Hi from the Blackhams - I guess it’s been over a month since
I wrote last, things have been busy.
The spec house is sold and closed, so that is a big relief
for us.
Landon has had a lot of stuff going on with school. He
graduated from the D.A.R.E. program, which teaches kids to stay off drugs. They
had a Lagoon Day after graduation and he loved that, even thought it was a
rather cool and rainy day. He’s had a number of big assignments due, working on
his “autobiography” and a report on King Louis XIV. A track just got out of
school, but our kids still have almost a month left.
Callahan has been busy with sports. Both of the older boys
finished up their basketball season. I really enjoyed this session of
basketball, all the games are at the local fitness center and there is a small
track above the basketball court. I’ve been taking the boys to their games and
then jogging around the track while cheering them on. I can usually get 2-3
miles in. Landon’s last game was a total nailbiter, going into double overtime
... unfortunately they did end up losing by one point. There is a summer season
of basketball and Callahan really wanted to play again, so I have signed him
up, and it will start up again in a couple of weeks. He’s also joined a soccer
team, this is not through the local fitness center, but in a competitive
league. Callahan is the only new member of the team, the rest have been playing
together for about four years. This is the team’s first season in the
competitive league, as they were playing recreational, but got kicked out of
the league for being too good. Hopefully this new league, and Callahan, will be
a good fit. Two boys in our neighborhood are on the team. The practices are
right up at the soccer field, so that is nice. The boys actually rode their
bikes up to last Thursday’s practice. The team practices twice a week, they had
one practice game a week ago (playing the premiere team in the league, they got
beat) and games will start end of August.
Callahan also had our pinewood derby. He was very
disappointed to come in 8th place. We did have a lot of fast cars
this year. Grayson had helped with 3 of the 4 cars that made it to the finals,
and then during the “fun” races afterward, the car that Gray and Callahan
helped our little neighbor gal make, soundly beat the winner. There are so many
tricks you can do, and yet it isn’t a guarantee. The whole derby itself went
well. Gray has had a couple this month.
If you see Keaton, you might notice that he is now missing
his two front teeth. A couple of weeks ago one was loose, and he asked when our
babysitter was coming over ... so she could pull his tooth out (she’s done it
before!). Anyway, we had her over that Friday night, and sure enough, the tooth
was out when we got back (she had to use pliers). Then just the week after, we had
a repeat performance! So anyway, we call him “toothless” now. Keaton also was honored at school, receiving
an award for “respect”. All my boys have
received one this year (each teacher awards one a month, but with just 10
months of school, and over 30 kids in each class, only a portion of the kids
will receive one). The parents are
called and invited to come. I remember earlier in the year when I went for
Callahan, and surprise, Landon was being honored too ... that was nice to get
two for one trip in. We’ve made special trips to the school a couple of other
times this month too, to see Callahan and the 3rd grade in their
“Wax Museum” and then to see Gray running rockets for A-track field day.
Gray has been super busy with our derby (holding workshops
and helping neighborhood kids) and with field day for the elementary school. We
actually thought it would be fairly easy this year, as he did it last year too,
but as usual, Gray has new ideas he wants to implement. The biggest change this
year is the addition of “rockets” ... pop bottles shot off a launcher he made
... actually FIVE launchers. It’s taken a lot of time and trips to Lowe’s, but
it did seem to be a huge hit with the kids. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t
cooperate for field day (it was last Thursday, much rain) so it was actually
canceled. Then the PTA decided to do the rockets at least, letting the kids
make them indoors in the morning (adding fins, stickers, nosecone, etc.) and
then launching them later when the weather cleared up. It was a good trial run
to prep for the next, bigger field day on June 30.
Cooper has been doing ... ok ... on potty training. I
haven’t had to change him nearly as much, but he’s still pooping in his
pull-ups, and peeing half the time. But he has reached a new independence as
far as getting dressing and such, and that is nice. I just tell him to get his
jammies on and he does. He’s found a new
love of Power Rangers ... luckily his brothers had the same interest a while
back so we have plenty of toys and shows to entertain him.
Colton is talking more and more. Previously, he called all
three older boys “Kiki” and he called Cooper “baby”. Now he is pronouncing all
their names, and when asked where “baby” is he will point to himself. He sure doesn’t seem to need a lot of sleep.
He and Landon are always up at the crack of dawn. Colton does take a long nap
in the afternoon, but then he’s always the last one to bed, sometimes awake
even after Gray and I are down. Often we’ll be in bed and I’ll hear the pitter-pat
of little feet down the hall as he goes to the kitchen for a drink. One night
last week I went to check on the little ones (the three youngest sleep in a
queen bed together) and baby wasn’t there! I went downstairs, and sure enough,
he had gone down and climbed into bed with Landon! There is something really
sweet about seeing my biggest and littlest boy together.\
It hasn’t been a great month for Gray health wise. He’s had
several of his attacks, and that has been difficult. It’s stressful when he has
commitments, like a derby ... luckily he recovered enough that night to go
ahead with his plans. Gray is hoping to see a specialist. He’s read some
reports that the episodes might be caused by “ear rocks”, small particles in
the ear, that can get moved into a bad position, causing the dizziness and
nausea. There are some movements that are thought to help in a majority of the
cases, so it is something he would like to look into. Definitely wouldn’t hurt.
Unfortunately, we had another episode this weekend. We had
plans to go to a movie on Friday night, but Gray got home shortly before and
was feeling decidedly off. We passed our tickets on to our babysitter and
stayed home. Gray slept the entire evening. Usually the attacks last a couple
of hours and are done after he sleeps it off, but Saturday morning he was still
feeling off. We had quite a few plans
for Saturday, trying to hit one of Kellin’s Lacrosse games in the morning,
lunch plans with friends at Tepanyaki, then we were actually leaving for an
overnighter at the Homestead (a Christmas gift from Pam ... she and Rex were
going to tend the kids). But under the circumstances, we just didn’t feel we
could do any of it. Pam and Rex still came out Saturday night, and as Gray was
feeling a little better, and a little stir-crazy, he and I went out for about
an hour, but then he was ready to come back and lay down.
So Gray is back at work here on a Monday morning and we hope
there are no more attacks for a while.
That’s the news from the Blackhams from the month of May
(and a little bit of June) ...
Jen and da boys
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