Birthday Boys

Phew...with the end of June finally here, I thought I'd better re-cap the month.  June is a busy birthday month for us, with Alex turning 5 on June 10th and Will turning eight eleven days later on the 21st.  I try and alternate birthday party years for the boys, since the idea of joint party is no longer considered "cool" when you're eight.  Since Will had a "skateboard" themed party last year, it was Alex's turn for party and he knew right away that he wanted a Star Wars party.  We hosted 4 of his friends for a "Jedi Training" event, including jedi tunics for the kids.  There were five different challanges for the kids to complete as part of their training.  Alex was so excited for his big day!

Alex with his preschool friend Aiden

An impromptu game of Jedi hockey in the cul-de-sac

Throwing waterballoons to destroy the chalk drawing of the Death Star

Using tools to free Han Solo from the carbonite

Handing out lightsabers to the Jedi graduates

We spent Will's birthday in Hilton Head with our friends the VanDoren's.  We enjoyed a morning on the beach and ice cream cake at lunch.  Will spent a lot of the day in the pool and  zipping around on his new electric scooter.  Unfortunately his birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant was derailed by a trip to the urgent care for a case of swimmer's ear.  To add to the excitement, his rescheduled birthday dinner was spoiled by a second trip to the urgent care for Alex's slightly fractured nose (fortunately, no concussion). So, we still owe Will a pasta supper!

In lieu of a birthday party this year, Will chose to go parasailing while we were in Hilton Head.  It was awesome!  We were in the air, about 500 feet up and the view was amazing.  We kept our eyes peeled for dolphins and sea turtles but didn't see any.  They offered to "dip" us in the water on our way down and it was perfect...we went in about up to our waists before they hoisted us back into the air.  It was a great was to celebrate with my eight year old!

Cannonball contest

Boogieboarding

Ready to launch

In the air

Smooth landing

Sibling Rivarly

As the mom to two boys, I've been overwhelmed lately with how much Will & Alex fight.  Not only physically (although there's plenty of wrestling and tackling that goes on), but also verbally.  It seems like they're always picking on each other.  On our tubing weekend, there was a point where Scott and I both looked at each other wondering "what have we gotten ourselves into"?  Each of the boys are sweet and fun on their own, but when you put them together it's painful!!
I've been doing my best to keep them separated as much as possible until this phase passes (which is hopefully soon).  Often when I'm making supper, they'll start in on each other...fighting over toys, who's going to watch TV on which couch, name-calling, etc.  So many times I end up putting them on separate floors to play.  When the fights start at the dinner table, I'll send one boy (whoever is the antagonizer....which is usually Will) upstairs to get his PJ's on.  Then, by the time he comes back down, Alex has finished eating and can get his jams on while Will finishes his meal.

It's been tough playing referee for the last few months, and I've been looking for a way to break the pattern.  I feel like I can tell them over and over to STOP FIGHTING, but it's not getting through.  So, I'm going back to an old technique that I learned from my dear (teacher) friend Elaine.  I first introduced the Kind & Helpful bag with Will when he was about 4.  He earned tickets for being Kind & Helpful and lost them when he was not.  Then he could cash the tickets in for "prizes" (mostly stuff from the Dollar Stop at Target, with some higher value items that cost more tickets).  This worked well, and so after a while we phased it out.  Fortunately several of the "helpful" behaviors stayed!

Now that the boys are older, the toys they want are more expensive.  The stuff at the Dollar Stop doesn't have enough perceived value any more.  So, I've been struggling for the last week  with what to use as the incentives.  Finally, this weekend as I walked into our mudroom and saw our "activities" whiteboard hanging there....I figured it out....Activities!!  The driving range, bowling, geocaching, hiking...these are all things that we try and do with the boys periodically, but how about if they had to "earn" these activities instead of just being given them?  Scott and I are always reminding the boys how "lucky" they are to do all sorts of things that we rarely did as kids (international travel, summer camp, regular meals out a restaurants, etc).  We're very conscious of how fortunate we are, and work hard to make sure that we are NOT raising entitled kids. 

So, today (while last night's fighting is fresh on my mind), I crafted up some new "Kind & Helpful Reward Coupons" that the boys can earn by cashing in their tickets.  I've made 15 coupons with things like:

• one trip to the movies with Mum or Dad 
• one trip to Kate's Skate (with a friend)
• one trip to the driving range with Dad
• one family trip to play mini putt
• one trip to Sky High Sports (with a friend)
• one family trip to go bowling
• one trip to Art Space Studio to paint pottery
• one family trip to go hiking

When I told Will about it last night, he was really excited.  So, I'm bracing myself that this will hopefully be a success and at least curb the amount of fighting that's going on in our house.  I'll keep you posted!

Medical Adventures

The last month has been filled with a couple of medical adventures for our family, some good and others....not so much.  I'll start with the good.

Back in September when Alex started in preschool, I applied to become a volunteer at our local hospital (CMC-Pineville).  I submitted my application (complete with references) and waited.  Finally, I heard that my references had received forms to fill out about me.  About a month later, I received a call from the Volunteer Coordinator asking me to come in for an interview.  After the interview, a 4-hour training session, a flu shot, 2 Tuberculosis skin tests, an official name tag and a uniform,  I was ready for on-the-job training.  I've been assigned to the Emergency Department, and will be working a both the front desk and inside the ER.  I've completed two of my 3 required training shifts and then will be ready to work independently.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  Initially when I applied to volunteer, I was interested in working in the ER alongside the nurses.  I've been considering going back to school for my RN once both the boys are in school all day and felt like this was a great way to preview what things would be like.  When Scott and I were first married, I always told him that when I turned 40 I was going to quit work and go back to school to become a nurse so that I could contribute to society. However, I'm really enjoying the front desk part of the ER, working as the greeter and collecting the necessary information from patients.  So, I'm realizing that whether I go back for my RN or not I'm still contributing in my small way to making the world a better place.

I have to say I've been so impressed with how well the volunteers at the hospital are treated.  Everyone is so kind and helpful and it's been a great experience so far.  Plus, the newly remodeled cafeteria is an added bonus....especially since the volunteers are paid in the form of a free meal after their shifts!

As for the other medical adventure, I had gum grafts done on Wednesday and am on a liquid diet for another 5 days.  As a child I was an aggressive tooth brusher, and for the last 3 years my very mild-mannered dentist has been reminding me that my eroding gums really need to be addressed.  This comes as no surprise to me.  You'll rarely see me drinking ice water, or eating hard mint candies...those things are painful to my ever sensitive teeth (although, I surprisingly never had trouble with ice cream, go figure!)  Finally, about a year ago my dentist finally told me that if I didn't start the ball rolling with getting gum grafts he was going to stage an "intervention".  To hear such a soft-spoken guy use words like "intervention" really got my attention.  So, with the new year (and a topped-up flex spending account) I headed to the periodontist for treatment.  For those of you who are blissfully unaware of what gum grafts entail, here's a synopsis:

In many gum grafting procedures the periodontist will take some of the patient's own tissue for the graft. This tissue is usually taken from the roof of the mouth. A very thin piece is removed and carefully placed onto the area where the gums have receded. It is then carefully attached there with fine sutures.


Based on the description above, you can tell why I've been putting it off...the whole thing sounds horrible!!  But, on Wednesday, with my Ipod in hand, my chauffeur/husband dropped me off at the periodontist.  The procedure went slightly better than I expected.  After many, many shots of Novocain to my mouth, they "patched up" 5 teeth on my left side with plans for me to come back in 6 months to a year for the remaining 2 teeth on the right side....yeh, right!  With a cheek that's swollen like a chipmunk, I'm on a liquid diet for a week, which sounds fun until about day 3 when your limited food repertoire of applesauce, rice pudding, oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, jello and ice cream starts to get monotonous.  Thank goodness for Panera's Black Bean soup and my homemade chocolate pudding!  I should return to normal in the next few days (I hope) and I go back to the periodontist in 2 weeks to have all my stitches removed.

Stay tuned for more Steffen happenings...

 

Letter to Santa

Alex has really got into writing his Santa list this year.  Things all began back in October when the Christmas catalogs started arriving.  He spent hours with the catalogs and a Sharpie circling the toys he wanted.  We talked extensively about not being greedy and instead only circling the few toys that he REALLY wanted to ask Santa for, but he still ended up circling so many things.  To help remind him not to be greedy, I suggested he work on writing his letter to Santa.  Knowing that writing a Santa letter at 4 years old is a labor-intensive process, I knew that only the top toys would make the list.

We've been spending quite a bit of time at Target lately strolling the toy aisles so that Alex can get see and touch the toys he's contemplating putting on his list.  After about 3 weeks in the making, he finished his list.  It's been a lot of hard work.  He'd ask us how to spell words letter-by-letter and then he'd refer to his alphabet placemat to see how to write them.  For the letters he wasn't sure about, he'd use his Leapfrog Fridge Phonics game and put different letters in the game and wait for it to sing the song (for example, R says "ruh" so he knew the letter he put in was an R).  I was really proud of his trouble-shooting creativity.

Finally, this week he announced that his list was finished.  With no prompting from me, he got the tape from the drawer and taped his list to the fireplace "so Santa will see it as soon as he comes down the chimney".  I guess he figures that with the US Postal Service on the verge of bankruptcy he needed to take serious matters like these into his own hands?  I've got to give him credit for perseverance and problem solving.  Now, hopefully Santa comes through on a couple of his requests.

Translation: Transformer, DS, Despicable Me Wii game and movie, Lion King, Darth Vader helmet

In the meantime, here's a cute picture from Alex's Thanksgiving Feast at preschool (his class was dressed as Indians):

Bats, Balls, Bikes, Skates and More!

With the last post from July, I figured it was about time to update the blogosphere with what's new with the Steffens.  With the cooler weather moving in, we've been engrossed with fall sports...baseball for Will (3 times a week) and a 6-week soccer clinic for Alex.  Will played a season of t-ball previously, but this was his first time playing "machine pitch".  He hit the ball most of the time at bat, and the coach called him a "consistent" player.  The one position he didn't like was catcher, since even with all the gear on, it would hurt if the ball hit him.  Unfortunately his team didn't have any wins, but had several ties.  Regardless, he enjoyed the season and I suspect he'll choose to play again in the spring.

Soccer was the first time that Alex had played an organized sport and he loved it.  Each week in the car on the way home he'd say "Mum...are you SO proud of me?" and I'd say "yes, I'm super proud of you, buddy!"  Too cute.
I'm still mountain biking weekly with the Dirt Divas (Charlotte's women's mountain biking club) and I love it.  I've been fitting in a bit of road biking too.  In late September, my friend Elaine and I participated in the Charlotte Urban Assault ride http://urbanassaultride.com/whatisit which is a giant scavneger hunt by bike.  It was a great time.  At each stop you had to complete a silly challenge.  Here are some of the highlights:

A new take on the old-school "wheelbarrow race"!

Taking a spin on a big wheel

Elaine giving me "a double" just like we did as kids

With baseball and soccer coming to a close, the boys have chosen their next activity...hockey.  Will's enrolled in Learn to Play Hockey and Alex is doing Snowplow Sam (learn to skate).  We spent 2 hours at the cold, smelly rink this Saturday morning and I couldn't have been happier.  Seeing both the boys on skates brings back great memories for both Scott and me of all our hours spent at the rink as kids. I couldn't be a prouder Canadian mom, even way down here in the South (Will's #5 in the red jersey).

Alex marching across the ice

Showing me the stuffed dragon (they would throw the animals, skate over and pick them up)

In other hockey news, Scott played in the annual Hemby Cup charity hockey game again this year. http://www.hembycup.com/suits-vs-geeks/  It's an event to raise money for the local children's hospital.  They have the Suits (bankers) versus the Geeks (Microsoft).  The Suits won again this year!

Open skate after the game

The boys with Chubby Checker (mascot for the Charlotte Checkers AHL team)

We finished off the summer with a fair amount of travelling, packing in trips to Atlanta (to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke), a long weekend at an amazing cabin in Gatlinburg, TN with Scott's sister and brother-in-law (Donna & Ross) and a quick stop at Sky Top Orchards in Flat Rock, NC for some apple picking (Honey Crisp apples mostly....yum!)  Scott and I spent our 12-year anniversary in Las Vegas gambling up a storm at the Blackjack tables and enjoying a Def Leppard concert at MGM.  For the Columbus Day weekend, I caught up with the girls from Dalhousie at a girls weekend in NYC.  Finally, there was a trip to the pumpkin patch with Alex a couple of weeks ago.

At the World of Coke

 Taste testing Coke products from around the world

Cooling off in the sprayers at Olympic Park in Atlanta

At the Georgia Aquarium

Playing pool at our cabin in Gatlinburg

 Family picture on the front porch of the cabin

Inside the cabin

Hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains

Waterfall at the end of our hike 

Apple picking at Sky Top Orchard

Celebrating our 12 year anniversary in Vegas

View of the strip from the Foundation Room (private club at the top of Mandalay Bay)

At Molly's Cupcakes in NYC during a walking Food Tour

Susan and Lezlie loaded down with all our 5th Avenue shopping

Trying to fit all our bags into the cab

Playing with the dumptrucks at the pumpkin patch

On the tire swing

Alex with his friend Will from preschool

Those are the highlights from the last 3 months.  Let's hope it's not another 3 months before the next update!!  November brings us some big events...my nieces (Lily and Paige) are being baptized and it's Scott's 40th birthday!!  Stay tuned for more.

Keeping Busy

It seems like this summer has been exceptionally busy but when I look back at my "Summer Activities List" on the whiteboard in our mud room, it seems like we've barely made a dent in it (plus, I keep adding more fun stuff).
Here's a recap of what we've been up to during the month of July:

• we spent 6 days in Halifax (over Canada Day weekend) visiting Scott's family and helping his Dad move out of his house and into a swanky new apartment

Playing at Historic Properties

Canada Day Parade

Waiting for the canons to go off at Citadel Hill

Our hotel room was on the 2nd floor, with a patio door right out to the pool...perfect!!

 Lobster dinner with the family!

• I did my second triathlon, coming in 23rd place out of approximately 250 women! Not bad for a girl inching closer to 40!

Alex watching me (on left) coming in from the "bike" portion

• We celebrated my birthday this year with 4 days in Hilton Head.  We ended up meeting our old neighbors there too (after moving from Charlotte only 10 days earlier!)

Posing with "Jake" from the Salty Dog Cafe

Renda showing off her crab catching skills (we wanted to cook them,

but the kitchenette in our hotel didn't have a stove!)

Will and Ashlee

• Scott switched jobs at the end of the month, leaving Bank of America (after 9 years) and going to Ally Financial. He's really excited about his new role and it's awesome to see him so enthusiastic about things.

So, even though our whiteboard doesn't make it look like we've been busy, we have!  I'm hoping we can tackle a lot of the things in the next couple of weeks before we leave for 6 days in the Smoky Mountains and then school starts.