2 weeks of Cray Cray before Halloween

Dear Kids, 

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Who knew life can get so hectic! We had a MOPS meeting, grandparents visit, a round of sickness, volunteering at Chinese school, 2 nights out with some girl friends, and also all the prep that goes into an Academy 4 mentoring day. I've also been participating in Inktober, but I had to take a break starting the 21st due to just not having enough time. Well, enough about me, let's get to you guys! 

When grandma and grandpa came, it was rainy, so we spent a lot of time indoors. You guys found stuff to do like play toys, draw, and board games. 

One morning after church, it was clear enough to go visit the pumpkin patch and pick out a few pumpkins. This was the start of our collection. 

Another day after pre-school pick up, we stopped by the patch and picked up 4 more pumpkins. I couldn't resist and had to take a few pictures of Hailey with the pumpkins.

Eventually, we ended up with 13 various gourds and squashes and we made some interesting decorations with them. 

This weather this past week has been beautiful and we've been spending most afternoons playing outside. One afternoon we played Chinese "alphabet" hopscotch before picking up Nathan from school.

On Friday, Nathan participated in the school vocabulary parade. Your word was "magnet." You painted your own sign and found various household items that were magnetic to stick on your sign.

On Saturday we went to the Austin zoo and everyone had a pretty good time (even though Nathan at first refused to even go).

Hailey was just pointing away all morning. You would spot something move and then point at it, making cute little grunts to let us know that you've spotted something.

Nathan covering mouth because a duck only has 1 mouth. 

It was neat for Nathan to be able to read the signs around the zoo. You would ask us questions, and I found it so cool to be able to say, "Why don't you read it and tell me."

Of course we rode the train too.

Hannah's favorite part was feeding the animals,

especially the llamas.

On Sunday, you guys had a special Halloween event at Chinese school so this was the first time that you guys got to wear your costumes, which are characters from the video game, Plants vs. Zombies.

Hailey was a "Wall-nut"

Hannah was the "Chomper"

And Nathan was the "Four shooter"

After Chinese school, Hailey and I met up with you guys at church and we were able to attend the last hour of the fall festival. We got one of the pastors to take a family picture for us. Daddy is Crazy Dave and I'm my favorite plant, the Cat-tail.

Hailey, you didn't take great naps that day and was very grumpy, so you mostly stayed in the stroller and just looked around.

Since we arrived so late, we got to do most of the activities for free...which was kind of nice.

Hannah, you were really excited to be able to ride the unicorn.

And then you guys wanted to do the slide over and over again, but we only had time to do everything once.

Before we left, you all were nice enough to let me have one more picture at the pumpkin patch. So then we picked up a couple of pizzas and then went home for dinner.

On Monday, the girls and I went to go vote in the mid-term elections. Hannah was a great helper and helped me operate the polling machines while Hailey attempted to help. We are very fortunate to have the option of voting for the people who make important decisions for our community.

Nathan got a ROAR award from school. The award stated that he is an excellent role model to his peers. According to you Nathan, only 1 student from each class gets this award so if that is true, we are very proud of you for being a good kid at school.

Yesterday we spent time outside playing with the leaves. There's still quite a few leaves on the trees outside, but it was a good excuse to get everyone outside playing. While the big kids played with the leaves,

Hailey played with the pumpkins.

I tried to put you in the pile of leaves, but you quickly complained and scooted away.

So then I just let you go crazy with the pumpkins again.

Today Hannah, you had your school Halloween carnival. I got a chance to come see most of it and it was so cute seeing you and your friends in costume. In this picture below, you had realized that the bats were too big for the hole, so you folded the bats to make them smaller. Smart girl!

And then at the end of the day, you guys had a party and decorated cookies with frosting and sprinkles. I can't explain how adorable it was to see all these 4 year olds with frosting all over their faces!

And then before the day was over, you guys had circle time and Hailey was happy to join and was making friends with all of your friends Hannah!

And then after school today Nathan, you had tennis. I was able to see you return a ball with a forehand stroke, with good form! The coach cheered and was so proud of you. 

 You are getting so big! I just had to snap this picture of you on the swings today. You are growing up too fast!

And then tonight, we visited a house that decorated their yard to be like scenes from Harry Potter. It's pretty cool how Halloween decorations have become a think like Christmas. It's fun to drive around at night to look at all the spooky lawn ornaments and blow-ups.

The forecast calls for rain, but let's pray that the rain stays away so that you guys can go trick-or-treating.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Staying Warm at 55 Weeks

Dear Kids, 

So I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, so I'm currently working on creating a house that cleans itself.  For those of you who may not know what this is about, it's basically putting logical systems in place so that clutter doesn't build up. Every few days or so, I identify a problem area and come up with an issue to solve it. For example, the top rack of the dishwasher always fills up in half a day. That's because each person uses like 3-4 cups a day. With 5 people in the house, that would make 15-20 cups to wash each day. So, I'm going to try a one cup a day rule, which should cut down on the cups issue. 

We have also installed a lot of new storage spaces around the house and the final installment comes tomorrow, so hopefully we can work on getting our house a bit tidier on a day to day basis. 

Last weekend, we attended one of Hannah's school friend's birthday party.

 Nathan did a few cool flips into the foam pit. I snapped this pic just in time.

Hailey really has been preferring pouches lately. It's very annoying when you throw things on the ground without even trying. I'm trying to wean you away from purees, but you simply just don't like to each solids (with the exception of peas and carbs).

 I served you some noodles and chicken chunks from canned chicken soup the other day and you broke out into hives. I immediately gave you some benedryl and then it got a bit better.

 We have an appointment set up for you at the allergist for the end of this month. We'll see what she says about your allergy.

You really enjoy flipping pages on books. Board books are no longer acceptable to you. You want the pages. So far you haven't ripped any new books lately, so I've been a bit more lenient on allowing you to practice the fine motor skill of turning pages.

 It's been rainy and cold outside for the past week or so. We've spent lots of time inside doing quiet activities. Hannah stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday because of a little cold, so we had to come up with things to do that also keeps germs away from Hailey. You worked on a sticker book and made 2 stuffies.

 Hailey is obsessed with putting lids on things as well as putting things in containers and then dumping them all out.

When I'm trying to prep meals, all I have to do is hand you a bag of pouch lids and you can keep yourself occupied with those things for 15 minutes before I find you clinging onto my legs again. 

Hailey, you have slept through the night 2 nights this week, but lately you've been waking up again around 2 hours after you go down for the night. I can't figure out what is going on, but let's get on a schedule, OK? During the day, we have you wake up around 7:15-7:30. You'll go down for a nap around 10:00 and 2:30 and then you are in bed at 8. Your total sleep hours is teetering right under 13 hours, depending on how many times you wake up at night. I'm going to try to embrace these final months of nursing, because I know how quickly it can end. 

 Nathan, you completed your first session of Tennis and you love it. You want to try something new, but you agreed to complete one more session of Tennis before trying golf in the spring.

 Today you went on your first field trip. I stayed home with Hailey for her nap while you went to our church's pumpkin patch. Then you guys headed out to the Manchaca fire station for a tour there. We joined you for about an hour and a half before I had to go and pick up Hannah. Kindergarten teachers are just impressive. I have lots of respect for them because they have the patience of a saint.

This afternoon we went in for a follow-up visit at the allergist for Nathan. She ordered a new blood test in addition to a test that identifies the specific peanut protein that you are allergic to. Apparently you different proteins correlates with a specific severity of reaction. Since we have never had to use an epipen on you, I asked her about the possibility of not having to buy one. The doctor told me that with how severe you are allergic to peanuts, it is probably not going to happen;however, if you end up being allergic to a not so bad protein, we could possibly go without one.

So today you got your blood drawn and you were so brave. I held your hand and we sang the alphabet song twice and then you were done. You had told me that you were nervous about it, but I did my best to explain to you what to expect and that was it. You made me so proud!

Grandma and grandpa come to visit this week so I'm sure we'll do lots of fun things. We also need to get on the ball for Halloween because that's approaching quickly as well.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Celebrating Life, Love, and Food Allergies

Dear Kids, 

These past few days have been quite eventful. Let's start off with where we left off last post. Hannah participated in the school's trike-a-thon, benefiting St. Jude research. You zoomed around so fast and more than a few times you almost gave your teacher a scare when you came this close to hitting a pillar. 

Hailey, I think I can start to be a little more relaxed about what you put in your mouth these days. You are getting quite good at discerning things that are yummy and things that are not.

Which means, you now get to play marble run and pom poms, which are a lot of fun for kids your age. Sure you may have put a marble or a pom pom in your mouth at some point, but you quickly realized their lack of flavor and spit them out real quick. You seem to do that with cheerios too...you've tasted the good stuff and now cheerios are just not good enough for you anymore.

We celebrated a birthday at the park last weekend and we really enjoyed our time outside. In fact, the weather has been so nice lately (when it is not raining) that we've tried to spend as much time outside as the mosquitoes would let us.

On Saturday, National Elite Gymnastics had their 30th birthday celebration and they had a great party set up everyone. There were bouncy houses, free pizza, gelato, snow cones, and cake. You guys had a lot of fun. We really love NEG. The staff is simply amazing.

You guys saw one of your coaches from last year and had to say "Hi."

Then that evening, we had a wedding party to attend. I kind of told Hannah it was like a ball because no kids were invited to the last wedding reception that we attended and Hannah, you were so excited to be able to go to the ball. Even though there was no dancing, the chicken strips, mashed sweet potatoes and twinkly lights made up for it.

Our best attempt at a family picture these days. 

On Sunday, we had dinner at one of our favorite Indian restaurants. We ordered Korma, which is a creamy curry with ground pistachios, cashews, and almonds. The kids ordered Tikka Masala, which is a tomato based curry. Hailey sampled both and loved both...until she got a rash around her mouth. 10 minutes later, her face was slightly swollen and she had some welts around her eyes. We quickly drove home and administered some Benedryl and then a few minutes, you were back to your normal self. This picture was taken about 5-10 minutes after the medicine and you can still see a few little spots. So in short, we think you may have a tree nut allergy (considering you like tomatoes and have eaten them without a problem). Maybe you'll outgrow this one, but if not, we'll have to be extra careful with all sorts of nuts now.

It's been raining a lot these days. I think in the since the last post, we have received almost 5 inches of rain. It's been rainy at some point of the day for the last few days. I think today was the first day that it didn't rain.

Hailey, you are understanding the function of things these days. I find you trying to put lids on things, open containers, put hats on, and other tricks like that. You are cruising around, but you really have no motivation to stand unless there is something interesting on the table. You also have no interest in climbing the stairs.

Hannah really wanted to decorate the house for Halloween, so we picked up some fake spider webs and attached spiders yesterday. Afterwards we went on a family bike/skate ride around the neighborhood.

Nathan looks like such a big boy in this pic!

And finally, I end with these 2 pictures. Hailey absolutely adores Nathan. You have never seemed to push him away or become annoyed with him. With Hannah, you are not as nice or patient with her. I don't know if she tries to hard or still doesn't understand the concept of personal space, but you often will hurt her feelings when you don't do what she wants you to do. 

See the sour face? 

Well, we've got another exciting week lined up. Nathan's got a field trip and grandparents are visiting next weekend!

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

New Lessons Learned This Week

Dear Kids,
This is my attempt to get back on weekly Wednesday posts. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep this up, but I'm going to try.

Since I feel like I just posted a few days ago, I'm going to make this one short. Well, sort of.

The Wildflower center has opened Fortlandia, a trail marked with various forts for kids (and adults) to explore. Since it was opening weekend, they had all sorts of activities for kids to do along the way. We actually ran into some friends, so we just hung out with them through the trek, which made it much more fun.

You all had the opportunity to make wildflower bracelets.

 While Hailey explored a turk's cap.

 They ended up being too scratchy to wear, so we decorated the stroller with them and planted the seeds that were still stuck on when we got home.

 While the big kids built forts and ran around,

 Hailey found cool spots to hang out and explore.

 It was all fun and games until it started to rain. Luckily we were under some huge oak trees so we were sheltered for the most part from the intermittent rains.

 During a break, we decided to head out so that Hailey could nap. Luckily we left when we did because on our way home, it started to pour down rain. We didn't get to finish the trail, so we will be back soon.

That same afternoon we attended a Catholic wedding. I emphasize Catholic because it was quite long and you guys did a good job being good kids for most of the ceremony.

While standing, there were lots of things to keep everyone interested, but it was when we were all sitting when little fingers and feet got mischievous. Hannah was for the most part interested in most of the ceremony. Nathan became "tired" and so you laid on the pews for half of the time. Hailey practiced cruising with puffs. Luckily we had claimed the entire back row of pews for you to have plenty of room to cruise for puffs.

 On Sunday we had our GIFT group meeting. I look at all of you and I'm just shocked at how quickly you all have grown.

 Ok, so let's get to the lessons. Hailey has learned how forks work. You know that you can use the pointy end to stab a piece of food and then put it in your mouth.

 Nathan, you have learned the art of sarcasm. For example, while sorting laundry, you exclaimed, "Boy this is so fun!" I went into the room, thinking that you were jumping on the bed or something, but I found you two working away and then you turn around with the most thrilling look on your face. [get it? That was a bit of sarcasm right there] Oh and then tonight, while pushing around your dinner, you said, "Yum, this is so good." Ouch. That hurts right there [pointing to my heart]!

 And then Hannah, you have learned how to ride your bike! Last week we had you practice without the pedals. You scooted to and from the mail box for 3 days. Yesterday we took a spin at the school parking lot and you were able to ride for about 4 seconds on your own. Today Daddy took you out again and you were able to ride about 15 seconds on your own. I know with more practice you'll be zooming around in no time.

Well, this ends the short and sweet post. Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy