A few pictures from last week:

Russell is working on making a volcano out of clay, and Max is making a snake.

Russell working hard on sentence writing...Maxwell...not working too hard at all...

The nurse at the hospital gave Maxwell a tattoo that he did not want to wash off in the bath.

Russell enjoying one of the perks of being sick - the T.V. stays on so the whining stays away.

Even cartoons couldn't cheer little Maxie. He is one miserable little guy right now!

Hopefully we will have something fun to tell about once the fevers go down and the coughing stops. Until then we are living a boring life.

(BIGGER SIGH!!)

Maxwell had his first trip to the ER this morning! Max was laying on the floor and Russell accidentally fell on Max's arm really hard. Max proceeded to cry for 45 minutes as I tried everything to calm him. Sugary treats didn't help, T.V. didn't help, and an ice pack didn't help. He would scream in pain if he moved it just slightly or if I moved the ice pack just a little. The only time I had ever heard a child scream like this was when Russell broke his arm. After I exhausted all my options I called R.C., who had taken the car downtown to his studio, and told him it was probably best if he came and we got Max to see a doctor.

After 2 1/2 hours in the ER we are happy (oh, so very happy!) to have Max feeling better with no broken arm!

Now, let's get back to kicking the sickness!

(BIG SIGH...)

Well, it has happened once again. Sickness has invaded our home and seems to be sticking around longer this time. Last week I was not feeling well. When I get sick, I tend to ignore all signs of sickness hoping that this technique will make it impossible for sickness to settle in me for too long. It seemed to work....some what anyways. I spent the week ignoring the chills, aches and headaches. Which was quite exhausting to do, but, I feel I came out victorious, since on Friday I was feeling much better and I did not have to spend a day in bed or on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

R.C. has been lucky so far (spending so much time away from the home has it's advantages!). He mentioned last week, as he was leaving for school, that he was not feeling well, but I have not heard any more complaints of sickness. Lets hope the feeling passed and he is happily/healthily working in his studio as I type.

The boys on the other hand are taking a beating from this sickness. Last week I had to cancel play time with our friends due to myself not feeling well and the boys having runny noses. I am willing to bet this week we will have to cancel also. During the day they are happy, coughing, drippy nosed children. By early evening they are cranky, tired, coughing, drippy nosed children. Last night I listened to dueling coughing until 10:30 pm when Maxwell finally fell (quietly) asleep. Russell then took center stage for a coughing solo until almost 2:00 am!

Today we are staying in our pj's all day. I am hoping that a day in pj's, lots of juice, and too much t.v. watching will kick this unwanted visitor to the curb!


Also...

If you haven't checked R.C.'s blog, you should. We had another art show in our living room last Friday night. I'm not sure how many people showed up, but it was a full house. The boys and I looked at the art a bit and chatted with some of the guests, but we excused ourselves early to go do a Spiderman puzzle, and just hang out, in their room. From the sounds that we heard coming from the living room, it sounded like everyone had a great time. Now, once again, we need to try to put our home back together.

These 2 little mustached men somehow made it into our home recently. 

I would love to know where they came up with the idea to make mustaches out of paper and tape them to their faces. Russell's mustache is fantastically curly, and Maxwell's looks more like a bull ring. Some days I don't know about these 2. If this picture (umm...mainly Russell's face) does not make you laugh then I am certain nothing will. Oh how these boys make me smile...and wonder. 

I don't have too many complaints about Providence. Providence is a fine city to live in. Not too big. Not too small. Easily walkable. Fairly friendly people. Great accents.

There is one thing that I just have to complain about though. Pot holes. The pot holes in this city are so big you could lose a child in one for days. Each time I get into my car I have to Mario Cart my way through the city trying to avoid having to buy a new set of tires. Sometimes it is impossible to miss them. If traffic is on both sides of you and there is no way to swerve, then you must brace for impact. It doesn't stop with pot holes though. Man holes are another issue. There are more man hole covers in the streets than asphalt and each man hole cover seems to be 6 inches below the asphalt.

There are some pot holes that have been repaired. I don't know who's great idea this was, but, when they repair a pot hole, they mound them up so high that you now have a speed bump...which makes the drop into the next un-repaired pot hole seem like you are falling into the Grand Canyon.

A man hole cover every 3 feet + each cover 6 inches below the asphalt + a pot hole the size of Kentucky every 15 feet + repaired pot holes turned into speed bumps + pedestrians that expect you to stop on a dime so they can cross when they aren't supposed to = a very angry/stressed driver who longs for country roads where you can drive slow and stop for the occasional deer or raccoon.

Needless to say, if driving with a nice cup of coffee, expect to wear 3/4 of the coffee on your coat.

I think somewhere in there my "one complaint" turned into 5.

(All measurements are an estimate. No, I have not been out to measure the distance between man hole covers and pot holes. Maybe in the Spring...)

This is The Thinker. Everyone recognizes it.

Supposedly, The Thinker depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. Maybe, just maybe, The Thinker is not struggling with anything. Maybe he is just admiring a job well done on a puzzle...much like a mini Thinker I found in my living room.

Where have we been this week and what have we done? We have been here doing nothing too interesting.
R.C. is back in full swing at school, and the boys and I are, once again, trying to get used to having R.C. gone all day and night. It's hard to get used to this after having so much "daddy time" for a few weeks.
Russell has been working very hard on his math skills the past week. He does 60+ math problems each day and is doing so well! He is able to do an entire worksheet (60+ problems) without getting any wrong. After each successful worksheet he does a fantastic little happy dance. Next week I will make the problems a little harder. Get ready Russell...
Max has moved up on the toothpaste ladder this past week. He is no longer using the "swallow all the toothpaste you want because it tastes great and will not harm you" toothpaste. He is now using the "must spit or get a sore tummy" toothpaste (also known as normal kid toothpaste...not baby toothpaste). He is doing great with this, but has to work on his spitting. He showers the entire bathroom in blue sparkly spots when he should be aiming for the sink.
Some other highlights from our week:

• Some friends came over for play time/paint party.
• We got a new bathroom rug.
• The weather has been good so we have been able to go out and play everyday.
• Maxwell got new train cars for his train set. (See picture below)
• Russell and Max have learned how to whisper and tell secrets to each other. It's really cute, but I do wonder what they have to whisper about and why they seem to laugh in my direction after a whisper...

There really is no reason for my lack of blogging this week. I wish I could say I have been busy, but in reality I have just been lazy. I did have many things that happened through the week when I thought, "Oh boy, this is going to make a great blog." But alas, those thoughts and funny moments have passed. I found myself curled up on the couch under a nice warm quilt, that had been warming on the radiator all day, watching reruns of The Cosby show, instead of posting wonderful pictures like these....

We had some dry ice left from the show Friday night, so Saturday was an experiment day. We spent a good part of the afternoon at the kitchen table playing with the dry ice. We all were aware of the danger of touching the ice and everyone followed the safety rules very well. The smokey affect was very entertaining to the boys, but we found that adding a few drops of dish soap to the water and dry ice mixture was even better! We had bubbles running all over the table as the boys tried to pop them and release the gas that was trapped inside. We also tried adding food coloring, boiling water, and different sized containers. Enjoy...

Mad scientists in the making? I think so!

What do you do when you have a child who goes through reams of paper for countless drawings?

Have an art show!

Russell has always been a drawer. He could, and some times does, spend hours at the table drawing dinosaurs and spiderman, along with a few other things. He has a box filled with drawings. His desk is filled with drawings (even though his desk is supposed to be for school only). There are sketch books filled with drawings. Our tiny apartment is overflowing with drawings done by Russell.

Since we have an overwhelming number of drawings, we agreed to help Russell plan and carry out a show of his own. 25 of his favorite drawings were picked and framed and a volcano was made, with the help of R.C. and Maxwell, from some sketches he had. Russell picked the music that was to play, and actually made a great playlist that I may use as my new workout playlist (The Beatles, Talking Heads, Kanye, Wilco, M.I.A, TRex, Dan Deacon, David Bowie, Animal Collective, Weezer, Harry Nilson, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, just to name a few). He also decided what snacks we would serve. Last summer R.C. and Johnny had a show and I made chocolate covered strawberries for them, so Russell felt it was OK for him to ask for the same. He also wanted chocolate covered pretzels and fresh pineapple pieces. Needless to say, the last few days I have spent countless hours in the kitchen dipping pretzel after pretzel and strawberry after strawberry and coring several pineapples. I would be perfectly happy if I could avoid seeing melted chocolate for awhile. We cleared everything (EVERYTHING!!!) out of the living room, patched holes in the walls (from the pictures and shelves we took down for this night) and hung all the drawings.

The night was a success! Russell was happy and that's what mattered. Max was happy also. He ate more than his share of chocolate covered food and was telling silly jokes and dancing for the guests by the end of the night. We had 15-20 people come, mainly people from RISD, which made the boys really happy. Russell had made comments the day before the show that he hoped they would come see his art since he goes to see theirs. He was very happy they showed up! Our neighbor came from downstairs and also some kids from our street came and were very impressed with the volcano. Russell had some offers from people who wanted to purchase a drawing or 2, but he declined all requests except one from Hannah (from upstairs). He is giving her a drawing of choice in exchange for some of her art. This was the only offer he felt was suitable to shake on.

Smoking volcano

You may be wondering how Max felt with all this attention on Russell... Max is OK with it. He loves the drawings that Russell does and was really happy to see them all hung. He stayed close by Russell most of the evening and listened intently as Russell chatted with various people about his work. Now Max is talking of his show. He has just started to enjoy drawing so we will see how quickly his drawings add up in comparison to Russell's mound of papers.

Now the real fun begins as we try to put our home back together. Just when we had felt settled, we go and mess it up. There never seems to be a dull moment in the Sayler home.

(I would like to see how many other home schooled kindergartners are going to have a solo art show as part of their portfolio they turn in at the end of the year. I'm guessing not many...)

Lately we have been discussing safety rules/issues. We (the boys) know what to do in case of a fire and how to walk properly with scissors. Strangers are not to give us gifts or rides and seatbelts are to be worn at all times, even if an adult tells us it is ok not to. 911 is to be dialed in case of an emergency and you are to go nowhere without telling mom or dad where you will be. All topics have been covered and I feel these ideas have sunk in with both boys. At random times the boys come up with scenarios in which they ask each other what they would do if ________ were to happen. I have been pleasantly impressed with the responses they have come up with.

Yesterday Maxwell approached me and informed me of something that I had not thought to discuss with the boys. In a very (VERY) serious tone Maxwell said, "Mommy, we should never, I mean NEVER, take a ride from a pirate. NEVER! OK Mommy?"

I guess I had not thought about pirates coming and offering a ride to one of my boys, but Max is right; I would never want him to take a ride from a pirate. Who knew Max thinks about pirates coming a taking him. I guess now that we live close to the ocean this is a more reasonable fear than if we were in Illinois.

Oh the things kids think up!

A few nights ago, a friend of R.C.'s invited us to go to Mystic Aquarium on Saturday. It didn't take us long to decide that we were definitely going. We did however decide to drive separately so that we could leave earlier and spend the entire day there, instead of just a few hours.

This morning we woke (some earlier than others), ate a quick breakfast, packed some snacks and headed out the door. We drove to Mystic, Connecticut, which is less than an hour away, to spend a beautiful day viewing some fish and ocean creatures. The weather was good...cool, not cold, and sunny. We were able to see: Beluga whales, dolphins, penguins, seals, seahorses, eels, sea turtles, sea lions, piranhas, an octopus, jellyfish, sharks, stingrays, and beautiful fish galore (just to name a few). We saw a great sea lion show and even got to pet stingrays. In the stingray tank they also had some sharks. The stingrays and the sharks shared a tank and you were allowed to stick your hands in to pet the stingrays, but were told that if the sharks began to swim around, you should remove your hands immediately. Max loved to warn everyone and yell, "watch out! You better watch out!" when the sharks would swim near him or anyone else.

Later in the afternoon we met up with Steve and walked around again with him. The boys were happy to show him around, as they thought they were experts on the place. One really great thing, other than the animals, was the fact that R.C. and I had our hands free for a good part of the afternoon. Once Steve got there the boys wanted to be close to him instead of us. It was funny to see Steve with both boys hands and R.C. and I just tagging along. We went back to pet the stingrays again, and also went to the sea lion show for the second time. It was all worth seeing again and again.

A few (ok, yes, I know there are too many...) pictures of our day...
Both boys love touch tanks! They pulled their sleeves up quick and plunged their hands in to feel all the little marine life.


A scuba diver in one of the tanks trying to entertain the boys...


The beluga whales were great to watch!






One of the sharks that was in with the stingrays


Trying to tempt the stingray up the surface so little arms could reach it.

Success! Everyone got a feel...and the man behind got a good laugh out of the boys...



A closer look at a horseshoe crab

Russell informing Steve as to how to hold a seastar. Russell is an expert, right?

Maxwell holding a crab. He was not afraid of it pinching him at all!!

We also saw displays of shipwrecks and everyone got to go into a very small submarine. Another fun day in New England!

There isn't much that can get any of us out of bed before 7:30 am. I know, many of you are up and have half your day finished by 7:30, but that's just not how we work now days. There was a time when we all woke early and enjoyed (sort of) some time before the sun had fully risen. Naps are no longer taken, so the boys sleep longer at night, and R.C. and I are staying up later due to school schedules and just plain old restless nights, so mornings are pretty quiet around here.

This morning though, the alarm went off at 7:00 am, and after hitting the snooze 3 times, we finally rolled out of bed, dressed and headed out the door. All of us. We got up this early so that we could go stand in line. It was a bitterly cold day with snow and wind blowing, but we stood in line, along with at least 50 other people (not counting the 100's that got there before us and the 100's that came after us) all to...what? See a new release movie we had all been dying to see? NO. See a living dinosaur just discovered and brought to Providence for the public to see? No. All the chefs from Food Network signing autographs and kissing babies? No. What then could be so great to get all 4 of us happily out the door so early? FREE BREAKFAST! That's right! Denny's was giving away free breakfast today from 6am-2pm (you still have time to go!!) and we were not about to pass up anything free. It seemed like everyone was there...even the kids behind us in line admitted to skipping school so they could get breakfast. Sure, I've had better breakfasts in my life, but it's a thrill to walk out with sticky faced boys (from the syrup) and full tummies and only have to pay for coffee and juice.

This is where the boys like to sit when it gets a little chilly in the house. We put a blanket over the radiator and they warm their little bottoms for a few minutes. It really is a nice place to sit! (Yes, it's just another day of costume wearing for Maxwell.)

During our puzzle party Maxwell spent most of his time doing this...

He sneezed his way through all the puzzles, but still did a good portion of the work.

And, Russell with 2 less teeth in his mouth. His new ones are coming in very quickly.


Other than this we have very little to report about. We are feeling better and I am spending a good part of my time disinfecting everything so the sick germs don't come back for another round.

2 in one day just to inform you all that Russell has now lost his second baby tooth! Both bottom middle teeth are now gone, but have no fear, his new "big boy teeth" are showing already. Both of them. I hope the tooth fairy can stay awake late enough tonight to collect the tiny tooth and leave a quarter. Rumor has it she's kind of tired.
(The computer is acting up AGAIN. Otherwise there would be a picture.)

It finally happened. Sickness has found us. We had been lucky thus far without so much as a sniffle since we left Greenville. Thursday Maxwell started complaining of a "hurt tummy" and refused to eat much of anything. Sure enough, he woke Friday morning with a stuffed and drippy nose, slight fever and still a "hurt tummy". Today he is miserable and Russell is quickly following Max onto the sick train. (How convenient...R.C. woke before us today and left for NYC and will be home very late tonight. On one hand I am glad he is out of here so that he can hopefully steer clear of this sickness, but on the other hand with 2 sick boys I am a bit jealous that he gets to leave and I get to stay and wipe noses, hand out meds, and listen to sick whinning all day long. Yes, I know, I know, I know, this is what mothers do. I am happy to care for the boys, that's why I said I am only "a BIT jealous".)

So, what do we do when people aren't feeling well? We have a puzzle party! This morning we decided we would stay in our jammies, get out our big tote of puzzles and try to do all of them. We spent 3 hours straight sitting on the living room floor doing puzzle after puzzle. We ended up getting 12 puzzles done. Some were simple 24 piece ones, some were a little tricky with 200 pieces. One thing was agreed upon as we were finishing up our last one, we are puzzle experts. Maxwell even decided that he wants to be a puzzle put-er toghther-er (yes, I know that's not a real word...but to Max it is) when he is older. I didn't shoot down his dreams, all I did was tell him it might be difficult to get a job putting puzzles together, but Russell was quick, very quick, to correct me. You see, Russell remembers a store in the mall that sells only puzzles. It's a neat store to look in, but we have never once seen anyone purchase a puzzle from this store. So, what does the one employee do while watching over the store? She does a puzzle! Thanks to Russell for reminding me that Maxwell's dream is not too far fetched. Leave it to Russell to come up with a solution to everything.

I think the rest of the afternoon/evening will be spent under a blanket on the couch watching endless hours of kid movies. I have been feeling like I to am ready to board the sick train, but I like to believe that if I ignore all the signs/feelings, then I will not be handed a boarding pass for this train. Let's hope it works...

One thing I really miss about Greenville: Free air.

My tires seemed a bit low so we went to the gas station to check them and put some air in if necessary. I needed just a little bit in each and it cost me $0.75 to use their air machine for 3 minutes. I miss the days of taking 10+ minutes to check and fill my tires at Casey's and not be charged a penny. Nothing is free here. NOTHING. Not even air. I am waiting for the day when I step out my door and someone is there to collect a quarter from me so I can take a walk on their sidewalks.

We have a few pets we are watching for a few days.
One fish and one frog.



They are fun to watch. Well, the frog is fun to watch. The fish is kind of boring, but the frog is entertaining. He stays underwater 24/7 and has great webbed feet which Max pretends to tickle from outside the container. Our neighbors went out of town for a few days and asked if we could keep an eye on them. The boys are really excited! We are trying to come up with names for them since their owners haven't officially named them after having them for a few years. So far Max wants to name them Froggy and Fishy (so original). Russell thinks the fish should be named Mary and the frog Gizmo. Nothing is official yet since they have to agree.

Let's hope they can stand the constant tapping on the side of the tank, faces pressed up against their tank, and little fingers poking in their water from time to time. If they can make it here, they can make it anywhere.

Max is usually not the best person to play hide and seek with. If he is the counter he counts as fast as he can, while following you so he knows where you are hiding. If he is the hider, he gets in his spot, but as soon as he hears you stop counting he jumps out and gives himself away. Either way, a game of hide and seek does not take too long to play with Max.

However, today Max and I were home alone and he decided he was up for a game of hide and seek. I'm never one to turn down hide and seek so I asked if he wanted to count or hide first. Hide, of course! As I was counting I could hear him shuffling around in his bedroom and then, all of the sudden, silence. I yelled ready or not here I come, and started calling his name, which usually gets him to jump out at you and the game is done. I looked for a few minutes and could honestly not find him. I thought I had looked everywhere, but then as I passed through the bathroom for the 3rd time I noticed something....



I sat on the edge of the tub and waited to see how long he could be quiet and hide. He had to have known I was right outside his towel wall, but he stayed quiet and still for several minutes, I even had enough time to go get the camera so I could capture his face when he popped out...

Russell (finally) lost his tooth!!

The tooth fairy will come tonight. Russell is now making a special box to put his tooth in. He is concerned that if he just puts it under his pillow (like every other kid in the world) it may fall between his bed and the wall and land on Max's head, which would result in the tooth fairy not finding it, which would mean no quarter in the morning. So he decided to play it safe and make a special (really big) box to put his tiny tooth in. He also drew a picture of Spiderman on the box so any tooth robber will be scared off. He is always one step ahead of the game!

Without further ado, let me introduce you to toothless Russell....

Every kid makes butter at some point in their schooling. I remember doing this in kindergarten, and I had also found, on the kindergarten website I get my science ideas from, that they also thought kindergarten was a great age to make butter. All it takes is some heavy cream, salt (if desired), a jar with a lid and some shaking. When I announced that we were going to make butter the boys were thrilled and immediately ran to get a piece of bread, not thinking about the work they had to do in order to get this tasty butter.

I split the cream into 2 jars, handed them each a jar and let them shake it. We were having a great time! We had arms shaking, and soon whole bodies were shaking, jumping and dancing their way to fresh butter. Now, what they didn't tell me, and what I didn't remember from school, was that kids are only interested in shaking a jar of cream for about 5 min. If you have a classroom filled with 20-25 kids and each kid shakes the jar for 1-2 minutes this would be perfect. But, with only 3 people in our "class" I think you can imagine what happened. The boys shook for about 5 minutes and then I got to shake both jars for the remaining 20-30 minutes. It was well worth it though! We have delicious butter to top all our breads and we all can say we "made" it.

Max was really enjoying his time shaking the cream at first.


Russell shows the pain and hardship you have to go through in order to get freshly shaken butter.

Today was the inauguration. I'm sure that is not new news to anyone. I'm not going to tell you how excited I was and that I was glued to CNN all morning and afternoon. I'm not even going to tell you that I was moved to tear when seeing the mass of people gathering for miles in D.C. just to be able to say they were apart of this historic event, or the feeling of great hope as President Obama spoke of change that our country needs so badly.

Instead I will tell you how Russell and Maxwell responded to this historic event. (Yes, we did spend the morning and part of the afternoon in front of the T.V.. We did our school work on the living room floor, with the T.V. on...don't judge me.)

Every time Sen. Diane Feinstein stood up both boys would yell, "not her again!"

Maxwell LOVED Aretha Franklin singing. He bobbed his head along with her and when she was done gave out an enthusiastic "WOW".

Russell loved when they would show the little Obama girls. Maybe it's a crush, or maybe he thinks it's pretty neat that they are just kids and get to be there. Who knows.

Maxwell was disappointed in the people who were looking around during the prayer. He kept saying "busted!" when the camera would catch one of these "naughty" people.

The most exciting part for each of them was hearing the word DEMOCRACY. This is a topic we have been covering in school. They (especially Russell) know what this word means and really got a kick out of hearing it used in Obama's speech.

As I was explaining how Obama was being sworn in and would hold office (if all goes as planned) for 4 years and then he can chose to run again (or not) and others will have the chance to run also, yada yada yada... Russell decided this sounds like a game. He thinks it would be a great idea for us to play the game someday. HaHaHa!!

As they scanned the mass of people who had gathered I asked the boys "how do you think these people are feeling?" Each boy immediately responded that they looked happy, very happy. I think they were right.

Sure, not everyone is as enthusiastic about this new president as some. Time will tell if all this hoopla was for good reason or not. But right now, it seems change is coming and any change will be welcome.