors). Mike even brought home a little book Ev did about his life, full of pictures he drew of the family, his best friend (Max), his favorite food and animal and activity. Very cool.

In other news, it's still close to 80 degrees at 10 pm. Seriously. It feels funny to be so warm this late in September. It's supposed to cool down over the next few days though, which I'm glad about. I have some cute new sweaters I've been dying to wear.

Posted by jenny at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pearl Jam's "State of Love and Trust" is just an excellent song. Don't try to deny it.

I'm sitting in the office listening to my iTunes here on the computer, and the sounds of our new bedtime routine in the next room. We already read our book together (it's been Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day every night for the last two weeks). Now Evan and Grady are both in bed--Ev scanning through different tracks on his favorite cd, and Grady kicking his legs on the crib mattress and laughing. This will eventually settle down, the low chatter will stop and it will become quiet. It's great that they are sharing a room still, and I'm so glad. At night, the age difference doesn't seem to matter so much.

Ev's been on a Laurie Berkner and Dan Zanes kick for the last two weeks as well. He hasn't listened to them much since he was about three, so it's nice to hear them again. Evan has a really interesting muscial taste--I don't know many other kindergarteners who listen to Death Cab for Cutie or The Decemberists. But it's great. He appreciates a lot of different stuff, and he's becoming quite the little singer.

Mike and Evan had their guitars out last night while I was gone, and they were making up songs about getting Grady to go to sleep. Ev's imagination really comes out when he's into a song, or making up words while he strums his guitar. It's a lot of fun to see what he'll come up with next. It's also fun to watch Grady wiggle his butt in time with the music. I just hope the boys take after their father with the music stuff, because I can't carry a tune in a bucket.

Posted by jenny at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The last few days have been incredibly busy for us, and it's left everyone feeling tired and out of sorts. Mike's grandfather (Evan and Grady's last great-grandparent) passed away Thursday, and though it wasn't unexpected it was still difficult. The next few days were filled with family and funeral business, which is generally exhausting, but we ended up having to travel quite a bit as well. That was hard on the boys, and we also had some trouble explaining things to Evan. He remembered my grandmother's funeral from last fall, but I think he noticed more of what was going on this time, and he had more questions. I am never sure how much to explain. Evan can understand a lot, but subject matter like this is still over his head, and I don't want to scare him or make him worry more than he already does. I still haven't broken it to him that my dad's cat died a few months ago. He really liked that cat.

Since the weekend, we've all been battling a cold that came home from kindergarten. Grady's been having trouble sleeping because of it, which means I haven't gotten much rest either. Evan was up crying a lot last night because his cold has morphed into an ugly double ear infection, so he stayed home from school today and went to the doctor. He was upset about missing school, but it was for the best--he was really hurting. And as proof that miracles do occur, Ev took his antibiotic by mouth this time without any fighting or gagging. He was adamant that he not get painful antibiotic shots again, so I think that helped to encourage him to take the medicine. Let's just hope I can get it into him for another nine days.

I was convinced that once summer was over, our lives would slow down and we'd have a lot more time for everything. Just the opposite has happened--Mike is busier than ever, and Evan's days are packed from morning until night. Every day has an appointment or a meeting or some errand to run. I'm finding this very frustrating. I think we're all missing that down time, that family time we used to have more of. I've got to find a way to slow things down, or we're all going to go bananas.

Posted by jenny at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sitting here in the dark office, nursing Grady and smiling to myself. Mike and Evan are laying in bed in the next room, talking before Ev goes to sleep. Evan asked Mike who his friends were when he was in school, and he said, "Jennifer". So Ev asks, "Other Jennifer or this Jennifer (meaning me)?" And Mike answered that it was me, that he and I were friends in school. So sweet to hear my husband/best friend telling this to our son, so many years later.

Now Ev is listing all of his friends at school. He's said about ten names already...I'm impressed. I think there were even two or three girls in there!

Posted by jenny at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grady had his 15 month check up today, and it went pretty well. We saw the main doctor in the practice, and I like him a lot. He said Grady looks great, is healthy and growing fine, and he even sat and talked with me about both Grady and Evan for a while. As for stats, Grady is 21 pounds, 4 ounces and 30 inches tall (still on the lower edge of the growth curve, but good and steady growth). Oddly enough, those were Evan's exact measurements at his 15 month appointment, so perhaps Grady isn't so far off after all!

We also talked a little about Grady's birthmarks--he has three cafe au lait spots on his chest. When he was first born, I thought they were bruises, as the two larger spots are right where your thumb would hit when you're lifting him up. Turns out they are just fairly common marks, and most of the time they are nothing to worry about. But the doctor measured them and made note, because if more pop up it could signal a problem. These marks can be a sign of neurofibromatosis. Sounds like a riot, huh? I'm not too worried about it, but we'll keep an eye out to see if G gets any more spots.

The long day and two shots (one in each arm this time) left Grady in a funk tonight, and Ev isn't much better. He's been fighting a bit of a cold or something all week, so he's tired and just a little off himself. It was a challenge for me to keep both of them happy, and now I'm feeling rather ornery too. I better get to bed before things get too hairy around here.

Posted by jenny at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I thought that with Evan in school all day I was going to find loads of time to do things around the house, to write, to create. Ha! Joke's on me yet again. Grady's down to one nap a day, and he's now making life more and more exciting as he finds new things to destroy. But I wanted to make sure to share some happy announcements this week, so here goes.

Congratulations go out to our friends Gina and Richard Z on the birth of their beautiful baby boy. Richard Jr. was welcomed into the world by his parents this past Saturday, and we're so happy for the new family. Hopefully we'll get to meet the little guy over Thanksgiving.

I want to also congratulate my dear friend Mikaele on completing the Presque Isle Triathlon on Saturday. I don't remember her time exactly, but it was a good one! She's been working really hard to train for this, and she should be really proud of her accomplishment. Especially since that training happened with two young sons at home while she was beginning a new job! I honestly don't know where she finds the time, but I'm impressed.

There's a lot more going on, but most of is not quite as exciting as this stuff, so I'll save it for later. Right now, G just went down for his one nap so I better get my ass in gear!

Posted by jenny at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lots has been happening and I haven't been blogging, which makes me a terrible person. I'll try to update in these few precious moments when the boys are playing in their room. Or, more acurately, Evan is playing and Grady is running between their room and the office because he can't decide which place is more fun.

Evan has been doing incredibly well in school. So well, in fact, that he's been removed from the autism support room completely. He was only in there for the first 15 minutes of the day anyway, but his regular teacher thinks things are going so well that they wanted to try this out. So now he's doing his thing in a traditional classroom with no help, and it's going great. Here's hoping it stays this way--though it's good to know the help is there if he needs it later.

Today was red day at kindergarten. All the kids wore red. He also met Mr. M from The Letter People. Evan has a very busy life. Speaking of busy, we'd like to cut his hours with his TSS too. After a 7 hour school day, 2 more hours of work seems like too much. I only see him for two hours a day then, and he hardly gets any downtime to just play or relax. I don't need a stressed out 5 year old--there's no value in that at all.

Grady is 15 months old today, which means I can begin dreading the weigh in and the "isn't he talking yet?" question from the pediatrician next week. He says "hi" and waves bye-bye, and we get an occasional "dada" out of him. Somehow I worry that's not enough. G's still a lot of fun though--getting into everything and laughing while he does it. He's been kind of clingy the last week or so, and I'm not sure why, but it's definitely made housework even more of a hassle than usual. So don't expect much if you're coming over. If you give me fair warning, I'll at least clear a path through the toys for you.

Posted by jenny at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)