Sick at last

Well, I held out as long as I could. After being a school nurse for 2 solid months and having my own kids have nothing but colds for equally as long - I finally couldn't resist any longer. They passed their germs to me and I now I have a cold. Oh well. But, like mommies everywhere, my life does not go on pause while I get better. I still have to go at the same speed as always hoping that the cold passes quickly. In actuality what I would like to do is crawl into bed for a few days and watch TV and eat endless bowls of ice cream. Sigh......

Sunday was another nice day here in Connecticut. We went to church in the morning and went to get a few things at Target afterwards. Then we came home for the afternoon. When the babies woke from their naps, Mat and the kids cut open the two new pumpkins we got for Halloween and I cooked up the seeds. We also cooked the apple pie we had gotten the day before at the Apple Festival. It is very tasty!

Monday it was back to school and work. I should have known with the week ending in a holiday that this day would be completely nuts at work. I have been trying really hard not to do vision and hearing screenings on Mondays, but this week I had three meetings and Halloween to contend with, so it left me no choice. This week......first grade. Need I say more? They do say funny things, which keeps me laughing, but I am finding that screening the little ones takes a very, very, long time and a very, very large amount of patience. They are so cute! Here are some of the things that made it interesting:

"My head is bigger than my sisters - and she is in 4th grade"
"I don't use my left hand to write so I can't raise it as well as my right" (while doing the hearing test)
"Now that I am getting older, my hearing isn't as good as it used to be"
"My mommy says I have trouble hearing"

They also can't tie their shoes, they don't know their right from their left, they don't always know what shoe goes on what foot, they are fascinated with the scale, they pick their nose, they don't sit still, they give their classmates the answers to the eye exam, they all have to use the bathroom while they are there, they think since they are in the nurses office means they need an ice pack for something. But the most fun of all - they all want to sit right next to me while the test is going on. It is really cute. I love it.

Also, between 11:30-3:00pm I saw 36 kids, charted 20 screenings, had two 45 minute phone conferences with parents, fielded numerous other phone calls, had my diabetic need to come to the office twice, so on and so on. But I smile, and I take it, and when I get home, I had to lock myself in the bedroom for 1 hour and finish my work so I would not drown at work.

Monday was good for the kids - they all had good days at school. Last night we played outside for about 1 hour before coming in. It is getting colder and darker when we get home, so I know this activity is coming to an end. They love it outside. It is going to be a long winter.

Today was more screenings at work for me, but less office visits. Thankfully on top of screenings I had two meetings so I wasn't available in the office much for anything besides kids who really needed me. And if everyday was that day - I might actually get some work done. :) Just kidding. So today was more managable and I didn't have as much work to bring home tonight.

Arlington is doing great. Tonight she was at Daisy Scouts. She seems to really love it. We ordered their uniforms tonight, so now they will be all set. She is there with all of her friends, and that helps. She is doing an enormous amount of writing and the words are getting a little less like "Kidwriting" and more like "real writing". If that makes sense! She is able to figure out how to spell a lot of words by just sounding them out. Writing is her favorite thing to do right now. She is working on writing a little book, and it is really cute.

Finley is her bad self. She has had an interesting week. She didn't nap at daycare today. Yesterday she got into her sister's glue and spread it all over the kid table we have in the playroom. She was completely covered in glue. We can't even watch another child for one second or she is into mischeif. She took all of the crayons out of the crayon box, filled a bag with them, brought them into our living room, and dumped them there. This list could go on, but I just give up.

She also does cute stuff. Today we were driving home, and she points to the woods out the window and says "I want to go through the woods to Gramma's house". She has started asking "why". I knew this day was coming. Everything I say, she says "why?" Isn't she bad enough???? Just kidding. She is consistently speaking in 6 word sentences and the other night, she even said a 9 word sentence! It was pretty neat. "I want to go to bed and take baby". Nothing wrong with her mouth - just her 'tude.

Cainan is doing great. His therapist saw him yesterday. In addition to speech, he also gets a one on one teacher with his IFSP. I am asking her to work on colors, counting, letters with him. Cainan has a very hard time retaining information. We have to tell him colors over and over, and it still doesn't click. As baffled as we are, we were told not to worry about it - that boys tend to develop slower, be less interested in these mundane task, and with practice he will get it. So we just keep it going. He is still speaking well. He is starting to be able to tell me what happened to him when he is upset. Like (of course) Finley pushed him and he started to cry. I asked him what happened and he said "Finney push me". So that was great! I was stunned. He had never done that before. Mostly he would just mumble and cry and not respond.

Cainan also got a hair cut. I don't know if you can see it in the pictures below or not. We shaved it on Sunday. It was time. It gets kind of long and just sticks up all over the place. I get impatient to see if I let it grow more, if it would settle, so we shave it. He looks cute shaved. It will be grown in by Christmas.

Lastly, I was a bad girl on Saturday and forgot to mention some birthdays and an anniversary!
First - my dad's birthday was the 24th of October. He turned......29. Am I close?? He wishes. My dad is the greatest. He has always been the calm one of the family. The mediator. If we ever upset him when we were growing up, we were in REAL trouble. "Speak softly and carry a big stick". That should have been his motto. He is the greatest grandpa too. My kids just love him. When we skype with my parents, the kids are always "I want to talk with papa - where's papa". I hope he had a great birthday! He and my mom are coming to visit us in a few weeks, and we look forward to spending time with him and celebrating his birthday then!

Second - my brother in law, Zac's birthday was the 25th of October. Zac is Mat's only brother (for those of you that don't know Mat has three sisters and one brother). Zac is next in line after Mat. He is a great guy who loves my kids very much. He dodes on them every time we are with them, and the kids love him. Someday (right Zac??) he is going to be a great dad. Right now, he is a favorite uncle, that is for sure! Happy birthday Zac!

Third - my brother and sister-in-law (AJ and Tricia) celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary on the 26th of October. I can't believe they have been married for 6 years already. I was pregnant with Arlington at their wedding, and now here they are with a baby of their own. They are a wonderful couple and Tricia is more like a sister to me than a sister in law. They ALSO dode on our kids (I am starting to see a pattern.....) and treat them like their own. I hope they had a very wonderful anniversary and wish them many many more years of happiness.

Here are just a few pictures. Sorry I didn't take more this week! And yes, the kids are in their Steelers shirts again! It is a Steeler football Sunday - would they be in anything else??? See you on Saturday!