Randon Musings

The older boys, and now Owen has joined in, love to help Daddy! Just today Charlie and Owen went with Daddy to pick-up the wood trailer (Sam was grocery shopping with me); they have also been throwing firewood through the window (for next year), installing an antenna in the attic, mixing up concrete, and demolishing part of the floor between the first floor and the basement (not Owen). The boys have also been to visit some of Daddy's new jobistes (thank goodness, people still are building houses in Maine), one site had a lot of large equipment - excavators, dump trucks, and more. Bob the Builder is favorite movie treat at our house these days. All of the boys are getting quite good at picking up - three boys working full force can make or clear a mess quickly! Mud season is here - need I say more...also, birthdays coming up soon. Sam and Charlie turn 5 in April, Owen 3 in May. New favorite toy, besides the bikes and trikes (outside, finally), a Spiderman punching bag, the kind that sits on the floor and pops back up after you hit it. Not that we necessarily condone violence, but Charlie is a master with a left hook on old Spiderman, Sam makes the best noise, something like a comic book "POW!" We make them use it one at a time and draw different colored legos out of a basket to decide the order of attack. On to medical news: Owen has had a couple of typical two's injuries and his first trip to the ER with me since India. Since he is fond of running lately (yeah!) is was inevitable he would eventually take a tumble and hit his face - this time nose- when he fell on a chair. It bled a lot, he was at day care, and I left work from across the street just to check it out. It had stopped bleeding by the time we registered; they checked him over, not broken, he was fine, and we were on our way. I still had one class to teach, last period, no sub available and everyone extra in the building at a conference/training; but I didn't want to bring Owen back to day care. So he came to school with me, read books and took a nap in my pile of beanbag chairs (we had ruled out concussion), ooing and aahhing as dozed off. The students were whispering their lesson, immediately hushing anyone entering the room (very uncharacteristic of my 6th graders), it was one of my most productive classes in weeks! Owen's other incident - choking while eating lunch - 911 was called - food was dislodged before they arrived (in 4 minutes, by the way). All of the boys are growing fast, Owen weighs about 25 pounds now, Charlie 35 and Sam almost 40! They are outgrowing clothes at an alarming rate, luckily we still have an impressive pile to pull from - friends and relatives handmedowns, thrift shop/on sale items and Grandparents. Instead of going to the mall we go closet shopping - thankfully - because these three guys together at the mall are a bit of a nightmare. Well, that's all for now - hope you are all enjoying spring!