touring the tree

November was National Blog Posting Month, where you're supposed to blog every day of the month, but I didn't partake this year....  But in December there's a LOT more going on and it's much easier to find things to talk/blog about, so I guess I've started my own blog posting month in December.  I don't plan to post every day, but it's just happened that way so far, I guess.

Anyway, today we put up the Christmas tree.

Here's what Rebecca did while we put up the tree.

She was constantly in the way, so we strapped her in and fed her lots of graham crackers.  She actually did surprisingly well.

My favorite part of this exercise is reminiscing over each ornament as we pull one out of the box.  I don't like it when my husband just takes one out and puts it on the tree--I want to be the one taking each one out because I love seeing it and recalling the memories that go along with it.  Every ornament on the tree has a reason for being there, but man, we've got a LOT of ornaments!  We could easily decorate more than one tree.  My husband even asked me if I wanted to put up another tree (we still have our old tree).  I told him no--keeping Rebecca's hands off of one tree will be hard enough.  I didn't want to have to worry about keeping them off of two trees!

So here's a little tour of some of the ornaments on the tree.  I could put all of them on here and tell you the story behind each one, but that would take me all day.  So here are just a few of my favorites (I have lots of favorites, and didn't take pictures of all of them).

Here's Rachel's new ornament this year.  I don't have to tell you the story behind it....she started school this year, so that's why I picked this ornament.  I was debating between this one, a "Lost my first tooth" ornament, and a Girl Scout ornament.  She loves riding the school bus so much, so I chose this one.

This is Rebecca's ornament this year.  I already mentioned why I chose this one, because of her current obsession with e-i-e-i-o.  She loves the ornament and wants to touch it constantly, but she has actually been better than I expected, and just looks at it and moooooooos a lot.  She has touched some other ornaments, but not this one.  Yet.

Many of our ornaments are from trips we've taken.  This was new this year, from, well, you know where it's from.....

Cinderella's Castle!

This was the first one we ever bought together, on our honeymoon.

The following summer we went to Honduras on a mission trip together.  We found this in the airport right before we left to come home.  I love it (sorry, the focusing was off again...it's a nativity scene, handmade in a clay ornament).

Also that summer we went to the Canadian Rockies--GORGEOUS!!!!!  This is from Maligne Lake, where we took a beautiful boat tour while on that trip.

This is from our trip to San Fransisco, the summer before Rachel was born.

The summer Rachel was one we left her with my parents and went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, a beautiful lodge in the park.  This ornament is huge, but I love it (I couldn't get the camera to focus on the right part, so you can't read that it says Old Faithful Inn on the bottom).

When Rachel was two we took our first family vacation to the Outer Banks.  I love this lighthouse ornament from that trip.

We have lots of others from the other trips we've taken, but I can't show them all.

Last year I found this one and knew I had to get it for Rebecca Joy....

And Rachel's ornament last year (it says "I'm the big sister):

Several ornaments on the tree are from my childhood.  This is from my first Christmas, in 1974:

This is one my grandma made.  I love that I have it and it always makes me remember her.

And this is my very favorite from when I was a little girl.  Every year my dad helped me find just the right place to hang this angel ornament so she could swing on the branch. 

There are lots more...handprints of both girls as babies, hand made ones by Rachel, baby's first Christmas ornaments for both girls, and on an on--I love them all.  Some people have beautifully crafted trees to match the decor in their home.  They're nice, but I don't want that kind of tree.  Give me these memories over a beautiful tree any day.  No one else appreciates these like I do, but I'm thankful every year to have the chance to go down memory lane as I unpack them, reminisce, and hang them up.

So here's what Rebecca's been doing all day.....staring in delight (and touching here and there).

We'll see how it goes for the rest of the month!!!

less is more

As I've been going through Christmas decorations the last couple of days I've realized that there will be more decorations staying in the boxes than being put out this year.  The reason?  I'll give you one guess.

This little stinker....

I can only put things out in places she can't touch.  So that means I can only decorate the mantle and the top of the piano.  She can touch every other surface downstairs except the top of the fridge, which is the only place I can stash my purse so she doesn't get into it, and the kitchen counters, which are already jam packed (because I don't have much counter space to begin with).

Less decorating means fewer slaps on her little hand, and more peace in my home. 

But let's not talk about what's going to happen when we put the Christmas tree up tomorrow.  Ugh.  Usually I LOVE having the Christmas tree up, but not this year.  It's going to be a battle for the next 23 days, let me tell you!  It was rough with Rachel, but Rebecca is 100 times worse in the "getting into things" department than Rachel ever was.

Rudy Update:
For anyone who is interested, Rudy revived and found a cozy hiding spot on top of the phone up on the wall today, safely out of Rebecca's grasp.  Rachel was very happy to see him back in business this morning.  She says bye to him before she goes to school and ran to tell him hi when she got home.  At one point I found her standing in the middle of the kitchen floor just staring at him.  I was wondering what was going through her little mind.


Rebecca looks at him, points and says, "Woo-wie!"  (Her version of "Rudy."  It's also her version of the name, "Woody," who she just learned about after playing with Rachel's Woody doll.)

on the first day of Christmas...

The Christmas season starts December 1st at our house.  For at least a week now Rachel has been counting down the days until December 1st, because she knew that December=Christmas!

So this morning Rudy, our Elf on the Shelf, made his first appearance of the year.  Rachel's completely embraced the elf idea, and couldn't wait to see him.  Every morning Rudy is hiding in a new look out spot, and she searches the downstairs to find him.  According to the book, Rudy watches her throughout the day and reports back to Santa at night.  Then he flies back and into a new spot early in the morning.  The book warns that if you touch the elf he could lose his magic.

This morning she found Rudy sitting on top of the speaker in the family room, next to our advent calendar (another important part of our December).  She was thrilled to see him, but one of the first things out of her mouth was, "What if Rebecca touches Rudy!?"  Oops.  Rudy didn't take into account last night when he chose his spot the fact that there's a very curious 18 month old in the house that will touch anything and everything--especially things that are new, exciting, and different.
Sure enough, later in the day, after Rachel got home from school, and she and I were busy doing something else, we heard a crash in the family room, just as Rebecca started to cry.  I looked in to see Rebecca standing next to the speaker, the advent calendar house on the floor next to her, and Rudy in her hand.

*GASP*

Rachel BURST into tears immediately.  "RUDY!" she screamed.  "She touched Rudy!  Oh no....." she sobbed, "I really wanted him to fly!"

I calmed down a crying Rebecca, who really wasn't hurt after pulling the house down on herself, then tried to calm down a crying Rachel, assuring her that Rudy would be okay.

Over the weekend she saw the Elf on the Shelf special, which was on TV.  In the story the boy who doesn't really believe in elves, touches the elf, knocks him down, and the elf can't fly anymore.  That's why Rachel was so sad--she didn't want Rudy to lose his ability to fly.  In the movie the elf's friends carried him back to the North Pole to a special elf hospital, where they took care of him, and he was able to fly the next morning.  Rachel asked if that's what would happen to Rudy.  Not wanting to lie to her, I said, "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

So Rudy is currently "resting" on the mantle, where Rebecca can't reach him,

and I told Rachel that we'll just have to see tomorrow if he's in a new spot, like usual.

So it's been a catastrophic day on this first day of Christmas.  Hopefully Rudy will remember to choose better places to hide for the rest of the month, out of reach of you know who. 

all I want for Christmas is a cardboard box

Rachel was home "sick" today (her fever was 101.4, but she sure acted like a normal five year old kid all day!).  She spent the day playing.  I guess if you have to miss school and gymnastics, it's best to feel good all day and get to play!

What did she play with?  Her five million toys? 

Oh no....

A free cardboard box.

And every time she got in it, Rebecca wanted in it (if I tried putting Rebecca in it without Rachel, Rebecca wanted out immediately, but if Rachel was there, then she wanted in).

I just don't get it.  Fighting over a cardboard box when there are rooms full of toys in this house.  Why did we buy all of those Christmas presents, when all they really need is a box???

another week, another fever....

UGH!  Rachel's got another fever.  And the way her fevers have been going, it'll likely hang on awhile.  Just at the start of the Christmas season when I'm planning lots of fun things....

Tonight she had to miss her second Girl Scout meeting.  (I went through the meeting with her when I got home so she could still earn her Daisy petal for the night!  But I was so sad going without her.)

Tomorrow she'll miss school and she's so sad that she won't get to learn more about the five senses, which they started talking about today.  She started crying when she was telling me about it, because she doesn't want to miss it.

I just realized that she'll also miss her gymnastics class tomorrow afternoon, which she loves.  We haven't discussed this yet, and I know when I tell her she can't go she'll burst into tears.  Makes me sad just thinking about having to tell her.

Sunday she's supposed to be in the Christmas parade with the Girl Scouts, and even though it's only Monday and it's nearly a week away, I'm guessing the odds aren't really in her favor that she'll get to go.  Her fevers tend to go away and come back every afternoon/evening for quite awhile.

So far there aren't really any other symptoms, except the fever brings on a headache and shivering.  So I don't know what's causing it, since she doesn't have any other complaints.

It's never ending.....

18 months

I can't believe it's been a year and a half since we met our sweet Rebecca!

Everyone comments on how much and how well she talks for 18 months old.  It's hard to keep up with all of her new words, but here are some:

appy=happy
ah-le=waffle
Beppa=Rebecca (she just started saying this today!)
Dee-dee=Rachel
die-die=drive drive (Daddy brought her toy car in the house from the garage and she loves sitting in it, playing drive drive)

I can't think of any more at the moment which I haven't already mentioned on here, but she's a parrot and repeats practically everything we say.

She's learning to run across the floor, instead of just walk.  She climbs up on everything she possibly can and touches every single thing she shouldn't.

She's obsessed with the Baby MacDonald farm video by Baby Einstein, and she's going to be one sad girl when I have to take it back to the library.  All day long she says, "e-i-e-i-e???" asking me if she can watch it.  She helps me sing "Old Macdonald" all the time, making the animal sounds and also singing the "e-i-e-i-o" part (except she changes the "o" to an "e").  I wanted to find her a farm Christmas ornament for the tree this year (I get the girls an ornament every year which goes along with something from that year), but I can't find any locally, and the ones online are more than I want to pay, so I went with Elmo instead, since she likes him and she can say his name  and I finally found one!!  It's a barn with a cow and a pig, with a rooster on top--PERFECT!  I know she'll love it.

She loves things with wheels.....her car, her doll stroller, her grocery cart, and matchbox cars.  She loves walking around with a little matchbox car in each hand.  We bought her a car ramp for Christmas--I hope she likes it!

home again

We enjoyed several days of eating celebrating Thanksgiving with family, and got home earlier this afternoon.

We didn't take many pictures this time, but here are Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grand kids.

 

I didn't go do any black friday shopping this year, but my husband got up at 4 AM and got a few things for the girls that we had already bought them and were much, much cheaper that day, so we'll be able to take the first ones back and save quite a bit of money.  (He wanted me to go with him, but sleep is so precious these days that I wasn't willing to give it up.  Rebecca slept horribly in a new place, so I didn't get a whole lot of sleep.   Here's hoping she sleeps better in her own bed tonight.)  I did do some online black friday shopping, though, and there are several packages on their way.

Is it just me, or do the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas go faster and faster every year?  I can't believe Christmas will be here before I know it....  

happy thanksgiving

Today I'm thankful that the last two days Rebecca has gotten up at an acceptable hour....yesterday is was 7:45!  SEVEN FORTY-FIVE!!!  That's unheard of in this family!  And today it was 6:30.  Both are much more acceptable than the 5:00 or 5:30 wake up call we've been getting from her for the last several weeks.

We're heading up north to visit family.  Have a happy thanksgiving.

Rebecca's dedication

We finally did Rebecca's "baby" dedication (even though she's not really a baby anymore) at church this morning. 

(Not the greatest family picture....)

My parents and my brother and his family came to help us celebrate.

Rachel was scared about standing up on the stage with us, but she did a nice job standing still!

We love you, Rebecca!

date night at the gym

A few months ago I joined the gym where my husband has been going for several years.  I went fairly regularly until I got sick about three (?) weeks ago, and hadn't been again until tonight.  Any sort of endurance I'd built up was completely gone tonight, so it's like starting all over again.  So I just walked the track tonight, to ease myself back into it. 

On the nights that we both go together, we take the girls to the child care they have there.  We've only done it a handful of times, because we don't really like the idea of all of the germs they probably encounter there, so we usually take turns going.  But tonight we both went, so the girls went with us to the child care room (Rachel LOVES going, I should add.  She begs to go most nights one of us is going to the gym.). 

So we dropped them off and went upstairs to start our exercise.  I walked while my husband was lifting.  Then he joined me for a few laps on the track before he did the step mill.  On the laps around the track together, we actually had a conversation without a child interrupting us!  I told him it was like a date.  I said, "Do I have to come to the gym with you just to get a date?" 

Actually, we're going out this weekend for the first time in several months for an actual date (and Christmas shopping for the girls together), so that will be our real date night, but it was a nice little mini date walking around the track tonight!

make new friends, but keep the old...

Unless you were a girl scout, you probably don't know the reference of that title.

And I used it because tonight was our very first Daisy Girl Scout meeting.  Rachel and 7 other kindergarteners learned the Girl Scout promise, sang "Make New Friends," and had the first of many friendship circles. 

It brought back lots of memories of my own days in Girl Scouts.  They were all very sweet and seemed excited to be starting Girl Scouts (except for maybe the girl who said, halfway through, "Are we going to do anything FUN in Girl Scouts?").  Hopefully they'll all be glad to come back next time!

time change woes

I think I've had that blog title before, but I don't remember the time change being this difficult before.  Whoever thought it up definitely didn't have young children to contend with.

Since Sunday morning, Rebecca has started crying at 4:00 AM every morning (this morning was 4:30--maybe she's finally starting to shift--a little???).  Every morning I've gone in, told her it's still nigh night time, rubbed her back a minute, and put her back down.  Thankfully she's at least been quiet after that, and goes back to sleep until 5:30.  Then we listen to her fuss or talk until 6:00, which is the earliest I'll get her up. 

So I'm tired.  Waking up at 4:00 every morning is rough.  I'm able to go back to sleep, usually, from 4-5:30, but it's broken sleep.

Rachel's been waking up at 5:00 or 5:30.  She, at least, goes back to bed on her own, but I still hear her get up and use the bathroom, which is right outside our door.  Ugh. 

My ear is still really bothering me.  I thought it was getting better, but the last two days it's been filled up again.  Both girls are stuffed up again, too.  Will this never end?

I'm ready for sleep....and good health.  

seventeen

At seventeen months, Rebecca continues to talk and talk, and is learning new words every day.  We don't remember Rachel talking this much at this age, so it looks like she's going to give Rachel a run for her money in a year or so, since Rachel is the talker in the family at the moment.

She still loves saying Mommy and Daddy (all day long!).  I can't tell you how many times a day she says, "Daddy?"  and I say, "Daddy went bye bye to work."  Then she'll say either, "Daddy....bye bye," or "gock," which means, "work."   Her ears perk up as soon as she hears his key in the lock in the afternoons and she runs to the door calling, "Daddy!  Daddy!"

She can't say her own name, but whenever she's referring to herself she uses a three syllable word, with the same inflection as "Rebecca."  It sounds like, "ah-DAH-dah."  And for Rachel's name, she sounds kind of like she's saying Daddy, so it's hard to tell when she's talking about Rachel and when she's talking about Daddy.

Many of her other words sound like "gock," as I've mentioned before.  She uses it for sock, rock, truck, book, back, clock, and most other words that end in the "ck" sound!  Her others words are:
ball
up
down
no
nigh-night
bye-bye
Bah-pa (Grandpa)
Ma-Maw (Grandma)
dah (dog--her favorite stuffed animal)
ah-dah (all done)
app-ah (apple)
e-i-e-i (when she wants me to sing "Old MacDonald," which is often lately!)
and lots more little odd words that I can't think of at the moment.

In the last couple of days she's started playing dress up like her sister.  She piles as many bead necklaces around her neck as possible (Rachel started playing with beads right around this age, too), and carrying a purse.  After she puts the purse on her arm she calls, "Bye!" and walks into the other room.  She likes putting on hats and sunglasses, too.  One of these days I'll get a picture.

She loves books, and carries these little three inch square books around much of the day (they fit in her hand easily, which is why I think she likes them).  She doesn't sit still for you to read them to her.  She just wants to carry them around.  She will sit still for a couple of books, though.  She loves "Brown Bear Brown Bear," by Eric Carle and "Time for Bed," by Mem Fox.  She also likes the lift the flap books by Karen Katz.  I have to be careful with those because she's torn the flaps off when I'm not looking, so I have to keep those in her room and we look at them together.  She also likes "Five Little Monkeys," but she'll only sit still for the first two or three monkeys jumping on the bed!  She wags her finger when I say, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed!"  Every time I try to read her any book other than those, she closes the book after just a page or two.  I don't remember if Rachel did that or not, but it's sure frustrating!

She has gotten a little better about not putting everything in her mouth, but she still likes to explore new things this way.  Friday I found her chewing on a AAA battery.  Nice....  She cried when I threw it in the garbage (which is where I thought it was to begin with, so I don't know how she got it).

She's good at playing by herself for stretches at a time.  In the morning I put her in her playpen so I can take a shower and then take Rachel out to the bus.  She'll stay in there for about an hour most days.  And many times throughout the day she'll go in the dining room (our playroom) and play on her own, usually with the play food and dishes.  In the last week she's played a lot with her little people farm.  I have to check on her fairly frequently, though, because if she's quiet for too long, she's usually into something she shouldn't (like a battery!).

I missed my girls today.  I spent most of the day up in bed--still sick.  I thought I was getting better, and spent much of yesterday at a girl scout training, and last night with my parents, who were visiting, but this morning I woke up with my head pounding and my ear throbbing and filled up.  I went back to urgent care (I've never been there before and now I've been there twice in a week!) and he said the ear infection is gone, but there's a lot of fluid built up behind my ear drum, which can cause pain like an ear infection.  So now I'm on a steroid to try and drain it.  I've been really uncomfortable all day and any little sound makes me cringe.  So I spent the day in my room away from my girls.  Every time I tried to come downstairs to be with the family their noise drove me away before too long.  I can't wait until this is gone!!!!  Ugh.

At one point today my husband, who took care of the girls all day, came upstairs and said, "You owe me...."  Then later he said, "I guess this is what they mean when they say, 'in sickness and health.'"  So I know he had a rough day with them....  But I'm so grateful that he was home and could take care of them while I rested in quiet.  Tomorrow will be rough unless this starts getting better quickly. 

trick or treat

It was Rebecca's first year trick or treating.

This is the costume Rachel wore at her age, too.  Rebecca wore a costume last year, but we just pushed her around in the stroller.  This year Daddy took the two girls around just in our cul de sac and Rebecca got some candy of her own. 

Then he brought her back home to me, and she "helped" me pass out candy while Daddy and Rachel went around the rest of the neighborhood.

Helping meant wandering around the driveway and sidewalk, carrying fistfuls of candy, saying "Bye bye" to everyone who came and got candy, and trying to follow them when they left.   So I'd run up and get the bowl, divvy up the candy to the visitors, put the bowl down, and chase Rebecca, over and over.  Thankfully we didn't have as many trick or treaters this year as we usually do, so it didn't involve as much chasing as it may have in other years.

Once she found out you could eat this stuff, she kept trying to take candy out of the big bowl and put it in her mouth, wrapper and all.

I finally let her have a dum dum sucker--her first.  She didn't know what to do with it at first, but as soon as she got one taste, she was hooked.

I made her sit down on the step to eat it, and every time she stood up, I'd take the sucker away and tell her she needed to sit down with it.  So she'd scoot her little bottom backward back on the step so I'd give it back to her.

Rachel had fun and is excited about all of the candy, of course.

At school yesterday Rachel got to dress up, too, and had a halloween parade and party.  She decided to be Little Red Riding Hood at school and Snow White for trick or treating.

So the red cape I made served a dual purpose this year.  And with as much as this girl plays dress up, I'm sure it will get lots more use, too. 

And now I can't believe it's NOVEMBER!!!

pumpkins galore

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa this week because Rachel had a few days off of school.  One of the days we went to a pumpkin farm near their house.

Today Rachel and Daddy made her jack-o-lantern.

And in other news, Rebecca's been sick...and now I'm sick.  I just got back from urgent care, where the doctor told me I have a really bad ear infection.  That would partly explain why I only slept a couple of hours last night.  Hopefully things will start to get better now.  I've had quite enough of all of this.

school picture

Here's our girl!

We're amazed that she's looking at the camera!

this and that

Remember how excited I was about Rebecca finally saying my name?  Well, now she says it over and over and over, usually in a whiny voice ("Mooooomy....Moooooooomy....Moooooooomy........") all day long, and I'm beginning to rethink that!

But here she is saying it:

She also says "Daddy" over and over, too.  She likes to mix up our names sometimes, too.  And Rachel's often "Daddy."  She can't say Rachel, or anything resembling Rachel, so she calls her Daddy.  I'm sure that'll come eventually.  Rachel couldn't say her own name for a long time, either.

Rachel missed three days of school because of her fever, but finally got back to school on Thursday this week.  She's still pretty congested and coughing a ton, but she's feeling and acting like her old self again.

Every time Rebecca sneezes I worry that she's getting it.  It's one thing for your five year old to be sick, but it's a completely different thing for your one year old to be sick, because she can't express what's bothering her, and just cries and whines.  They're both no fun, but a sick baby is just hard.  Hopefully she will stay healthy.

I'm sitting here waiting for a plumber to get here.  Our shower has been dripping.  My husband tried to fix it, and got to the point of no return.  Our water to the whole house is shut off and he can't fix the shower, and we can't turn our water back on until it's fixed, so we're stuck.  And plumbers are EXPENSIVE!!!  And on Sunday???  Much, much worse....  I told my husband he should've become a plumber.  On second thought, maybe I'll learn how to be a plumber.   Then I could fix our stuff AND get paid tons of money to fix other people's showers on Sundays when they're stuck with no water.

This week, though, I'm embarking on a new adventure...that of a Daisy Girl Scout leader.  My friend, Emily, who is leading with me, aptly explained the training process we've been going through as, "Taking a drink from a fire hose."  I'm overwhelmed with how much they throw at you and ask leaders to do before you can even meet with the girls.  It's surprising they ever get moms to agree to lead!  We had to do an online training, an at-home study, and two classes of training.  There's training for cookie sales (they tell you to have a different parent in charge of cookie sales...hopefully we can find someone interested and able to go to the training!).  There's a training if you want to go camping (thankfully our girls are too young for that right now).  There's a form to fill out if you want to do this....or that....a form for EVERYTHING!  It's very overwhelming.  But I'm anxious to finally get started.  This week we're meeting with the parents and registering the girls. I don't know yet when our first meeting with the girls will be (we still have one training to do in a couple of weeks and we have to wait until the contract with the school, where we'll be meeting, is finalized), but hopefully we can get started soon.  Rachel's looking forward to it.  Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

sickness still

I thought we were all on the way to health, but apparently not.  Rachel started a cold on Thursday night, which turned into a fever and ear ache on Sunday night.  Yesterday she had to miss her first kindergarten field trip.  It was a sad, sad morning in our house.  She got herself all dressed, hoping that if she could get dressed, she could go to school and not miss her trip.  When I told her she wouldn't be able to go because of her fever, she was devastated and in tears.  She was begging me to go, but I had to keep saying no.  Finally I had to tell her we had to stop talking about it because her nose was getting even more stuffed up with all of her crying.  She finally got over it and felt okay most of the day. 

We went to the doctor, though, because of the ear ache, and sure enough, it was an ear infection this time (I was happy it wasn't another false alarm, and that the antibiotic will hopefully take care of it!).  Since she was feeling okay most of the day, I thought she may be able to go to school today, but she woke up in the middle of the night last night again with a fever. 

So no school again, today, and she's on the couch under two blankets at the moment, shivering with her fever.  She just took some more ibuprofen so hopefully it's on its way down again. 

Poor girl....we were going to make something with her Easy Bake Oven (something we can only do when her sister is napping) and she was so excited, but then she started shivering so badly that she couldn't even stand up.  I had to insist that she get on the couch with some blankets.  "But I can d-d-d-d-o-o-o-o-o it," she insisted, in between shivers and tears. 

Now it's time for her sister to get up, so our Easy Bake Oven window is now closed.....I told her we'd try and do it this afternoon or tonight after Rebecca goes to bed.  We'll see.

The one nice thing about her being sick (gotta look on the bright side!) is that she's very cuddly and we've gotten to spend lots more time together. 

I enjoy that....but I do hope she starts feeling better, soon.  It's not fun to watch your little one be sick.

fall farm fun

We spent the morning at a pumpkin farm (we actually didn't get any pumpkins because Rachel's going on a pumpkin field trip on Monday and will get one then, and we already have two, so we just went for the fall fun).  A great time was had by all!  Enjoy the pictures!

I really wanted pictures of the girls in the sea of pumpkins....as you can see, it didn't work out so well.  I had to hold Rebecca to get her to even face the camera.

Lots of slides and such....Rachel loved them!

Rebecca didn't want to hold still for pictures, so none of these turned out so well either (which is why Rachel's trying to hold her and Rebecca's screaming in protest)...

Rebecca loved the goats.  Rachel wasn't quite as friendly with them. 

They both liked looking at the camels, but didn't get close.

Family shots



Rachel wanted to be the leader in the corn maze, so we let her.  She got us out...but we came out the same way we came in, so we didn't really make it through the maze, but she had fun!

There were "gerbil wheels," which Rachel enjoyed, and she

loved this straw tunnel and went through it many times.

They both loved the corn box.

There was also a straw box.

Lots of fun things to ride....

And finally, a soybean maze (a tamer version of a corn maze).

It was a fun day!

what's my name?

I have been asking Rebecca this for a month or two now.  And she finally has the right answer!

"Mom-mieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Sometime it comes out a little twisted....Meee-ma, My-mieee, or Ma-my," but more often than not now she's getting it right.  "Mommy!"

She's also just recently started calling my husband "Daddy."  It's been "Dada" for awhile, but just in the last few days she's started calling us "Mommy and Daddy."  She looked at a picture of the two of us yesterday and said, "Mommy....Daddy."

Love it!

the snow-less snow day

It's 76 degrees with a blue sky.  A gorgeous fall day.  But it was a snow day....  sort of. 

My routine in the morning is to turn on the news while Rebecca drinks a cup of milk.  The big story this morning on the news is that a tanker truck crashed on the ramp of the highway just a minute from our house.  It was the ramp from one huge highway to another huge highway.  The tank contained gasoline, and the driver died.  Both highways were closed in both directions.

I told my husband because the intersection of those two highways is right by where he works and he would have to find a different way to get there.  But dummy me, I didn't even think about the fact that it would affect Rachel's bus route, as well. 

We went about the rest of our morning as usual, and were waiting for the bus, which didn't come.  When someone mentioned the crash, I put two and two together and realized that that's why the bus wasn't coming.  One by one parents decided to drive their kids to school, so I grabbed Rebecca (still in her PJs) and we piled in the van to head to school.  Rachel was about in tears.  Any change in plans, and she is all bent out of shape, and she wanted to ride the bus to school.

Well, I didn't get very far until I realized that not only was Rachel going to be late to school, but I wasn't sure I could even make it to school.  Every way I tried to go was either completely at a stand still or closed.  After 40 minutes, I wasn't even a mile from my house.  Then the last attempt to head in the direction of school was blocked by a police car.  I couldn't even go that way.  I had to head home.

Rachel sobbed most of the way home (which took another 40 minutes).  She really didn't want to miss school.  The only way I finally got her to stop crying was to put a story in the CD player and she eventually started listening to it.  Rebecca was crying, too, because she was missing her naptime.  Finally, once Rachel stopped crying, Rebecca stopped crying, too, and fell asleep in her car seat.  I felt like crying the whole time, completely frustrated by the situation.

So Rachel was home today, and it's felt like a snow day, since we're stuck at home.  Traffic is STILL completely backed up EVERYWHERE because those two major highways are still closed.  They may be closed through tomorrow morning's rush hour, too.  They cancelled afternoon kindergarten because of the hassle to get kids to school. 

We were supposed to have a play date this afternoon but had to cancel it because neither of us can get to the park where we're supposed to meet! 

Definitely feels like a snow day--sunshine, blue skies, and all.

when it rains, it pours

Friday night, one minute Rachel was outside riding bikes with a friend, and the next minute she was laying on the couch with a 102+ degree fever!  All of a sudden she said, "My head really hurts!" and I felt her forehead, which was burning up.  She's spent the weekend running a fever anywhere from 99.4 to 103.5.  Today's been better, though, so hopefully she's on the mend and won't have to miss school tomorrow.  We'll see.

Then I woke up this morning with a terrible headache.  I get lots of headaches, but I rarely wake up with one, and if I do, I can take something and it goes away.  But not today.  Nothing has touched it.  That's on top of the really bad sore throat I've had since Wednesday.

My husband had a fever several days this week and was first diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia at the urgent care center, but later in the week he went to his doctor, who said it was something viral.

So we're just a picture of health around here....

this is a test

I think I may be able to post videos now, after five years of doing this and not much success with it.  This isn't a very exciting video, but I just wanted to try it out.  This is a typical afternoon in the life of Rebecca.

Enjoy!

thankful

I just watched, helplessly, as Rachel tumbled down the stairs below me.  One of the scariest moments of my life.

She had just gotten ready for bed and was all excited about a new nightgown she was wearing and wanted to show Daddy.  I told her to hurry up, and sat down on her bed to wait for her to come back so I could read her her story.  She started quickly down the first couple of stairs and then I heard thumping.  It took a second to register what was happening, and when I realized she was falling I bolted out of her room to the top of the stairs.  When I got to the top I saw her tumble, sideways, curled up in a ball, down the last 1/3 of the stairs to the very hard ceramic tile at the bottom.  I ran down as fast as I could and scooped her up in my arms.

It took her a few seconds to make any sound.  She cried, but not too much.  She was more scared and shaken up than anything.  Her leg and shoulder hurt, she said.  But she could walk and move everything okay. 

Then I started crying.

So thankful.


(Now if I can only get the image of her falling out of my head.

She has some pretty bad rug burns on one leg and a big bruise developing on her shoulder.  It could've been sooooo much worse.)

one of those days

12:15 PM
I leave for the bank while my husband is home for lunch because I just HAVE to get out of the house.   Rebecca has been fussing ALL morning and NOTHING is making her happy. No fever...just LOTS and LOTS of fussing. She wants to eat, doesn't want to sit in her high chair. Not allowed to eat out of her high chair. Doesn't like that. Fuss. Wants to be held. Pick up. Fuss--wants down. Fuss--wants back up. Over and over and over.

12:35 PM
I return home.  Rebecca is in bed, screaming.  Daddy put her there because she wouldn't stop crying and was rubbing her eyes.

1:11 PM
Rebecca finally is quiet, after lots of screaming.  I breathe a sigh of relief.

1:44 PM
Rachel yells down the stairs to me--something she KNOWS she's not supposed to do when her sister is in bed.

1:44 PM
Rebecca wakes up crying--only 33 minutes of sleep.  I yell at Rachel in frustration.

1:46 PM
Rebecca is screaming in bed, again.  I'm waiting for her to go back to sleep.  It may never happen.  My head hurts.  I don't want to go get her, because it will just be a repeat of this morning.

Wondering what has gotten into my baby these last few weeks.  I need some Calgon to take me away....