Helping Grannie make apple pies!

I requested Lin’s apple pies for the freezer, so that was today’s project…and Owen was “helping.” Lin said he was very patient the whole time. 🙂

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Owen was playing with Stuffy (the blue dinosaur from Doc McStuffins) and was attaching him to the apple peeler using a rubberband as a safety harness.

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A walk with Papa

Papa said he wanted to take Katie for a walk. I asked “In the stroller or just walking free?” He said walking free. Ooooh-kay. I warned him he’d likely have to retrieve her from yards and driveways. He said it was fine and off they went.

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Fifteen minutes later they were back, with dad saying “She doesn’t listen! And she did t want to follow me!” Heh. Welcome to my world. 🙂

No, Katie. PLEASE not yet.

Grannie Lin told me this morning that she was in Katie’s room putting away clothes while Katie was still in her crib…and she watched Katie kick her leg up onto the side rail.

Uh oh.

The mattress is down as far as it can go…so now we have to watch her like a hawk when we put her down—and especially when she wakes up—to make sure she doesn’t get too antsy and try to escape.

Owen was 25 months old when he got moved to a big boy bed…so I’m really hoping she lasts QUITE a bit longer in her crib. At least until Tom gets home…and hopefully longer.

A nice new shirt (and socks) for Owen

He needed a short-sleeve shirt to match his olive pants, and I found this one at the resale shop. When I told him he had to wear it, he said he didn’t want to. I told him he had to. He said it didn’t match. I said it did. He finally put it on but wasn’t happy about it. Then I told him it really looked like a shirt Braxton (his buddy) would wear…and then he was happy about it! He also loved his new robot socks!

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Holy crap! Owen is pretty good at hitting!

Papa wanted to surprise Owen with his own baseball bat so he got it the other day and planned to give it to him after school before his dentist appointment when we’d be at the playground.

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Then after a few quick attempts and after getting his grip and stance corrected, he was hitting most of my pitches! We were stunned. They weren’t perfect, of course, but I’d guess he was at least making some sort of contact on 80% of them…and probably good contact on 50% of those! He even smacked me with a ball a few times and had me ducking more than once as a ball whizzed by me.

While we were playing, Tom happened to Skype in, so he could watch Owen! It was awesome! Tom loved it!

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Father Daughter Bonding

We both wanted to see Gravity, so we went to a 3D matinee today before picking Owen up from school. Neither one of us can remember the last time we did this…though he thought it had to be in Traverse City (and I said that would make it almost 20 years ago)!

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And, interestingly, Carmike has their server room viewable by the public.

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And I remembered why I hate movies in theaters…30 MINUTES OF PREVIEWS. Seriously—it was 30 minutes. That’s asinine. /getoffmylawn

Owen’s first homework!

An assignment came home in Owen’s folder today. I told him he had homework.

Me: Do you know what homework is?
Owen: No.
Me: It’s work your teacher sends home that you need to do before you go back to school.
Owen: I don’t want to.

I assured him it would be easy and fun. Of course, he was done in about 15 seconds. 🙂 The only assistance I gave was reading the instructions and suggesting he make his circles a bit smaller.

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Owen swallowed a pill today!

Since he flat out refuses to take liquid medicine and turns into a screaming crying snotty hot mess, we had to try something else. So we’ve been practicing swallowing mini M&Ms and he’s gotten good at that…so I decided it was time for the real thing. I’m pretty sure he has allergies (I definitely do and Katie was diagnosed yesterday) so he needs to take something.

I was just going to split mine in half (because they’re small to start so would be super small broken in half—plus wouldn’t require me to buy anything) but all the dosing info I could find said even half was probably too much…plus my parent friends said a jagged half-pill would be harder to swallow. So it was off to a Walgreens where I stood like a zombie in front of the allergy section, looking for the tiniest pill he could take. I settled on Claritin, which is actually smaller than a mini M&M.

When Owen got home from school, it was time. I set the pill down along with some of the mini M&Ms and explained he had to swallow the pill and then he could have the M&Ms. I told him it was medicine (I had debated that, but thought I’d better be honest) and as soon as he heard that, the refusals and hot mess started. Nothing I was saying mattered. Papa got to witness it and was amazed. (I’m not sure he fully understood or believed my stories about how Owen reacts to medicine.)

I told him the pill would help his runny nose. Nope.

I told him it would make him feel better. Nope.

Then I told him that daddy takes pills for allergies, mama takes pills for allergies, Grannie takes pills for allergies, and Katie takes medicine for allergies. He says “So everyone takes pills?” Yes, buddy, pretty much.

Then like it was no big deal whatsoever he popped it in his mouth, took a drink, and was done in three seconds.

Of course I made a huge spectacle about it, saying “Wait a minute. You did not just take that pill. Let me check your mouth. I think it’s hiding!” And of course I was making sure he really did swallow it. 🙂

So now I’m just hoping each day goes a little smoother…and that we work up to larger sizes (because not everything comes in teeny pills) but I’m actually amazed at how well he did.

Go, Owen!

The story of my life…specifically deployment.

I like to think I can handle most things while Tom is gone…big or little. Maybe with some bitching and moaning (and sometimes outside help) but for the most part, I like to be self-sufficient. But things out of my control often hinder me. Like today.

The soccer ball needs inflating. No biggie, we have a portable air compressor…I’ll just haul it out, plug it in, change tips, and voilá!

Except no.

We have every other connector—including the ball injector tip—except we’re missing the connector piece that goes between the handle and the ball tip. Of course it’s not in it’s place where it should be (on the unit itself) and there’s no chance in hell of me finding it in the garage.

So $6 at Amazon later I have another full set (5 pieces I don’t need, one I do) on its way…but I’m still frustrated.