Robot Head: A trip to the Urgent Care

Last night we were kid-free at a friend's wedding and received a call: Gus had bumped his head (on his cousin Berik's chin) and was in the Urgent Care, headed for some repair. We soon learned that the injury merited some metal, some cool looking staples. He was there with his auntie who is a nurse, was in a great mood, eating a DQ Blizzard and giggling. We left the wedding to join them at the hospital. We found a smiling Gus, but a Gus who just might set off the metal detectors at the airport with six staples.
We've got a good gig set up with Ron's sister Gretchen and her husband Tieg. They have three kids and live a mile away and we're very close friends with them. A while back we decided to set up a regular date night exchange with them, meaning one Friday night a month, each couple gets to drop off their kids around dinner time at the other couple's house and pick them up the next morning. We try to get the dates on the calendar many months in advance, ensuring that the dates never get skipped over or pushed to the side.

As a result, the kids get along fabulously because they have sleepovers twice every month. Our kids went to their house last night and they went to a nearby lake for a swim. Berik and Gus crashed into eachother and were laughing, until they noticed the blood dripping from Berik's chin. With smiles on their faces, soon they realized that Gus, too, had an injury. Tough guys, indeed. And as for Gus, he held it all together, staples and all, until it was all over and I poked my head in the door. You're so brave, buddy!

OLE!

Gus wants to be famous someday. We told him that it might happen if he joined the Mexican Dance and Cultural club at his school, a great fit for a kid that loves to sing and dance. He was excited about it for a day, then begged me to tear up the application and my check. With a little extra prodding, he made it to the first session and hasn't looked back. He danced this week at a fundraiser at a local bookstore. Look out world, here comes Gustavo. OLE!

His favorite kindergarten friend Celia stayed to watch him dance. He was thrilled!

Happy Halloween

The Shadow Ninja, Witch and Anakin Skywalker are all in bed after a warm evening of trick or treating. I'm coming down off of my sugar rush. Must get to bed. Maybe just one more Almond Joy? They won't notice if I sneak another one, will they?
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And you? What's your favorite thing to score from their loot bags? Special Dark is my other fave!

Feeling Fall

While the Vikings played today, I got a chance to be outside by myself. Usually I have many little bodies and paws surrounding me to play with and chase and inevitably spend my time making mental lists of all the things I'd like to accomplish. Today was just the day I had been hoping for. With the kids inside with Daddy, I grabbed my rake, bags and trimmer and got to work.

To do:
-cut down/dead head flowers
-empty wilted flower boxes
-rake and bag
-clean up firewood/branch pile
-dig up weeds in the south garden
-pick last tomatoes for counter ripening
-check for remaining carrots
-dig out canna bulbs
-put away hose for the season

I did all but the last two and I feel wonderful. Dragging the firepit to the driveway in the front where I was working, I managed to both fill the neighborhood with the tell-tale fall smell of burning wood and deal with the overflowing pile of accumulated sticks that I trip over every day when I exit the van. I alternated between raking and stoking the fire, pulling dead plants and breaking sticks over my knee. My list is not quite as inspiring as Martha's to-do list is every month in Living magazine, but for a working mom, I'm rather satsified.

The kids joined me later when they grew bored of the game and learned of the fire. I even coaxed Louise in her party dress to join me with the raking. Gus was most at home tending the fire, trying to wave sticks with a fiery end in the air when my back was turned. Carl was happy to help with the leaf bagging process, especially once he figured out that s'mores were a possibility once the work was finished.

Wild for Turkeys

There's a family of turkeys that has been hanging out in our neighborhood for the past month or so. Although I haven't gotten up close to inspect, it would appear that it is a Momma turkey and her five babies. They showed up one day in our back yard, in the fenced-in part where our dog likes to hang out. Gus spotted them from the window and shouted, "Mom, there's a pack of wild turkeys in our yard! Cool!"
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We've watched them from the windows, followed them around the neighborhood taking their pictures and once or twice, I've caught Gus chasing them with a squirt gun or a stick. I've tried in instill in the kids a sense of awe for their beauty, a curiosity for a "pack" of turkeys in an urban neighborhood. But yet, last week Gus said to me, "Mom, can I go get a knife and stab one?"
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Well, at least he asked. I think they'd out run him any day.

Boys in the Kitchen

We harvested our first ever cabbage from our garden last week and declared that a big bowl of coleslaw was in order to celebrate.
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The boys hauled up the food processer from the basement (an old-school one that once belonged to my grandma) and tried to patiently take turns running it.
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We're really into making our own salad dressing, but there is no better coleslaw sauce than Rudolph's.

The Green Kingdom

I saw a picture of kids in green crowns on my friend Kerry's blog and asked her how she learned to make them. Her response, "Really? I just wrapped them and twisted 'til they looked right."

So we made crowns of green and pretented we lived in a green kingdom with Gus as King and Louise as Queen for the afternoon.

Next on the list? Dandilion crowns... but I think we're a little late in the season. Maybe purple coneflower tiaras?

In Search of Summer: June 4

We've been in search of beautiful flowers here. As May tumbled gently into June, the spring and summer flowers have been at their peak of beauty. Gus and Louise helped me remember to stop and smell them.

My favorite flowers of the early summer have always been tulips and irises, but this year the peonies have been calling my name. Poppies too. I think when we move to the farm I might just have to plant lots and lots of them. So beautiful, and so bright!

In Search of Summer: May 31

I'm joining in on the fun with The Yellow Door Paperie. These folks are on a journey to find as much summer as possible. Follow the link on the side bar and see what everyone has been finding.

Gus, Tacky and the neighbor girls.

We've been hanging out with Tacky the penguin, the penguin featured in a fantastic and funny book series by Helen Lester and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. Gus's preschool teacher sewed a Tacky penguin and sends it home with a few of the books and a journal. Each child gets to spend a few days with Tacky, then writes all about the visit in the journal and includes pictures of their joint adventures. Gus loved reading about all his classmates' adventures and also peeking back into the archives, finding Carl's own entry two years ago. I love group projects like this.

Gus and Tacky tackle the tomato watering.

The Birthday Boy turns FIVE

Yes, we have another birthday in our family this week. Gus and Louise almost shared a birthday. She was born 18 minutes before midnight, and we all sighed a collective sigh of relief. He has never minded sharing a birthday week with her... in fact, he loves the idea of having not one, but TWO cakes in a week.

Mr. Gus turns five today and we couldn't be prouder. It has been an exciting spring here with Gus making his mind up about wanting to ride his bike without training wheels. They were frustrating him and making bike riding not very fun. He ran up to me one day and said, "Mom, Berik beat me."

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"WHAT?" I yelped.

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Berik is Gus' cousin and best friend who is six months older than him and they often play rough together while they are having fun.

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"Berik learned how to ride his bike without training wheels before me," Gus lamented.

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I had forgotten that last summer we talked about learning to ride his bike without training wheels and that maybe he could beat Berik at the race. They're quite competitive and I figured this would be a little extra incentive.

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"Mom, can we still do it before my birthday? That way I'll still be four, but he was five when he learned."

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We got a tiny bike out of the garage and I showed him how to use it by kicking the ground, not using the pedals. He was so determined that he kicked up and down the sidewalk for about 10 minutes, then announced he was ready for my help. Within minutes of me running beside him holding the seat, he took off. Gus beamed.

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Happy Birthday, Big G. We love you for your giggles, hugs, and cuddles, your collection of findings, your intense love of your brother and sister, your passion for PBJ sandwiches and a glass of slurpy milk, your desire to sneak treats from the locked up cupboard, your excitement when you listen to music (Surfin' USA!), your constant need for 'notha hugkiss in the morning from Daddy, and your helpfulness to me, on your own terms. Gus... we love you! Happy number FIVE! You're off to kindergarten soon, big guy!

Spring Cleaning

My favorite way to clean a room is to rearrange it. I love to totally switch things around, leaving no thing untouched. That way, I am forced to clean everything... even the little dust balls that lurk in the teeniest nook and cranny. Recently, it was the porch. Over the winter I had let piles of stuff for thrift store donations pile up in the corner along with other random stuff left over from last summer. Ugh. So, with a little help from two little helpers, I rearranged the porch and cleaned. Afterwards we celebrated with some fresh cut flowers from the garden, plus a vase for both of their rooms.

What's your method for the spring cleaning madness? Are you a rearranger? Do tell!

Singin' in the Rain

It was raining a bit last week and we've been loving our rain boots and hand-me-down raincoats.

And don't forget mama, in those orange polka dotted boots. I'm dancing in the rain just as much as those three little ones.

Little Messes and Piles

Gus is into making little piles. He likes to leave them all over the house. He doesn't do it to be a pest or to drive me crazy, he just does it because he loves little things. This is the guy who at the age of two started a collection. We'd be out walking or at a park and he'd run up to us to tell us to put his _______ (fill in the blank with screw, nail, stick, rock, hair band, bead, eraser or anything small) in our pockets. Soon Ron began to store all these little things in a jar on our dresser. The jar became known as "the finding jar." Now these things are called his "findings."

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"Hey Mom, can I sort out my findings?" is a common request when he has free time. Gus likes to climb up on a stool, grab the box of his stuff on our dresser, and lay it out on a tray. He manipulates, builds, plays, makes up stories, sorts, makes patterns and more. He can stay busy with his findings for hours. Hours.

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I love this about him. I love when he plays with them. I love when he finds things that no one else in the world would notice on the ground. I love how it makes him smile.

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What's a mom to do when he leaves them all over the house?

A Friend with an Orange Hat

On Wednesdays I get to take the boys on an afternoon date while my Mom takes care of Louise. It gives my Mom some alone time with Louise and my nephew Logan and allows me a few hours to myself, plus afterschool time with just the boys to do more grown-up activities.

Since the snow is quickly melting away today with the rain and a forecast that predicts 50s soon, I figured it was time to get outside and enjoy the snow in a big way. I had seen that Kerry had visited this site recently and knew the boys would love it.
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I asked them, "Are you in, or are you out?" which in our family, means an adventure is on the horizon. Of course they were in, so we donned snow pants and boots and hit the road. I parked a few blocks away-- knowing it would be more fun to meander through the woods by the Minnehaha creek and discover it themselves. All I told them was, "We're going to be meeting a friend with an orange hat."

"We found him, Mom!"

Off to dry off, warm up, and sip our hot cocoa..