Where is Daddy?

So Jeff has been gone pretty much for 8 days now, give or take a day.  Understandably, as his mom just had valve replacement surgery and he has been with her a lot.  It is nights like tonight though that I am wishing he was here to help answer the inevitable questions from Connor.  "Are the elves real?" 

Oh boy, here we go.  Kids grow up way too fast these days; I am not ready for him to stop believing in all the magical things that come with the holidays.  "Did you move the elves mom?"  After hesitating and trying not to smile too much, I told him that sometimes I did but other times when they moved, it was not me.  He looked sad and admitted he felt a little disappointed but "they did move themselves sometimes without you so they must be real".  I was going to leave it at that, but then Connor went right into "what about the tooth fairy?  I am not as worried about this one mom. And the Easter Bunny, what about him?"  Questions are being fired at me and I don't have time to process my answer, so an immediate "yes" comes out of my mouth.  Ten minutes go by and I start feeling guilty.  After all, he came to me looking for an honest answer.  I sneak my phone into the bathroom with me to google "how to tell your kids the tooth fairy isn't real".  Surely, there must be some creative answer to this issue.  ehow.com suggests preventing the discussion in the first place by not implementing the tooth fairy.  Do these people have kids?  Really, not a good answer.  Jeff ends up texting me back that we should tell him but we decide to do it together when he gets home tomorrow.  However, we are both in agreement to not even broach Santa. 

Not even 20 minutes go by after Connor goes to bed that I hear little footsteps in the hallway.  So much for a little quiet time.   Kate sneaks down the stairs.  When she does this, she covers her head with her blanket and peeks out underneath just enough to see where she is going.  Seriously so cute!  My girls are having a hard time sleeping by themselves these days but will not sleep together.  Kate is in our bed every night.  Usually, she sneaks in right around midnight.  Grace does not want to sleep by herself in her room so she either goes to bed upset in her room, sleeps with Kate, or sleeps in our bed if Jeff is out of town.  She tries over and over to convince Alec to let her sleep with him.  But Alec is our one that has always liked his own bed and not ventured in to be with us so he almost always tells her no.  The two of them having always been close being just 15 months apart that he will often times try to accommodate her but not in this case.

And back to the hard questions, Alec has had 1st grade on his mind lately.  He has mentioned a couple times that he wishes he was in 1st grade.  No matter how we sold the idea of holding him back, he still gets that he could have gone to 1st grade this year if he hadn't done the peer program.  While, this is one of those decisions that parents just know what is best in the long run, it tears at my heartstrings to hear him talk about it.  So, I am going to try to set up a playdate with his old friend Dane.  When I asked him why he wanted to be in 1st grade he answered that he wanted to be with Dane, Luke and Luke.  It doesn't seem to matter to him that both Lukes go to different schools.  He really enjoyed his time with his preschool friends. 

So, looking forward to Daddy's return tomorrow to help tackle everything!

A shot to grow on . . .

Alec started his Humatrope January 7, 2013. Starting height is 40" and weight 38 pounds. He has been a trooper I must say. He cried the first day at the doctors office during the training but has otherwise been really good. When we got home from the doctor, he saw a picture of where to rotate the injections and said "I have to get these things in my bottom?". I tried to say it was his hip and he held up the picture and said "you look at this picture and tell me that's not my bottom!". And then there was the "you gotta be kidding me" after he asked how long we have to do these shots. Alec is definitely the best one out of the kids to have to go through this, he is so strong. I actually believe that he is excited about it. Not about the shot part but about having a growing medicine. One never realizes how much something bothers Alec until after the fact or months later. Just one more way he is like Jeff. We are excited for him!  Some people have expressed concern that there will be physical side effects from the medicine such as weight gain. We believe that the emotional side effects of not treating him would far outweigh any physical side effects he may have no matter how good of parenting. I am confident this will become routine and second nature to him. I pray this is the worst health issue we will have to encounter with our kids. We are very blessed!

The Bachelor

Tonight Connor was having a hard time going to sleep because he thought the bed was shaking and wasn't sure that could be Alec. He came downstairs several times and the last time happened to be during the rose ceremony of The Bachelor show.  His comments to me included "I would never like to be forced into marrying someone. I mean, you need to take a year or two to see what their inner person is.  These people must really be desperate to go on this show." Yes they most likely are Connor. Then wouldn't you know it was just my luck that they went on to the previews for next week and it happened to be the bachelor kissing and touching many different girls. I could not find the clicker fast enough. Connor, of course, cannot take his eyes off the tv. "Why is he kissing all those girls mom?  Aren't you supposed to wait to kiss someone until you are in love or marrying that person?". Oh how I wish he still feels that way in 6 years!  I found this a good time to then turn the conversation into how disrespectful it is of him to be doing that. How do you think those girls feel? Women are to be treated well and not taken advantage of; without getting into details of course. He then says "that is kind of gay, isn't it mom?". Before I can even answer, he says "gay has different meanings, like if a man marries or kisses another man (because kissing still equals marriage in his mind) then he is gay or if you are happy then you are gay.". At this point, I am thinking what am I going to have to bribe him with to get to bed. These conversations are going nowhere good for a 10 year  old. Thankfully, I am able to switch the channel to WOSU and a segment of the documentary "Catholocism" is coming on and the narrator mentions Moses. Connor then diverts into telling me how they watched a movie about Moses during CCD today and is able to retell me the whole story. I guess we are getting our money's worth for religious education :). As he starts to head upstairs, he is telling me how he wants to go to Washington DC and see the booth where Abraham Lincoln was shot. "Am I going to have to pay for that trip in 8th grade mom? If so, I need to start saving". I tell him "no,of course not, we will pay for that honey.". He says, " oh good, but I do have to pay for half of college right? I put my fantasy football winnings in that college account you and dad set up for me but I should still be adding to it.  I keep telling Dean that when he finds a penny he should save that because you don't want to come up a penny short". As if paying for college is going to come down to a penny. Too cute! Thankfully, he did settle to sleep finally!