Second Hand Smoke

The sky was dark and snowing ashes today. There are several fires burning near us. There is one so close that a local road is closed and the area has been evacuated. October seems to bring fire around here. Four years ago this week we had to evacuate our home for 4 days because the fire and smoke were so bad. In many areas there has been a lot of building loss. It also doesn't help that the air is hot and the wind is so hard that my windows have sounded like thunder the entire day. The worst for us is the air quality. Hubby has asthma, and S has a very hard time breathing in these conditions. I hope to get some sleep tonight but it even smells of ash inside the house. I pray that in the morning the fires are closer to being contained.

Golden Compass

A ROCK'N GOOD TIME!

This week we did something we never do, we slowed down a bit. It was great. We canceled most plans until the end of the week.

J did a little soul searching and realized how much she misses playing sports and being involved in something that's just girls. Sadly, sports are still not an option. She is taking a general sports class with one of our home school groups and still has a lot of knee pain after the class. Being her daddy's girl she is just too stubborn to take anything for the pain, wear a brace or even consider a sport that wouldn't bother her knees. Her condition will not go away until she is finished growing. She did decide to rejoin girl scouts. She quit the troop she was in because it was making her uncomfortable due to a certain religious bent. So today she is going with a friend to try a troop. I really hope it works for her. I am also going to keep pushing her to try swimming as her sport, she's very good at it and it wouldn't bother her knees.

S was crazy this week. It's got to be that his birthday is next month and he is going through a developmental phase. He was soaking up tons of information but turning around and doing everything he shouldn't be. By Friday, we went to a Halloween party and he seemed to have mellowed out. It was a really nice day, after the party we went to check out these fancy play houses that were auctioned off this weekend. They were so pretty, the themes were Curious George, Firehouse, Nicky (American Girl) and a Fitness clubhouse. All the kids were drooling over them but seeing how last year they went for about 30grand a piece they could only dream. We finished off a lovely day with a trip to CPK.

C has the best end to his week. Last night hubby took him to the Weird Al concert. It was C's first concert and they said it was a really great show. Somehow I lucked out and got them 2nd row center seats. They were sitting a few people away from Seth Green which made them quite happy as well. They have said the best part were the dancing storm troopers during the Anakin song. I do have to say I feel really bad about something I did to him at the Halloween party. I had to leave to take S to find a bathroom, while I was gone there was an incident between him and a girl. As soon as I got back a friend came running up to tell me that C had hit her in the mouth with a sword and wouldn't apologise. Anyone that knows C would know that this is not him. But trusting what she said to me, I didn't give him a chance to give his side of the story. As it turns out they were having a sword fight and his slipped and got her in the lip. He tried to apologize but she didn't want to hear it. So my lesson this week was a reminder to listen to your children first, before casting judgement on them. We got past it and everything is okay, but I still feel a little guilty. Until next time..

In Our Town of Halloween...

Today we went costume hunting for S. C has decided to be Shawn White (which means he'll wear his clothes and tell everyone who he is.) J put together a Moaning Myrtle costume after we all got past our respective little issues. Today the fun really began.
First, it helps to know a bit how S works. He has some mild sensitivity issues with touch. I never know how bad they will be, it usually depends on a lot of factors. He is also slightly OCD. He has set things that must be a certain way in order for him to function. He is also the most physically active of my three children. I thought he would just grow out of these things, but it is becoming apparent that he may not for a while. He has also up until now refused to wear a costume. Last year he wore sweats and rain boots. Calling himself a "Construction Worker in the Rain."

S has been saying that he wanted to be Darth Vader for about a month. I of course had a few suspicions about this actually happening. So here is how it went down at the store today:

Me: Are you sure you want to be Darth Vader? You would have to wear a mask.
S: Ummm, maybe I can be Darth Vader with out the mask?
Me: I would still have to buy the mask, I could paint your face like the mask.
S: Ummm, maybe I don't want to be Darth Vader anymore.
We walk up and down the same aisle for 40 minutes. He picks up every toy weapon in the aisle and proceeds to hit something with each of them.
Me: How about a knight?
S: No I want to be Darth Vader.
Me: You could be Anakin, he's the same thing.
S: Ummm, ummmm, but I want to be Darth Vader.
Me: It's Darth Vader before the mask.
S: Okay, can we get it?
I proceed to dig through all the costumes and finally find the right size at the back. I open it and realise he'll hate the fabric.
Me: Let's try it on before we leave the store.
S: Okay....It's itchy, get it off! Mommy, I want to be Darth Vader!
He does a few more laps in the aisle, luckily everyone else seems to have costumes and the aisle is people free.
Me: Okay, S how about Obi-Wan? Look no mask, no itchy material and you can still carry a light saber.
S: Huh? Who?
Me: You know Vader's enemy, here let's try it on.
S: (puts it on) The sleeves are too long.
Me: (notice that this is my only chance and the least expensive costume to boot) It's okay, I can cut the sleeves off so they fit. Is it itchy anywhere?
S: No Mommy. Can I get it? But I need the light saber to match.
Me: Sure.

At that point he could have anything he wanted, an hour in a deserted costume aisle was about it for me. Then at the check out he managed to freak out the cashier by doing his "Ninja Warrior" jumps on and off her counter. By that time I just didn't care who he was scaring. It's just part of life with S.

Slowing Down and Drama

Last week was busy as usual. With trips to Santa Barbara, Aquarium of the Pacific and all the usual things it was nice to have a slow weekend. On Saturday, C volunteered for the day as support staff at our local Relay for Life. S, hubby and I walked in it. Then on Sunday we did mundane things like grocery shopping and snuggling up on the couch watching a movie together.
The only thing that got me a bit outta whack was J having a fit because she thought she looked "lame" in her Halloween costume. I bought it for her in August because she had to have it. I brought it home, had her try it on where she pronounced how much she loved it. Then two weeks ago her friend, who I already have an issue with, comes over and says she doesn't like it. From that point on I have been trying to persuade J that her costume is just fine (esp. since I spent $70 on it and now cannot return it.) She put it on again last night to show hubby just how "lame" it looked. Which of course it doesn't. So now I have had to resign to trying to sell it. J has to make a costume out of what ever she has around the house. I think it wouldn't have gotten to me so much if:
a. she would have worn it somewhere (anywhere)
b. she hadn't changed her mind because of something someone else said to her.
I suppose this is just a part of her growing up. Although I am trying to accept it and go with it, it doesn't mean I have to like it!

A Little Bit of Pixie Dust

J when she was 6.

I touched on something in my last post that I am really sad about. I think J losing the last of her baby teeth has been more traumatic on me than her. Which is rather funny since she is the one who had to actually get the teeth pulled.
I can still remember the first time the tooth fairy left her a gift. The sparkly, crinkly wrapping paper, the "pixie dust" all over her bed and her bounding into my bed the next morning to show me what the tooth fairy had brought her. It is one of the best childhood memories of her. The gifts were always books in the beginning. Then they matured a little bit as she got older. When she found out that everyone was getting money while she got books she was pleased to have a "different" fairy. But eventually she really wanted the cash. Showing the sign of her age the last thing her fairy left was a pair of pretty earrings and an itunes gift card. But her fairy also left her a card telling her how much she would miss being her fairy and that she would always watch out for her.
Now my daughter is very quick. She knows her fairy very well. She seemed very touched by it all. Even though my oldest still has several teeth to go and my little one hasn't even gone there yet, I am still sad. Perhaps it is something about her being the first of my children to lose all her teeth. It just seems a little out of order. But then again she has always been the mature one. A grown up in a child's body. There is just something so magical about little girls and fairies. It's a class all of its own. Lucky for me S loves fairies more than anyone would ever guess.

Flying By

This past week has flown by incredibly fast. I blinked and it was Monday all over again. Here are a list of some of the things we did this week:

~Pulled C out of K12. He is much more relaxed and back to himself again.
~I held a 5 year old book club, we read "Daniels Duck" and the kids carved things out of soap.
~C attended a book club where he was the only child who understood the Holocaust and what was really going on in the book "Number the Stars." (World War II is a bit of a passion for him.)
~C and J attended a sports class, C went skateboarding.
~J understood that Native Americans used every part of an animal they hunted. She also finally "got" fractions.
~S read 20 library books. I think I need to break down and get a "homeschooler crate," my back is killing me!
~J had her art lesson.
~J lost her last baby teeth. Well actually she had them pulled because she had "shark teeth", baby teeth and adult teeth in the same spaces. So the tooth fairy mad her last apperance to J. *frown*
~C got a new guitar. (Dad's old one, but new to him and full size.)
~We attended a field trip about Ventura's Chinatown during the gold rush. It was one of the best we have been on. Amazingly before we went C was able to tell me all about how the Chinese immigrants were treated based on a few books he'd read.
~We attended the coolest show! It was called "The Birdhouse Factory" it was sort of like Cirque de sol. Everyone loved it.
~The kids fed the animals at the zoo.
~S finally learned how to play by himself!!!!
~Finally, C, J and I saw "The Seeker" in the theater. It was C's reward for finishing the book. He tried to tell me about all the differences, I'm just going to have to read it this week!
~Oh yeah, we fit some homeschooling in their too!

Now, I shall sleep and rest because our new week has already begun!