Talan wins the costume contest!

I haven't been to church since May but still I took the boys (plus our neighbor Terran) to the Unity Halloween Party. We got there two hours late but just in time for the Halloween costume contest. Talan competed in his batman costume against four other kids in the 0 to 2 yr category. He won. I had been sitting with him but slowly slipped away when he didn't notice so that he could be seen from all sides. Well, when they announced he won and handed him his prize (a DVD) he couldn't see me so he started crying and motioned to the woman to go away. As soon as he saw me, he stopped crying and smiled with excitement at the DVD movie. It was classic. The audience laughed. Mason did not win his age group and he couldn't understand why so he wanted to participate in the 7 to 8 year olds. I had to drag him away. Poor thing. He loves being in costume and he acts out his character splendidly (he was a red power ranger). Terran did not want to compete so we went to decorate goody bags and get our pictures taken. The church had so much left over candy that when we left they were begging us to take more. The highlight of the evening was the magic show. They LOVED it. Terran especially. He kept raising his hand to be picked for the volunteer to assist the magician. After the show we got to pet, gently, the bunny whose name was Misty (same as our cat). I think that was everyone's favorite part.

We had a full day prior to the party. I took the boys to the downtown CDA fall festival. We had a hayride around town pulled by a tractor of sorts. One of the orange balloons fell off the wagon and so we enjoyed watching it float in the "blue" sky. Talan wanted it back. Poor love.

We walked around, painted pumpkins, listen to live music (Talan held his hands over his ears) and then walked to the Museum which was having a free day. The museum was boring but they did enjoy steering the giant paddle boat wheel. We then headed for the Fort Sherman playground. Unfortunately, Talan pointed out that he had peed in his pants (through a very full diaper) so he played on the playground with no pants on but with my vest on which went to his ankles! I got some comments from bystanders who thought he looked adorable. After we left downtown, we stopped at a Thrift store to buy Talan some pants. We scored some goodies like Twister, Operation and some Alphabet books. The boys asked if they could go to McDonald's for lunch (it was 2:45pm) and so I said yes. It was a monumental moment for Talan as he was able to climb all the way up the play structure. He was so pleased with himself and kept yelling "hey" so that I would watch him, which I was already doing. He wasn't confident going down the slide alone and I refused to climb up there with him so he went backwards down the stairs to get down. Good problem solving Talan!

We went home totally tired. We napped for an hour and a half and then immediately got into our costumes for the party. Busy busy day but really fun for the boys. I love this time of year as there is always so much going on.

Cuddling in the Crib

Joe joined Talan in the crib this morning. Then we played with our Russian Dolls. Joe had Mason practice writing the letter "D" which did not excite him whatsoever. Then tonight Joe got back in the crib with Talan. I brought Misty in and took lots of photos. Mason, of course, crawled in to join the fun. I jumped in the crib when Joe got out. Just some really cute family fun today. Misty is horrified and totally offended. We may not see her for awhile. :)

McCall Retreat

We had a great time. We arrived about 8:15pm Friday night so we managed to catch the Al-Anon speaker Magdelina who was fabulous. We felt like her share was worth the drive in and of itself. We got cabin #3 again which was great and I slept much better this year. :) I loved spending some quality time with my Al-Anon friends and my sister. It was gorgeous down there and, while it was cold, it wasn't snowing so I got to enjoy being outside more this time around. The lake itself is gorgeous and we were nestled in our cabin among the pines. I visited the snack shack many more times than last year. There was far to many goodies to resist the temptation. :) I also brewed my own Starbucks coffee so that was heavenly.

It was a very busy schedule with 5 meetings on Saturday. I didn't take too many pictures but I did take some of us playing SORRY in our cabin. :) Barclay brought down some games which was nice. Had we had more free time we would have played more. Nice clean fun. :)

We got home about 2pm and everyone was gone. Joe arrived with the boys about 10 minutes later. They had gone hiking on Tubbs Hill. Joe spent a lot of good quality time with the boys and worked on the alphabet with Mason. What a good Daddy! I am sure the boys LOVED it. I asked them if they misses me and Talan said "no" and Mason said "yes". I think he only said yes because I looked sad when Talan said no. It is a good thing if they don't miss me....it means I can get away more! LOL

Upcoming Weekend

I am looking forward to my women's retreat that I am going on this weekend. We are heading to McCall tomorrow lunchtime. Here is where we will be http://www.idahaven.org/nonsummer.php. I had such a great time last year. Nice to take a weekend out for spirituality. I need it. :)

I took my Sociology quiz today (usually I take it on Sunday) and took my A&P exam this afternoon instead of tomorrow. Not sure how I did but I am glad it is over. :) Now I can focus on packing and doing my cat dissection tomorrow.

On a different note, Mason is coming along with the alphabet. Joe and I are having a parent-teacher conference next Wednesday. Hopefully we will have a better idea of where his areas of weakness are and what we can all collectively do to assist him in his learning. Talan is very good at the alphabet. His favorite letter is "T". :) But he knows "B" and "M" and "J" for Joe. Very sweet!

The boys are playing nicely with each other right now which is such a blessing. Joe was just telling them how lucky they are because when he was a little boy he didn't have a brother. So sad for Joe. :(

Food Dye Affecting Kids Behavior

Teacher Pam asked me yesterday if we could have a parent teacher conference. Apparently Mason is acting out, not listening and is falling behind. She briefly suggested trying some dietary changes. She said sugar is not the first thing to eliminate but rather red dye. So I did a little looking online and there was an article in yesterday's LA Times about this exact topic http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/health/la-he-foodcolor13-2008oct13,0,7679313.story. Very interesting. No more strawberry milk and Fruit Loops. Joe and I have also tried to go over the alphabet with Mason and he does not know his letters. Talan knows more letters than Mason does. Mason knows the ABC song but he can't correlate the letters to the letters in the song. Disturbing. Teacher Pam says Mason is very smart but he chooses not to focus and pay attention. I know this to be true. So we have some work cut out for ourselves. Diet changes, more of an educational focus at home and the like. We are going to take it one step at a time and one day at a time. Wish us luck. :)

Cat Tales Park

Talan is back to coughing all the time again. Lots of breathing treatments last night. It was a wretched nights sleep as both boys ended up joining me in bed as well as Misty. Mason was so tired from yesterday he slept from 6:30pm to 6am. He is still in bed watching Mason TV in momma bed!
Missy and I spontaneously took the boys to the Cat Tales Park in Northern Spokane on Tuesday. She had watched the boys for me while I taught my sign language class and afterwards, since neither of us had any plans and it was a beautiful day (think "blue sky"), we decided to give it a go. The Masons sat in the back row of the minivan and Talan slept the whole way there. Naps in the car are always good!

So Cat Tales Park was like I remembered it, very small but now without the petting zoo (which was a serious bummer). We spent a lot of time in the play area burning off steam. What I didn't remember is that there is no running or shouting. The running is because the animals think you are food. The shouting because it scares or annoys the animals. Well, those are ridiculous policies for people with small children and so Missy and I had our work cut out for ourselves. I will say that Talan was just as interested in the little black housecat we ran into as the big cats. Typical. And most of the animals were sleeping. There were probably 10 animals total. Although, to give them credit, they do now have a black bear. Who also was sleeping. :)
Afterwards, we hit up a thrift shop and as luck would have it, there were two batman costumes in size 2 and 5. You will see the pictures here. Talan did not want to get out of his costume and wanted to wear it to bed. I couldn't let him as it has an open back (which he did not like) and so I had used safety pins to close it. I could just imagine him getting hurt on those.
The last thing we did in Spokane is take the boys to the carousel in Riverfront park. The three boys went by themselves and they all sat on a bench rather than a horse. They were very cute. I forgot to bring my camera for this portion of our outing. We also climbed the big red Radiowagon and borrowed bread from a nice woman to feed the ducks and geese. Talan was bitten by an aggressive goose and that didn't deter him very much although he did try to swipe it away. :) It was very sad when we ran out of borrowed bread. :(
Yesterday Missy and I took the boys for an afternoon walk down to the new playground and then to the river for some naked swimming and duck feeding. Naked duck feeding is what it really was. :) Just as we were ready to go (and we told the boys it was time to pack it up) they both ran to the sand dune and got themselves covered in sand. Typical boys. Guess who wore sand in their clothes all the way home?

So, despite being insanely busy, I am still managing to have some quality fun time with the boys. Both boys love Mason Paul so we do spend a lot of time with him. Plus I adore Missy. They will be moving into their new house across town within the month so while we are sad but we are very happy for them. The boys don't have a clue what is going on fortunately, so it will hard for them when it does happen.