Yay Molly!
From a Google Talk Conversation with Scott today:
11:52 AM Scott: guess what molly did.
11:53 AM me: oh no.
what?
Scott: she went upstairs all by herself.
and got on the toilet all by herself.
and tinkled all by herself.
me: yay!
can you hear me cheering from here?
Scott: yes.
me: that's awesome.
Baby steps, baby steps. I have to keep repeating it to myself. We aren't pushing this potty thing, because we don't want to have to take her there on a schedule and we are "training" her, not the other way around. Maybe this is a sign she's going to figure it out on her own? Wishful thinking, no doubt...
Labels: Molly
Apple Picking 2008
Every year on the weekend of my birthday, for the past 4 years, we have gone apple picking. Since moving here,
Paulus Orchards has been our orchard of choice. Anyway, with the rainy weekend forecast, I was really bummed that we weren't going to be able to go. When the scattered showers forecast for today seemed to be pretty scattered, I convinced Scott to go anyway. We got everyone ready and headed out with high hopes. It seemed nice enough, till we were almost there. Then it started to drizzle.
We bought our bag to put our apples in and I grabbed the umbrella out of the car just in case. We grabbed Molly's windbreaker that happened to be in the car, too, just in case she got cold. Unfortunately, we didn't have one for Megan. She said she'd be ok, so off we went. We headed first for the Empire apples...think pie :)
By the time we were done getting those, it was raining pretty hard, and we were all getting pretty wet (and we were only half done!) On the way to the golden & red delicious, we had to pass the car. Scott made Megan a poncho out of a shopping bag that she wore grudgingly. You should have seen the daggers when he suggested it to her. I told her she should be happy to have such a resourceful daddy and that she would never again have us telling her to put her head in a bag, so she should take advantage of the opportunity. She didn't see the humor.
Scott with the half-full apple bag, after the poncho struggle.
See, I got wet picking apples too, I didn't just make the Scott & the kids get soaked. And got a new haircut last week, too, although this isn't the best view!
Megan's poncho. She got over it and it helped keep her dry. Oh, she got a new haircut last week too.
Molly's not impressed. Once her apple was gone, she was over it.
Megan was happy to get back into the car...look at that wet hair!
I made Scott stop on the way out so I could take a picture of the pumpkin patch, full of pumpkins. Sometime next month, we'll head up on a weekend that it's NOT raining and pick out a few pumpkins. Then the girls can play on all the cool new playground equipment that they've added, too.
Labels: Megan, Molly
Hippos for Molly
I finished up a dress for Molly yesterday during their naps - long, due to the rainy day fun :) She was pleased to model it for me when she woke up. I'll make a bright pink pair of leggings to wear underneath for when it's cooler. She really liked it.
And a closeup because she's such a cutie.
The band-aid on her cheek is covering a bug bite. She keeps picking at it and making it bleed so we've had to keep it covered. It's almost gone now :)
Labels: Molly, Sewing
Rainy Day Fun
It rained a good part of the day yesterday and the kids were full of pent-up energy (donuts for breakfast anyone?) so I bundled them into play clothes, raincoats and boots, and took them outside for some puddle jumping. They had an absolute blast.
Before they were too wet:
And just getting started. You can just tell that they're thinking "I can't believe she's letting us do this!"
Megan working on her technique - she made some really big splashes.
And Molly tried, too.
When we were ready to come in, I dumped over an inch of water out of each of Megan's boots and almost an inch our of Molly's too. Their hair was dripping and their pants & feet were soaked. After changing into dry clothes, they warmed up with hot cocoa.
Labels: Megan, Molly
Scott's revelation
2:03 PM Scott: holy crap. I just realized something.
me: what?
2:04 PM Scott: one of these days the kids will start saying that we're older than the internet.
me: lol
My daughter can read!
Megan brought home her first WEB (can't remember what that stands for!) book yesterday. It was about kites. She sat down on the couch with Scott and read it straight through, only getting stuck briefly on the word animal. Then she read it to me again in the evening, and even read most of the comprehension questions on the back all by herself. I'm thinking she might need to move up a level - it was way easy for her and not a challenge at all! I'm so proud of her reading skills and she is progressing so quickly. She is learning to break down words into parts she can figure out and learning all other kinds of strategies for figuring out words she is unsure of.
We printed out the list of words that the Kindergartners are expected to know by sight by the end of the year and showed it to her. We casually asked if she could read any of them - she went straight down the list of 60+ words and read them all! Scott mentioned this to her teacher the other day and she said she had recognized that Megan was pretty bright. She said that she'd track down the 1st grade word list so we could work on that with her instead :) I was happy with that response, because I really want her to continue to be challenged and do not want to see her bored in school.
Apparently they started on their math workbooks today and Megan was excited about it. She had some activity sheets with some numbers to cut out and some various shapes, kind of like the pattern blocks. Along with her "homework", we received a note about their math curriculum and the need for her to have a "Homework Helper". There is a form that they expect us to fill in and send back with the name of her helper filled in. Um, I thought that it was kind of a given that we were both her "Homework Helpers", as her parents without needing to fill in a form about it. So far, I've been pretty happy with how things seem to be going, but I'm really a little puzzled on this one.
Labels: Megan
Getting better...
I'm feeling so much better than I was a week ago today. I woke up this morning for the first time without feeling an immediate need to take my medication and crawl back into bed. In fact, I didn't even take it until I got to work. I got both girls ready for the day without many problems. After an episode like last week, you really learn to appreciate your health.
I did see my doctor on Monday morning, and he said that I seem to have
Benign positional vertigo (BPV) - my inner ear is out of whack and will take time to get back to normal. He didn't really give a time frame for how long it might take, a few days to a long time. He said that since I am improving, that we are just going to see how it goes. If it gets worse, I'm to go back, but otherwise, I stay on the medication as needed.
I can't drive as long as I'm on the medication, so I'm really hoping to be able to go without it soon. Of course, I won't be driving as long as I'm dizzy anyway. I'm not really dizzy anymore, more just having random balance checks if I'm not careful about how I turn my head when I'm moving around. Maybe by this weekend I'll be in better shape...
Labels: Dizzy
Fall Wardrobe for Megan
I participate in a group called The Fabric Obsession. It's a coop group of fabric addicted ladies who like to
collect fabric sew who pool their purchasing power to get wholesale prices - great fun! In addition to the fabric buys, there folders where we can discuss sewing related questions as well as occasional challenges to create something. There was recently a challenge to create a 6 piece fall wardrobe with two accessories. I decided to enter, and even despite my vertigo, managed to finish up just in the nick of time.
All of my pieces are teal/turquoise and were made for Megan. I was inspired by the colors in the Park Slope fabrics I got from the coop. The teal cord is from Joann's, as is the lining for the jacket hood and the knit for the tee & leggings. The fleece for the jacket came from the PA Fabric Outlet. The lace on the purse & peasant top came from my grandmother's stash - it was in the drawer of her sewing table when I inherited it.
I was able to finish everything up yesterday afternoon and here it is all together: A teal cord jumper from a New Look pattern, the coat is from Ottobre Designs, a skirt I kind of made up based on parts of a Simplicity pattern, a peasant top based on a Simplicity pattern, leggings from a New Look pattern and a tee from a Kwik Sew pattern. Accessories are a headband from the Heather Bailey's free tutorial and the purse pattern is available from Ottobre's website.
And some individual pictures:
And a few modeled pictures.
Excuse messy hair & non-matching dress. She wanted to model this as soon as it was finished.
Overall, I really enjoyed this project, but I'm ready to work with some new colors!
Labels: Megan, Sewing
Dizzy
I've had a crazy 24+ hours and need to talk. I woke up yesterday morning to the room spinning. I couldn't even sit up straight I felt so dizzy. Scott had to walk me to the bathroom and I sat down several times on the way there because of how dizzy I felt. After I finally made it there, I went to lay down some more. *TMI warning* The movement and dizziness had made me really nauseous and I got sick. Several times. Of course I'd just gotten up and hadn't eaten yet, so my stomach was empty except for the few sips of water I'd drank. After that came up, it was lots of dry heaves & stomach bile. Ugh. Scott kept asking if he should call an ambulance or take me to the hopsital. Eventually, we decided to get megan to scool and then take me to the ER. I didn't want the girls to see me hauled off in an ambulance...
The trip down the stairs was awful. I sat down several times and eventually ended up scooting down one step at a time on my bottom. Even t hat was really hard. After that Scott rolled my desk chair from the stairs to the door with me in it and got me loaded into the car. With a bowl just in case I got sick again. Good thing, because I did. After what seemed like forever, we got to the ER. They put me into a wheelchair and pushed me inside. After I told them my symptoms, and they took us to a room right away. I spent the entire morning there, with an IV for medications to try to stop the dizziness. They drew blood and did a cat scan. Around noon, the doctor came in and told me that all the tests came back normal - everything looked perfect. So the only other possibility was an inner ear imbalance, basically vertigo. I could be admited and keep the IV for drugs or I could come home. I chose the latter, already having had enough of the hospital! So she gave me some anti-dizziness drugs (Antivert & Valium) with orders to see my doctor in 2-3 days.
So for now, I'm at home, dizzy. I feel ok as long as I don't move suddenly and keep my head very still. Right now, I'm sitting in a lounge chair with my head rested back. As long as I don't turn it, I'm ok. But even if I turn my eyes too quickly, I get dizzy. The nausea seems to have subsided (thank goodness) and I've eaten a little. The drugs are making me really sleepy and I'm napping a lot. Scott has been wonderful through all of this, and he's still hurting from his surgery on Friday. He kept it together yesterday when I was having a meltdown when I first got up and couldn't even walk.
Labels: Dizzy
