Happy Halloween!

Halloween will be slightly subdued this year since the kids are getting over the flu. We'll probably take them a couple places. I bought the kids each a pumpkin a couple weeks ago and yesterday we carved them. First Erik looked at pictures online to find the perfect face. Then I gave him a Sharpie and he drew a face on his pumpkin. They've been sort of practicing at school so he knew what to do. He did give his face ears, a belly button and a bottom (in front). Then I cut out the eyes and mouth. It was very fun and he was quite proud of it. The teeth he drew were quite pointy, so I said it looked like a vampire. He's not familiar with vampires, so after a couple minutes he said, "I think they are really called vam-pirates!" When Joe came home he told Joe it was an umpire! I cut Adin's to look like Count von Count from Sesame Street. I'm pretty proud of mine, too! I'm glad Halloween is tonight because the Count is going to fall apart pretty soon.

Adin has been saying "Pumpkin" so we decided we'll dress him in the pumpkin costume Erik wore when he was 18 months, instead of his new fire fighter jacket. Joe put him in his costume and he looked and looked at himself in the mirror. It was very cute. He even tolerated having the hood up. He drew the line at the cute little mittens, though. He hates mittens like poison.

Nope, we ended up having two adorable firefighters.

Fever

Joe took Adin to Urgent Care this morning with a fever. He may have an ear infection, and he has ILI (Influenza Like Illness), possibly H1N1. So he's on antibiotics and Tamiflu. Oddly, the doc told Joe that we may be able to get an rx for Erik for Tamiflu, since it was probably too late to get him vaccinated. However, when he called to ask for that, he was told they are prioritizing kids under two, and not giving rx to kids who are asymptomatic. Adin is feeling much better. He asked Joe for a bath when he got home from the doc. Our friend, Nurse Natalie, later told us that's one of the best ways to reduce a fever. He had a nice lunch and has been playing and seems to be doing fairly well.

When I grow up...

Since Erik started preschool he's been saying, fairly consistently, that he wants to be a teacher. Today at church he saw a big, tall bell tower out the window at church. He really wanted to go ring the bell. I told him there was a lock on it, and only Pastors Erik and Pam got to decide who rings the bell and when to ring it. I told him when he grew up, maybe he could be a pastor and then he could make the decisions about ringing his church's bell. (He likes to make the decisions.) He thought and thought about that in the car on the way home. Halfway home he said, "When I grow up, I'm either going to be a teacher or a pastor. I'm going to think about it for a couple minutes."

Church doings

When I got in the car to drive home from church I said either scenario A had happened in the car or scenario B. Joe said, "A". Adin piped up from the backseat, "B". Whenever he sees letters he says "B" (or maybe he's saying P, it's hard to tell).

Then Erik suggested we swing by the pizza store and pick up a pepperoni pizza, or maybe cheeseroni.

I'm very excited about the last couple weeks of church. At some point last year we decided that Erik was too hard to entertain in church and he started going to the nursery every week. Last week he saw the drum set was out and he wanted to stay. He was mesmerized during the music and I was able to entertain him during the quieter sections of the service. He's not that interested in drawing but when I pull out an activity sheet during church it's able to keep him engrossed enough to last the service. Yay!

Bedtime Theology

I know who else is with me...I'm not scared of Him.

After brushing his teeth, Erik climbed into bed and requested some stories from the Bible. We've worked our way up to reading about Solomon building the temple, and Elijah telling the widow God would make her flour and oil last to make more bread. Erik had some questions about how all that worked, of course. He wasn't familiar with the idea of God living in a building on earth so he thought the temple must be in heaven. And he wasn't sure how God could help the widow make more bread. We agreed that God was pretty amazing. Then Erik said, "I think God lets us do the easy part."

So then we said some prayers. We thanked God for lots of things, said God was amazing, I told God I was sorry for being grumpy today [and was just a little disappointed Erik didn't follow my lead and apologize for his temper tantrums]. Then we said Amen. Then Erik said, "Thank you, God, for making Sesame Street."

He wanted me to stay for a couple minutes as he tried to fall asleep. As he became sillier I left and he wailed, "I don't like to be alone." I came back in and explained I was still here, just on the other side of the door. He said, "And I know who else is with me. God. And I'm not scared of Him!" [I think in some Bible stories we'd read earlier this week, the people were scared by their encounters with God.]

I'm definitely enjoying this age of God being very easy to talk about.

Forever and ever

Erik has been very affectionate this evening. It's nice to get a break from "I'm not your friend anymore" and hear, "I know one thing that will never change. I'll always love you"!

Last week Erik's preschool had a Pizza Night. We watched a little Clifford DVD before we left and I paused it when it was time to go, telling him we could watch more after the pizza party. We enjoyed our pizza and cookie, then went up to the gym to run around a bit. After a while, Adin kept making a break for it, and it was about five minutes before it was time to go, anyway. So I told Erik we were leaving. He was very upset. I reminded him about the DVD and told him we could have a popsicle while we watched. He calmed down and came down the hallway, but he told me, "I have three feelings." I asked what he was feeling. "I'm mad, and sad, and happy."

Erik's been telling us lately that he doesn't want to be our friend anymore when we say things he doesn't like. Michelle reported that he told her today: "sometimes I tell my mom and dad I don't want to be their friend anymore but I really do".