Needin' To Get OUT!!

After being home-bound due to the chicken pox for over eight days, and never losing any of his endless energy due to the chicken pox, this boy was bouncing off the walls!  (And literally bouncing off of everything else as well.)  After I found myself constantly asking him to stop jumping off the beds, jumping off the couch, jumping off the counter, jumping, jumping, jumping....  I finally decided that it was time to get out of the house.  But where would we go where we didn't have to worry about other people seeing him or catching what he has?

Then it occurred to me that I could take him and his bike to the church gym and we wouldn't have to worry about others being there while he got some of his energy out.  I packed his bike and a rip stick and I opened up the supply room so we could set up an obstacle course with cones for him to ride around and we bounced basketballs around them.  We even played a little pool in the youth room.  I didn't plan to spend two hours there, but it was obviously needed.

By the time that I took these pictures, he had already tired of the normal obstacle course and had decided to make it more challenging by riding as fast as he could towards them and then see how far he could kick them as he rode by!!

"Look Mom, I'm a cone head zombie!!"

Nolanism's // And Chicken Pox Hits

Nolan continues to move along well in his kindergarten homeschool.  

He made quick work of his math workbook in one semester moving easily into the first grade level.  Now I'm also trying to keep him busy learning to draw or by doing small science projects.  We are also continuing to work on sight words.  Slowly but surely, he's starting to learn a small handful of words and I'm hoping that this reading things "clicks" for him soon.

In another BIG development around here, Nolan came down with the chicken pox this past week!  We were totally caught off guard on that one since we not only haven't knowingly been around anyone who had the chicken pox, but he never had the fever or stomach or headache that often accompanies chicken pox before the actual breakout.  So the very first notice we had was Tuesday at lunch when I noticed a few small red dots on the side of his face.  At first I thought that he may just be having an allergic reaction to something but later that night when he was putting on his pajamas, I saw four or five spots on his back and another couple on his stomach.  

By Wednesday morning, there were more in his hairline and on his legs.  Whether it was chicken pox or not, I knew he had something more serious going on so I started making some phone calls.  First, I had to call to cancel his eye appointment that was scheduled for the next afternoon.  Then I called the health department because hey, he's child #4 and I had NO idea if he had been immunized against them yet.  (I know that we waited until the last minute for all of the girls because I had really wanted them to get chicken pox on their own without getting the vaccine but I didn't remember if Nolan had already gotten the first round or not.)  They quickly confirmed that he had not received the vaccine and recommended that I contact my doctor to have it confirmed.  Our doctor advised me to come in over lunch when the waiting room would be empty and it only took one look at Nolan to confirm that he did have the chicken pox - to which Nolan said, "But how do I have the chicken pox?!  I haven't even been around any chickens!!"  LOL

This is how he looked Wednesday morning before we went to the doctor...

 I didn't realize that there was medicine to help you get over the chicken pox faster, but apparently there is.  It works like benadryl drying up the chicken pox from the inside while cutting down on all of the itching.  I highly recommend it!!  BTW, since chicken pox is so unheard of these days, we had to wait for two days for the RX to be specially ordered and come in to our pharmacy.

And here is my brightly colored boy as of yesterday morning.  He isn't allowed to go out much since we don't want to contaminate anyone else and also because he doesn't like the way he looks.  

"Pink just really isn't my color" is what he told me!  (I was only allowed to take these pictures because he thought I was working on the focus on my camera lens and didn't realize that I was taking pictures of him.)

In any case, when you're not allowed to go out much, no matter how good you feel, you play a lot of games.  We started a "Connect Four" tournament yesterday but I eventually had to stop it because I got tired of his cheating.  

Again he laughed and said, "I know that cheating isn't the right thing to do, but just this once, let's consider it part of the fun!"  Where does this boy come up with this stuff?

Even despite the chicken pox, this boy knows how to make me smile!!

Nolanism's

Nolan: “Are you my mom?”

Me: “Yes”

Nolan: “Okay. Just checking”.  

(And then he walks away)

++++

And now he saw me eating these and said, “Did you get your sugar daddy at swimming last night?” 

I ‘bout spit out my drink.

Christmas Wrap-Up

Whether it's Christmas four years ago, or just a few weeks ago... apparently some things never change!

That Boy...But WHY?

Nolan:  "Uh Mom... I might have drawed on my head...."

Me: "Uh, I see that.... but um.... what is it?  And why?"

Nolan:  "I was writing my name.... but I think I drawed it backwards...."

No big deal... just another morning in my house!!

Our Poor Cat

If you came by our house last week, you just may have seen our cat (who we call "Cow") running around our front porch with a post-it note stuck to her fur.  Poor thing!

Apparently my son decided that she needed a name tag in case she wanders off and gets lost.  "When people see the note Mommy, they will know where to bring her back to".  

After all, who needs store tags when post-it notes are much cheaper?

That Night...

On Tuesday night I was suppose to run over to my neighbor's house and to take senior pictures of their son.  I was planning on leaving the kids at home since I was just two houses down, but Nolan wanted to come along.  So here I was, trying to act all professional and take his pictures and my son was zooming around their yard on a tricycle that he found and acting all neighborly.

What can I say?  Except that I should just enjoy it while it lasts because before I know it, I'll be taking my son's senior pictures and thinking back on that night with a laugh.

This Boy...

Nolan: "Hey Mom, I'm doing that thing again."

Me: "What thing?"

Nolan: "you know...that thing that isn't a good idea."

++

Morgan:  "Nolan, I love your shoes!"

Nolan:  "Thanks.  Mom made them for me"

++

Nolan:  "Mommy, I have a headache.  Actually, change that.... I have two"

++

My 3 year old woke up singing "I can't be tamed". Should I consider that as a warning?  

++ 

He's doing well in school at least.  In the top picture, I had him finish the monkey picture and then a little while later, he asked Morgan how to spell "Happy" and as she told him the letters, he wrote them out all by himself.  I love that squiggly writing!!

The First of Our Costumes...

The girls have been talking about their Halloween costumes for a while now.  They have come up with different ideas and then changed their mind a couple of times.  Who knows what they will end up being by the time Halloween actually comes around.

Nolan told me right away that he wanted to be a fireman.  We offered up a few other suggestions but he held firm.  I have never really bought costumes for Halloween before but when I found a good deal on this dress-up costume online, I went ahead and ordered it for him.  He was thrilled when it arrived on our doorstep on Saturday.

"Get away from the fire....get away from the fire!!"

That Boy ~ A New Edition

Nolan has started drawing more and more.  He's still working on his coordination but I love that we have reached this point.  I remember each of the girls doing the same thing... small heads and really, really long legs.  

Here is our Howett Family Portrait 2016, according to Nolan

This was Nolan when he was a little boy -- his own self-portrait!

This picture made me laugh.

He said it was me walking on a bridge!!

We were at the library the other day and I wrote his name on his coloring sheet.  Then he told me he wanted to write the "A" in my name.  I finished out my name, but you can tell that he wrote the "A" all by himself.  'Makes Mommy proud!

Then he wrote his whole name by himself.

All that learning wears him out!

And now there's finally peace in our house!!  LOL

Breakfast for Two

Laynie went to school today while the older two girls went to volunteer at the local food pantry with their Grandma M.  

This meant that Nolan and I had four hours together.  What were we to do?  Grabbing a donut and a special "orange juice" seemed like a great idea.

It wasn't all about food.  We also spent a lot of time at the library putting together puzzles and then we went home and had a jumping contest on the trampoline.  (He won and I'm absolutely sure it was because of the donut!!)  LOL  While we were laying on the trampoline and giggling together, Nolan said "It's a good day".  

I sure love that boy!!

New Passenger

Nolan didn't want me to drive all by myself the other day.  He was afraid that since he couldn't go with me, I would be really lonely.  

This was his solution.

#neveralonenoteverneverever!!

This Boy...

Nolan's mind of his own + Nolan in preschool at home with me = Some Crazy Times!!

Seriously, we are having so much fun working through some great preschool activities when this little man feels like doing what I ask him to do.  If he thinks he wants to do something else though, then I have to quickly be flexible and switch gears...and remember that there's more than one way to learn!!  And he's doing a super job learning - he knows all of the shapes and colors and even all the numbers. Now we're just working on the letters of the alphabet and saying them in order.  (He can identify them when he sees them in a book or something, he just doesn't remember how to say them from memory).

This past week the girls were working on Creation Books and Nolan wanted to work on one too.   I quickly grabbed more supplies and laid it all out in front of him.  Morgan went over to help him get started and he suddenly "turned" on her and walked away.  He simply said, "I tired of that now".  Then he just took all of the stickers away from the girls and made up his own Sticker Book instead.  

He did end up coming back later in the day and making Day 1, with the help of his sisters.

 Ironically, he had just learned about God making night and day the previous week in Sunday School so he was able to tell me all about it as he glued all of his pieces together.  

Another day I read the book "A Visitor for Bear" to him.  He loved the book and had me read it several times over and over while he laughed and copied the voices of the characters.

Since I knew he enjoyed the book so much, I printed off and made up puppets using a mouse and two bears.  One of the bears was happy and the other bear was grouchy.  (Just like the characters in the book).  I was planning a great puppet show together and excitedly showed him my creations.  Boy was I surprised when he said that he didn't like them because these paper cut outs didn't look anything like the ones in the book.  (See picture above...)  He's so observant and wanted them to look exactly the same!!  LOL  Morgan and I just picked up the puppets and started in on our own puppet show as I read the book.  That's all it took to convince him and pretty soon he was asking to have the puppets too so he could act out the book, even copying the voices.

We ended up having a lot of fun with it and he was able to describe the book to Noel later on that afternoon, even showing him the puppets and telling him why each bear looked either happy or grouchy.   

 Just wait until next week when I show him the cowboys I made for him...  LOL

Another Up and Coming Warrior