Weekend report

Hi all! Hope all is well with everyone. We are enjoying our weekend here in Connecticut. The weather all of this week was cool, so we got a chance to wear some of our long sleeve stuff. Yesterday and today have been the coldest. It has gone down into the low 40's at night, and only reaching about 65 during the day. Cool days! This is good weather to be outside, though. It isn't so hot and good days to do yardwork. I am sure pretty soon I will be whining about the REALLY cold days that are ahead.

The kids are at the end (hopefully) of their sickness. They are still having a little bit of a tough time. Finley did stay home from school on Wednesday, and by the end of the day Cainan was also having belly problems. (I will spare the details). But by Thursday, everyone seemed pretty good. They all went to school on Thursday and Friday and so far, so good. I haven't been feeding them anything but the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce and toast) and I think that helped. Today we are starting to slowly start eating regular food. Just a little, though. I don't want to push my luck.

My work week went well. Wednesday I missed work, but my substitute was my nursing supervisor, so that was good. She had a very busy day! Thursday was just as busy for me - I saw more than 30 kids that day. Half of them for belly aches and 5 kids were sent home! It was nuts. I didn't get anything else done in the office besides taking care of the kids. Friday was better. A little more peace, and I actually was able to leave on time. Mat was able to leave work early as well, so we were home around the same time and the kids played outside last night for a long time before dinner. After dinner it was pretty cold, so we stayed inside.

Today started with soccer practice. The babies and I were finally able to attend, so we went for the last hour of the practice/game. It was fun. We took a blanket and some snacks and watched Arlington and Mat's team play. It was fun. Our neighbor, Michelle, is the coach of Arlington (and her little girl's) team, and Mat is the assistant. They have a lot of fun together. The kids seem to be getting a lot out of it. Arlington's team is only Kindergarten. There are three Kindergarten teams all together (or 4?) and they mix the kids up at the end of practice to play a little game. It is fun. I took some pictures this week, and they are below.

After soccer, we all went to a state park near our house called Devil's Hopyard. It was really nice (and free!) We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours and let the kids run around and enjoy the woods and waterfall that were in the park. We took pictures of that and those are also below. Now the babies are napping - they were tired from their morning out. Our neightbor Michelle gave us some info on the water we saw there: "That's the Eightmile River, recently designated as a National Wild & Scenic River after 10 years of study. It's one of only 2 W&S rivers in CT the other being the West Branch of the Farmington River. The East Branch of the Eightmile, which is included in that W&S designation, runs through Salem..." Thanks Michelle!

Cainan is doing well. His speech continues to improve. He is doing well at school and his teachers continue to work with him. I am thinking that daycare was probably the best decision we could have made for him. It forces him to talk clearly so that he is understood! He loves it there, too, and is doing really well.

Finley is doing fine as well. This week she went on the potty at school! We were happy to hear that! We were going to wait until around Thanksgiving to officially start training her, but we have a potty, so maybe we will start a little earlier. She is definitely showing some interest. She wants to sit on the potty at home all the time. Cainan shows no interest or know how at all, but Finley was going to be first to train anyway! So who knows! It would be nice to get them out of diapers.

Arlington is still doing great at school. She got a little boo-boo on the playground at Kindergarten on Friday and saw the nurse....again. She just needed a bandaid, but still! That girl better not be a regular in the nurse's office! Ha! Just kidding. But she had learned some new songs, and in Kindergarten they are perfecting her handwriting. Today I taught Arlington to read a whole little "I can read" book. She learned it going through it one time. That girl is so smart! I would like to have her reading pretty regularly by the end of this year, and that is something Kindergarten is going to work on with her. Next is getting her to be able to write all the words she knows.

So that is about all. Tomorrow is church and cleaning (yuck). Then back to work! This week is a busy one. Monday Arlington's school is doing something called "Pinwheels for peace" It is international peace day, and all the kids in the school made pinwheels in their art classes, and they are going to plant them in the grounds at the school and an arial picture will be taken. Then the pinwheels will be placed around the town. It is pretty cool. Tuesday is Daisy Scouts (Kindergarten version of Girl Scouts), Wed. Mat has a business dinner, Thursday Cainan has speech therapy again, and Friday is picture day at school (plus also a book fair and another fun event at the school). So busy busy!

I would also like to wish a Happy Birthday one day early to my beautiful sister-in-law, Tricia! I am so lucky to have you as a sister and I hope you have a wonderful first birthday as a mommy!

Enjoy!