The Best Halloween EVER!

Uncle Mike, Aunt Linda, Cousin Wendy, Cousin Michael, and his girlfriend Elise all arrived on Friday. It was such a joyous occasion to have all of us together. Michael and Elise live in California, Mike, Linda, & Wendy live in Atlanta. We all get together once a year on the 4th of July for a few days of scrumptious barbecue, cheese dip, and brownies with lots and lots of laughter. Getting together for Halloween was a family bonus.

It all started last year when Kurt covered himself in moss and blended into our pear trees on the walkway to our house. When kids would walk by him to come trick-or-treat at our house, the tree would come alive, complete with some wild animal call. The neighborhood went crazy and we had people coming back over and over just to be scared again. We laughed and laughed watching people jump and scream.

So this year more people wanted to participate. Kurt, our resident Halloween expert, sort of managed the whole thing. We gave everyone free rein to do what they wanted and we put it all together. For the first time in my life, I didn't stress about it, and it all just fell into place wonderfully.

So let me give you the tour. When folks first arrived at our house, they were greeted by Michael, the dancing swine flu. He was playing Boogie Nights and Superfreak all night. We all thought he was hysterical, especially in that getup, but some teens were so frightened they didn't come get candy!

Next they trick-or-treaters were guided down the driveway onto our walkway to the front porch.

There are 4 pear trees lining our walkway, all covered with moss. Kurt is blended into one. As they walk past him, he comes alive.

Can you see him? There were many from last year looking for him, but he still got them.

Then they proceeded to the porch, where I rewarded them with candy.

Junior Moss Monster, when he wasn't trick-or-treating with me or Ryan, hung out with me for a while.

After the first screams and some candy, the "customers" (as we dubbed them) had to walk past a few spooky things to get to more candy.

They weren't sure if this "thing" was real or not. There was another bowl of candy around the corner of the porch. Along the way Elise (Zachary joined her after quickly tiring of having to stand in a bush) would be hiding in some shadow to jump out and frighten them.

She was quite the scary zombie. Despite her scary costume, she and Zachary share a special connection. They huddled together most of the night to jump out and scare people. Zachary said he wants to be a zombie next year.

After the zombie experience, and more candy, they were escorted to the next bowl of candy by our tacky tourist, Uncle Mike.

The next bowl of candy was by the trampoline. There was a flashing strobe light on it, and as they reached for the candy, this scary gorilla (at times played by my husband) jumped up and down rattling the trampoline/cage.

After the trampoline, our tacky tourist escorted them to the fountain by the pool where they were greeted by a lovely mermaid, Aunt Linda.

She gave them more candy, which they reluctantly accepted. Then they headed toward the exit, but they were stopped by Wendy, the spider girl. She offered them candy in a spider covered bowl filled with slimy spaghetti. It was hilarious.

Our friends Hank and Jennifer helped also, Jennifer was a Killer Bee. Here is a picture of our whole gang.

The only one who wasn't into the Halloween festivities was Evan. He was having no part of his adorable duck costume. Fortunately it was a hand-me-down from his big brother. So Evan managed to sleep through the mayhem. However, all was fine the morning after.

It was such a fun Halloween. The entire neighborhood is still talking about it. The best part was having so many family members around interacting with my children. It was definitely the best Halloween ever.

Pictures tell 1,000 Words

There is so much to tell. I finally found a way to download my pictures easily. It was SO simple. Geez. Technology. I'm looking forward to Zachary getting old enough to manage my website and program all our various TiVos and all.

So, to catch up, the short version. Zachary's doing GREAT in school. His fall festival was a couple of weeks ago.

They had a Fire Truck and tons of bouncy houses. But the best part was the Coconut Climbing tree.

Kurt met us there and was explaining to Zachary the proper climbing technique. Zachary had tried this once before with not so good results. I was nervous.

He started climbing. It was really high up. There was a bell at the top to ring. He really wanted to ring that bell. He got almost to the top and reached for the bell, it was about 6 inches out of his reach.

His left foot was on a solid hand hold, but his right foot had nothing substantial under it. He struggled and struggled. I had a small panic attack. A small crowd had gathered to watch Zachary. Kurt was giving him instructions and lots of shouts of encouragement. I said a prayer. Then somewhere inside him he found the strength to dig in and reach for that bell. I had tears in my eyes. It was like Rocky, theme music and all and everyone cheered and screamed for joy. I took photos, but was so excited I cut Zachary's head off in the pictures so you cannot tell anything. It was, however, one of my proudest moments as a mother.

Later, Kurt showed Zachary the heel hook technique on the monkey bars.

It was a great time. Our first school fall festival. I'm sure there will be many more to come.

Halloween is becoming huge around our house. Saturday night Ryan and I went to a Halloween party, so Zachary decided to put on his costume too. Ryan was King Kong and I was Faye Rae. Evan wasn't too sure about all this.

I kind of liked being a blonde. We had fun at the party. People were out of control. The night ended with some freak in mask wielding a machete. I was glad to get away from that dude.

Yesterday afternoon Zachary's friend Ian came over with his mom and invited Zachary over to play. They all happily rode their bikes down the street. I love this neighborhood. Ryan took Evan for a golf cart ride and I prepared for my class. In a few minutes Ryan came back and told me I just had to come see this.

Here are a few neighborhood kids holding a 3 foot baby ALLIGATOR!!! The daddy of the two kids in the middle has a friend who works for the fish and game services (or whatever it's called) and he caught it, taped it's mouth shut, and brought the kids a toy. I retrieved Zachary and Ian, plus his brother Kyle. All the neighborhood kids were there. You just couldn't miss this.

This was beyond bizarre. I could not believe this gator was crawling all over the kids. What a day. I love this neighborhood.

Today we are prepping for Halloween. It's going to be huge around here. We're having a haunted trail around the house. We have a whole host of characters dressing up to scare kids Saturday night. Ryan's brother will blend into the trees like he did last year as the Moss Monster, coming alive to scare kids. We have Uncle Mike, Aunt Linda, cousin Wendy, cousin Michael and his girlfriend Elise coming. All are playing characters on our haunted trail. I've been working hard getting the house spooky. It's going to be such fun. I promise to take pictures and to update again soon.

The Plague

The black plague has descended upon our little universe. Most of the kids in Zachary's school have been or are sick, most of the kids in the neighborhood have been or are sick, and almost everyone in my house has been or is sick. It's crazy. I joked with the neighbors we should mark our doors with black X's so people will know who's sick.

It started with Zachary Friday afternoon, by Saturday morning he had a raging fever. I brought his pillows downstairs and set him up on the sick sofa and we turned golf on the TV. He napped off and on all day, but was basically a zombie. Sunday he was a little better, but still had a fever. Sunday night Evan started with the fever. I let Zachary sleep late Monday, he slept from 7:30 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. He woke up without a fever, but I kept him home from school just to fully recover. Evan woke up Monday with a raging fever. So yesterday was Evan's day to be a zombie. He slept a lot yesterday and today, so hopefully his little body is fighting off the infection. Zachary was back to his old self today and returned to school, Evan is showing marginal improvement today. Hopefully this will be over soon.

My whirlwind of productivity has screeched to a grinding halt. I started feeling the body aches last night during class. I wish I could have just stayed home, but I'm working on a new choreography for my troupe. We have several shows in October and November, so I need to teach them this new piece quickly. I was just so obviously off last night, and I hate that. I pride myself on my class preparations. I rarely teach a class that isn't fully planned, and although I did prepare for last night's classes I just couldn't execute my plans very well. I suppose I should take a cue from my kids and sleep this off.

So before I say goodnight, I wanted to relay today's 5 things Zachary did in school.

1. They worked on writing the letter "O" and the number zero. I've got worksheets on 1-8, so he must have missed 9 yesterday. The order of letter "learning" has been strange to me, but I'm sure there's a purpose. They've done A, T, I, S, L, and now O. Zachary is so fired up about practicing his letters, we work on it after school every day.

2. They didn't play on the playground today because the slides were wet. I couldn't get him to tell me where they had recess, because I used that word "recess" and then had to explain it and then we were so off topic I just moved on (mental fatigue is accompanying the physical fatigue now).

3. He worked on the computers today and he can now operate the game all by himself. Some of the other kids are just doing letter games, but he's doing word and sentence games. Love my little smarty pants!

4. Emma was in his center group and she's a Cancer like him. I just wonder how that conversation happened: "Emma, when's your birthday? Oh? You're a Cancer like me!" We've been reading about the zodiac constellations in his new space book. I wonder what Emma's parents will think about that?

5. He sat next to Emma on the bus today. She's always on green light. Her second name is not Rose. Ok, I like this information. Emma lives one street over and was in Zachary's preschool class last year. Ryan and I like her parents a lot. I asked Zachary if Emma was now his girlfriend, and he said "No, Mommy, Alex and Madison are my girlfriends!" My friend Leslie has a daughter named Emma Rose, and Zachary seems to think every Emma should be an Emma Rose.

It's getting easier to pry stuff out of him, as long as I remain patient. Mostly things pour out of his mouth as I turn off the lights at bedtime. THEN he wants to talk about his day! His stalling techniques are getting more savvy with age.

Ok, I'm crawling off to my bed to hopefully sleep off the plague.

Input Overload!

Kindergarten continues to be a wonderful experience for Zachary, Evan is thriving with so much one on one time with me, and I continue to be a whirlwind of productivity. I'm so freaking happy right now I can hardly stand myself. At times I feel a little guilty that everything is going my way, but for now I think I'll just enjoy the ride while it lasts.

So today I went to eat lunch with Zachary at school. The Kindergarten classes eat first, so it's really brunch at 10:30. Parents are encouraged to come eat lunch with their kids, so there were lots of parents there. We have the option of sitting at our own table with our kid and bringing a friend, or going outside. If you go outside you don't get to bring a friend. Zachary's best friend, Marshall, was sitting inside with his Mom so we sat with them at the class table. I'll get the hang of this next time.

So I'm sitting there, with Zachary, across from Marshall and his mother. There are three little girls to my right chatting up a storm and playing the little girl version of "made you look". That got annoying in about 3 minutes. Then there was a little girl at the table behind me that kept trying to talk to me. First she complimented everything (one at a time) that I was wearing, then when I had to admonish Zachary she got on the Mommy Train. That was annoying IMMEDIATELY. Then the aforementioned Banks, Zachary's newest friend, kept talking to me. Now he is a nice enough kid, despite my earlier concerns, but his mouth was full of half chewed food. It was a vile train wreck talking with him. But, I did pull myself together and I did enjoy being there (sort of). The whole scene was so much sensory input, however. Maybe I'm just getting old, but all the chatter and controlled chaos was so much. I am impressed with the officials and their methods of handling this, for as chaotic as it was it was still very much under control.

After school, Zachary's grandmother (Ryan's mother) picked him up from school. Zachary was so bummed he couldn't ride the bus, but he dealt with it. Joanne takes him to his piano lesson on Wednesdays, then they go for an adventure. When he got home tonight I was teaching my Pilates class, so I got home just before his bedtime. Evan was already in bed when I got home, sadly (to me). Zachary was so happy to see me, I haven't seen him since lunch this morning. He started telling me all about his day.

So here are the 5 things for today:

1. Reading is fun, but it's way to easy. He doesn't understand why his reading books are so easy. His friend Alex, a girl in 1st grade, has books that are more fun to read. Alex's mom is a good friend of mine, so I love it that they are such good friends.

2. Going over the speed bumps in the school bus is really fun. Enough said.

3. Math is fun, but he's wondering when they're going to start adding and subtracting. I'm not sure when he learned those terms, but he cracks me up when he gets all serious about school.

4. He loves loves loves playing on the monkey bars. He says he can now go across them without falling to the ground. I need to observe this myself before I report it as fact, we're planning to go to the playground tomorrow.

5. And for the jaw dropper - he was on red light today. He got on yellow yesterday for trying to cut Marshall's hair. Everyone got smarties (the candy) but him, since he was on yellow. Today he told me he loved playing on the monkey bars so much he didn't come when Mrs. D gave the special hand clap. That landed him on yellow. Then he somehow convinced Drew (a girl in his class) to give him some Smarties, which landed him on red. He wasn't all that upset about being on red, so I'm going to have to threaten pulling him from the school bus if he gets on red again. I hope that doesn't happen since it's so much more difficult for me if he doesn't ride the bus home. He loves riding the bus so much, so I think it's a good discipline threat.

Ryan is in Alabama this week working, so it's been a hard week for Zachary. I've had to get both kids ready and out the door by 7:30. THAT has been a challenge, but so far I'm doing okay. I'm going to bed around 9:30, but my new schedule is working for me. I am just giddy these days with happiness (despite the fact that Zachary's was on red today). I am now ready, showered, dressed, and makeup on by 6:30 a.m. That's just crazy!

On a totally unrelated note, I just LOVE this time of year. Just when I think I cannot stand the heat anymore, football season starts! And the US Open is on right now!! I'm such a sports fan and I just love watching tennis and football. Despite my growing up in Auburn, I've become quite the Alabama football fan. Ryan is an Alabama alum, I'm always cheering for Alabama unless they're playing Auburn. Alabama plays VA Tech Saturday night, woo hoo! And as I type Serena is playing the night match (starting second, after Federer) in New York. It's just unrelenting giddiness.

Kindergarten, Day 2

Today was Zachary's 2nd day of Kindergarten, the first day with the full class. Today was also the first day I let him ride the bus home. I have a cute picture, but my camera and computer are mad at each other and the pics won't download. I'll deal with that tomorrow, maybe.

This morning I took Zachary to school, where his class gathers. We saw a couple of the neighborhood kids on the way and Zachary's demeanor changes ever so slightly when we see them. He acts bigger and more independent. It tugs at my heartstrings a little. When we arrived where his class gathers he left me and never turned around again. I called goodbye, but he didn't hear me. He happily marched to his classroom with his friends. That is how it should be, sniff sniff.

So how is this Kindergarten thing affecting Evan? He suddenly is acting bigger too. He's clicking along on a good schedule and loving the extra attention he's getting from me lately. He's also getting better about going on outings with me. For a while he would cry every time I put him in a shopping cart or the stroller, wanting to be held. Today we went to Target and out to lunch and it was very pleasant. Things are working out wonderfully because Evan is smack in the middle of his afternoon nap when Zachary gets home from school so I can have some one-on-one time with him before Evan wakes up. (That's when I give him the inquisition, gently, of course).

So here's what I learned today:

1. Riding the bus is really fun. He had to sit with a kid he didn't know today because the teacher put him there. Andrew (the coolest kid on the block and a 5th grader) asked Zachary to sit with him tomorrow. Zachary adores Andrew and his brother, Jack, and I adore the whole family.

2. He didn't drink anything at lunch, despite my packing a milk with his lunch. Unclear if he got a milk from the cafeteria. He saw other friends from preschool, who are in a different class, today at lunch.

3. They learned a song about peanut butter. He performed it for me several times tonight with the little dance. It's so cute, and watching his face light up and the huge grin as he sings makes me so happy.

4. He cut out school buses at the assistant teacher's desk, but he colored at the teacher's desk. He colored his bus blue, since that's his favorite color.

5. All the other students say that "C" makes the "ka" sound like in cat, but he told them it also makes the "sa" sound like the dwarf planet ceres. What can I say? The kid loves the planets and all things to do with outer space.

I also got the full report on who wore what, being that they have required uniform colors. The PTA sells school spirits shirts that can be worn, but Zachary doesn't quite get that it's okay to wear them even if it's the "wrong" color. Oh, and Banks (his real name) was on yellow today for walking on the wall. O-kay.

I was quite productive today, especially while Evan was napping. I do miss him terribly and cannot quite figure out what to do with myself all day. If my energy level holds up (and if I don't get to bed soon it won't) I should have my entire house organized and my body completely buff by the end of the school year. I finally have time to clean out closets, get on the Reformer, and still pack in some cardio. Now I know why all the other women in the neighborhood look so good - their kids are already in school!

First Day of Kindergarten

My little boy is suddenly so big. Today was his first day of school. He's at a big school with around 600 students in grades K-5. That school is a well-oiled machine, I must say, because they were so organized today. We were to meet his teacher this morning at the P.E. Pavilion. When we got there she was there and the other children were all sitting in a line. Zachary's favorite friends from preschool were waiting for him.

They are, from left, Alex, Madison, Marshall, and Zachary. The girls are twins (duh!) and Zachary is completely in love with Madison. Their family went sailing with us a couple of weeks ago.

Zachary was SO happy to have the girls (and their big brother) on the boat with us. Their parents are good friends of ours, so we all had a great evening.

But, I digress. Today was a hard day for me. It seems as if Zachary just grew up all of a sudden a few days ago. I watched the class walk from the P.E. Pavilion to the classroom this morning, and they all just followed along like they were supposed to - none of the 'cat herding' of preschool days past. All of the kids suddenly seemed so responsible. A couple other mothers and I followed the class, delivering school supplies, and we all just hung back as they found their cubbies and placed their backpacks and lunchboxes in them. Only then did I start to panic - I told Zachary he would get to eat in the cafeteria today but ALL the other kids brought their lunch. Oh dear. Then they each wandered into the classroom and sat on the big circular rug. All, that is, except for Zachary, who stood there for what seemed like minutes just staring.

He finally found a seat, next to Madison. Whew.

Then I proceeded to worry about the lunch thing. What if he didn't want what they were serving? Would he whine and cry? Panic, panic. I left the class and went to the cafeteria, where the PTA was hosting a "Boo Hoo, Yahoo" Social for the Kindergarten moms. Another mom, a good friend of mine (she has one in 1st grade and another in pre-K there) said she would check on Zachary during his lunch period. She called me later and told me he was fine.

I picked him up from school today, but I have decided to let him ride the bus home now. I know it sounds crazy, and three days ago I would have said NO-FREAKIN'-WAY to the bus. That was before I learned that half his class (the ones that live in our neighborhood) all ride the bus, as well as ALL the kids on our street. I've enlisted the bigger kids in the neighborhood (by bigger I mean older, there are two 5th graders on our block) to watch over Zachary on the bus. Plus our neighborhood is the 2nd stop. Thursday will be his first bus ride home. Zachary's more excited about the bus than he is about school, I think.

So, my friend Leslie gets her daughter to tell her 5 things that happened at school every day. Michele, who will not be outdone by Leslie, gets her triplets to each tell her 5 things that happened at school each day. Not that I'm freakishly competitive or anything, but I knew I was going to pry 5 things out of Zachary today. I did, however, hedge my bets - I brought along bribes.

5 Things that Happened on the 1st Day of Kindergarten:

1. They played on the playground. Zachary likes the playground equipment better at "big" school because it has a big slide. That earned him a new t-shirt (the PTA was selling school shirts this morning).

2. Julia whined today. She didn't get the memo about no whining at Kindergarten, apparently. That only earned him his water bottle (with ice water, it's so hot here still).

3. He liked eating in the cafeteria. He chose a hamburger, peas, chocolate milk, and chocolate pudding. For five years I've coached him on healthy choices for food (there were some healthy options), I'm not sure where I went wrong. This was a lot of information, so I gave him the other t-shirt I bought this morning.

4. He got moved from the blue group to the yellow group, which made him unhappy. Marshall and Madison were in the yellow group, so that was short lived. That earned him some Cheez-Its. They eat lunch at 10:30 so I knew he'd be hungry.

5. He then offered lots of banter about specific children in his class. This was very informative, especially about he children I didn't know. That earned him the jackpot: Skittles. Or 'skitters' as he calls them. He's had them at birthday parties and for snack at his summer camps and loves them. I don't like to buy him candy, but this was a special occasion.

I got precious little info about what they learned or what the teacher talked about today, but I'm hopeful more information will be forthcoming. Tomorrow he doesn't have school, the other half of the Kindergarten class will attend, then the entire class will be there Thursday and Friday. I have to be dressed and ready at 6:45 a.m. because once I get the kids up it's a whirlwind to get out the door at 7:30. I'm used to getting up around 6:30 so it's not that much earlier, we're just used to a more leisurely breakfast. I'm glad we have tomorrow off.

Speaking of tomorrow, Zachary, Ryan, and I are hitting the links. It should be fun!

Being Strong

There are times in one's life that one must be very strong. Most of the time I think it's a woman thing, however as I get older I realize it's not exclusive to my gender. I did not know my own strength until I began infertility treatments. I further realized the strength I possess after becoming a mother. I doubt myself frequently, but at my most rational I realize there is very little I cannot handle.

2 days before my 40th birthday (and a giant party my wonderful husband threw for me) my grandmother was admitted to the hospital with gangrene in her right foot. That night she had her right leg amputated below the knee. My family was shocked, devastated. My grandmother was such a huge part of my childhood, she helped raise me. She was quite active and lots of fun when I was young. She was my age now when I was born. The years have been hard for her, however, and for the last decade or so she's been mostly sedentary and clinically depressed. I've tried to do what I can to help her. I have helped her with a yoga program, walking programs, and other forms of exercise to help get her moving. Nothing stuck. My Mom has tried to get her involved in social groups, support groups, and the like. Again nothing stuck, for long. It's really sad.

However, I must remain strong. I went to visit her and supervised her PT and OT. I sent flowers and pictures Zachary drew for her. I call multiple times a day to offer words of encouragement and support. It's so hard, though. She's not used to formal exercise at all, so it's exceptionally brutal for her to do the simplest things. Her medical prognosis is good, the reality is not so good. She's doing fine with her PT, despite her protests. What I'm afraid of is that once she gets home the depression will take over and she won't continue her exercises. Her general health isn't so poor that she will just die, she would just return to her sedentary ways and simply rot the rest of her life away. I pray desperately that won't happen.

On a much lighter note, Zachary's orientation for Kindergarten was today. It's bittersweet to see him so big. Ryan and I both went to the school with him, each holding a hand of Zachary's. He happily bounced along with us, then saw some other kids and wriggled his hands free to skip ahead with them. My chest tightened a bit. I cannot believe he starts "big" school tomorrow.

Our zoned elementary school is the best in the county, and we were fortunate enough to get the legendary Kindergarten teacher everyone wanted. All the kids in the neighborhood go to this school, and many of the kids from his preschool class are in his class. I already love his teacher (everyone said I would) and hope she won't retire before Evan is old enough to have her.

I was quite nervous today, wanting to fall apart just a little, but I kept it together for Zachary's sake. He's happy and excited, but I can tell he has a little anxiety about the "newness" of it all. I know he'll be fine, but I know his life will change forever tomorrow. It's a rite of passage, so I have to be strong. I must say, however, the situation with this school, having the right teacher and living in our neighborhood is all SO perfect. I have a strong sense of peace about it, that is when I'm not nervous as a cat. The school has what it calls a "staggered start" - tomorrow the 1st half of the alphabet will go to school, then Wednesday the 2nd half. Zachary will go tomorrow, then be off Wednesday, and all the kids will be there Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow is a big day for my little boy.