"What is that lady's name again?"

Collin was talking to us and stopped in mid-sentence to ask, "what was that lady's name again?"  We had no idea who he was talking about and asked him to describe her.  "She had grey hair and I watched movies at her house".  Oh!  He was talking about Grandma H.  It's only been 5 months since she passed and Collin has already forgotten she was his grandma and what we called her.  I wanted to cry knowing that he was not going to have a memory of her like he will with my mom, Mimi.

Indoor Water Park = FUN!!!

We had a great weekend at Great Wolf Lodge.  After watching Collin square dance at school, we left with him to Grandma H’s house.  The main reason for the trip was to drop off her car and a few more boxes.  Instead of spending the night at friends or cousin’s house, I thought it would be fun to hang out at the Great Wolf Lodge when we were not working on Judy’s stuff.

When we arrived, Collin went straight to the huge window that looked out into the covered water park.  There was a wave pool, lazy river, toddler area, tubes, slides, obstacle course and water basketball area.  He could not wait to get in there.  We did have about 2 hours before we were meeting our friends for dinner.  A little inconvenient for me because I would have to do my hair again, I did not want that to stop me from the family having fun….so I joined them. 

In the two hours, we did a lot.  We got dumped on by the big bucket of water first.  Might as well get wet as much as possible quickly.  Then, we went to the wave pool.  The lazy river was next before standing in line for the one of the tube rides.  Collin was concerned about the ride first but settled down when he saw that all of us could fit in the large tube.  I liked that too because I could see my boys having fun going down the tube ride. 

We cleaned up quickly to have dinner with our friends, the Hauks.  They came to us so we had dinner at the Lodge.  The food was not too bad and the company was even better.  Collin and J-man played games on their phones while the adults talked.  Afterwards, Collin wanted to show them our room because his “room” is a cabin built within our room.  He loved it and wanted to show J-man. 

The next morning, we went to the cousins and took care of Judy stuff before picking up two cousins to take back with us to the Lodge and spend the day at the water park.  H, B and Collin had a blast!  For 5 hours, we hung out in the water park.  We only stopped to have lunch and a snack. 

After getting cleaned up, we meet the rest of the family to have dinner and give H and B back to their parents.  Dad and I were exhausted at this point from the fun that day.  We could have gone back to the hotel and slept for the rest of the night.  However, it was good to have dinner with the family and catch up from December when we saw them last.

When we got back to the Lodge, it was Story Time.  The kids gathered around the fire place and the animated animal section.  The animals sang a few songs before Wiley, the wolf, and a helper read a story to the kids.  The story was the history of the Lodge…and it was really cute.  Collin wanted to back to the water park after that.  It was open but only for another 30 minutes.  I could not bring myself to get wet again before going to bed.  Plus, I could Dad and I could barely keep our eyes open.  We convinced Collin to go back to the room and watch a movie.  He was the last one to fall asleep. 

We left early the next morning talking about how much fun we had.  The weekend was exactly what I was hoping for:  1) lots of time with Collin and Dad, 2) Fun at the water park and 3) Catching up with friends and family. 

Ben and Collin standing under the bucket dump

Stairway to Fun!!!....the slides.  These went inside and outside of the building.

Another view of the slides

Waiting in line for the slide

Look who is not so sure about this ride.  Love Collin's look in this one.

What are you thinking about Ben?

At the bottom of the ride just before splashing in the water.

 

Hollis having fun under the water

Me, Hollis and Ben

Hollis and Collin on the Lazy River

Cousins having a great time

Ahhhh.....I am alone....with my blue painted toes

Dad, Hollis and Collin in the Wave Pool getting ready for the waves

Square Dancing

Because of the Rodeo coming up, Collin’s school had a square dancing show for the parents Friday morning.  I missed last year’s so I was excited to see Collin this year not only to see him dance but to see if he was still shy about dancing with a girl. 

He was happy we were there…and brought Aunt Nancy with us because she spent the night we us the night before.  The kids performed for 5 songs.  I joined in on the last two songs (Hokey Pokey and Chicken Dance) because the other mother’s did also. 

Collin did great dancing and did not seem to mind having a girl as a partner.  I saw a lot of me in him as I watched him concentrate and follow all of the rules for the dances.  He did smile when he looked over at us.

Collin is in the black hat on the right (notice the green wristband he has had for several weeks)

 

  

Look at that concentration.  He did not want to clap when he was not supposed to.

Meredith and Collin.  She really likes him but don't ask him about her.  "She likes everyone"

Reading Update - "Bravo Collin!"

Collin is catching up with his reading.  We recently received this note from his teacher:

Just a quick note to say how much progress Collin is making in reading! He read a level 10 book today with the small group and did a fantastic job. I’m so proud of him! Bravo!J

He has also wanted to read more on his own instead of us pushing him to read.  Glad to see that.  Maybe that is helping. 

So Much To Talk About....

Yes, I am still here even though it's been so long since I have posted.  Work has been really overwhelming.  The last thing I want to do when I get home is to get back on the computer and update the blog.  This does not mean we have been bored. 

Some of the things worth reporting that Collin has said or done in the last few weeks:

• For Valentine's Day at school, we made Rice Crispy treats to include in bags with hearts on them. He did a great job stirring the melting marshmallows.  He wanted to stir this into the cereal but I needed to do it because we had to work quick before it dried.  He then took all of the cards and addressed them to the 23 kids in his class.  What Dad and I did not know was that he put to aside for us and addressed them when we were not looking.  He also asked Dad if they could get something for me for Valentine's Day.  They went to Chicco's and surprised me with a new necklace.  I was surprised mainly because we don't celebrate Valentine's Day at our house so I was not expecting a gift that morning.  Collin happily brought me the box and told me that he loved me. 

• I ran my first half marathon in 8 years this past Sunday.  While I was running, the boys went to the grocery store.  Collin picked out a bouquet of flowers which he presented to me when I can home.  So thoughtful!  Seeing Collin run out of the hallway with the flowers in his arms put a smile on my face. 

• After reading books one night, he asked if I had been married before.  Oh....wow....where did this come from.  I told him that I was married before Dad.  He then asked if I had other kids and I told him I did not and neither did Dad.  He then said that Dad was my best husband because he was really rich.  I asked why he thought Dad was rich and he said because Dad owns our house.  I made sure he knew that I worked and made money also which helped pay for the house.  He ignored all of this and said that Dad was more rich than me.  I'll will have to save that argument for another day.

• Dad was watching a movie while I was putting Collin to bed.  As he usually does, Collin got back out of bed to give us a hug.  At that moment in the movie, he saw two adults in bed together.  There were covers over them thank goodness!  Collin saw it and asked what they were doing.  Dad said, "They are playing in the bed".  Think that satisfied Collin's curiosity?  Nope, he then asked, "Do you and Mom do that?"  I don't even remember how Dad responded because I was laughing so hard.

Collin and I have both been to the dentist for our bi-annual cleaning.  Dad took Collin to his appointment because I was still at the office.  The dentist said that we need to do better flossing his teeth.  He also needs to brush more which I was not surprised by.  I have been struggling with him to brush more and all over other than his tongue or one side.  He also has a lose tooth on the bottom which we need to work with.

My dental appointment was the usual until the oral cancer screening.  At that point, the dentist called the other dentist over to look at a few spots in my mouth.  Ultimately, she recommended that I have a specialized dentist look at these areas to determine if these really are cancer.  I did have to wait and worry for 6 days until I went to the follow up appointment.  The dentist said that he was 99.999% certain that these spots were not cancer.  The lab results will not be back for 3-4 days but Dad and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that these spots were nothing to worry about.  This were likely as a result of my mouth being more dry than usual.  This was because I was using a new mouth wash that was drying my mouth out.  I will not be using that again.  Let the healing begin.  We are still watching some elevated levels from the last two blood work results but I should be able to sleep better at least until the next time I have blood work done. 

Until next time. I really will try to post more often.