Paranoia

I’m not sure what to do with Gavin. Wendy just blogged about her son’s irrational fears & Gavin has been a ball of paranoia for months now. It’s getting a little out of hand. Here’s a partial list of things Gavin’s paranoid about.

• Thunderstorms, including dark clouds
• being alone in the basement
• being left alone at home
• Me leaving for any length of time

This afternoon I took the boys to a church picnic & Gavin did well until he noticed the dark clouds gathering in the sky. His fingers went in his ears & he was DONE. No eating, no playing, he was begging to go home. We stayed for a little while longer because Ethan wasn’t ready to go & the clouds were sliding off to the east; we weren’t in any danger of getting wet, but Gavin would not be convinced.

The basement thing is getting old too. The boys have had their bedroom downstairs for over a year. Our basement isn’t one of those dank, dark basements. We have a nice family room, their bedroom is bright & cheerful, we spend a lot of time down there & yet Gavin refuses to be down there by himself. I keep telling him, if he keeps it up, we’ll move him back upstairs & he can share a room with Tova.

I never want to make him feel bad about his phobia, I’ll never do the “big boys aren’t scared of …” thing. I want him to know he can be scared & I’ll always do my best to protect him, but some days it’s all I can do to not yank his fingers out of his ears & tell him to buck up.

These fears all started a few months ago. I wish I knew what was the trigger. All I can say is that the kid is trying my patience & his brother never did this

Any suggestions?

K~

The Taunting

Do you see it?

It’s calling my name but in order to retrieve it from it’s hiding spot, I need to find the stool, & move some things in the cupboard & that seems like a bit too much work today.

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I added a few new links to the sidebar. One is a blog listed under Family & Friends written by Wendy (I have to fight the urge to type Cousin Wendy, her nickname she earned at my wedding). She’s my cousin, but she’s a wonderful person anyway. The other is another potential diversion, just like oreo’s , my Facebook page. I keep getting reminded by friends that I have a page so I thought I’d update it a little & maybe steer that traffic over here.

Have a great weekend!

K~

Welcome to the Gun Show

Last night I decided I had put off working out long enough – it was time to head to the Y for a serious workout. After I finished my 1 mile run I headed to the circuit room to do a little stretching & some weights. What I got was a gun show. It was my lucky night

I admit that I do look at the mirror when I lift, but I swear it’s only to correct my form. I have a terrible problem with scrunching my shoulders & rounding my back. I do not use the mirror to see how big scrawny my ‘pipes’ are. The 2 guys in the room last night, quite obviously did not have my same philosophy regarding the mirror. Before the one guy got started, he made sure to roll up his sleeves so he would have a better view of his ‘ceps’s. Then another guy walked in & proceeded to do the same. Only I’m not sure how this guy could walk. He looked like he concentrated pretty heavily on bulking up his upper body & forgot about his chicken legs. I was surprised those things were enough support to propel him forward. Anyway, I had a hard time keeping a straight face as I watched them try to outdo each other with the free weights. My word, the grunting…

K~

Ethan’s Latest Lego Design

The last few days, Ethan has been hard at work building a Lego Football Stadium. Here’s a few pictures.

This is the aerial view.

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This is looking down field towards a goal post.

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This is a view of the stands. There’s an obvious Vikings fan. Not sure who the skeleton guy is cheering for. Probably the Packers.

K~

Orange Blueberry Bread

In place of something interesting to write about (my day has comprised of sleeping, eating, cooking, sweeping, & punishing – I was bored just typing that) I will give you a recipe from my great grandmother.  My dad’s cousin had been given all her recipes & created a cookbook for all of the grandchildren.  There’s tons of stuff in there I’d never use, but this bread recipe was pretty good.  Enjoy

Orange Blueberry Bread

1C sugar

2 eggs

1/2C hot water

4T butter, softened (no substitutes)

1C orange juice

4T orange peel (this is a lot.  Next time I’ll try reconstituting the peel to reach the 4T)

4C flour

2t baking soda

1C blueberries (I’d add more next time)

Beat together sugar & eggs.  Add hot water, butter, orange juice & orange peel.  Mix well. Add flour & baking soda.  Mix.  Fold in blueberries.  Pour into 2 9×5 bread pans & bake at 350 for 60 minutes.

K~

Things I Hear Myself Say

• Babies do not belong on top of the piano.

• Why are there Pirates in my kitchen?

Run you scurvy Cat!

• What are you doing in the fireplace?
• Please don’t carry the salad into the bathroom!
• Stop chewing on the computer.

I wish I had thought to take pictures before issuing my request on all of these, but you’ll just have to use your imagination.

K~

Pictures from the trip

Get the Bikes!

Tova & Cousin I~

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Look Ma! No Crying!

Cole decided that Tova wasn’t so bad this time. He didn’t cry at all when she came close & they shared toys & numerous wagon rides.

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Cleaning horse hooves is fascinating for all ages.

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The dreaded Mamirazzi

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The Worlds Tallest Structure, according to Rand McNally ‘08, is a TV tower off of I-29.

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All 3 kids at our lunch stop in Owatonna, MN

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Unfortunately, because I had the camera we don’t have photographic proof that Jason & a coworker led John McCain’s motorcade along Hwy 34 in Iowa yesterday. I won’t call it a highlight because McCain is Republican (that dig is for you JJ & Aaron) & because the best part of his ride home had to be the lack of screaming children.

K~

Home Sweet Home

We made it. We all have our hearing still intact, but barely. Tova slept for the first 2 hours but then decided she’d had enough. I broke my own rule & turned her car seat around to see if that would calm her down. That seemed to make her happier. She still cried but she’d stopped screaming. Plus, the last 2 hours were crying-so-hard-she-puked free.

I have no idea what day of the week it is. I guess that’ll be the first thing tomorrow – figuring out what the rest of the week looks like.

Pictures will be up soon.

K~

The Final Leg

We’re spending our final night away from home tonight.  It’s been a good trip but it’s feeling kind of long now.  Tova did really well on the way to ND, but the trip home has been a lot harder.  Let’s just say that when Tova gets mad, she tends to throw whatever is handy & the boys have had plenty of chances to work on their dodging skills.

We spent an enjoyable weekend with my extended family.  It was great to see so many relatives in one place.  The kids had a great time being spoiled by aunts, uncles, & cousins.  On Sunday we even played a rousing game of kickball. The boys gave out before the adults did.  We were able to borrow a bike for Ethan & he spent many hours tooling around the farm.  I thought he might be intimidated by the gravel, but my city boy is pretty adaptable.

We arrived in Des Moines this afternoon, dumped our stuff at the hotel & headed to Pella, IA.  Some friends of ours recently moved to Pella & it was great to see them again.  The kids had a great time playing outside.  Tova must have gotten wind of my plan to have her 18 month pictures taken tomorrow so she fell & scrapped up her forehead.  I guess that’s one less stop to make tomorrow.

Something tells me there is a picture post (or 2) in your future.

K~

The Iowa Poop

The last two trips through IA with Tova have resulted in a traffic jam diaper blowout.  I’m not sure how she knows, but there’s something about the Cedar Rapids area & slow traffic that stimulates her colon.  We were stuck in a gawker’s slowdown in CR & ended up having to pull over on the shoulder to do a major cleanup.  The boys kept shouting about how gross it was, we could smell it, & you know if someone can see it, it must be bad.  I’ll save you the gory details, but let’s just say lot’s of hand sanitizer was used when we were done.  Of course I had just washed her carseat cover yesterday too.

Other than the blowout, our trip was actually not bad.  The boys were hungry for the junk we’d brought to snack on by the time we’d left the driveway & Tova only screamed for a few minutes at the very end of the trip.  That’s a success in our book.

The kids had a great time playing with their cousins tonight.  It’s fun to see Tova & her cousin I~ play together.   They’re about 1.5yrs apart but I~ is very eager to play with Tova & Tova loves the attention.

Tomorrow we head farther north.  When we arrive at our final destination, we’ll be about 30 miles from the Canadian border.  It’s a haul, but it’ll be worth it to see my extended family again.

I’ll get pictures posted when I get the laptop connected.  I can’t beleive there are still people with only 1 computer & no need for a wireless connection!!

K~