Jason was off from work on Monday & Tuesday so, Monday, the kids had a chance to help him with yard work. One of their favorite activities!

A chance to use the blower is a particular favorite for all three kids.

Through the week, I had helpers continue to help me work on Voltron.

Tuesday morning smiles!

It was one last day of warm weather and the kids made the most of it. I’m really going to miss nice weather & outdoor time as it gets colder. Sammy told me he’s excited for winter, though, because it means snow and his birthday!

We also had someone come out for Best Buy to do some measurements and advising on new kitchen appliances. As reported by Jason, Steven sat on the couch with his tape measure in case “Best Buy Nate” needed help. And he did. 🙂

On Tuesday night we finished Voltron! It’s really cool. Even better looking than I anticipated and the project was as much fun as I’d hoped.

Next up, the Apollo Saturn 5 rocket.

Wednesday was another warm day and Madison had the good idea to have a lunch picnic with SSA after school.

Madison said, “I don’t know what they’re doing but they’re having a lot of fun!”

Mugging for the camera.

Fall leaves to stomp in before dance class. That crunch is so satisfying.

Sammy and Amaya are really loving tap! I can’t wait to have a chance to see them in action. It’s a small class, too. Just 5 or 6 people which means lots of individual attention.

Jazz!

This girl sleeps with so. much. stuff. So much stuff. A million friends and just as many blankets.

I got myself a little 6×6 Shutterfly book with pictures from my trip to CA. Amaya went through page by page to show her brothers. Steven is already counting down to his trip, which isn’t nearly as soon as he’d like, and Sammy says June is way to far away.

Bedtime shenanigans. The kids were playing pirates and I asked them to pause to pose for a picture. Amaya has really been getting into posing lately. (And, yes, she’s sleeping in a bathing suit.)

Most of our weekend was wonderfully lazy. I even saw two movies this weekend! TWO. (A Star Is Born and First Man.)

I got myself some legos to try to build the kids a jewelry holder but they were promptly, and probably rightly, appropriated.

Steven took his helicopter apart to make a sled!

Amaya was excited to see a picture of her curly hair. (Thank you, braids.)

The boys got haircuts from Jason yesterday which you can clearly see here around Steven’s smiling face. He was explaining to me that he was frozen and I needed the magic word to unfreeze him. The magic is new. On Friday he was not listening at school to the extent that his teacher asked the center director, Ms. Shannon, to talk to him about it. He told Shannon that his dinosaur, Charlie, but a spell on him that made him not listen. Shannon did some counter magic and “called” Charlie which seemed to do the trick but “magic made me do it” popped up on and off all weekend. We’ve had a few conversations about being responsible for our actions as well as counter spells to use if there’s “bad magic” around us. This morning, there were a ton of words that made Steven freeze, including the word “yes”. Fortunately, there were also a ton of words that unfroze him. His imagination is so much fun and, still, he also needs limits it’s used as an excuse for not listening or inappropriate behavior.

Knex with Daddy

The kids did a bunch of puzzles this morning. It was interesting to see the variation in their skill level. Steven really impressed me. He can do 35 piece jigsaw puzzles without a visual reference while he works. He was so focused and just had a really good sense of how it all came together. Sammy still needs (and wants) more hands on support while he’s doing puzzles which probably means one-on-one puzzle time could be a valuable activity.

This afternoon we went to a Halloween play at the children’s theater with plans to see the Northville skeletons after, followed by dinner at Garage. On the way there, Amaya and Sammy were pretending to be asleep. Can you see Sammy snoring? lol

Spoooooooky. (I am saying that in Steven’s voice. He says, “spoooooooky” cuter than anyone I know.”

The kids got to dress up for the play. Sammy chose the Cinderella dress. Amaya chose Elsa. (Of course.) Steven was a police officer. Jason and I let the kids wear what they chose.

Sammy is a smart kid. I think he knows that he’s not surrounded by other boys in princess dresses. I worry about assholes being mean to him but I’ve had friends remind me that there will always be assholes ready to be mean about something, and he wore this dress with so much happiness and confidence.

After the play we walked around town looking at the skeleton display. We were standing all together and some guy walked by and said, “Is your son in a dress?” I looked at him and immediately said, “WHAT ABOUT IT?” The woman he was with said, “It’s Halloween”, and put her hand on his arm. He took a step back and said, somewhat apologetically, “I was just asking.” He wasn’t just asking, though. He was judging out loud in front of my kids.

As he walked away I said to Sammy, “He was saying he liked your dress.” And Sammy smiled and said, “I’m glad I wore it.” My heart just about exploded.

I’m so glad he didn’t pick up on the judgment or tension.

At bedtime I talked to the kids about how it’s okay to like things even if our friends don’t or say we shouldn’t. We all took turns role playing responses to people who tell us something we like is “yucky” or “silly”. We said things like, “I don’t care if you don’t like it. I do and that’s all that matters.” Some of our examples were about Captain America, Elsa, Shimmer and Shine, what we wear to bed & adults who play with legos. “Adults can play with legos if they want to! I don’t care if you think it’s silly. I like playing with them and that’s all that matters.” SSA seemed to have a lot of fun with it. I hope talking about these things now, at an age appropriate level, helps even a little when someone, inevitably, makes fun of them.

I also ordered two books about boys who, sometimes, like to wear dresses. The books seem to take more of a focus of explaining that it’s okay, even if other people say it’s not. I don’t think we need to read these books yet because no one is saying that to the kids. It’s just…I don’t want to overthink all of this, but I thought it could be good to have them ready in the house in case someone does tease at some point.

For all we know, Sammy will grow out of this soon. Whether he does or doesn’t, I want to be able to help him always feel as secure and confident as he did today.

Steven was so into the play. He was the cutest when he clapped. He told me he’s going to dream about the witches tonight. They were his favorite. Oh! And he also said he wishes he was a grown-up so he could be on stage! If he keeps up the interest there are lots of kids’ theater workshops he can try in a few years..

I looks silly here but Steven said he liked the picture so here it is. <3

Checking out the skeletons. They really are super cool. They’re posed ALL over Northville and the displays are so creative.

Perfect triplet doorways. 🙂

Dinner at Garage!

I have one last story this week. At lunch today, we were talking about dinosaurs and Sammy asked if they went extinct because they didn’t eat enough healthy food. Great question! We talked about theories of dinosaur extinction and Sammy asked how a meteor could fall to the earth if there’s no gravity in space. THIS KID. It’s so cool to start to see Steven, Sammy and Amaya apply these concepts in new contexts.

And that’s it for this week. Have a good one!