Her favorite part of the day? The fact that she's now old enough to
have a library bag and check out a book from the school library. She's
been talking about it for days now, and one of her teachers told me
that that was the first thing Alice told her this morning. I am SO not
surprised!!
It was unusually hot, so I opened the window and the sliding door
causing a fabulous breeze to come in and it cooled me instantly. I
surfed the web trying to get the urge to fall back asleep. Before I
knew it it was 6am and a nice breeze wasn't the only thing coming in
the window. Unbeknownst to me it was drizzling and the intense wind
was blowing it in the house - all over a stack of mail and the rest of
out green cabinet.
Strike 2.
By 7:30am the rain was heavy and the wind was incredible. Then the
sirens went off.
Strike 3.
It was going to be a bad day.
You may have heard that a huge storm passed through here that
stretched from Canada all the way to Tennessee that was in front of
the strongest low pressure front in the month of October ever recorded
- according to my local news man. Needless to say I was pretty glad I
didn't have to be anywhere today.
The girls and I played and I finally decided I'd better work on
Alice's costume again as she needs it for Friday and Sunday! Good
thing I did too because the hand sewing is taking me much longer than
I expected.
Tonight Alice and Matt carved the pumpkins - designs totally by Alice.
One even has a crown because Alice's just had to be a princess.
After my princess went to bed I watched Rocky Horror and then,
unfortunately, I watched The Amityville Horror and now I'm going to
have to watch something happy before heading to bed.
Stupid Halloween.
We finally had the chance to start carving our pumpkins tonight. So
far they've just been gutted, tomorrow night we'll carve. Alice had a
hell of a good time fishing out seeds and spooning out pumpkin guts
into a bowl. I can't wait to carve them!
P is also for Parent/Teacher Conference.
This morning was my first one ever and I'm happy to report that Alice
is doing well. She excels in most academic areas, but she needs some
work in other areas. Nothing surprising, it's stuff we see at home too
like being aware of other people's personal space, sharing is not
grabbing toys from another kid, she resists transition from one thing
to another, etc. It's always good to know how she is for other people
and now I know where she needs work.
Thought I'd mention that Izzy is still not eating well. I've had to
resort to sitting her on my lap and playing the "Mommy take a bite,
now Izzy take a bite" game to get her to eat anything. I'm starting to
really feel like she needs her meds adjusted because it's starting to
feel like her first 9 months of life all over again. Thankfully she
has a well baby visit on Thursday. Hopefully it's nothing more than
her reflux acting up. I'll keep you posted.
Alice was so full of anticipation this morning before her guests
arrived that she ran around the card table over, and over, and over
again. She invited three of her friends from preschool (the perfect
number of kids, if you ask me) and to say that the house was instantly
full of life is an understatement.
I can see why Alice chose these three girls, they really all mesh so
well together and every one of them (even Alice) were very well
behaved. When they painted pumpkins their difference in age was
surprisingly quite apparent. Two of the girls are 8ish months older
than the other two, and while they both painted quite detailed
pumpkins, the other two mixed up the paints and slapped it haphazardly
on the pumpkin.
Afterwards we made pita pizzas. Of course I provided toppings even
though I knew the kids were just going to want cheese. I was right, of
course, but they didn't go to waste as the adults who were here used
most of them up.
I can tell Alice is growing up as the four girls spent a lot of time
trashing, I mean playing in her bedroom WITH THE DOOR CLOSED. At one
point Matt went back there to tell them something and Alice promptly
told him that they were having a tea party for girls only, NO BOYS
ALLOWED! I tell you I swear she was just a baby yesterday.
The cake was great and received lots of great presents from her
friends. In the end we had about three hours of good fun and I don't
regret having just a simple, small party instead of a sleepover. And I
know Alice had great fun!
Tomorrow we're providing grub for our weekly trip to Grandma and
Grandpa Bathje's. Not really a party, but there will be more pizza and
even more cake. In a few short hours my baby will be four years old.
Man, time flys when you're having fun.
Anyway, Alice's friend bday party is tomorrow! Alice and three of her
best friends from school will be painting pumpkins, making pita
pizzas, and eating what I hope is a yummy princess bday cake. They
are all going to be dressed as princesses too - I know Alice is going
to flip!
Well Alice missed school today. She's been getting sick, but this
morning she was running a fever so I kept her home. Hopefully she's
better by Saturday so we don't have to call off her princess bday
party. That will be one devastated little girl if that happens.
Let's hope we don't have to go through that again anytime soon.
I hope.
Get better, Dad. We love you.
Side note: thinking of you, Grandpa. We hope you get to come home
soon. Love, all of your Chicagoland girls (and Matt).
I thought for sure Alice wouldn't even try the slide because she isn't
a big fan of regular slides, but she proved me wrong! First she went
down the smaller slide and loved it. Then she went down the big one
and didn't want to stop! I never thought she'd do it, but she did!
There was a large animatronic giant there who was supposed to be from
Jack and the Beanstalk who told us all about the things we could do on
the farm. The pic is of Izzy being absolutely enamored with it. She
also loved the train ride, again, and the hayride.
At the end of the trip we picked out some pumpkins (and a bag of
kettle corn that is nearly gone) and left for home. It was a fabulous
day spent with the people I love and the weather couldn't have been
more perfect (this time)!
After the day I've had, I sure as heck hope so.
I've dealt with miss Sassy Pants nearly from the moment she woke up
until bedtime, almost falling on my butt at Meijer due to slipping in
a puddle of water in the deli section, having my debit card PIN not
work in the checkout line (I just got a new card, but the paperwork
said that the PIN wouldn't change, but apparently it did), spent an
hour and a half at the doctor office for an appointment that should
have taken a half hour, spent FAR too long on the phone with Chase
trying to figure out the PIN situation, etc.
I'm heading to bed, I'm ready for this day to be over!
2) How nice it was to finally put a face to the names Alice has been
talking about. And meeting their moms was nice as well.
3) Riding the kiddie train with Izzy. Alice was already up front with
her buddies, but I really wanted to give Iz the chance to experience
the train too, so we sat in back. To say she loved it is an
understatement! When it was over, I passed Iz off to one of Alice's
teachers so I could get out easier, and she didn't want to come back
to me! She was very upset when we left the train area.
4) Having a cell phone. With out one I would have wondered if the trip
was canceled or not and I probably would have gone back home before
the rest of the bunch arrived. I got there super early (I know how
congested traffic can be in the morning, plus I had construction to
deal with) and it was raining. I was able to call the school, but no
one answered. Thankfully my friend Kim had talked to the school
director and I knew to stick around.
5) That the weather gods were smiling on us. It stopped raining
LITERALLY at the moment our tour was supposed to start. The sun didn't
come out until our group was leaving, though.
6) Hay rides. I haven't been on one in ages. I forgot how fun they
are. Alice, of course, had to sit with her buddies Zoe and Emily. They
had a ball.
7) Helping hands. Several people helped me out today by either taking
Alice through a part of the farm that didn't allow strollers, or
grabbing Alice's hand when I struggled with the stroller in the
gravel, etc. It was nice that they helped me out like that. Wish I
didn't have to bring the silly thing.
8) Staying after the group left to play in the awesome playground with
Emily and her mom. For one thing, the toys were so fun, and we had the
whole area to ourselves for about 20 minutes. We left when a group of
1st graders came charging through!
9) The bounce house. Again we had this all to ourselves and the two
girls bounced for another 20 minutes or so. They played hard!
10) All of us napping peacefully after we ate a late lunch when we got
home. Even Momma was pooped!
Isabel Rose
