October 2010 Archives

We had a good week when Ben was gone.  It could have gone much worse and I'm though I'm relieved he's back it certainly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!  My mom came over one night for meatloaf (yes, I actually cooked!), we tried out the Maple Maze (play area) in Maple Grove, went to a park with Stacy and Finn and just generally took it easy.  We got Netflix recently and that gives me the ability to watch certain movies and shows instantly on my phone so I got into the Dexter series and pretty much watched that non-stop every night after the kids went to bed.

The girls are doing great!  It's amazing how well Lily is walking now.  Just a month ago she started taking a few steps here and there and now she's a pro.  Juliette is talking like crazy.  She has tons of words now and is just a sponge for information.  They're so cute too - a few times recently I've caught them trying to give each other hugs or kisses and that just melts me.

Tomorrow is Halloween!  We carved some cool pumpkins last week which turned out awesome but the squirrels ate them already.  We also made some fun pumpkin sugar cookies and the girls had a great time decorating them last week.   We found out that our neighborhood gets a ton of kids for Trick or Treating.  One neighbor told us that she has to buy 10 bags of candy each year and another neighbor said that they bus kids in.  That is crazy!  We barely got anyone at our old house except mostly non-dressed-up teenagers and a handful of cute kids.  My mom is coming over tomorrow and I think we'll head to a local church and do their Trunk or Treating (people have candy in their cars that the kids can get) and then go to a few houses around the neighborhood.  I think they'll have fun!  Maia can't wait.  All of the girls are going to be bumblebees this year.

I haven't run much since my 5k but I'm going to try to get back into some sort of fitness/eating better regimen.  Hopefully I can get with it and start having more energy.  Even though the girls are sleeping better (Juliette is sleeping through the night 90% of the time now) I still sleep badly and am tired all the time.

Ben left this morning for Delaware so for the next 5 days I'm on my own!  He comes home Friday afternoon so at least the kids only go 3 days without seeing him at all.  We're all going to miss him but thankfully we'll be able to do a video chat on our phones.

Lily has really taken off with the walking!  I'd say she walks more than she crawls now and I'm so thankful.  To put it into perspective, Maia didn't walk until 15 months and adjusted the girls are almost 16 months so she's really not that far off track.  She's doing such a great job - what a trooper.

Maia had her speech therapy appointment on Wednesday.  It went well - what's funny though is that she didn't stutter at all the day before and the day of and she's barely done it since!  I don't know if it has just "gone away" but I'm not knocking it.  The therapist did give us some great tips on how to speak to her when the stuttering is happening so we're equipped to handle it if it recurs. 

Now that Maia is three I'm hoping to enroll her in some classes so that she can get out and play with kids her own age.  The trouble is that I can't do it during the day since I have the girls (if I have to participate with Maia I'd rather be able to give her one on one attention versus trying to wrangle two little walkers as well) so I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I can find some evening classes I can take her to since she stays up until 8 these days!

So Saturday I ran a 5k!  Not only did I run it, but I ran the whole thing without walking.  I was (am) still sick so I went into it convinced that I'd have to walk/run but I didn't.  My time was 34:40 seconds, so not at all bad for a first time.  I think what kept me going was the fact that I was running with my friend Patrick.  If he hadn't been there I think I would have stopped and walked so I'm thankful to him!  Ben, my mom and the girls came to cheer me on and it was nice to have the support.  The run was beautiful - it was next to the river and over bridges and with the fall colors and gorgeous weather it was an absolute perfect morning.

Saturday night we headed up to our friend Matt and Meghan's house and went shopping at the Albertville Outlet mall for Christmas photo outfits and on Sunday we did our photo shoot.  We had a fun time and the pictures turned out great!  I am really excited to do cards this year and am happy that we got it done so early when the leaves are still colorful.

Tomorrow is Maia's first speech therapy appointment.  I'm thankful that Ben can get off work to watch the girls while Maia and I go and I hope that she demonstrates the stuttering for the therapist.  We'll see how it goes.

Next week Ben is leaving me a single mother as he's headed out to Delaware for the work week.  I hope I can maintain my wits and my sanity and keep my head from exploding!  :)

Oh, I signed up for a cake decorating class!  I'm really excited because it means I can get out of the house one night a week for a month so hopefully I'll love it.  It starts in November.

I miss sleep.  Real sleep.  It has been years since I've slept well for an entire night (since I was pregnant with Maia) and I miss it.  Last night was the first night that I can remember where all three kids slept through and all woke up happy!  I hope this trend continues!  Of course, I still woke up several times and tossed and turned all night but if they continue this maybe my body will get used to sleep again and I can once again enjoy it like I used to.

We had a fun weekend.  On Saturday we went shopping at our favorite children's clothing store (Children's Place) and went out to dinner with our friends the Springers.  On Sunday we went to a pumpkin patch and the kids had a blast riding in the wagon, running around and jumping in a bouncy house.  It was perfect weather too.

I'm not sure I mentioned Maia's 3 year appointment.  I took her on Friday and she was 31 lbs, 37 1/4".  I am also not sure I mentioned the fact that for the last 6 months, Maia has started stuttering.  In the beginning it wasn't much but it's progressively gotten worse so I brought it up to our pediatrician.  She said that it's normal for kids her age to stutter because they think faster than they speak but the fact that it's been going on for as long as it has and that it's gotten worse (more than half the conversations we have with her) makes her feel that we should get evaluated.  So we have an appointment on the 14th to get it checked out.

We also started giving Lily Prevacid again for reflux.  She seems uncomfortable after eating and her sleeping has been fitful so we're hopeful that it will help.  She doesn't vocally complain during the day but she stretches funny and tries to tear her shirt off so it does seem that something is wrong.  Hopefully this will be a short term thing but we'll see how it goes.