We're still here!

Thanks to all of you who have called/emailed to ask why its been so long since I updated this. I've been working a bunch of extra hours (think of the money, think of the money), and by the time I get a day off lately all I want to do is be a bum and hang out with the kids. I know I owe countless people emails and promise to try and get to those this week.

Life continues to be pretty smooth. We have had two meltdowns in the last couple of weeks, both of which were intense, but over pretty quickly. The second one had been brewing for a couple of days, and I sensed Ben needed a good cry just to get out of his system whatever it was that was bothering him. He woke up in a foul mood and just stayed that way all day. He was being really defiant and super whiny. After lunch he decided he wanted to go play at his friend Hunter's house, and I told him that until he could do as Mummy said he was going nowhere. That tipped him over the edge. He screamed, yelled, raged and cried. He told him he "no love Mummy" and took himself off to his room. I followed him up there and that just made things worse. I sat on the side of his bed until he'd calmed down somewhat, and then gave him a few minutes to himself. When I went back up to check on him he'd fallen asleep. He woke up in a good mood but was really clingy, and I ended up laying with him until he fell back asleep which was sometime after midnight.

Ben is super-excited about Halloween, though I suspect he has no idea what Halloween entails. Him and Maddie got to go to the pumpkin patch with their kindy class, where they both chose pumpkins to carve. J got to go with them, as unfortunately I was working. They both had a blast!! We already went costume shopping (ouch, those things have gotten spendy!), and Ben is going to be Batman!! Hes very proud of his costume and has had it on for a good portion of every day since we bought it. I've been trying to explain the "trick or treat" part of Halloween to him but I'm not sure he completely gets it. The part about getting candy caught his attention, but I'm not sure how hes going to handle seeing other dressed up in potentially scarey outfits. J and the kids decorated our house with Halloween decorations yesterday (again, I was at work), and everyone was very proud of how it looks.

Well, I actually have a few days off this week, so plan to update this some more over the next few days to catch everyone up on whats been going on around here over the last few weeks!