Finding Our Groove

I know I haven't posted much on here lately and I think it is because we have just been finding our groove for the fall. We are all about a routine around our house and find life just flows so much better with one. Elton and I have been taking advantages of our mornings together when Caleb is at school. We have been taking 3 mile walks on the canyon enjoying the cooler weather and of course getting a coffee at our (my) favorite place: Moxie Java. This morning I wore my pedometer to see how much ground we covered and by the time we picked Caleb up, I had put on just over 11 000 steps.

Elton settles down perfectly after lunch for his nap and Caleb has finally transitioned out of his nap. He loves focusing on his building skills, watching "How It's Made", and working on reading skills while Elton is asleep. He is bringing home work sheets from school every week with stickers and his teacher says he is doing great. We are also trying to take advantage of our new library cards with reading lots of books. The last 2 weeks we have been making it to story time at the library and our goal is to either make it to story time or rhyme time each week.

I have been meal planning our dinners a week ahead. On the days Dan works he doesn't get home until at least 8:30. The goal has been for him to be able to tuck the boys in bed when he gets home unless they need to be in bed by 8 or unless he is even later getting home.

Elton loves calling Caleb "Eeoh" even though we know from the rest of his vocabulary he could say Caleb if he wanted to. It seems like a nickname of endearment for him and we have told Caleb it is Elton's special name for him. Caleb is very excited about his 5th birthday coming up and Halloween. Also, my parents will be coming down for a visit in a few weeks.

"Scared"

Tonight we all went to Target just to walk around. When we got to the halloween section, Dan headed right to the scary stuff (with the boys in the shopping cart). The first button he pushed, Caleb started to freak out. I have to back up first and tell you about last fall. Daddy and Caleb used to find it fun when we were in the mall to check out the lights and stuff at Spencer's. That is until they set up their freaky zombie halloween stuff. They had a zombie that talked and moved at the front of the store. It freaked Caleb out so bad that he was afraid at night for months (until after Christmas when the boys got their TJ bear to tell them stories and keep them company). For months I had to spray monster spray around his room and put up a monster gate every night to ensure there was no way of entry into the room. I had to pass the rule that daddy and Caleb weren't allowed to go into Spencer's and for months Caleb had to hide his head as we passed the store.

Thus, tonight when Caleb started to freak out I took the shopping cart to get them out of the scary stuff. That is when Elton started crying and saying "scared" over and over again. The only thing is that the further away we got from that aisle the more Elton cried and said "scared". It took me a couple of minutes to figure out he wanted to be "scared" and wanted to go back. Thus, daddy and Elton headed back to the scary stuff while Caleb and I went to gather the items we were at the store for. Caleb had me make new rule that daddy couldn't take him through the scary stuff at Target. When Elton and Dan rejoined us both were quite content they had their fill of scary stuff so it seems they will have to remain a team!!

(Next day: Caleb can't stop talking about how now he thinks daddy needs to take Elton to Spencers as he is amazed that Elton did not get freaked out last night. However, he makes it clear that he can't go anywhere near there.)

Hanging Out

This weekend Caleb was on a lego building mission. He spent all day Saturday building and late Saturday afternoon he asked for me to come take pictures. Sunday afternoon he was right back at it and by Sunday night he had created a whole lego village. It is amazing to watch his little mind at work and I wonder where it will take him.

Elton and Bingo were quite excited to hang out and watch Scooby Doo when they weren't outside playing. I managed to get quite a bit done around the house and even made some home made choclate chip cookies!

The Fair

It has taken me a few days to psych myself up for this post as the fair was a pretty huge dissapointment for us this year. I wanted to put in the title of this post "The Great Rip Off Scheme". You won't see any happy ride pictures this year after the boys had gotten totally psyched as it is unreal that they could think one should pay $30 per child (ages 2 and 4). Needless to say, no ride passes were purchased and 2 little boys were very sad.When you see the carnies and hear the lovely stories of them putting rides together and not knowing where all the pieces are supposed to end up it makes you wonder. We soon discovered that after the wonderful summer we had that the West Edmonton mall was cheaper for rides, water park and food. We are considering just heading to Lagoon next year and not even going to the fair. I always hear all the hype about going to the fair for the food and I just don't quite get it as everything is fried beyond the point of disgusting and also way overpriced. Once again I pass!

Now, on a brighter note, the boys did get to enjoy their annual treat of cotton candy. We checked out the petting zoo and Elton sat on many different tractors. The boy's favorite thing was the train hall. However, when it was all said and done, Caleb got heat exhaustion and spent the rest of the weekend with a headache and feeling dizzy. Sorry this post couldn't have been more positive!