Train Tracks

Boogs still enjoys getting out his wooden train tracks. This kept up busy for about an hour the other morning. He had such a good time making the battery powered engines race each other for the drawbridge.

Feeling good!

Boogs was sick yesterday. He seemed fine when he woke up yesterday. We even played for about an hour before we had to get ready for school. When I tried to get him ready to leave, he had a meltdown about how tired he was. I comforted him and noticed he felt pretty warm. His temperature was just under 102 degrees. We stayed home and spent most of the day on the couch. Tylenol makes him hyper so he did not rest or take a nap until almost 4 pm. He finally fell asleep for about an hour. When he went to bed for the night, his temp was still pretty high. This morning it was back down to 100.8.  He was very concerned that he would be too sick to have a "Daddy Day". By 10:30 this morning, his temp was down 99, so he did not miss his Daddy Day. Must have been some sort of 24 hour bug. He did not have any other symptoms besides the fever. I am so glad he is back to his busy little self.

Halloween is creeping in

Boogs went with his Daddy to look at Halloween displays at several stores. I told my husband that was fine with me as long as he realized that nightmare patrol (getting up multiple times in the night to calm down a screaming boy) was all his responsibility. Luckily, Boogs has not had any bad nightmares for the past couple of days. Every night before he goes to bed he asks to tell him a good thing to dream about so he won't have a nightmare. These dream ideas have become part of our nightly routine. I am very surprised  the Halloween decoration my husband let Boogs purchase has not kept him up at night. Count Dracula tried to fly into Boogs' bedroom and got flattened against the door. Here is a picture of Boogs' bedroom door:

While I am tucking him in at night, Boogs asks me to close the door so he can't see Dracula.  I told him we would get out the Halloween decorations this weekend. Oh...it is going to be a long time until October 31st.

Hide and Seek

Boogs loves a good game of hide and seek. He is getting bigger and some of his favorite hiding places are becoming more challenging to get into. One hiding place that he uses often is "his" cabinet in the kitchen. He is too big to get in and move his arm enough to close the door. So the other day, Boogs asked me to close the door and then start counting "but don't come looking in the kitchen to seek me". Here are two pics of Boogs in "his" cabinet hiding place. The first one was taken when he was 18 months old. The second one was taken yesterday. He is growing up too fast for me.

Long night

Boogs is OBSESSED with Halloween. He has been since he was 18 months old. I remember, when he was 18 months,  he stood at the door and cried for several days after Halloween because he wanted to go trick-or-treating again and again. He loved wearing his costume and knocking on the neighbors' doors. I did not let him eat the candy, so candy is not a big part of his obsession. He loved the decorations.

That obsession has not lessened over the years. I had to make a rule this year that we won't listen to his Halloween CDs in the car until October 1st. He could spend hours looking at Halloween displays in stores. The Halloween displays are already up at most stores and Boogs is already starting to beg to spend time wandering around looking at everything.  Yesterday afternoon he looked through the displays at Walgreens.

Unfortunately, his fears have gotten bigger. During the past few months he has started to have an occasional nightmare. I know it is a common thing for kids his age to have nightmares, but his Halloween obsession is not a good combination with nightmares. Last night he cried out at 1 a.m. because he was scared. I was able to give him a hug and get him back to sleep. Then around 3 a.m. he woke up screaming about being scared. I spent an hour in his room and he started to calm down. When I left his room he started screaming again. I went back into his room and he was huddled against his pillows in the corner of his bed with a freaked out look of terror on his face. I snuggled up with him in his bed and sang his night time song a couple of times and he finally went back to sleep a little after 5 a.m.  He woke up this morning at 7:15, leapt out of bed and yelled, "Wow, it is bright outside. I had a good sleep!" I hope this is not his new definition of "a good sleep".  During the daylight, his fears magically disappear. Now, I just have to figure out how to avoid all the Halloween displays for the next two months so he won't have such vivid nightmares.

Messy Birthday Party

One of Boogs' classmates, the daughter of one of my fellow teachers, had her 5th birthday party yesterday. The theme was "MESSY". Yes, it did have to be spelled with all capital letters. Michelle had the great idea of making the party as messy as possible. She put out several small inflatable kiddie pools and filled them with various messy things...mud, shaving cream, cooked spaghetti noodles, jello, squeezable paint bottles, and bubbles. There was a slip-n-slide and water balloons. She served messy food - sloppy joes, chicken wings, watermelon and even had a mound of cake squares piled on top of each other with messy icing for the birthday cake.  She carried the messy theme through to her pinata. The pull string pinata was filled with goodies and flour. It was a mess! Luckily, there was a designated "mess-free zone" for the parents.  At the end of the party, the kids got to pull all of the streamers off of the trees. They were so cute. Boogs kept winding the streamers around his body like he was a mummy. Boogs had such a good time.

            

Goop!

One of Boogs all-time favorite things to do is play with goop. It always amazes me that a little bit of cornstarch, water, and food coloring can keep him entertained for over an hour. It makes a HUGE mess, but the clean-up is fairly easy. When he was finished playing with the goop, I took Boogs and his art mat outside and hosed them down.

After Boogs got washed off with the hose, he wanted to make rainbows. You can barely see the rainbow in this picture.

He also figured out how to step on the hose sprayer to get the perfect size stream of water to make his grass root dance.