Too much drama for mama, tooth tug, pumpkin parties, trick or treat, and startling snow
Yesterday began with ridiculous amounts of drama. While I was exercising, Two decided to paint on the reverse side of an old lemonade-stand sign in the middle of the kitchen floor, not remembering to change out of her favorite fleece PJs first. She balked when I told her she wasn't allowed to sit on the carpeting or the sofa due to paint on said PJs, balked at taking said PJs off, balked at cleaning up the mess, including wiping up the paint in the downstairs bathroom after washing her hands. MiniPlu declared she didn't have anything weather-appropriate to wear because she doesn't like to wear jeans when it's raining and her other pants were in the laundry. She also had a conniption when she tried to get Two to be less messy with said art project and got increasingly over-wound about it and I told her to chill. "I'm never going to help in this house, ever again!" :-P Then Two said she wasn't hungry and wouldn't eat. Now, she often does this early in the morning, but once I coax her to eat, she realizes she IS hungry, and chows down accordingly. Not yesterday. I told her if she wouldn't eat, she must be sick and would have to stay home in bed (no TV, videos, etc). But - despite the threat and otherwise behaving okay, she still wouldn't eat more than a few bites and complained of stomachache.
Ergo, MiniPlu (who eventually, grudgingly, got dressed) went off to school by herself, Two came with me for a couple of short errands and then entertained herself quietly while I baked brownies and Jack o' Muffins, made turkey burgers for myself, ketchup (which I no longer have to make, but I had leftover ingredients from something else that needed using up before they spoiled), did a pile of dishes, four loads of laundry, and changed our bed. Two's appetite returned around 10:30am and by noon she was completely normal. IDK - she could have swallowed a lot of sinus guck overnight, could have had lingering indigestion from the TKD pizza party the previous night, could have just needed a mental health day. Not going to kill her to miss a day of school, even if it wasn't ideal from my perspective.
We picked up MiniPlu from school early as the girls had their initial intake appointment at the oral surgeon's. After a lot of waiting around, the girls got their blood pressure taken, the oral surgeon took a 12-second look in each kid's mouth just to verify which teeth were involved, said they could both be done on the same day (my only question) and said kids were usually resilient enough to go back to school the next day. So, they'll get their teeth yanked out in about 2 weeks, on 10 Nov. I've already given their teachers a heads-up that a planned absence is coming, although I'll remind them as the day draws closer; that way the girls can get their missed work in advance.
Today was "Harvest Day" aka the non-Halloween Halloween Celebration Because Kids Are Too Excited About Trick-or-Treat To Get Any Proper Work Done So We Might As Well Have a Party. But first I went to the post office, pharmacy and bookstore, and still managed to get to MiniPlu's classroom by the appointed 10:30am time. I was the only parent helping her teacher, and I know he was grateful to have me, given that on Wed he told me, "I'm not at all crafty so I'm glad someone will be around to help!" Anyway, it was a craft-foam kit, making a fall-themed wreath with foam leaves, pumpkins, wooden beads as "acorns" a fabric bow, etc. In the middle of the project was their grade's turn for the hayride, so I helped shepherd kids out and back, although I didn't squeeze onto the ride, myself. (I could have.) The project was finished and mostly cleaned up by 11:50am, so I got to go home for 30 mins to eat lunch, let the dog out, make a couple of phone calls, and go back by 12:30pm for Two's party. (MiniPlu's grade had the food-oriented part of the party after lunch but didn't need parental help with that.)
Two's party consisted of two fall-themed outdoor relay races, bingo, snacks/sugar, adults assembling goodie bags (one of FOUR that were donated to the kids), watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and - miraculously - squeezing in their scheduled spelling test before the end of the day.
We had two pumpkins to carve when we got home - the standard bought-at-the-store sort, and a yellow pumpkin we grew in our backyard. Whatever variety this was, yellow seems to be its permanent color; even more oddly, it didn't have a seed cavity. There were a few seeds, yes, but the center was solid pretty much all the way through. On the other hand, it was a much softer pumpkin than the standard orange variety, so it was extremely easy to carve - just more of a pain to scoop out.
After the pumpkins it was already time to style Marilyn Monroe's hair, eat dinner, get Marilyn and Luke Skywalker dressed, and, the moment Will got home, head out. The girls had made advanced arrangements (or rather, the moms had at their urging) to Trick-or-Treat with a neighbor family, one with four kids. They live next door to another four-kid family, so I assumed there would be 10 kids involved. Turned out another brother/sister pair (friends of those families) came, too, so that made for a dozen kids, four moms and one dad. Getting the kids to stay together was extremely difficult; some ran ahead, some lagged behind, some jumped into giant leap piles they passed along the way.... :-P
Also, we started initially by going in the opposite direction the girls and I normally go but the pickings were surprisingly slim in that direction. I know there are a lot of families out that way, but we would go two blocks and only see one or two houses with porch lights on. Then at other corners, several houses would be lit. Still - it was a lot of walking in cold temps (MiniPlu was very cold in Marilyn Monroe's dress, despite a cloak; she had open-toed jelly shoes and bare legs) for not a lot of candy, relatively speaking. We finally coaxed everyone back to our side of the neighborhood, where one house consistently gives out full-size bars, and there's a much greater density of "on" homes. We were the first to peel off, once we got close to our house, so MiniPlu could thaw out and put a band-aid on the blister she'd developed, but still - the girls had enough candy by then, IMO. In fact, as we were almost home, our next-door neighbors secretly gave me two generous goodie bags for the girls, which had been specially prepared for them. The mom had also saved me an Entertainment Weekly about the end of Potter, which I hadn't seen. Very nice of her. :-D
Someone even gave the dog (whom I had brought along) a treat: a Milk Bone. :D
Tomorrow: Two's belt test. I think. Last night they said we "might" get snow, but it was more likely up in the higher elevations. This morning they said we'd likely get 1-3", depending on how cold the ground was. Between lunch and 4pm the forecast was changed to either 6-8", 6-9", 6-10", 8-12" or 10-15" depending on which part of the forecast/storm watch you were reading - and this was all on the same website (weather.com). I've certainly never experienced measurable snow this early - much less that MUCH measurable snow - in the 15 autumns I've been here, but even Will, who has lived in either NJ or PA all his life, has never experienced this early a snowfall. Theoretically the day will start with light rain, the snow will start to creep in around 10am, and become "heavy snow" by 4pm, continuing heavily until midnight.
So - hopefully, with the timing of all of that - they won't cancel the belt test.
Ergo, MiniPlu (who eventually, grudgingly, got dressed) went off to school by herself, Two came with me for a couple of short errands and then entertained herself quietly while I baked brownies and Jack o' Muffins, made turkey burgers for myself, ketchup (which I no longer have to make, but I had leftover ingredients from something else that needed using up before they spoiled), did a pile of dishes, four loads of laundry, and changed our bed. Two's appetite returned around 10:30am and by noon she was completely normal. IDK - she could have swallowed a lot of sinus guck overnight, could have had lingering indigestion from the TKD pizza party the previous night, could have just needed a mental health day. Not going to kill her to miss a day of school, even if it wasn't ideal from my perspective.
We picked up MiniPlu from school early as the girls had their initial intake appointment at the oral surgeon's. After a lot of waiting around, the girls got their blood pressure taken, the oral surgeon took a 12-second look in each kid's mouth just to verify which teeth were involved, said they could both be done on the same day (my only question) and said kids were usually resilient enough to go back to school the next day. So, they'll get their teeth yanked out in about 2 weeks, on 10 Nov. I've already given their teachers a heads-up that a planned absence is coming, although I'll remind them as the day draws closer; that way the girls can get their missed work in advance.
Today was "Harvest Day" aka the non-Halloween Halloween Celebration Because Kids Are Too Excited About Trick-or-Treat To Get Any Proper Work Done So We Might As Well Have a Party. But first I went to the post office, pharmacy and bookstore, and still managed to get to MiniPlu's classroom by the appointed 10:30am time. I was the only parent helping her teacher, and I know he was grateful to have me, given that on Wed he told me, "I'm not at all crafty so I'm glad someone will be around to help!" Anyway, it was a craft-foam kit, making a fall-themed wreath with foam leaves, pumpkins, wooden beads as "acorns" a fabric bow, etc. In the middle of the project was their grade's turn for the hayride, so I helped shepherd kids out and back, although I didn't squeeze onto the ride, myself. (I could have.) The project was finished and mostly cleaned up by 11:50am, so I got to go home for 30 mins to eat lunch, let the dog out, make a couple of phone calls, and go back by 12:30pm for Two's party. (MiniPlu's grade had the food-oriented part of the party after lunch but didn't need parental help with that.)
Two's party consisted of two fall-themed outdoor relay races, bingo, snacks/sugar, adults assembling goodie bags (one of FOUR that were donated to the kids), watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and - miraculously - squeezing in their scheduled spelling test before the end of the day.
We had two pumpkins to carve when we got home - the standard bought-at-the-store sort, and a yellow pumpkin we grew in our backyard. Whatever variety this was, yellow seems to be its permanent color; even more oddly, it didn't have a seed cavity. There were a few seeds, yes, but the center was solid pretty much all the way through. On the other hand, it was a much softer pumpkin than the standard orange variety, so it was extremely easy to carve - just more of a pain to scoop out.
After the pumpkins it was already time to style Marilyn Monroe's hair, eat dinner, get Marilyn and Luke Skywalker dressed, and, the moment Will got home, head out. The girls had made advanced arrangements (or rather, the moms had at their urging) to Trick-or-Treat with a neighbor family, one with four kids. They live next door to another four-kid family, so I assumed there would be 10 kids involved. Turned out another brother/sister pair (friends of those families) came, too, so that made for a dozen kids, four moms and one dad. Getting the kids to stay together was extremely difficult; some ran ahead, some lagged behind, some jumped into giant leap piles they passed along the way.... :-P
Also, we started initially by going in the opposite direction the girls and I normally go but the pickings were surprisingly slim in that direction. I know there are a lot of families out that way, but we would go two blocks and only see one or two houses with porch lights on. Then at other corners, several houses would be lit. Still - it was a lot of walking in cold temps (MiniPlu was very cold in Marilyn Monroe's dress, despite a cloak; she had open-toed jelly shoes and bare legs) for not a lot of candy, relatively speaking. We finally coaxed everyone back to our side of the neighborhood, where one house consistently gives out full-size bars, and there's a much greater density of "on" homes. We were the first to peel off, once we got close to our house, so MiniPlu could thaw out and put a band-aid on the blister she'd developed, but still - the girls had enough candy by then, IMO. In fact, as we were almost home, our next-door neighbors secretly gave me two generous goodie bags for the girls, which had been specially prepared for them. The mom had also saved me an Entertainment Weekly about the end of Potter, which I hadn't seen. Very nice of her. :-D
Someone even gave the dog (whom I had brought along) a treat: a Milk Bone. :D
Tomorrow: Two's belt test. I think. Last night they said we "might" get snow, but it was more likely up in the higher elevations. This morning they said we'd likely get 1-3", depending on how cold the ground was. Between lunch and 4pm the forecast was changed to either 6-8", 6-9", 6-10", 8-12" or 10-15" depending on which part of the forecast/storm watch you were reading - and this was all on the same website (weather.com). I've certainly never experienced measurable snow this early - much less that MUCH measurable snow - in the 15 autumns I've been here, but even Will, who has lived in either NJ or PA all his life, has never experienced this early a snowfall. Theoretically the day will start with light rain, the snow will start to creep in around 10am, and become "heavy snow" by 4pm, continuing heavily until midnight.
So - hopefully, with the timing of all of that - they won't cancel the belt test.