Fall--Ing

We have had some beautiful weather.  Fall in Michigan is my absolute favorite.  I wish I could drive around with some sort of leaf cam to share the views--or at least to remind me of how beautiful fall is when we're freezing and trapped inside for months.

Pictures don't really do it justice--at least not my pictures--but I try. 

We are week 6 of school and as I mentioned before--we are back to busy.  Our most over-extended child is the middle one and while she's been mostly great about it, I must say that I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop (just had to google where that idiom actually came from--I'm not actually using it correctly unless the first shoe = me over-extending my child).  Anyway, the second shoe (my child's inevitable exhibited exhaustion, dropped somewhere in the middle of last week.  She has been moody and challenging and has begun to wish for more free time.  Actually, it is more whining than wishing and yesterday it was a full on temper tantrum.  As often happens, her temper tantrum leads to mine.  It wasn't pretty.

I wish I could go to my happy place and stay there in all moments of parenting, but I continue to struggle in that area.  I am feeling less stressed and rushed so far this school year.  We seem to be (mostly) in a groove. 

That wiggly tooth finally came out.  Actually, I took it out and there were tears, but the end result was the happy child pictured above.  Once she realized the bleeding would stop, it wasn't THAT painful and that she would get something in exchange for the pain she endured. She was not thrilled about exchanging the tooth for money.  She wrote the note below...although originally it read: "can I keep my toot". 

She is keeping it in her box from Aunt Jean.  She was so proud of her dollar and the quarter she earned for helping vacuum at her friend Kate's house the same weekend.  The Saturday after she lost the tooth we awoke to her sweet little voice saying, "I think the tooth fairy forgot to come". (No whining, no temper tantrum--she is the morning person of the family, after all).  She sat with me in bed for a few minutes talking about how the tooth fairy can always come the next day while daddy checked to see if the tooth fairy might have left the money inside her pillow case.  Being the youngest of 6 gives him a lot of inside information and quick thinking skills.  As often as I've been raiding my kids' piggy banks lately for the random amounts required to sign up for field trips and bags of change for counting activities, I'm just thankful the tooth fairy didn't have to borrow any of Hannah's savings and write an IOU similar to the one I wrote last week.  ATMs really need to give smaller denominations.

Gotta maintain the ones left behind.  The one next to it is a little wiggly now.  I'm not touching it.

Little sister is making up for lost time in the night waking department.  Last week she was in my bed almost every morning when I woke up....Joe's been traveling most of the last 3 weeks.  Over the weekend she had no room to just climb in bed with us so she chose to stand about 2 inches away from my face and stare until I woke up.  One night I screamed and she cried.  Then I went to tuck her in and laid down for "just a minute".  We are so out of practice from our sleepless night routine.  Over the weekend she also mentioned ear pain for the first time in months.  Yesterday I took her in and both ears have fluid on them with slight infections.  Since tubes and adenoids are scheduled for next week she'll be on antibiotics until then. 

She had a play date with a classmate last week.  They were adorable and so good. 

Two weeks ago Nathan's flag football team had their first win.  Only 5 of the nine kids showed up which meant they all played the entire game.  They were so much more intense without having to switch in and out.  It was incredibly cold and windy that day.  This past Sunday--the other 4 returned.  The two on the left are 5th graders.  I'm reminded of the Yoda shirt he wore when he was 3: Size Matters Not.

 

This is the first year they are old enough to allow rushing and the refs are a lot more stringent with the rules in this league.  It has been a learning experience--especially with the majority of the team playing for the first time this year. 

He has had some moments where he has seemed less in love with flag football than others, but the last two weeks he has really been more like his old self.  He is playing much harder and seems to actually be bonding with his teammates.

He's thrilled with the Tigers and the Lions.  (Hard not to be--it is fun watching people in Detroit get excited about something).  Less thrilled with the Longhorns at least this past Saturday, but it should be noted that not only did he wear a burnt orange jersey on Friday, but also on Monday.  He's not fair weather.  In fact, he is either going to be a Longhorn football player or a Longhorn fan for Halloween.  He would rather not dress up at all, but I told trick or treating without a costume is called begging and he's not doing that, so he's going with last year's costume or a slightly more fanatic version of himself.  Let's just hope all of these fans who are enjoying a better season than we are remember the times when wearing a certain jersey was less fun.

And now I must pull myself away from the office and back into the world of homework and after school snacks, dinner and dance class.  Enjoying this last day of 70's and sunshine for a while--at least according to the forecast.