Another Monday

Well, it's been a week since the knee thing and Bren is still hobbling around. His pain is less, but other than that it doesn't seem to be getting any better. He's really slow and careful with it. We took him back in today and the Doc sent us on for labs just to rule out Lyme Disease. Yuck. Hope it's not that. But, treatment is simple antibiotics. We will know the results on Thursday or Friday.
Brendan was very brave while they took 2 viles of blood from his arm. He milked it a bit and got lunch out for his courage! :) (He would have gotten lunch out anyway)

Brendan's Drawings

Brendan has all of a sudden realized he can draw whatever he wants. It's kind of a new obsession. We are going through the paper like crazy. All kinds of paper, too. Printer paper, construction paper, card stock. Rand is literally creating wall paper in his office with all these drawings. Wyatt is participating too, but his drawings don't resemble real objects yet. It's getting there though!
I'm wondering what the floating head thing means? I'm sure I have a play therapy book around here somewhere that probably explains some sort of emotional detachment thing that is going on. Hmmmm, to analyze or not to analyze...that is the question.
I love these though. Especially the trees and the animals. It's fun watching it all evolve.

these pictures are of a jungle. there's a tree, a monkey, a tiger, a mouse, a bird, part of a snake...

here, we have the rest of the snake, a car and a zebra. this is Wyatt's contribution....

houses are his favorite thing to draw. the black one is rand looking through a telescope at the stars and the moon saying, "I love this!" (and wishing he could go to the moon and get a rock for Brendan and Wyatt)
Aren't the floating heads hilarious?

Addiction

My favorite part of the day.
I've tried to stop. Really, I have. But it's cold, and I'm tired. And it works so well. :)
I love you, Cup of Coffee.

Squirrel Watching

There are millions of squirrels here. Millions! There are lots of walnut trees close by and we have been watching the squirrels going "nuts" preparing for winter. Right outside one of our living room windows is a big oak tree. Obviously a branch that was probably growing into the house got cut off and it creates a perfect little ledge for a squirrel to sit and shred his walnuts. I had no idea what squirrels did. Well, I knew they collected nuts, but I've never really watched it. From my observations here is what they do. The walnuts grow on these huge trees and they are actually inside a big fruit...about the size of a lemon...kind of looks like a lemon, but round. They fall off the trees and the squirrels grab them and find a safe place to sit. They then proceed to shred all the "fruit" off of the walnut. Once they get the walnut fruit skin off, I think they hide them. I saw one squirrel digging in the yard with this big walnut in his mouth. I've heard they will even take your bulbs and hide them in other places. Sometimes they will sit and eat the walnut, which we observed this morning. The boys love it! The little branch by the window is really close, so we get a good look at exactly what the little guys are doing. I hear also, that they are actually quite pesty, especially in the winter...getting into the house and stuff. I refuse to kill them or witness anyone killing them, they are way too cute. I do prefer to watch them from the window as opposed to trying to get them out of my attic! Brendan really wants one for a pet, but I don't want him to get rabies, so we keep to just squirrel watching.


(that yellow blur in the background was a leaf falling. It just rains leaves!)

Monday

We had a full, unexpected day yesterday.

On Sunday Brendan kind of complained all day that his right leg was hurting. I kept wondering what the problem was, but wasn't concerned because he was running and playing with the best of 'em. Sunday we had a very full day of raking leaves, which was super fun. The kids raked and jumped and raked and jumped.

Sunday night was awful. Brendan basically didn't sleep all night because his leg was hurting. Specifically it was his knee. I gave him Tylenol, but it didn't seem to help. By morning the pain was excruciating for him and he couldn't walk on it at all. Rand and I decided to make him an appointment. I spent the majority of the morning trying to choose a pediatrician (hadn't done that yet!). Found one, made an appointment for around noon. Brendan couldn't walk or bend his knee without a whole lot of pain, so I was glad Rand had the day off because we carried him A LOT yesterday. According to the nurse, he now weighs 50 lbs!!! Carrying him for me is getting close to impossible. The Doc couldn't solve the mystery and because the pain was so bad he decided to send us on for X-Rays. After a couple hoops and the run around we finally got the X-Rays done and by the end of the day, the Motrin was working and Brendan was starting to feel a little better.

We got home around 5:30 and the Doc called right when we got home. Looked at the X-Rays and said that whatever the issue is, it is not bone related.

I gave Bren another dose of Motrin before bed and haven't heard a peep out of him about his knee. Grrrr! Don't get me wrong. I'm glad nothing seems to be wrong with it, but boy, yesterday feels like a waste. Rand and I decided that even if it was a waste, at least we got to be together and we had a couple "we-don't-know-where-we-are" adventures. Finding your way around this place is crazy! NOTHING like the wonderful grid of Phoenix.

So that was Monday.......ALL DAY!

I just asked Brendan how is knee was feeling......Here is what he said:

"Fine. Feelin' fine. I can bend it like this, but not like this. Actually look (demonstrating all the ways he can bend it). I'm totally fine! And look at me, I look cute! Look at the clothes I have on......"
Oh boy, this is what constant attention will get you! :)

Knit Wits

In an effort to restart something old in a new way I would like to introduce you to Knit Wits.
You can read all about what it is here (in Rachel's words). It's technically a knitting club, but anyone can be involved in a couple different ways. There are several "members" that will be posting, but you can also be a club member by becoming a "follower" of the blog. Or you can just check it out whenever you want. :)
Hopefully I can keep up my knitting kick for a while here. (I have a tendency to burn out and move on to other things before too long.) That's the great part about it being a club. If I'm not knitting, hopefully someone else is.
Another good thing about this club is that it's members are literally spread across the country. So if you're wanting to learn to knit.....or knit with a buddy in person as opposed to just online, chances are you could meet up with one of us and we could knit together. Sounds fun!
I know with the three of us sisters being thousands of miles apart we could probably each use some new knitting buddies.....or just crafting buddies in general. As Rachel explains, our Knit Wits club back in WA usually just turned into Rachel knitting like the wind and the rest of us chatting, eating, drinking wine, and laughing a lot. Hey, there's a reason she is called The Yarn Whisperer. She's good. She actually knits...like all the time.
So here's to knitting and knitting clubs at every level!

River Trail

Everyday (well, the days I leave the house and turn left instead of right) we drive over the Schuylkill River. Just over the river on our side is a big sign (that Brendan reads every time) that says "River Trail". Brendan has been bothering me to check it out sometime. I wasn't sure what it was exactly. I kind of thought it might just be a boat launch of some kind since I've seen kayakers going there. So today on our way home we stopped. We actually drove past it, had the same conversation we always have about, but today we flipped it and went back to check it out. After all, the weather was terrific and we only have days of beautiful autumn colors to enjoy. Turns out it is a fantastic trail that follows the river for 3 miles through the woods. We didn't walk three miles, but we enjoyed the scenery and climbing on logs and picking up giant leaves until someone inevitably had to use the bathroom, and we left and went home.
Just a few more leafy pictures from Pennsylvania.....

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Warm, But Fall Nonetheless

For a second I thought it was going to get really cold here. It was cold, for like a day, and now it is warm. By warm I mean Washington-weather-warm, not Arizona-weather-warm. Today it is getting up towards 70 degrees, but if you just looked out the window you would swear it must be somewhere around 40. Depends on what you're used to I suppose. The colors, however, are spectacular! I wish it would just stay like this for 6 weeks more. I think the trees will be bare in a couple weeks at the most. One good wind storm could erase most of the color from the beautiful scenery in a matter of days.

The trees in our yard have finally turned, and every day they look a little thinner and there is less grass showing in our yard. It's rained for 2 days, so the leaves are staying as a carpet until they dry up and can be raked (or blown) a little more easily. Besides, our kids should be able to do a little leaf jumping first before boring winter replaces this colorful autumn.

He Did It!

You just don't realise how difficult certain little tasks actually are, that we do every single day, until you try to teach a five year old how to do it!

Yesterday, after weeks of instruction and practice, Brendan successfully tied a bow all by himself. He went to get dressed in the morning, as he usually does, and he was taking forever. I was wondering what he was doing so quietly in his room, as this is usually a very bad sign. I waited patiently for the crash of something breakable, or the "Mom, I did something I don't want to tell you..." (I've been getting that a lot lately) But voila! Here is what he was working on!

He was extremely proud of himself! Such a typical, first born boy! He just decides he wants to do these things himself and he sets out to make it happen. Remind you of anyone????? I'll give you a hint.....It's not me! :)

Here's mini-Rand with his first tied bow!

Oh, and this is for you, Royal....so you don't have to:
It looks like he is about ready to tie his own flies, don't you think??
Fish on, Uncle Bubba!!!

St. Peter's Village

I got to go to the cutest little place. It seemed like a little undiscovered village, just waiting for the tourists to stroll down the sidewalks. Surprisingly, it was very quiet. There was a charming bakery and a great little candy shop and even an old fashioned pinball arcade. There was also all these cool boulders and a creek behind the bakery. The kids were having a blast climbing on the rocks, jumping and just being boys. I was just about having a heart-attack!
I got the boys these great lollipops while we were at the candy shop. They chose cotton candy flavor and I was sure to take a picture before they bit into them. Low and behold these fabulous lollipops were hand-pulled in none other than Redmond, WA! I guess I'm just naturally drawn to things from home. (Sort of like when I bought that book in Arizona and the artist turned out to be from Olympia. Weird!)