Crawling!

Idgie is officially crawling - kinda! She has been so close the last few days. Today she finally learned the army crawl! She hasn't figured out yet how to get her knees under her but that girl is now totally on the move. Good thing the house is still on lock down for Lil!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Welcome Home!

We just want to send a big shout out to our Brother-in-Law, Ron. He has been deployed to Afghanistan for a year and he came home today. Welcome Home Ron!

Rating: 100 Lollipops

My Little Pony

Emmaline told me all the names of her My Little Ponies today:

Lemoncot
Bubblegum
Partycake
Egfi
Fly of the Orc
Applecot
Blueberry Connie
York of the Eight Good
Treatcot
Orangeycot
Fireball
Flying Strawberry Short
Guanny

Oh and she also happens to have a little stuffed poodle named Poodle Dragster - and you have to use the full name or she'll get mad.

Big Decisions

Well we've come to a big decision. Unless something changes drastically (like the charter school makes it all the way down to us on the list) we are going to homeschool Emmaline for Kindergarten. After weighing all my options and doing a ton of research, it seems like it is the right choice for us for now. Now I have 6 months to work myself up to it!

Community Supported Agriculture

I learned about CSA's a few years ago and have kept my eye out ever since for one that might fit the needs of our family. Well I finally found one! For June - October we are paying $275 and will get a 1/2 bushel of produce weekly from them - straight from the field to my fridge! Also we get to go to their U-pick farm (that is open Sept-Nov) as often as we want! Some farms require that you volunteer time working at the farm or they decide what comes in your bushel basket. This farm doesn't have a work requirement and I get to hand select each week exactly what I want to bring home!
I can't tell you how excited I am! We spent $300+ in produce last year between June - October so I know this will be a great deal!

More about CSA's

Find a CSA in your area

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Kindergarten

This whole kindergarten thing is turning into a bigger and bigger mess. Why couldn't we have just gotten in to the Charter School? ARGH!
On Thursday I called the neighborhood elementary school and asked about how to get Emmaline registered for school. This is where I learned that starting next year the district is moving to full-day kindergarten AND they will charge $250/month for it. WHAT??? Apparently because kindergarten isn't mandatory they can do that. Then they told me that I can send her for half day for free, and they would work out the schedule so that she wouldn't miss any academics. Nice. So she gets her reading, math, etc, but then she misses out on the "fun" stuff??? My school district also offers open enrollment but apparently I missed that deadline, so pretty much we are stuck and the whole thing is craptacular.

So now I sit here floundering on what to do. I am weighing all my options - even homeschool - trying to figure out what the "right" decision is for her and for our family.

Rating: 3 Fireballs

Lottery

Emmaline came up number 64 of 89 in the school lottery today. Blah.

ETA: I guess I should have explained what that meant. There are 21 openings in kindergarten after siblings of already enrolled students are given spots and such. So basically the first 21 kids that came up on the random draw definitely get in, and then if for some reason all the other kids ahead of Emmaline on the list opt not to go then she will get a spot. So basically there is no way she is going to get into the charter school this year.

Rating: 5 Fireballs

Party Hard

Last night we watched a little friend of Emmaline's while her parents went on a Valentine's Date (we celebrated on Friday night). It was from 7-10pm so definitely past Emmaline's bedtime so I told her it was a slumber party. I asked her if she knew what the was and she said it was when you turn on the radio and dance around! Pretty funny!
Anyway, basically I let them watch movies for all three hours and fed them popcorn and muffins. It was fun to see two little girls camped out on the floor, snacking and having a blast. So grown up! Anyway, her friend went home at 10:00 and then we put Emmaline to bed (she fell asleep on the floor at about 9:30).
At about 3am she came into our room complaining that her stomach hurt so we let her climb in with us. I bet you can guess what happened after -that's right - up came those muffins and popcorn! Ew.
That makes two kids vomiting in our bed in less than 24 hours. Though luckily with Emmaline we caught most of it in a bucket. Good times.

Rating: 2 Fireballs (for the vomit) and 2 Lollipops (for a fun party)

I love free stuff!

Yes I do. Free stuff is AWESOME and so much better than bills!

Today in the mail I got:

1) A coupon for a free bottle of Suave Shampoo

2) A free sample of Quaker Rice cakes AND a .50/1 coupon that will end up making another freebie at some point because I have a store that doubles

3) My BzzAgent Kit for the Chili's Guiltless Grill menu that has 4 coupons in it for free entrees from that portion of the menu.

SCORE!

Morning Motivators

The girls all piled in with us this morning and we turned on cartoons for them. I fed Idgie and then sat her next to the other girls. A few minutes later - Idgie barfed. It wasn't just spit-up, it was about 50 gallons of puke. Idgie escaped unscathed but it got on every layer of our bedding, all over Emmaline, and on 4 stuffed animals.

Nothing gets you up early on a Saturday like vomit all over your bed. That's what I always say anyway.

Rating: 2 Fireballs

Speech Therapy and Mommy Guilt

Liliana had her evaluation today and they did determine that she qualifies for speech therapy. They actually had a couple different people in the room, one was a speech language pathologist who focused on Lil's communication and receptive skills. Then there was a lady that I have forgotten her title, but was an Early Childhood Evaluation something or other. Basically she looked a motor skills and social/emotional, and cognitive stuff. Also our Service Coordinator was there. It is kind of weird to be on the client side of services after being a Social Worker myself! Halfway through they also pulled in an Occupational Therapist. They noticed that Lil does this funny thing where if she crawls or pushes herself up with her hands, one hand is in a fist and the other is flat.



This is an old picture (1 year old) but can you see how her hands are like that?

Anyway - she only does it when crawling or getting up but the OT looked at her and checked for something - muscle tightness and stuff, and determined that Lil was fine in that regard, it is just a weird quirk that she has.

Anyway, it came down to that she is fine in all aspects except for the communication part of speech. So, starting in a few weeks we will have a therapist come to our house once a week to help with that.

This is the mommy guilt part:

On one hand I am happy to know that my gut instincts were right.

On the other hand, the things that they suggested I start doing with Liliana are things that I used to do with Emmaline but really haven't done with Lil. This of course makes me feel like the world's biggest jerk. It is my fault that I have short changed her somehow.

My sister says I can wallow in this guilt for two days and then I have to knock it off.

Rating: 5 Fireballs

My neighbors are better than yours

No really. See? I have the evidence to prove it:

We have been getting plates of goodies from her for *every* holiday since we moved into the neighborhood almost 2.5 years ago. 4th of July, Christmas, St. Patrick's, etc. And it is never just one treat - it is always a nice selection of cookies, candies, and baked goods and always in a decorated tray or container to match the holiday.

Seriously. Best Neighbor Ever.

Rating: 5 Candy Hearts

Advertising

I only ever put PBS on for the girls to watch so they are unfamiliar with advertising. Today I was watching a cooking show and Emmaline wanted to know why they kept stopping the show. So I taught her about commercials and advertising. And how the purpose is to tell us to buy things. She has now been enjoying every commercial break saying, "sorry commercial, we don't need a van! We already have one!" "Sorry commercial, we don't need new bags for our freezer, we already have some!" "Sorry commercial, we don't need shampoo, we already have some!"

Good thing she hasn't seen a toy commercial yet - I don't know what she'd do!

Christmas is over

That's right. It is offical. Christmas if finally over! We took the tree down last night. And in another 9.5 months we can put it up again!

Pee and Flush

AJ and I have had a suspicion for a few weeks now but have been unable to confirm it until we actually saw it happen tonight.

When Emmaline gets up to go potty in the middle of the night, Liliana gets up too. They both go into the bathroom, Emmaline pees, Liliana flushes, and they both go back to bed.

Silly girls.

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

7 months

Things have been really slow around here lately. I think it is the winter and cold weather. We just aren't up to anything fun! Last month Liliana did a class for toddlers where they did obstacle courses and played games and such. Emmaline was supposed to do a Spanish class but it got canceled. This month Liliana will be doing an art class and Emmaline has a music class.

Anyway, the only really big news around here is that Imogene is 7 months old today! How'd that happen?

Rating: 1 Lollipop

Elliptical

We finally did it. After months of trying to decide what to get - we finally settled on this Nordic Track Elliptical. AJ's work offers a yearly "health incentive". It is a flat amount and can go towards gym memberships, entrance fees into competitions, work-out equipment, etc. We've been watching the sales for awhile now, and finally found something we liked. We figure - hey, free gym equipment - why not? Right? We ordered it online tonight and expect to have it sometime next week!

Now for two very important questions:

1) Do you think the elliptical will get rid of the stretch marks along with those unwanted pounds?

2) Should free exercise equipment be tagged under Deals & Steals? I can't decide...

Rating: 4 Lollipops