Speech Therapy?

As many of you know already my Andrew has a difficult time with several consonants when he talks. When we went in for our kindergarten registration he was screened by the speech pathologist and she told us then that she would be checking back in with him in the fall before conferences. I have been asking and asking his teacher if she has come in to see him yet and she kept saying no. Finally the speech lady said that she never told me she would be checking in. It was up to us to request it. Ahhhhhh! I was frustrated especially since this week is conferences. However, Andrew came home today talking about how he got to go to some ladies room and play games with letters. AHA! I think all my asking and keeping track of it has paid off. Today was Andrew's last day of school for the week (no kindergarten during the rest of conference week) and I am hoping there will either be a Hooray he is fine (not super likely) or a game plan on what he needs to work on. He struggles with several sounds but one huge one was the letter L and it seems to be kinda coming around. Words with an L in them kinda come out funny but he still is saying it much better than he was before. Anyway I will keep you all posted about it but I am glad that something may be done. I just don't want to let it wait when early intervention may save him from some teasing in the future!

Our Pumpkin Creations

As if you couldn't guess, we carved pumpkins this afternoon! The boys had a great time and it was so much easier to carve them this year. I had Eric to help me (last year he was working the Seahawks) and it was wonderful to have someone to clean them out. That is my least favorite part.

The pumpkins turned out great. From left to right they belong to: Me, Andrew, Zane and Lucy. Eric decided he would have enough to do scooping and carving the boys and Lucy's so he didn't need his own. I got to help with Andrew and do my own. And draw the design for Lucy's pumpkin. She didn't seem to care what her pumpkin's face looked like :)

Andrew insisted that he wanted a scary faced pumpkin. It was cute. Zane wanted one with teeth and a smile. We had such a great time and the boys will insist on them being lit each night until they are super rotten I am sure!

Off to the Pumpkin Patch!

Today we went to Carleton Farms to get some pumpkins. We try to go each year and the kids really look forward to it. It is always amazing to me how they remember these events AND I find it even more amazing that the last time I went to a pumpkin patch I was 7 months pregnant with Lucy and Crystal was with us. The kids had a lot of fun even though they have terrible sounding coughs. I felt kinda bad about it because they sound terrible and I am sure everyone is wondering why I am taking my plague-ridden kids out in public. Andrew went to school today though so I felt he was well enough to pumpkin patch if he was well enough for school.



Zane was in what can only be described as "a mood." I had to threaten him with no pumpkin to get some pictures of him. It makes for a totally rough trip when he is in acting like that!



Lucy thought the whole thing was fun and she LOVED the tractors. Every time one drove by she about broke her neck trying to watch it.



Andrew was by far the most excited one with the pumpkin patch. His school class went a few weeks ago and they got to take home a pumpkin. Andrew kept asking Eric, who went as a chaperon, if he could bring home one for each of us. So Eric promised that we would be coming to get our own pumpkins a different day. That seemed to appease him but we knew we were going to have to follow through our he was going to be super disappointed.

A very happy boy!

Two cutie pies at the pumpkin patch!

But the real question is What did we do with all our pumpkins?.....

Still Sick

I am keeping Andrew home from school for the second day this week. He is so bummed. Today was supposed to be his sharing day at school and he really wanted to show off this monster truck creation that he made out of construction paper. It has wheels that wiggle and road to drive on. I think it was the fact that he got to use the stapler that made it so cool to him. Anyway, my little man will have to wait until tomorrow to be able to take his stuff. (If they miss or forget they can bring it a different day) I sure hope he feels better soon. His temp yesterday kept spiking to 102 but this morning is hovering right at 99.6. I have Motrined him up and I hope that he will be fixed. His cough seems slightly better though so that is good. I hate having sick ones. It is so hard to tell him he can't go to school when he loves it so much. He keeps insisting that he feels really good and should go but I can see the dark circles under his eyes that tell me different. Poor baby, I hope he feels better later today!

SICK!

Andrew stayed home from school today because he is running a fever. He didn't really look good yesterday but he went to school. After he got home he kept complaining that he was cold. I just figured that he was tired and whiny and needed a rest because he has had a cold. Finally about 4 I took his temperature. It was 101.9. No wonder he was chilly! I administered some tylenol and then some Motrin. His fever finally came down before bed but it was back up this morning. I think he just has a cold but his cough is awfully nasty and I am trying to avoid croup which they are both prone to get. I think we have missed it this time but you never know for sure. Zane also woke up with a fever and a cough this morning. We are going to have a semi-mellow day. Andrew was a bit bummed about missing school but I am hoping an extra day of rest will help him mend. Hopefully all this misses Lucy. Three sick kids won't be any fun at all!

Lucy Fern- 9 Months

Today was Lucy's 9 month well child check. She is getting bigger all the time. It always amazes me how fast they grow. Anyway she is doing well and has finally slowed down on the growing curve. I was imagining an amazon on my hands with the way she was growing! Anyway here are the latest stats!

Height 28.5 inches (81%)
Weight 20# 1 oz. (72%)

We will hopefully not have to go to the doctor again until her 1 year check. In other Lucy news she is finally cutting her other top middle tooth. She was up at 1 last night for quite awhile crying. We tylenoled her up good and used some oragel. It seemed to help. Add in some mommy food and she finally went back to sleep. I don't remember the boys being so fussy with the teething but it could just be selective memory!

Finally, I thought I would pass along a story about Zane from this morning. After my shower Zane came tromping up the stairs with the Tonka truck ride on toy. He had a brilliant idea to ride it down the staircase. Eric told him no, I told him no. He insisted yes. Just as I was headed to yank him off the truck he rolled it just forward enough for the front wheels to slip off the top step. Down, down, down the stairs went Zane and the truck. I raced over to the top only to see Zane sprawled out flat on his face upside down on the stairs. The truck made it all the way to the bottom but Zane fell off mid-slide. Once I got him upstairs he ran for one of the bedrooms and shut himself in. He wasn't hurt at all by the fall just scared and mad that he had been wrong and Eric and I were right. I finally went to get him after a few minutes of shrieking. (He absolutely needs some time to calm down before a conversation) We have all decided that it was a bad idea that should not get repeated. I don't think he will do it again though. It scared him pretty good and that usually fixes things for him. Oh the joy of having a child who must figure it out on his own. The teenage years should be tons of fun!

One Week of Laundry for 5

I thought you would be amused to see how much laundry I do in one week. It usually works out to be somewhere around 6 loads. I definitely makes for a full day. I know I am kinda strange in that I would rather do all my laundry at once rather than spread it out over a whole week. My mom prefers to do a little bit at a time but that makes me crazy. I think it is mostly because I hate putting the laundry away, especially hanging up clothes. I don't mind putting it in the machines or even folding it. But putting it away is my least favorite thing to do so I condense it as much as possible. It is nice that now the boys are big/old enough to carry there laundry upstairs and put it away in their proper drawers. That just leaves me responsible for Eric, Lucy and myself. Oh and all the general use stuff like towel and washcloths. Now if I could only convince Eric that he should be responsible for all the putting away of clean clothes, laundry wouldn't be a chore at all!