Fall fun

We have been very busy on the weekends with fall activities.

Every year we head to my parent's house in MI and go to a local farm to pick out pumpkins and go apple picking.

To make sure that the kids are getting lots of exercise, we got them out to a local woody trail so that they could run around under the beautiful changing leaves.

CP had a work trip and it was nice enough for pumpkin carving to do it outside, so Wes mainly drew on his pumpkin with markers, while I mostly cut Izzy's pumpkin for her since I couldn't find the kid-friendly pumpkin carving knives.

The day of Halloween the snow started early and didn't stop until about 6pm so we ended up with cold and snowy Halloween! Izzy went with her current obsession, a unicorn, and Wes had a scary glow in the dark skeleton costume....but refused to wear the mask and opted for a hat.

Day in the Life- Fall 2019

Day in the Life- Fall 2019

Thursday, October 17th

CP is 43, NSC is 40, Izzy turns 6 in one month, Wes is 3.25. 

Marshmallow and Cocoa are ?

It has taken me two weeks to edit this and post it. Such is my life these days.

3:30 am- I wake up to Izzy crying. She had a bad dream and wants me to sleep with her. That is not going to happen so I rub her back and talk to her about good things she can think about before she lets me go back to bed.

5:30am- my alarm goes off and CP gets out of bed to shower and have breakfast. I roll back to sleep. In my dream I am super pregnant and about to have a baby (uhhhh not going to happen).

6:30am- CP wakes me up by turning on the light in our room and does the same for the kids in their rooms. I get out of bed to go to the bathroom but need to wait for Izzy to finish peeing. Wes is still hiding in his bed. Izzy runs back into her room to put her clothes on but starts crying because the pants are too tight. I check the label and they are last year's pants so I get her another bigger pair. Wes is yelling for me to help him get dressed so I head into his room while telling him to ask nicely. I get him dressed and then kids head downstairs with CP to get some grapes. I put in my contacts and get dressed quickly to head downstairs.

6:50am- CP is unloading the dishwasher and I tell him that he should leave. Kids give CP hugs, I give him a kiss goodbye. Kids start fighting over stickers (eye roll). I make the kids get their shoes on and jackets as we are heading to school soon. I text my neighbor that her daughter can come over whenever she is ready. I get the kids out the door and turn on the car to warm it up a bit. Today is the first day our neighbor's daughter will drive with me to school and she is hesitant. Her mom has to walk her over and I try to pump her up by saying that she can sit in the back with Izzy and that we have cool sliding doors (this is her first time being in a car with anyone that is not family). I cringe at the mess that is my car but I guess it could be worse?

7:10am- We eventually get her in, everyone gets buckled up and I slowly drive the girls to Kindergarten. Wes talks nonstop.

7:25am- I drop off the girls and then deal with Wes' crying fit because I won't pick him up to walk to the car. I finally get him in the car after refusing to pick him up and we drive to his school.

7:40am- Drop Wes off, see friends on the way out and head back to my house. Make a cup of coffee with Sugar Free Peppermint Mocha creamer, make eggs and eat on a corn tortilla with a little bit of salsa. Spend too much time reading the news (Elijah Cummings died- oh no!).

8:15am- I head upstairs to turn my computer on. Check email and start to get settled into work.

9:15am- I check my schedule and realize that I should work out now so that I have time to shower before I have to get on camera for a later meeting. I head downstairs to do Day 10 of 100 Morning Meltdown (Beachbody). Thankfully it is re-vibe which is a stretching day. We did a lot of leg work and lifting yesterday so this feels nice.

9:40am- I'm walking up the stairs when my colleague calls and we have a quick conversation about our onsite visit to a community next week.

10am- First scheduled phone call of the day.  I'm mostly lost in the conversation as it is around work plan management on our contracts so I mostly just listen.

10:40am- Decide to quickly shower in between calls. Usually I try to work out and shower and then start my day a little later but that didn't happen today.

11am- Another call which is scheduled for an hour but ends up only lasting 15 minutes. Woo hoo! I do other work.

12:15pm- Downstairs for lunch. Salmon, butternut squash soup and a little 4 bean salad while I read The Daily 202 from the Washington Post. I do the dishes.

12:45pm- Back upstairs and working again. Since it's after lunch it's time for Marshmallow to start bothering me because the cats have now eaten all of their dry food and are DESPERATE FOR FOOD. FEED ME!

1:25pm- I'm a bit tired so I head downstairs to make some hi-caffeinated black tea to warm me up AND wake me up!

1:30pm- Our internal team meeting starts and we weren't going to do an on-camera call after all because two of the team members are gone, but one team member just got an adorable kitten so we turn on our cameras to ooh and aah. Marshmallow is close by so I pick her up to show her off too. A quick 30 minute call.

2:45pm- I go into my candy drawer and eat a bunch of Skittles. Damn. Afterward I pop a stick of Watermelon sugar free gum into my mouth to try to curb my sweet tooth. I work on a presentation for next week and print out some documents.

3:45pm- I hear a squirrel squawking outside, possibly at me so I open up the window so that the cats can hear and see the squirrel. They get very interested in watching him race up and down the tree outside and end up jumping on the windowsill for a closer look.

4pm- I order a 12 cup bundt pan for pick up at Target in a few hours for my mom's birthday tomorrow (we are headed up to MI). I grab a few pretzel thins for a snack as well.

4:30pm- I need to get out of the house so I take a quick walk a few blocks away to mail a letter. I start listening to the newest Pod Save America podcast on the debate but end up calling CP to figure out dinner. I have a late call and CP is headed out with a friend tonight so we decide that after CP picks up the kids, he will pick up Subway on the way home. I head upstairs and find out that you can order Subway online.

5pm- I jump on a call with a community on the West Coast. Looks like I will have to fly out there in mid November.

5:40pm- CP texts to let me know that kids are crying. There may have been something that I was supposed to attend tonight??? I have no idea what he is talking about and hope that he is joking.

5:55pm- Off my call and head downstairs to feed the cats before the crying kids come home.

6- Izzy is crying because we missed something to do with dodgeball and dinner? (I found out the next morning that we were not receiving any emails from the enrichment director and we did miss something the night before.) The kids and I sit down to eat Subway and are halfway through dinner when CP's friend arrives from the train (they are going out for dinner and drinks).

6:28- I rush the kids out the door and drive Izzy to Girls Scouts. It's nice to be able to drop her off so that Wes and I can run an errand. As we leave the church, I ask Wes if he needs to go to the bathroom, he says no. As soon as I have him buckled in the car, he tells me that he has to go to the bathroom. Seriously?!?!? So we head back inside to the bathroom.

6:40- Off again and headed to Target to pick up the bundt pan. When I am walking through the self-checkout area, a woman is having trouble (English is definitely not her first language), so I help her check out.

7:25- Wes and I are back at the church and find Izzy in the gym holding a can of root beer on her knee. I guess she banged her knee but as soon as I arrive, she starts running around with her friends so she is clearly fine.

7:40- I wrangle the kids in their jackets and we head home. I get both of them upstairs and start with getting Wes to use the bathroom, put Wes' foot in a water bath then slap a Compound W bandaid on his wart on the bottom of his foot, and then brush his teeth. 

We head into his room to put on his pajamas while Izzy brushes her teeth and puts on her pajamas.

 The kids fight over what book I should read but finally settle on Marlon Bundo (the John Oliver book). Their dialogue is hilarious as at the end, the two boy bunnies marry- Wes-" How old are the bunnies? I think 5 or 6." Izzy- "You have to be older to marry. Bunnies don't marry."

I ask Izzy to head to her room while I put Wes to bed. I say good night to Wes and tuck him into his blankets. 

I head into Izzy's room and she is worried about having bad dreams again tonight. I tell her a few things to think about as she is sleeping.

8:21- I head downstairs and change a load of laundry and scoop the cat litter. While watching Grey's Anatomy I make soup. 

The cats start licking each other which means they will be fighting at some point tonight. 

I then take out the recycling.

9:40- I finish making the soup, Grey's is over, and it's time for the cats to play. I start This is Us as I wash dishes. 

10:10- I package up the soup to put in the freezer.

10:30- CP gets home. I bring the soup down to the freezer. We talk for a bit and head upstairs. I change into pajamas, brush my teeth, take out my contacts and get into bed. I kiss CP goodnight and the light goes off at 11pm.

Should have known better

Ugh. I did something really stupid about two months ago. We were invited over to a friend’s BBQ and impromptu soccer game (they are Costa Rican- I think they called it a milangro?). I started out the soccer game wearing sneakers but the game was being played in their side yard which had a slight hill to it and my sneakers tripped me up a few times. My friend noted that people are supposed to play in bare feet, so I took my shoes off. BIG MISTAKE.

My feet didn’t hurt during the game...in fact it was nice to run around in bare feet for once. But as soon as I woke up the next morning I knew I had made a huge mistake and my plantar fasciitis had reared its ugly head again. Since then I have tried running a few times and even set out to start my 15k running plan but decided that it wasn’t worth the pain.

So I am currently signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k early next month but won’t be ready for it. I dropped down to the 5k this week since I could run that in my sleep (albeit slowly). I really like running the race and would feel weird wearing around the gear if I didn’t actually run....

What a bummer. I’m sick of PF being a constant in my life and always messing up my ability to run and enjoy it.

Trip to NH

It had been FOUR YEARS since we had been back to NH, the last time being after CP's grandmother died. I wasn't even pregnant with Wes yet. It was a long overdue trip, although it was a bit annoying for CP to figure out how to jump between his divorced parents while also seeing friends and getting out to do fun things.

We flew in Thursday into Boston, grabbed our rental car and headed up to NH. I tried to tell the kids about all of the cool things in NH, including the Old Man in the Mountain (RIP). The ENTIRE TRIP, despite both me and CP telling Wes over and over that the OMitM was not a real man, but what looked like the face of a man in the side of a mountain, Wes kept asking about "the man." He was very worried about the man. (*sigh*)

Friday we got to hang out with CP's childhood friends and although it had been a while since we have seen them, it was great to see how big some of their kids had gotten and to hang out with them. We told Izzy that we were going to Dennis' house and she said "Why are we going to Dr. Bob's house?" She thought that we were going to her dentist's house. Silly girl. That night we hung out with CP's aunt and uncle and Wes spiked a 102.5 fever while CP was with him at urgent care.

Wes knocked out on the couch with a fever

Amazingly enough, Wes rallied and despite getting a later start than we had planned for, we headed up with CP's mom to hike Franconia Notch State Park (Flume). We told Wes that if he was able to hike the entire two miles by himself without anyone carrying him he would get ice cream before lunch. Amazingly enough, he did it all by himself and enjoyed his ice cream.

Starting the hike

Celebrating the fact they both made it to the top by themselves!

We were super close to where we got married so after lunch, we stopped by the Inn and took some pictures since it is almost our 10 year anniversary! We were going for a nice picture of the four of us in front of the Inn's sign when the kids decided to drop on their knees and pretend they were tigers. We just had to laugh.

The next day we did a 10 mile canoe trip down a local river. CP and I had Wes in our canoe while Izzy was in a canoe with my MIL and her husband. 

They fought almost the entire time and I felt bad for Izzy because she seemed pretty bored. He was being pretty condescending towards my MIL and I wasn't too excited for Izzy to hear that and to think that was okay. We all survived but we were pretty happy to get out of those canoes. Afterwards we took Izzy on a tour of CP's childhood schools so that Wes could get a car nap.

I was supposed to leave that night for Chicago but thunderstorms cancelled my flights so I ended up staying in the hotel to work all day while CP and the kids went to the beach. I had a tremendously hard time getting out of NH the following night and barely made my connecting flight (which was also delayed due to bad weather/lightning) and didn't get home until after 2:30am. CP and the kids came home that night and Izzy had her first day of Kindergarten the next day.

After our trip I mentioned to CP that it can't be another four years before we go out to NH. His parents are getting older and it's a good chance to take a fun vacation and get out to the mountains.

Kindergarten

Trying to catch up on blog posts....

August 21st was Izzy's first day of Kindergarten. I was so worried about Wes and not that worried about Izzy because she has been excited (but also nervous) to start Kindergarten for a while now. Her "first" day was so silly as it was basically an hour orientation at her enrichment class where the kids drew pictures while the teachers talked to the parents. Izzy ended up knowing a bunch of kids in her class and every time someone came in that she knew, she would stand up, give a huge wave, say their name, and beckon them to come over. It was pretty cute. 

I had thought that we would go get pedicures together and then head out to lunch but her best friend and mom said they were going to paint some pottery and go out to lunch so Izzy decided she would rather do that. We ended up having a nice time with them before we headed over to her district Kindergarten orientation. She didn't really know anyone in the class but had a good time decorating a picture frame.

It was such an odd day that I didn't end up crying or getting weepy at all. However, Izzy has been a bit weepy every night she gets home from Kindergarten. Older kid moms have told me that this is pretty normal and that it will taper off soon. She loves the fact that she gets to get on the school bus every day to travel from one school to the other and thinks that she is a super big kid now. 

I was so worried about how Wes would do at daycare once Izzy left and yet he has done great. The first week his friends happened to be in class already so they would come running up to play with him and make drop off much easier. I'm assuming the crying and clingy-ness I had with trying to drop Wes off during the summer (even when Izzy was still there) was just a phase. Some days it takes a few minutes but generally once I can get him to agree to "push" me out the door he is good to go.

So far so good for this school year.

Off to Kindergarten!

Last day at the same school for a few years! *sniff sniff*

You guys, I can’t believe it but Izzy will be in Kindergarten next Wednesday. I had been all casual about it and it seemed so far away until August 1st hit. Then suddenly THIS was the month that Izzy went to K.

WHAT?!?!? 

Today she has one last day at daycare, we head to NH for a quick family vacation, and then next week I will go to two different orientations with her (half day Kindergarten orientation and then the half day Kindergarten enrichment program orientation). I’m going to do my best not to cry....

I’m curious to see how Wes does at daycare without Izzy. I assume we will drop him off first every morning but next week he moves to an older room with different teachers and I know that Izzy helps Wes immensely when I drop both of them off in the same room together. Once he doesn’t have Izzy by his side is he going to meltdown every morning during dropoff? How is he going to do throughout the day? We often found them playing together outside when we picked them up.

Moving to real school also means not taking your kid out of school for random days and a school calendar chock full of closed days throughout the year. Izzy will also have to take the bus from one program to another. Taking the bus is something she has been dreaming about for two years so she should be excited.

Off we go into a new phase of life!

Wes is THREE!!!

Wes is THREE!

Birthday balloons!

He had an amazing birthday by starting with a tour of our local firehouse with friends/parents and then we had a BBQ at our house with everyone. The reason we decided on a firehouse tour is because a few months ago we were at our local ice cream place. Wes saw firefighters in the line and asked to talk to them (he talks to anyone- and I mean anyone)...in the conversation they asked if he wanted to come see the fire truck in a nearby parking lot. I have never seen a kid shove an ice cream cone down his mouth faster. After our private tour with the firefighters, every time we saw a fire truck Wes would yell out "my firefighter friends!" Hence the firehouse tour.

We also had a family dinner a week before where CP made steak and corn (one of Wes' favorite things to eat) and he got to open up his presents two days early because I was a bad mother and had to be in CA for work on his real birthday. He's three so he won't remember that I wasn't there on his real birthday but I still felt bad.

Birthday firehouse tour

Height- 40" (unofficial)

Weight- 39 pounds (unofficial- with clothes on)

Diapers- NO MORE DIAPERS OR PULLUPS! I guess the last time I wrote an update like this on Wes he was two (I'm a horrible blogger these days). A few months ago we took the plunge and even though Wes wasn't interested in potty training, we powered through. He got pee very quickly and mastered poop only two or three weeks later. Since he has been waking up dry for both nap and nighttime, we pulled the pullups as well. We didn't even have to do any nighttime training! YAY!

Milestones- Oh man I feel like he has so many in the past year. He has been able to pedal tricycles and his motorcycle for a while and his hand/eye coordination seems to be pretty good. He is also a fast runner. While camping this year he went on his first rollercoaster at a local carnival in WI and also went on his first water slide (in an inner tube with CP).

First rollercoaster

He is definitely not as adventurous as Izzy and needs us to do something with him at least a few times before he is willing to do it on his own. A few months ago we moved him to a big boy bed with the guard rail however I'm not sure he needs it because he has slept in a bed with no rails before at my parent's place in MI and hasn't fallen out.

Proud of his big boy bed

Wes went to his first movie in a theater- Toy Story 4!

Language- I didn't think that it was possible but Wes talks more than Izzy. He is still learning the art of not interrupting and will often yell "No! I'm talking" if Izzy tries to talk over him. He loves to sing different songs like Frozen (his favorite line? "Frozen fractals all around"), random Raffi songs (like Bananaphone), Sing a Song of Sixpence, etc.

Wes' face when he heard he was getting early birthday presents

Favorite Toy- In the past year his favorite toy has not changed- it is still trains. He will still come home and play with his Thomas trains almost every night. We were not planning on getting him any toys for his birthday this year but he has literally been talking about the Thomas super station for 6 months now- ever since a friend of ours started to give us her son's old Thomas the Trains magazines (which of course has super station ads in them)- so because we couldn't think of anything else, super station it is.

Strawberry picking

Favorite Book- Wes really likes to read the Thomas the Train magazines at night. He is also obsessed with only one story called "Cookies" in the Frog & Toad book.

Sleep- Wes gets to sleep by 8-8:30 every night and has slept in to 8:30am on the weekends (we get him up around 6:40am during the week). When putting him to bed we brush teeth, put pajamas on, read books, sing him two songs, put blankets on him, and turn on his turtle light before hopefully leaving the room. In the past month or so he has started to stall- "I have to go potty. I need some water. I need to give Daddy a hug." etc. He has also become afraid of monsters and bad dreams so we remind him that the cats keep the monsters away and his dream catcher above his bed takes away his bad dreams. I hope this phase ends soon.

Playing on the new climbing dome

Clothes- In 4t clothes and size 11 shoes.

Eating- Wes is a good eater and he has even started to like fish if he can squeeze some lemon on it. We recently went out to a sushi place and he housed some soft shell crab (that I didn't really like) and instead of getting a kids meal he opted for the ramen. It was awesome! Of course he is a regular kid and LOVES mac n cheese as well. If he could eat fruit all the time, he would.

Soft shell crab

Teeth- He now has all of them and it will be about two more years before they start falling out.

Illness- Over the past year? Ha. Nothing major. This year we didn't have an ER visit (woo hoo!) and his lungs seem to be able to handle winter colds better. However, camping this year he got bitten by mosquitos- A LOT- some of them blistered and one of his legs was hard and swollen for a few days so I think he has skeeter syndrome. :-( (We used plenty of bug spray) Not much we can do but to try to keep the bugs away as much as possible.