November

It seems like we were just trick-or-treating, and now Thanksgiving is in four days. This month, Lydia and Audrey started swim lessons again, Lydia started skating lessons again, Lydia learned how to ride a two-wheeler (she taught herself!), Charlie has been making progress with potty training, and Charlie also learned how to ice skate (very slowly and cautiously, and only a couple feet at a time).

Charlie has also given up naps for the most part, much to Jayson's frustration. She doesn't go to bed well either, but it's actually kind of humorous because she sings to herself and tells stories and will randomly yell things, and eventually fades off to sleep.

Yesterday we had a very busy day. Caribou for coffee, Trader Joe's for groceries, Target for some odds and ends, Buy Buy Baby for some missing crib parts (yes, Charlie is still sleeping on a bed frame and we still don't have the correct parts to convert her crib into a bed, and we finally made some headway, but once again got the wrong parts.), Penzey's for some spices, Hockey Haven to sharpen some ice skates, skating at the Pettit for Lydia's lessons and then open skating with the family, Sam's for some pizzas, then our friends came over to eat dinner with us and watch the girls while Jayson and I had our bowling night.

The lack of naps caught up with everybody as evidenced by the breakdowns before we even ate breakfast and the constant arguing. So, after lunch today, it was family nap time. Usually family nap time isn't entirely successful. Usually one kid just isn't into it. Today it was Charlie, of course. But, after a while, she fell asleep too and the whole family was able to catch up on some sleep. The reward was sundaes after dinner.

There's 104 Days of Summer Vacation (I wish)...

Today was the first official day of summer vacation. It. Was. Awesome. Not so much because of what we did, but because I got to wake up with my girls (Jayson too!), eat breakfast, lay down in the afternoon, and just BE.  Here are some highlights from the day:

It was Lydia's first day of baseball! She is not all that athletic or coordinated, so we were a bit worried, but she did great! She totally grounded some balls and threw them in the general vicinity of where she was supposed to! She did get lapped running bases. I'll take responsibility for the lack of speed. Those are my genes.

Charlie has moved up to the big-girl swings.

This was a new experiment. We are having a rummage sale in two weeks. I dumped all their toys on the futon and the took turns picking one toy to sell and one toy to keep. We got through about half of them and will continue tomorrow. I was surprised at how willing they were to get rid of some thing. In fact, there were a couple things they picked to sell that I rescued.

No, Charlie did not just run laps outside. She just woke up from her nap. It was 85 degrees outside and her bedroom is upstairs where it gets the hottest. She refuses to let us turn on a fan and insists on using a blanket. She wakes up a hot mess.

I gave the girls frozen Gogurts for their afternoon snack to hep them cool off. Audrey is a little mommy and helped Charlie by feeding her when she got to the bottom. Then she wiped Charlie's face.