Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was kind of a bust for our family. We spent the day home sick while everyone else was eating turkey and pie we were home trying to keep our lunch down.

The weekend before Thanksgiving Luke came down with a stomach bug. He couldn't keep much of anything down for 24 hours. The next morning he was mostly fine. He kept his food down however his appetite wasn't there. We thought we were in the clear when nobody else got sick for the next few days. Our luck ran out on Wednesday. I get a call at work from Mom that she has come down with a stomach bug that sounded eerily familiar to Luke's.  Mom like Luke woke up the next day feeling better and kept her food down. However, her appetite had not returned and is still missing.

Even Wednesday we knew we shouldn't be going out on Thanksgiving but we held out a bit of hope for some miraculous recovery that would allow us to make the trip. Alyce's upset stomach and a fever of 103 erased any doubt where we were going to be spending Turkey Day. Alyce luckily only got sick once and spent most of the day either taking naps or laying on the couch watching TV.

I took the opportunity to do some work on my wall. I received more than one awkward look from the neighbors as I was loading shovelfuls of rock into a wheelbarrow as they were off to Thanksgiving dinner. After explaining to them our situation you could see the understanding in their eyes. Each and every person I talked to offered to bring food back from their dinners. It was very neighborly of them and embodied the Thanksgiving spirit.

The aftermath of this round of influenza is still felt. Just yesterday Luke's appetite came back a full 7 days after the first onset of symptoms. Alyce never really seemed to lose her appetite however the quantity of consumption has gone down. Mom has yet to regain her appetite and is limiting what she eats. Not because she couldn't keep it down but because it isn't agreeing with her. I'm hoping that this will pass me by. If I am to get sick I can be thankful that I was healthy while everyone else was sick so I could take care of them.

Birthday

Alyce's 5th birthday was quite some time ago. Sadly it's taken too long to get around to writing a post about it. Alyce's birthday was really more a birthday week than a birthday day. We did a little celebration on the actual day, next we had a family birthday party at our house, and finally we had a kid birthday party at McDonald's. It makes me tired just thinking back on it all.

The actual birthday was a simple affair after Alyce's dance class. We had cake and ice cream and a few presents. We didn't really need this night but Alyce had been focused on the day so much we didn't want it to be a fizzle. I think it was enough to keep her from being letdown.

The second birthday was the big birthday party where she got the big present from us. This party, held at our house, was for the family. We had grandparents from both sides plus aunts, uncles, and friends of the family. We had lasagna with sides, cake, and ice cream. Presents galore too! The big hit of the party was our gift to Alyce, a new bike! Looking at those pictures of her riding around the cul-de-sac on her old bike we knew she needed something more size appropriate. The bike is princess themed and purple. It has a snap in carriage on the handle bars were she can sit her stuffed animals. The night of the party and the next day we allowed her to ride her bike in the house. We knew we were asking for trouble by allowing bikes in the house but surprisingly enough she didn't hit a thing. With training wheels Alyce is a remarkably good driver. Once we brought the bike outside and got the tires dirty it was to never be back in the house.

The third and final party the friends McDonald's party was a huge success. We originally wanted to have the party at Monkey Joe's but thought it too expensive for what you got. So for a third of the price we held it at McDonald's. I had a McDonald's birthday party as a kid and had a great time. I figured Alyce would enjoy it too. I was right.

We invited all the kids we knew to the party. All of our friend's kids were in attendance including Madison from the neighborhood and Maya a friend of Alyce's from school. Another girl from her school, Ellie, had to cancel before the party. Before the party got underway it was pandemonium on the playground. The playground was a two story high affair with lots of tunnels an slides. Alyce, Maya, and Madison were a roving band of girls. Luke and Gideon were inseparable.



Happy meals were provided, as well as cake and ice cream. The chicken nuggets and milk were consumed quickly so the kids could get back to playing. Cake and ice cream was somewhat abbreviated as most of the kids wanted to keep playing. Present opening, well the girls in attendance wanted to see what Alyce got. Everyone else was running rampant.

Everyone had a great time at the party and I would recommend having a party there to anyone. For the next few days that party was all Alyce would talk about. Hearing from a few friends it sounds like the party was all their kids would talk about as well.

Mission Accomplished.

New Wall

We are only 9 months into living in our new house and I'm already working on a new retaining wall. Like last time Alyce is helping me with this wall too. Now that she is five she is able to contribute but more importantly isn't getting in the way.

For most of the digging she wasn't present as there wasn't a lot for her to do and because swinging a pick is dangerous work. Once the rocks and stones started being put into place Alyce came out to help. While I was setting stones Alyce would fill up an old Country Crock margarine container aptly named the "Butter Bucket" with rocks and dump them either behind set rocks or further up the trench.  What she did in one bucket I could do in a single shovelful but being efficient wasn't what our time together was all about.

There was some learning going on too. To put the rocks in the bucket she used a little gardening shovel that was pointy on the end. Being an active construction site there was lots of stuff for her and I to trip on. So she and I had a little talk about how to safely walk with her shovel. The gist of the conversation was pointy end down and no running. She being a good listener did exactly as I asked of her and was very cautious anytime she moved with the shovel. The lesson must have stuck as about a week later she had scissors in the house and walked with them point down and didn't run.

There was some fun during the project too. I had music playing on my phone to help pass the time. It was classic rock with a pretty good beat. On a few occasions I looked over to Alyce and she was bobbing her head or dancing in place. Also when we were done with our wheelbarrow of rocks I would take her on a wheelbarrow ride back to the front of the house for another load. On the way she would play tour guide and tell me the name of everything we passed by.

At the end of the day as I was cleaning up rolling the wheelbarrow and tools back into the garage Alyce says to me "Dad, I had lots of fun working with you". That gave me a warm fuzzy inside.

Dirty Belly Buttons

Most nights Alyce gets out of bed once. Most of the time she wants a drink or use the bathroom. Other times she has some weak reason for being up like her closet is open an inch. Tonight about an hour after going to bed she pops out to tell us that her belly button was dirty. The things that go through a child's mind.

Duplicates

This weekend Alyce had her big McDonald's birthday party. I'll be writing about that soon. This was the first party for her where we didn't know what she was getting ahead of time. So we needed to talk to her about how to handle duplicate presents or presents she didn't like.

The night before while putting Alyce to bed I talked about how if she gets two of the same present or gets a present of something she already has to say thank you and not mention you already had it. I went on to say that we could exchange it later for a different toy. I think she understood the thank you part but the exchange seemed to confuse her. She kept saying she would have two of the same toy but in different colors. I left it at that having done the best I could at getting my newly minted 5 year old to be gracious when receiving a gift.

I didn't tell Mom that I had the conversation with Alyce. It didn't come up. Well the next morning Mom gets up with Alyce and proceeds to have the same conversation. Alyce pipes up and says "Mooom, Dad already talked about this to me". Well apparently Alyce is turning 15 instead of 5 as she's got it all figured out.

When we opened presents at her party Alyce did get a duplicate present. Luckily the duplicate was sitting at home as it was a gift from one of her classmates that had to cancel. Alyce did a great job with her gift; possibly better than Mom or myself. When we saw a duplicate we turned and looked at each other with a look of horror on our face. Alyce said thank you like she was supposed to and then showed her friend how to use it. It wasn't a perfect reaction but I think it is better than one would expect from a 5 year old.

Close Enough

On Alyce's birthday we had a little get together at Grams and Papa's as it was Alyce's dance class night. While sitting around the table we were all telling Alyce happy birthday. Luke piped in saying "happy birfday". Alyce immediately responded with "close enough". We all busted up. It appears that Alyce received a sense of humor for her birthday.