October 11-16

October 11: I sent Tyler off to his half day at school. I hit the gym and had some playtime. Got good news that Jason's repeat bloodwork came back fine. Apparently the first test was either faulty or his iron levels corrected themselves, but regardless he's not even anemic now. So, no more bloodwork!

After I picked Ty up at school I had planned on taking the boys to Great Adventure for Fright Fest. I have a very busy next few weeks and feared we'd never get there if we didn't go that day. However Ty's behavior was pretty irritating and eventually I sent him to his room. Somehow I still decided to head out to Fright Fest at about 3:00. Not my most brilliant plan, but it worked out. The park was all decorated for Halloween. The boys got to experience the Trick-or-Treat Trail where characters hand out candy. Jason was a little leery, until he realized he was getting something. Then there was no stopping him. Yes, I let him have the candy. Spoiled second child. They had fun on a few rides and got to see a "creepy critters" show as well as a Halloween-themed dolphin and sea lion show. By 7:00 it had gotten fairly dark and the spooky "fright fest" part had started, so we head out. Plus it was a school night for Tyler.
















October 12: After Jason's speech therapy and some errands I left Jason with my mom and head out for my first time serving lunch at Ty's school. After school Jason had occupation therapy and then later that evening Tyler had karate.

October 13: For the first time EVER, Jason did not cry at the gym. Amazing. Maybe I'll eventually be able to exercise without guilt. Afterwards we hit up the lake for a little playtime followed by leaf rubbings.

After Ty's soccer practice we did normal bedtime routine but Jason was so cute with his new animal noises that I had to take some video.




October 14: Apparently I did nothing memorable. Took Ty to school, blah, blah, blah, karate, blah, blah, blah.

October 15: Jason had storytime at the library. He did a pretty good job being quiet and even attempting the hand motions to songs and such. Just some minor glitches like the times he spent with his head on the floor and his butt in the air. LOL.

That night Jeanne took Ty to Gavin's party at the Funplex, which I believe was his first time driving outside of town with anyone but family. He had a great time and the party went much later than I expected. Meanwhile I put Jason to bed and my brother Jim came and stayed with him while I went next door (with Beth) to the Junior Women's Wine & Cheese event. Didn't stay long, but it was nice to get out.

October 16: Saturday started off as all Saturday's do, with soccer. Again. I believe he even touched the ball. How exciting.


Just over an hour later we were over at Neeta for soccer pictures. Shocked that they went smoothly and we were able to get on the road quickly.

After pictures we grabbed something quick to eat in the car and head to Melinda's house to drive to Sesame together. The park was all decorated for the holidays, complete with a scavenger hunt trick-or-treating theme. The kids though this was very fun, and I was way more impressed with the loot here than I was at Great Adventure. We did some rides, saw the parade, ate our picnic lunch, and even saw the Halloween-themed Elmo's World show (which the boys loved). sesame

Scout Camping (October 9-10)

Saturday morning started off with Ty's soccer game. I decided to finally take some actual photos (instead of iPhone photos) but it's hard to get photos of action when there just isn't any action..at least from my child. I love him dearly, but soccer is as painful for me as it is for him apparently.



We packed a quick lunch and then myself and the boys met up with some other scouts and drove over to Pine Tree for our camping. I called this blog "scout camping" because frankly I'm confused about Tyler's scout status. I was calling him a Boy Scout, which I was informed was technically incorrect because he's a Tiger Scout, which is apparently a subcategory of Cub Scout (from what I understand). Boy Scouts are older. However they called this Boy Scout camping and there were no scouts older than Cub Scouts. So apparently I don't get it.

Moving on..Anyway, the group of Tiger Scouts set up camp in the same area. I am proud to say that I successfully erected our tent by myself (unless you count Tyler who I tried to include for his own sake). Jason, meanwhile, collected acorns and tried to escape camp. We met up with all the scouts for the flag raising ceremony thing. Jason was under the impression that he was a Tiger Scout, lining right up with the boys. From there we did various activities during the day, including lunch, leaf collecting and rubbing, rock wall climbing, archery, trail mix assembly, hiking, dinner, and a little meeting where they worked on patch requirements and practiced their skit for the campfire. We had beautiful weather for it all too! Jason was a trooper, trying to keep up the entire time. He actually did quite well, aside from the occasional disappointment that he was not old enough to do some stuff. I did keep him back from the hike though and left someone else in charge of Ty, as Jason had to be exhausted trotting around all day on no nap. Ty had a blast, aside from the rock wall which he attempted (eventually) but was not successful with. At least he tried.

Around 6:30pm my dad came and met us at camp and stayed with Ty while I quickly brought Jason home and put him down to bed (thankfully camp was maybe 20 minutes from home). My mom then stayed with Jason and I was back at camp less than an hour from when I left and met up with my dad and Ty at the big campfire. At that point my dad went back home and I got to watch the kids skits and songs and all that jazz. Tyler also earned his first badge (or is it a patch? I clearly am still not versed in the scout lingo). They dined on baked apples, which Tyler surprisingly liked.

From there we went back to camp where another Tiger Scout dad had made a little campfire near our site. A few of us and the boys hung out for a while before official lights out time (10:00). After I got Ty to bed I joined them at the illegal campfire for a while before settling in myself. Sleep did not come easy, as I had to make the long walk to the bathroom a few times after some poorly planned beverages right before bed. It was also quite cold. I don't' think I really slept at all until about 3:00am. Then Tyler woke after having wet the bed. Luckily I had thought to put him in a pull-up, just in case. But he freaked out thinking everything was wet (it was really just the cold moisture on his bedding) and wanted to go home. Took a while to calm him down. At this point it was reportedly 42 degrees. Brrrrrr.

Wake up time occurred when the pack leader woke the weeblos for their duty of making breakfast around 6:45am. Parents started to pack up camp and eventually Ty woke up so I could finish the pack-up process. So that's how I spent the first EVER night away from Jason...in a tent, in the cold, without sleep, and waking too darn early. Memorable, but not enjoyable. LOL.

Eventually we had breakfast and packed up the car. At some point I got a text that Jason had woken at 8:00, which was ridiculously late for him. Apparently the day at camp had really worn him out. He was quite happy sitting ON his pillow pet on the couch next to pop-pop watching TV. He did not miss me, which was good, but surprising. There were no activities at camp on Sunday so we came home after breakfast. Ty had a minor meltdown, which he later stated was because he was sad that we were leaving. So apparently Tiger Scout camping was a hit!