Preparing for Winter & Some Fun

Our family is preparing for winter (and now). Monday afternoon I took Anna & Mason to get the flu mist. Wow, so much easier than the shot. Mason did have to get one shot. I found out from his daycare that he was missing a Hib vaccine. Back in April when he had his 2 year checkup there was a shortage of the Hib vaccine. So while we did the flu mist, Mason got caught up on his immunizations. To my surprise, Mason didn't even cry when he got the shot. I was trying to distract him by talking to him and acting silly. His face got a small distressed look but he never cried. The nurse said "What a big boy!" It seems to me that everytime Mason gets immunizations his behavior is wilder for about 24 hours. We hadn't been home from the doctors office long when Anna told me to look at Mason. He was sitting on top of our deep freeze!

Anna got to bring the Bearcat Buddy home again Monday night. I'm really not sure why. She had a substitute teacher that day. Anna said that she told the sub that she didn't have much time to play with it last week so the sub let her bring it home again. I was really afraid that her normal teacher wouldn't be happy that she brought it home again, but Anna said it was okay with her.

Tuesday afternoon Anna was so excited because she got to ride a bus to the high school for a presentation that day. She said "It was an illustrator or something." She told me the lady's name but now I can't remember it. But I think she was an author. Anyway, Anna was so excited to have ridden the bus for the first time.

Anna's class had a pumpkin decorating contest. We had to "disguise" a pumpkin so it wouldn't be made into a Jack-O-Lantern. Anna and I had so much fun painting our Minnie Mouse pumpkin. She was so proud of it when she took it to school. All the kids got ribbons for their pumpkins on Friday. She was so excited about winning a ribbon.

Mason spent the night with Mimi Thursday night. Anna said it was really quiet with him gone. I would have to agree. He just seems to liven up our house! We got out the board games and cards and played for a long time. It's just so hard to play games with Mason around. He destroys the board, moves things around and makes it difficult to play correctly. However, it won't be too long until he will be able to play with us. Mason had a great time at Mimi's house. He even slept in the full size bed in one of her bedrooms. (It's called Anna's room.) He still sleeps in a baby bed at our house. I intend to keep it that way until we HAVE to move him. It keeps him from getting out of bed and running around without us knowing it (and getting on the kitchen table or deep freeze).

Friday afternoon after I picked Anna up from school, we went to Mimi's house. I swapped kids and left Anna to spend the night. We didn't play games with Mason but instead we watched Ice Age. He is really getting into watching movies and kids shows on tv. He didn't go to bed until almost 10:00.

Saturday around lunch time we picked Anna up from Mimi's house and met some friends at their church for a Fall Festival. We ate delicious BBQ and the kids got to play. Later that evening we watched a kids movie we rented and enjoyed snuggle time.

This afternoon Anna had a birthday party to attend. Zoey, a friend from daycare & PreK days, had invited her to a party at the movies. Mason stayed with Mimi while the three of us went. The movie was Where the Wild Things Are. It was an okay movie but definitely not one of my favorites. But Anna had a great time seeing some of her old PreK friends, and that's all that matters. I hope we can continue to get these girls together from time to time because they are always so excited to see each other.

Anna & Zoey the birthday girl

Anna has quite a social life for a 5 year old. She had the party today and has a few more coming up within the next month or so. I'm so happy that she has so many great friends. The one thing I wasn't ready for with having a little girl is how some girls can be so mean. We have already encountered some "mean girl" situations. It's really hard to explain to a 5 year old. As her mother I want to protect her from hurtful people but it's an impossible job. We have had some discussions about how real friends should treat her and picking our friends wisely. I never expected to have these talks with my 5 year old. What will I do during the teenage years?