Highlights
- Disneyland trip
- Halloween!
- Gran and Grandpa come for a quick visit
Calan
This month was fairly routine for Calan with his main activities centering around school, basketball and of course, continued peanut dosing. We did have a nice, “non-routine” visit from Gran and Grandpa the first week of the month however. Gran stayed for more than a week, while Grandpa dropped in for the weekend so they could attend Aunt Billie’s 100th birthday celebration. Gran stayed with us most of the week prior and the week after. This made it much easier to care for Evan during Calan’s Long Beach trip to see Dr. R this month. In fact, it made regular days much easier. 🙂 Gran also stayed with Evan on our 2nd annual Disneyland trip this month with Calan.
Disneyland
This year, our trip to Disney was a little less complicated than last year. Not only was it the second time, so we didn’t have to plan as much, we didn’t have to worry about taking a lot of special snacks and/or figuring out peanut-safe places to eat. We did have the day’s peanut dose to consider, but that was simplified by packing six peanut M&Ms. He had plenty of time to eat those standing in the long It’s a Small World line.
Calan is still on the reserved side about all there is to see and do at DL, staying close to Mama and taking it all in as we ventured around the busy theme park. This year was a bit more crowded than last, but you just go with it. Luckily, we aren’t in need (yet) of the more popular, thrilling rides that come with the notorious longer lines. While we did wait 20-40 mins. at times, it was tolerable, and Calan didn’t seem to mind. Of course, we did end up joking that Disneyland should be called “Disneyline”.
Calan’s favorite ride this year was the Casey Jr. Circus train. He also loved the monorail and It’s a Small World, of course. Unfortunately the main train that goes around the park was closed this year for maintenance. We had talked about going on the Big Thunder Mountain train ride, after easing Calan’s apprehension about it… but lo and behold, when we got the the entry gate in the late afternoon finally, the ride had just shut down for repairs. Next year, on that one.
We weren’t able to find any of the main characters to get a classic Disneyland photo, such as the ones where you stand with a towering Mickey or Minnie…but that was okay with Calan as he seemed a little “shy” about meeting up with anyone from the Mickie Mouse crew.
All and all, it was fun for us as parents to see the experience through Calan’s eyes again. His excitement was mostly contained, but he clearly enjoyed it. At the end, after the sun had long set, Calan really wanted to spend some of his own money to buy a treat and a bubble making machine we’d seen a hundred different kids carrying around the whole day. It was a long decision making process, but he finally ended up with some over-sized Mickey lollipops. Before we exited, we stopped at a stand where he bought the really cool bubble maker…you know, the kind that lights up, plays music and spews out hundreds of tiny bubbles. 😉 We stayed until just after 9. Calan, exhausted from the day, slept most of the way home.
Notable quotes this month:
“This is my question mark Position. If you ask me something and I don’t know the answer this is the position I will show you. ” –After asking him where Evan’s missing shoes were.
Dada heading out the door to work one morning, Calan acting like a superhero: “I’ll move out of your way Dada. I’m a superhero that keeps people from being late to work.”
Playing Frisbee with grandpa in the backyard, the two struggling for a moment on a couple tosses: “I’m too little and you’re too old, Grandpa!”
While getting stuck in the middle of a rumble tumble pileup: “I don’t like this part of my life right now!”
“I’m happy I’m not a girl because if I was a girl I’d worry about having twins.”
“Mama, I’m glad I got a flashlight for my birthday. All these years I’ve been wanting a flashlight for my 6th birthday.”
Looking at himself in the mirror: “Wow, I’m getting skinny. I need to eat more pizza.”
Running up to Mama one afternoon: “Maybe we can build a tree house using the natural resources in our back yard.”
Evan
Halloween
This year, Even really got into the spirit of the late October holiday. This is officially the last Halloween where we get to “pick” what one of our kids dresses up as. Next year, we can only imagine what Evan will really want to be. That said, input did come indirectly from the little guy. During the last month or so, Evan showed an affinity for the Statue of Liberty. While playing with blocks, he would stack them up and proclaim he’d built the infamous green lady holding her book and torch. He’d even stack other items into his own version of the statue, like small boxes of food in the kitchen. When thinking of a costume, it was clear Evan had to BE the Statue of Liberty. So, with a little searching and some luck, Mama found the perfect costume for Evan. Needless to say, when it arrived he was fully into the spirit of putting it on (for a little while anyway), and of course, was cuter than ever.
The boys had two fun outings related to Halloween this year. The first was at the Y for an event they put on, complete with tons of games, arts and crafts and spooky decorations. The kids wore their costumes, which they loved. Calan had fun of course in his full body glow-in-the-dark, skeleton costume, and Evan surprisingly handled the whole evening really well. In his usual tempered excitement, he explored and soaked up everything about the party that he could. His favorites were the throwing games, such as tossing small bean bags through a giant jack-o-lantern’s eyes and flinging ping pong balls at little white cups that looked like ghosts. Before our eyes, Evan seemed much older than we were used to, as we didn’t have to manage him like he was just tagging along with the family. We could simply enjoy him taking in and participating on his own in the whole experience. Some of the Y staff noticed too, commenting what a “cool” kid he was and how “fun” he was to watch going all around at his moderate pace. We’re glad he had fun. He even wore his costume the entire time we were there, so photo ops were everywhere!
Halloween night also went great for the kids. To keep things simple, we headed out on our own, but were quickly met by our two neighbors across the street (Molly and her mom Carrie and Emerald Baker with her two young boys). We walked with them for most of the trick or treating, which was nice. We hit all the good spots on a few streets and took in the Halloween spirit together, watching the kids cruising through the neighborhood. Our favorite was watching both Calan and Evan running up to doors, then calling out “trick or treat” as delighted homeowners opened their front doors. Evan seemed to take all the cues delivered by his older brother and had no problem getting in place each time in order to fill his plastic jack-o-lantern with treats. When it was time to head back, the kids threw off their customs, and we dumped all the candy on the kitchen table as if we’d just come back from robbing a bank. For Calan, this was extra special this year as it was the first time he could try practically anything he wanted, except for candy containing actual peanuts. While he could eat those and be fine, we still reserve peanuts for his doses. By next Halloween, treats with peanuts will probably just be his natural way of “dosing”. For now, he enjoyed a mini Kit Kat and Twix bar for the very first time. Evan is not so lucky…yet. We had his ‘safe’ treats pre-arranged, and he didn’t know the difference.
A couple other quick updates on Evan: For fun, we set Evan on Calan’s old toilet seat a few times this month. Evan seemed to get a kick out of it while we encouraged him to “go”. By the third or fourth time, he actually did go a little bit, but it was probably just a fluke, as he wasn’t able to do it again the next few tries. Oh well, it’s just a tiny introduction to seeing what it’s like to be a big boy. That didn’t stop us from watching the famous “Poop Song” on YouTube a dozen times though. Evan can’t get enough of that.
Evan also tried some good ol’ home cooked gravy this month. Mama made some pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy one night. It was delicious. Evan called the gravy “gravis”, and he seems to take after Dada when it comes to putting gravy or sauces on breaded meats. Calan, not so much. Dada sees many gravy laden meals shared with Evan in the future! On left-over night though with the pork chops and delicious veges that came with, Evan turned down the gravy for some reason. As it turned out, he didn’t eat much of the pork chops anyway as he crunched away on his broccoli and sweet potatoes. Dada’s line to Evan: “You can’t just eat your vegetables. You need to finish your meat!”