Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fun-filled long weekend for Thanksgiving. We did the standard Thanksgiving meals with Jayson's family on Thursday and my family on Saturday. Friday was fun as well. We went to Lakefront Brewery for a tour and to get their special Black Friday IBA. The girls hadn't been on a brewery tour in a while, so it was long overdue. We got there at about 10:30am and they had sold out by shortly after 9:00am. It was a little disappointing, but it was fine because we still went on the tour and had some of our favorite beers.

Charlie loves smelling things, especially things we're drinking, like coffee. Every time Jayson makes coffee, Charlie insists on smelling the grounds before he brews them. At the brewery, she kept insisting on smelling my beer and I'm sure to everybody around me, as I brought my cup to her nose, it looked like I was about to give my 2 year-old a sip. After she smelled it, she would insist I take a drink. Then she would say, "No, drink it!" and I would say, "I did," and she would say, "No. All of it." Moderation, Charlie!

After the brewery we helped our friends move. The girls loved the fact that they got to watch cable and stay out of our way. Lydia asked, "Mommy? Can we stay until 8:00? Because it looks like there's going to be a special iCarly on." Audrey decided to slap our friend's dad's butt? Then when he told her his name, which is the same as Jayson's sister's dog, she told him she would just call him Ralph.

When we left, Lydia made sure to get some email addresses of the people there because she just started using her email account and wants to email everybody.

Of course, after a long weekend, the girls were wrecks by Sunday afternoon. Audrey throws a huge fit whenever she has to clean up her toys. I told the girls to start cleaning up their toys and she threw her normal fit and wailed, "BUT I DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY GO!!!!!" So I said all cheerfully, "OK, that's fine. If there's anything that you don't know where it goes, just leave it. You don't even have to clean it up! I'll put it in a box and get rid of it. Because there's nothing worse than toys that don't have a place to go and we don't want toys like that in our house!" Then she got all mad and yelled, "I KNOW WHERE ALL THE TOYS GO!" So I said, "Then get in the toy room right now and put them away." She got really mad and "hmmmph"ed with her arms folded and went and cleaned up her toys. Mommy won that one.

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.

A Transitional Week

My cross country season ended last weekend, which means huge changes for the family -- mainly the fact that I will be home a lot more -- about 20 more hours per week. People question why I coach when it takes me away from my family. The easy answer is that the cross country season is short and right after summer. So, I'm coming off of more than two months with my family and I don't miss them as much as I would if it were a spring sport (one of the main reasons I don't coach track). Plus, I love coaching. I love the relationships I get to build with the kids outside of the classroom. I love their families. I love seeing the kids succeed and being there for them when they fail. Also, money. I get paid, and it's money we rely on. 

But, I love being home now too. The first day of no practice, I made sure I was home to get Lydia off the bus. Then, she fought with her sisters, refused to practice her violin, and cried, and I kind of wanted to put her back on the bus, but it was already long gone. My family also benefits from me having more time to get my work done, so I'm under less stress.

I did have conferences Wednesday, which made for a long day of me not even seeing the girls. Well, except for the fact that Jayson brought them to school during my lunch duty so we could get flu shots. I love when they visit school. They get so much attention and just adore the big kids. 

I also started going to the gym in the morning now that I don't run in the afternoon with the team. It's usually pretty hard making that one-hour adjustment in my schedule, and conferences didn't help. 

So, I took a vacation day today. I slept in, went to the gym, ran errands, and did some baking. Of course, what happens when a teacher takes a vacation day? You run into no fewer than three parents who look at you very suspiciously and wonder who is teaching their child. I was able to have a nice conversation with one of them, that started with, "I'm not playing hookey!" I'll have to track those other two down.

Oh, also on the agenda was putting Charlie's bed together. You may remember my early July fiasco that ended with us having to reorder parts that would take three months to arrive. We got them. Missing the same parts. I'm now in contact with Buy, Buy, Baby, and they are trying to figure out what to do. I'm hopeful that they'll do the right thing and we won't have to wait another three months. Charlie might be in high school before we get the right parts, but she'll be sleeping in a bed with side rails, and that's that.

So, it's been an interesting, but good week. I found myself just relaxing tonight, and in an attempt to catch up on the news, I read the news report about the nanny who killed the 2 year-old boy and 6 year-old girl in New York. As my mind went to images that made my heart twist, I started crying. I wished that my own kids were awake so I could give them all hugs and tell them how much I love them. But, I also wasn't about to disturb their sleep. Then, by some small miracle, I heard the door to Lydia and Audrey's room open, and Lydia came out to use the bathroom. I went in there and told her, "I'm so glad you're awake, because I was just thinking about how much I need a hug from one of my girls." She laughed and gave me the best hug I've had all week. I tucked her back into bed and left her room so thankful for everything and everyone I have.

Updates

Oops... in the chaos of school starting and cross country, I have neglected my blog.

We did video updates today.

Lydia, 6.5 -- She has been learning about Washington D.C. and the presidents in school. Today they watched a video about the election.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqMecCDaZtI

Audrey, 4.5 -- Telling us about farm bingo that she played today. She LOVES 4k and is great about telling us what she does each day. She especially loves her teacher, Mr. K, and talks about him all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK146qDou54

Charlie, 2.5 -- She can identify most of the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 1 through 9, and the colors. Now we're working on shapes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=048IcsQxJJk

Public Embarrassment

In about ten years, I'll be able to repay them. But, for now, when I go out in public with the girls, it ends up being me who gets embarrassed. Usually, it's while we're shopping, but really, any public forum will do.

This past weekend, I had to run into to Target really quickly before church, and Jayson wanted to get us some coffee from Starbucks. So, we decided to divide and conquer. He took Charlie, I took Lydia and Audrey. Since time was an issue, I put Lydia in the back of the cart and Audrey in the front, and we took off. One stop was in the feminine products aisle, where I grabbed a box of purple tampons. Shortly thereafter, while booking it down the main aisle of Target, Lydia held them high above her head and asked me what they were. I told her to put them down and I would tell her later. "Highlighters, Mommy? They're highlighters?" Yes, dear. Highlighters.

Target is a frequent hot spot of mine. I enjoy visits at least weekly. One time I walked through the lingerie section and Lydia, who was two at the time, excited pointed to the racks of bras and yelled, "Mommy's boobies! Mommy's boobies!"

As she got older, she become more inquisitive of other people. We once passed a lesbian couple, both of whom were short and sported very masculine looks, including basketball shorts and baseball caps. Lydia very loudly asked me where those boys' mother was and why there were alone in the store.

Lydia also went through a stage of being obsessed with hair length and would see men with long hair and women with short hair and question their choices (I admit -- I questioned their choices too, just not out loud). "Mommy, is that a boy or a girl? A boy? Why is his hair long like a girl's?"

One time around Christmas, I was shopping with Lydia, and she was just over 1.5 years old. We were at Old Navy and she saw some teddy bears and excitedly pointed to them, yelling, "Lydia bear?" I told her no, and we kept shopping. I pushed the stroller in front of me while I bent down to look at a low-hanging rack of clothes. As I was looking, I could hear Lydia quietly talking. I stood up to see another woman, on the other side of the stroller, also bending down to look at the low-hanging rack of clothes. She had one of the bears in her arms along with other stuff she was going to buy. Lydia had spotted the bear and was quietly whispering to the woman, "Lydia bear. Lydia bear. Lydia bear," trying to get the woman to hand it over. The woman was silently holding in laughter, trying to ignore Lydia.

One time at the grocery store, Lydia was 4 and did not want to be shopping. She yelled, for the whole store to hear, "I'm hungry! You don't feed me!" When that didn't get the attention she wanted, she yelled, "Please don't leave me in the car alone!" (Something I have never done.)

Then there was the time last fall, when Lydia and I were grocery shopping and had what I thought was a very cute conversation.

Lydia: Mommy, do you want me to tell you all the bad words?

Me: Oh yeah, tell them to me. L: STUPID Me: Ooooh, that's a bad one!  L: HATE Me: Yup, another bad word, you're right! L: SHIT Me: Oh. Yeah. Let's not say that one again, OK?

I don't think she said that one loud enough for too many people to hear. 

We're Still Here!

I have failed at blogging for the past month. All of a sudden, our summer was a frenzy with a trip to Madison to visit my family, then my cross country season started, then school started, and then I got really sick this past weekend when I was planning on catching up on some posts. In the meantime, I've missed writing a post about our trip to Madison and the first day of school. I can't believe Audrey is in 4K. She absolutely LOVES school and can't wait for it to be a school day. She's also much more forthcoming with details about her day than Lydia has ever been, so it's fun to hear more about what she does at school and what she likes and dislikes.

Unfortunately, I have a stack of quizzes to grade since I'm just now starting to feel better after feeling completely exhausted since Thursday. I'll post a few pictures to make up for it.

There's no crying in baseball! Well, except when it's over.

This summer Lydia played baseball and Audrey played tee-ball. We mainly chose to sign up because it was only $25 and figured that if they didn't like it, at least it was only $25. We have tried other activities in the past. Soccer was a bust. Lydia was three and was not interested at all. In fact, she hid behind trees and we had to tell her to stop eating grass more than once. Dance wasn't a good fit either. I wasn't a big fan from the beginning, but it was one of the few things she could sign up for at four and there was no grass. She just wasn't very interested in it and the recitals were a racket. We did ice-skating too, which actually went pretty well. It was expensive though, and as soon as she lost interest, we stopped the lessons and told her she could try again when she was ready to focus more. She wants to try again this winter. Audrey has absolutely no interest in skating after some not-so-great lessons. They both love swimming, which we will continue to do with them because I think it's a great sport for them and they love it and are good at it.

Lydia's baseball team practiced Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. She only missed two practices. There were some kids who barely practiced at all and then showed up for games, which confused me. She LOVED her coaches. They were both college students, one male and one female, and they were amazing with the kids. The male coach really seemed to bond with Lydia and always had a special job for her. Plus, she learned how to play baseball! She actually improved a lot. She really liked hitting and when it was her turn to field, she liked being pitcher or catcher. I was pretty impressed by the end of the season when she actually seemed to know how to play baseball!

Audrey's team only met on Wednesdays. The first few were practices and the last several were games. It was pretty adorable. They don't really learn how to field yet, but get the basics of the game. There's nothing cuter than an entire team of four year-olds chasing after a ball. She was also one of the smallest kids on her team, having just turned four a week before practice.

When their final game came around, both girls were upset. Audrey asked if we could sign up for it again, and I tried to explain to her that we would, but it would be in ten months. Lydia actually sobbed when her last game was over, which broke my heart, but also made me so, so glad that she had such a great time.

Here are some pictures from their last games.