Twirl

Not Quite the Same Thing

The drama club at Peter and Cooper's school meets once a month. We missed the October meeting, so Cooper attended for the first time today. When we picked him up after school I asked how it went. He proceeded to give a detailed description of their activities. This is a portion of that conversation.

Cooper: And then the teacher had us all sit in the seats and she taught us about monograms.

Me: (after a beat to register what he said) Monograms? Or monologues?

Cooper: Oh yeah, that was it, monologues.

Safari House Guests

Phoebe was grinning and laughing wildly as she exited the school bus on Friday afternoon. As she ran toward me, she held up an unfamiliar blue bag. I realized what that meant: it was her weekend to take home the coveted class stuffed animals, two zebras named Spunky and Spunky Junior. That meant the pressure was suddenly on to do something fun and picture worthy while she had them in her custody. She was to record their adventures in a notebook that was tucked into the bag with them.

If you read yesterday's post, then you know that a camping trip took a big chunk of our weekend, and unless she wanted to bring the zebras to church, Sunday was pretty much out as an option. While it was low-key, we managed a few things.

First, Phoebe practiced piano with them.

Then they celebrated National Sandwich Day with us.

They got to sleep right next to Phoebe's bed.

The next day, while Bryan and the boys ran errands, the Spunks joined us for an at home spa-day. For us that meant haircuts for the little girls.

And bubble baths, of which there is no photographic evidence. But the Spunks came back into the picture for an "after" shot of the hair.

And then they stuck around for nail painting.

Finally, we ended our fun with a movie and pizza.

I worried that it wouldn't be enough, but Miss Phoebe seemed pleased by our at home adventure.

Darkness Falls

On Friday night Bryan and Peter went on a local campout with the Boy Scouts in our ward. Phoebe had a game night at school, which meant Cooper and Sophie and I would have an adventure of our own.

Shortly after returning home from dropping Phoebe off at school, the power went out. The three of us gathered in our library and talked about what we should do instead of watching a movie, our original plan. That's when Bryan called and asked us to deliver a few items that he had forgotten at home. Well, if we couldn't have fun, at least we could be productive. We slowly walked through the house, gathering the needed supplies, all while staying in the beam of the flashlight on my cell phone. By the time we made our delivery, we had less than an hour until we had to get Phoebe, not enough time to go home and wander in the dark.

The power company estimated that they would have the power back on by 9:30, which would mean that once we were back home with Phoebe, bedtime would be done in the dark. We had eaten a light dinner before dropping Phoebe off, but I figured she might be hungry when she was done. I came up with a new plan for fun.

"Hey guys, what if we go get some food, go get Phoebe, then eat in the van and watch a movie on my phone while we sit in the driveway?"

Cooper and Sophie thought that sounded awesome.

The real aim of my plan was to keep my phone charging in the car as long as I could, hence the suggestion that we hang out in the van so much longer than necessary. We grabbed some fast food and picked up a very worn out Phoebe from her school and told her about our plan for the rest of the evening. That's when she started crying because she was so tired.

As we drove home I brainstormed about how to help Phoebe. Then, something amazing happened. We entered our neighborhood and discovered that the power had come back on early! We didn't need to sit in the car trying to watch a movie on my little phone after all.

In celebration, we ate our fast food picnic-style on a blanket on the living room floor while we watched a short movie. By the time we had all eaten and the kids were tucked into bed, it was 9:30. I snuggled with each child for a bit. At 10, the girls both asleep, I was holding Cooper's hand. My eyes were suddenly too heavy to keep open.

I woke up at nearly 11 at night. My first thought was, "I still need to blog and exercise." My second thought followed quickly, "Nope, I'm going to sleep." Hence no post on Friday.

It ended up being a good choice. Due to a headache and simply being cold, I woke up at 3AM, unable to fall back to sleep until two hours later. I would have really been a zombie if I hadn't gone right to sleep the night before.

On a positive note, Bryan and Peter had a much more successful camping experience than their rain-soaked outing back in May. And despite our late night adventure in the dark, the kids that were with me had a pretty good time too.

Opposition in Order to Recognize the Good

There's a family in our ward that moved out of a rental last week and into a hotel while they wait for the house they're buying to be completed. When I learned this I told them they were welcome to come over and play and bring their laundry, because I know what it's like to live in a hotel. And today, they did.

While she talked about the trials of living in a hotel, I commiserated with her. And as I passed out snacks to her boys and read to them while she worked out details with her husband on the phone, I thought of how thankful I am to have had the experience of living in a hotel and to not be going through that now.

Exhausted Sugar Hangovers

Nobody wanted to get out of bed this morning, not even the parents. After everyone was finally up and dressed, there was a lot of distracted wandering. I had to keep asking the kids things like, "Have you eaten breakfast? Have you made your lunch? Do you have your shoes on? Where is your homework?" Then, even after all the reminders, they still seemed kind of confused about where they were and what they should be doing.

It is definitely the day after Halloween.

Happy Halloween from Hogwarts

I finally got a few pictures of the kids in costume. We embraced our love of Harry Potter and each chose a character.

I really love Cooper's Hagrid costume, mostly because it's the only one I made. His wig lasted just long enough to finish trick or treating.

And we got one of all of us, but you can't see Bryan's awesome Deathly Hallows shirt, so you'll just have to trust me that he's wearing it. You also can't see most of my costume because I've got my winter coat on under my cloak. It was a cold Halloween. Just know that Professor McGonagall rocked some fantastic sparkly black clothes tonight. I did decide to ditch my glasses though. I would have been fine indoors, but since they're for reading, I opted not to sacrifice my distance vision and ability to properly see my children in the dark.



I did get one of Bryan at his work party in his department-picked Waldo costume, which has to count for something.

After the candy gathering, we let the kids eat as much sweet stuff as they could while we watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, as is our family tradition. Then we brushed their teeth thoroughly and sent their sugar-filled selves to bed.

Happy Halloween!

Sisterly Love

Smile

Over the last week Sophie and I have run several errands. During those outings, Sophie received several comments on her appearance. And guess what? None of them were about her birthmark. Each person remarked about her beautiful smile. This would then prompt an even bigger grin from our girl and a polite, "Thank you."

I see each of those kind compliments as a tender mercy.

Nuttiness

Last night was our ward Trunk or Treat. There was a lot of rushing around beforehand to get ready since I had volunteered to bring both chili (I actually took Taco Soup because I figured my kids would eat it) and a dessert (cookie bars that didn't finish in time so I had to grab a few packages of store bought cookies from Bryan's stash) and wasn't able to start on either until a mere hour and a half before the activity began. The kids were so excited to put on their costumes and there was some concern when no one could find Sophie's costume that had just been on the couch. We finally discovered she had put it away in the coat closet and we all made it, relatively ontime.

Everyone had a grand time showing their costumes, admiring other people's costumes, eating, obtaining large amounts of candy, typical Halloween stuff.

The real adventure happened on the way home. Usually the kids aren't allowed to eat in the car, but I knew they'd all want some of the newly acquired sugar, and I definitely did not want them staying up to partake of said treats once we got home. So I made an exception and told them they could munch while we drove. We had taken two cars so that Bryan could stay to help with cleanup if needed, so it was just me and the children in the van.

As we drove home, I realized two things: I hadn't gotten any pictures during the evening (which meant no costume pictures) and Sophie might have gotten peanut candy at the event and is the only child that can't identify those on sight. I told the kids that we would take pictures as soon as we got home and instructed Sophie to show Peter ( the sibling sitting closest to her) each candy wrapper before she opened it to make sure it was peanut free.

For the record, Sophie can eat peanuts, but she was in close proximity to Peter and hasn't learned to eat a treat while only touching the wrapper and not making any kind of mess, so the chance of exposure to Peter would be high if she ate something in the van.

We were more than halfway home when Sophie announced, "I don't like this one."

This was quickly followed by, "Oh no! She's eating something with peanuts!" from a rather frantic Peter.

One sniff told me that yes, something with peanut butter had definitely been opened in the van. It took a moment to discover that she was halfway through a fun-size Butterfinger.

At this point in the drive Peter was panicking about the crumbs he could see falling off the candy still in Sophie's hand while Sophie was crying saying, "I told them not to give me peanuts. I tried to give it back." The situation was tragic from both sides.

I told Sophie to finish the candy, because at least then most of the dangerous material would be gone. Then I told Peter that as soon as we got home he was to jump out of the car, empty the dryer, and transfer the laundry. Once that was done, I carefully transported a still crying Sophie out of the van and into the laundry room, then pulled off her entire costume and dropped it into the washing machine. I gave her a thorough shower and we brushed her teeth. While I did that, Bryan inspected the van and wiped down the floor of the laundry room.

Finally, after the panic and trauma had worn down, the kids were able to fall asleep.

We did not take pictures.

This morning Sophie and I ( and by Sophie and I, I mean mostly me while Sophie watched) went through her candy bucket piece by piece with wipes to remove the surprisingly large amount of peanut butter crumbs. Then I washed her car seat, vacuumed the van, and put her Halloween bucket through the dishwasher. Sophie was much happier this morning about the whole episode, though she kept repeating that she had tried to give the offending candy back. I continued to reassure her that she wasn't in any trouble, she just couldn't eat certain things around Peter.

After so many years of handling the peanut allergy, this is the first time something like this has happened. Perhaps my detailed description of our peanut removal process seems excessive, but even a small bit of peanut can cause a reaction. And because of the portion of the peanut protein that Peter is allergic to, any reaction could turn anaphylactic. When dealing with a literal life or death allergy, we don't mess around.

All of the candy has now been sorted. Each item containing peanuts has been traded in for something that won't kill Peter. I did give Cooper and Phoebe the option to keep their peanutty candy and take them to school to eat during lunch (neither of them sit at the peanut-free table and the cafeterias allow peanut products), with the reminder that they would need to completely wash their hands and mouths after they ate, but they both opted for the trade-in.

Between Bryan's work party and the actual Halloween night, we have two more chances to get pictures of the costumes. That means we also have two more batches of candy to sort through for peanuts.

Ah, the joys of Halloween.