I did not realize how busy we were this month until I went through the 450 some pictures! WOW! No wonder Daddy took so many naps! We started the month at the Labor Day Parade and ended it at the Amazing Pizza Machine with Alivia starting her 2nd year of preschool, going to the botanical gardens, trips to the park & zoo, Asher's 1st flight, Daddy on his motorcycle, the Corporate Cup Run, Addison potty training, Vala's pumpkin patch & Asher turning 10 months thrown in middle.
Happy October!!
No, we did not get a dog (That would be woof woof I think). Sometimes persistence does pay off. Remember that storm back in late June/July with a lot of wind and hail? Well, after our insurance company initially said that we just needed just a couple of replacement shingles, I questioned this. How can almost the entire neighborhood be getting new roofs on their homes and ours is not damaged. So I called several roofers to come and pencil out what they saw and submit their images to our insurance. Funny, their claims with pictures matched up and we did need a new roof. So, after a napless day and a loud morning - it is all done. So, roof roof!
Today Asher turned 10 months old. I don't know if it is that he is the 3rd child or that he is the baby of the family, but having Asher turn 10 months old is so sad for me. Our baby is growing up so fast, too fast. I love being able to watch the transformation and see all of his firsts and little developments. Asher continues to be a go-getter, taking risks that we wish he wouldn't. Although he is still crawling, he is cruising more and more. He stands alone, but just briefly. He is very hesitant, as far as the walking thing goes, away from the couch or Mommy's hands. He does crawl upstairs well, but only when Mommy is right there so far. He says Mama and Dada and I swear he says HI having the girls say HI to him all the time. He is beginning to understand the meaning of "no" but cries whenever we have to say it. He loves playing peek-a-boo and playing with building blocks and he really, really loves to swim. We go to open swim and just loves the pool! Asher is looking forward to getting some boy toys, maybe for his birthday. I have gotten out the crayons and play-doh, but he just wants to eat them at the moment.
Asher is finally sleeping better, from 7:30-6:30 or 7 in the morning. He usually takes one nap from 12:30-4, but sometimes splits that up with a morning and afternoon one depending upon when he wakes up for the day. He is still nursing 3x a day, but Daddy is insisting I increase the cup and decrease the nursing. So, starting today, he will go to 2x a day, morning and night, with a cups of bmilk in between. He is eating mostly table foods now. He just woke up one day and decided he was done with baby food (having 6 teeth now helps, too). I still give him a jar at each meal along with the table food, and he does okay with that. He is a challenge in his hairchair as he as started to stand up in it. So funny, I put the straps away with Addison as I never needed them. Asher, I need to get them back out and use them!
Now, we have 2 more months until Asher Wade will celebrate his first birthday. For now, he is our baby at 10 months.
Today into tonight we visited the pumpkin patch near our home. Friends of ours invited us and they had rented a fire pit. Oh, how fun! Vala's is fun anyway, but with a camp fire, hot dogs, & smores it was even more fun! The kids had fun on all the many slides, the "jumpy jump" thing they have there, riding the train, watching the pig races & riding on those crazy trike bikes. There is so much to do and see there that we may have to go back again this season.
There are many things I could not do as a working Mommy. Now that I am a SAHM, I do not want our kids to miss out on anything. Over the summer, we started visited our local library. They have a fun little kids section with toys, puzzles, and of course, books. The kids had so much fun and asked to go back! During the school year, this same library has story time. They break it up by age, so Addison goes to her little group on Tuesdays and Alivia can go to a different group on Thursdays. Well, today was our first visit to story time. How fun! The "teacher" sang the name song first, then reviewed some letters, read 3-4 books all about trains, before letting the children make a craft of a train while having a little snack! It was so much fun (at least I thought so). Alivia sat under my legs for the first half at least, then complained of being hungry during the last story (I think she saw the snacks). She did like the art project though. As the days get shorter and cooler, this will be a activity we will try to do at least monthly per child.
And, I feel so lucky to be able to go to story time with our kids!
The final results of the corporate cup run were posted online today. Chris finished in 58 minutes, 32 seconds and I finished in 47 minutes. (Our previous times from 1999 were 1:01 for Chris and 55 for me). So, some things do improve with age! Oh, and the female winner, oh that was a girl I used to run against in high school! Small world!
Today is the official beginning of fall. So, the kids and I made leaf cookies this morning before Alivia went to dance class with her cousin Cora. The girls have fun cutting out the cookies, although Alivia eats more dough than anything (Addison actually does not like the cookie dough). Alivia was so excited to take cookies to share with her classmates at school.
As for dance class, as you can see in the pictures, Alivia just is not a fan. She told me when we left, "I don't ever want to do that again." She did participate some, probably because cousin Cora was there encouraging her. Alivia wants to stick with gymnastics for now.
Happy Fall everyone...
Topher was awarded a cash prize for winning the poster contest at work. Shortly after this, his boss called him into the office and gave him a bonus for his hard work and commitment (wow, how nice!)). Then, my boss (Topher) decided to pay it forward and give me a bonus, a laptop!
So, you see, not only did Topher get a double bonus, but I did, too. I get a loving husband & a man who likes to give me a nice gift for just being his wife. Or, is it that he just does not like to share the desktop computer? Well, I care to believe he just got the laptop for me because he loves me.
Today Chris & I ran the 2008 Corporate Cup Run under Chris Dad's work (HDR). I felt bad asking Chris' Mom to come over to our house to watch the kiddos, give up her time and sleep, so Chris & I could go for a little jog. But, Chris kept telling me it was for a good cause, and I really wanted to run it.
Chris, with his asthma and sprained ankle (& he is 3 years older than me as he always says), ran with me the first 2 miles or so. Then he needed to slow down. I then tried to find a good runner to follow at a good pace (my goal was to run a 8 1/2 minute mile or so). This is a steady paced run. I never seemed to find the mile markers, so I had no idea what mile I was at during the run. I finally saw the mile 5 timer (out of the 6.2 mile run) and knew I could make it to the end. We were turning corners that looked familiar and then it hit me. The smell of donuts that I smelled when we started the run. Yuck! It totally made me sick. Obviously, that and the steady run, made the guy in front of me sick too, right into the gutter! Yeah, I was sure glad that I could see the tents ahead.
I finished the run in 47 minutes exactly! and Chris finished in 58 minutes, 32 seconds! The official results will be posted tommow (there are little timing device each runner wears on their shoes to time from the starting line to the finish line).
So, today, Chris and I ran in support of the American Lung Association and got ourselves some sore legs and a bright green coozies...all before 10 AM!
Today was our annual fly with Daddy Day. For now, we are only making this an annual event (although we should be doing it more often than that). Alivia got a little hot shortly after take-off and wanted to go back to the airport. Addison, who went along with Alivia, loved it. She jumped in the co-pilot seat and took over. She was a natural born pilot! Next was Asher's turn. He sat into the co-pilot seat with Mommy and wanted to touch everything! I gave him the play "panic button" to play with. He loved looking out the window too.
Just another day in flight when you have a pilot Daddy! (I will try to get Topher to load some video of our flight later).
Today's adventure was our first visit to the Lauritzen Gardens. Knowing how Grandma Bet likes flowers, we invited her along. Boy, was I glad we did, too! We needed help getting up and down the hills and in and out of the gardens. There is a fun kids complex area and a really need train exhibit that I could have watched for hours (but with our 3 kids, time is limited). It is such a beautiful place to visit, that we will definitely go back (wearing sneakers!).
As I mentioned in my previous post, I painted the laundry room over the last couple of days. I am not a painter. Not hardly. I have been pregnant so much over the last few years that I have gotten out of a lot of the painting that Chris has undertaken in our home. Let's just say we have painted every single square inch in our home inside and out with the exception of our master closet (which we will probably never paint). Or should I say Chris has painted...
Anyway, the laundry room is a walkway from the garage and it is our laundry room. I am no architect, but who thought that up? We have just enough space to shimmy through. We have a huge front loading wash machine/dryer (which I have to have to keep up on my laundry and get out stains. Between Tide and my wash machine, I can get anything clean!). Painting this small space while keeping the wash machine and dryer in the room was no easy task. I had to climb up on top of the wash machine or dryer (which have drawers under them so they are not short) and then jump behind them in this small space Chris created to paint back there. Oh, what a mess...lint, soap, stickers, yuck! I think I need to clean back there more often than just when I paint! After being covered in paint, overcome by fumes and getting low blood sugar in the process, the room looks so much better (and cleaner).
Now, off to catch up on the laundry I did not do in the process! But, it was soooo worth it!
For the past 3 weeks or so, Asher has been waking up in the wee hours of the morning, thinking it is time to nurse. It all started when he awoke while teething just before turning 9 months old, and I nursed him. Bad Mommy. Anyway, 2 nights ago I decided to buckle down and try to break this bad habit. I picked him up (bad Mommy) and rocked him. He would lay his head on my shoulder, but he was still crying. After doing this a few times and waiting so many minutes between visits, I must have fell asleep. Chris reported when he got up for work (which is also in the wee hours of the morning) that Asher was still awake. Well, I am not sure if he EVER went back to sleep that night.
Well, last night I nursed him at 7:30 and put him to bed around 8. Then, I went for a 5 1/2 mile jog and finished painting the laundry room. When I went to bed at 11:30, I was exhausted and not ready to get up with Asher at 1,2, 3, or even 4 AM.
So, imagine my excitement when Asher awoke talking at 7:38 this morning (not crying as he normally does at 4 AM!). So, now you can see why I am doing a jig! Yeah for Asher! Now, let's just repeat it...
The idea came from a Curious George episode to go camping. Then, Chris suggested we try camping in our backyard first. He made this suggestion in May. Tonight, they are outside sleeping under the stars as I type inside and Asher sleeps upstairs.
We went on a little shopping trip and Alivia picked out sleeping bags. Meanwhile, Chris was at home setting up the tent. We grilled hotdogs as we would if we were actually camping someplace (I only know this through TV as I have never camped. Growing up, my Dad, after having to live in a tent in Vietnam, refused to go camping in a tent. Now he will go camping in a tent under his airplane wing, though). The girls were so excited. After dinner, we took our baths inside before the treats came out...smores! Alivia had had smore before (They have smores in a Barney video, so I had made them before for a snack), but I am unsure if Addison has had them before. Then, they went into the tent and really roughed it by watching a movie on their dvd player! A few stories by a flashlight and prayers, then they went to sleep with Daddy. I am guessing it took Alivia a while to fall to sleep, but Daddy and Addison were asleep before I zipped them in. At last check, they were all still quiet. I sure miss them inside!
This is the girls' first official night under the starlit sky. Maybe next year Asher and I will join them!
So, how did their night go? Well, short. They slept until the front came through bringing the wind gusts. Addison woke up first asking Daddy, "What's that?" to every noise. After bringing Addi inside, the tent inself started blowing more in the wind preventing Daddy from going back to sleep. So, he and Alivia came inside. Good thing they were in the backyard!
...and head out on the highway!
Chris and a friend went out a little fall bike ride today. This is something Chris has wanted to do for a while, but never takes the time way to do it (but, you only live once I keep telling him!). He was only gone a couple of hours and I think he had fun. And, the kids and I just went to visit his Grandma (and he can fit that in another day). Check out the pictures of the boys on their toys!
