Lifelines

Normally, my kids wear their costumes so much before Halloween night that I am almost sick of seeing them by the time that we go trick-or-treating. But this year, we missed all of the pre-Halloween fun…no preschool party, no Boo at the Zoo, nothing. Tonight was the first and only costumed event.

And it didn’t disappoint! My mom had taken the boys and Greer out to lunch and shopping for Rhyse’s birthday, leaving me home with Creux alone. Initially, I was excited about being home with just him but then quickly realized just how much distraction and fun his siblings provide because in their absence, he ripped the joint apart. I had planned to accomplish so much, fantasizing about zipping up all those suitcases and then being able to relax over the weekend. It didn’t happen. But I enjoyed my time at home anyway.

Back to the point, my mom had everyone and by 4:00, they all came rushing in the door and we began applying costumes and accessories. Two hours later, we were ready.

The boys were some strange, face-covered…things (??) and I dolled Greer up as a (say it with me now) princess while Creux staggered around the house and neighborhood as a pudgy little elephant.

My sister and Stew joined us for our Trick-or-Treat excursion; which ALL of my children participated in this year! Last year, Creux stayed home with my mom but this year, we pushed him around in his car and then let him toddle up to the doors himself. He carried his own little bucket and was quite perplexed by all the candy droppings. Perplexed, that is, until Charlie gave him a chocolate bar. Then I think he had a really great idea of what was going on. :)

Greer was our only near-casualty…twice. The first time, I almost took her home because while she was happily taking the candy from our neighbors, she was not acknowledging a single person. She wouldn’t say hello or “trick-or-treat”, wouldn’t respond to any questions regarding how she got to be so darn cute, and would not, would not say “thank you”. Soooo…while I’m all for accommodating her sometimes shy little way, I am NOT all for raising a rude little beastess. By the 15th house, I told her that if she didn’t feel like talking, it was fine…but that we were going home. She snapped right out of it after that.

And then she had what Chas labeled, “A Royal Wipeout”. During her frantic running from house to house, she tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and went flying! I heard her shrieking and when I ran over to her, she was sobbing, crown askew, ground littered with candy; two brothers trying to clean it up, one brother trying to make off with another delicious chocolate bar.

She rallied, however! And Creux was completely content in his car so long as it stayed moving. The boys actually stuck with us this year which was a nice surprise. Last year, we trick-or-treated with friends and they kept up with the pack while we followed a slow-moving two-year-old Greer to five houses in 45 minutes. :)

It was so fun! My sister and Stew hung out with us for a bit afterward and loaded up on some candy to take back to school with them. I ended the night with a smashing headache and way sticky kids but…it was a good time.

The Candy Witch is coming tonight, I believe. We give the kids one baggie each to fill with candy and then we leave the rest in a cauldron on the porch. She comes and collects it all and leaves small gifts in return. If you ask me, it’s worth it. I’m able to accomplish TWO goals this year by using her: 1) the candy goes bye-bye and 2) we need small toys for the flight anyway. And our kids don’t complain; they still get a bit of candy PLUS end up getting rewarded for saving their teeth and their diets.

All that being said, the Candy Witch can not and will not come if she does not stop wasting time and get to shopping for this little much-anticipated exchange. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!!

(One personal sidenote: Lynn, thank you so much for the gifts for Rhyse! We actually have a special little post for you but I’m running behind. And when you post those “Happy Birthday” comments for my kids on your blog with a photo…it just makes me smile because it’s so sweet and they are older photos so it takes me back in time a little. I miss you! And thanks for spoiling my kids.)

We always have the best of intentions with these pumpkins that we so lovingly pick (or so hatefully pick as when stuck in a cold, miserable downpour in the middle of a patch)…next year, just for the record here, I am so canceling that field trip at the slightest HINT of rain. But then we get busy in the days leading up to Halloween and every damn year we are carving pumpkins with mere minutes to spare before Beggar’s Night begins.

BUT! This year, probably because of the forced break in schedules, I mandated Thursday night “Pumpkin Carving Time”. We didn’t really get started until 9:00pm since we had a late dinner but…we homeschool. ;) My boys actually worked really hard this week despite the illnesses and we’d made some deals regarding schoolwork. I wanted to close out every chapter in every subject so that when we resumed the week after next, we weren’t lost in the material. And since they did it, they had today off anyway. Who wants to do schoolwork on their birthday? (Today is Rhyse’s!)

So they didn’t get to bed until around 11:00 last night but it was time well spent! The older boys each designed their own pumpkins and aside from needing just a bit of help scraping them out and some direction with the knives (YIKES!), they worked hard on their own. Greer wanted a “princess” one and Charlie made it happen, creating a pumpkin crown for her. Me, I was just happy she allowed the pumpkin to stay orange; I could have sworn she was going to make me turn it pink because that’s the only color in the world that makes her happy.

Creux didn’t know WHAT was going on! I handed him a spoon so he could play in the pumpkin sludge but he just stared and stared. Which confirmed for me just how disgusting the insides of a pumpkin are. Creux plays IN THE TOILET and eats crayons like they’re carrots. If he won’t dig in, it’s BAD.

So here’s our “one little, two little, three little pumpkins, four little…” (I ran out of kids and pumpkins. :))

Three adorable Halloween treat bags and four adorable Halloween-happy tots.

A month or so ago, I wrote that I wanted to do two things: update my blog template (check) and do an extreme hair makeover on my boys. Over the summer, I’d grown very tired of the longish and shaggy hairstyle that Chas had requested (and which I had been accommodating since last spring.) Christmas is coming, which means oodles of pictures and so, I hauled them in today.

And just look at what I hauled out:

The boys like it and I love it! I told Chas, life with women will always be one big fat compromise so I’m helping to ease him into it. I don’t think he bought it but it made me feel a little better, anyway.

So…Haircuts for Disney (check).
We’re almost ready.

Seems like my offer has been accepted.

My family is…ok.

Please, please, when I think I am dying in December and sleeping at the base of my toilet, please remind me that it was the only thing I could do at the time. I will shop and wrap accordingly. (Thank you, Mr. Flu Bug, you son of a….)

I’m going to try and catch up on a few posts here. I must admit that besides the flu, Facebook has been sucking the very life out of me. Fun little time suck, but I am hardly getting anything accomplished.

Gonna show off my cuties for a bit, starting with this delicious specimen of a boy. I put him down for a late nap tonight since we planned on carving pumpkins and when it was dinner time…I could hardly rouse him.

He looks so peaceful! You really have no idea what a little devil he is, seeing this. Hmmm…well, here’s a reminder:

Hurrah for being back to normal! :)

I didn’t hold out high hopes for this post. And I write it with extreme hesitation. (Remember all those times I shared how “Creux slept through the night!” only to then pay dearly for the next four months?)

But I THINK we’re getting better.

Last night did not start off well at all. Rhyse had hopped into Chas’ bed–Chas’ very-exorbitantly-priced-organic-and-free-from-everything-EXCEPT-NOW-VOMIT bed. Luckily, the mattress pad that I bought with that pricey little number did a fantastic job of protecting the mattress. Mostly. The pillow however…not so much. And I’m going to make a bonfire of that sheet. Ain’t no way I am washing that thing; it’s currently fermenting in my garage. Shudder.

Anyway, so I really figured it was going to be another all-nighter.

But it wasn’t!! Everyone slept and no one puked. Fantastic!

This morning, Rhyse was a bit sick but as the day wore on, so did his energy levels. To the point that I was ready to strap a helmet on his head, hand him his bike, and send him on his way for a bit. I didn’t, but I fantasized about it. I think, I hope, that he is done.

Greer had a much better day as well though she still looks very sick. But, no more projectile hosing down of the house, for that I am ever-so-grateful, and almost willing to buy her a candy bar.

Truly, we’ve actually kind of enjoyed this forced break in our hectic schedules. This morning was a bit hard for me because I knew Greer was missing her Halloween party and parade at school; she would have loved it and I was excited to take her. But, she didn’t (and doesn’t) know she missed it so once I was able to get over it, the day was fine. Chas managed to escape for an hour, off to gym class with Alex (thank you, Shelly, for picking up carpool). Rhyse was supposed to join Colin for a Halloween workshop similar to the one Greer took but we decided to keep him home.

There will be no co-op for my gang tomorrow. Chas could definitely go and part of me would love for him to not sit around here again. But we’re cranking out schoolwork none-the-less so…it’s ok.

Friday is Rhyse’s birthday AND Beggar’s Night so I’m fully planning on some good family fun with some good healthy kids!

At this point, I think our Official Flu Tally actually numbers four. I had forgotten that Charlie and Chas were sick earlier this month together and now, Rhyse and Greer. Which leaves two: myself and Creux. Honestly, I think it would be a miracle if I don’t pick this up. I have been up to my eyeballs in sickness for the past few days. But I’m willing to make a deal with the Flu Bug himself if he will give me AND Creux a Disney pass. Sir, you can take me down at Christmas time if you must. I will happily fork over my holiday if I can please just see Mickey and not have my kids puke on Cinderella. (Though there has been a request for a blog post for that if it happens. To that person, I will not let you down; I will be armed with camera and Phone That Can Land Planes. You will be the first to know.)

One more day of rest for this little bunch of sickies is in order for tomorrow. I hope that’s enough because it’s all I’ve got left to give! The coming weekend will be fast and furious as I pull this family together for our journey to Kid Heaven.

Thanks to everyone who emailed and commented; I appreciate you pulling for us!

I snapped this photo earlier today…I had left her in her room while I went to lay Creux down and when I came back, she was asleep. Normally, this would NEVER happen as we have a whole naptime routine that must be followed (oh, sweet little OCD one) plus, I was only out of the room for about two minutes.

Poor little sick-but-getting-better girl:

For the love of God. Can’t we just go on our merry little vacationing way, I ask you?? CAN’T WE?

During the past week or so, I’ve watched, listened and read about the flu taking out the children of my friends. And the whole time, I was thinking: We. Are. So. Next.

Because with four kids in a family, we’re going to catch it. Whatever IT is. Sometimes it only hits one or two of us but most times, it snakes its way from member to member.

Charlie and I went to bed very late last night. Like around 2:00am. He’d been dealing with tech support since they inconveniently monkeyed with our emailing abilities and I was completely wasting time, doing absolutely nothing of importance. (Dummy.)

So at 2:15, I saw a light pop on in the hallway and listened to see what was going on. A small voice called, “Mommeeee?” I knew, just knew, what was going on. It was Rhyse, having gotten sick all over his bed and the floor; he’d finally made his way to the bathroom. We cleaned him up (do you notice the use of the word “we”?), used a spatula to scrape dinner off the carpet (gag, GAG!) and returned to bed. For the next two hours, after I tossed and turned my way back to sleep, I awoke to Rhyse standing beside me. “I’m going to be sick again.”

And so it went. By the fourth time, I was so tired and bleary-eyed that I just suggested to him that we sleep on the bathroom floor. Together. But he wisely decided to return to bed.

When I got up for good this morning, I cleared my day. No WAHA (three hours of fun for Rhyse), no math (one hour of no fun for Chas), no dance for Greer (we just never mentioned that at all), and no cooking class for the boys this afternoon. We stayed in. And it’s a damn good thing.

Because while Rhyse was starting to feel better, Greer was not. She spit up slightly this morning, just a bit, but she’d come down with a cold yesterday and I figured it was just gunk that needed to come out. An hour later, she vomited all over my couch. And a few hours after that, she completely and totally hosed the schooling room, the Wall of Desk, and Moi with puke. I kid you not. One minute, I’m happily typing away on my computer, the next I’m dripping food particles. She’d sidled up to me, said, “Mommy!” and then…whoosh. Actually, it was whoosh, whooosh, whoooosh, WHOOOOOSH. By the end, I was just encouraging her to get it all out. There was no point in trying to stop it or move her.

She had a wee Exorcist moment there. The boys were mightily impressed.

Me, not so impressed. I just kept looking around for SOMEONE to appear who I could beg to clean it up. Sadly, Cinderelly never showed and if I find that fairy Godmother, I may just wrap her stupid wand right around her head.

On hands and knees, and in no pants as she threw up in my lap, (oh the boys were giggly but I did not dare go into my room for a replacement pair on the chance that I might wake my little sleeping dragon), I mopped up a river of goo. Creux has been dumping things lately and I let him have at it during the day so we lost a English/Spanish memory game since 47 of the cards were splattered with lunch matter.

It seems to have tapered off for the moment. I’m crossing my fingers that it moves fast and that we’re all tip-top for Monday; we have to be! Pukers are not welcome at the Happiest Place On Earth. I think it’s a rule or something. I saw it in “Disney World For Dummies” which is clearly the right book for me because I should be packing like a crazy woman in case I get laid flat by this (oh, I will; it’s coming for me, I can feel it in my bones) instead of blogging.

So…BYE!

The ONE really important time for me to snap out of my “so-what-if-we’re-late” mindset (which I’m lovin’, I really am) is going to be on Monday when Charlie and I load this gang onto an airplane.

Well, when I HOPE we load this gang onto an airplane.

Because right now, I’m not feeling so ready. Actually, I am not feeling ready AT ALL.

There’s just so much that goes into traveling with a big family and there are many unknowns right now for us still, the main one being: should we bring a carseat onto the plane on the chance that Creux will allow us to strap his rear into it for the over two hour flight? My gut says yes. I think it’s the only shot we have at him tolerating being relatively immobile for a small-but-will-feel-like-years period of time. Oh, but to lug it and four kids through an airport? To lug it off and to collect luggage and find our rental car…ugh. And to take him into a very confined place with NO NAP??? My mind can’t even fully go there just yet.

I have laundry to do for six people, bags to pack for six people, groceries to order (thank you, thank you, Cara!), backpacks to secure, haircuts to oversee, last-minute errands to run, ideas to ponder over for in-flight “please stay in your seat and behave” bribes and the many, many, many new flying rules to learn. PLUS, it’s Halloween time. DOUBLE PLUS, it’s Rhyse’s birthday. And DOUBLE DOUBLE PLUS, I still have my entire life here to manage.

Am royally, royally screwed, that’s what I’m thinking.

I do have the weekend to pull my crap together. But I am not relishing a weekend devoted to errands and laundry and last minute details.

I think I’m feeling extra pressure because we CAN NOT run behind. I have to get absolutely everything ready before Monday morning. And I really don’t feel like I have any extra time on my hands…

Sigh. I know we’ll make it fine. But we aren’t accustomed to “someone else’s schedule”. Normally when we travel, we have a general idea of when we need to leave but it’s as flexible as we want it to be because we drive. We like to drive. And what scares the daylights out of me is this: we’ve never left “on time”. And we always have last little things to be thrown into the back of the car: a pair of shoes here, an extra jacket there.

I need some serious Disney Magic thrown in my direction. As Greer would croon, I need “Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day, it’s Cinderelly! Wash the dishes! do the moppin’!”

OR I just need to get my hands on that fairy Godmother’s wand. That baby would solve ALL my problems. (And yours, I’d share, I’d share! I’ll be taking requests all week…)

Alright, off to make a dent in my laundry pile. If I don’t blog by tomorrow night, please call for help.

Greer and I had a little Halloween crafts class together this evening. I almost didn’t go because I didn’t really feel like heading out on this crappy day. We switched our cable/phone/internet service and had a man here for FIVE hours this morning. And while he did a bang up job on everything else, he forgot to flip whatever little switch needed so that I may actually SEND emails. I can read them, I just can’t write back to anyone.

I’m TRAPPED here!!

Anyway, due to Cable Boy royally FUBAR’ing my day, Charlie ended up coming home early (which wasn’t a bad thing…for me) and so I really had no reason not to take Greer.

We went, arriving 15 minutes late (”SO WHAT!” shouts the New Me) and the small class of preschoolers was already deep into fun Halloween crafts. Not missing a beat, we eagerly joined a table.

Together, she and I made a spider to hang on the fridge (this is her favorite), a glittery painty spider web, , a stickered treat bag, and (my favorite) a decorated picture frame that was so cute that I snuck back to the magnet tape and snatched a few pieces to stick on the back. I thought she’d look smashing in her Princess costume right up there on the fridge next to her spider.

I’m glad we went together! It’s one of the few, worth-fighting-for times where it was just “us girls”.

Oh, but here there is! Not much, but a few hours, anyway! :)

I’m happy to report that we survived the night. This is the most important piece of information that I will relay in the entire post. :) I had my doubts a few times during the evening, particularly during and after their “second wind” at midnight. BUT, eventually, they settled down and fell asleep.

After the party at home, Charlie loaded the whole gang into our car and took them all to Glow Putt so they could burn off that cake and candy somewhere other than my basement. :) We’d given the boys some of those glow bracelets and necklaces to wear and you can see how very excited they were in the car! (You can also see what our car must’ve looked like zooming down the freeway…all purple and glow-tastic!)

Oh, they had fun! They zipped through 18 holes in, no joke, about 15 minutes. Charlie called me less than a hour after the left and said, “I hope you’re ready for them because they played Lightening Golf and we’re heading home.” I panicked, knowing all that those sugar-hyped boys were coming my way and begged him to find an alternate activity for a bit. Hence, Flashlight Tag was born. And I happily tidied my house while listening the six of them whoop and holler and wake the neighbors all while keeping an eye on those running beams of light.

Once back inside, we settled them with popcorn and a movie. Finally, they crashed and burned; I went down to check on them around 11:00pm and there were at least two who were watching Dennis the Menace through eye-slits. But no one was in jammies, no one had brushed or pottied…so I rounded them up and Charlie and I set about a proper bedtime routine for them.

Which was stupid. And that’s where the “second wind” came into play as they nearly brought my house down with their basement fun! :) Charlie and I cut them off at the knees around 12:30, turning the tv off and encouraging some shut-eye. By 12:45, all was quiet. By 1:00am, this house was fully asleep.

As you might expect, they rose at the crack of dawn and we let them entertain themselves for awhile. I will not mention what they chose to feed themselves for a pre-breakfast snack. Let’s just say, it came in wrappers. And then they spent the entire morning outside playing ball and running around, just enjoying being boys together!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in Rhyse’s birthday bash! Our little guy had a wonderful birthday and we enjoyed having your children for the night!

Rhyse is so very lucky to have such terrific friends…