Happy Halloween!

We wish you all out there in blogger land a very happy Halloween today!

My Kids

This week has been fairly uneventful.  John is working insane hours again and I've been lacking in sleep, so we've been staying home a lot since I'm low on energy.  But this has offered the opportunity to spend a lot of time interacting with Aiden and Nathan with no one else around.

We've been having long in-depth conversations, spending lots of time pretending to be goodness knows what, learning new games, creating art, and having lots of laughs.  While I may be around my kids a lot, I think it had been a little while since we'd spend lots of time really interacting with each other with no distractions.  And throughout all this, I realized something.  My kids truly complete me.  I would be honestly lost without them.  Life would be so boring!  Since becoming a mother I have been able to experience more laughter, joy, excitement, worry, tears, pain, and fear than I ever thought possible.  And it's amazing.  Life before kids was ok.  Sure, maybe I had more freedom go do what I pleased, but did I really appreciate it?  Not at all.  Date nights with John are so much more important and we cherish that time together so much more than we did before kids.

I love John, but the extreme unconditional love that I felt the moment each baby was put into my arms was something new.  I would always stand up for myself, but the purposeful Mama Bear I turn into when one of my children needs me is like nothing I've ever experienced.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter how much they stress me out (and boy, do they know how to do that!), I will never EVER think that life might have been better if I hadn't had kids.  I might be flying by the seat of my pants some days and I'm not sure if I'll ever know how to do things perfectly, but I do know that I'm more than happy to try.

Remembrance

My grandfather's service is today over in Idaho.  I can't be there, but it's definitely on my mind today.  I felt like I'd been doing ok most of last week, but things seem to be a little more difficult today, so there's obviously more grieving to be done.  But do we ever really stop grieving the loss of a loved one?  While the initial feelings are definitely the most raw, I would think that when you care about someone, you'll always miss them and feel sad that they're gone.

The past week has brought up lots of memories about my grandpa and I've enjoyed thinking about each and every one.  I loved visiting my grandpa when I was younger (before I ended up with so many siblings that the entire family couldn't fit in one car and make our way over there to see him).  You see, he had an arcade game of Donkey Kong.  Yes, the full coin operated machine that you'd find in an arcade.  He had it so that the coin area was unlocked and filled with quarters, so you could just reach in and pop another quarter in to keep the game going as long as you wanted.  Having that game around made him a super cool grandpa in my mind.

He and grandma Darleen (my dad's step mom) would always take me shopping for clothes.  And they'd make sure to pick out the little girl clothes that were in style.  Stuff my parents would never buy.  Are your grandparents usually the ones to make you feel trendy?  It was always so much fun.

My grandpa loved food and while the memories here are a little fuzzy, I keep going back to him taking me out for burgers and fries when we visited.  Maybe that's where my love of a good charbroiled burger was developed.  When we head over there in November, my dad plans on taking us out to Cook's for a Cook Burger.  It's been a long time since I've had a Cook Burger.

Another memory of visiting my grandparents is of Darleen watching soap operas and attempting to tell me the backstories to everything that was happening.  My family never watched soap operas and I thought it was just fascinating.  I can laugh now because I think they're completely silly, but I vividly remember sitting there wide-eyed watching "forbidden" soap operas with her, as my grandpa would shake his head and laugh.  I remember trying to watch soap operas by myself after we got back home, but it just wasn't the same.

But in all the memories I have of him, I remember his smile.  His laugh.  He was a happy, joyful person who loved his family very much.  It really hurts that I wasn't able to see him again before he passed away, but I am thankful that I have such wonderful memories of him.

Fall Goodness

On October 9th, we took our annual trip to Baggenstos for our pumpkins.  While we didn't have the warm sunshine that we've always had for the trip, the temperature was actually quite perfect and fall-like.  And it didn't rain!  The cooler weather kept the crowds down a little bit, so we didn't have to wait very long to hop on the hay ride down to the patch.

 I have no explanation for the face he's making.

 The perfect pumpkin!

 Our haul.  Three carving pumpkins and two Cinderellas to puree.  I love having pumpkin available in my freezer all year long!

 Brotherly love!

 The boys just couldn't wait to carve their pumpkins, even though we explained that the pumpkins wouldn't last until Halloween.  But because we attend John's company pumpkin carving party each year just before Halloween and get more pumpkins there, we decided it would be ok to go ahead and have some fun.  So Aiden got to work on his pumpkin!

 Even Nathan worked on using a little carving knife, but he's just not quite strong enough to get through the tough pumpkin!

The results!  Nathan's pumpkin was a Kitty Bat and Aiden's was Dracula.  And yes, they have both rotted out already.  We kept the biggest carving pumpkin whole, so we still have one pumpkin on the doorstep waiting to be carved.  And we'll be able to get as many pumpkins as our hearts desire at the carving party this coming Sunday.  I've already pureed one of the Cinderellas and did some fun fall baking, but that's another post.

At 6 Years Old

On Monday we had Aiden's 6 year check up with the pediatrician (he doesn't have to go back for two years now!).  Aiden is growing just like he should be.

Weight: 49 lbs (67th perc)

Height: 45 1/2 in (44th perc)

Vision: Normal

We had a nice long discussion about Aiden's development regarding reading and learning.  I brought him some examples of things that Aiden had written totally by himself.  The pediatrician's reaction?  His mouth dropped open and he said, "Oh my word....I don't think I've ever seen work like this from a 6 year old!".  Luckily, Aiden seems to not be too bored in kindergarten and the pediatrician thinks we can continue supplementing materials here at home.  Since he doesn't seem to be having problems from boredom, he doesn't think testing for any other advanced programs is needed just yet.  He did think we need to have Aiden choose at least one extra-curricular activity to do in order to keep the boredom at bay, so we'll be narrowing down what to sign him up for pretty soon.  We hadn't yet decided on Chess Club or Karate, but Aiden seems to be leaning toward Karate and waiting on Chess Club until next year (Chess Club requires getting to school an hour early and I don't think he's super excited about that).  All in all, the pediatrician was pleased (and amazed) with Aiden and was happy to hear that the behavior issues that we'd been dealing with have mostly disappeared since we've been following the guidelines in A Parents Guide to Gifted Children.

Then today we had Aiden's first kindergarten parent/teacher conference.  I didn't know how it was going to go, but we got a great report from his teacher.  All of his testing so far indicates that he is way above grade level and he is currently the top performing reader in kindergarten (not just in his class, but in all of kindergarten).  We did find out that because of that, he has been placed in the special "High Flyers" reading program for the top 5 highest performing readers in kindergarten - which means that four times a week, he is sent to another classroom and takes part in a more advanced reading program.  This isn't to be confused with the TAG reading program which would require further district testing and would be in addition to kindergarten class time, extending his school day.

All in all, things are great with our little Aiden!  Here's some favorites at 6 years old:

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite food: Brie on crackers, pizza with no sauce

Favorite drink: Root Beer, Vitamin Water

Favorite movie: Despicable Me

Favorite show: Phineas and Ferb

Favorite toy: Star Wars Legos

Favorite song: Anything dance-y

Favorite book: Bill Nye the Science Guy's Big Book of Little Germs

Favorite subject: Science, Space

Best Friend: Toss up between Max and Joey

Dealing with Loss

My grandfather (dad's dad - the one I had mentioned last week) passed away early this morning.  They were so unsure which way his recovery was going to go, it's a shock, but at the same time not really.  If that makes sense.  We had just finalized plans last night to drive over to Idaho the week of Thanksgiving so that I could see him again and he could finally meet the boys.  It's like dealing with my grandmother's (mom's mom) death all over again.  Talking about visiting, discussing dates, and then suddenly, it's too late.  I wasn't ready for this again.  I'm grieving and I'm mad, and I don't understand why God couldn't have waited just a few more weeks.

I guess we should be thankful that my dad was able to go over last week and see his dad one last time.  And we should be thankful that he's not suffering anymore.  It doesn't make it any easier though.

I don't expect to be able to attend his funeral, but we are keeping our plans to go over to Idaho.  There's plenty of family over there who I haven't seen in 20 years, and of course my grandma (dad's mom) has yet to meet her great-grandchildren.  I'm already trying to process two grandparents going without being able to see them and I'd rather not risk a third.

Please keep the family in prayer as we deal with the loss of a man whose humor I will never forget.  And as much as I hated it when I was little, I'll miss being called Snake Hips (I assume it was because I was super skinny and lanky at age 7).  I'll miss you, grandpa.

Scarface

This is what happens when you place a saw on top of a ladder, forget about it, and then move the ladder.

And I thought I was the accident prone one!

In all seriousness, yes, he's perfectly fine.  We're very happy that it missed his eye.  It also hit his hand when he tried to grab the saw as it fell and that cut him pretty badly.  We had to clean up blood as he walked down the hallway, but it stopped bleeding quickly.  Such excitement!

Babies Need Families

As some of you may know, Aiden has been requesting a sibling (a sister) for a while now.  -Maybe I should take this chance now to say no, we don't have an announcement to make!-  He's mostly been very interested in how a pregnancy works, but seems to also have a strong desire to help take care of a baby.  After yet another request for a sibling the other night, I told him that growing a baby is hard work and it makes mommy not feel very well.  He thought for a moment and then said, "There are lots of babies that need families, mommy.  Maybe instead of growing a baby, we could get a baby from someone who can't take care of it."

My mouth dropped open.  What a heavy thought for a six year old!  I didn't know that he was even remotely aware of the concept of adoption.  While John and I just stared at each other, we couldn't really come up with a good response for him.  We are in no way opposed to the idea, but far from saying that we'd do it.  So we told him that it was a good idea, and maybe it's something we could talk about a later time.  That satisfied him for the time being.

I'm still in shock from his idea.  We've never spoken about adoption before, so I'm not sure how he knew that you could get babies from people who couldn't take care of them.  This kid never ceases to amaze me!

Pinch Me

It's been a rough week so far (and yes, I know it's only Tuesday).  As I was in the middle of some therapeutic baking after the kids went to bed, I turned on some music and one of my favorite songs (Pinch Me by BNL) came on.  It got to this set of lyrics:

Pinch Me, Pinch Me

Cause I'm still asleep

Please God tell me that I'm still asleep

I laughed.  It really just summed up the past couple days - would someone just tell me PLEASE that I'm still sleeping and have imagined these horribly rough couple of days?!  I wish I could say that it was just one thing causing all the trouble, but it seems like one of those weeks where everything just piles on top of everything else.

The boys are going through one of their constant fighting phases again.  Aiden wasn't home from school for a full five minutes today before I had to break up a full-blown fistfight between him and Nathan.  I never could figure out what it was about.  Apparently all it takes is one of them looking at the other one and suddenly it turns into a boxing ring in here.  So that means that any hope for quiet play time is out the window, meaning nothing can get done.  I've tried taking them places to see if we could limit/ease any cabin fever they might be feeling, but then the fighting just happens there.  I'd rather have it happen at home, so I've told them we can't go anywhere if they don't start behaving.  Ugh.  Did I mention that we nearly had to go to the ER because Aiden threw Nathan into the wall head first?  I was NOT HAPPY.  Luckily we were able to just keep an eye on Nathan and he seemed to recover fine.

Nathan had been doing really well on finishing up potty training (have I mentioned how horrible it is to potty train a boy?) and we even stopped buying pull ups.  Then Monday came around and he quit using the toilet.  I wish I had some sort of explanation, but he seems to not care again.  I've threatened to buy him diapers, not even pull ups, but diapers if he doesn't start using the toilet again.

When the boys start acting up, the dog starts acting up.  He bit me, he pooped all over the entry way and somehow smeared it everywhere, and when I tried to send him out in the backyard to use the bathroom this morning (as usual), he got halfway through the doorway then turned right around and peed in my kitchen while running around in a circle.

Then there's John's work schedule, which I mentioned last week.  His boss informed him that he could expect this to continue for the next two years.  Yay for job security.  Boo for not having a spouse anymore.  It's incredibly difficult to not have John around for dinner or bedtime during the week.  

I'm also under some emotional stress because my grandfather (my dad's dad) isn't doing very well.  He collapsed about two weeks ago and it took them a long time to resuscitate him, breaking a few ribs in the process.  He's had a pacemaker installed since then, has lost a lot of weight, and now has MRSA bad enough that anyone going into his hospital room has to have a full safety suit, mask, gloves, etc.  He's also suffering from dementia which makes talking to him difficult.  My dad is currently over in Idaho visiting him and I hope to make it over there sometime around Thanksgiving, provided he makes it to Thanksgiving (they are unsure at this point).  To be honest, I haven't done a very good job processing my grandma's death in 2008 and I'm not ready to deal with another one.  I know we don't get to choose these things, but it's certainly weighing heavily upon me and making everything else harder to deal with.

So yeah.....pinch me.

Children

I wish I knew where this came from, so I could give them credit.  But whoever they are, they MUST be a mom!

The missing shoe and popsicle stick poking out of the hair are priceless.

Balance

After dealing with John being laid off during the summer of 2009, it seems incredibly stupid to complain about him working.  Especially with so many people being out of work, I should be completely, utterly grateful he has a job.  But I can't deny that I would like a little balance.  I know it's the nature of consulting, but it's either barely any work or too much work to handle and they can't seem to hire enough people.  (I must mention that they've hired quite a few people over the past few months who have turned around and quit because they "can't handle the pressure".)

A few weeks back, John's boss asked him if he could work as close to 80 hours a week as possible.  John apparently told him that was unreasonable, and yet....it's basically happening.  We're on week two of not having John around for dinner or bedtime.  He's working 12-14 hour days.  He's been at work today for just over 12 hours, and as I was starting this blog post, he called to say it would be a few more hours.  It's a good thing I bought a cheesecake today to keep me company.

Party Time!

For Aiden's birthday this year, we opted to go for separate friend and family parties.  We had them combined last year at our house and it was just a little too crazy.  For the friend party, we planned a Saturday afternoon at a local park with a covered picnic area.  About a week before the party, the weather report called for sun and 77 degrees.  As the week progressed however, it turned to rain and 61 degrees.  Thanks, Oregon.  I'll admit I checked the weather report every hour the day before the party.  It sounded like the rain wasn't supposed to start until later in the afternoon and the party was scheduled for 3pm, so we decided to keep the location and hope for the best.  It was by no means warm, but the rain held off until 5pm, right when everyone was heading to their cars.  How lucky is that??  Plus, we pretty much had the park to ourselves since rain had been called for that afternoon.

Still being somewhat sick, I kept things easy.  Some snacks, cupcakes, and no decorations except for a Star Wars tablecloth.  The kids didn't spend much time at the table anyway - just for singing Happy Birthday.  It was pretty relaxing.  The kids just ran around and played and the adults were able to chat as much as we wanted.  It was great to see friends from preschool (some of whom we hadn't seen all summer!), friends from church, and cousins. 

 Since it was a little windy and the park trash can was already overflowing, we opted to take the unopened presents home to open there.  Aiden was extremely excited to get home and see his gifts.  He LOVED each and every gift.  His friends really know what he likes!  Bugs, Transformers, Star Wars, and Legos!

 On Sunday, we had the family party.  Since we were staying home, I did a cake instead of cupcakes and used a few of Aiden's Star Wars Lego figures for cake toppers.  It was pretty funny, especially when I had to clean frosting off of all of them later that evening.

 Awesome presents on Sunday too!  There was a funny moment when Aiden received not one, but two copies of a Lego set that he had already.  He handled it very well though and requested to keep one of them, since the pilot for that set was lost.  And he gets to take the other one back to the store to pick out a new set that he doesn't have yet.  It all worked out just fine!  He also got a huge airplane, which we all got to see in action.  I may have to post a video that my brother-in-law took, during which Aiden nearly takes him out with the airplane.

We had so much fun this weekend and I'm so grateful for the compliments on putting together the parties even though I'm still fighting this horrible cold.  It's hard to believe our little guy is six years old now.  Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to celebrate with us!

Happy 6th Birthday, Aiden!

My child is six years old.  Six.  I'm not quite sure where the time has gone and I'm sure I'll feel just as confused as each year comes around.  How did my first baby get to be so old?  Just about half way to being a teenager.  Six!

Aiden has been very interested in making sure he knows the proper order of months of the year for the past few weeks.  Yesterday, he said, "First there's January - when I was born", and I said, "Nope, you were born in October, which is why your birthday is in October".  He says, "Oh that's right.  January is the month that I started growing in your tummy".  John and I were a little shocked.  Well, yes that's right, we told him.  How he figured that out is beyond us and when we asked him about it, he said, "I just knew".  Ok then.

2005 was a big year.  We found out on Valentine's Day that we were going to be welcoming a little Minthorne.  We shared the news with a friend of ours who was directing a play that opened that night.  He said, "I'm happier for you guys than I've ever been for an opening of one of my plays" and he hugged me.  Peter was the first to congratulate us and share in those first few days of taking in the news. (It was a special day about two years ago when Aiden got to watch Peter compete on Jeopardy)  He got to watch my tummy grow and grow over the next few months and would spend many evenings with me as I hunted for yet more food.  I think he found it amusing.  Not many single guys in their 20s want to spend time with a pregnant chick, so there had to be some level of "this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen".  Between Peter and our numerous roommates in Philadelphia (who seemed to get used to living with a pregnant gal pretty fast), we had an interesting bunch of people involved in the pregnancy (these people threw me a baby shower and served beer - not to me, obviously - but that just goes to show you what kind of parties they were used to).  When John got the call that he was able to transfer his job out to Portland from Philadelphia, it was bittersweet.  We wanted to be close to family with a new baby, but it was sad to leave our group behind.  At 7 1/2 months pregnant, I had three weeks to sell most of our belongings and prepare us to move out to Portland.  About six weeks after the fastest apartment search ever, we welcomed Aiden into our family.

 I clearly remember sitting on the couch after coming home from the hospital, holding the tiny baby you see in the picture, and bawling my eyes out....in terror.  "They'll let anyone go home with a baby!", I wailed to John. "How am I supposed to know what to do?!?".  Cry, cry, cry.  And Aiden wasn't the easiest baby either.  We had nursing issues (which ended up with a stay in the NICU) and he had really bad reflux, which didn't get resolved until he was 18 months old.  But he developed just fine and he has continued to amaze us each and every day.  And I don't think I did such a bad job (thanks, instincts!).

From reading letters at 18 months, to fully reading at age 4 1/2, knowing massive amounts of science, being interested in space exploration, and having the strangest little sense of humor I've ever seen in a child his age, we love our unique little Aiden.  He's independent and joyful.  He's challenging and full of passion.  He knows what he wants and what he likes, and refuses to accept anything less.  He's got an amazing memory and thinks of himself as equal to adults (oh yes, we deal with this on a daily basis!).  He may have been our little surprise, but God knew it was time for him to come into this world and we are so very thankful for it.  Our life would not be the same without him.  Have a very wonderful birthday, Aiden bug.