We’ve been meaning to do this for years, but it never really worked out until now: we took the boys up to Silver Star to see what they thought of Tube Town, where you ride an inner tube down a mountain. I really wish we’d been able to get pictures of the kids sitting in the tubes (Brayden in particular was wicked cute), but we obviously didn’t have any spare hands. The first ride went well, but when Brayden and I got to the top for a second try, he decided he wanted to go play in the snow. This was a problem given that we still had to get DOWN the mountain, so I ended up hanging on to his coat to keep him from diving out of the tube on our way down the hill. Justin, however, fell in love with the tubing experience (what’s not to love when all you have to do is sit in a tube while someone else pulls you around?) and he and his dad went down at least half a dozen times.

While we waited, Brayden and I explored a bit. One man who walked by noted that Brayden “sure has a lot of energy” — I get so sick of people pointing this out. Like I haven’t noticed. Anyway, I finally bought him some food and that kept him content until Chris and Justin finished up and we all went to the restaurant. I knew enough to bring along coloring books and crayons, so that kept the boys busy while Chris and I had a meal. (I also knew that Justin wouldn’t eat anything but fries when we went out, so I was wise enough to bring some snacks from home so he wouldn’t get too cranky from lack of food.) Justin actually fell asleep in the car on the way home and both boys were in bed asleep before 8 p.m. A great day overall!

I’ve finished my Christmas shopping (yes, I’m an earlybird), our outside lights are up although not turned on, and Justin is unbelievably excited about Santa coming, so we’re really getting into the “ho ho ho” thing around here. Too bad the big day is still more than five weeks away. Justin does not have the slightest interest in Halloween but cannot wait for Christmas, and I’m on board with that — it’s my favorite holiday too. This year will be a little different because for the first time ever, my family won’t be with us for Christmas morning. They’re still coming to visit — never fear — but it’ll be for New Year’s this time. At first I was kind of bummed about letting go of an old tradition, but now I’m actually looking forward to having a nice quiet celebration. As an added bonus, we’ll be going to Chris’s parents’ place for dinner, so I get out of turkey duty for the first time in years. Awesome.

Other than that, the daily grind goes on as usual. Brayden is trying so hard to say more words, but aside from “mommy” and “daddy”, none of them are recognizable to anyone but us. “Tank” continues to be an excellent nickname for him, as he is forever running around and pushing his way through things. I caught him doing chin-ups on a water pipe at the library a couple weeks ago — this kid is seriously strong. If only we could teach him to be gentle…

Justin has always been a chatterbox, but lately he’s gotten to the stage of asking a million questions, and it drives me insane much of the time. It doesn’t matter what answer you give him, he’ll have another question ready to go. There’s no way his preschool teacher gets paid enough. She must have the patience of a saint. A few weeks ago I was having lunch with the boys when Justin looked at me and said, “You look terrible, Mom.” He paused, then added, “Are you sick of us?” At least he makes me laugh.

I thought this would be the year we’d finally get Justin interested in Halloween (our kids have never gone trick-or-treating), mainly because he was due to have a little party at preschool. But he was sick all week and couldn’t go to preschool, and despite our best efforts he wouldn’t even touch his costume. I sent both boys out on a walk with Dad to at least get a look at the decorations in the neighborhood (Brayden did wear a costume for that and was very, very cute, but our camera was out of batteries) but Justin whined and complained the entire time. He’s still getting over a touch of the flu and hasn’t been himself, but we’ve never had any luck on the Halloween front any other year, either, so apparently it’s just not his thing. Don’t most kids love getting dressed up and collecting candy? Oh, well.

Chris and I are leaving on a kid-free holiday next week, so naturally the boys came down with colds this week (and have now passed their germs to me). There’s been lots of sneezing, coughing and wiping of noses, but at least everyone’s sleeping all right. We were on a pretty good run of no illness in the house all summer, but that streak has come to an end — and with Justin in preschool, I’m sure we’ll have all kinds of new germs going around.

Brayden has his own version of a bunch of different words now, although no one but us would be able to identify them (most of them are animal sounds anyway, although he can also imitate the honking of a car horn and the “vroom vroom” sound). He has even said “mama” occasionally like he really means it. He has an appointment with the speech pathologist next week but he has made significant progress in the last two weeks, so I’m not really worried. Justin was a late talker but an early reader, so hey. All in due course…

Brayden is on the verge of talking — at last! Yesterday while I was making dinner he picked out a couple E’s from the magnetic letters on the fridge, looked at me, and said very clearly, “Eee!” He’s been able to recognize letters for a long time (whenever Sesame Street announces the letter of the day he goes and finds it in his alphabet puzzle and holds on to it for the rest of the show) but he could never pronounce any of them, so this is a big deal. He’s pretty good with Z and D but the others aren’t so clear. Still, it’s progress, and we’re excited.

We’re also impressed with how Justin has adapted to preschool. Not once has he played shy or tried to cling to us, and whenever I pick him up he’s always busy playing with the other kids. The teacher tells me they even managed to get him to go on the potty, which is awesome. Maybe kindergarten won’t be the traumatic experience I keep envisioning it to be.

Three weeks until Chris and I leave for Florida. The weather around here has actually been astoundingly nice, so the warm weather down south won’t be that big a deal (the humidity might be another story). But I can’t wait to have five straight days with no child care responsibilities. Tick tock…

Deep down, I really believed this day would never come: Justin is regularly using the potty (although never on his own initiative) and Brayden is putting himself to sleep at night. I hope I haven’t just jinxed it.

For the past few months we’ve had to stay with Brayden until he falls asleep, which on a good day took 10 minutes but on most days took the better part of an hour. If you tried to leave while he was still awake, he’d scream and pound on his door. But last week we discovered that if you give him a book to look at while he’s in bed, you can leave the room and he will eventually conk out on his own without making a peep. It’s a beautiful thing.

As for Justin…he’s pretty good about staying dry while he’s at home, but only if someone forcibly instructs him to head for the potty when he looks like he has to go. We’re trying to get him to do this on his own, but this is a kid who’s mighty reluctant to do ANYTHING for himself, so I suspect we’ve got a long way to go. But at least we’re making progress.

The long weekend had lots of highlights, but I’m in need of a nap, so I’ll do this as a quickie list:

– My dad arrived Friday night, much to the delight of his grandsons. Justin took a minute or two to warm up to the new guy in the house, but then he and Brayden had a blast knocking Grandpa over and wrestling on the floor. Boys.

– Dad and I played two rounds of golf: the first was quite possibly the worst I’ve ever had, and the second was much improved. If I only had a golf buddy in town, I could get a lot more practice…but I’m not bitter.

– The fire across the lake flared up in a big way Saturday night, so we’ve been choking on smoke while we watch charred pine needles rain down on the house. Temperatures have cooled somewhat (we didn’t even break 30 yesterday, which is about 10 degrees down from what it had been) but still no rain, so who knows when things will calm down. I’m just thankful the flames are on the other side of the lake.

– We’ve had a wasp problem in our backyard, so we finally put out some “natural” traps, which are really just a plastic cage with some apple juice and sugar inside. Apparently wasps are not that bright, cause those traps get so full that we have to empty them every single night. There’s no way we had that many wasps in the yard. I’m convinced we’re importing them from other neighborhoods. Where are these things coming from?

– Chris and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on Monday by going out to dinner and a movie (I was pleased he ignored our rule about no gifts and bought me some roses — they’re beautiful!) Dinner was bad, but the movie was great, and we came home with the warm fuzzy feeling you’re supposed to get after a romantic comedy, so all was well. Uncle Greg came over to help Grandpa with the babysitting and I hear things were OK, although Brayden was not at all happy that Mom and Dad weren’t around for the bedtime routine. He was asleep when we got home, though, which was the main thing.

So that’s the story. This is technically a short workweek, but it feels pretty long to me, although that could just be holiday letdown. And on with the summer…

Hell hath no heat like an Okanagan summer, I tell ya. The thermometer on our deck read 40 degrees last night even before I started the BBQ, and we were up to 44 by the time I finished cooking. It’s mighty warm. The good news is that all the fires are under control and we haven’t noticed significant smoke for quite a few days. We even had a couple serious rainstorms last week that helped cool things off a bit. But the heat is on once again. Thank God for air conditioning.

The long weekend is almost upon us, and that means my dad is coming for a visit. That means I get to go golfing, which is awesome. Sometimes it really bugs me that I live in a golfing paradise but have no one to golf with, since neither Chris nor any of my friends enjoy the game. So I’m looking forward to playing a few rounds. Chris and I are also celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary this weekend, so I’m REALLY looking forward to an evening out with my hubby sans kids. Good stuff.