Saying "Halloweenie" Is Just Fun

When Daniel was nearly two, I made a monkey costume that both he and Nathan wore with glee.


At two years old, this year was Matthew's turn to be a monkey. What we did not know was that for some reason, Matthew is diabolically opposed to the monkey suit. He freaked out every time we tried to put it on him and would rip it off his body at the first opportunity. The one time we managed to get the hood on him, he laid down on the ground with huge tears rolling down his face and played dead monkey.



So he was a headless monkey for the trunk or treat at my parents' ward where the acquisition of loads of junk food distracted him from the trauma of the monkey suit.


Daniel dressed up as the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. I just have to say that as boys his age are moving more and more towards violent or gory costumes, I am thrilled that he is still charmed by calmer things. Plus, I'm a huge Wizard of Oz fan anyway.

Nathan opted to beg for treats dressed up as a treat. He attended the festivities as a bag of jelly beans. Can I just tell you how much I love a $2 costume?


As is tradition, they were able to meet up with a bunch of their cousins at the trunk or treat, by which time Matthew was so done with the photo ops.


After the trunk or treat (it was in the afternoon this year, go figure) we came home for a spooky dinner: mummy dogs and skeleton bones with a side of monster eyeballs and witches brooms.


After dinner instead of forcing Matthew back into the monkey costume, we asked him if he would rather wear something else. So he opted for the firefighter costume (even though it is about four sizes too big) and was about fifty million times happier.

This year was the first time my boys have gone trick or treating in the neighborhood and they were very excited. Nathan could hardly stand to wait as Daniel put his costume on.

Matthew, in traditional Matthew fashion, decided not to wait.


It is probably a good thing we had an extra hour last night because they were all so wired up when they got home that it took a while to get everyone calm enough to sleep.

And one last photo before I leave all this Halloweenie stuff for another year: here is Daniel sporting his prize from the one game played at last nights' Halloween party.

I Wonder If This Is Why People Get Drunk

Is it really just something to break up the boredom?

Tonight was our ward Halloween party and the entire thing consisted of one game for the kids at the very beginning and then one of the ward members acted as DJ and played music. That's it. Sum total of activities. The kids were all running amok because they were all sugared up and had nothing to do. It reminded me of a junior high school dance where there are like three people dancing and everyone else is just standing around awkwardly. Kev said it reminded him of those Stake Stand Arounds that were called dances when we were teenagers. I've never wanted to see a rousing game of pumpkin bowling more in my entire life. The one high point of the evening was the boost to my ego when my cookies were among the first to disappear. Here are the few we had left at home.


So for all those folks who serve on the activities committee in my previous ward, you guys rock!

If Brothers Gotta Hug, What Do Sisters Gotta Do?

Last night Kev and I went to the temple and as we reached the end of the session and everyone pulled out their little papers with names on them, the women sitting next to me tapped me on the arm and directed my attention to her paper. The name of the woman on her paper and the name on mine had the same last name and were born in the same place within just a few years of each other. We think they were sisters. It was pretty cool to think that perhaps these sisters were sitting together on the other side of the veil while the two women standing as proxies were sitting together in the temple.

It made me think about my own sisters, all of whom I've had the supreme pleasure of sitting next to (or in the very near vicinity of) in the temple. (Watch out guys. This could get mushy.) I'm one of those people who not only gets to be with these sisters forever, but I'm actually glad about that. We spend time together not just because we have to or because we're supposed to, but because we actually like each others' company. Although we all have our moments, for the most part we get along really well and we have a million and one inside jokes to prove it.

Patti and I are fairly close together in age and we spent much of our growing up time together. We weren't always bosom buddies (ask her about her purple worms), but by the time we were teenagers we got along pretty well. We did things together, talked frequently (I'll bet my parents just loved the long distance bills we created while I was in college), and although we are very different in personality I think we understand each other pretty well.

Rachael and Esther are enough younger than me that they were still in elementary school when I went away to college. So imagine my glee when I moved home after graduation and had an opportunity to get to know my now grown up younger sisters. There were good times and much laughter. One of my very early dates with Kev was to one of Rachael's choir concerts. Esther rode with us and only freaked out a little bit when Kev drove down the road backwards. But he was on the correct side of the road for the direction he was going so we weren't actually in much danger! Now Esther is the one I can talk education with. She is my inside source for book orders and if I ever go back to teaching, I'm going to steal about a million of her ideas.

And as for Rachael, before the four and a half years I spent in her basement apartment, her apartment was kitty corner across the parking lot from mine for nearly two years. We saw each other nearly every day for over six years and we didn't even kill each other! And once I moved, I discovered that I kind of missed being able to just knock on the door and go up to see her. I mean, my boys so don't care how cute my new shoes are! I actually have to wait now to share the cuteness!

So I count myself pretty lucky to have three sisters that I actually consider friends. I'm sorry to all of you who have ever experienced all of us together. We can be a bit . . . spazy. Even our mother has a tendency to roll her eyes at us. But I wouldn't have it any other way. So here's to my sisters:

Where Popcorn Poppers Come From

(Matthew was perfectly willing to sing this for the camera only after I told him we would send it to Auntie Esther.)

Status Quo

Nathan finally got to see the eye doctor today and the news was not quite what he was hoping for.  His eye tested at 20/25 today, which is just a tad worse than last time, but his good eye was also 20/25 so the doctor was not concerned.  He said that if we were to come back tomorrow it would probably be just fine.  But because of that, Nathan will still be patching four hours each day.  He wasn't thrilled.  In eight weeks we will go back again, recheck his prescription to make sure it is still accurate, and go from there.

Pumpkin Fun

Last night we got around to decorating the mother lode of pumpkins we scored last Monday evening. The boys opted for paint while I (with my extraordinarily limited painting skills) took up the knife and carved. Obviously this was a very serious task that took great concentration.

Here is Nathan with his finished pumpkins.

Matthew was being Nathan's Mini-Me, just like always. And the oh-so-original pumpkin was my creation in paint, hence my option to carve.

Daniel is holding one of his creations and the other is on the table to his side.

And here he is showing off Kev's Pump-witch.

My pumpkin was sporting bats.

Obviously our ten bucks got us more than one evening of entertainment!

Twisted Logic

In an attempt to give Matthew as normal a life as possible, I’ve spent the past year and a half learning to cook and bake using no milk and eggs.  This hasn’t been the easiest task in the world but I think I’ve managed to become pretty adept at it.  So if Matthew were to become less allergic or perhaps even not allergic at all, it would mean that all my hard earned skills would be utterly wasted.  Then it stands to reason that in order to utilize my skills to the level that they deserve, Matthew would in fact have to become more allergic.  Right?  Well, using that logic, the results of Matthew’s blood work are exactly what we wanted.

So here is a little food allergy 101.  We have done two types of allergy testing: the skin prick test which uses a tiny lancet to break the top layer of skin and deposit a small amount of the allergen to determine if there is a reaction and the blood test (called an ImmunoCap) which tests the number of immunoglobulin E antibodies (these are the ones that cause allergic reactions) for specific allergens that are present in the blood.  Anything below 1 is a low or extremely low allergy, pretty much nothing to be concerned about.  A count of 1 is moderate and it goes up from there.

Matthew’s number for milk went up from 14 to 18.  Although his doctor says a small amount like this could just be a representation of the normal day to day fluctuations of such things, it still isn’t the direction we want to be going.  But even worse is that his number for eggs went up from 26 last year to 45 this year.  Definitely not good news.  Dr. W is pretty sure based on this increase that Matthew is not inclined to outgrown these allergies on his own.  As for peanut, his number on both dates was greater than 100.  They don’t bother counting past that since by then you pretty much just better keep the epipen handy anyway. 

Based on his blood work, Dr. W decided not to do skin prick testing for egg, milk, and peanut, but she is watching him for tree nut allergies so she tested for a variety of nuts, the seasonal flu shot (we have to do this every year since the flu vaccine contains egg protein), and cats and dogs.  Good news: Matthew can eat sunflower seeds and sesame seeds which opens up options with Sunbutter and tahini and he will be able to get his flu shot this year (of course, they don't have any H1N1 vaccine to test with, but we'll deal with that one later).  Bad news:  He is allergic to dogs (we pretty much already knew this) and had a mild reaction to cashew.  Dr. W wasn’t too concerned about the cashew, but she will continue to monitor his reactions to tree nuts and for now we will definitely be staying away, especially where cashew is concerned.

Dr. W did tell me that great progress is being made in the field of desensitization therapy to milk, egg, and peanut.  She said that they are having a success rate in the neighborhood of 90%, which is very promising.  There have been a few instances of anaphylaxis associated with the therapy so it doesn’t have a complete green light, but it is close.  She’s thinking that in the future Matthew would be a good candidate for therapy, one allergen at a time of course.  So although growing out of it doesn’t look like a realistic option, there may still be hope.

In the meantime, I’ll definitely be getting the most out of my dairy, egg, and nut free baking skills.  Sunbutter cookie with soy ice cream, anyone?

Yup's Up, Doc?

Today the boys picked the carrots they planted back in the spring.  One of my favorite things about carrots is that you can see the little green leaves but you have no idea what is going on under the ground until you pick them.  Considering how sad the rest of the garden was this year, I didn't expect much out of the carrots.  But I was pleasantly surprised . . . as were the boys.  The ones I didn't thin were tiny (as expected), but the ones that did get thinned were pretty decent sized.  I made all the boys (my brother Seth's boys, Devon and Corbin, were here as well)  take turns picking carrots in an attempt to be an equal opportunity mother.  As the bigger ones appeared, there were lots of exclamations of, "Whoa!  Look at that one!"  But Matthew lucked out and picked the biggest one of all.  He was almost overwhelmingly excited about his "huge carrot!"  He even tried to take a bite out of it before I could cut it into carrot sticks and then decided it was too hard to bite and nearly exploded while waiting for me to cut it so he could eat it.  And the very best part?  Out of five boys, not one complained about eating his vegetables at dinner time.

All This For Ten Bucks!

For family home evening today we went to pick out our Halloween pumpkins. We have been seeing signs for a pumpkin patch that is close to our house, so we decided to give it a try. And besides, choosing pumpkins from a patch is way more fun than selecting them at the Walmart. They had wheelbarrows available at the patch so you could cart your pumpkins in from the field and Nathan and Matthew thought the kid sized ones were the best. Of course, Matthew couldn't put any pumpkins in his because as soon as he did he discovered he isn't strong enough to keep it upright, but he had fun and Kev and I are there to carry pumpkins anyway, right?

Second perk to the pumpkin patch? Ten pumpkins for $10. None of them are really huge, but it's still a much better price than you can get at the Walmart.


The third perk was the free hay ride we got. The man who owns the patch drove us around the farm. It's not huge like Wheeler Farm, but the boys were suitable impressed by the barns, fields, sheds, and the goose. And I love that it was free!

Perk number four came in the form of a little corn maze. It was tiny and there is no possible way an adult with any brains could ever get lost in it, but it was perfect for my little first timers. And it was free. (Sound byte of the evening-- Daniel: "I don't know where we are." Nathan: "We're in a corn maze, Daniel!")

The boys were pleased with the pumpkins we scored and are already planning how to decorate them. And we had so much fun we are definitely planning to go back next year!

(I have no idea why Daniel was holding his pumpkins like this, but it made me laugh. At least they weren't melons.)

Macbeth Is Not A Comedy

At least it's not supposed to be.

Last night was opera night and the offering was "Macbeth" by Verdi. In addition to the strangely humorous findings that appeared in what is usually such a grisly story, I was wicked tired (Did you know that after your child gets injured the combination of leftover adrenaline and the overwhelming need to check on the aforementioned child fifty times in the night make sleep incredibly difficult to come by? I was up until after two reading a really stupid book. I usually only do that for really good books.) and sitting by Esther who has one of the smartest (and sassiest) mouths I've ever known. When the curtain rose on the three witches ("Double, double toil and trouble" and all that), there were thirty witches instead. I kid you not. It was like the ultimate in multiple personality disorder. And about five minutes in, one of the witches on the back row fell down the stairs on the back of the elevated set piece. We heard a big thunk and a couple of her fellow witches took a quick glance back. Esther and I were both trying really hard not to laugh which of course resulted in the unavoidable completely silent but hard to miss full body shaking.

Other humorous moments included the herd of stealthy (not!) assassins stomping their way around stage, the open throne (it didn't have a seat and although we found out later that it was so the ghost could suddenly appear, Esther and I were throwing around comments about the porcelain throne), and the fact that after Macbeth fell dead on the stage, he sat back up and sang some more. That is a pretty common opera occurrence. They always have to get their last two cents (or five cents, or $1.50) in before they can stay dead. But to its credit, the music was great and the singing was fabulous. And hey, I wasn't really in the mood for a drama anyway!

Strike!!

One of the fun things about being in year round school is that the rec centers in our area have lots of fun programs available during off track times. While they were off track in September, Daniel decided he wanted to try bowling. So he went to the bowling alley twice a week and learned how to bowl. His scores were better than mine have ever been (not hard when I average forty and Daniel had bumpers up, but still) and he had a really great time. On the last day of lessons, they had a contest and the winner from each lane got a trophy. Daniel was thrilled to death with his bowling pin!

Soccer Mom

Nathan has been playing soccer this summer and fall and after a couple of months, he is starting to get the hang of things. He is a lot less aggressive than some of the other kids, which means he prefers defensive positions. But he'll stand back, guard the box, and be ready to stop the ball when it comes his way. Here he is doing his stuff (look closely and you'll see that he has a tendency to stick his tongue out when he is concentrating).




On of the fun things about doing rec sports is that every kid gets a trophy at the end. As always, Nathan felt like a winner!

Two Out Of Three

This afternoon I picked Daniel and Nathan up at school so we could get Nathan to his appointment with the eye doctor. He was very excited about this appointment because he knew that if everything was going well, he would only have to wear his patch for one hour each day. We had plenty of time and arrived about ten minutes before his appointment. We walked into the building and Matthew took off running to see the fountain in the foyer because, let's face it, who doesn't love a fountain? This particular fountain is surrounded by a glass wall that is about waist high and is anchored into the floor with (for lack of a more appropriate word) a little metal curb with a rounded edge. Unfortunately, Matthew tripped and the force of his running and his full body weight was transferred to his head smacking into the metal curb. I was right behind him and picked him up just as he started crying. Now I can do blood and I can do cuts, all with a minimal amount of panicking. But when I rolled him over he hadn't started to bleed yet and what I saw was a gash and a dent in his head and bone. A dent in his head and bone! And I freaked out a little bit. To my credit, I don't know a mom alive that wouldn't have a bit of a panic attack upon seeing her child's skull minus its nice flesh covering. Luckily for me, all the folks at the doctor's office kept their cool, slapped some gauze and medical tape on Matthew, and sent us to the emergency room. As we headed back to the car, Nathan started crying but I don't know if it was because Matthew was hurt, I was freaking out, or because he didn't get to have his appointment with the eye doctor. Poor kid.

When we arrived, me carrying a bleeding toddler, I was told that the other boys weren't allowed in because of flu precautions. I assumed they meant into the examining and treatment rooms and told them my husband was on the way. Half an hour later, Kev arrived just in time for them to take Matthew and I into the back. Poor Matthew was pretty much freaking out. He was bleeding, hurt, scared and sans blankie. Even still, he managed to charm everyone into giving him stickers, crayons, more stickers, crackers, etc. He was a real trooper. Later on, Kev came back and told me that as soon as Matthew was taken back, he and the boys were kicked out . . . as in outside. Apparently, when I was told that the older boys weren't allowed in, they meant anywhere in the building. The only reason they let them in when I arrived was because I was the only adult with them. So I know the swine flu is super contagious and all that, but seriously! Have a bit of compassion for the families of the injured! And none of us are even sick! Anyway, back to the story. So Kev took the big boys home while Matthew got stitched up. The doctor called the dent "dimpling" and told us you usually see that with an injury that is associated with great force. Ummm, yeah. Twenty-eight pounds of toddler running at the speed of light. That's force for you. Anyway, he said as Matthew grows it should become less noticeable. It will be interesting to see just how noticeable it is when he heals up. Ten stitches later (two underneath and eight on the top), he was good and ready to get out of there and nearly flew out the door.

This evening Kev commented that he was surprised that there isn't more of a welt on Matthew's head. My opinion? I think the effects of the swelling are canceled out by the dent in his head.

So yep. That's two out of three boys that have had stitches on their foreheads. At least Daniel's weren't right between his eyes. And hopefully Nathan won't feel left out and have an undeniable to need to join the club anytime soon.

Trypanophobia Free

Today was Matthew's yearly blood draw to do his allergy testing and as usual, he charmed everyone and then amazed the nurses with his willingness to cooperate. He didn't cry, scream, or fight. He whimpered once when the needle went in and that was it. He did so great that he got a treat afterward. I guess it is a good thing he doesn't freak out over such things because he is likely to have a lot of it to deal with in his lifetime.

The (Bottled) Fruits Of Our Labors

Kev remembers many, many October conference weekends as a child (and a teenager, and as an adult) spent making applesauce. This weekend we upheld the family name and made our sauce. It was a family activity and the boys were all so anxious to help crank the strainer that Kev had to devise a rotating system so that everyone had an equal amount of cranking time. I think the applesauce tasted sweeter than usual to them because they made it.