Alice apparently had a blast at her bday party. I can't wait to hear
all about it when we get home tomorrow!
Iz is a sick little bugger. Probably some sort of cold Al brought home
from school. I hope she's better soon and that she gets a good nights
sleep, I can't bear to see her like that.
Now if I could just bring myself to finish my other million projects
starting with that damn dress…actually that'll have to wait until
after I make Al's Halloween costume. Then comes Charles's
quilt…Cindy's needle holder…Tori's skirt…
Well at least ONE thing is done!
• Alice has gotten back in the habit of climbing into bed with us
again. She'll say she's cold, or her room is scary, or the light from
outside is in her eyes, anything to stay in our bed. She's driving me
nuts, and this time around I can't put a childproof door handle on her
door to fix it.
• Alice STILL hasn't had a full nights sleep on school nights. We put
her to bed early, but she'll still manage to stay up to or passed her
non school day bedtime. No wonder she drags in the afternoon on school
days! It makes for a rough day for Izzy too, unfortunately.
• I'm excited to see my sisters this weekend, though we won't be
around for much of it. JJ and Tor will be here to watch the girls for
us on Saturday. I know they are all going to have a blast!
• Fruit flies are my least favorite pest at the moment. We recently
have had an outbreak of them and they are driving me nuts! Not to
mention the fact that my house now smells if apple cider vinegar
because I'm trying to trap and drown them - yuck! They are so
freaking hard to get rid of.
• Iz has recently started saying a lot more words, though her favs are
still "hi" and "bye-bye". It's so cute hearing her say Alice's name!
She really is growing up way too fast!
• We decided not to do a big bday bash for Alice this year. We're
hoping to have two or three of Alice's friends from school over for
dinner, cake, and a sleep over instead. Then we'll just have cake and
probably order pizza at Mom and Dad's house for whoever is there on
Sunday when we go over. Then of course we'll do something with my
family the next time we are home. I hope it all works out. Alice is
DYING to have a slumber party!
The girls are very much alike so I can see why they get along so well
at school. Her mom is great and I have a lot in common with her too.
We played on the trampoline, in the sandbox, the girls got to go
upstairs and play unsupervised in Emily's room (Alice LOVED that
part), they played dress up, etc. It was a very fun day and neither of
my girls wanted to leave.
Tonight I made eggs with fried veggies and Alice got to help. I try
and get her in the kitchen as much as I can, but she doesn't always
want to help. She gets such a thrill out of cutting veggies, but she
especially liked getting to crack the eggs! It actually fit right in
with what Alice said they are doing at school right now. They cracked
open an egg and examined the contents. Then they put an egg in vinegar
to see if it will change. I'm quite impressed with all that they do
with the kids, even if I never hear about it from Alice only in my
weekly emails from the school! It can be like pulling teeth to get
her to tell me what she did at school!
I didn't find a single shrug, but we did manage to get some pretty
sweet deals at The Disney Store (and neither of us ate pavement on the
way out of the store, Cindy). Since her party is Tinkerbell themed I
figured Tinkerbell was the way to go for presents as well. We got her
a Tink shirt, a Tink doll, and an awesome Tink gift bag that is very
much like a reusable grocery store bag that cost no more than a paper
gift bag so I figure she'll make good use out of it afterwards as
well. They're pretty darn sweet, if you ask me, but I wish they made
them with more obscure characters. Hell even Alice in Wonderland is
hard to come by in that store. And that's why when I found a adorable
Alice t-shirt I slyly added it to my stash and I'll save it for
Alice's bday.
After we paid we went downstairs to the food court to grab a bite and
ride the carousel. Let me tell you, there is no way I could go to that
mall and NOT take Alice to the carousel - it simply can't be done.
Anyway, of course she had a blast, but she really had her heart set on
riding in the spinning seat. So I bought another token and asked the
woman if we could wait until the next time around so we could have a
shot at sitting in the spinning seat. She was happy to let us wait,
and as soon as we were allowed to enter, Al made a bee line to the
spin seat - and we scored! A little while later a Hispanic boy and
his dad came by us and I could just tell he desperately wanted to ride
in the spin seat, so I asked them to join us. They did and both kids
(and probably us grown ups too) had so much fun!
While waiting to see the doc, Iz became the office entertainment. She
exclaimed "HI!" and "BYE!" to anyone who passed by. One man even told
me she should be on television. Both girls seemed to brighten
everyone's day, and they were both SO well behaved despite how near it
was to lunch/nap time.
Today was a good day for me. I got brave and finally drove out of my
comfort zone and made a trip out to see my MIL. Surprisingly enough I
didn't have any issues with nerves or otherwise. I even took Ogden all
the way home and didn't have a conniption.
It was good to see my MIL. She made us lunch and we played outside all
afternoon. We got to watch the kids as they got out of school. I think
Alice loves doing that almost as much as Grandma does. We left for
home after playing several rounds of "ski ball", baseball, lots of
swinging, and coloring of leaves. I'm glad I bit the bullet and did it
before next week when I'll have to drive out there for the rehearsal
dinner. At least I know now I can do it!
Oh, before I forget. The ABSOLUTE highlight of my day was getting a
call from one of the mothers of Alice's school mates inviting Al to
her daughter's Tinkerbell birthday party. Apparently this little girl
when asked about her day at school goes on and on about what she did
with Alice that day so naturally Alice was also her number one friend
she wanted to come to her party. It's happening next weekend so
awesome Auntie Tori will be taking her in our stead since we'll be at
the wedding. I'm so excited for Alice, her first real friend bday
party! Needless to say she can't wait.
• My kiddos jammin' to my kind of music. Hearing Alice ask to listen
to Wilco or Izzy sing Pink Floyd sure makes a Mommy proud.
• Reading chapter books to my big girl and watching her fall in love
with reading right in front of me.
• Dinnertime with the family. With Matt in a super stressful class
right now it's really the only time we see him during the day. I'm
sure we'll all be happy when this class is over - especially stressed
out Matt.
• Weddings. Mary is getting married next weekend! I'm looking forward
to good times with family and to seeing Tori, who is coming up here to
watch the girls for us.
• Cooler weather. Fall is definitely upon us, and I'm loving it!
Pulling on my fleece slippers last night was pure heaven!
• Driving. Did I mention that I actually LIKE to drive now? I still
haven't gone on a longer trip on my own, but I'm going to go see my
MIL on Friday, so that'll be an experience, I'm sure. I still get
nervous, but I'm at a place now that I never thought I'd be.
Izzy's been worrying me like crazy lately. She doesn't eat well at
least one meal of the day (today it was all three meals), she's
getting tired easily (she usually falls asleep DURING lunch), and
she'd sleep all morning (and afternoon) if I let her. She also asks
for water all the time. She drinks so much that she leaks through her
diapers on a daily basis. I'm talking dry/slightly moist one minute,
and totally soaked the next. If she keeps this up I'm going to have
to call the doc. I'm hoping it's just teeth/growth spurt, but I just
don't know.
Alice has been more than excited to get back to school this week. She
was even jumping for joy when I told her she had homework to do, and
it was the first thing she wanted to do this morning! I'm so glad we
decided to put her in school.
I do have one good thing to report, however - I'm off the Lovenox!
Thank God.
I'll be going back to the doc on Thursday. Hopefully all goes well.
Ok, I read to the girls, and played with them a bit, and kept them in
check, and talked on the phone, and Skyped with Jess, and surfed the
web, and watched Ponyo for the 900th time, and ate pizza, and took a
nap, but I still consider all of that doing nothing. We're going to
my in-laws tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I don't know if I'm
tired for no good reason, but I certainly am tired.
Matt is back to work after an unintentional week off come Monday. Like
it or not, things will return to normal soon. I'm doing well for the
most part. I woke up this morning with that excruciating pain again
and so I'm more convinced than ever that the pain that sent me to the
ER truly was muscular/skeletal. I think it got better in the hospital
b/c I had the awesome bed that made it so I didn't have to sleep on my
side. Now that I'm home and I have to, it makes perfect sense why it
came back. I'll be talking to my doc about that when I see him in a
few weeks.
Matt is getting really good at giving me the shots. I don't have a
single bruise on my belly (my arms, a different story - OUCH!), just
some pin prick spots at the injection site. He's so good that I barely
feel the needle go in, and sometimes I don't even feel that. I'm sure
he'll be glad when I get the OK to stop the Lovenox!
Thanks for thinking of me, and for the many phone calls I've received
lately. I love you all and it's nice to know that so many of you care.
Isabel Rose
