So we made it to the trampoline park today for our two hours of jumping. And we learned two hours is too much—but one hour isn’t enough, of course.
Here’s a montage of Katie (we had to stay in the Under 46″ section while daddy and Owen were out in the big arena) and then Katie and Owen (he needs some practice at the hoops!).
In the dodgeball court:
Watching Owen:
We had planned to take the kids to the trampoline park but the crowds were insane and the tickets were sold out way into the future…so we came home and went for our nature walk!
Some of us were a little excited about the win! I’m not a sportsball person, but even I was nervous the last few minutes!
Just two of the projects we built today—thanks to the expander set Gramma Jean gave Owen for Christmas we can build bigger things now!
As I was getting setup for the shot:
Owen took this one!
Tom wanted to go to a fish store to see what they had—and of course the kids wanted to go…so we all went! On the way there, we saw a Trader Joe’s (which we hadn’t been to here yet) so we stopped to pick up a few things. I tried to get Owen to push the kid-sized cart and he was having NONE of it and turned into a grouch. Fine. So then we hit the fish store and the kids loved that but then it was almost lunch time so I searched Yelp for something close by…and we ended up at a really yummy pizza place at the Springfield Mall! Well, then since we were at the mall, we decided to check it out (we hadn’t been there yet, either). And that’s when Owen discovered the escalators. Well, he had been on them before but this time he LOVED them. And he’s old enough now that he will go on them without us…which he did. A few times. 🙂
Katie wasn’t too sure and held daddy’s hand pretty tight.
This was Owen’s third and fourth trip around the escalators. Like mother, like son…I remember doing the same thing with my cousins Lisa and Lori (though at a little bit older age) at the Saginaw Mall! 🙂
And then as we were headed to a store I wanted to briefly look in…we ran across a bouncy place. YES. IN THE MALL. So in we went…and let the kids run wild for 30 minutes! (Contrary to what you see in the pictures, there were a bunch of other kids there!)
As a last special thing…on our way out, we stopped to get frozen yogurt!
We needed to run to Costco and on the way there I decided to check the movie schedule to see if anything kid-friendly was playing that we could surprise the kids with. And yep! Starting in 10 minutes was Penguins of Madagascar which both kids love (they watch the cartoon at home)!
They were thrilled!
And then afterwards we hit Costco…and since it was lunchtime…got pizza in the cafe!
The kids slept in until after 6:30 (normal).
He loved his new shoes—they have FLAMES on them! A size 3 if you can believe it!
Digging into her bag!
A Pirate Lego game!
The Frozen headband had to go on right away!
TUTU PANTS!
She got a Yoda ornament and put it right on the tree. She also got a fragile Princess Sofia ornament and of course wanted to play with that one!
She got her own old iPhone so there are no screaming fights about sharing Owen’s.
Owen was SUPER EXCITED about getting this dollar store skateboard! He had mentioned a skateboard a few times I didn’t pay any attention because I had already bought all his stuff—but I saw it at the dollar store Christmas Eve when I went to pick up a few stocking stuffers so had to get it.
From walking in to the last stocking present opened, it was just under 30 minutes! Phew!
Picking out our first cleaner shrimp, hermit crab, and Astrea snail!
Looking at the birdies.
Katie: He’s tweeting!
As you saw earlier today, Owen’s tooth has been dangling precariously—and it has been for days. We’ve bribed him with cash and treats to pull it out—and he’s refused.
But just now, a few minutes after Tom had put him to bed, we heard footsteps running down the hall and Tom guessed he’d finally got the tooth out. Yep! He excitedly showed us it came out!
He told us he wanted to keep it; we said he could but he wouldn’t get any money from the tooth fairy. He said he’d give it to her tomorrow night. We said that was fine and sent him back to bed. A few minutes later he was back again to tell us he had lots of money and wanted to keep his tooth. What an awesome kid. 🙂
Owen was invited to a birthday party of the twins in his class (the same family that gave Katie her black ballerina outfit a ways back). It was at a bouncy place that had glow-in-the-dark lights. Tom took him because (long story short) I was told Katie couldn’t participate. Tom said when he got there, Owen turned super shy…but quickly got into it and had a BLAST.
And here’s Owen racing up the slide! I made sure he wore a neon shirt so he’d really stand out! And action video!
Here’s the group:
And some of the boys from his class (Xander, Colton, and Manuel).
And then after the party, they stopped at Wendy’s for dinner!
It’s at times like this that I love technology!
This is what can happen if you are hurrying in the bathroom and aren’t paying attention.
He has been wanting a new phone but didn’t want to spend the money on the newest upgrade…so we headed directly to the Apple store to see about getting the glass fixed. Unfortunately the fix was almost half the price of upgrading to the newest phone so he just upgraded.
Merry Christmas to him!
Owen’s school offered a Penguin Shop for the kids to shop for inexpensive gifts for their families. I volunteered one afternoon and it was…a little crazy. 🙂 Owen had $10 to spend on gifts for me, dad, and Katie. He came home with something for each of us (plus about $3 left over) and he was SO excited for us to open them…so we finally did tonight.
I got a cupcake pencil sharpener, Tom got a purple high-heeled shoe pencil sharpener, and Katie got a barrette with a feather on it! Our very first gifts from Owen with no parental input whatsoever! I told Tom I would switch him sharpeners, but he said no way—he was keeping the very first gift his boy bought him! 🙂
Katie LOVED her feather…
Long story short, we have a new saltwater tank!
Long story long, we haven’t had a saltwater tank since before we were married and lived in Lansing! We’ve wanted one, of course—and Tom even bought a few tanks along the way—but with moving every few years it just isn’t practical. He had an 80-gallon (I think it was) tank specially made…that we eventually sold after moving a few times. Then he found a used system that we were planning on setting up here…but it got trashed in the move. We were reimbursed for it and Tom wanted to buy the same tank right away, but I told him to wait because we were in no hurry. Fast forward five months and he was perusing Craigslist and saw a really great tank for a really great price—and snapped it up!
It won’t have fish in it for a few months (we have to wait for the water to cycle and get healthy so it doesn’t kill the fish) but in the meantime, the kids LOVE it. Especially Katie. She will just go sit in front of it.
Owen has wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for quite some time now. Neither Tom nor I wanted to go because the food really sucks and it’s just a money pit. So, we told Owen that he could go when Uncle Rob came down (that way it would be seen as a super special treat and he wouldn’t ask us to go all the time). He was actually very good about being patient—it’s probably been over a year that we’ve been telling him this.
So when we learned that Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob were going to be here this week, Owen knew what was going to happen! And boy was he exited!
Me: So who’s all going to Chuck E. Cheese?
Owen: Me and Uncle Rob.
Me: Just you and Uncle Rob? Not daddy?
Owen: No! Daddy, too. But not Grandma or you or Katie. Just the three boys!
The plan was to take separate cars to see Santa and then the boys would go to the restaurant and the girls would go home. I figure why get Katie excited about it when she really didn’t care to start with. I did, however, make Tom promise to take pictures. 🙂
These are the two pics Tom texted me.
I really really hoped he had taken more than that…and he had! 🙂 I saw these when he got home.
His $45 “prize”—a Dory fish from Finding Nemo.
Yes, they spent about $45 total on food, drinks, and games…and he only got a trinket worth about 49¢. It was a great lesson…we asked him if he’d rather have the little fish or a big Lego set. He obviously choose the Lego set. He was surprised that he could have had something so big instead of something so small. We said it was okay to go and play games and have fun, but it was really expensive so that’s why it was a super special treat that we didn’t do very often. He said from now on he’d rather have the Legos. 🙂
I didn’t want to wait in any long lines so after requesting advice from a local facebook group, we decided to visit the Santa at the new Gander Mountain. Both kids hadn’t been able to stop talking about seeing Santa and they were SUPER excited leading up to the day…until we actually saw him, at which point neither kid wanted ANYTHING to do with him. Owen hid in a clothes rack and Katie begrudgingly got carried up by daddy. (And this is precisely why I didn’t want to spend any amount of time waiting in a line.)
This was their best shot. Not too bad. It was actually neat—they took the picture with an iPad and then emailed it to you right then and there.
After Katie was done, Owen decided he wanted to try again…so we tried to get them both on Santa’s lap. Ha. Ha ha. This time, Owen was pretty good, but Katie was still being a poop. This is the best one they got.
This was the best one I managed to get. Good times!
Then they had a green screen photo shoot and this is the background Owen picked:
Then the girls headed out to Target while the boys went on their super special trip to Chuck E. Cheese!!
Before heading out to see Santa, we had Uncle Rob take a few shots. Amazingly, the very first one was the winner! We hadn’t even tried to get Maggie in it, but she jumped right up!
I don’t love myself in it, but since everyone—including the dog!!—is actually looking at the camera with eyes open and mostly smiling faces…I consider it a win!
I ordered something frozen from QVC. It arrived with some dry ice remaining so we showed the kids what happens when you put it in water.
Katie loves being upside down and this time, daddy joined her! (This was actually back on November 28! Remember what I said earlier about forgetting to take pictures off the card?!)
The kids love pizza and they love cupcakes, so I thought they’d love pizza cupcakes! And it was a fun little dinner project.
It went pretty well…
After three she was DONE. So it was Owen’s turn!
He wasn’t thrilled. And neither one liked them.
FAIL.
Owen had just watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (movie #2 where Dobby was introduced) so we thought he’d be really excited.
Nope.
And a great one of Tom and the kids:
And a decent one of the kids:
And, of course, classic Owen! 🙂
Tom decided to carry BOTH kids up to bed…and they all loved it.
Tom took Katie out running errands and found this at the woodworking store.
Tom wanted to take Owen to see Big Hero 6 and wondered if he should try taking Katie. I thought it was worth a try since she can sit still through movies at home…but I said I’d go shopping nearby in case things went south and he needed me to retrieve her. Of course I would be sad to miss being there for her first movie…but I got to do Owen’s first movie so it was only right that Tom get to do Katie’s!
She understood she was going to see a movie and on the way there this is all we heard:
“Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie.”
Once there she was having NONE OF IT while I was trying to take a picture. 🙂
Unfortunately the movie times had changed in the three days since we last checked, so Tom had an hour to kill at the mall. He said it went okay, and then I got these pics:
Tom said Katie was great for the majority of the movie—only getting fidgety towards the end (which is really good since it was almost two hours long!).
So it was a success! Yay Katie!
My day started with Owen coming in while I was taking a shower and asking where the wipes were.
Me: Why do you need wipes?
Owen: Because I threw up in my bed and need to clean it up.
Me: Are you okay? Do you still feel sick?
Owen: I’m okay.
Me: Okay, daddy’s downstairs. Go tell him and he’ll take care of it. I’ll be out in a minute.
So I double-timed my already short morning shower and when I got out about three minutes later, Tom was throwing all of Owen’s bedding in the wash. Apparently Owen had been coughing and he threw up (of course the morning after I changed his sheets but that’s neither here nor there)…but he said he felt okay so we were going to send him to school.
Technically I knew we shouldn’t because vomiting is a no-go, but if it was just because of coughing…??? The part of me that says he’s not sick and it’s just a reaction to a gut-wrenching cough is at odds with the part of me that says vomiting is vomiting. I need to get away from the mindset that if he feels absolutely fine, has no temperature, has no other signs of anything, and has a history of vomiting with coughing…he still stays home if he vomits.
I didn’t really have much time to think about it, though, as 20 minutes later he was coughing and threw up again—plus he said his belly doesn’t feel good. Once again, his temp wasn’t even normal (78.1). Tom and I reiterated that staying home does not mean fun and games and he’s going to have to rest and take a nap. But he still says he doesn’t feel good so he’s staying home.
Of course, I had a ton of errands planned for this morning (that I’ve been putting off until today) and now I can’t go. Tom has an early day, though, so he said he’d do some for me.
—
He ended up throwing up breakfast (about an hour after the fact—thankfully while Tom was still home!) so we cut out all food. We made him sip water and that seemed okay so we gave him a juice box—which came up about an hour later. By dinner he was feeling better so we tried a graham cracker and a strawberry which stayed down, so before bed he got more graham crackers and strawberries (which also stayed down).
I really wish I knew what was happening. 🙁
I asked if we couldn’t blow them into a pile for the kids…but Tom said no because they were a little wet. Maybe next year…
I got this for Owen last Christmas for a project when daddy got home from deployment…and they finally got to it. I’m kinda glad they waited because Owen could now read all the instructions himself!
The finished product!
