Before and After of our two front rooms. When we moved in there was carpet and brown walls with a thick 70's texture. We didn't take pictures until the carpet was pulled up and the walls had been re-textured. We still need to purchase our curtains and lots of decorative pillows for the window seat and couch.
Jane turned 10 this year. She lost 8 teeth. She continues to work on her drawing talent and watches tutorials on youtube that have really expanded her techniques. She spends all of her allotted free screen time on Animal Jam, an animal-based social computer game that Matt and I can't really understand but try not to let our dislike for the game seep out too much.
Jane and Pete have been pretty cute together this year.
Jack turned 7 and has been doing well in 2nd grade. He started the school year by telling his teacher that he reads when he has to but doesn't like it. By now, he has discovered books that he likes and often reads well over his minimum homework time. Jack loves Honey Nut Cheerios and Star Wars. He's still always trying out new ideas for what to be when he grows up. Jack is already looking forward to owning rats when he is older and training them for rat shows. He's also open to the possibility of being a rat breeder. Jack is still pretty picky about the things that he will eat. In fact, he doesn't even like to see foods that offend him. So, on those nights he grabs his "guards" which are cereal boxes that he sets up around him.
Hank has spent most of 2016 as the cutest 4 year old around. He has been so fun I am not ready to see him grow up. He is still so kind and sweet. He's also getting quite the sense of humor, making me laugh out loud often. During one of his phases where he was pretending to be a baby, Hank was sitting on the bed and he asked Matt to come over so he could hug him. Then he squeezed him so hard and pulled him back on top of him on the bed and said in a growly voice, "Baby took you down!"
Hank had a couple anaphylactic reactions in November, only two days apart. We are still not sure what caused the allergic reactions. The first time he had only eaten his normal breakfast and started to feel sick, eventually throwing up, and hours later having hives, which then turned in to anaphylaxis with very low blood pressure, cold extremities, and lethargic by the time we got to the hospital. He got adrenaline, steroids, and benadryl injections, and an IV. He was such a trooper. Two days later we did blood testing at the hospital and skin prick test at the allergist. He hated that one a lot. We finally got home and were both exhausted. I fed him hot dog, ketchup and hummus. Within minutes he was writhing on the floor, crying about stomach pain. I immediately began to check him for hives, which I saw just beginning over his eyes. Matt was gone, so I cried a little out of exasperation, but went and got the epi pen. Hank was so tired of getting shots that he ran away from me saying he felt better. I pretty much had to sit on him to get to his thigh, gave him the injection, then put him in the car to go to the ER. Jane watched the kids and Matt rushed home. On the way to the hospital I came up behind a car accident where the police were directing traffic. After several minutes of waiting and not seeing the cops let people from my side of the street go, I got out of the car (barefoot, mind you, because I couldn't find my shoes at home) and told a police officer that I needed to get my son to the hospital. I wanted them to let me drive by but instead they called an ambulance. So Hank and I got to ride in an ambulance and Hank later said how he couldn't believe they looked like firemen. We still haven't discovered what it was that caused either reaction, or if the second reaction was somehow a delayed biphasic reaction to the first. His tests came back negative for sesame, and garlic, and he even ate the same hummus in the allergists office and no reaction. He's had ketchup since, and the allergist didn't think it likely the hot dog ingredients were the culprit. It's very baffling!
Pete spent most of the year as a rather high-needs 2-year-old. He did a lot of screaming and crying when we couldn't figure out what he wanted, or couldn't attend to his needs fast enough. Matt and I decided that had he been our first we probably wouldn't have even noticed that he was rather grumpy when things don't go his way. We would have had all the time in the world to just make sure he was happy. But right around the time he turned three he started blossoming. He's speaking in longer and longer sentences. Now when we ask him if he wants a certain thing he will say, "Yes, I do." He has started doing the cutest pretend play. He loves to play Star Wars and talks about the Force, using either his hands with the Force or a light saber. He also likes to play Ninja Turtles, and even once put on a baseball cap, gave me one, and said we were bad guys who needed to fight. During the pretend play he will fall down and stick his hand up and make grunty-"save me"-type noises until we go over and lift him up by the hand. Pete and Hank have been playing more and more together, too. Hank usually asks in the morning when he can go get Pete.
For Pete's birthday we had candy cups. Pete doesn't like cakes and cookies and baked goods, but he loves candy. He enjoyed reading his birthday cards like books.
Pete learned to cross his eyes.
Pete sings The Wheels on the Bus during the summer.
Here is Pete playing light saber's with Matt. He has a very specific fighting stance.
Pete has given up his naps. He was falling asleep too late in the day which was ruining his nighttime sleep. He's been a lot happier with a more regular sleep pattern, but every now and then he gets tired. Here he fell asleep while eating chicken nuggets.
For Halloween we had an Egyptian princess, a ninja, Luke Skywalker, and a fireman. Pete loved figuring out what trick or treating was all about.
We finally timed it right for seeing the fall colors on the Alpine Loop. It was gorgeous and we all had a great time walking on some of the trails.
Here are the kids playing at the park near their Aunt Julie's house.
We had a fun day during the last week of school before Christmas break. I went to Jane's school at 10 am and checked her out, telling her she had an appointment. She said, "You didn't tell me I had an appointment today!" I said, "You have an appointment to go see Moana with me. She was squealing and when we got in the car she said she felt like such a rebel. Matt picked Jack up at 12:00 and surprised him by telling him that he was being taken to see Rogue One. We met in the lobby and handed off the million-dollar popcorn bucket so they could get a free refill, and traded off the little kids. It was so fun to surprise them like that.
Jane and Jack were so surprised on Christmas morning. They had asked for pet rats as their top choice, but gave other ideas as well. We hid the rats in their cage in our room for two days and the kids were completely surprised. It was so fun. They have really fallen in love.
On New Year's Eve we took the kids to the Curiosity Museum. They had a blast. Matt and I enjoyed having two adults to help with all the kids wanting to go in different directions. Here is Jack being a vet for a rat.
The kids have said some funny things.
One time the kids were watching Wild Kratts. One of the Kratt brothers asked, "Can you imagine a world without cheetahs?" Hank said, "Yeah. This world." Jack said, "This world has cheetahs." Hank said, "Oh. Whoa."
Another time Hank asked, "Is a platypus real?" I told him yes. Hank said, "Wait...a platypus is real in this world?" Again I said yes. Hank replied, "Awesome."
Hank is always telling people he loves them. He told me, "I love you to the last number. What is the last number again? Oh, yeah, I think it's a boogle." Since then we've learned that the largest named number is googleplexian so we get a lot of, "I love you googleplexian." Sometimes he'll clarify that it's more than a googleplexian since that is simply the largest named number and not the largest number possible.
Hank was sick for a couple days and had diarrhea. I heard him tell the kids, "Diarrhea is melted poo."
Pete usually imprints on whoever gets him out of bed in the morning. And when he imprints it is over. The other parent cannot so much as offer to pick up a dropped a toy. The imprint parent will be made to do everything that day.
Pete blows on flowers when he sees them instead of smelling them.
Pete was running around the house yelling, "I'm fasting!" When he couldn't find something he said it was "losting."
Matt is always singing little made-up songs around the house. Pete now immediately tells him to stop. "Top it, Dad, top it!"
Pete's favorite stuffed animal is his bunny that looks like the Goodnight Moon bunny. When he was younger he called it, "Munny." Now that he's older he can say Bunny and sometimes calls it bunny. But then he corrects himself and says, "It's not bunny, it's munny!"
When we were working on our front two rooms we had plastic sheeting hanging down between the kitchen and the family room. Pete would stand on the kitchen side and yell into the empty rooms to hear the echo. He began calling the rooms, "funny echo." Once we got the rooms finished Pete kept calling them the "funny echo." One time after Matt got Pete out of the tub and went upstairs to get clothes for him he heard Pete yelling, "Oh no! Pee pee in funny echo!" Matt ran down the stairs to find that Pete had accidentally peed in the front room.
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