Play, Play, Play

Whoa! Chick-fil-a!  That's right, Monica gave it a go this past week, and I think she was alright!  I feel like it's been a long time since we all ate at Chick-fil-a, and not just fries!  One of our friends invited us for a "family date" and we all went together for dinner (they were at the table next to us).  It was a good time, and I would do it again!

On Monday morning I took Winry and Grayson to the library.  There was a story time going on when we got there, and Winry wanted to go in, but Grayson didn't.  Fortunately, Winry's been to enough that she knew what was going on.  She got her own cushion to sit on, and as far as I could tell was super great the whole time!  I looked in a checked on her from time to time, and she was always well behaved and following along.  In the meantime, Grayson was playing with the car, and I was looking at books to check out.

After story time Winry made some new friends and they all played together until we had to head home for lunch and Grayson's nap.

But, who could resist climbing inside the shark bike rack on the way out?  But seriously, who could resist that?

Grayson seemed to really like the giant jacks.  We didn't really do anything, just look at them a little, but I think he just likes looking up at tall things.

Monday night Brooke had soccer practice, and it was parents against kids!  It was fun to go out and play with Brooke and her team.  I even got to hold Grayson as I played because he just wasn't happy anywhere else.  In the end the kids got lucky and beat the adults by 1 point after a valiant second half come back!

That evening Grayson got a bit crazy playing in the basement.  Honestly, it was a LOT of fun.  In the video you can hear how hard he's breathing.  I feel like it sounded quite different in person.  Anyway, he was just dashing across the basement and tripping and flipping over my legs!

Winry wanted to do a learning to read lesson this week, and sound blending was going great for her.  In the end she was able to read the first three books!  She was VERY excited and wanted to call everyone in the family to read a book to them.

During Winry's dance class on Wednesday I took Grayson to the park.  For some reason I thought to show him how to climb onto the front of these bouncy things and he loved it.  He doesn't really like sitting and riding them all that much, but he loved this!  This one was the easiest to climb onto the front of, and was the favorite.

Grayson continues to hide in the blanket pile in the living room.

Thursday for play group I took Winry and Grayson to the park.  We ended up being the only ones that came, but it was a new park for us.  It was really big and the kids had a lot of fun.  There was lots of space, so even though there were quite a few other people it never felt crowded like it can at other parks.

Also on Thursday, my Steam Deck came!  I reserved it a little over a month ago, so I didn't have to wait long for it to come.  That said, the day mine came the reservation system ended and you can buy them right away now.  Anyway, it's been pretty fun so far.  Just a nice little portable computer.  I haven't spent very much time on it, but that said, I probably wouldn't have gotten any time to play games over that same time period without it.  It's been a nice way to relax at night.

On Saturday I took all the kids to the park with Jerusha.  This was a local park and got quite crowded... anyway, still lots of fun.  Brooke has been working on the monkey bars at school, and almost made it across!  It was pretty awesome.  I think she said the furthest she's been before was the second, so I bet she'll be able to make it over pretty soon!

The girls also took twisty slide to a whole new level!  Winry came up with this idea and they were having a lot of fun on the slide.  Winry asked me to join, and I gave it a try... turns out when you're bigger you get stuck in the slide and can't spin.  At least my back doesn't easily/quickly spin like that...

Later on Saturday Grayson and I took Jerusha back to the airport, and that's about been the week.  I won't lie, I'm really tired right now, though I was also out playing board games at the Cammack's house last night, so that sure isn't helping.  Anyway, I think that's everything for this week.

Garden Snatch, and Bubble Fun Run

Oh my this this little trouble maker!  He is a super garden eater, and will happily eat anything that he picks out of our garden, be it ripe or not.  Mind you, eating all those vegetables at dinner? Never.  But if he pulled it from the garden, good luck getting it inside the house to rinse off!  Fortunately these strawberries were mostly ripe this time, though he's started to develop a taste for green tomatoes.

Jelly still loves coming out and exploring.  She still doesn't like her harness, and still tries to slip out without it on.  She loves to walk around the edge of the lawn on the rocks and chew on the tall grass growing through them.

I took Grayson and Winry to the park, and while we were there Grayson tried this bigger slide for the first time.  He absolutely loved it, and would hike right up the hill to go down again.  He really likes double sides and having another person on the slide next to him.  They both had a ton of fun at the park.  

Winry rode her bike over, but didn't want to ride it home.  So she pushed Grayson's car back home, and Grayson rode her bike!  He loved it.  It was pretty rough to walk all that way crouched over him pushing the bike along, but we made it home eventually.

Speaking of home, Monica was living her best life letting her back heal.  At this point our understanding was she could only lay on her back, and her arm was getting tired from holding up her phone, so I stepped in to save the day!  Now she can finally relax while watching "No Demo Reno."

When we drop Winry off at preschool, there is another kid in her class whose little sister always comes.  Grayson and River love to play together on the playground for a little after their siblings head into school.  They really like the houses, and used to mostly just sit inside one of the houses together.  Lately Grayson likes to go down the slides, or climb over a little giant half log thing they have.

Grayson saw Brooke's cheetah chair up on her bed and really needed it down.  It's the perfect size for him, and he looks quite cozy in there too!

I got to go to Winry's dance class for the first time in a long time, and better yet, Grayson stayed home with Gram so I could actually stay and watch and enjoy her dancing!  It was a lot of fun to be back.

Winry is always so excited when Brooke comes out of school.  We get to pick up Winry a little before the rest of school gets out, so she'll usually play on the playground a bit while we wait for Brooke, and then go zooming over when she sees her!  I'm really glad I got this when I did too, because now Winry sits on a teeter-tooter and waits for Brooke to come get on the other side.

We went into crazy puzzle mode, and Monica got both the girls a puzzle as something they could all do together.  The girls have really loved doing their new puzzles.

The neighbors put up some inflatable Halloween cat decorations, and Grayson has to go see them every time we leave the house.  Fortunately they've been deflated sometimes, so we see that they're just "sleeping" and can go on our way.  If they're up, there's no telling how long we'll be over there, and the black cat's moving head just keeps the entertainment coming.

On Friday the girls had their school fun run.  This is the first year Pre-K got to do it, so that's awesome for Winry.  Winry's class ran in the gym, and she had a great time.

Winry and Brooke's class overlapped times a little, so after watching the first bit of Winry's I stepped out the gym door and happened to be right where Brooke's class was lining up to get started.  There was a bubble machine out there (it was a bubble run this year) and I couldn't ever quite get Grayson to play in it... just sorta watching it from the fringe of the bubbles.

And then Brooke took off!  For Pre-K they got to run 10 laps around the gym.  For the rest of the school they get 20 minutes to run as many laps around the school as they can.  Brooke ran around 7 times this year!  She seemed like she was having a pretty good time too.

And on her last lap I had her stop (well, asked Monica to, I was with Grayson on that Pre-K playground...) to take a picture with Winry at the fun run sign they put out.

We decided to go for a family walk on Saturday before dinner.  It was threatening rain to some extent all day, so we figured we'd get out quick before the storm hit.  Wrong...  We got opposite of our house on the block, and then the storm hit.  Monica was also walking at a relatively slow pace at this point, so there wasn't much hope but to get soaked.  You can see Jerusha and the kids all just abandoned us and ran home, which was for the best because I believe they made it home before the hail started.  It was pretty decent hail, at least pea size, but I think a little larger.  It hurt quite a bit when one connected, and still, Monica and I strolled along!

During conference I put out butcher paper on a table with some coloring stuff.  The kids did a lot of the coloring pages, etc. as well, but they also drew pictures of Pres. Nelson on the table!

Oh boy, looks like we're ending where we started.  Here's tomato picking Grayson.  I'm sure everything he got on this occasion was ripe though... right?... right?...

And that's all for now.  The good news though? I'm about to write out THIS week's blog too!  I got the pictures squared away last week, but never wrote anything... and suddenly it's been a week.  OOPS!  So hopefully it doesn't take me a week to get back around to writing the next one!

Monica's Back Surgery

Well hello!  Monica got to have back surgery this past week!  So exciting!  It was scheduled on Wednesday.  Apparently there was some miscommunication and they told us to be there three hours early... and then when we got there we could hear them talking behind the counter about how we got there an hour and a half too early...  Interesting.  So we took a walk around for a while, which was super easy for Monica.  I mean, I guess it was easier for her to walk then than it is now!  Anyway surgery went well and I'll talk about it a bit more when we get down to Wednesday.

Gram came out to help us through all this craziness.  To add to the craziness of the week, it was also Gram's birthday!  We decorated the house some for her, and she made brownies for dessert!

Grayson enjoyed the brownies very much.

So back to surgery day.  Nothing too eventful in the morning other than getting there much earlier than necessary.  Eventually, Monica went back for surgery and I was sent to the waiting room.  I actually headed out for some lunch, and then came back to wait after.  The doctor came out when he was done and told me about the surgery.  He said the herniation was right in line with a ligament, so it was pushing out on that too, and he said there were 4 pieces he cut off.  All in all it sounded pretty intense, but everything went well.  The nurse apparently didn't see me in the waiting room, and so called me to let me know Monica was starting to wake up.  I told her I was in the waiting room, and she asked me to stand up so she could find me, so I didn't make it back before Monica woke up.  She didn't say anything crazy or anything like that, but she did remark that her leg didn't hurt anymore first thing when she woke up (though she doesn't remember saying that).  After she ate and drank a little we were able to head back home.  She was able to climb the stairs up to our room, but she's not allowed to bend, twist, or lift more than 10 lbs.  That makes Grayson a pretty dangerous buddy for 6 weeks.  I don't think we realized just how severe/limiting this was going to be before the surgery.  I'm not sure anyone we talked with before had any experience with a 2 year old during this recovery...  Not quite the smooth sailing it was made out to be.

I've had to step up my dad game in Monica's absence, which  means taking on the duties I've typically escaped, such as doing the girls hair.  This was my first time doing Winry's hair, and I'd say it was pretty good for a first time.  Just wait till you see what I can do 6 weeks from now... or Monica will use her sitting up time to do the girls hair when she sees my styles.

At preschool on Thursday they told all the kids to bring back leaves if they could and remembered to, so Grayson, Winry and I went for a walk around the neighborhood to collect leaves.  Now there's one tucked in Winry's backpack, and hopefully it won't be crushed to pieces by Tuesday.

Jelly has been watching over Monica since she's been back... well, until Friday.  Jelly slept on the bed just about all day long to keep Monica company.  On Friday, I guess Jelly assessed that Monica was healthy again and took her naps elsewhere.

Thursday night Michael flew out to visit.  He was coming to visit his dad in Colorado Springs, but he stayed with us.  It was great to get to see him again and chat and catch up.  He showed me some of the cool things he found at his dad's house while he was down there helping clean up some.

On Friday Brooke didn't have school, so I took the girls to the zoo in the morning.  It was a pretty chilly morning, which is great for seeing animals.  The lions were out and up front.

And we got there just as the bear was finding his bucket of frozen fish!

And Jonas, the fishing cat was giving us a lot of attention.  Grayson was enthralled. She even stopped in front of the glass and stood there letting the kids pet her.

Also on Friday, a squirrel stole one of our sunflower heads and sat eating it on the fence.  There was occasionally another squirrel a distance away, but I guess this one already set it's dominance and got to enjoy it's feast in peace.  Monica said I looked like a weirdo up in our room with our camera and the long lens as I was taking a picture of the squirrel.

Saturday afternoon I took the kids over to the spiral rocks.  They were saying they wanted to go all day!  The girls had a great time, but Grayson wasn't too interested.  He took off pretty quickly to go to the playground.

They playground was fun.  I was out playing with the kids too.  We all had a good time, and I hung upside down on the spinning monkey bar things.

After the park we headed home for family movie night.  It got postponed because Friday night our old neighbors, the Calles, were back visiting, and the girls were out playing with Aurelia.  Anyway, Brooke wanted to watch Bluey, but as we were pulling it up there was a Doc McStuffins turns 10 thing she wanted to watch.  So we watched one Bluey first, and I thought that would appease Grayson, and then went to Doc McStuffins.  Well... Grayson wasn't appeased, and he wanted the new show OFF!  Fortunately the Doc McStuffins wasn't like a typical episode, and Brooke pretty soon wanted to go back to Bluey!

Gram and I took the kids to church today, and I don't know that anything crazy has happened at all.  I do want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has done anything to help us.  The meals have been wonderful!  Thank you to everyone who has checked in to see how we're doing!  Thank you everyone for the help you've given, and if you're wondering how you can help, Monica would love help weeding the garden!  You'll probably need to give us a few more days though so she can more comfortably come outside and let you know what's going on.  As for me?  Well, if you know of a way to sleep and have it rest someone else, then please, take a nap for me.  Just let everyone around you know it's for us, I'm sure they'll understand.  Thank you everyone for your love and support!  I hope you have a great week!

Trapped in the Cold

Well, Grayson continues to love closing himself in things, and this week's adventure was the fridge!  He really likes to sit on the lip of the fridge, and it is a pretty appropriate height for a seat, but I don't really love the fridge being left wide open.  Well, this week he was trying to have fridge time, but ALSO close the door so the cold didn't get out.  What a crazy man!

Last Sunday Grayson was a bit sick, so I stayed home with him, and he really wanted to go on a walk around the neighborhood.  There's this bench next to the sidewalk.  I know there's a school bus stop here, so I'm guessing someone who waited for the bus every day put the bench here and it's just been there since.  It's right next to one of the large community mailboxes we have in our neighborhood, so it's not in anyone's yard, just chilling there for general use.  Grayson gave it a try and loved it.  While we were out I got a text from Monica, who noticed my name was on the program.  I was supposed to speak at church!  I may be mis-remembering the conversation I had, but I don't remember being given a specific date, or else I would have been there... and had a talk.  Either way, of all the weeks to miss church, this was not a bad choice :).

A friend at church gave Monica a picker-upper to help her out around the house since it's very difficult to bend over currently.  It's been all the rage since.  Brooke used it to help Grayson get his puzzle done Sunday afternoon.

Monday afternoon I took all the kids to Brooke's soccer practice, and Grayson and Winry ran over to play on the playground.  It worked out pretty well, though I would have liked to see some of Brooke's practice.  Anyway, right next to the playground was a really big caterpillar on the sidewalk.  We followed it for a little bit, and then gave it a break.  The kids kept coming back to see it again though.  Grayson ended up swinging for 15+ minutes at one point, and we never found it again.

Monica's back/leg have been hurting more, so I've been taking Winry to preschool and picking the kids up at the end of the day.  If we get to drop off a little early, or Winry usually gets out a few minutes before Brooke, Winry loves to play on the preschool playground.  One day when I was picking her up she just started "surfing" down the slide!

At playgroup on Thursday morning Grayson got stung by a wasp.  Monica said he didn't cry at all, but she saw a wasp flying away from him and he was waving it away, and then he was a little grumpy.  Anyway, he got a red welt on the side of his face, and I don't know that it even lasted until bedtime that night.  So possibly it wasn't too bad, but that's our first kid to be stung by a wasp.

Grayson came to drop Winry off at preschool, and he really wanted to walk down the stairs (we could have parked closer to the door).  He held Winry's hand and she helped him down.

Friday night we decided it was time to pick our watermelon.  It grew a little better than the lime sized watermelon we got last year!  Everyone was excited to go out and get it, and it got passed around.  Grayson did what Grayson does with anything that comes out of the garden, and immediately tried to take a bite of it.  He didn't like it...

We brought it in and cut it up for dinner.  Much more watermelon to go around than last year.

And it turns out that once the red part was accessible, Grayson DID like watermelon.  Who knew?!

Monica and I got a babysitter and went to an adults only ward social last night.  It was a lot of fun.  There were a bunch of people there I didn't know, and I got to know some new people.

I think that's everything for this week.  I forgot to get my golf stuff set up and get a video to show... hopefully I'll remember soon.  I actually have a video from the guy I'm working with, but I feel like I shouldn't share his video until there's an official release...  I'll get there though.  Gram came out today!  My drive to the airport was pretty nightmarish, and everything that could go wrong did (well, we didn't get in a car accident, but we did get stopped behind one on the freeway...).  Everyone's very excited to have her here helping out!  Yay Gram!