October 3-October 8

October 3: At noon Ty had his den meeting at the den leader's house. I had to bring Jason along, but luckily he wasn't too poorly behaved. Ty had fun. It's a nice group of boys. Armed with more information about the popcorn sale, we head out after the meeting to go sell popcorn to a few neighbors.



That night Jason really became more consistent with saying "da-da" and he even said it on the phone to his father.

October 4: Ty bought his first school lunch ever (lunch program didn't start until that day). My friend Beth was serving, and brought some news to my attention, that warranted another note to the principal (yes, I'm that crazy mom now, but I assure you it's all valid stuff). Learned that Ty hates chicken, broccoli and rice because it has a sauce on it. Oh well. Later I had a meeting, so my mom was Jason. That evening was karate and then the letter-writing once the boys were in bed.

October 5: Jason had his normal Tuesday therapies. I also got a call from the pediatrician that his blood work results were in and that they showed his iron levels were low. They weren't very low, but they were low in an abnormal fashion that would not indicate a typical iron-deficient anemia. So they wanted to run some more bloodwork to rule out any blood disorders. Fun, fun.

That evening Ty had to go in uniform with the Tiger Scouts for fire prevention night at the firehouse. We would have gone anyway (as we had last year) but this served a dual purpose in working towards a badge or patch or something (clearly I still have a lot to learn about scouts). Sorry the pictures are so crappy. Hopefully someone will eventually share the group shots they got with regular cameras.






October 6: Jason spent the morning playing peek-a-boo. I would leave the room and Jason would "hide" under the blanket to scare me when I came back in. Upon entering he would never hear me so I'd have to announce "oh no, where is Jason?", which in turn always managed to scare HIM instead of me obviously. LOL. Don't worry, I'd act very surprised when he stumbles out of his blanket yelling "bah" (boo).

Afterwards we went to the lab to do the bloodwork, but as I approached it I could see that it was a totally full waiting room, so we turned around without a second thought. Instead, off to Dick's sporting goods we went, to attempt to buy a tent for the upcoming scout camping trip. I tried to check out the features, but Jason thought it would be more fun to run amuck through the store. He was NOT cooperative, to say the least. Eventually caved to a lollipop bribe in order to get something accomplished other than getting kicked out of the store. Settled on a snazzy little model for 3 campers that boasted that it "sets up in minutes".

Afterwards we went to the lab for the bloodwork. My good luck on the first round last week was up, and instead Jason screamed from when we pulled into the parking lot, in the waiting room, through the 3 separate needle sticks, through the repeated needle readjustments, and straight through to the fifth vial of blood. My poor baby.

I believe we had some time on the playground after school pick-up and then some time for a quick dinner before doing a trial tent set-up in the house before heading out for a cold soccer practice. For the record, does NOT set up quickly...but I did it, so at least that's good!

October 7: Spent my morning at the DMV getting the mini-van titled in my name, registered, and getting a new license. Must say it was a much smoother process than I expected and my only frustrations were with my own child who felt the need to sit right in the middle of the line, throw his travel aquadoodle, and have his picture taken with people for their license photos. Good times. But, I'm all legal now and my new jersey insurance will now go into effect as well.

From there I hit shoprite and then met my mom at Salad Works for lunch as she finished up at PT. Jason spent the 2nd half of our lunch running back and forth throwing trash in the trash can. We broke up small pieces of napkin to provide him with endless "trash" so that he could be such a big helper. People must have thought we were nuts!

I put Jason down for a nap and my mom stayed with him while I picked up Ty early from school for an appointment with a counselor. Since this whole bullying thing has come to light Tyler's behavior has been horrendous, so I figured this couldn't hurt.

Afterwards we came home, got Jason, and picked up Ty's friend Hannah to go to "reading rumpus" at the library. Afterwards we all went to Freedom Park and Jason managed to cut up his lip and bang his head. It's getting to be a regular occurrence.

After another quick dinner it was time for Karate. Busy day!

October 8: Ran some errands before our big trip and then hit the playground for a short little trip before lunch with my grandmother on her 80th birthday! I managed to do some of my packing while Jason napped and then we all hit Conte's Farm after school with Jeanne and her boys. Have a I ever mentioned how much I love Conte's? We went apple picking AND pumpkin picking. We got the wagon ride, 2 fairly big pumpkins, 8-12 apples, 2 tiny pumpkins, and 2 small gourds for $10-something. We would have spent that for the hayride alone at some of the other places around here.










Afterwards we went to the Tabernacle Murphy's Market for some snacks and adult beverages for our camping trip. We must have looked classy in the liquor aisle while our 4 boys were hyped up on sugar from the apple cider doughnuts at Conte's.

We had time for another quick dinner before running for a speedy trip to Walmart for some camping necessities. Then bedtime and packing time for me!