I'm a doctor!

I don't usually have my stethoscope lying around, but it was this afternoon, which caught Cole's attention. He picked it up, announced he was a doctor, and headed off to find his first patient. Daddy was the first person, but fortunately only needed to have his lungs listened to. I was the second, but only needed my heart listened to. Liam is the unfortunate last patient. Liam's pants are now down around his ankles and he's gotten a dozen or more "shots". I don't know what happened to the stethoscope.

Liam doesn't seem to be minding, which is good, since he told me not 5 minutes ago, "I don't like doctors anymore." When I asked why, he said it was because doctors give you shots. "Actually, that's not true," I said. "Who gives you shots?" "Nurses!" he said, but he apparently doesn't dislike them. He thinks Nurse Carol is great, even drawing her a picture for her birthday last week and giving her many hugs. Nurse Renee also did a great job this year with the flu shots. I think it erased the trauma from the kindergarten shots (5!) last month.

I want to believe you.

We were eating breakfast this morning at the kitchen counter. Everything was fine, and then Liam said, "I'm not going to watch the fire video again." It took me a moment to remember what he was talking about. Yesterday evening I for some reason watched a video about an experiment with kids and marshmallows. Wait and get a second or just eat the first. Liam came over to watch and then requested more videos. We watched a campfire, some Mavericks, etcetera, until supper was ready.

Anyway, he then told me, "I want to believe you when you tell me there are no monsters, but in the fire video it sounded like a monster [it was an owl]. So, I'll watch the marshmallow video again, but no more campfires."

I hope he's still okay with actual campfires when we're outdoors. I suppose we should test that before we go camping again.

PS - This evening, I told him I was posting this story on the blog. After a discussion about what a blog is, he told me I had gotten the story wrong. He tells me that he actually said, "When I was three, I believed you when you told me there were no monsters. But I heard a monster in the video, so I thought you were wrong. Now I believe you again."

An Afternoon at the Bank

As everyone in Minnesota has probably heard, the Gophers are back on campus. TCF Bank Stadium is a great place to watch a football game, as we found out last week and again this afternoon. Jeff & I watched a very entertaining game between Minnesota and California, at least until the false start penalty on Cal that nullified the big sack in the fourth quarter. I'm certain our boys, despite being in the stadium with us, were watching something completely different:

Pre-game (Liam): I'm going to pretend we're watching the W's. They're the ones in white. (We sit on the 50-yard line, but behind the visitor bench.)

Q1 06:50 (Liam): We want to win the game because the Gophers are the best. They're the best in the whole universe. (At the time, the Gophers were down 0-14.)

Q2 13:25 (Cole): Let's go home. (The Gophers had recently scored to make it 7-14.)

H (Liam): After this I want to leave and go to Grandpa & Grandma's. (14-21)

Q3 12:42 (Liam to me): You feel hot. I'm going to take your temperature. (He then spent most of the third quarter taking my temp and blood pressure. Cole spent most of it not quite falling asleep.)

Q4 10:59 (Liam): I'm sick of being out here all evening. I just want to go home and go to Grandpa & Grandma's. I just want a touchdown to happen. I want to go home right now. (21-21, looking like the Gophers had a chance to win)

Hip to be Square?

Jeff and his family used to square dance when he was a pre-teen, although he probably doesn't advertise that much. His parents stopped when they got too busy with boys in sports, but started again a decade or so ago. Tonight they hosted a special "anniversary" square dance and invited us to attend.

It was past the boys' bedtime, but they were absolutely enthralled watching Grandpa & Grandma dance. I don't think they even moved for the whole first set. Once their cousins showed up, though, they didn't pay any attention. We didn't stay long.

Judy keeps trying to convince us that we should start square-dancing. It's interesting to watch, but I just don't see it happening.

First Project

Cole still doesn't talk much about school, but is obviously thrilled. Today, he did tell us that they made projects. I wanted to post his very first official pre-school project. He chose pale pastels, so it may be a little hard to see. He (and we) are quite proud!

A Day without Liam

Being without Liam is a new thing for Cole, obviously. Prior to school, there have probably been less than half a dozen times that Cole has had Dad (or us) all to himself. I figured today was a good day to figure out what he does without anyone hassling him all day.

8:30: He finally woke up and had breakfast. It's a good thing today wasn't a pre-school day, or he would've been an absolute bear.

8:45: Worked on the star he was supposed to bring to pre-school yesterday. I suppose this is the start of the second child stuff. We also forgot the tuition payment. Markers didn't work. Crayons didn't work. Paint did.

9:30: Play-dough. He actually wanted a "kid show", but there was no way I was popping him in front of the TV that early in the morning.

10:15: Got dressed and played make-believe. Johnny the Tractor did some work and then Cole became a ghost pirate.

11:00: Played outside. Sandbox, playset, whatever. No one to decide for him!

12:00: Got ready for lunch. Watched Mom cut the peanut butter and jelly sandwich into the wrong shaped pieces, threw a huge hissy fit and went to bed.

12:05-3:15: Napped.

3:20: Had a snack with Liam.

All in all, I think this was a pretty good day. (One huge tantrum is fantastic compared to some days.)

Cole's Big Day

Cole is now officially a pre-schooler. (Jeff is going to get so much done with his six free hours per week!) We have never had any worries about separation anxiety with Cole, but I was a little disappointed in the drop-off experience today. We took the obligatory picture (he, grudgingly) and went in to class. He dropped off his bag and coat, got his name tag, and was off. No "bye, Mom". No "love you, Mom". Not even a hug! Oh, well.

After school, he waited in line for the bus like all the other kids (even though he doesn't actually ride the bus). His teachers said, "Look who's here." Cole looked at them, looked at the bus, looked at the other kids, and could not have cared less about Jeff. When asked if he liked school, he "vigorously nodded," according to Jeff.

This evening, he told me that he went to gym. They bounced balls and Mister Terry had a black whistle and when she blew it they put the balls away. He told me they had doughnuts and milk for a snack and that he had a great time. I think that's a successful first day.

He's lovin' it

Liam continues to love school, particularly the books they're reading and the projects they get to do. (I think he also really enjoyed hot lunch today, since he barely ate supper.) He's very good about telling me what his drawings are. When I asked about this one, though, I was a little concerned. Do we eat at McDonald's too much?

First Day

Jeff & Cole walked Liam home from school today and called me on the way. Liam said, "School was really great. We did more projects than ever." It was very cute.

After I got home, I asked him to tell me about his day. He wasn't terribly forthcoming, so I tried to coax it out of him. He said that they read some books, but they were a secret, as was the identity of the book they'll be reading tomorrow. He told me he ate both a cold lunch and a hot lunch, which I doubt is true. He did tell me that he got to wash the table after snack, because he was the helper today, and that he loved to go to music.

Ready for School

Liam is so excited to be starting kindergarten. He wanted to pack his backpack weeks ago, but we made him wait until yesterday. Today, he had his conference with his teacher, and they're going to get along great. He brought all his stuff, found his locker and his desk, had his picture taken (we'll be doing another photo shoot elsewhere), and got even more excited. Honestly, I'm not sure he'll sleep at all tonight.

I noticed that I haven't blogged since July. I'm going to follow Dobo's example and start blogging more than I did this summer, hopefully.