The Candy Dump

Today Will sorted through all of his Trick or Treat candy.  He lined up each piece, counted the Smarties and Hershey bars and asked what the ones were that he didn't recognize.  He was SO excited!  I noticed he had created a small pile of candy over at the far side of the table.  I asked him if those were the ones he didn't like. 

He said "Yeah - and do you know what I call that pile?  My candy dump!"

I'm sure Jerry will be glad to go through the "dump" since it's full of Almond Joy bars!

Trick or Treat!

After shopping at almost every store in State College on Saturday, and rejecting every costume he saw, Will finally decided he wanted to be a glow man for Halloween.  We saw a light-up costume in Walmart that Will liked but it was way too big for him.  I decided I might be able to hot glue some glow sticks to a black suit.  Though it wasn't exactly easy - it worked!  Will made a great glow man!

His friend Mario (a.k.a. Caleb) came over to trick or treat with him so he had a really good time, and got lots of great candy!

And yes, tonight was trick or treat in Huntingdon.  For some reason that I have yet to figure out they move trick or treat to the Wednesday before Halloween.  I feel sorry for the school teachers on Thursday!!

A Sick Day

Today was the Halloween party at the Community Center Playday.  The kids get to dress up in their costumes and everyone brings a special snack to share.  Unfortunately, Will has a cold with a low grade fever and slight cough.  He feels fine but since he has a fever I decided I shouldn't expose the other kids to his germs.  He was really disappointed about missing playday (and the snacks!) so I tried to make a fun day for him at home. 

Thankfully it was just beautiful outside today so first we took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood.  Then I packed us a picnic lunch and we walked up Flagpole Hill.  Will's favorite part was walking through the rocky ditches left in the road by rainwater.  I commented how peaceful and quiet it was up there and Will said "Yeah, there is so much peace and quiet I could build a house here."  Then he was very proud of himself for discovering a different path to follow back down the hill, though actually it was just the other side of the path that encircles the flag and water tower.  : )

While we were walking he found a pinecone which reminded me of the peanut butter and seed birdfeeders that kids make.  We brought home several of the cones to use for the craft after naptime.

Flagpole Hill is a beautiful overlook of Huntingdon.

Will was apparently paying attention when his Aunt Kristen emphasized the
importance of never leaving behind trash on a hike.  He was picking up
trash at the flagpole today, expressing great disappointment in
those who left it there.

I neglected to put the memory card back in my camera before craft time today
so all the great pictures I took of spreading peanut butter and sprinkling
bird seed are now only in my mind's eye.  : (
Will was very sweet though when I told him what I had done and he
agreed to pose for a picture with one of his finished pinecones.

Picnic

It was so nice outside today.  We went for a walk then decided to have a picnic on the deck.  Too bad I put the deck furniture away last week - I guess that was a bit premature!  Oh well, I think Will had more fun just sitting on the deck to eat.

Carving Our Pumpkin

Initially, Will was not thrilled about cleaning out the slimey seeds....

Later, he decided it was fun after all.

I drew several different pumpkin faces on a paper and let Will
choose which one he wanted for his pumpkin.  Then I drew
the outline and he did the carving.

The length of his tongue is directly proportional to his level of
concentration!

Obviously the nose took a LOT of concentration!

His finished product!
Will carved it all by himself except for the first eye that I used
to show him the process and part of the mouth - his little
hands were quite tired  by the end!

A Free Balloon

I picked up a balloon that was blowing across the parking lot at Target yesterday.  Little did I know how much enjoyment it would bring.  Playing "keep the balloon up" has provided literally hours of entertainment!

Will and Josie

Will picked Josie up and held her while he was watching television
this evening.  Josie seemed content with the arrangement.

Capital "I"

Will had been practicing writing the letters in his name today and I noticed that he was writing capital "I"s instead of lower case ones like he usually does.  I asked him about it after he wrote his name with a capital "I" several times and I explained that the first letter of your name is a capital letter and the rest are lower case.  I told him that if "I" was the first letter in his name that it would be capitalized but since it was the second letter it should be lower case. 

The next time he wrote his name he wrote wrote the "W" then got ready to write the "I" to the right but instead, remembering what I told him about where we use a capital letter, he wrote the capital "I" to the left of the "W" so it would be the first letter in his name!  Then he looked up at me grinning, obviously very proud that he found a way to "bend" the rules!  : )

Get-Well Wishes

Jenny found out today that her dad has stomach cancer.  She sent me a text message about it and when Will heard me exclaim "Oh, no!" after I read the message he asked what was wrong.  I told him that Jenny just found out that her dad is sick.  He asked lots of questions about what made him sick and we talked about it on the way home from preschool.  During lunch I reminded Will that we needed to send Grandma Margie a thank you note for the jelly and applesauce she made us.  He got excited about drawing her a picture and then he came up with the idea of sending Jenny's dad a picture to help him get better.  I asked what he wanted to draw but he said I could just take a picture to send him.

I said "Oh, you want me to take a picture of you to send him?"

"No, you can take a picture of something else."

"What do you think he would like a picture of?"

"Well, I think a picture of some leaves would make him feel better."

"You mean like the leaves on the trees."

"No, like the pretty leaves that fell off the trees."

So we went outside and Will gathered his favorite leaves.  Then he arranged them in a pile on a piece of paper and signed his name.  I took the picture, which he had to make sure he approved, and we had it printed to send out. 

We hope it will help!!

The Things They Say...

I can account for some of the things my son says.  For example, last night he turned to me as he was brushing his teeth, showed me his toothbrush and proudly said, "Mommy, look how many calories I brushed off!"  Cavities can easily be confused with the calories he has heard me talk about after riding the exercise bike.

Some things, however, simply defy explanation.  Today I looked at Will and asked (as I often do) "How did you ever get so cute?"  He usually just smiles and says he doesn't know.  Tonight he smiled and said "Because I have a penis!"

Preschool

Preschool has been going better for Will this year since his friend Caleb is in his class.  Will looks forward to playing with him so it distracts him from thinking about me not being there, though he still asks for me to wait outside the door or in the car.  He also seems to be enjoying it more because he is more willing to talk about what he did during the day.  A couple weeks ago when I picked him up we talked about his day during the ride home.  Then when we sat down for lunch I asked him a few more questions about what they did.  He seemed to be ok with talking about it so I went on to ask if they read any books.  He told me they read a book about a talking crayon so I asked what happened in the story (mostly to see if he retained any of it).  I guess by that time he had had enough of my questions because he said "Mommy, you should have just stayed there!"

The next week I took his advice and left early to pick him up so I would have some time to watch what was going on without him knowing I was there.  They were playing outside and I watched him ride the seesaw with a little girl then play in the sandbox.  During lunch that day we were talking about school and I asked who he was riding the seesaw with.  It was at this point that I realized the extent of my son's fascination with Thomas the Train.  In response to my question Will said "I was riding with Emily.  But she's not a train - she's a kid."  (For those of you not fortunate enough to watch Thomas each Saturday morning - Emily is one of the engines on the show.)

Fall Pictures

It was the peak of the fall color in Covington this week.  Hot Springs mountain was so beautiful!  We drove over the Blue Ridge Parkway on Thursday on our way back from Roanoke.  Unfortunately it was cloudy and raining so many of the views were obscured by fog but the color along the roadway was still gorgeous.  Also, in several spots it was really awesome to watch the fog blowing over the mountain and across the roadway.  Toward the end of the trip the clouds cleared a bit and it was beautiful to see the sun breaking through and illuminating patches of the mountains.

Picking apples at Grandma Margie's house on Monday.

I was amazed how much more color this tree had by Friday.

I managed to get some really cute pictures of Will by telling him
NOT to get in my pictures of the trees!

Will made a game out of running up the hill and flopping down on
his belly so he thought it was funny to flop down in the
middle of my picture of the shed  : )  I will be disappointed
when he no longer falls for my trick!

Hot Springs Mountain overlook.

Happy Birthday, Pat!

Will and I traveled to Covington Sunday while Jerry traveled to Sydney, New York.  Today was Pat's birthday so we visited him at the nursing home for a small celebration.  Pat likes playing checkers so Kristen and Will played a game with him while we were there.  It really amazes me how perceptive kids can be.  Normally when we play games with Will he is focused on winning but while he was playing today he started yelling "Yay, Pat" every time Pat jumped one of his checkers.  At the end of the game Will was excited that Pat had won and then helped him clean up the game pieces.  I was really proud that he was able to recognize on his own that the fun of that particular game was helping Pat have fun rather than trying to win.

     

Hartslog Day

We thought we were going to miss Hartslog this year because we planned on traveling to Richmond with Jerry.  However, Napoleon was still at the vet when Jerry left Thursday so we were in town today for the festival.  It was great to be outside enjoying the sunny warm day.

We had a really fun day aside from the meltdown Will had.  We bought a much-acclaimed moon pie (woopie pie to those of a Northern persuasion) that Les, Jerry's coworker, had made for the United Way fundraiser.  Jerry and I took a small piece to taste and offered the rest to Will which resulted in a crying fit about not wanting to share.  In fact he insisted that he wasn't going to eat any at all since he had to share.  His decision quickly changed after I put the moon pie away and told him he couldn't have any since he couldn't share.  It was a hard lesson to learn, especially since it meant missing out on a great moon pie, but hopefully sharing won't be an issue going forward. 

We had a nice time at the children's tent, but we missed the petting zoo they had last year.  Also, they must rotate the craft projects at the kid's tables because after reading Lindsay's blog I realized they got to do a much cooler craft than we did.  They were there for peanut butter and birdseed pine cones!  Fortunately though Will really likes using glue so he was happy with his project.

   

Napoleon's Close Call

This week has been entirely devoted to Napoleon.  On Saturday morning he started vomiting and by Saturday evening he was still getting sick and was so uncomfortable and restless that I was afraid he would suffer dehydration if we didn't do something for him.  I ended up taking him to a 24-hour emergency vet in State College that night.  He stayed there Saturday and Sunday night on IV fluids but after bloodwork and an ultrasound they still didn't know what was wrong and he was still vomiting (despite the anti-nausea medication he was on).  On Monday morning the emergency vet office closed and we had to transfer him to a local vet.  I took him to a vet in Warriors Mark where they took x-rays, did more bloodwork, and tried several medications for severe gastritis but Napoleon was still no better.  We finally decided on Wednesday that our only option was to do an exploratory surgery to see what was wrong.  I was so afraid at that point that they would find cancer or something that we couldn't fix and that I was saying goodbye. 

There aren't words for my relief when the vet called during surgery to tell me what they found - a piece of CORNCOB!!!!  My perpetually hungry little dog had eaten a piece of corncob that had become lodged in his small intestine creating a blockage.  They removed the obstruction along with several inches of intestine that was almost perforated.

After two more nights at the vet, Napoleon started eating again and was able to come home today (after a total of six nights at the vet!).

Napoleon was an early Christmas present for me in October nine years ago.  I guess after paying the vet bills this October he is an early Christmas present again!

To add insult to injury they had to shave his belly.
My poor baby!!