Saturday in South Florida

I want to start my blog today with a song (sung to the tune of Frara Jaqua)

I hate Florida
I hate Florida
Yes I do
Yes I do
Old people and bugs
Old people and bugs
I wanna move
I wanna move

(you can replace the verse with alligators, bad healthcare, bad customer service, sweltering heat, hurricanes, etc)

Okay, I feel better.
We have stayed busy here at our house. Even though I am not working any more, time has not slowed down. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the kids were in school for their final days (the babies) and Arlington's final full days. She will just be going to voluntary pre-kindergarten from 8:30-11:30 starting Monday. So now I am officially a stay at home mom. I used Wed - Friday to catch up on errands, returns from Christmas, phone calls, etc. so that I wouldn't have to try and do those errands on my first weeks home with the babies. This will give us a chance to get into a routine.
So besides running into Miss Daisy on the road (read the post below this one if you haven't yet) I also had to deal with incompetent billing departments at the hospital were Cainan had his surgery, kill about 100 ants in the house (even though we have been exterminated twice in the last several weeks), and wait for people to give estimates on cleaning our grout who think that coming between 10:00-12:00 means coming at 12:45 or not at all. :)

The kids are doing well. Arlington has learned 13 new words! We are so excited! She will be reading in no time. My mother in law bought her a lot of great workbooks for Christmas, and we have been working on them daily. What impresses us the most is that she is actually remembering the words she learns from one day to the next, which is new for her. In the past she wouldn't be able to remember. I think she might actually have it! And she loves it so much. She is so proud of herself and we are proud of her too. She continues to be a chatterbox. Non-stop talking that girl. From the time she gets up to the time she goes to bed she is only quiet for maybe a 1/2 hour. But that is okay. Someday I know she will want to be left alone and not want to talk to us, so for now, it is okay by me.

Finley is doing great. More words daily. She learned to do a front roll. She thinks it is funny. She will basically stand on her head and wait for her dad to roll her over. Oh, and every day that I pick her up from school, Arlington is there at the room with me, and she walks right past me and goes right for her "sissy". Nice! And each morning when she wakes up, I go in to get her, and she says, "sissy?" That girl loves her sister. She is also very curious. She will inspect every speck of dirt on the floor as well walk around stores. If it is on the floor, it requires her attention.

Cainan is doing well. Being his same goofy self. He is still practicing the word "light" He almost has it. The "L" sound is new for him with his new palate. But he is getting the idea. And, I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but this week he started drinking from a sippy cup by sucking on it! We are very happy about that! But the newest - he is drinking from a straw!!! Hooray! It surprised him a bit when he first did it. But now that he is drinking from the sippy cup, he can do a straw. Once he did it, man he just took off drinking from the cup. He was so excited! He really has to concentrate, but he can actually do that faster than the sippy cup. Yeah for him. He also is building a 4 block tower. He has amazing concentration when it comes to lacing things through holes, and stacking, doing puzzles. Finley doesn't have the patience, but Cainan is good at it. I hope this means he is going to be a good student! :)

That is the happenings. Next week we are busy again. Monday the social worker comes for Cainan's 6 month visit. He will have been home 6 months come beginning of February, so we have to have the visit completed and all paperwork turned into our agency by then. Tuesday I am having a phone conference with my new case manager with our insurance company to help me manage all of the statements I am getting from all of his doctor's visits and hospitalizations. They are all covered by our insurance and we don't owe anything, thank goodness, but the Florida customer service idiots can't seem to get that. So the case manager and head person at our insurance company are going to be taking over for me, because I am done being the middle man for stupid Florida. Wednesday is a playdate with a family that traveled with Mat to China to pick up their little girl. She lives a few blocks from us and we are anxious to see them again. Thursday is Cainan's new speech therapy day. We are now going to be going on a weekly basis. And Thursday I am going out to dinner with girlfriends! Yeah! Friday there is no VPK for Arlington, so I will have all three children home. Should be interesting. I am sure it will be fine.

Here are a few pictures! Enjoy!