Wild boys

So far, the best word to describe the weather in Buffalo is "gray". It's not terribly cold (yet), but most days it's either drizzling, raining, or threatening to. The other day I posted about the beautiful fall leaves being a "nature's bonus", but now I realize they do have a purpose -- they are a gift from God to brighten up the dreary grayness a little :). It definitely makes me appreciate (and miss) all the days of sunshine that we get in San Diego.

The boys are doing pretty well, but they seem to be having a delayed reaction to the move and the new routine. They were so good for the first week and a half -- Jack did his schoolwork eagerly, and they were reasonably good natured and obedient. Let me tell you, this last week or so has been really rough -- I feel mentally and emotionally exhausted by the end of the day just trying to keep the peace here. Jack is really resisting his schoolwork, and they've been picking fights and having tantrums about the tiniest of things. Even Peter is getting in on it -- one of his new tricks is to plug his ears and then do his loudest and longest baby shout (so loud it makes Jack and Thomas cry!). I fully expected some adjustment period for the boys, but it's a little different and a little more trying than I expected. Fortunately, I am blessed with a pretty stubborn nature, and I am doing pretty well at not playing into their drama.

Tomorrow we're heading to a Halloween get-together with one of David's co-workers and his young family. The boys are going as Jedi knights, so we'll be sure to get pictures of them in costume. Monday morning, Peter's cast comes off, and I am really looking forward to that so we don't have to worry about it getting wet (which is a concern when the ground is almost always soggy here!).

Weekend outing

On Saturday, we headed to a nearby park and let the boys ride their trikes around. The fall colors are absolutely stunning! David and I were talking about what a "nature's bonus" fall colors are. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong!), there is no real natural advantage to a tree's leaves being brightly colored before they drop to the ground. There are lots of brightly colored fruits in nature, but their colors serve the purpose of attracting birds and animals so that the seeds can be dispersed. Some plants and animals are brightly colored to warn off potential nibblers because they're poisonous. But I can't think of one good reason why it matters what color a tree's leaves are as it's preparing to go dormant for the winter. The beauty just is, without needing any reason, other than God decided it should be that way, and thinking about it that way makes me happy :).

There were lots of puddles because it has rained the day before, so the boys' shoes and socks got pretty well soaked. I made sure to seal up Peter's cast in a plastic bag, because he kept gravitating to the muddiest and deepest puddles to play in. I'm debating whether or not to buy rain boots for them (just the rubber kind that go over the shoes), but I'm sure as soon as I do then the snow will start and we won't need them anymore!

This park, when the snow and ice do come, has an ice skating pond and a sled hill! That should be a blast!

Today the weather has been gorgeous, and the boys and I started collecting colorful leaves in hopes of preserving them. They got a kick out of that. I did a little research, and there are a handful of ways to preserve fall leaves, so we'll try one this afternoon to see how it goes.

Ever wonder...

what it would look like if all of your family's clothes were put through the washing machine and thrown into a "To Fold" pile?

How about something like this:

Augh -- my eyes!

In theory, any clothes that went into the moving boxes clean should have come out clean, 1.5 weeks later, but I felt funny just putting them away. They seemed contaminated with invisible moving dust, somehow, so I went ahead and ran everything through the wash. Never before has Mount Washmore looked as much like Mount Everest!

In other (better) news ... we have renters for our house!!! They're set to move in next month -- they're a military couple with a small dog, and they passed all the screening and checks with flying colors. I'm so glad the house won't be vacant anymore, and the rental income will definitely come in handy.

Need I say more?

Apparently the ankle is indeed broken, although it's very mild, so the cast comes off in 2 weeks! The dr put the cast over his knee, so he couldn't stand if he wanted to, in order to help keep his weight off of it so it can heal.

Peter doesn't seem to mind the cast too much, thankfully. He can still crawl pretty fast, and he seems comfortable.

What a day, though!!

Peter's ankle not in the clear yet

This morning, the Urgent Care office called me and said "Well, we had a radiologist look at Peter's X-rays, and he thinks there might be a buckle fracture there after all...". So, they've scheduled us an appointment this afternoon (at 2:45PM -- smack in the middle of naptime!) with an orthopedist to check it out.

Of course, I'm very glad that someone took another look at the X-ray, and that they called us to let us know, but it's frustrating to be right back in the "it might be broken" camp again. I'm kind of hoping the orthopedist will look at the X-rays and tell us that he doesn't see anything there, and then we'll be back to ankle sprain, but I'm preparing myself for another baby cast. In any case, I'm glad we're getting it looked at closely, because I'd hate to mess with his growing ankle and have things heal improperly and cause him long-term problems. I'm also very grateful that it's very minor, as injuries and illnesses go, and we've done this before with a toddler, so we can do it again if we need to!

No snow, but we did have some Urgent Care excitement

It hasn't snowed yet, but the weather has been chilly, so yesterday we went out to get David some winter clothes. We headed to the mall down the road, which was nice because the boys could walk and jump and bounce, but we were inside out of the cold air. And, the mall had an indoor play area, which the boys enjoyed .... until Peter hurt his left ankle when he was getting out of a toy car.

Peter is usually a pretty tough little guy when it comes to bumps and bruises, but he wouldn't stop crying. David said he didn't fall hard or anything, but it looked like he might have twisted his ankle funny (you can be sure that memories of Thomas's ankle injury 2 years ago came flooding back!).

So, we packed up and headed back to the apartment, and Peter was still crying -- a sad, "I'm really hurting" kind of cry, mixed in with a few good "Owie, owie, owie" sounds for good measure. And he wouldn't put any weight on that ankle.

Fearing another broken ankle, we quickly searched for the nearest urgent care (thankfully only 5 minutes down the road), and I took off with Peter while David stayed home with the other boys. It took a while to be seen, but they examined his ankle, took X-rays, and pronounced ... a sprained ankle. Thank goodness! We got a little ace bandage for his ankle, and the doctor said to keep an eye on it over the next week or so to make sure it is getting better rather than worse.

So, Peter has been recuperating since then, and is still in a pretty sensitive mood. He doesn't like to do anything that involves wiggling that ankle, including diaper changes, so it's been hard keeping him in good spirits. I think it is a little better than yesterday (he at least attempted to stand on it today), but it's a far cry from the rambunctious and rough-and-tumble little guy that he normally is. He just seems ... a little sad and subdued. I can't wait for him to get back to normal!

We did get our cars back yesterday, so that little piece of home is in place now. Later today our stuff supposed to arrive (although ... I don't really feel like looking at or unpacking any of it!), so that will be another piece of home.

The snow that was forecast hasn't come, and actually it looks like it might warm up to the 50s next week, which would be great! :)

Bundled up

These are the boys' "lighter" winter jackets. I found some neat 2-in-1 jackets with these inner jackets and removable outer jackets and hoods. These are working well so far to keep out the chill (it's around 36 here today, with the wind chill factor). Let me tell you, though, it is quite a production to get everyone dressed in just this much -- long pants, shirts, sweaters, jackets, socks, shoes, and gloves. When we have to add snow bibs, snow boots, hats, mittens, and outer jackets to the list, it's going to be interesting! It is cute, though, how the more clothes you add, the puffier the kids get. When I pick up Peter in his jacket I can feel a little "poof" of air escape :).

Now the weather forecast is looking like there is a good chance of snow showers tonight through Sunday. It's not supposed to accumulate much, but it will be neat watching the snowflakes falling, and I know the boys will be eager to get outside and run around in it.

Today, our downstairs neighbors came by and introduced themselves! It's actually an older husband and wife ... I thought it was just an older man. They both seem very sweet, and the woman was so tickled by our cookies and apology note. She said she can tell the boys are walking much more softly in the past few days, and she said not to worry too much because she understands that they're little boys with lots of energy. It's funny ... she said that the boys have "good Christian names", and then she paused for a second and said "... I hope" (as if she didn't want to offend me in case I wasn't Christian), and I told her we were Catholic, and it turns out they go to Catholic church down the road that we went to on Sunday! And they also spent many years living in San Diego, of all places! So it was a good meeting, and I feel much better that we're on good neighborly terms now.

Tonight David and I have a date to watch the Dodger's playoff game after the kids go to bed ... with proper baseball snacks like nachos and honey roasted peanuts. I'm looking forward to it! Tomorrow David is off, and we were hoping to visit one of the local parks, but we'll see how the weather does.

Buffalo fire hydrants

We found these fire hydrants on a walk we took yesterday, and we've noticed that all the fire hydrants around here have tall white and red poles attached to them ... so they can be found under lots of snow! It boggles my mind that we might actually get enough to bury a fire hydrant.

The areas around here are really lovely for going on walks. There are great sidewalks everywhere (I hope we get sidewalks in our Ramona neighborhood someday), so I feel comfortable letting the kids walk up ahead a little, or push Peter in the stroller. The homes in our neighborhood are ginormous, and beautiful. I've seen a lot of brick and vinyl siding combinations on houses, which I wouldn't have thought would look good, but it really does look nice.

Today we took a trip to the Goodwill store to see if we could find winter clothes for the kids, but I didn't see much, certainly no snow gear, and it's the kind of place that I'd need to spend at least an hour, kid-free, to sift through all the racks to see if I could find something I liked. I did see some long-sleeved shirts that I liked for me, so maybe I'll go back sometime when David is home so I can pick up a few things. So, we headed over to Target and got the boys all outfitted for cold weather ... knit gloves, waterproof mittens, snow bibs (big waterproof overalls), jackets, snow boots. I did forget to buy thermal/long underwear, but I can do that in the next week or two. The weather isn't terribly cold yet, but I feel much better knowing that we can go on walks and the kids will be toasty, and if it does happen to snow sooner than later, we'll be set for that, too. I was worried that if we waited too long then the snow stuff would sell out and I'd be in trouble! The boys were very, very patient as we tried on boots and jackets, and the highlight of the trip for them was buying the knit gloves -- which were blue with red flames on them ("Hotwheels gloves!" Jack called them).

This afternoon we plan to go on a walk, and since the weather is windy and chilly, I'll put their matching jackets on and will be sure to snap a picture!

Not so baby steps

Mom commented that by looking at the pictures of our apartment, she couldn't tell that we're on the second story, and I realized that I hadn't included any photos of our Stairway of Doom. Here it is going up:







And here it is going down:

It's a long, very steep staircase! I've had a couple of panicked "Where is Peter?!?" moments because I can envision him thinking that he can take on that staircase by himself. We plan to install a baby gate at the top of the stairs, but some of the tools we need are coming on Saturday (with all the rest of our stuff), so I have to wait until then unless I want to buy duplicate tools (which I really don't). Fortunately, Peter's portable crib fits perfectly in the opening at the top of the stairs, so when he's awake, we just move the crib to block the stairs and the problem is solved. I find myself even a little worried about Jack and Thomas on these stairs, because I'm worried they might be a little overconfident and try to run down them, but so far the worst thing that has happened was Jack's little experiment with gravity (i.e. "How far can I throw toys down the stairway?"). I realized that in many other apartment complexes I've been in, or seen, there were sets of outside staircases that led to upper floor apartments. Once you were in your doorway, your apartment was all on the same level. I realized, however, that outside staircases would probably be a terrible idea in places that get lots of snow and ice, so I bet that's why they designed it this way.

Speaking of which, we heard that we may get our first snow shower this week! I'm not sure if we actually will, but I plan to stock up on cold weather gear at the store tomorrow just in case. Target has a great selection of kids and babies' snow gear, at decent prices, so if I can't find anything at the thrift store, then Target should do just fine.

In other news, we stopped at our neighbor's apartment and rang the doorbell to deliver a plate of cookies, introduce ourselves, and apologize about the noise (which is getting much better, by the way), but he wasn't home. I wrote a nice note, left the cookies in a bag on the doorknob, and hopefully we'll get a chance to meet him in person soon.

Hopefully when Peter wakes up from his nap we'll take an afternoon walk and I'll get some more good photos of our area to share tomorrow!

Lessons in apartment living

It's a little bit more difficult adjusting to apartment living (with 3 kids) than I had envisioned. I find myself a lot more worried about taking care of the carpet, the walls, the furniture, etc. because none of it is "mine". In all the apartments I've ever been in, I've never worried about being a bad tenant. I've always taken reasonably good care of the apartments, never damaged anything, never gotten complaints about being too noisy, etc. Now I find myself in an apartment along with 3 rambunctious boys, and there is a lot more potential damage and noise that I have to try and minimize. For starters...

This afternoon I got a call from the apartment office asking if we could possibly keep our kids from thumping on the floor too much, because the elderly man living below us called and complained. The office manager lady was very nice about it, and said that she totally understood that we have 3 kids and there's going to be a bit of noise, and she said that the man below us is very nice, but a little bothered by the loud thumping footsteps. Now, David and I had already been correcting Jack, especially, since we moved in, because we have also noticed that he's been extra bouncy and we can tell that the floor vibrates when he gets crazy. But honestly it's not too bad (or maybe I'm so used to it that it doesn't register as much as it should), and it's here and there (not constant) and never between 7PM-7AM. I hoping that no one would really notice the extra kid noise (that was probably a little naive), but I was a little surprised that we had already received a complaint after just being here 3 days! We haven't had any loud crying, temper tantrums, etc. that are bound to come around sooner or later. I wonder how Mr. Elderly Neighbor will tolerate those! So, we can definitely work harder on the bouncing and thumping footsteps, but beyond that I'm not sure how much else I can minimize the general kid noise that 3 little boys generate. I feel terrible about it, because I'm sure the man below us isn't used to all this, but we can't force the kids to live like mice out of fear of offending someone. We'll have to work on that balance. Maybe I'll see if we can request a dowstairs apartment for the next rotation.

For the time being, I can be stricter about enforcing a "walk only" rule in the apartment. I know a lot of it is my own fault -- I remember growing up that we weren't allowed to run in the house, but for some reason I went ahead and let the boys run around at home in Ramona. I figured there was no one else to bother, they didn't have a yard to do their running in, and it didn't bother me, so why not? Unfortunately, now it comes back to haunt me, and I have to untrain them from the bad habit I let them develop.

On the other side, though (if I stop stewing and force myself to think constructively), all of this is a good lesson in being considerate of others, which is more important for the kids to learn than for them to be allowed to run in the house. I think, in general, that apartment living is making me appreciate stewardship in a new light. Nothing here in Buffalo is mine, and therefore I feel obligated to treat it better than if it were mine. But, honestly, nothing in Ramona was "mine" either, so I should have held myself to the same standards and treated everything a little better there than I did, too.

Our home away from home

It's a little bittersweet to be here in Buffalo at last. We're very relieved and thankful that we had a safe, uneventful trip out here, but the finality of us being out here away from family is tough. Of course we plan to visit over the next couple of years, and hopefully entertain visitors with us, but the hugeness of the miles between here and CA is a little daunting. Nevertheless, we aim to make the most out of our visit to Buffalo, and each of our rotations after this, and I hope to give our friends and family a front-row view of our adventures by phone, blog, and e-mail.

We had a good flight out here --- it was long, but the boys held up very well. Jack and Thomas were exceptionally good, and Peter was about as good as can be expected for such a long trip. We had a few "we're that family with the crying baby" moments, but honestly he kept it together pretty well.

We left the rental car parking lot (in a white Toyota Sienna!) around 5PM on Thursday and went hunting for something good to eat on the way to the apartment. For some reason, I expected our town here of Williamsville to be smaller and more rural than Ramona, but it's actually much more developed. Within 15 minutes of our apartment, there are a million places to eat, lots of grocery stores, department stores, fabric stores, home improvement stores (we won't be needing too many of those now, woohoo!), etc. I'm used to driving 45 minutes to Target, Walmart, Home Depot, etc., so this will be a pleasant change. Actually, there is a Target and grocery store within short walking distance of our place. Nice! And David's work is about 15 minutes away also, which will be great. Maybe we'll be able to have dinner together as a family each night.

We brought dinner back to the apartment and then let the kids run crazy. They had a great time running (or in Peter's case "crawlking") all around the rooms, checking it out. The apartment is beautiful ... it has new paint, new carpet, very nice furniture, a larger kitchen than ours in Ramona, etc. My only concern is any dings, dents, or dirt we might inflict on it before we leave in April.

On Friday, we all slept in until about 9AM, although I suppose we were all still on Pacific time, so that's probably expected. We got a great breakfast at Bob Evans (the kids were great, and we got comments on their good behavior, which always makes my day!) and then we treated the kids to Toys R Us (about 5 minutes away) to pick out one toy each. Then we made big trips to Target and Wegman's (our closest grocery store) to stock up on food and supplies. Wow --- I forgot how expensive it is to stock a kitchen from absolutely zero supplies!! Also, we had a heck of a time finding mexican food products even to make our own enchiladas and burritos (i.e. no enchilada sauce packets, very small selection of tortillas, refried beans, etc.). I expected there to be few mexican restaurants out here (there are a few, and they are all very concerned with advertising how "authentic" and "real" their mexican food is). But, I didn't expect there to be a problem finding basic ingredients so that I could make my own mexican food! I did get the feeling that Wegman's is kind of a hybrid between an expensive Trader Joe's and a regular grocery store, so maybe another store will have a better selection. However, we did notice that they have a million different types of apples (varieties I've never heard of before!), and they seem very fresh. And there is a whole freezer section devoted to pierogies, so there you go.
After all that, we ended up having lunch around 3PM (still on Pacific time, obviously), and got the kids in bed around 8PM.

This morning, everyone got up closer to 8:30AM, and we had lunch by noon and I think we're well on our way to being on Eastern time.

The weather so far has been mostly gray, but no real big rainfall, just sprinkles. The temperature is probably in the low 60s outside, but this apartment retains heat really, really well. We're all comfortable in short sleeve shirts and long pants inside, and I think Jack is even wearing shorts today.

After breakfast, we took the kids to the little playground in our complex. It was wet, and the grass was wet and squishy around it, but that didn't stop the boys from having a great time. There are lots of grassy areas (away from the street) for the kids the just run free. And when we do get out first snowfall, there are lots and lots of good places for snowmen, snowforts, etc. The ground is pretty level, though, so we'll have to hunt around for a good place to go sledding.
The boys seem to be adjusting pretty well. Today was the first time Jack said "I want to go back to the white house", but we tried to cheer him up a little, and he seemed better.

Tomorrow we're going to check out our closest Catholic church, St. Gregory the Great. Apparently there is another church nearby that was built in 1812, so hopefully in another week or two we can check that out.

Next week, I need to shop around for winter clothes and find out what we need to do to get our cars "winterized", plus I need to get Jack back into his school work after the craziness of last week, so that should keep me busy (but thankfully not as busy as I had been with getting out house packed and ready to rent!). I'll be sure to update this blog with those adventures.

In the meantime, here are a bunch of photos of our apartment and surrounding area:

David and Peter is the hallway.

The boys' room (they're sleeping on "special couch cushion beds" until their bunks arrive next Saturday)

Happy walker!


Exterior of our townhouse ... ours is just to the left of the parked car.

Jack on the playground.

Open space with trees behind the playground.

Some of the trees are just starting to change color.

The entrance to our apartment.

The living room.

The dining room.

The kitchen.

View from our little patio.

Our bedroom.