Worth Being Thankful For...

 

 Strange teens...

 Evangelical frogs...

 Frisbee fetchers...

 Dancing fools...

 Mellow friends...

Quiet moments...

Random songs...

Breakfast chefs...

Pink clouds...

Thankful children...

Tennis balls...

 Sunday walks.

This is Halloween

The finished pumpkins!  Ethan looks like he is getting a mug shot. I don't even bother asking why anymore.

The pumpkins in their glowing glory.  The picture is blurry so use your imagination.  If you cannot tell what Ethan carved, he will be very disappointed.  It is the Hamilton logo.  He's a trifle obsessed.  Libby was devastated when she realized her spelling mistake.  Michael was able to fix it, but she was still upset. 

On Halloween night Ethan ditched us to go a party (where he happened to be the only boy).  He is a putz.  He is also the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

Libby's friend (a sorceress), Libby (a rock star), Grace (giraffe), and Sam (a kangaroo) decided we were cool enough to hang out with.  We ate dinner together and then the older girls took the younger kids trick-or-treating.

Ethan came home a little later, with a lot more candy.  Grace was eaten alive by jealousy.  

In the end everyone got to dress up and got way more candy than is good for a person.  Everyone ended up completely satisfied. Except maybe Grace.

Noggin Trouble

The kids seem to find great joy in tying their hands and feet together with scarves and trying to free themselves. I tend to ignore this game, because while it is odd, it doesn't seem too inherently dangerous.

Sunday evening they were playing this game when I had to change my mind.  Grace was hopping around with her hands tied behind her back when she fell.  In mid-leap, a rope she was trailing caught in the door and she caught her fall with her head on the living room floor. She cried; a lot.  She calmed down after a bit, then started acting tired, whiny and complaining of a headache.  We debated whether she needed to be taken to the doctor to check for a concussion.  Then she started vomiting.  Decision made.

There was no line at urgent care and the staff was incredibly kind to my sick little girl.  Grace has been terrified of doctors for years but she meekly held out her arm for a blood pressure and pulse check, and willingly had her temperature taken.  While talking to the PA, Grace started puking again (thankfully in the provided bag).  It was at that point they decided to send us the the ER.  The PA says she has comfortably sent kids home who have fallen from much higher heights and with more force, but she (and the doctor, and I) were concerned about the vomiting.

So off to the ER we went.  Grace refused to talk to the staff but she meekly accepted all the procedures.  They also gave her some anti-nausea medicine and liquid Tylenol, which she took with only a bare minimum of coaxing from me.  This is her face after a couple more bouts of throwing up and shortly after she took her medicine.  

As she fell asleep in my lap, I will admit I got a little teary eyed.  I have not been able to get Grace to take any medicine without a huge fuss for several years now, and just a couple months ago she hid behind me and cried at the dentist's office, to the point they could not do any exam.  I knew she was sick and miserable, but I was so proud of how well she was handling the poking and prodding  she was undergoing.  She didn't cry, fuss, or carry on.  She just let the medical professionals do what they needed to do.  I was so proud of how she was dealing with a tough situation.

After Grace slept for a few minutes it was time for a CT scan, where she had to lie very still on a bed as it was moved through "a giant doughnut".  Her eyeballs looked like they were about to pop out of her head as they darted around the room, but she kept the rest of her body perfectly still and they were done in just a few short minutes.  Goodness, I'm tearing up now, remembering how brave she was.

It was finally decided she had just a minor concussion, and her brain and skull were entirely unharmed.  We came home to eat a late dinner Michael had waiting for us and tuck her away in bed.  It was a rough night and we were all exhausted, but we are also all well and Grace faced a huge fear, and owned it!

It Gets So Much Better

I have attended so many concerts for my kids.  Elementary school concerts are charming for so many reasons, but the caliber of musical performance is generally not one of them.

This year both Ethan and Libby are in choir at junior high. Grace and Sam started complaining before we even got there.  When the concert was over 45 minutes later, Sam stated, "Is it over already?  I liked listening to them." That is about the highest praise they could earn. Grace commented "That was the shortest concert ever!" with sincere delight written all over her face.  My recording doesn't do it justice, but I want to go on the record and state, "It gets better!"  At least in regard to the music.

Random

Poor Sam!  He announced, "I just sneezed my head off!"  (He has been reading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes lately.)

Ethan working on his mad braiding skills.

Grandma, the littles and I went to the MK Nature Center.  The little kids insisted on not passing up on this photo op.  Grandma was a good sport.

Look at these fall colors!  Grace and Sam are cute, but the color gradients got me right in the feels.  It was necessary to take a picture.