Howdy all! October and November were jammed packed with all kinds of fun stuff. It got very fallish here in October and the leaves were just spectacular this year. I found myself driving the back way as often as possible to catch some of the beauty. Ethan, Grandma Glore and I made our yearly pilgrimage to Goebert's pumpkin patch. I had a lot more fun this year then last. Ethan was more able to enjoy seeing the sites and play nicely with the other kids. Plus the baby pig races had me giggling like a little girl!

Halloween at our house started about the middle of September when I asked Ethan what he wanted to dress up as and he answered "a princess". So we talked about the difference between princes and princesses and the whole nine yards. And at the end he still wanted to be a princess. I decided that I would ask him in a couple of weeks and hoped it would all blow over. So a couple of weeks went by and I asked again and got the same answer. Repeat two more times and we found ourselves in the middle of October and needing to decide on a costume. Ethan was determined to be a princess. After much internal termoil and finally just getting over myself, I decided he could be a princess if he wanted to. I borrowed a fancy yellow dress from my friend Shannon's daughter and brought it home. And OH MY GOSH he made a pretty little princess!! I picked him up to show him in the mirror and that is when he started telling me about how it was too oowie. The sequins on the neck line were rubbing him and he was very uncomfortable. Much to my (and really my whole family's) relief, he decided that princess was out and we picked out a Buzz Lightyear costume the next day. Hooray! And there was much rejoicing. We did pumpkins, trick or treated, attended the school party and parade and pretty much celebrated Halloween full out. What a blast!

We spent 10 days of November in Albuquerque. Ethan, David Jordan and I all flew in and met up with Karen Stump and her son Jackson. We got a suite at a hotel and had a blast catching up and playing together! Karen and I worked Monday through Friday and David took care of Ethan and Jackson. That's right - he flew to Albuquerque to be our nanny. He's being considered for sainthood as I write :) And although everyone was a tiny bit nervous about the arrangement, we all did great with it. "The boys" toured all over Albuquerque - the zoo, the children's museum, the aquarium and got along great. The thing that cracked me up the most about the trip was Ethan's continual asking about "when we go to Albuquerque"? There was just no explaining that we were IN Albuquerque no matter how many times I tried. So I finally gave up. As near as I can tell, he still thinks that Albuquerque is the big dirt lot across from the hotel and no one will convince him otherwise.

Along with Thanksgiving, parent's night at school and just regular old day to day, the last two months have just flow by!

This time last update I was just about at my breaking point with the "almost three" behavior. Ethan was being willful and stubborn and sassy and telling me to shut up and saying I was a bad mommy. AHH! I had tried everything I could think of and was just out of ideas. We had had so many bad days in a row and I just wasn't seeing an end in sight. That is when I found 1, 2, 3 Magic at our library and that has saved us. Thank heavens! I won't discuss the whole program, but I can tell you that Ethan will stop on a dime if I even threaten to count to three around him. It's been a lifesaver and we are back to really enjoying each other and playing nicely.

Ethan's mastered the language just enough to melt my heart at a moment's notice. I was tucking him in the other night and he looked up at me and said "mommy, I love you all my heart". It was so pure and innocent and so without motive that I burst out crying. So he reached up, touched my head and said "it okay. I here mommy". What a sweet boy. One night at dinner, completely out of the blue, he told me that I was the "best mommy I ever seen". Pretty good review from someone so worldly! David thought it was nice, but didn't really understand how touching it was for me until Ethan told him he was the "best DavidJordan I ever seen". Then it sunk in a little :) I love that Ethan says "good catch mommy!" when we throw the ball around. It tells me that that is the kind of encouragement he experiences from me. Ethan also says things that totally crack me up. Like times when I'm talking to another adult in the car and he pipes up with "talk about me now"! Or the day when Ethan and I discussed at length how wide I should leave the door open. He finally agreed when I suggested "cat width". That is the unit of measure wherein a cat can pass through the doorway without touching either side. So I closed the door to a normal cat's girth and Ethan says "No mommy! For fat Leia"! It seems that I am not the only one in this house that has noticed the extra fluffiness currently on our cat Leia.

Ethan had a landmark event on 11/20 when he made his first trip to the emergency room. I was vacuuming my room and put my large round laundry hamper up on the bed. He tossed a ball into it and laid it on its side to retrieve the ball. He must have gotten off balance because the next thing I knew the hamper was on the floor and Ethan was crying and crying and crying. That was my first clue that something was very wrong. On most falls, Ethan looks up at me to see if I'm concerned and then starts laughing and says "that was close one!" If not, he cries until I can interest him in something else and then the incident is forgotten. But in this case I couldn't console him. And he kept saying that his shoulder hurt. So we went to the ER and sure enough, Ethan had broken his collarbone. We had x-rays, a ride in the hospital bed, visits from all kinds of medical personnel and in the end the doctor sent us home with a sling. Of course, Ethan didn't want to wear it. But after trying all kinds of tactics, "the doctor says" finally worked. Don't ask me why - saying "it's the law" also has the same effect. Ethan just complies to that kind of authority. He was out of the sling and back to his old bouncy self within days. He had minimal discomfort for which I am very grateful. He still favors his right side just a little and does remind me to "be careful with my oowie" but for the most part he's good as new. The good news for me was that I was too busy taking care of Ethan to have my own freak out and by the time Ethan was taken care of I was pretty much over it. I'm amazed, considering what kind of kid Ethan is, that it took us almost three years to make our first trip to the ER and so grateful that the injury was so minor. Whew!

I am realizing while I write this that it is very easy to get caught up in Ethan. There is always something going with him - funny or tragic. It's very easy to just sink into the role of Mommy and build my whole existence there. Only having Ethan to talk about, thinking about what I am going to do next with him, etc. I realize that I have been somewhat lax in carving out time for myself and just being Sharon. Thursday night gaming has pretty much gone by the wayside after having endless babysitting issues over the summer. My Monday night seminar has been over for a while now and I don't start another until January. And, as is always the case, the time I used to do those things has mysteriously filled up with "other stuff". It's very easy for me to slip back into automatic living and just do whatever comes up next.

So I've decided to revisit an exercise I do every five years or so. It's something that helps me refocus on what is really important to me and paves the way for reallocating resources to those things. The first part is to write out a list of the 10 most important things in my life. This part actually takes a while because the list I initially come up with almost always has stuff that I think should go on the list, but doesn't truly belong on the list. So I write the list and then let it sit for a couple of days. And then I keep coming back to it until it only has things that I REALLY think are important. Then I put that list aside and make a list of the 10 things I spend the most money on and a separate list for the 10 things I spend the most time on. The "time" list usually entails an actual logging of time. It's easy to think I know where my time goes and another thing entirely to actually see it in black and white. When all three lists are complete, I start crossing things off. I cross off things that are important that I spend money on. And I cross off things that are important that I spend time on. When all the crossing is done, I have three things left. 1) a list of things that I spend money on that are not important to me 2) a list of things that I spend time on that are not important to me 3) a list of things that are important to me that I do not spend my resources on. It is always a very eye opening exercise and a great spring board for making changes in my life so that I am investing in the things I hold dear and letting go of the things that get in the way. I find that it is essential for me to have this kind of reevaluation and something I highly recommend!

I wish joy, clarity and love for you and your families in the months to come. And happy holidays if I don't talk you before! Until next time...