Double up

This is a significant day of sorts. Today, Sydney turns two years, four months and 15 days. So why is that worth noting? Because that means she is now the exact age AJ was in the photo below.

That's right. Sydney is now the age AJ was on the day she was born. To look at it another way, AJ today is exactly twice as old as Sydney. He's been a big brother for as long as he was an only child.

AJ has always impressed me with how quickly (and willingly) he adapted to sharing the spotlight. I wonder if Sydney would be as gracious.

I hesitated whether to even write about this, for fear someone would misinterpret how much spare time I seem to have. I really don't spend a lot of time thinking about things like this, but two different acquaintances with children close in age to AJ and Sydney recently gave birth to their third. That got me doing the math. And shuddering at the very thought.

Star of the week

Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder...
why you can't sit still for 30 seconds so mommy can take your picture?


And smile?

Without a mask on?

It's AJ's turn to be Star of the Week at preschool. I don't know entirely what this means for him, but for Mommy it's meaning a heckuva lot of extra work.

I'll be sending a note today explaining that the healthy treats and juice will be coming tomorrow because I didn't read the entire letter from the teacher until after 10 p.m. last night. Good thing he's the star all week! I'll be taking some time off from work on Wednesday to visit his class and read his favorite story. We're still deciding what that story will be. I'm pushing for Dino-hockey. His choice – a book explaining how armor has changed over the centuries – doesn't strike me as something that will hold the interest of the rest of his class.

But AJ's Star Poster is done and ready to go. That's what the impromptu photo session was all about. We needed a picture of him, and of course I had no current close-ups. We ultimately went with a picture from last summer.

It's recent enough, and after a quick trip to Walmart last night, it's printed and ready to go. Twinkle, twinkle, my little star!

Halloween parties

The plus side of staying up north this weekend was that the kids got to spend Saturday party hopping. After a brief stop at the Esko school's Harvest Festival where the kids collected all sorts of cheap plastic toys for me to discreetly throw away later, we headed for the party at Kids Korner.

There, we found the sweetest little cheerleader (Hanna). I'd say this Wolverine is smitten.

Cookie Monster, meanwhile headed to an activity table where she showed amazing skill at filling little plastic pumpkins with what looked suspiciously like deer feeder fodder... without getting any of it on her Tootsie Pop. That's talent!

The cutest moment came during a game of musical chairs. The competition started out easily enough, with about twice as many chairs as there were kids. Once it reached the point of kids outnumbering chairs, Sydney was the first to lose out.

And that's when the benefits of strong toddler spirit kick in. So what if she missed out on a chair. As soon as the rest of the kids stood up, she plopped herself down. And that's where she remained. No spiderman or dragon was going to tell her otherwise.

"Carving" pumpkins

So we didn't make it down to the Cities for the annual Larson family pumpkin carving event. But that didn't stop us from taking a stab at a few gourds on our own.

AJ mostly just likes to watch the process and provide directions. As Jeff walked into the kitchen, where we were (I was) busy with knife in hand, AJ proclaimed, "Daddy, we're killing a pumpkin!"

Daddy joined us then, turning two small pumpkins into a mini snowman.


As for me, I'd like to pretend I was this original, but the magazine picture kind of gives away where I got the idea for the toothpicks.

The jack-o-lantern below also came from a "borrowed" idea, but I'm still pretty proud of how it turned out. And lots of trick-or-treaters were impressed with it too. At least three times, as kids were leaving our door, they'd point out the sideways pumpkin to their friends, calling it cool or awesome.

And where was Sydney during all of this? She had no interest in it and wanted to watch a Dora movie instead. Ironically, her movie of choice was "Dora saves Christmas".

I have to say, this is the first year I've listened to Christmas music while carving pumpkins.

Laughter is the best distraction

Maybe if I'd been serving her a healthier lunch, I'd have been more upset by her refusal to eat it.

As it was, I found Sydney's sudden (and presumably temporary) decision that she doesn't like pizza simply amusing. And sharp little cookie that she is, she picked up on the fact that I wasn't too concerned when I put on my most serious face and told her, "You need to eat your pizza."

With an equally exaggeated serious face she responded, "Nooooooo."

She said a few more cute things that left me laughing too hard to scold her. And by the time I grabbed the camera she was in fine form. As I snapped the picture she happily chimed, "piz-zahhhh"

The eyes have it

The way AJ sees it (bad pun), having drops put in his eyes ranks right up there with getting a flu shot on his list of least favorite medical treatments.

AJ visited the eye doctor today, and overall the news is good. It just was a bit of a challenge getting to the point when the doctor could examine AJ's eyes to tell us that. You see, AJ still remembers his visit last year when he got the drops. And they are not fond memories. The first thing out of his mouth as we walked into the exam room was, "Are they going to put drops in my eyes."

"Yes, AJ, you need drops this time."

That news set off drops of a different kind... big tear drops as AJ frantically cried, "I don't want drops. I don't want drops."

Ultimately, Daddy ended up sitting in the exam chair with AJ in his lap. Both got tipped back, with Jeff wrapping his arms tightly around AJ to keep him in place. (This picture was our attempt at a re-creation.)

AJ did his best to squirm loose. But he forgot one key detail. Daddy knows how to do this. In fact, Daddy has quite a bit of experience with submission holds and wrestling guys who weigh a heck of a lot more than 45 pounds.

Once the drops had been administered, AJ admitted that they "didn't hurt that much. Maybe a little bit, but not too much." He also said he wouldn't be afraid next time. Though he did verify more than once that he wouldn't need drops on his next visit.

And as I said, the news was generally good. His weak eye is getting stronger. AJ still needs to wear a patch, but now just 3-4 days a week.

Spare me!

"Mom, bowling balls is a hard game!"

That was AJ's summation of his first attempt at knocking down the white pins. On Saturday, we were invited to a party at a local bowling alley to celebrate his soccer (and soon-to-be hockey) teammate Owen's fifth birthday.

AJ had the benefit of bumpers blocking the gutters, plus an ultra light bowling ball. But it turns out what he needed most was a longer attention span. He lasted through about the fifth round before he lost all interest. That was fine with someone else in our family who was happy to fill in for her big brother.

Sydney's first attempt at bowling definitely required patience. It took the ball a loooooooooonnnnggggg time to finally reach the pins. But she was having fun, and of course that's what mattered.

Nevertheless, Team Kazel has some work to do before we join the pro circuit. Even with bumpers that made it impossible to throw a gutterball, our final score was a whopping 66.