Physical Education

At school the kids get gym pr outside time twice a day.  One of those times is an organized P.E. class put on by one of our teachers.  The P.E. teacher has been making large obstacle courses for the kids every once in a while.  The kids just go crazy for it.  Today there were a lot of tunnels, mats for somersaults, parachute "tunnels", balance beams, slides, hurdles, and more.  I got some pictures of Graesen going through the course today.

My camera was on the wrong setting, but Graesen was moving so fast that I couldn't fix it :)

Sweet and Sour

Oh my, Graesen threw some incredible temper tantrums.  I knew that all he needed was to go to bed, but man was his attitude sour!  However, he fell asleep within two minutes of being in the car on the way home from my parent's house.  I have no doubt that he will be back to his sweet self tomorrow :)

Asleep on the "job"

Graesen got to come to school with me this afternoon.  I was also a work meeting night (we have them once a month), so we had about 45 minutes between the end of work and the meeting.  We went to Jack in the Box for a quick dinner in between.

Graesen can come to the work meetings with me.  The meeting is held in my classroom, so I just set him up with some toys and he does great.  Tonight he came over to me mid-meeting and asked to be held.  Within a few minutes he was asleep.  I ended up laying him in our "pillow pool."  

The pillow pool is something the curriculum director and I came up with.  I wanted a soft, calming place for my students to go when they start to feel out of control.  Since I am working with 2 and 3 year olds, it is pretty common to have a student feeling out of control and on the verge of either a tantrum or some other misbehavior.  What I am trying to do (we have only had the pillow pool about 2 weeks) is to ask those almost-out-of-control students to go sit in the pillow pool for a while to calm down.  There are books by the pool and glitter time out bottles to give them something quiet to do.  The kids are huge fans of the pillow pool.  The pillows, by the way, are orange because I am in the orange room.  It hasn't been the easiest color to decorate with, but it is definitely getting there :)

Cavity bug free

Graesen had a dentist appointment early this morning before I had to work.  He of course freaked out when the dentist tried to look in his mouth, but she did say that his teeth look perfect :)  He loves that he gets to choose a prize from the claw machine after he is done.

Teaser

The weather was so nice today.  We broke into the 60s for the first time this year.  Unfortunately, we are supposed to have cooler, wetter weather starting again tomorrow with some snow even in the forecast later in the week :(  I am so ready for more days like today!  Since it was so nice out my parents watched Graesen after church while I went for a run.  Usually I take him with me in the running stroller, but sometimes it is so nice to be able to stretch my legs out and really go.  While I ran Graesen, Phoebe (who was over for a short visit), and my parents went for a walk to the park.  My mom took some pictures of the kiddos playing. 

Later in the afternoon Graesen and Phoebe "helped" my mom garden and played in the yard.

We also took a quick trip with my parents over to my aunt's house to drop some stuff off.  She has been very nice to store some of mine and Shawna's things in her basement (Graesen's old baby clothes in my case).  Graesen insisted on taking a basket of Easter eggs with him. 

He fell asleep a couple of minutes into the drive.

My little stinker also figured out how to unbuckle the top part (chest buckle) of his car seat today!  Thank goodness I was sitting there with him in my parent's truck so I could tell him "no."  He fought me on it the whole way back to my parent's house, so I just held the buckle closed.  I'm hoping he never tries that again!

Graesen was also cracking me up today.  My aunt bought a new car yesterday and needed someone to take pictures of the old one today so she could sell it.  Graesen asked what we were doing and I told him that we were taking pictures of Aunt Shannon's old car so that someone could buy it with money.  Graesen then asked me if he could buy it.  He was serious.  :)

Weekend blues

Weekends are an odd time for me now.  I look forward to the weekend for rest, but never end up getting much.  I look forward to all the fun things we can do, but somehow even the most exciting thing feels lonely now.  We go to the park where we see families playing together.  Sibling racing around and parents chatting on the side.  My little guy tries to make friends since he has no siblings of his own (don't even get me started on how much I hurt every time he asks to see the babies at work).  I catch him eying the other kids who play with their dads and I know that he hurts because his family is not whole.  And I hurt because I have no one to share the moment with.  No one to laugh with me as I watch Graesen climb up the slides rather than ride down.  No one to plan dinner with.  No one to dream with.  Tonight we went out to ice cream together and I was shocked by how this special treat brought on a funk I can't quite shake.  The place was packed with couples on dates and families laughing over ice cream.  We sat at our quiet table as I watched Graesen and he watched all the families.  I hate the loneliness that divorce brings about and the fact that my son will not grow up with the magic of a family that is whole.

Truck painting and a run

We were on letter Tt this week at school, so I decided that today we would do some painting with trucks.  It was a huge hit!

I am so excited about the sun setting later now.  It means I have time to fit in runs after work some nights :)

Bed head

This is what Graesen looked like when he woke up from his nap at school today:

Graesen had a pretty good day today, but he is definitely still very low on energy.  He kept wanting me to carry him and during gym time he had to stop every few minutes to rest and catch his breath.  He actually slept 13 hours last night and took an almost 2 hour nap at school!

Mom guilt

Today I suffered a fair amount of mom guilt.  When Graesen got up this morning he felt miserable.  He had a fever and was crying.  All he wanted to do was be held.  I felt so bad that I had to go to work.  Luckily, he got to spend most of the day with Evan and then a few hours with my mom.  It wasn't like he was without love, or like I was leaving him just for fun, but I still felt bad.  It was the first time Graesen has been sick that I have not been able to just be with him as much as he needed/wanted.  I had a hard time with it.  It definitely helped, however, that he seemed to be feeling a lot better this afternoon.  I think the antibiotics finally kicked it.  He still has a lot of congestion, a thick cough, a hoarse voice, and is short of breath a lot.  But when I picked him up he was running around playing with Phoebe.

A little puddle jumping

Even though he has a nasty cough and achy ears, Graesen could not be kept away from puddles :)  When I picked him up after work today, he jumped in some puddles on the way to the car.  I decided to just go with it and take a few pictures.  He got wet enough that he had to ride in the car without his pants.

Evan called the pharmacist today to ask about changing Graesen's medicine.  It tasted so awful that giving it to Graesen was a loooong process and very traumatic.  They wrote a prescription for a new antibiotic and the first dose went pretty well.  He wasn't happy, but he took it way easier.  I can tell even from the smell of it that it tastes a whole lot better.

Giveaway winner and ear infections

First of all, I used a random number generator to choose the winner of the giveaway.  The winner is Rob and Amy!  I will email you the code for your free MyMemories download in the next day or two.

Graesen had a fever today and just seemed miserable.  Evan said he would only eat a few bites all day.  He also said his ear was itchy.  I decided to take him into urgent care tonight to check his ears.  In the past I would have waited a while longer before taking him in, but with daycare he has to have antibiotics for 24 hours before he can attend.  So, I took him in and I'm glad I did.  Poor boy has a double ear infection.  He was screaming like crazy when the doctor tried to look at his ears :(  Now have to force feed him his antibiotics which is not easy.  Tonight he cried for 15 minutes afterwards while letting drool run down his face, because he didn't want to swallow.  I tried mixing it with a milk shake, but Graesen caught on and was not happy with me for ruining his milkshake :)

My wish for him

Graesen loves church now days.  He gets very excited to go and asks if he can stay in church through the music before he heads to the nursery.  He likes to get his own bulletin so that he looks like a grown up.  He sits when I sit, stands when I stands, looks through his bulletin when I look through mine, and prays when we all pray.  When the singing starts he grabs my hands and dances :)  My biggest wish for Graesen is that he grows to know and love God.  I want him to feel comfortable and at home while in church.  Today an older couple behind us kept giggling and commenting on Graesen's dancing.  After the service the woman said to me, "He's got the Spirit in him.  Encourage him to stay that way."  It kind of made my day that my sweet little boy dancing in church was shining with God's love :)

Really, Graesen was so sweet almost all day.  He asked if he could take his pinwheel in the stroller while I ran.  His face just lit up when he saw it start to spin like crazy from the wind.

Going through the car wash today was another highlight for Graesen.  He was simultaneously scared and excited...