A Fall Day

That a Boy!

One day last week, I went to pick Jonah up at preschool and as I was walking down the hall heard the teacher call his name and tell him to come sit down along with another child. When I got to the window I could see him sitting in a chair in "time out" along with another little boy while the rest of the class was sitting in the floor listening to a story. I asked the assistant what he was doing and she said that he wouldn't sit down and listen but was running around and went up behind the other teachers chair. I thought that sounded like typical Jonah stuff. The next time I picked him up though, I was glad to see him sitting and listening to the teacher.

Well yesterday I picked him up and found a handmade BUG certificate in his bag. BUG stands for Being Unusually Good. When I read the little certificate it said, "Jonah was extra nice to Jack today when Jack was sad." Awww..... I was so proud. He had a little reward in his bag too. We have been trying to teach him to be sensitive to his sisters feelings - especially when he has done something to hurt her - and it's nice to know he is learning to be sympathetic to others outside of our home environment. We asked him a couple of times what happened with Jack today and finally he told us that Jack was crying and missed his mommy.

A Day at the North Carolina State Fair

Last Sunday we decided if we were going to go to the State Fair, that would be the best day to go, crowd-wise, as it was kind of dreary and cold and historically that first Sunday wasn't a big attendance day. I guess we prefer a little drizzle to dealing with a big crowd. On our approach to the fairgrounds you can see several ferris wheels and this inspired Jonah right away. "I want to go there and ride that," he kept saying as we circled the fairgrounds in search of a place to park.
Once inside, we passed the Turkey shoot which was upsetting Elisabeth greatly - that whole loud noise thing - and went in search of the animals. On the way we found the UNC-TV tent that had various plywood creatures propped up out front - many that Jonah was familiar with from his PBS cartoons. This is the one that really got his attention.



Inside the tent were people in Character costumes - all the Super Why characters and Curious George. But when we went to get in line to meet them, Jonah was afraid. A little too life-like and adult sized. On the way out of the tent he stopped to sort food into their food groups - super boring for mom and dad, but Jonah really got into it, although he was putting the face pretzels into the vegetable bin - only if!


We went over to the poultry tent from there. They had an area where kids could pet baby chicks and ducklings.



Jonah made the height requirement for several of the kiddie rides so we got some ride tickets.



Jonah finally got to go up in the Ferris Wheel.

Here you can see Jonah waving at Daddy and Daddy waving back from below.


There were some photo props around that made for some of the funniest pictures.



Jonah loves to get his picture taken. He's such a ham! Reminds me of his Papaw (smile).

For more pictures and video from our day at the fair go here

What Character

Elisabeth's personality is really coming through these days and she seems to have a little mischievous streak. For instance, today I saw her eating on something she was holding in her hand. As I started to approach her to see what it was, she starts trotting down the hallway to get away from me. She was smart enough to anticipate my intentions and decide she wanted to keep her treat. Turns out it was a bread stick she found in her brother's room - I let her keep it. :) On several occasions I have caught her taking clean diapers out and putting them in the trash can. On one hand it shows me she knows where the dirty ones go, on the other hand, I have to periodically check the trash can for clean diapers. She also likes to get trash out of the kitchen can and play in the dog bowls. Also, I have gone in my room to find an entire box of tissues emptied of its contents. She and Jonah really enjoy each other right now. However, there are times when Jonah does something she doesn't like and she starts screaming and looking at me like, "Do something about this please!" She loves the dogs, but will occasionally taunt Leto when he's in his crate. She is not fearful when he starts growling. She absolutely LOVES Barney! As soon as she sees the show, she starts squealing with delight and rocking back and forth. It is partly due to the songs - did I mention she loves music? Another thing she enjoys is to come over and lay on you when you sit in the floor, thus the picture below.

Phillips Corn Maize

There are several farms/corn mazes in the Greater Raleigh area that open their doors or rather gates to the public this time of year for various fall, farm activities. We took the kids out to the Phillips Corn Maize on Saturday. There was a write up in the paper about this one as the maize is in the shape of a local celebrity who passed away a few months ago after a battle with breast cancer. A portion of the entry fee goes to a foundation in support of breast cancer research.

In addition to the corn maze, they also had a short hay ride and cow train, a mini haybale maze for the kids and a somewhat dangerous slide made out of a big plastic pipe. Jonah went down it once but wouldn't go again. Kelly went down just to check it out. He said he was clinging to the side and it was still fast. They had a corn pit as opposed to a sand pit and a couple of other things as well. We had a pretty good time and we made it through the corn maze with only one or two wrong turns along the way!









You can go here to see more pictures from the day.

Super Star

Thanks for my sunglasses Grammie!

Elisabeth Showing Off

I took this video a couple of days before Jonah got sick last week. Elisabeth loves to put things around her neck like you or I would put on a necklace or scarf. She did this with Jonah's backpack and then I helped her put it on the right way. She is so funny!

Swine Flu?

Well, Jonah was completely back to normal yesterday but Elisabeth was having a very runny nose that started Saturday and a temperature that exceeded 102 at one point. Then I started feeling really yucky about lunch time yesterday. It escalated in to violent chills, fever, sensitive skin, and achiness last night. I felt as wretched as one can feel and not have intestinal stuff on top of it. Tylenol helped the fever, but I have had trouble with the achiness. It seems to be the most painful where I already have issues - my lower back. This morning I am still dealing with that, a soar throat, and fever which manifests as hot flashes. If this is what Jonah had (which is my assumption) he is a tough little guy - although Kelly thinks it just may be rougher on adults. After some emails with some other ladies who have kids at the preschool where Jonah goes, some of their kids have tested positive for swine flu and have had the same symptoms as I described above. The positive thing is everyone says it's not as long lasting and severe as regular flu and if Jonah is any example - he had two bad days and then one day where he acted normal and then crashed. The other good news is it looks like Elisabeth has already recovered or nearly so - I haven't noticed a fever today and her runny nose is almost gone. She is still a bit congested though. Kelly is home taking care of all of us and took Jonah to preschool this morning. He's feeling head congestion today, which is what I was feeling Friday/Saturday, but we're hoping and praying he doesn't get this and that I recover quickly. I feel better today than last night - Thank God!

Jonah Update

He is feeling much better today. He was very active this morning, but was still having a fever - although somewhat less than yesterday. I took him into the Doctor this morning. She checked him out and then last thing looked in his throat. She said, "It does look yucky in there! I'm surprised, because he isn't acting that sick." That's my boy! They took a culture and the preliminary result showed that is was NOT strep. So we are happy about that. We won't know for sure, for sure until this weekend though. They are probably growing the culture in a petri dish or something to get a better look at it. (Brings back memories of biology class.) Anyway, he did take a two and half hour nap today after I made him go in his room to watch a movie while I put Elisabeth down for a nap. I hate that he's sick, but that was kind of nice :-P Oh well, his temperature is still hovering around 100 degrees. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Elisabeth is exhibiting a very runny nose now but no temperature. So we are hoping this is all just a virus that will go away muy pronto.

Random Update

Jonah is under the weather today. His temperature got up to 102.3 at one point. He has pretty much been laying in the bed watching movies and me trying to get him to eat a little here and there and drink. His temperature had come down to 100.3 this afternoon and he's napping now. Poor baby! This morning he came over with a frown and sat down in the floor kind of whimpering. I asked him what's wrong and he said he wanted to go to the doctor. I asked "Why? Is something hurting?" And he grabs his throat. Post nasal drip is a bear in the morning to be sure. He has been surprising me with how articulate he is these days.

On Monday we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and a young man in army fatigues held the door for us. As we were passing by, Jonah stopped and looked up at him and asked, "Are you a captain?" The young man replied, "No, I'm a Sargent. Can you say 'Sargent'?" And Jonah said, "Sargent." We thanked him and moved on. Interesting little interaction. He's already getting to the point where he can hold a conversation with a perfect stranger - LOL!

Here's another random thing that happened this week with Elisabeth. I was standing in our hallway doing laundry - moving clothes around - you know how it goes - it's kind of tight squeeze when I have the folding doors open. Anyway, I came around the corner to put some clothes in the wash and there she was in my path as usual. This was probably the first time that I said, "Beep, Beep." And don't you know it she went "Beep, beep" right back. She can also say "Zebra" but it sounds more like "Wee-bra." She loves watching animal shows and Barney. She literally bounces up and down when she seas Barney - "Barney goes to the Zoo" is her favorite movie right now.

Okay, well, pray the rest of us don't get whatever it is Jonah has. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday Play

Here are some video clips of Kelly playing with the kids after our church fellowship meeting - Elisabeth was enjoying participating in fun. Jonah is really enjoying how interactive Elisabeth is these days.



In the background, you can see our friends have a pool that they do not use (empty) and is covered over. They tell us the cover is quite aged and would probably not hold a person if they were to walk on it. Well, wouldn't you know, despite our diligence, Elisabeth decides to take a stroll on it. (Needless to say my heart skipped a beat.) With some cajoling she walked back to safety, before we could use the pool hook on her. Shew! Thank you Lord!

An Afternoon at the Museum of Life and Sciences

We went to the Museum of Life and Sciences in Durham on Saturday. Elisabeth walked all over the place. She is proving to be just as independent as her big brother too - wanting to go do her own thing.

Elisabeth Enjoying a Bath

Who knew a wash cloth could be so entertaining?