Five Alarm Fun

Today was the Annual Poway Fire Department Open House. Being that my boys are obsessed with Fire and Rescue vehicles, it was an absolute GIVEN that we would be there.

...and that the smiles would abound.

We also invited our friend Tobin to join us. He enjoyed the Fire Trucks too, just not posing for pictures. Somewhere along the lines, my children have learned to smile upon request. I swear I didn't teach them!

We even got a special treat and met a Dalmatian! "Hi puppy dog!"

We were able to climb in all sorts of Fire Trucks. "Evan climb in Fire Truck, put seat belt on, drive."
"Ry-ry do too!"
Okay, so they had a ladder truck, with the ladder fully extended. VERY cool. There was this step between the ladder and the cab of the truck, it was a perfect place for little boys to climb. Except, see Evan's hand. What you can't see is the gear behind Tobin's head, covered in grease. Evan saw it. Evan stuck his hand in it.
"Evan has grubby hands" Yep, see all that axle grease? See Tobin's Mommy getting him in his white shirt away from Evan's grubby hands? Yep. What you don't see is the firefighter running around trying to find a wipe to clean Evan's grubby hands. What you don't see are the cones the firefighters placed on those tempting steps to prevent other boys from getting grubby hands.

We'll come to this event again, there's a lot of good information to be had, that is once the boys can sit still and not be overcome by the emotion over the fire trucks, there will be some good information to be had.

Reconnecting with old friends

One of our NICU friends ran into another mom we knew from our time in the NICU. They had basically dropped off the face of the earth after going home. There had been sightings, and we knew they had another baby, since they had another (short) NICU stay with the second baby.

I've often wondered about this mom. She gave birth to twins at 25 weeks. One twin survived, and the other did not. They had a long stay in the NICU too, and when they left, we hoped they would stay in touch. I often wondered how she did it. She didn't have time to grieve for her dead baby because she had another one fighting for his life. She had to muster up all of her positive energy to give to Tanner so he could fight to survive.

As a parent with a child that spent time in the NICU, I think you will forever wonder what happened to all of those babies you spent time with. You worry about them. Especially when you don't hear about how they are doing.

So, it was FANTASTIC to spend the morning seeing and playing with Tanner and his brother Peyton. Tanner is doing so well, he has some issues with eating, (sounded REALLY familiar) but developmentally, and physically, he's doing GREAT.

I didn't do a great job with the pictures, but, you try to get four toddlers in the same frame.
I forgot to post pictures with the apple picking post so here are a few just because.

How can it be fall its 90 degrees outside, or Ryan and Evan go apple picking

One of my mommy friends suggested we take a trip to the Raven Hill Orchard for some apple picking. They have dwarf trees so the fruit is at toddler level.

We told the boys Friday night that Saturday we were going to go apple picking. On Saturday, we woke up to a chorus of "Apple pick-ing, ap-ple pick-ing"

All the way to the mountains, we heard "Ap-ple pick-ing, Ap-ple pick-ing" and from Evan, "First pick ap-ples, then wash them, then eat them, then make pie!"

We picked about 14 pounds of apples, in less than an hour. The boys had a blast picking apples, eating them right from the trees, and running up and down the rows after rows of trees.

This was really a fun activity for the whole family. I highly recommend it to families, or just to people who want to get out and pick some apples. If we get through our 14 pounds sometime before the harvest is over, we'll be heading out to do this again.

As I cut up apples for lunch today, I was serenaded with our new favorite song..."Ap-ple pick-king, ap-ple pick-ing"

Ket Moo

It's no secret that the boys love music. We've tried to expose them to all genres, and especially not to just kids music. There is no Raffi in this house. That's why the boys love songs from the Grateful Dead, America, Five for Fighting, Coldplay, Leonard Cohen, Journey, Lyle Lovett, and the Beatles. We've also found lots of great music geared toward kids, the kids love it and it doesn't make their parents ears bleed. Some of our favorites include Putumayo Kids, Hullabaloo, and Grisman and Garcia.

Grammie sent us a CD from a great blues/rock/jazz/pop fusion artist Keb' Mo geared toward families and kids. It was a big hit. Now the boys are asking to listen to Ket Moo, and when we put it on, this is what breaks loose.


*Sorry for the poor video quality. It was still a bit dark in the house and I just grabbed my still camera to capture the moment.

New adventures

Another mom friend of mine suggested that we try classes at a local animal shelter. I had no idea that they had classes like this for little ones. This week was horses. The boys really enjoyed themselves. They used miniature horses so the kids weren't intimidated by huge animals. They each got to pet, groom and feed a horse. We did a craft, talked about some of the things horses are used for, (did you know there are seeing eyed horses?) and had a chance to interact with the horses. All in all it was a good experience. It's a good thing since we are signed up for reptiles, dogs and farm animals in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.



We also tried out a new place that teaches little ones foreign languages. They do Chinese, French and Spanish. We signed up for a free trial class in Spanish. Let's say, not the most successful class we've ever tried.

First, it was total immersion. The teacher only spoke to them in Spanish. Which is great, I really think this is a great way to learn a language. But part of my hesitation is my boys are still acquiring language. They seemed utterly confused. I'm sure after a few weeks they'd get the hang of it, but I felt like it was wrong...I can't really explain.

I firmly believe that the boys should be exposed to foreign languages as early as possible, however when they are still asking what everything is, is it really right for me or their teacher to only tell them what it is in Spanish? I mean, really, is this the right way? In my gut I feel that we should say the word in English, and then in Spanish, and then exclusively in Spanish.

Second, the class was too long, the kids got bored, the segments within the class were too long, the kids got really restless.

Third, its really expensive. A hundred bucks a month. Times two.

I just don't feel right about it. I'm going to keep looking for the right program. This wasn't it.

Life lived fully

This past weekend I went to the memorial service for my friend that passed away a few weeks ago. It was a lovely event with more than a hundred people in attendance. There were people from all aspects of Albert's life. Friends he met in the 7th grade, friends from high school, friends from college, friends from after college, friends from poker, friends from sea kayaking, friends from polo, friends from a social group, friends from a charity he volunteered with.

We had a number of speakers who told stories. We had a 3 hour paddle. (to scatter some of his ashes in the Bay) We had a long, laughter filled dinner. We had ice cream. All things Albert would have loved doing with us.

For me there were a couple of things said that day that struck me. Hit me hard, made me stop and think.

Albert's brother Tom said that he asked Albert shortly after his initial diagnosis if there was anything he wanted to do with his remaining time. Albert's response was no, he'd pretty much done everything he wanted.

How many of us can say the same thing? How many of us in 45 years have lived their lives fully, with no regrets, so that if we found out tomorrow we were dying, we would just be content to live our our remaining days just like we had before we were diagnosed?

Albert had his life set up so he had the means to live the way he wanted, to go and do some of the things that most of us can only dream about. But I think each of us can find small ways to live like there is no tomorrow. Now I'm not suggesting some list of things to do before you die, but making conscious decisions to take the long way home, or to eat that steak if it's what you really want, or to say screw the housework, I'm going to sit and play with my kids. It's those choices that might make tomorrow a little harder, or cause you to have to work out a little extra, but really, isn't it worth it to live your life fully and end it, whenever, without regrets?

A little deception can't hurt, right?

So, we've been reading the Harry Potter series to the boys before bed every night for a while now. Ryan and I are done with it and have been for about a week. I suggested we read Eragon, or as I told him, the Dragon Book. That brought tears the first night, so I re-read the last chapter and he was happy.

I love the Harry Potter books, and I've read all of them several times. I'm really not ready to re-read them a mere 6 months after I started Book I with Ryan. I've suggested other options, the Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Princess Bride, Grimm's Fairy Tales, nope, tears.

I decided to practice a little deception with the little man, and I'm starting to feel a little bad about it. I wrapped Eragon in one of the Harry Potter book jackets and have been reading it to Ryan ever since.

The first night after I started reading, he looked at the book a couple of times, and I think he even asked once "Harry Potter?" I continued to deceive and told him to put his head down, and said "yes, Harry Potter".

This can't scar him for life can it?