Mason, Rylan, and Elli
October came and went with leaves starting to change colors and then fall off by the end of the month. It stayed pretty warm for the first few weeks, and then the temperatures changed to that comfy sweatshirt weather. We started the month with Daddy being on vacation and a long weekend trip back to Dayton, TN. Mommy and Daddy were so happy to show you around the place where we have so many memories. We went to the Apple Barn (the second year in a row you’ve gotten to go there!), stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (with lots of swimming in the pool!), and walked all around Bryan College. Daddy even got to hit a few baseballs on Friday night at the baseball field. Leanne and her kids, Andra and her family, and Auntie Jo Baby and her family were all there to hang out for the weekend. None of us could really believe it has been ten years since we graduated. Anyway, it was a really good time, and for the most part, the trip went smoothly (not the way down so much...but we at least made it there quickly!)
Mason, you were off of school during the story time at the Stuarts Draft library in October, so I took all 3 of you there. They had a craft and coloring afterwards, and it was fun.
One day that Mason had a half day at school, we were going to go to the park afterwards, but it started raining. So instead we went downtown to pay my ticket from having an overdue inspection…and ended up walking like six blocks in downtown Staunton (all 4 of us. in the rain.) since I didn’t know where to go to pay. But the guy was much nicer than the last lady I met there, so that made it less of a painful process. After that, I showed the three of you the depot and the Amtrak station place, and we went up on the bridge. It was fun to explore together there. Then we went to the mall, ate our sandwiches in the parking lot, and went in to play. After jumping from thing to thing in the play place of the mall, we went to see if any of the “rides” would work without money- but they must have fixed them all, because they wouldn’t move. Then we went to the photo booth and paid $3 for that….because I love photo booths and wanted yall to be able to see how fun they are. After that, attitudes/behaviors really went downhill, so we ended pretty quickly after that. But most of our afternoon was really fun together.
Our biggest/longest family day this month was spent starting at Galactic Donut, followed by a 2 ½ hour drive, and then 7 hours spent inside of IKEA. Yeah. 7 hours. Going through the check-out line 4 separate times, and even eating supper there. You boys were not on your best behavior a lot of the day, but we made it through. You got to spend an hour in the play place that you loved (and we found out afterwards you could have gone back after a little while, but we didn’t know that when we were there). Elli, you handled the long day pretty well, even though you were so tired. All 3 of you fell asleep almost immediately in the car on the way home…like earlier than you would have if we were home! AND you stayed asleep the whole way back. So that was basically a miracle.
We had a one day visit with Nana this month. She brought us biscuits from Hardees and then came back later in the day to see Mason when he came home from school. Nonni spent the morning of her birthday at our house. She played with the 3 of you (Mason you didn’t have school that day), we played with her new 3D pen, and we got a calzone from Ciro’s for lunch. We also had some of the cookies that Mason and I made together for dessert.
Halloween of course happened at the end of the month. You know that I’m not a fan of Halloween, but you boys loved seeing “spooky houses” this year. Mason, you were Batman, Rylan, you were Scooby Doo, and Elli, you were a Pooh Bear honey pot. It was actually warm during trunk or treat, which was amazing, and it was light outside for the first half of the time there….so there were at least a couple positives for the night. We ate our hotdogs after you boys went through the jumping things, and then we went to Aunt Michele’s house afterwards to see her, Uncle Wesley, and Jill.
Elli, you had an audiology appointment, eye doctor appointment, and a few speech appointments this month. The audiologist said you were hearing fine, so we aren’t going back there. The eye doctor said that you have an astigmatism in both eyes and that you’re going to need glasses probably next year…so that will be a new adventure for us when that happens. And the speech therapist started coming twice a month to try to help you with talking. Anyway, in the mean time you’ve been very cute and are saying some new things like “hi,” “bye,” and “Mommy” all very clearly. You’ve also learned the signs for “cracker,” “truck,” “thank you,” and “milk.” You love waving to people anywhere we go and telling them “hi” or “bye.” And of course, people always love seeing you, so it never seems to bother anyone when you’re overly friendly. You have also learned a silly face, which is really funny. And you like to make a “NAH-nah NAH-nah NAAAH NAAH” noise in a sassy voice that Rylan taught you too.
Mason, you had a pretty good month at school I think. It sounds like you’ve had some making-bad-choices issues when friends at school are being bad and you follow suit though. And you had your second visit to the principal on the same day of school as you did last year, ironically, on Pass it On day. So we’ve been having conversations about friend choices and things like that at home a lot. You also had your first report card with some letter grades, and it was really good! You had A’s, a couple A+’s, an “Outstanding” in Art (not Nonni’s class), a “Needs Improvement” in Library, and then a whole bunch of “Satisfactory”’s. You’ve been memorizing a chapter in Psalms, and you’re learning it so well. At home, you impress us again and again with your ability to get jobs done when you have a specific task to do. You helped Daddy fill in the driveway with stone a couple weeks ago and you looked like a professional worker. We love watching how dedicated you are when you set your mind to a job. You also do a great job with your “man of the house” responsibilities when Daddy is working nights. You make sure the windows and doors are locked so that we’re all safe.
Rylan, you have been a mix of sweet and intense this month. You seem to be getting angry faster and more often, and you’ve been asking for grace a lot after those times. We also need to work on honesty with you, because you’ve been getting extra sneaky and then lying about it. You seem to snap out of the bad times pretty quickly, though, and you also typically seem to be pretty remorseful afterwards. You have also made a few comments this month about how you wished that just you and Daddy lived together, and that me and Mason and Elli lived somewhere else…ha. We will try to not be too offended by that. You and Mason get along great some of the time and fight terribly some of the time. And sometimes it’s in public at really bad times. You and I got to do a couple days with preschool lessons when Elli was napping this month. You learned the letter “A” and have been spotting it everywhere since then! You can also write both a capital and lower case A. You even spelled Mason’s name on the fridge without help the other day!
Here are some quotes from you silly boys this month.
“I do think that bears wear retainers.”
“What vegetables do you like to eat?”
”Hot dogs....and.....sweet potatoes.”
“Well, HULK, however, could take the tires off of a monster truck with his pinky!!”
“Mommy, when I’m five and I drop a tooth out, I might need to put it in a bag.”
“Some adults lose their teeth. Like Poppy had to go to the dentist and they drilled out his tooth...”
“Mommy, they shot a chicken and then made cheese!”
I love you, my cutenesses,