Down for the count.

Here's Jack super excited as he headed out to a birthday party the other day.
Here he is a few short hours later, totally knocked out with a fever, glassy eyes, and cough:

Yes, the nasty germs (as Jack calls them) have come to our house. It's crazy how fast he got sick! When we got to his little party, he was running and playing but by the time the cupcakes were served, he was seriously starting to droop and when Mr. Social wanted to leave early, I knew we were in trouble. By the time I took his temp it was 103 but after a little Motrin and "The Jungle Book" he was on the mend.
We're pretty sure Ava already had it (and brought it home from school to share!) but here's hoping it skips the rest of us!

School Pictures

Last year's picture is on the left, this year on the right.

Hasn't she grown-up in a year?!?

Ava is loving first grade! She is busy doing all kinds of reading, writing, and memorizing, and of course enjoying three whole recesses and lunch with all the other kids! We miss her though--the other day Jack was looking for something particular and I was no help so he said, "call Ava--she will know where it is!" and I said we can't call Ava cause she's in school and he said, "We need to get her a cell phone!"
Sad but true...we seriously need someone here to keep us organized and on track during the day!

A first

So, thanks to Miss Jemma Jane, we made our first phone call to 9-1-1 last night. I was cleaning up dinner when Ava hollered that Jemma had put something in her mouth and by the time I got her I could see a gold foil wrapper at the very back of her throat. She was screaming but I knew as soon as she took a breath, she was going to suck it down, which is exactly what happened. Ed grabbed the phone and dialed and for a good couple seconds she didn't make a sound and then her little body heaved so hard to get that thing up and when she finally coughed it up, all bloody and gross, she was exhausted. Ava started sobbing and Jack spent the next 20 minutes crawling around looking for anything else she could choke on. She's already more adventurous than the other two were so I hope this is not a sign of things to come!

Go Cougs

Our first Coug game was last weekend and Jack got to come along. He was excited because he thought his daddy was going to be playing but when I said he was too old, Jack said, "I will wear my jersey in case the coach wants to put me in!" I said he might be a little small to play college ball but he said, "no, I'm growing really big and I know how to play the game!"

The coach never called him in (although I think we all know they could use some help!) but he settled for some carmelcorn and peanuts.
And speaking of Jack, the other day he took his shoe off and hollered, "Oh No! I only have five toes!"

Big brother

Jack is usually a busy boy playing all kind of games but he always takes a break every ten minutes or so to run over to Jem and give her a squeeze and a kiss and yesterday after his little routine he looked at me and said, "I love Jemma Jane so much and if some boy is mean to her I will shoot him with my gun!"

Boys.

Here's Jack at the park with his buddy (who he calls Buddy, although he does have a name!). They climbed this tree to have a better view of the garbage truck over the hill. Jack loves the garbage guys! He runs when he hears them coming and waves like crazy and then runs to the next window till they are out of sight. Future career plan, maybe?

So how's the marathon training?

(a totally unrelated pic of me and Jem!)

This is the big question I've heard a lot lately and it's about as hard to answer as, "so how did your labor go?" The answer to both is at worst, it is horrible, excruciating, and long and at best, it is hard, tiring, and long! I have learned one thing: if you want to run a marathon you should do it while you are young and before you have kids! I follow a good training schedule but I have not yet had a week where I have done everything as planned--I am always switching days and squeezing stuff in when I can. For example, our long run this week is a 20-miler, which I should do Saturday because I did my long run last week on Saturday but I had to do it yesterday (just five days after my last long run and after already doing a 10-miler and 6-miler the two days before). I headed out while it was still dark and came home over 3 and 1/2 hours later (after stopping by at one point to say good-bye to Ava before school!). Ed had a 3-hour drive to his next meeting so he left before I got all the way into the house and wham! my day was going. In the next 10 hours I went grocery shopping, did 2 loads of laundry, picked up the house, made lunch, then cleaned up again, changed two poopy diapers, got a haircut, checked three things off my wedding planning to-do list, made dinner, cleaned up dinner, baked two batches of muffins for a school thing, and by 7:45 last night I was literally running around the house to get it all picked up and three little monkeys in bed so I could collapse on the couch at 8:00. And I made it! Ed was fishing till super late (and he caught three big steelhead!) so I hit the couch with a pumpkin muffin and hot cider and watched the opening game of football (yay for Fall!!).
The bad part hit two hours later when I finally got off the couch and practically had to crawl to bed! And that is pretty much how the training is going!

All I want for Christmas...

Ava finally lost her second front tooth. That stubborn bugger had been loose for so long, it had migrated to the center of her mouth and when I noticed yesterday that the other one was starting to grow in totally crooked, I told Ava we had to get it out of there. Her daddy of course volunteered to give it a yank but she was smart enough to ask me to do it because everyone here knows loose teeth give me the heebie jeebies. We finally offered ice cream cones as a reward (we were getting desperate!) so Ava sat down and worked away at it for a 1/2 hour and then asked me to finish it off. I closed me eyes and twisted and pulled and twisted and pulled and finally it popped out--I'm telling you it was hanging on by one very strong strand!

So we loaded up the kids and headed to MickeyD's for a cone and I heard Ava tell Jack as we pulled in that they wouldn't get to play in the playland because there is a very bad germ out called the Swine Flu. And he of course said, "how do you know that Ava?" and she said, "I read it this morning in the paper." Boy, we love our reader!

Sweet Jem

So I have mentioned before that our Jem is a bit of a late bloomer. She got her first (two) teeth at 10 months, she is still wearing some of her 3-6 months clothes (that Ava grew out of by 3 months), and she just recently learned the joys of the cracker. However, when she finally decides to do something, she does it right the very first time. When she decided to crawl, she got up on her hands and knees and went for it, no messing around. When she decided to (finally!) feed herself, she picked up a Cheerio and popped it in her mouth the first try--no need to practice with the pincer grasp, she just did it immediately and has not dropped a piece of food since. She is definitely a do it herself in her own time kind of girl!

Jack.

Hard at work on this awesome construction puzzle!

So Jack has started singing this early 90's Snoop Dogg hit:

Lodi Dodi we likes to part-ee

We don't cause trouble and we don't hurt no-body

And I don't know what's worse--the fact that he learned this from his daddy who still regularly sings (raps?) this stuff or the fact that he thinks it says, "Lodi dodi we likes to potty" so he always sings it as heads into the bathroom!

Ice cream party!

We had a back-to-school ice cream party for the first graders and their families.

Ed had wondered why it was going to be at the park instead of our house. And here's why:

I think there were about 30 adults and 70 kids!
They took over the playground and had such a good time but for some reason I have no pictures of any actual first-graders!

All that crawling and exploring is hard work.

Goodbye boredom, hello dirty knees.

Harvest!

Every year I have my mom give me a call when the combines head over to their field so we can run out and watch them harvest. For some reason this usually happens right after I've put the kids down for a nap but it is the one and only thing I'll haul them out of bed for!

Ed harvested through high school and college and he still tries to squeeze in one Saturday of combining if he can--it is summer at its finest!
Jack's in there waving like crazy.

Joy.

I was a little worried that when Ava started school Jack wouldn't remember how to play by himself but thank goodness I was wrong! He has spent hours every day holed up in his room playing Lincoln Logs and "construction" and he plays in the tub for at least 45 minutes a day. I think he's happy to be the boss and play whatever he wants--I haven't seen him do much "cooking" or "school" which is what he played with Ava all summer! :)

Plus, he gets little Jem all to himself and this has made him a very happy boy--he loves to love on her and she loves him right back!