Goat on a ladder

Spent a gorgeous fall day at the pumpkin patch yesterday. Kids had a blast. Travis says his favorite part was getting his balloon animal, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was more like the giant tube slide. Noah says the corn maze was the best, and Sophie had fun chasing random farm animals. Afterwards, the in-laws came over for dinner after their first foray to a Notre Dame game. Beautiful day for a football game, and we came away with a W, so I think they picked a winner.

Today was a day of yard work and other random house work. This evening I took Canada for a 2 mile run around the neighborhood. He's got a little ways to go before he's a good running partner... I spent a lot of time switching the leash from hand to hand or around my body as Canada ran in circles around me, we got tangled in a couple mailboxes, and I had to yank him multiple times from tearing into people's yard waste and flower bushes. But, it was good for both of us, and we'll keep working on it.

And finally, here's photographic overkill from our weekend. Enjoy:

The tube slide. Awesome!

Noah meets the tube slide.

Travis was an awesome big brother. He lugged both potato sacks up the stairs, each and every time, for him and Noah.

The fam on the hay ride

To the corn maze!!

T and N studying the farm animal clue.

Reviewing the duck "fun fact".

Travis and Noah high-fiving after finding the last animal marker!

Ben and Sophie on the Jumping Pillow

Yes, that's a goat climbing up a ladder.

Ambushing the cow

Sophie, loving on the cow

Getting their balloons

Sophie and ya-ya

Noah on the cow train

Travis and Sophie on the cow train

Pedal cars

Even Sophie got in on the pedal cars. With Dad's help.

Cutie

Getting ready to scope out the pumpkins

T and the pumpkins

Sophie, checking out the goods

Turns out Sophie dropped a lot of teeny pumpkins in our little wagon. "We'll take this one please, thank you"

Warty pumpkins

Check-out

Noah and Travis climbing on the giants

All loaded up

Dragging the pumpkins (and the kids) back to the car.

Travis petting a bunny

My beautiful baby girl

Sophie belongs on a farm. I feel like I'm doing her an injustice raising her in suburbia.

And, a random picture of Sophie, who insisted on wearing my earrings after getting back home:

A Tribute

I just have to give a shout-out to my old pal Laura, who struck a level of blogging genius the likes of which I've rarely seen before, in her recent blog post. I was going to give a brief explanation, but .... I won't do it justice. And no explanation is needed. Let me just say that Laura is a mother of two young children. You can figure it out from there.

Laura, keep up the comic relief. You made my day. And I'm right there with ya on that bathroom thing.

Princess Sophie, Take Two

There's no denying it. Sophie has a mullet.

Understand, it is all natural, divined by God so to speak. We don't purposely style it into a mullet, and to date she's not had one hair on her glorious head snipped, trimmed or cut in any way. She just happened to have grown a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back, as we were so fond of saying back in the 90s.

I'm not a particularly girly person, and I'm not a pink-frilly mom either. I don't consider Sophie my own personal dress-up doll, and while she has cute outfits, I am by no means passionate about getting her the hottest styles and grooming her into some prodigal fashionista.

When she was a baby, I didn't have any of those 'stick in the hair' bows, or 'wrap around the head' bands designed to ensure baby looks as girly as possible and perhaps isn't mistaken for a boy. Nay, instead it was not uncommon for Sophie to ride in her car seat covered up with a hand-me-down baby blue blanket from the days of Travis's infancy. Whether infant Sophie looked like a girl or was taken to be a girl by complete strangers mattered little to me. I begrudge no woman her desire to "doll" up her daughter -- its just not my thing.

Nevertheless, I did get a kind of ridiculous pleasure out of putting Sophie in pigtails today. With her unusual hairstyle, its been difficult to do anything with it up until now because the front and the sides are so short. They still are, but they are at least marginally long enough so they can be pulled into rubber bands and pass as legitimate pigtails. Admittedly, her bangs start well back from the middle of her head, because all that hair is so darn short, but hey, whatever works.

Here she is blowing kisses. What a diva!

Void of Rational Connection

I've mentioned before that Sophie is a "collector" of sorts. A happy Sophie is an armfilled Sophie.

She's always been partial to the stuffed-animal collections. She's gotten even more dramatic about this over the last week or so. This morning, as I was herding the kids out to the car, Sophie lugging her plethora of furry friends, I decided I had to get a picture of it. Here's Sophie, upon arrival at Ya-ya's house, making her way inside.

It looks almost unnatural, doesn't it?

On an unrelated note, the last few weeks, Travis has been talking about exercise, since his gym teacher has been heralding the benefits of fitness at school. He now does jumping jacks upon waking and before bedtime. He and Ben worked on sit-ups and push-ups the other day. Tonight, as Travis was doing his pre-bedtime jumping jacks (he did 30 of them!), he asked if he could dance afterwards. Apparently, Mrs. Gym Teacher has also extolled the virtue of dancing as an exercise.

I tuned the TV to MTV's TRL music station, and let the boys loose. I love these pictures. Look at Canada salivating in the background. There is not much that drives him crazier than the insanity of frenzied movement that is my boys dancing.

Also tonight, Travis and I stumbled across "Pen", a balloon penguin that we had stored on the top of their bookshelf so as to preserve it for longer. Pen has been steadily losing air from his little balloon body over the last couple months, and is now a fraction of his former self. Travis was delighted. "Pen is a baby penguin now!"

Link to blog with picture of the original Pen here.

And finally, tonight Travis spent a fair amount of time in time-out for kicking Noah. He is required to sit in time out for a given amount of time, and then upon completion, must explain to me an acceptable alternative behavior that he could have displayed, instead of kicking.

As he is bawling in time out, Travis insists that he "just can't think of anything!!", nevermind that we had just encountered this situation YESTERDAY and had a nice lengthy discussion about it. So I was having none of his excuses, and would only talk to him to ask him if he was ready to tell me what he could have done instead of kicking. Twenty minutes goes by, Ben is getting ready to leave for bowling and is a little sad that he won't get the chance to even talk to Travis before leaving, but I insisted that we not give in and not appease the little bugger.

Finally, Travis comes up with a brilliant idea. He sniffles, "Mom?? I think the I-Care Rules will help me figure out what to do....." You see, a few weeks ago, he had received a paper in Kindergarten called (you guessed it) the "I-Care Rules", which are 5 rules of behavior that the kindergarteners are expected to display. We kept the list in the toy room but hadn't really done anything good with it.

But, upon Travis's suggestion, I brought him the I-Care Rules list, he reviewed it, and figured out what he should have done.

I-Care Rules:

1. We listen to each other.

2. Hands are for helping, not hurting.

3. We use I-Care language.

4. We care about each other's feelings.

5. We are responsible for what we say and do.

He said, "Well, I can just change 'hands' to 'feet'. "Feet are for helping, not hurting." (I love that, by the way. Feet are for helping.) "And, we use I-Care language like please. Right, mom?"

Then, using a stuffed horse named Wally, and a stuffed Eeyore, Travis explained to Wally what Wally could have done instead of kicking Eeyore. "Wally, first you should ask Eeyore nicely not to do what is bothering you. Be sure to say 'please'. If Eeyore is still bothering you then walk away and tell my mom." Then he very politely went to Noah and apologized for kicking, to which Noah responded, "That's okay. Be sure not to do it again."

Travis and I decided to post the I-Care Rules in the time-out area, so whenever someone is placed in time out, they can refer to the Rules to determine the appropriate behavior.

So, it took a while, but I finally got a decent response out of the kid, and I'm hoping that his I-Care idea has some kind of a lasting impact. We'll see.

To Winnie, who tries hard

Where did this 80 degree October weather come from?

Tailgating on Saturday was absolutely beautiful. Had a good time with Friends, McGraws, Cashes, et al.

We spent both Friday and Saturday night at the Friends' house. Tiff scored us a babysitter for Sophie and her one-year-old, Tanner for game day. It was a relief not to have to take to the two of them with us. They had fun playing together with the babysitter, and Tiff and I didn't have to spend our entire day chasing and carrying toddlers. We did take Travis and Noah, and their three-year-old Ganon, with us. Do I feel a little bad about leaving Sophie behind? Sure I do. But mostly not. Let's say 98% not. She's a terrific kid, but busy, wide-open fields and adventurous one-year-olds do not a good combination make.

We loaded up in Winnie, the Friends' classic 1976 RV. Winnie's only purpose in life is to give us space in the RV lot at the tailgating field at Ball State homecoming, and to provide us with an alternative to the port-a-potty while tailgating. She's a little rough, and full of style with her orange shag carpeting and wallpapered refrigerator, but she does her job with dignity and pride. Well, maybe not dignity.

For this trip, Shawn had fixed the fuel gauge, which had never before worked. It showed half a tank of gas. Unfortunately, the gauge was hooked up to the wrong gas tank. Winnie has a front tank and a rear tank, and whichever one was actually pumping fuel to the engine was, in fact, very close to empty. And made it all the way to empty as we were driving home after the game. That's a picture of Shawn, I think switching the fuel lines to the opposite tank, or something.

But it was just a mild hiccup in the day. And aside from the pathetic display of Cardinal football (it was 31-6 when we left at halftime), we had a very nice weekend.

This afternoon, after arriving home, I was vegging in the recliner watching the Colts, when I remembered (at 3:43 pm) that Travis had a birthday party at MegaPlay for one of his classmates, starting at 4. I quickly loaded up Travis (and, at the last minute, Noah, who begged and begged to go), we made our way to Meijer to pick up a gift since I'd forgotten to do that earlier in the week, then off to the party. Travis played mini-golf with the party guests while Noah and I racked up tickets playing Skee-ball and other games. And again, Sophie got left at home. But I don't think she minded. She got to cuddle with dad and watch football.

Oh, and one more thing. About three weeks ago, I was summoned for jury duty. I was to appear at the court on a Monday around noon. The weekend before that, Ben and I were at a football party, and ended up striking up a conversation with an attorney and his wife. Rob, the host of the party, kept badgering this attorney about coming with him to Chicago for an upcoming Cubs/Reds game. The attorney kept saying, "I can't, I have a trial.... if it ends up settling, maybe I can go..." As the night went on, his wife joked, "just settle it! then you can go to the game!" On the way home, Ben and I were laughing about what really goes on when an attorney counsels his client to settle a trial.... its because he has a Cubs game he wants to attend.

At any rate, that party was a Saturday. On Sunday, I got a voice mail from the court that the trial for which I had been summoned for jury duty had cancelled, so I did not need to appear. Ben joked that it must have been that same trial, and that our attorney friend must have decided to go to the Cubs game after all.

Well, I just got summoned again. I have to appear at the court on my birthday. Terrific. Maybe I'll see if I can find out who the attorneys are, and get them tickets to a Notre Dame game or something.

Cow envy

A few pictures of my surprise day off yesterday:

Lunch at Granite City: Sophie and Erin

Sophie and Diana

Noah, talking about the picture he colored

At the play area in the mall

Sophie LOVED this cow

See? I told you.

Sophie and Noah sliding down the moon. Sophie made this game up. She thought it was great fun.

Sophie got very protective of the cow. When this other little boy made his way near it, she ran over from the other side of the play area, started trying to push his hands away, and screamed, "NO BABY! NO, BABY!" at the top of her lungs. I had to drag her away kicking and bawling while I explained to her that we had to share the cow.

Noah's TA-DA face

Sophie made good friends with this woman and her mother, who were sitting just outside the play area and watching the kids. Sophie just kept coming back to her and chattering on and on. I think she was telling her stories about Canada.

Snow day in October?

Worked out this morning (yay me), got to work, and was getting caught up from being out yesterday. At about 8:20 a gal I work with comes over and mentions there is a gas leak on the street right outside our office. She actually saw it happen, and you could hear the hissing noise from my office. They had started evacuating neighboring buildings. Then we get the page that tells us to leave the building and make our way to the Civic Theatre a couple blocks away and meet there.

So we did. We all gathered together and did our best to get a head count of our office personnel and call people who were out at appointments or coming in late, etc. We were there for about 20 minutes when the police started evacuating us even further away. We walked another few blocks up to the hospital area. A couple of us decided to drop in at the McDonald's across the street for a quick breakfast.

As we're waiting in line for food, we start hearing the stories about the escalating evacuation. Police are herding anyone on the streets into Transpo buses that are leaving the area entirely. After we got our food and left, they immediately shuttled us onto a bus and drove us up to the Athletic Center at Notre Dame.

Our HR manager was at McDonalds with us, and she told us that if we could get a ride home, go ahead and go -- no point in sticking around and waiting because all signs point to it being many hours until we have access to downtown again. Everyone's cars were in the parking garage which was, of course, off limits.

So, Erin called Justin, who was still at my house because he works later on Thursdays (12-10). He came to pick us up at about 10:00 at Notre Dame. I had him drop me off at Ben's school so I could pick up the truck and have a vehicle. So now Ben is stranded, but I'll just pick him up after work. I also decided to go pick up the kids from my mom's house. Got back home, Erin and Justin and a couple other gals from work were here. Justin had to go in to work, but I'm meeting the gals out for lunch in a little bit. I'm also going with Erin and her sister for Erin's wedding dress fitting appointment this evening, and hopefully the garage will be open then and we can get our cars.

Anyway, while we were waiting to be picked up at Notre Dame, we'd been chatting with the HR manager, and she says, "It's like a snow day! Hooray!"


It's a beautiful day for a snow day. Sunny and 66 degrees, and not a snowflake in sight.


Here's a picture of my co-workers evacuating, courtesy of our local CBS affiliate. I don't see myself in this picture, but I'm in that line somewhere. My office is the building in the middle, you can see a little of the "Gibson" sign above the tree. The red brick building in the left background is the building that is currently holding my car hostage.

My kids are eating the dishes

Today was my day off. Spent most of the day at the dentist. Not a bad day, however. I have admittedly been somewhat lax in the dentistry area over the last decade. Then I started to be embarassed about how long it had been since I had gone to the dentist, which caused me to avoid going for even longer. Yes, it's ridiculous. Anyway, I finally bit the bullet, went today, everything went great. Teeth are healthy, I've got good teeth genes that way. But I spent another two and a half hours getting my chipped tooth fixed and a whitening process. Feel much better and am glad I went.

Last night, I mentioned to Travis that I was going to the dentist today, and he was SO DISAPPOINTED that it wasn't him going. That kid loves the dentist. The boys are about a month or two away from their 6-month checkup, but Travis said, "Mom! It has been soooooo long since I've been to the dentist!! When do I get to go back?!?" This is a case of the apple falling dramatically far from the tree. This apple was picked up by a runaway goose and carried to the opposite side of the forest.

Anyway, after dentist, picked Travis up from school and went to the library. At the library, we ran into the other Kindergarten teacher from Travis's school, Mrs. Mary. Travis goes into her class for "Center Time" once a week or so. He was very excited to see her.

Ben met us out at the library, then we went out to dinner and played at the Play Place. Came home and cleaned up a bit, then time for the kids' baths. After bath, Ben decided to treat the kids to Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream served in waffle bowls. Great idea, but I sooooooo wish we would have thought of it BEFORE bathtime.

Here's the whole video:

Tattoo it on my forehead

If you needed any more proof, I am NOT an elephant. I forget things. A lot. I forget things LIKE ITS MY JOB. If only I could get paid to forget things.

This morning, I got out of bed early to make my way into the gym for a workout. As per usual, I had laid all the kids' clothes and socks and shoes out, gotten my work clothes ready, etc. I got ready in my gym clothes, grabbed my bag with toiletries, work shoes, et al., drove to the gym, got to my locker, and ONLY THEN did I realize that I had left my hanger of work clothes AT HOME ON THE COUCH.

So, I got back in my car, drove home, showered and got ready, dropped the kids off, headed into work, and resigned myself to working out later in the day. I had a work meeting at lunch, so I knew the lunch workout wasn't going to happen. But, I made an agreement with Ben that he would pick the kids up after work, and thus leave me with the ability to go to the gym at that time. Not my favorite time to work out, but it'll do.

Fast forward to after work. I head to the gym, change into my gym clothes, and THEN realize that in my frenzy of the morning, after getting ready and re-packing my workout clothes, I had neglected to pack up my athletic shoes. My footwear options were 3-inch peep-toe wedges, or the flip-flops that I bring to wear in the gym shower.

I sheepishly called Ben, explained my dilemma, and told him I was on my way home after all. Thankfully, it is a beautiful evening, so upon arriving home and putting on my running shoes, I went for a nice two-mile run around the neighborhood. Maybe not as good as a "real" workout, but better than nothing. Perhaps I'll lift some light weights tonight while watching tv.

So, the moral is, if you want me to remember something, you'll have to do something drastic.

Unhealthy times five

If you haven't noticed, there's five of us in this family.


Which means that when one of us comes down with an illness, and said illness makes its way through our household, it takes a stinking long time. Even a little 24 hour bug sticks around for more like 200 hours in the Davidson house.


Take this last little virus. It hit Sophie first, she was sick last Saturday and Sunday. Sunday night and Monday was Travis, then Tuesday it got me. Wednesday we had a slight reprieve, and Thursday it was back again with Noah. Made its way to Ben on Friday night and Saturday.


Thus, we did not make it to Ben's cousin's wedding on Saturday. However, Mom and I took the kids to the library festival. I'll spare you the full set of pictures of Sophie hugging random characters, but rest assured, she was nothing less than exuberant about hanging out with giant furry rodents.

Here's Noah with the Mouse. Sophie looking on.

Travis hugging Max. He was most excited to see Max.

Sophie high-fiving Curious George

Travis and George

After the 'meet & greet' we went to the media room where Jim Gill, children's musician, played the banjo and sang some songs while the kids danced around and wore themselves out. Case in point:

We also made some crafts and watched a puppet show. Oh, and Sophie danced to the bongos.

Other than that, fairly uneventful weekend. We worked outside in the yard some, and watched some football. Colts lost, Notre Dame won. Its like the Twilight Zone. Looking forward to next weekend, BSU Homecoming, and overnight party with Friends.

In the meantime, here's some pictures of some outdoor fun over the weekend:

Sophie playing in the "sand pit"

Travis practicing his frisbee throw. Good form!

Noah clinging to dad's leg

Me and Noah, cuddling

Sophie, pretending she knows what to do with a Frisbee.

Noah doing what Noah does

This looks like it could be trouble

This is Sophie's tired face. She came up to me and said "Cuddo!", which means she wants to cuddle with me. That is a hard request to refuse.

Is there something on my face?

My poor middle child, I'm afraid, is hereafter forever warped when it comes to corn dogs.


He likes corn dogs well enough, and as any self-respecting corn dog eater will, prefers to eat it with both ketchup and mustard. Generally, he likes each condiment squirted separately on his plate for his dipping enjoyment.


So, a few weeks ago, Ben introduced him to this frozen delicacy that he had picked up at Aldi's. It is a sausage, on a stick, wrapped in a pancake. Looks remarkably like a corn dog. Not surprisingly, Noah liked it.


Now, Noah will ask for a corn dog, then point to his plate and say, "I want mustard right here, and syrup right here." He asks for this every time. Um.... yuck.


Right now, darling Noah is throwing a temper tantrum on the floor because I am taking away his beloved security blanket until he washes his face after his pudding pop dessert. I said, "Noah - your face is a sticky mess! Go wash up."


He says, "Mom, I'm not sticky!"











Oh really?