October. In Pictures. So Far.

A Day At The Park

Schnepf 's Farm

(Notice that Paige and Jenna are in the front car!!!)

Knotty Paige.

My daughter is obsessed. She feels the urge to constantly tie anything tie-able to something untie-able.

Example 1 - All shoe laces are triple tied.

Example 2 - All long, bendable fabrics are tied to something. Usually that something is a chair, toy train, stuffed animal, or possibly some body part.

Example 3 - Recently she decided to tie her and Lillie's hampers together using a frilly purple scarf. That was not enough. She then tied them both to our entertainment unit using my headband.

Basically it's a pain. I spend half of my cleaning time, untying something. Makes for a unusual pastime.....don't you think?

Well, Hello Again.

Things have been quite interesting around these parts for the last month or so.

We were plagued by a never ending sickness.

It all started September 5th 2009. We woke to a sick baby who had no voice at all. I mean that. None. So sad. About a week or so of sad Lil and finally she started feeling better.

That's when it happened. I got sick. Me. I don't usually get sick, and if you recall from an earlier post I am a complete mess when I'm sick. Call in the Wambulance. That lasted about a week as well.

Next comes the Lil. She managed somehow to get sick yet again. My heart went out to her, poor thing.

Now comes Paige. We woke on Saturday morn at 4:00a.m. to a feverish little girl. She was sick. Got better. Got sick again. All in about a week and a half. It was awesome.

Just when I had sanitized everything I imagined my children could possibly get a germ on (so everything in this house) it happened. Lillie got sick. Yes. Again. This time much worse. She is still recovering. Actually, so is Paige.

In the meantime, Nick said he wasn't feeling well. On the verge of running away, I insisted he take a million vitamins and please don't mention being sick to me again. What I don't know won't hurt me right? There was no way I was taking care of yet ANOTHER sicko. I'm only one woman you know?

The other great thing that happened was while in between sicknesses, Lil managed to get two nasty bites. One was a spider (I think) and it was gross. The other bit her eye and made it swell shut. Thank goodness for Benadryl. I was already on the verge of a mental breakdown, a bitten up baby was all I needed to take the leap into the abyss.

Things are looking up now. Kids are recovering. Nick is not sick (least I don't think he is...) And I am finally getting a chance to relax and blog my life away. Life is nice. Hopefully we can all stay healthy and sane.

Well......let's at least shoot for healthy.....

Progress Report.

Paige got her first progress report.

She got a big fat

Good job Tator. I ♥ you.

What A Difference A Sticker Makes.

Kindergarten is rough. You have to sit in a tiny little chair, color, write, listen, play, and even learn all day long. Kindergarten is not exactly what I remember from my youth. I recall talking to my friends about Cookie Monster accidentally mistaking the letter C for a cookie and gobbling it up that morning on Sesame Street. Bringing home my giant J book at the end of the week to show my parents how I could identify, sound out, and possibly even write the letter of the week. Painting. Playing with the blocks. Singing songs about wheels and buses and all that jazz. Kindergarten is more like 3rd grade nowadays. My mini-me comes home with work I can't imagine she could actually do. Surprise. She does it. She does it with ease. When can you recall having to learn how to write letters, numbers, add, draw, identify : first;last;middle;second;third etc., color-code, identify : left;right, connect-the-dots, read sight words, and much more all in one evening of homework. Most of which in one single assignment? How can her little brain contain that information!? But she is doing so well. No complaints. Academically that is.



Two weeks ago I was embarrassed of my parenting skills. Or.......lack-there-of. This was the first of many times, I assume.



My little Tator never went to pre-school. "She's smart. She doesn't need it." I ate those words so fast, Cookie Monster would be proud. Let me warn all of you "newish" moms out there. If your child has never been in school, please, please, please put them in pre-school. Your welcome. Luckily, I learned that it's not about how smart my child is. It's about the social interaction/awareness. Or......lack-there-of. As many friends as my little one had prior to class, nothing could have prepared her for the excitement of having 29 little lemmings to perform for. I have a star on my hands. Brittney eat your heart out. Little Miss Popular is a little too popular. To spare my child's future embarrassment,(as I am sure she will read this someday, most likely sooner than I had originally planned; see 1st paragraph) I will not go into too much detail about her first few weeks of school. Although I must say I was extremely shocked by seeing a sudden increase in the reds, and yellows on her behavior chart. She was being such an angel at home since school started. More willing to help, so sweet with the Lil, even missing and loving on the mommy and daddy. How could she be acting up at school!? I suppose all her "sour" energy was depleted by 2:50 so by the time that she was home only "sweet" was left. Adjustment is the worst. So many kids to play with, show off for, who wants to sit still and work? But luckily for me she has a great teacher. I would imagine you would have to be crazy to want to teach a bunch of 5 year old's all day long. God bless teachers. But as crazy as she must be, she is very sweet. And understanding. I don't know what I'm doing after all. When I had Paige I didn't see past her turning one. Then two. Then three. Then four. Now, at five....I'm lost. I didn't expect these days to ever come. I sometimes feel like a fish out of water with this whole "parenting" thing. Ooopsie got a little sidetracked ahem....So me and the "teach" came up with an ingenious plan to get my little "red-light/yellow-light" munchkin back on track. God bless stickers. A sticker chart. Who'da thunked it? It has truly been a blessing. She eats now. She gets all green lights. She cleans up her toys. It's ahhh mazing. Sticker charts, where have you been all my life!?



Now I know. Chalk it all up to the experience. Lil -you will be in pre-school. You will use charts and stickers. You will. Thanks Paige. You taught me a valuable lesson. I ♥ you.

Our New House.

We had a full four-day weekend. Paint was finished (finally!). Garage was cleaned. Bins were organized. Boxes were emptied. I finally feel like this home is almost finished. While I was doing who-knows-what in the kitchen, Daddy was hard at work with some of the leftover, empty boxes. What's better than the recycling? Our girls. They adored Daddy's hard work. A new house, complete with a door and two windows. They even decorated the inside and out. Heck, I even tried it out. Thanks Daddy. We ♥ you.

Workin' Lil.

I was working from home yesterday.
Lillie likes to copy everything.
So when I came out of the kitchen.....wa la!
There she was.
Clicking around on the mouse like she was working hard on that budget.
Work it out Lil.

Notice all the random items on my desk....Lillie likes to bring me almost anything she get's her little fingers on. That's why I have lotion, ice packs, a dog, a devil tail, and a water bottle. I try not to make it a habit to have a messy desk....but it happens.