Fall Break, The Croup, and The Ark.

This week Alex had Fall Break (don't ask me why the school district does this), so I had a few things planned so that he wouldn't get too bored at home. As is often the case, most of those plans were never implemented because someone got sick. Charlie came down with croup. The doctor prescribed a steroid and albuterol but I discontinued the albuterol after a few doses because from what I could tell, it was actually speed. I was told that it might make him a little hyper, but that was an understatement. He would repeatedly grab at his wrists like they were itchy, and whenever I would pick him up he would try to bang his head against my head. Plus he couldn't calm down enough to sleep, and this was after three or four nights of little sleep already. I stopped giving it to him and he's doing fine. He's still on the prednisolone (steroid) and you should see his biceps.

Earlier in the week we were at the grocery store when Alex lost his second tooth. Alex was helping push the cart while Charlie was kind of grabbing at Alex's face. I guess he grabbed just right and all of a sudden Alex gave out a yelp and started looking around on the ground for his tooth. He found it. He says he wants to show everyone at school how he looks like a jack-0-lantern. I think it's a popular look in his class.

And on Friday Charlie was doing well enough so that we could get one fun thing in this week. We went to see the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Center (a Jewish museum). It came highly recommended by a lot of people and I've been meaning to go for a long time. I'm glad we finally did. The animals were made from everyday items from whatever part of the world that kind of animal is from. Some of my favorites were the crocodiles, which were made from violin cases and tires. I didn't get a picture of those while I was there, so I'm taking these from the Skirball website.

It was very interactive and the boys were interested and involved the whole time. Benjamin's favorite was loading the animals into the ark.

Charlie's favorite was cleaning up the fake animal poop.

Alex liked pulling the rope to make the elephant trumpet (is that the right word?):

He was also pretty good at building things with these tubes.

There were a lot of fun puppets to play with:

Possums, sloths, and a black widow:

We really enjoyed it and anyone who is near L.A. should definitely check it out if they haven't already. We even got free cookies on the way out.

Neil.

So in honor of Ryan's upcoming birthday we went to see:

Yes, it was our second time at one of his concerts. What can I say? I am fully aware of how cheesy he is, but it was fun.

I won't be running for office

I just saw this quiz linked from Ken Jennings' blog. I guess this means I shouldn't ever worry about being President. I think I got 2 or 3 right, and mainly just because I guessed, not because I knew. I did, however, know that Mexico is more populous than Canada. But that's about it.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Charlie is a climber. The other two boys didn't do this, but I'll regularly find him here:

or here:

(At his altitude, the light diffuses like that)

Of course when the other two were 18 months we didn't have a bunk bed or a slide.

He also likes to climb up on top of the kitchen table or up onto the computer desk and push whatever buttons he can find.
It doesn't help that whenever he gets ahold of something he knows he's not supposed to have and sees me coming toward him, he'll throw it down. Most of the time he happens to be standing on the tile floor when this happens, and our phones/cameras/lego creations probably won't be able to tolerate this many more times.

Now that I've discussed a negative, I have to bring up a positive. He likes to clean. He loves to use the broom and will wipe any surface with a dishtowel. He also loves the vacuum, which is a first for our kids. The other two would still rather lock themselves in their bedroom while I vacuum, and were terrorized of it when they were smaller (kind of like the vacuum from Mr. Mom) but Charlie will follow me around acting very excited. Sometimes he points to the closet so I will open the door and he can just look at the vacuum.

And here is just some bedtime fun with Dad. Sorry I chopped off the tops of their heads.

Har har

Another gem from google's useless knowledge tidbits:

"The male sea lion may have more than 100 wives, which is more than many Mormons."

more firsts

Alex lost his first tooth last Thursday. He had learned about the tie a string to the doorknob technique and he was determined to try it. We just had to wait until the tooth was loose enough.

Before:

After:

And two weeks ago Benjamin had his first day of pre-school. This year he goes to a Parks and Rec class, the same one Alex went to two years ago.

I wish I could say that this picture was another first, as in a first attempt, but unfortunately it was more like a seventh or an eighth. That particular day I had an uncanny ability to catch him mid-blink.

Talena's Wedding

Last week I got to make a quick trip up to Washington to attend the wedding of my best friend from high school. I have to take advantage of any excuse to go since none of my immediate family live there anymore. I have to say it's always nice to visit and it still feels like home to me. I think I am definitely more of a small town type of person, and there is a tangible difference in the pace of life between Kennewick and southern California. I can tell I've been in California for a while when I feel like everyone else is driving too slow.

Kyle (my cousin) and Missie were nice enough to let me stay at their house. The first words out of Kyle's mouth were, "Sorry, I was in a motorcycle accident last week." He had a big gash on his leg and was limping around and pretty sore, but he's lucky he didn't have any serious injuries. I got to visit with Karena (Thompson) Van Dyke and Anne Thompson, Marilyn Wright, the Hagues, Darren and Lori Moody and their two week old baby, the Gutzmans, Harriett Sutherland, and at the temple Brother Rawlins performed the sealing. Friday night I decided to go to a movie and walked into an almost empty theater. There were a few people in the back row and as I was taking a seat I heard, "Megan?". It was the Gutzmans again, with Skip and Anne and their kids. So I sat by them and we had the theater to ourselves. It was very appropriate since they used to take some of us Baer kids to the movies when we were little.

Anyway, I was so glad I could go and I'm very happy for Talena. I was especially grateful I could be present at the sealing. Talena and her family have been through a lot in the past decade or so, and things felt right as I watched her that day.