Back To Normal, For A Day

On Monday, Koen headed back to school after a great, long Christmas break.  Doug headed back to work after a nice post-holiday break as well.  So, it was back to the normal routine for all of us, which left me with a refreshing, "Tavin, Mommy, Penn Rye Day" as Tav and I refer to our time when Koen's at school.  The little guys and I just did our normal thing around the house until it was time to head to Children's Hospital for Tav's speech therapy at 11am.  Tav was very excited to go see Miss Christal, which is such a relief and joy for me as for months I felt like I was dragging him through the routine of these appointments, this new therapist match is a literal Godsend and I am so thankful!  Here's my happy boy ready to "work on his words."  I purposefully left the hand sanitizer dispenser in the picture as that's a huge part of our trips to the hospital as my motto goes, "if you see hand gel, use hand gel."  Tav has it memorized.

For almost a year now I've kept Penn from playing in the waiting room area, but now that this kid is so very mobile, there's no keeping him in the stroller or on a sofa.  Lord, please extend grace as this poor kid touches everything in sight (yuck!).  It doesn't phase him, check out this "cheese" face.  Note the big ouchie on his forehead, quite the trip and fall earlier in the AM.

As a mom who's gone through this whole speech therapy thing now for almost a year, I pray daily that Penn's speech will develop naturally and he will not need this same routine that Tavin has had to endure.  One of the reasons for these utterances to my Heavenly Father is because this poor kid whether he realizes it or not has already had to withstand the whole dragging to and from the sessions for Tavin, I just hope we don't have to pile onto that with sessions for him as well.  He does take most of the visits in stride playing happily in the observation room.  Yesterday he got a little more curious than usual and found that the supply closets in there are not kept locked (hello?  what are they thinking?) and he thought he'd do some reading up on speech pathology.  

Ah yes, here it is, the Adult & Adolescent Word Finding Test, yep, that's an interesting read, Penn.  Bless his heart keeping himself happy!

After we finished up with Miss Christal, we headed home for lunch, some playtime and then naptime.  Koen got home a little before 4pm happy about his return to school and then we had a nice evening all together complete with a favorite family dinner, Chicken Pot Pie.  Here's the before baking shot...

And the after (just the boys' as ours took longer to bake and then we ate it too fast!).

So, that was Monday.  A great start back to the routine.  I wish that we could've just kept plowing away and getting used to the norm again, but alas, the winter weather wouldn't have it.  With subzero temperatures forecasted for Tuesday, school for Koen and preschool for Tavin was cancelled.  Thankfully we saw this coming, so I came up with a plan (which by the time I had taken a picture of it, Koen had already made notations all over it with what we'd accomplished).

Now, you may think that this plan of having every moment accounted for is a little over the top, but I think that it was my secret to success today.  I needed to know that with no ability to go outside (carless and it is soooo cold!), I had some ideas up my sleeves to keep these boys playing productively, getting along most the time and well, I like to have a plan.  We did stray from it a little as the boys ended up playing a super fun emergency fire rescue game upstairs during our time up there to make beds and change, so I let it go as long as they were happy.  It was so sweet because they totally included Penn.  Here he is putting the school bus through the "washdown."  You may wonder why there's a school bus in an emergency story, but we decided that it was to pick up the people at the emergency site and take them somewhere safe. 

Tav was in charge of the fire truck.  (Koen was the garbage truck and didn't stop much, so there is no picture.  Yeah, the garbage truck seems odd, but he was using it to remove the debris from near the emergency site to make sure nothing else would ignite and spread the fire, big imaginations here).

And there's Penn again!  He's always been a fan of tunnels. =)

In another slight stray from the plan, we ended up having some "create" time after the boys got dressed.  Tavin requested Play-Doh.  He concentrates so hard on his creations!

Koen worked on decorating thank you cards (we are a little behind from getting those done from Christmas, sorry, everyone!).  Penn just did his thing on the floor, playing.  At one point he grabbed the headband off my head and was trying to put it on.  I helped him out and he thought it was awesome and started strutting around wearing it.  He, of course, gave me a "cheese" face when I got out the camera.  Don't you think it could be a halo for this little angel?

The big boys got to enjoy "The Big Piglet Movie" after their "create" time and then it was suddenly lunch time.  Penn and I had a blast hanging out just the two of us upstairs while they had the downtime in front of the TV.  I think it was a good break for all of us.  After a big lunch (these boys must be growing as they eat so much right now!), Tav and Koen both requested some more creative time.  Fine by me.  This time we got my box of supplies out from the basement and they really got working.  It was a mess waiting to happen, but totally worth it as they were occupied, happy and engineering for almost an hour.  

Although Koen requested to make some type of weaponry, I steered him off that course with the idea for a telescope and the role of spy (I did a brief synopsis of the two spies that went into the Promised Land in the Old Testament, but they weren't too interested amidst the cardboard, masking tape and markers).  During all of this Penn kept busy on the floor making "alphabet soup."  It's one of his favorite kitchen activities currently.

Here's Tav in his preschool smile showing off his telescope.

And here's Koen with his felt and yarn wrapped telescope (which he confided in me that it has a little tiny gun that is there just in case you need to shoot someone, but he doesn't think he'll have to use it).

Soon after the photos of their work, we cleaned up and headed up for the little guys to take naps.  Then Koen helped me with some chores and minor dinner prep and then we've had some downtime which has been great (i.e. blogging is so relaxing and I rarely get a chance to do it in the afternoons anymore!).  He's currently in the kitchen working on his Lego challenge.  So, all in all, the change in plans of school being cancelled has gone well and I'm so thankful.  I've really enjoyed this day.  It's been a great one with all 3 of my boys at home. Love you guys!