Halloween

Sorry for the delay in posting! Here are some pics of Owen and Eric at Halloween. At least I got them posted before the year's end! Both boys were skeletons this year. Owen picked and then insisted that Eric wanted to match! :)Owen and Eric's school had a costume parade. This is Eric with some of his classmates after the parade and candy collection.
Here is Owen with his classmates just getting started in the parade.
We went to dinner with Opa and Granna after the city's Halloween party. Here is Eric with his cousin Parker. Eric LOVED wearing his costume and cried every time we took it off! Luckily, he got to wear it 3 days in a row with his school parade, the city's party, and 2 Halloween trick-or-treating activities!
Owen loves bounce houses, and he had a great time sliding through this obstacle course bounce house and into a ball pit!

St. Jude's Trike-a-thon

Owen's school participated in a St. Jude's hospital fundraiser this month -- a trike-a-thon! They spent a week learning about bike safety and brought helmets for show and tell, finishing with a race around their front entry on whatever ride-on vehicle each child wanted to bring. :) Owen's bike is a little too small for him, but he had a great time anyway.

First School Pictures

Here are Owen and Eric's first set of annual school photos:

First Day of School

Owen started kindergarten this week, with school uniforms and all. This is a picture his school took of him on his first day. He is showing a board with his name written on it, but for some reason he didn't write it correctly even though he has been able to write his name for two years. Figures they would record this version for posterity, right?

Owen was originally supposed to be in pre-K, but his classmates from the summer were all moving up, and his teachers recommended that he go ahead and move up to kindergarten with them since he was at the same level socially and academically. We are going to wait until we see how he does in kindergarten and compare his size and age to the other kids entering his elementary school before deciding whether we will have him repeat kindergarten or move up to first grade when he starts public school next year.

Next is Eric on his first day in the Toddler classroom (he moved up from Young Toddler).

Eric had a little trouble adjusting to daycare when I went back to work, but it was just the drop off that bothered him. After a minute or two of crying he would immediately set off playing with the other kids or by himself. Now that he is in the Toddler room, he runs off to play as soon as we drop him off, so he seems to really like being in the bigger room with more toys.

Update on Owen

Here are some pictures of Owen's cut as it heals. The first 2 pics here are in the 2-3 days after the injury:

These next two pics are after about a week. It looks a little worse on his forehead now because the dermabond is drying out and starting to loosen, but if you look closely, you can see that the cut underneath is looking better:

Finally these two were taken today, after about 3/4 of the dermabond has fallen off. The bottom piece of dermabond looks like it is going to hang on for another several days because of the positioning, but the rest if pretty much healed. The skin tissue where the dermabond sat is still a little red and raw looking, but the line of the wound is only a little dip in the skin, so it looks like it healed pretty well.

I will post one more set of pics next week after the rest of the dermabond comes off and the skin has recovered around the wound from the dermabond.

Owen's first real injury

Since I started back to working full time about a month ago, Owen has been loving going to "school" every day. Today he fell on the steps of his school's playground equipment and hit his forehead on the step. He actually handled it pretty well, although he was very concerned someone would try to put a band aid on it at some point, which he really hates.

My sister Melissa was a great help and picked Owen up right away at the school since my work is 30-45 minutes away, and by the time I got there he was asking for lunch and talking about the cartoon on the tv....so totally fine except for the giant cut on his head. :(

The ER ended up using Dermabond instead of stitches even though the cut was really deep (and kind of jagged) because the edges came together neatly after it was cleaned.

I am a little nervous whether this was the right decision, but I am trying to remind myself that it will give him character if the scar is noticeable after healing and not be too upset.

My poor baby! I am so glad he wasn't hurt more, but sad that he already had his first real injury at only 4 years old. :(