Still here!

Audrey has adjusted to kindergarten. Nathan has adjusted to his sister not being here. He really does miss playing with her. But has decided that helping mommy around the house is just as rewarding

He also loves lying around watching cartoons. He gets the TV all to himself now.

On Sept. 19th I took the kids to  the apple orchard to pick apples and get goodies. I wanted to pick 1/2 a bushel of apples to make apple sauce. However, filling up 1/2 a bushel goes really fast so I ended up with a full bushel. That’s a lot of apples. I made some applesauce and am putting the rest into some yummy desserts. Maybe I’ll post a recipe. Nate fell asleep for the apple picking. I guess it wasn’t interesting for him. However, the kids really enjoyed the doughnut part. Well, so do I. I took lots of pictures of that. Some may look weird since I’m holding Nate while I take the pictures. Audrey was being silly with her doughnuts. I usually don’t condone playing with your food, but I allowed it this one time.

  Then we got pumpkin cartoon pictures which was cute.

The night ended with a beautiful sunset.

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The Next weekend was our big trip to Indianapolis for the Medical Conference. Everything turned out well. It was a 5 1/2 hour trip and Nate did great on the way down. Saturday was spent at the hospital to see the doctors. We saw three: Dr. Turner (neurosurgery), Dr. Mackenzie (orthopedic surgery) and Dr. Kerbavaz (ENT). Although I didn’t have any serious concerns, I wanted to make sure that everything was good and our doctors in town we on top of things. We got glowing reports on how well Nate is doing. A blessing in my eyes! I did get some pictures. I took some with my phone which I can’t get off. So nothing from the conference. The two pictures below were from Friday night at the restaurant for dinner. It’s amazing the things he does.

 

Sunday we packed up to come home. After about an hour of driving, Nate got carsick, tossed his cookies (literally) and I was at a rest stop with my car torn apart. I must off looked silly with latex gloves and baby wipes cleaning up puke. Thank goodness once back on the road, Nate fell asleep and it was a nice quiet travel back.

Midwest Medical Conference

Nathan and I will be attending the Midwest Medical Conference in Indianapolis from Sept. 25-27. I was curious if there was anyone from the blogging community that was going to be attending. We would love to meet up with you. Leave a comment or send me an email (address is at the right on my blog page).

My parents celebrate 43 years together!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Looking for Suggestions

I’ve been thinking about the colder months coming ahead. In the winter, Audrey can’t wait to play in the snow and I know that Nate will too. But for snow pants I don’t know what to do. Nate’s in about a 9month pant and that puts him in infants. So, the options I have are full body suits which don’t allow movement. They are mostly meant for immobile infants. Did anyone do something for their little ones? Do you have ideas on what I can do or where to shop for what I need? I would greatly appreciate it. Just to add, I live in Michigan.

First Day of Kindergarten

What a day! It wasn’t at all what I expected. I don’t know if we made too much of a big deal about it or if she understood how much this day meant to all of us? She went to daycare and preschool just fine but the first day of kindergarten will definitely stand out.

It started the night before, we did our usually routine of getting ready for bed. Audrey even washed her face and brushed her teeth without me telling her. I was impressed. We curled up in bed and mom read the book, Off To Kindergarten. Not a good choice, Audrey was not happy. After reading, I said good-night but she kept calling me back into the room. Okay, you want to talk about it? She did.

“What if I don’t make any friends?” That’s a ridiculous question. My daughter the social butterfly has no problems making friends but I reassured her anyway. We talked a little longer and I put some music on to help lull her to sleep. Which took longer then usually. Everything was fine until 4:30 am when Audrey couldn’t sleep anymore and had to climb into bed with me. Which would be okay but mom couldn’t sleep either. I can’t let her see how nervous I was. We had a depressing morning and a disappointing drop-off at school. I figured she would come around when she saw how fun it was going to be.

Pick-up time, I wait for Audrey to come down the hall. Thank God she is holding a girls hand, her friend. I wanted to hear about everything but she wanted to tell nothing. She wanted to go home and not come back. Not what I was expecting. She was tired and hungry. She didn’t want to eat breakfast and only had a little bit of lunch. I made her a snack and proceeded with dinner. I had to turn away phone calls because Audrey wouldn’t talk with anyone. She ate some dinner and laid down in our bed to watch cartoons and talk with dad. They talked a little about her day. She seemed to perk up a bit but it went south real fast as she ran to the bathroom to vomit. The anxiety caught up with her.

By the end of the night, I explained how she will have to listen and follow rules. Two things she hates to do but I’m very strict on. I talked about some things she will do at school and how each day will be better. I had her willing to give it a shot ( but I would never let her skip school anyway) and she slept better the next night. She is still a little reluctant to go in the morning but she is making friends. Her and two other friends walked to their classroom today and it was the first positive start of the day, with smiles. I even got a kiss and a hug, which I really needed. Below are some pictures of her on her first day.

It took awhile for the smile to come out.

Where Nate Fits At This Point

I have noticed that in many blogs, we never comment on the clothes and the sizes that our kids wear. No suggestions on great places to find things or how we may have to alter the clothes that we have. I thought that I may start with a little bit of that.

Nathan 20 months:

• Shirt size: onesies or one piece outfits 12 mos. T-shirts 18 mos. for the length. (He actually still fits into his 9 mos summer clothes which will be the last for the summer)
• Pant size: Fits perfectly into 9 mos but can wear 12 mos if hemmed
• Shoe size: Wearing 4W toddler. He probably could use an extra wide but does okay. Will be retiring his 3W sandals from the summer.

For clothes it varies between maker how the sizes fit. Some run big some run small. I’ve had good luck with Carters and Osh’kosh. Those are my favs. Grandma and Grandpa outlet shop. They’ve gotten Nate outfits from Ralph Lauren (Polo), Tommy Hilfiger, and Kenneth Cole. The only problem is that Kenneth Cole runs big. I’ve had to take in the waist so they will fit Nate. I’ve also gotten Okie Dokie (JCPenny), Jumping Bean (Kohl’s) and Chirco (Target).The best thing was the jumping bean clothes I got on clearance for $2 an item. I held onto all the clothes that Nate wore in the winter in hopes that I could reuse them in the fall. I don’t think it will work. I have 3/6 mos. pants and 6/9 mos. tops. So, those will be heading to the donation pile. The last that I may be able to do. Now that I’m getting into altering the clothes, I’m not sure what to do with those.

For shoes, this was a little harder for me. Nate needs wide width which isn’t easy to come by. There are only a few to select from and I can’t believe that you have to pay $30 or more for toddler shoes. They really take advantage of you pocket book. Lucky for me there is a stride rite outlet in FL where my in-laws vacation. They found Nate 2 pairs and he had one pair found at JCPenny’s. I hope that he will get good use out of all three pairs. Also, I never got to check at the Sketchers store but I noticed online that they may have shoes that could work for Nate.

Picture Time!!

So, I wanted to get this post all ready last night. I needed to scan some photos to my computer but my scanner wasn’t cooperating. I have a 4 in 1 printer and it ran out of color ink. So, every time I turn it on, I get the alert about needing a new cartridge. Like I don’t know but after many frustrating moments gave up last night as it wouldn’t let me scan. This morning, I’ve cooled off and realized I just had to close out the message so that it would scan. That took one minute. God, sometimes I really hate technology.

I’ve been busy spending time with the kids and capturing their cute moments. Nate just amazes me everyday. He’s such a ham! When I raise my voice about something, he waits till I’m done and then goes on his own babbling rant. I love watching him dance. I’ve been wanting to get it on video but he’s camera shy when it comes to dancing.

Audrey has really started to change now that she starts Kindergarten in 3 days. She’s still my little girl but she’s growing up too. Wednesday, we had an Open House at her school. We got to see her classroom and meet her teacher. The classroom was nice and her teacher seemed to be nice and gentle. I wonder if she can handle my daughter. I hope so. I feel that she may not know what to do with a strong opinionated, outgoing child. We’ll just have to see.

The other day, Nate learned how to climb up into the big rocking chair. I realized I had never gotten his picture in this chair like I did with Audrey. She was about 9 months old when I tool these pictures. Nate is 20 months. But they are just adorable.

Here’s my messy face!

This hat works for Mr.. Potato Head!

Nate snapped this picture of me. And then we got one of Audrey.

Audrey before Open House. Her in her classroom. Audrey and dad throwing the BB around in the gym.

I’ll let you all know how the first day goes.