The Man of Squeal

I don't want you to think every dinner is like this for Blane--he had a bit of a tough day (of his own making, I might add). He ate almost nothing for lunch, took a fake nap (that's when he rolls around in his bed for an hour and never sleep), then when it was snacktime, we pulled out his lunch. That went over really well, as you can imagine. He fell asleep on the floor for half and hour and woke up cranky. During dinner, he spilled his milk on everything and went through the roof. He got even madder when we had to change out his plate. After corners, screamings and spankings for about 5 minutes, Scott carried him under his arm, stiff and kicking, up to his room. As they went through the living room, Seth quips, "Look, it's a bird! It's a plane! It's SUPER NO!"

That was a pretty good description at the time (and pretty funny too!).

After 20 minutes, basic survival instincts prevailed, and Blane humbly ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Grenades of Responsibility

Today we are planning Seth's birthday party (tenatively, we will be having it on April 12, barring any conflict that Scott might find on his work calendar). We decided to have a monkey/animal party--complete with monkey cupcakes and animal games. So Seth and I went to the dollar store to scope out invitations. We found appropriate animal-themed invites and then proceeded to walk around the store, looking at possible party favors, balloons, good deals for me, etc.

Seth and I were walking by a toy display when he said, "Mom, what's this?" At the same time, his hand shot out and grabbed a fake grenade, which was mostly encased in the plastic, except for the handle that you squeeze. It only took a second or two of mashing it before its dollar-store quality shone through, and the handle broke off.

"Seth," I said, "when you break something in a store, you have to pay for it."

"Really?" He looked repentant. I said, "You can pay me a dollar when we get home." We paid for our merchandise and left. In the car, I told him the legendary story of Uncle Dan and the Minnesota loon figurine (for those not belonging to the immediate McGregor family, I won't bore you with the details, but it had something to do with a loon figurine in a Minnesota souvenir shop, a pre-teen's fingers that had to mess with something, and my dad's sense of teaching responsibility. In Dan's defense, my mom later said that she thought the figurine was already broken. I think my parents still have that thing.)

Later Seth said, "Well, at least I broke something I like instead of a statue, like Uncle Dan." And he did pay me that dollar.

Friends and B-ball

Zac's all better now...we've been 24 hours + without fever. He had his buddy Joey over today after church to play and has been doing just fine.

Last night Cindy and Joe (Scott's aunt and uncle) brought John over to play. Even though John is 11, he really seems to enjoy playing with the guys--running around, wrestling, playing board games and watching the tournament basketball games. So we've had a busy, but very fun, weekend.

Tonight is low-key...just hang out and watch the KU game. Zac and Seth are fast becoming Jayhawk fans. I guess I'll have to come to terms with that...ha! Like I really care!

Zac...again

I promise I will not keep giving everyone play by play on Zac's hourly temperature, but...he's back up to 102+. Obviously, this is not going away. No swollen nodes, so it's probably a virus, but it's too late for Tamiflu if it is the flu (now that he's had this 36 hours). Poor guy. He says he isn't achy or too uncomfortable, so that's good.

I'm sorry that he's sick, but I have to say I'm not too upset about having a good excuse for not showing up at our clubhouse clean-up tomorrow in the cold and blustery weather (Scott has a conference, so it's just me and the guys tomorrow).

Zac

He's well now and has not had a fever for hours. Guess it was a two day thing!

Report card time

Time for fun with report cards! Since Zac didn't go to school today, Seth is the only one who got his. He's doing very well, as usual. I will quote the comments in full, as we always enjoy those:

"Seth continues to have some difficult with self control. He is very fast paced, and has trouble walking instead of running, and remembering to talk softly. I know he is trying; he is always compliant and helpful. It is also true that Seth works hard, always completes his work quickly and that his mind is always working! He tracks the time for me, and seems to love any challenge I can give him! He is showing a lot of ability in the math area. He really understands money and can count and compute all kinds of different coins and add and subtract in his head. His progress in the reading area is also evident. This quarter Seth read 85% of the three and four letter assessment words."

He was also at the high end of the target range or well above the range in all indicators of an assessment for literacy called DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). Great job, Seth!

Antibodies

I got a message from the nurse yesterday asking me to call her about the boys' labwork. They usually don't call if things are normal so I was expecting bad news. I waited WAY too long on the phone, imagining all sorts of bad things. Then when the nurse came on, she told me cheerily that everything was normal! We've had normal antibody readings for 4 years now (since the year after their diagnoses). That news always puts me in a good mood--and I kicked myself for getting all worked up.