Some Thanksgiving Weekend Pictures

The boys with Grampy dressed in their finest

All done -can we go now?

Family picture

Blast Off!

At the Museum of Science, Boston

Electricity is cool

He just liked pressing the buttons to make the machine say "Oops"

Since we went out for dinner on Turkey Day our turkey survived!

5:30 again

So for much of the last six months or so I have been getting up at an ungodly hour to go to the gym.  I am a morning person, so it hasn't been much of a struggle.  However, a couple of weeks ago I got a bad cold and an ear infection and I just haven't well enough at 5:30 to drag myself out of bed and go to the gym.  Ideally I'd like to go 3x a week, I feel better when I get in at least 3 workouts a week.  I enjoy the workout and getting my body moving.  I always feel better once I've done it, but sometimes knowing the long day ahead of me anyway, I just shudder at the thought of getting out of my warm bed.  The change I am discovering is not just that I need to go a bit early now that school is back in session, but also because it is dark and cold.  Well, really I am going to need to buck up because dark/cold is the order of the day for the next few months.  So this morning I did just that and I feel good for it.  Say a prayer that I can keep it up again, I know I'll feel better, I just need to remember that in my early morning stupor.

Anyway, it is something I am contemplating.  I am very admiring of women who manage it all, work outside the home, family, time at a gym. I am busy all the time and Robert has recently been giving up on his nap, so I am trying to figure out how to deal with that.  Harry didn't give up a nap until he was in preschool.  In fact, thinking about it,  I always had Harry in some form of pre-school/ mother's morning out which meant I had 3 or 4 hours to myself most weeks when I was alone (a key thing) and could get chores done.  Sometimes it is better not to put things like this down on paper, but now I have a little more sympathy for myself.  I don't know there is any solution, but maybe I'll start thinking about it.  It is lovely to be able to be home for my children, but it is odd that means that I am not always able to find time for myself.  I don't think there are any ideal ways to be - at home parent / working parent - it is a balancing act.  The goal is to be a good parent and to figure out how we can best live and love together.

Happy Thanksgiving

Yesterday was the second grade Thanksgiving musical program.  All the kids were dressed as either Indians or pilgrims.  Harry was an Indian.  I learned from another parent that this is a coveted role, so I guess he lucked out.  That may have been lost on him, but probably not.  It would have been lost on me, unless I had been told.  The kids were all cute and did a great job.  Harry did wonderfully (I am not biased, of course).  He sang along and stood still when he was supposed to do so.  He even had his own line which he delivered so that it could be heard.

Afterwards I spoke with his teacher briefly and she said he was doing well this year.  Overall, I think second grade is going better than first grade.  First grade was not awful, but it was the first year of needing to sit still.  This year seems to be easier, although I have a project that all the other kids did this week which Harry didn't get to do (and wanted to), because he and another little boy had a wrestling match over some googly eyes.  

This growing up thing is much harder work than we ever contemplate once we are grown ups!  I am enjoying the very different stages both boys are in right now.  Harry is in a place where the world of learning is opening up to him and he loves stories and science and so he is loving the fact that these days he can read just about anything he wants to read.  Robert is learning how to communicate with words.  He has spoken in full sentences for at least a year now, but now his thoughts are complex and his words are starting to keep up.  He notices things and remembers things and he also comments on things and remembers people.  We brought him to the local production of Cinderella and he did well, although he didn't last through the whole program.  He got antsy after intermission, noticed the clock and recited Hickory Dickory Dock and then decided that he  wanted to chat with me and run around some, so we left.  Unfortunately the conversation (about ear wax of all things) started before we left the theatre, hopefully we didn't disturb too many people.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the photos of Harry performing that I am attaching to the end of this.

mesh bags and books

Robert has been walking around with this yellow mesh bag on his head and calling himself a wiggle.  I figure it is safe enough (it is mesh), but I probably should discourage the placement of bags on his head!  The bag actually belongs to Harry and I think Harry has reclaimed it and brought it back to his room.  If it stays there my dilemma is solved, but toys have a tendency to migrate - especially the random ones.

Robert isn't as engrossed in his imaginary play as Harry was (and still is sometimes), but he definitely enjoys dressing up or putting on a cape and pretending.  It is interesting how his imaginary play is different than Harry's, he plays with cars and characters, but often it is more manipulating them and getting them to be in a particular order.  With Harry, he's happy with one character who he then plays with it intensively.  Robert will patiently build very elaborate towers and spends much time on a puzzle doing it and taking it apart until he knows it perfectly.  Harry doesn't do that at all, but he will take a story and relive it over and over again until he knows it back and forth.

My mother was right, children are so interesting because they are all so different. It is the part of motherhood that really feeds me, watching my boys grow and change and contemplating how different and how alike they are and what a mysterious and wondrous process it is to be part of a family of individuals.

On to the related subject of reading.  Harry has to read  a book a night for school (actually technically he is supposed to read 20 minutes a night, but since he always reads before lights out for 30 minutes, I don't worry too much about meeting that requirement).  At the moment the books he reads for school are Arthur books, so I can avoid the television and Robert climbs up on the couch to listen to the story too.  It is actually one of the highlights of my afternoon.  Robert is learning to love reading too, we have always had reading as part of our bedtime routine and both boys gravitate toward books when they need downtime during the day.  I guess I should have expected that given that I am never without a book and get kind of edgy if I don't have one lined up for when my current book is done.

A peace was signed this 11th day of the 11th month at 11 a.m. let us remember that today

It is Veteran's Day and this morning I got to the point in my book about WWI when the armistice was signed and the war ended.  I am reading the newest Follett book, and if you put a gun to my head I couldn't tell you the title, but I am enjoying it (all 800+ pages).  It is a 3 week loan from the library and I thought for sure I would never finish it, but since I have been sick this week, I've allowed myself some reading time during the day (when normally I'd be cleaning or doing other housework) and so I have only 100 or so pages to go!  I love a good historical novel and Follett does a great job of it.

At any rate today is November 11th is I believe my grandfather's birthday, I don't know how old he would be if he were alive, but Dad is in his mid-seventies now, so over one hundred I would guess.  My other grandfather actually fought in WWI - he worked on airplanes as an engineer, but I suspect he also fought, because we have a journal he kept (and I am now motivated to go find it again) and I remember distinctly that there was a German cross from a helmet in there along with lots of pictures.  He couldn't have gotten that unless he were somewhere on a battlefield with dead German soldiers.  At any rate Veteran's Day is one of those days that has always brought me to the contemplation of war and peace.  It has been that way since I was a child, because of the stories my father has told me about growing up during WWII.

So today we honor and remember our veterans.  Here in Jamestown we have many serving soldiers of all the armed forces who are stationed over in Newport for training for brief periods of time.  They and their families  come for a year or 2 and enrich our lives in the schools and the church and they move on.  It is a reminder that war is still a constant in our lives.  We may not be fighting on Flanders fields, but our soldiers are still fighting for us in battles far away from our comfortable and safe homes here in the United States.  So today in my prayers I ask that God watch over all of us and bring an eternal peace and that allows all soldiers to put down their weapons.

Cub Scouts at Veteran's Day Ceremony

Kevin giving the opening prayer

I thought ear infections were just for kids

Harry has had a cold for a couple of weeks now.  Robert caught it soon after and finally I got it.  The boys are both still coughing a bit, but seem to be basically back to normal.  On Thursday evening I sort of suddenly realized (once the boys had gone to sleep and I had a moment or two to just be) that my ear really hurt and felt kind of blocked up.  By Friday morning I had a pleasant echo sort of in stereo of most of the noises around me.  So I called the doctor and sure enough, I have an ear infection.  I have been on antibiotics for a couple days now and feel better, but my ear just stopped hurting today and it is still blocked.  That's slowly getting better too, thank goodness.

In the meantime life goes on, I was never one to slow down much when sick and am even less so now that I am a Mom and in a busy household.  Yesterday I asked Kevin to take over with Harry during Robert's nap and had a nice hour or 2 to read and relax.  There are always things that need to be done - laundry, dishes, dinners, etc.  It is sort of a reminder too of what ear infections are like (not fun) after a year where Robert got 6 + ear infections and even Harry had one last year.

Today is Sunday and date night - I don't feel terrific, but we have reservations and I will pull it together to have a nice out with my husband!  This year we aren't managing once a week, which is probably good for the budget, but I miss knowing that there will be one night a week when we actually have a chance to talk without little voices interrupting.

And here is a picture of Harry in 2003 - helping with the raking.  That is something I am grateful for in Rhode Island.  We don't have 12 giant pin oaks which drop leaves for months on end.  We just have a few trees and a small yard to try to keep tidy.

So I'll end here with this pic - I think it's always nice to add something to look upon and he was a cute little guy, wasn't he?

Halloween Festivities

Post party remembrances - or what goes under the costumes 

Harry's Fairy House

Robert in the leaves 2010

Harry in the leaves 2004

Brothers 

Jumping in the leaves

Ice Dragon Ninja ready to collect candy

Cowboy / Woody on the road

Cyclops for the boy - "traditional" jack o' lantern for the parents

Alien

A new tradition - pre trick or treating dinner of mummy dogs