Really? A whole month?

Crap! I had no idea that it had been so long since I updated. My apologies to both of you who check in to see how we're doing. Life is going well. My internship has taken a sharp turn for the better. I have a real, official supervisor and I'm doing some awesome, super fun work. I'm focused mostly in the mental health unit, which is completely new to me but a big adventure. I've also been taking all 60 of our mental health inmates to the gym everyday, which is a little like taking your life into your own hands while trying to look calm and collected on the outside. I think I breathe an audible sigh of relief every day when the call comes that they can leave. My sole goal is to ensure that no one dies and no one escapes. So far so good.

We switched E to a new school at the beginning of November. We were starting to get a weird vibe from his other school, and the price difference didn't seem quite so big the second time around. Plus they were feeding him Cheese Balls (like generic Cheetos) as a "healthy" snack. The new place is great and more of what we were looking for as far as structure and challenging him to develop. He seems to like it, and they seem to like him. It's not the gushing, over the top love of the last place but I'm okay with that. The first week we saw a complete elimination of the tantrums in the mornings and the crappy attitude in the evenings, so I think that we made the right choice.

Without further ado, pictures. E is growing like a weed and has started pretending, which is really fun. He's more of a little boy everyday. One of his favorite games right now is to run around the house like a crazy man chasing one of us. If we manage to juke away from him he laughs so hard he falls down. He's starting to be interested in hockey and one of my colleagues has offered to teach him to skate this winter. How cute would that be?

The little golfer, ready for trick-or-treating.

At the children's museum. We're big on turtles right now.

Fall colors

The stars aligned and I was able to get some pictures before all of the leaves fell off of the trees. It is so beautiful here right now. These pictures don't do it justice at all.

Highlights

We've been crazy busy but I wanted to post a quick update since it's been awhile. It's been another fun weekend. The highlights included going to the town's pre-Halloween festival where E had his first experience trick-or-treating, C found a butt-shaped pumpkin, and I lied for a juice box. E and I got up early today to hit the grocery store before the church crowd. He was an absolute monster (I was totally "that mom") but pulled it together with the promise of seeing the fish. We picked up new toothbrushes and he picked out one that sings the Thomas theme song. I thought, "Hey, at least he's excited about brushing his teeth." He's been carrying it around all. freaking. day. I will have nightmares from this song. My kid is the one with the security toothbrush. It was supposed to storm big today so I planned to spend the day in the kitchen. I baked bread for the first time and it was a roaring success! Combined with a super yummy black-bean soup we had a very cozy dinner and pretended that it wasn't 75 degrees out. I also took E to the park earlier and he totally held his own with the older, meaner kids there. At one point I had to tell him "no pushing" but my heart definately wasn't in it. So that's how we're doing. We had a great visit last weekend and are looking forward to our friends coming up in a couple of weeks. Pictures soon!

Surprise Visitors!

My dad came into town at the last minute this weekend. We weren't sure if it was going to work out so we just told E we were having "surprise visitors." He was pretty excited when we picked Coach and Auntie J up from the airport.

So was Coach

He's been running himself ragged all weekend. I think it'll take most of next week to recover. For now though he's having a great time.

Where'd this kid come from?

This is the point that I was pretty sure I was having a heart attack

Who taught him this?

And finished it off with cookies, milk, and football with Daddy

Man, it's hard to be in a bad mood with this guy around.

I just realized that I posted this picture twice, but I like it so much I'm going to leave it. Today I had to have my first real, grown-up conversation with the school. Last night, as I was putting him to bed, E growled at me "Get out of my face!" When I asked him where he had heard that he said his teacher said it. Can you hear the blood boiling? So today, after I'd calmed down, I approached the main teacher to ask where he may have picked up such a phrase. I didn't expect her to say that the other teacher says it, but I did want her to know that it was on my radar. It turns out that one of the older kids that comes in early, and so is with E for a little while, has been having a problem with this phrase and the school is working with his parents on it. I feel better knowing that it's been noticed and that it's being worked on, but it was such a wake-up call that I need to listening and be paying attention. I was also very impressed with E's teacher. She was super grateful that I brought it up and concerned that he had picked up the phrase. Also, he's been talking about tigers ever since they had the bouncer at school (shaped like a tiger) and has needed reassuring that the tiger is gone. Today she told me that she realized that maybe he's nervous because she broke her finger ON THE TIGER and so he thinks that the tiger bit her. Makes perfect sense and explains why he's so worried about it. So now we can address that specifically. Crazy kid, but how very sweet. He was so worried about her and her "ouchie-wa-wa"

Weekend in pictures

He got to sit in a firetruck and meet a real fireman

The highlight of Saturday was getting a rocket-ship toothbrush after his dental screening. He was much more excited than it looks.
This pretty much sums up his attitude if we're doing something fun with Daddy. Imagine he's also saying "Go 'way Mama!" Oh the love.