Typical morning

The kids went back to school on Wednesday after staying home two days. John was excited to be back but Gillian was not. Daddy picked the kids up from school that night and was informed that Gillian had a fever and could not go to school on Thursday. Daddy stayed home with Gillian today. I got up with John and the two of us got in the car and went to the bank. John was super excited to come inside the bank and push all the buttons on the ATM. In the car on our way to school, John says "Mommy? Are we going home or going to school?" I told him we were going to school. He says "Wait a minute! We're missing something! Where's Gill?"

Yup, a typical morning.

Sick Kids

John woke up around 3 this morning. He was crying and coughing. I went right to him and tried to calm him down. He wanted to come to our room mainly because he knows that I have water. And his throat hurt. I carried him to our bed and we settled in. Two second later, Gillian started crying. Daddy got her and brought her to our bed. For awhile we all snuggled together, but John was still shivering even though it was really warm in our bed. Daddy took him out and gave him a warm bath. That really helped bring down his fever. John joined Gillian and I in the bed but Daddy was awake and went downstairs. I moved into the middle of the bed so the kids could both snuggle me. Gillian fell asleep for a little bit but work up around 5 and asked to be moved back to her bed. John and I slept until about 8 and then he joined Daddy downstairs. Gillian woke up crying. She felt warm to me and I put her into a warm bath. After the second bath both kids got set up with the iPad and they snuggled in their beds watching shows. That's pretty much all we did today. They drank lots of water and juice and watched tons of shows. John had a temperature again before bed and hopefully the fever reducer will help to break it. If not Daddy will be taking the two of them to the doctor tomorrow.

Inside out PJs

John heard on the radio the other night that we might get snow today. This morning he woke up and wanted to know where the snow was. We explained to him that the snow probably wouldn't come until after school. I also told him that I had a secret way to get it to it to snow more. I explained that if you sleep with your pajamas on inside out that sometimes it snows. He didn't believe it. I said call your cousin Bert. He did it and they got snow. Daddy also explained to him that you need to get a lot of lot of kids to wear their PJs inside out. The more kids that do it makes more magic. This whole thing really stuck with John. In the car on the way to school, he said "How can we get more kids to wear their Jammies outside in?" Inside out, I corrected him. We talked about how we could call our cousins and he could tell his friends at school. I'm sure he told everyone about it at school. By the time I left work it was snowing. John was so excited. After dinner he called his cousins and asked them to wear their PJs inside out. At bedtime both John and Gillian wore their PJs inside out. Gillian kept saying "It's backwards!" I snuggled with John for a little bit and he said "we didn't tell everyone yet. We have one more person to tell." I said ok, should I text Uncle T? He said "No. It's someone that lives far away." Jokingly, I said should I tell Mr. Matt, because he lives far away. John said "No! You know! Mr. Matt loves really close. No. You know this guy. He lives far away and we see him once a year." It took me a little while and I finally figured it out. Santa! John said "Yes! But he probably has snow up there. Maybe he can send us snow!" My little man is always thinking! I hope the snow lasts until tomorrow and John gets to play in it.

Best Ever!

I don't know when it started but Gillian had been calling people or things "best ever!" It's pretty simple. If she likes something then it's "best ever!" Some days when I pick the kids up from school, she will come running over saying "Mommy! You best ever!" It's a wonderful feeling to know that you are the best thing in her world. Now if you ask her who is "best ever" she will think about it and then give her verdict. Last night, we talked about all of her friends at school. Only Dora was considered "best ever." Gillian says "her nice." You can see the logic there. Dora is nice so she is best ever. This morning before school, Daddy was best ever but not Mommy. Tonight at dinner, Mommy, Daddy and Johnny were best ever. But don't worry. Everyday Gillian is best ever. If you ask her her name she says "Gillian Beanie Best Ever!"

The Obstacle Course

I picked the kid up from school today. On our way home, I asked the kids how their day was. I expected a short one word answer. But John surprised me. He told me about Amazing Athletes and how they did relay races today. "First we did frog hops, then bear crawls. And at the end we ran! That's my favorite! When we get home can we set up an obstacle course?" How can you say no to an obstacle course? So of course I said yes. He said "Ok first we need two hoses. Then we need rubber snakes. But don't tell Daddy, cause he doesn't like snakes! Then we can run through the snakes with them falling on us. Then next we need a really big snake in the front yard. Not a real snake, but looks real. And we need a house but not made out of wood. Made out of Popsicle sticks. So we can run right through it. But it's not real wood. So it won't hurt us. Then we need bricks and glue. We can make a brick wall with a rope so we can climb over it." After all of that he went into a long tirade about how we would have to move the brick wall with cranes and dump trucks. Meanwhile, Gillian is sitting listening to this whole thing. She repeated the last word of every sentence as if to add emphasis to John's speech.

By the time we arrived home he had everything figured out including knocking down our house to make room for his obstacle course. We talked about his obstacle course at dinner and decided instead of knocking down our house we would build it at GiGi's house because she has lots of space. After dinner John took a big pad of paper and drew the layout of the obstacle course. I love that he has such a vivid imagination and was able to draw his vision. I can't wait to hear more about it.

Daddy got some video of John describing his obstacle course, but YouTube was no cooperating with me and I was not able to upload. Hopefully I will soon.

Here's the video of John describing the obstacle course.

Bath time assistant

I give Gillian baths at night. And every night there is drama about getting the soap out of her hair. I have tried to get her to lay down on her back and lean her head back but she doesn't want to try. She gets upset and refuses to lay in the water. Even though when she is playing, she will lay down on her belly or her back. Anyway, last night I washed her hair with my shampoo (I have to do that at least once a week). So I asked her to lay back in the bathtub so that I wouldn't get any water in her face. She shook her head. "No!" I called in the big guns. I asked John to show Gillian how I get the soap out of his hair. He said, "This is what I do." Then he laid down on the bathroom floor and tilted his head back. She watched him and immediately laid down in the water. We got all the soap out of her hair with no tears. All thanks to my John.

Tonight we started to have the same problem. But all I needed to say was remember what John said? She laid back in the bathtub and we rinsed her hair. John checked on us saying "Do you need my help?" When I told him that she rinsed her soap out like a big girl, he went running to Daddy shouting "She did it! I didn't even need to show her!" I love that he was so proud of her too!

The Beach

Daddy and I decided to take the kids to Manasquan today.  It was our first time to the beach since Hurricane Sandy.  We bundled the kids up and packed them in the car.  In the car, we reminded John about how the hurricance destroyed houses and the beachfront.  We also talked about Gee-Gee's.  For those of you that don't know, Gee-Gee's is a pizza place where Daddy and I met in high school.  We both worked there during the summers.  Gee-Gee's is very important to both of us, not only did we meet there, but we spent countless hours there.  A lot of our memories revolve around that building.  John knows Gee-Gee's as The Pizza Man (simply because employees wear t-shirts with a man holding a pizza).  Anyway, after reminding John that there may be some damage to the places he knows, he said "We can help clean up!"

We arrived at the beach.  Daddy and I wanted to see Gee-Gee's, John on the other hand was more concerned about the big piles of sand.  He kept saying "I'm going to the top of the highest mountain!"  I really didn't think anything of it, and said go ahead.  Then I turned around and noticed that one of the piles of sand by me had glass on it.  I didn't think.  Those piles of sand came from the streets or even from in front of Gee-Gee's where glass and all kinds of other debris were inside of them.  I didn't let John climb the piles by the boardwalk.  I took Gillian and John farther onto the beach so that they could play in the sand.  John was totally interested in all the debris in the sand.  Pieces of wood and wire and anything else.  We specifically told him and Gillian to not touch anything.  They ran up and down the piles of sand and even found a couple of shells.  After playing for a little while, Daddy and I put them back in the car and we drove to the inlet.

When we got to the inlet, John and Daddy started to walk along the rocks.  Since I had Gillian, we stuck to the beach.  We sat and watched a few surfers.  Then Gillian saw John and Daddy on the rocks.  She pointed to them and said "I go there!"  The rocks at the inlet are big and sturdy enough to walk all the way out, but carrying Gillian I was a little unsure.  I took her and walked along the rocks for a little bit.  She kept pointing to John and Daddy, who were about 20 feet ahead of us.  We ended up catching up with them and I handed Gillian off to Daddy.  I grew up in Manasquan, but I had never been that far out on the jetty.  Once Daddy head that I had never been out on the jetty, he made it a goal to get all the way out there.  I stuck with John for the second half.  He really got me worried.  The rocks are big, but there are also some big spaces between the rocks.  John would jump from rock to rock and all I could envision was him falling into the cracks.  He didn't fall.  He did a great job, but he did get Mommy a little worried.  We made it all the way to the concrete at the end of the jetty.  And stopped to take a few pictures. 

I took Gillian on the way back and Daddy took John.  I'm thankful that I had to carry Gillian, because on the way back, the wind started to blow really hard and I almost fell a couple of times.  Daddy had to deal with the wind and a little boy.  Overall, we had a great day at the beach.