Tag Team

Last week when we all (well, all but one) had strep throat, it was my turn to teach preschool. Not wanting to expose seven other families to our awesome germs, I canceled. At the time I figured we'd just shift everything by a week, but the curriculum is setup to finish on a certain date before Christmas and my last-minute cancellation would have thrown the schedule out of whack.

So I brainstormed. I looked at my lesson. I looked at the lesson that came after mine that I wasn't supposed to teach. I came up with a solution. Why not combine two weeks into one? In order to show that it was possible I wrote up an outline for how the three hours would flow if we merged two days' worth of material into one, then I emailed it to the other mom that was responsible for the second day.

To my relief, she thought it was a good idea too. Today we put our plan into action and team taught those eight bouncy three and four year-olds. As we setup our materials, we discovered we were missing a few things, but because there were two of us, we were able to juggle and make it work. While one taught, the other would clean up from the previous activity. We would hand off to each other and get little breaks instead of being in energetic-teacher-mode for three full hours.

And now I don't have to teach again until at least the middle of January.

You know, I enjoyed the challenge of combining the curriculum and creating an engaging and functional lesson plan. Once a teacher, always a teacher?

Reverent Communication

Cooper gave a talk in Primary yesterday. He was asked to speak the week before, but that pesky strep throat thwarted those plans. The Primary secretary kindly moved his assignment a week. Cooper was not as appreciative as I was. He was nervous. Never mind that he had done a great job in the Primary program a few weeks ago in front of the whole ward, standing in front of his peers made him uneasy.

I got the topic for his talk late in the week, and then we had an adventure on Saturday (which I'll write about once I've sifted through the pictures), so talk writing was put on a back burner.

It's Cooper's practice to come into our room as soon as he wakes up in the morning. On Sunday when he came in I started asking him questions about his topic. Later, minutes before we needed to leave for church, I typed up his answers in paragraph form. The talk that he gave is part him and part me. He practiced it on the twenty minute drive to church. He has a wonderful sense for timing and delivery and did well. I couldn't see his nervousness at all.

And now, the talk:

When I pray, I communicate with Heavenly Father. To communicate is to share information. Talking with someone, writing a letter, and smiling are all ways to communicate. I talk to Heavenly Father when I pray. I tell him what I’m thankful for and I ask for things that my family needs.

When I pray I need to be reverent. That means that I speak and act with respect. I don’t jump around and yell. I speak with a calm and gentle voice. I use kind words. I am still and fold my arms and bow my head when I can. Sometimes I need to say a pray in my heart when I’m somewhere that isn't reverent, like school or the playground. I can still close my eyes and be reverent, even if those around me are not.

Sometimes it’s hard to be reverent. I like to use a loud voice and make people laugh, but I know that Heavenly Father wants me to be respectful and reverent. I love Heavenly Father, so I try to be reverent when I pray to him.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

One Game + Two Computers = Awesome Father Son Time

And no, it's not Minecraft.

Love Languages

You know the 5 Love Languages? Which love language would "Cooking Delicious Food" fall under? Because that's one way that I show love: I cook. While everyone has been sick this week I've baked homemade bread, rolls, rosemary focaccia bread, baked a pumpkin and the seeds, made a double batch of waffles to freeze, and cooked dinner each night.

I'm not sure what it is about being needed that propels me into the kitchen, but more often than not, I feel the pull of the pantry. I guess I believe in food as a source of comfort, and I always want people to feel comfortable.

Day Two

I had high hopes for going grocery shopping today. I know, we're Strep Throat City round these parts, but as of noon today the girls were no longer contagious. That meant it was totally okay to take them out in public, right?

Both girls ended up being much sicker today than they were yesterday. Around 11:30 this morning Phoebe curled up with some blankets in my big red chair and went to sleep. She spent the whole day in her pajamas and never had much energy. Sophie had regular naps, but coughed til she was red in the face several times throughout the day.

And even though I really wanted to send him to school, Cooper's cough was so intense he was afraid he would disturb the rest of his class, so he stayed home. There's no school in New Jersey tomorrow or Friday, so Cooper missed an entire week of school due to this illness.

With all the napping and coughing, and having three children at home instead of two, I decided not to drag everyone out to the store. I'm sure all the grocery store patrons are thankful, even though they don't realize it.

Cultured

Bryan had strep throat a few weeks ago. The kids and I all felt sick after that, but nobody had the typical white spots in our throats. The main symptom that some of us still have is a terrible cough.

I kept Cooper home from school yesterday and took him to the doctor. It's standard procedure here in NJ to check for strep throat when a sore throat and fever are present. Lo and behold, Cooper had strep throat. His throat was only slightly sore, so I was really surprised. We started antibiotics last night.

This morning I woke up with a thought that wouldn't leave my brain: what if the girls had strep throat too? Peter isn't sick, so I wasn't concerned about dragging him to the doctor. The girls though, have been coughing a lot. I called when the office opened and got an early appointment.

The doctor agreed to check Phoebe, but he was skeptical that Sophie had strep throat. He said that babies very rarely get it. I asked that he check anyway.

Anybody want to guess what the test said?

Both Phoebe and Sophie have strep throat.

If you need us, we'll be here, quarantined at home, administering antibiotics and wiping down all surfaces with cleaning wipes.

A Loss and A Gain

Cooper lost a tooth last week. I was hoping it was his front right tooth which had been hanging sideways for at least a month, but it wasn't. 

Then on Saturday morning Bryan and I were awakened to yells of "Cooper knocked out his teeth!" In walked Cooper, holding not one, but two front teeth. He and Peter had been playing the classic game Throw Stuffed Animals At Each Other's Heads. Cooper ducked to avoid being hit by a snuggly friend and smacked his mouth on his knee. And now he can't say the letter s.

Close to the time we moved here, Peter started complaining that he couldn't see and needed glasses. Because I am clearly an awesome mom, I kept putting off making an eye doctor appointment for him. A few weeks ago he had a school physical (because that's something that NJ schools require) and the nurse reported that Peter had 20/70 vision in one eye and 20/100 in the other. That was the push I needed. He went to the eye doctor soon after.

He is thrilled with his new glasses. I think he looks very handsome in his new accessory. Phoebe must like them too, because since she found out that Peter would be getting glasses, she's been telling me that she needs them too. When asked if she had trouble seeing, she said yes, that she couldn't see anything at all. Since she doesn't walk into walls, I think she may be exaggerating a bit...

One final note about his glasses: they're magic. He wore them on Sunday and he was unusually well behaved. I mean, he was sweet and helpful and cheerful. He folded all his laundry and then he folded Sophie's too. I pointed out the power that his glasses held. Right before bed he told me that he tested the theory. "I took my glasses off and then there was chaos!"

Halloween Week

We've had a whole week of Halloween celebrations. 

• On Tuesday night the cub scout pack meeting was Halloween themed, which meant the scouts and their siblings wore their costumes and came home with lots of candy. 
• On Wednesday Phoebe had her Halloween party at church. 
• On Thursday we went to Bryan's work party, a giant, costumed, decorated, candy-filled, four-hour event. We only attended for the last two hours.
• Today both boys had Halloween parties and parades and we went Trick or Treating.

Here is a shot from Cooper's parade. He was an adorable Olaf. We saw a few other Olafs, but Cooper's costume was the only one that was homemade, which of course made it extra awesome. During Bryan's party, and again during Cooper's parade, we played count the Elsas. Three of them are visible here. This week I've seen at least thirty kids dressed as Elsa. Phoebe's costume is by far my favorite.

The kids at Cooper's school were mostly dressed as sweet characters from books and movies. The costumes at Peter's school were decidedly darker in nature. I liked Peter's Diamond Steve (the main character in Minecraft) costume, in part because it was free of scariness.

We opted to take Cooper with us after his parade, so he got to see Peter's parade at the other school. The middle schoolers weren't in the parade, but they did come out and watch. Those big kids thought Cooper's costume was awesome; they kept calling out to him. Peter reported that he got a similar reception. Notice what Sophie is wearing? I'll give you a closer look.

At two o'clock this morning I finished Sophie's costume. She was Cinderella on Wednesday and wore her undecorated dress and cloak to Bryan's party yesterday. I stayed up last night adding the light blue scallop trim at the bottom of the skirt, as well as the flower embellishments. Hooray for the power of puff paint. I can't believe how well this costume turned out. The cloak is my favorite part. Bonus: it's really warm. She was toasty while we walked around our chilly neighborhood.

Only a few of the grownups knew who Peter was. He explained that he was from a video game and they accepted that answer. He and Bryan made his box hat one night last week. It's pretty awesome. Most people knew who Cooper was, though one woman did tell him he was a very cute duck. Everyone knew that Phoebe was Elsa, but one person made the mistake of calling her a princess. She quickly corrected them. Sophie was dressed as Princess Anna, she was dressed as Elsa, and Elsa is a queen.

We concluded the evening by watching the first Harry Potter movie and letting the kids eat themselves into sugar-fueled meltdowns. Ahh, the joys of Halloween.

One more of Sophie, because she's just so cute.

Happy Halloween!

Pesky Self Preservation

I helmed our ward playgroup Halloween party yesterday. We played games, read Halloween books, ate food, danced to fun music, wore silly costumes. A good time was had by all.

Afterward, while we were cleaning up, one of the smaller kids climbed onto a big chair and unintentionally tipped it backward, thereby pinching her fingers between the chair and the wall. The handful of adults in the room heard her cry of pain and I, as the closest, went sprinting toward her.

This is what went through my mind as I ran. Run, run, ru- STOP! I'm not allowed to run! And then I hopped the rest of the way. I still made it to her first and pulled her fingers out of harm's way. After some comforting from her mom, she was fine.

My foot, however, was not so fine.

I came home and put the boot back on and I've tried to take it easy, but my foot does not feel great. It doesn't hurt as much as when I initially injured it, but it's also not feeling as healthy as it has been recently.

I'm hoping that this is a temporary pain and that I can get back to healing. I'll have to see how it feels throughout today.

On the bright side, my instinct to rescue a child appears to override my concern for myself. I've been so careful not to run since hurting myself, and this is the only time in the last month and a half that I've totally forgotten about it.

Stand and Deliver

Bryan and Sophie sat all by themselves during church on Sunday. Peter, Cooper, Phoebe and I were on the stand, participating in the Primary Program. I'm a newly called Primary teacher, so my role was crowd control. I had a group of older kids, except for a sweet six-year-old girl that liked leaning over and commenting to me about the program and a four-year-old boy who preferred to drum on the bench in front of us rather than sit. It was a pretty easy gig.

Phoebe was pleased to deliver the first line of the whole program. She had her part memorized and the teacher in charge of her group didn't even try to lean over and feed her the line. That was refreshing. I remember being so nervous for Peter's first Primary Program. His stage fright was a big deal then. I had no such qualms about Phoebe. She delivered her text in a loud, clear voice into the microphone and had a grand time.

Peter came next. Due to illness (his) and injury (mine), he missed both rehearsals. His part was a lengthy six sentences long so he didn't memorize it. We had practiced sounding natural while reading aloud and I think he did a lovely job.

Cooper's part was about halfway through the program, which was appropriate since he was half memorized, but he read a scripture, so he could kind of get away with that. Cooper is such a wonderful reader. I especially love to hear him read. He uses inflection and vocal variation in a way that is interesting and engaging. We listened to him practice his part and gave suggestions (as we had done with the other two), and he did a great job.

I'm not sure if it's because I was on the stand and couldn't see if the kids were misbehaving or if it's because the kids all did so well, but I think this was the best program yet. We were even early to church!