Stuff kids say

Joel
Ive got a celebration coming on.
Oops never mind, its already over

I farted



Norah
I have shiny nails.  Colin do you have shiny nails?  I have shiny nails from my spit


Joel

Girls can't do everything (after seeing a bumper sticker on someones car)

Girls can't blow bubbles with their stomachs


Norah

Mommy when you grow up are you going to be a monster?


Joel

We had guidance the other day. we talked about things we are worried about.  One boy is afraid of the dark.  I said I'm worried about my sister biting me.  My teacher asked me if my sister was one or two.

Nope - FOUR


Norah and Joel with three pieces of chocolate.  Norah eats one piece. Joel eats the other.  Norah points to the last piece and says that ones for Colin.  Joel replied, or we could split it since he's not here.  I don't see Colin do you see Colin. 

Another doctor visit

This boy has another medical crazy thing happening to his body.  Over the summer our pediatrician recommended that we get a second opinion on his birthmark that keeps changing.  (not to worry you mom but I'd get a second opinion if I were you.... as she was reading over his chart and what the skin doctor had sent over....Ive been wondering what she saw in that chart ever since) 

But she said it was really hard to get into this particular doctor and could take months. In the meantime we decided to  keep his same appointment with our other skin doctor. There were some white patches on his body that I wasn't sure would still be there once his summer tan went away. We have taken pictures but just wanted to see since one big white patch went on his waist line around his birthmark.  At that appointment they said he has vitiligo on his knees and waist, prescribed a cream and ointment, handed me a brochure and said see you in two months.  We went to get the prescriptions filled and it was over $600 with insurance.  So we decided to wait until we saw this pediatric specialist to see if they recommended the same medicine. 

And in the meantime I googled and researched everything I could about vitiligo. Joel also started getting spots on his feet.

This is a basic picture of what vitiligo is.  Its an autoimmune disease that is mainly cosmetic, its very random how it spreads and forms and if you treat one spot it can still form in another.

Our appointment was yesterday and we had to cancel then make it again because of massive flooding that closed the only way out of our neighborhood.  The first time I called they rescheduled us for October but once our road was open again Brent called to get the appointment back on.  He didn't want to wait another month. 

Now after seeing this doctor I know now why she is so good and why it takes so long to get an appointment.  Shes good, takes her time, doesn't rush and answered all my questions.  She also had another doctor with her that also has vitiligo - Joel at that point wasn't trusting any doctors but maybe the next appointment he'll be intrigued that she has it too.

Basically the white around Joels waist is the vitiligo eating away at his birthmark.

 He has a 1 in 20 change of developing melanoma and she recommended we get the birthmark surgically removed. Then she thought for a moment and said that the vitiligo is basically doing that job for us.  To remove it they would take a huge thick chunk out of his side, pull his skin tight, give him tons of sitches and then let it heal.  (she was describing this and even drew on his side where they would cut.  its no wonder Joel started to freak out sitting there)  But she was intrigued since the vitiligo on his waist is attacking the birthmark.  So we are waiting to see what that does.  We aren't supposed to put the medicine on that part and let it run its course. She had never seen that happen before and wanted to contact some collegues in california who were the best in the medicine world.  All I could think about what how amazing it was that God was letting his body take care of this on its own.

They did this really cool light treatment where they put him under a type of blacklight (but a medical looking one) and his whole body lit up where the vitiligo was.  He has spots on his eyelids and his skin looked like little snowflakes.  So that was a little sad to see.  We have some new medicines to put on his spots.  We hope it sticks mainly to his lower half of his body and not spread to his face and hands.

The doctor said this is genetic but from what I've read a lot of people have a lot of success going gluten free.  So we will be doing that.  We are also taking Joel off dairy because lately he's been throwing it up.  It started towards the end of school when he started to buy his school lunch.  He didn't like sandwiches and he couldn't bring peanut butter in his class so I let him buy lunch.  He loved it and would come home and tell me all about his choices that day. He would eat broccoli and chicken salad and all different foods.  Except they said he couldn't get the bottled water he had to get the whole milk.  Its been years since he drank milk.  Brent's allergic so we've never had the kids drink much milk.   I put extra money in his account for him to get the water but he was too shy to ask. He's such a rule follower at school (not so much at home) but if they told him he had to take milk then he was going to take milk.  He was completely off dairy only a week this summer and ate some cheese to prove to me he wasn't allergic (being his Joel ornery self) and he had to run to the bathroom after.  But he knows now and its easier to keep him away from it.  Joel loves a good piece of bread so that will be hard for us all to give up.  He's "a if I can't have it none of you can have it either" person. I can't blame him.

So if anyone has any experience with vitiligo or any gluten free meals please share with me!

Hokie Weekend

 This boy is a good luck charm.  He has never seen the hokies lose at home.  Which is pretty amazing considering how many games he's been to. After last Saturdays awful game, Colin was a little nervous his streak wouldn't continue but I'd say 49-0 win over Boston College is not too bad at all. 

 She cried and cried last week when she realized we weren't going to the game and had to watch it on tv.  Its the cutest video how much she's crying about not seeing her hokies.  She was so excited to actually be there this week

 We had a family salsa competition.  Sarah, mom, Jeff, me, Joel, Colin and Brent all made different salsas.  Dad and Norah were the judges.

Colin and Joel came up with the awards.  I loved the I Tryed because Colin didn't want someone to go home without an award.  Joel threw a fit over making sure one award said Most Vegetablest and I was sure he would throw a fit if he didn't get that award but he didn't care.  Oh Joel You are so hard to figure out sometimes. 

  Mine was awful - pinterest fail right there but that's ok because there were plenty of other options to eat.  Don't make salsa with canned stewed tomatoes!  Dad at first gave me the sweetest award but then went on and on about how he hates stewed tomatoes and how slimy it was.  So I gave back the sweetest award and will gladly take  the I tryed because even I couldn't eat my saldsa!

 The moment Joel realized he was getting two awards and Colin realize he  lost to Brent for the most spicy.  And then Grandpa changed his mind and gave it back to Colin.

 Norah wasn't a fan of the crab meat jeff put in his but the rest of us liked it.  I think it was the most eaten award.

  

 I love how Norah is kissing the football players hand. She really loves her Hokies!

 Our seats were high up but the kids loved it since we had a whole row to ourselves and they liked climbing to the very top

 So excited

If she ends up at Tech I want to recreate this picture. Its crazy how it was 18 years ago that I was a freshmen. So much has changed yet so much still feels the same.  Virginia Tech has this slogan that THIS IS HOME and it is.  Colin wants to be an engineer and be in the corps which would be great and amazing.  His mother will be there all the time then! ha! maybe I shouldn't make that very clear until its official.  I know the kids might not go to Tech but I do hope wherever they go they fall in love with their school like I did. 

We drove back to the farm and the next day Norah sang her heart out.  She specifically packed that outfit to wear to the farm for Ant Ant.

Thanks mom and dad for the tickets! It was a great weekend!

One week down

We have finished one week of school!  

I always have a hard time sleeping the night before school begins.  I was up a few times in the night worrying whether we made the right decision and praying for their days. It was easier this year to send them off and it wasn't until I put this picture up that the tears came.  

Colin's first FIRST day of elementary and his last FIRST day of elementary school.  It goes so fast. But I love the fact that in both pictures he is wearing a basketball shirt. 

It also doesn't help that Colin can't wait until middle school - mainly because he gets to sleep in an extra hour before school.  

We are driving Joel to school in the mornings and letting him ride the bus home. We all get to sleep in later and it works best for all of us. Brent drives him and Joel refuses to let Norah go with them because its his time with Daddy.  Colin rides the bus both ways.  Colin's old bus driver retired last year and we found out that our bus route is highly sought after because we have really great kids on our route.  That was encouraging to hear and they are really great kids. 

It has been a great first week for both of them.  Joel has been so excited to tell me all about second grade.  I've heard more about second grade so far than all of last year combined.  He is so enthusiastic  and can't wait to go in the mornings. According to Joel second grade is AWESOME! Its a completely different Joel than last year when we'd have to talk him into school so thats been exciting and fun to see.  

Both of them are the top grades in their schools so their resources are all in the mornings and they both have recess before lunch.  Before they had recess after lunch and all the resources were in the afternoons.  Joel loves it.  He goes to music, PE, art, guidance, all in the mornings, a different one each day.  To him he feels like he is doing less school work.  (not really but whatever motivates him to go each morning) One day Joel had PE, Guidance AND an extra recess in one day.  It was the best day ever for him.  

At dinner one night I was asking them questions about their days and one question I asked was what was the least favorite part of their day.  The boys didn't have anything they didn't like but Norah chimed in loudly saying "my least favorite part was spending the day with mommy!"  Sweet Colin was appalled that she would say that.  Joel laughed and laughed and Norah was so proud to be able to contribute to the questions.  She says she didn't know what least means but I wouldn't put it past this sassy girl to have known just what she was saying.  

As I mentioned, the boys have recess before lunch. Some of the classes bring their lunch boxes with them and put them on the side of the school while they play outside.  Colin was so busy playing a football game that he missed his class being called in for lunch.  After the game he looked around and realized none of his class was still outside so he quickly grabbed his lunch box and went into the cafeteria.  He opened his lunch box and there was pasta salad and a brownie.  Colin does not like pasta salad so he ate the brownie.  He thought it was strange we give him pasta salad but hey at least he had the brownie.  But as he was finishing the brownie a teacher came up to him and handed him another lunch box and asked him if  that was his.  Colin had grabbed the wrong lunch box and eaten the poor kids brownie!!!!!!  

There is a boy in Colin's class from his old school.  He was walking into class the first day when this boys said hey I know you! Colin told him no you don't know me.  But the boy kept insisting and then later when they were both at the pencil sharpener Colin realized he really did know this kid.  They were both in second grade together. 

Its been a great start to the school year.  I worried so much over Joel last year and now seeing him so excited this year makes it all worth it.  Colin is enjoying 5th grade so far.  I think he is still figuring out his class because he came home friday and proudly told me and our neighbor that he had figured out who the class clown was. 

Its fun to hear about their days. I miss them but I'm also excited for their years and glad the first week went so well for both of them. 

Dibs

At the beginning of the summer we met some friends at the beach and then brought their son home with us while his parents had a meeting at church. Gage would call out "dibs" on any sports car he saw. 

So the boys started doing that.  And then Norah joined in. 

Also the "blue punch buggy no punches back" was in full force this summer. It seems everyone here drives a VW Bug.  Ant Ant suffered when she came down for Joels birthday because it seemed there was one on every corner and the kids knew Ant Ant wasn't searching for them like they were. 

Then Ant Ant started sending text messages with pictures of vw bugs to the kids  so we send them back

Driving around I hear either "dibs" called out every few minutes or "yellow punch buggy no punches back" and then someone arguing that they said no punches back and the offender punched them.  Also they argue over who gets dibs on the car and now they call "dibs on the universe!!!!!"

Lovely - just lovely

But it was really funny to hear just Norah in the car without the boys.  She saw a mustang and asked "mommy is that a dibs car" and getting so excited that she was right.  She can spot a dibs car anywhere now and I'm pretty sure she thinks any sporty car is called dibs.

Meet the teachers

Last year Colin was asked to take the gifted test to see if he would place into the gifted classes.  He got straight A's all through 4th grade and also scored well above average on all the placement tests. He was nervous about one SOL and his teacher laughed and asked if that was the one he almost had a perfect score.  However the girl next door was in the gifted class and instead of doing all the fun extra experiments and studies,  she had tests everyday and a boatload of homework.  But we had Colin tested.  He was sick on the testing days and what  usually takes two days he finished it all in one morning.  They just went ahead and got it all done with him.  So needless to say he qualified for gifted.  I talked to his teacher about my concerns with the gifted class because he was excelling in school and never bored and I didn't want him to have the same experience our neighbor had.  Mrs. Smith assured me she thought Colin would do fine and even mentioned one particular teacher that was next door so that she could keep an eye on Colin in 5th grade. 

 Colin got that teacher and I'm pretty sure it was because of Mrs. Smith.  We LOVED Mrs Smith. She is hands down my favorite teacher so far. We were sad to leave her but I think Colin will do well this year.  A neighbor is in his class which makes us all very excited for them. I think it will be good for both of them to be together.  His new teacher is very very nice so we will see how this year goes for Colin. 

But on our way to see Mrs. Smith on open house night we ran into some boys who were in Colin's class last year who were also on the way to see Mrs. Smith.  One boy was on a mission because he had heard that she wasn't giving any homework this year and how on earth could Mrs. Smith have given them a whole year of homework last year!!! I mean the nerve!!!! haha 5th grade open house was an hour after 4th grade so the news spread fast! We just missed her that night so Colin sent mrs. Smith a message: 

 Joel was very very nervous to go to meet his teacher.  His old teacher was very stern and no nonsense.  She was a good teacher but  I think Joel was worried he would get her again.  She moved up to second grade this year.  He even had a talk with the neighbors mom about how he wasn't sure if it would be good to get her again. But he didn't get her and his teacher this year couldn't be more different.  She is warm and bubbly and laughed the entire time and you could slowly see Joel relax and start  to get excited.  I couldn't be happier for Joel.

 He knows three boys from his class last year and I keep telling him that he already knows more people than he did last year starting a new school. 

I'm hoping its a great year for both of them and trying not to think too much about Colin going to middle school next year!

Summer

Summer is over on Tuesday and I'm not ready for it to end.  This summer flew by really fast.  It makes a difference when you aren't spending the whole time looking for a house.  We had a lot of fun and I'm not sure anyone is ready for school to start in a few days. We definitely aren't ready for the 6am alarm clocks! 

When Joel reads a book in the car he's very slow to get out of the car.  I love seeing him so into a book but we spent a lot of times waiting for him to get out of the car.

 Norah was so excited to have matching swim suit covers

 One day Stephanie and I tried to take all the kids on a bike ride.  You can't really see the baby on the bike trailer behind Stephanie in this picture.  We lasted long enough to get far from her home only to have her turn around and go get her truck.  Colin went with her and they came back for the rest of us. 

We did all go to bike night at the botanical gardens and the kids all redeemed themselves on the trails and we biked until it ended.  I think the cooler night also helped!

 Joel was always determined to bring home a ton of sand.  There was usually sand in the bottom of the bathtub for most of the summer.

 I think she took two naps this whole summer

 Mud pies in the making

 Slip-n-slide days were fun

 Joel was ready for the beach

 We didn't make it to the beach as much as I thought we would.  This summer the  kids would plan out elaborate sandcastles. Norah also loved to collect seashells and our backyard is covered in them now.  One day we were about to leave when Joel took off after Norah and tried to get a sea shell from her.  She got mad and threw it in the ocean. If she couldn't have it then she didn't want Joel to have it.  Joel was so upset because apparently he had been using that seashell as the king of the sand castle and now the kingdom was without a king. 

 This was her other nap of the summer...

 This girl is not going to know what to do without her boys around.  She would keep telling me she didn't want them to go to school until we met our friends at fun forest this past week.  We've loved our weekly fun forest playdates with the Fosters.  Laura and I can talk and the kids have the freedom to run around and play for hours.  Norah realized that once school starts she and Elsie will have playdates together without the big kids and that's all shes talked about.  "Boys when you go to school I'm going to play with Elsie."  And then Joel will tell her how rude she is being for saying that in front of them...

 Joel grew a sunflower in class and  planted it in the flower bed.  We just harvested the seeds

 
 Lots of mud pies, milkshakes and cakes were pretend eaten this summer

 We went to water country and the kids loved every minute of it

 Played a lot with our neighbors

 Card games were played.  One day it took about 90 minutes to finish one game of UNO and now Joel refuses to play UNO.  It takes too long according to him.

 We saw the baby tigers at the zoo

We also loved our playdates  with Holly and Heather at Heathers new house!  It was fun to have friends have pools in their backyard!  And Joel loved being able to see Becca again.

We had a lot more planned to do this summer but a lot of afternoons were just spent outside playing with the neighborhood kids.  The doorbell would ring and the kids would bolt out the door.  (well joel would go put clothes on.  His preferred clothes is none at all - he likes to sit around in his underwear. Its too funny how he sheds his clothes the minute he gets home)  Soccer games, kickball, nerf battles, basketball, playing with our neighbors new puppy, those afternoons were relaxing and fun and made me very thankful we moved into a neighborhood with so many kids. 

Goodbye summer!  It was a good one!