February is being shitty

The weather acts like it's winter or something. We're in the middle of what seems like an endless stretch of cold, snowy, cloudy days. It's not as cold as Montana gets, but I am ready to break free of it. It's a good thing March is around the corner. I'm getting a little antsy for longer days and flower/vegetable planting.

The house search isn't progressing much at this point. We are getting closer to being ready to put ours on the market, but the for sale inventory is very low. I'm sure things will pick up as spring approaches, but I am ready to look at some houses! We went to an open house today just to see what 2800 square feet feels like (not quite big enough for Bernie). The yard was about a third of the size of ours, which is out of the question. The more I think on it, the more important the lot size is to me. I think I'm craving a bit of Montana style space.

We have tickets to Noel Gallagher in Phoenix in April. I can't express my excitement, so suffice to say, I will finally be fulfilling a life-long dream. And it will be great to see Bernie's family again. We always manage to have some fun (usually margarita-fueled).

Bernie was recently allergy tested as a step in what has been a very long process in figuring out what is up with his sinuses. He has been consistently congested, snotty, etc since I met him. It turns out he is allergic to yeast and mold. So his diet is likely at least somewhat a culprit. He is planning to cut most of that our next week for awhile to see what happens. Cooking for dairy/yeast/mold allergies should be an interesting adventure. He also plans to start the four year allergy drop routine. Because a lifetime of no beer doesn't sound like much fun at all.

I have started being more committed to running again. It feels good to at least be trying. My friend and I made it three miles around the lake today even though it was about 25 degrees. That's the farthest I've made it so far. I hope to work up to a personal best 5k sometime this spring or summer. In other personal enrichment news, I am seriously considering taking a Spanish class. I need to keep adding to my resume while I am out of the workforce and a social worker who knows Spanish is very marketable around here. Plus, I always have that classroom itch.

Faggfest 2012 is all set for Silverwood in July. I have made our reservations and am ready for some serious Fagg festivities. There will be lots of hair twirling, rocking (chair style), and silly conversations that make no sense but Amy will remember for the rest of her days. I can't wait.

We have been busy around here lately. Our house-hunt has dialed up in seriousness, so our house has been getting a lot of attention it needs to be put on the market. So far we've replaced outdated light fixtures and window coverings, Bernie has started patching the walls for touch-up paint, and I have been de-cluttering like mad. We got a small storage unit to put all our extra junk in and have started a garage sale pile. Hopefully, we will move to our new house a little lighter. I have also been going Craigslist crazy getting rid of our baby stuff. There is still a long list to accomplish, but we hope to be ready to get the house listed soon.

We will likely find a new house before we list ours, just because the logistics will be easier to work out. It would be difficult to find somewhere to stay if we sold this house before getting a new one. There isn't much on the market right now, but it should pick up as spring approaches. I am VERY excited to find our forever house. We'll be picky, so we have an open-ended timeline to make sure we find what we are looking for.

Vivian is now walking almost everywhere. She's at the really cute stage where she looks like she is waddling and still has her fat little legs. I'm trying to soak it in because she'll be a crazy toddler soon enough. She is learning her animal sounds and recently added the "please" sign to her "more" sign. I die of cute each time she puts them both together.

Bennett is still adding speech rapidly in large chunks. He's got some 4-5 word sentences and is learning new words every day. It feels so awesome to listen to him mimic what we say......finally. Now I better watch my mouth. He is really loving preschool which is a relief. And so far we are happy with our decision to place him in public school.

Both of the kids are in swimming lessons. Bennett seems to be at a developmental stage where he is soaking it up better. It helps that he loves the pool and has asked me to go swimming 20 times since Tuesday. Vivian was a crying mess the first time and about 50% better the second. Fingers crossed that she will enjoy pool time more as time goes on.

We are guinea pig sitting in February for 2.5 weeks for my aunt and uncle. Bennett loved having Bugsey here this past summer, and I'm sure this time will be even better since there are two pigs instead of one.

Home in 2012

Phoenix made for a lovely December vacation destination. The weather was awesome (mostly in the mid-70's with a couple of 80 degree days). I didn't even miss the snow considering we got a heavy foot of it the day before we left. Traveling with the kids was challenging but never as bad as it has the potential to be. Having the Iphone to entertain Bennett while we check in and go through security is helpful. But I am very confused on the boarding policies of some airlines. Why in the world to they board front to back?? Maybe they noticed what a bad idea it was when the flight attendant had to take a bag from me because I was apparently hitting people on the head with it while trying to carry a VERY uncooperative Bennett to his seat.

The same flight attendant approached us right before take off and whispered the following:

"As long as you are doing your job as Mom and Dad, I don't have any problem with a screaming child. If anyone says anything to you about it, let me deal with them...it's my job." That was a first for me, but she needn't have worried. Despite Bennett's almost-fit and Vivian's pre-boarding huge melt-down, both kids were basically angels during the flight.

Anyway, back to vacation talk. We had a great time with all of Bernie's family. It's always fun to stay with Crystal and Jeremie so the cousins can have some time together. Bennett did better interacting with them this year, but by the end was ready to go home. Vivian seemed to enjoy all the commotion, minus Emily wanting to pick her up/walk her/generally be in her face all the time. I would expect nothing else from a six year old and it was actually very sweet to see how interested she was in Vivian.

We shopped, played golf, drank margaritas, went in the hot tub, ate lots of good food, toured a dairy, drank margaritas, gambled for approximately 5 minutes at the casino, went to the train museum/park (Bennett's highlight), and drank more margaritas. I got to see Bernie and his sisters when they were very little on an old home movie. And we soaked up the sun, which is always welcome in the winter.

Bennett is back to preschool on Thursday. Vivian is walking very sporadically. That about wraps up the excitement for the moment I think. Happy New Year!

Preschool

Bennett had his very first day of preschool today. The plan was to take him last week, but he got a cold the day before. So we decided to wait. Everything went very well, better than I expected. We told him constantly over the last week that we were going to school, that we had to leave but would come back, etc. We basically tried to give him the social story of what was going to happen so he wouldn't be surprised. He responds to this approach positively in many situations. He loved carrying his backpack into the school and ran right to a table to start playing. Since he seemed to jump right in, we quickly kissed him goodbye and left. I fully expected the teacher to call and tell us that he was upset, but she never did. I picked him up from the playground at 11am and he was so happy to see me. No tears or anything. Apparently he had a couple of moments where they thought he would cry, but he was able to push through them. Although it was difficult to hold his attention for long, he did try and participate with everything the other kids did.

I was a little bit early to pick him up, but I parked near the playground and watched him run around the equipment. It was so strange to be watching from afar and I shed a few tears. But we are very proud of Bennett and we went and had a celebratory doughnut after.

On Vivian's front, there is lots and lots and lots of practice walking going on. She pushes around anything that can be pushed. If she runs into anything and gets stopped she cries until one of us helps her to get going again and then smiles while walking toward the next obstacle.

I get to do a few mom-night-out activities over the next week. Tomorrow it is an authentic Indian appetizer night, Friday a white elephant gift party, and next week a wine/gift wrapping party. I've never been a particularly good or consistent wrapper, but I won't argue with some wine. Maybe it will help my technique!

Bernie's dad will be here tomorrow for a couple of days en-route to Phoenix. He is going to help us replace some light fixtures and with other odd jobs that need to be done to prepare the house for sale. Our list of fixes/improvements is quite long.

We are so happy with our photos! I hope to get the order in tomorrow so we can get some type of holiday/new year cards out to everyone.

We are off for a ten day trip to Phoenix in 10 days. I am very excited to see all of Bernie's family and have the kids with their cousins. Being with my Fagg cousins was the highlight of my childhood and I am sad our kids won't have that same closeness. But I'm sure they will have fun when they have the opportunity.

Bennett is 3!

Bennett had his third birthday on Thanksgiving this year. He has already made out with an impressive haul. We got him a train table, complete with way too many train accessories. He has been really loving trains for the past few months and always plays with them whenever he has the chance. It's so cute to listen to him squeal "tains!" and "choo choo" when one catches his eye. Grandma Jackie gave Bennett The Very Hungry Caterpillar themed bedding. It is perfect in his room and even had two pillow cases with Bennett's name embroidered on them. The new bedding meant it was time for the real big boy full-size bed.

My mom was here, so she took the kids out while we got everything ready for the big reveal. We had to entirely rearrange Bennett's room to get everything to fit well. And it was a risk to do everything suddenly as Bennett doesn't always love a change in routine, but this worked out. He was so happy to see everything and proceeded to play with the trains and cuddle in his new bed. He loves the sheets with all the stuff the caterpillar ate and spends time every day counting the oranges, plums ("pums!), etc.

Bennett's party isn't even until this weekend. It is also VHC themed and Mom is going a bit overboard. I have found Etsy to be a great party planning/decorating resource for those of us who lack any artistic and creative abilities. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures.

My mom stayed for a little over a week. Overall, we had a good time and everyone is still living. So that's a win. We bought her an Ipad for all mom-related holidays for the next two years. She took a couple of classes for that at the Apple store and seems to be doing well with it so far. We really didn't do anything else very exciting while she was here. She made some yummy food as is her habit.

Unfortunately, after she left, Vivian and I came down with the stomach flu. Bernie got it a few days later. Bennett seems to have been only mildly affected up to now...I hope we can at least get through his party. And then maybe we can avoid having that type of illness when we go to Phoenix over Christmas.

I am going to register Bennett for preschool tomorrow and maybe we will take him over on Thursday. I am really excited/sad/nervous for him to start. I think he will do well, but I guess it's my job to worry about it.

I have been walking/slash running with a friend of mine. We are trying to get ready for a 5K in April. It's not easy getting out to exercise with Bernie's work schedule + 2 kids, but we are managing a 2-3 times per week (except when someone is vomiting of course). We are quite the sight with our huge strollers and four screaming children. Vivian gets especially pissy for some reason.

I just asked Bernie if there was anything I was forgetting about and he wanted me to remind everyone how great of a husband he is. And he's right of course.

We have been going to JC Penney portrait studio a few times a year since Bennett was born. It is important to me to get milestone pictures of the kids and family photos every once in awhile. I know they aren't the most professional or creative photos, but they were serving the intended purpose. Anyway, they are habitually late. And it makes me crazy. It's especially bad when you get two kids ready, schedule the appointment when they will be happiest, and then have to wait 20 minutes while the prior session finishes. I thought I solved this problem by only booking the first appointment of the day. We went in at 10am today and no one was there. We waited 10 minutes and then told the manager we were leaving and not coming back. I am finished with that bullshit. Consider this my official warning to anyone else in Longmont...go somewhere else for your photos. I don't think I will go to that store if not absolutely necessary...like when they send me $10 free coupons.

The photo drama leaves me in a conundrum. Vivian just turned one and Bennett will be three. And it is time for a family photo. We wanted to have my friend Sara's husband Tyson take them while we were in GF this past summer, but my dad's drama and Vivian's allergy issues prevented that from happening. So, I am going to try and find someone around here. I have one person in mind, but if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

In more exciting news, I think we have decided on a preschool for Bennett. I was originally convinced that we would send him to Tiny Tim (where his therapists work) for at least this spring. It's a great program that combines typical and challenged kids with qualified teachers and therapy. Sounds perfect, right?? Well, we decided to go through the school district's evaluation as well to see what they might offer. They recommended a public preschool near our house. We checked it out this week and really like it. There are only 6 kids in the classroom with two adults (the teacher and an assistant). Speech and occupational therapists come in each week to work with the kids while in class. The teacher is a special education teacher and has experience with kids like Bennett. She was very nice. So, I think we are going to take the leap of faith and start him there in January (Tues/Thurs mornings). We will have another IEP meeting next week to iron out the details and sign paperwork.

We will probably continue to see his current OT and ST at Tiny Tim as well. We will see how he does with that plan and adjust as needed. I don't want him to be too overwhelmed.

Trip recap, etc.

We had a nice (but short) trip to Minneapolis. The kids really enjoyed seeing Grandma and Auntie Jodi. It didn't take them long to warm up because Grandma had beed doing lots of Facetime with them before we left. The wedding was fun, although the ceremony itself was not something the kids were able to make it through...not that I expected them to make it through an hour in a church in the first place. I think we stayed for the first 20 minutes and then watched some Mickey Mouse in the car. Bernie enjoyed seeing his friends again. He's right that that was probably the last time they will all be together for the foreseeable future.

If anyone ever gets to that area with kids, the children's museum in St. Paul was great and so was the Thai restaurant across the street. I am still thinking about that food. It's nice to be able to go into a restaurant and order basically anything off of the menu and not worry about there being any dairy in it.

We got back the day before Halloween, so there wasn't much time to prepare. Bennett went as a pirate in jammies (sans hat) and Vivian donned her cupcake gear. She stayed in the wagon while Bennett and I went door to door. He filled his bag by going around the block and is now constantly asking me for "cany!" I suppose I should hide the bag or something. Maybe Vivian can wear the Mickey outfit I got for Bennett this year.

We are happy with our new phones and the ipad was so awesome to have for the plane ride. Bennett is already a pro at one of the preschool apps. I am looking into a few options of speech apps we can work with at home. He continues to make good progress and will now try to imitate almost every word you say when asked. He knows his numbers 1-10, most letters by sight, shapes, and colors. I think there is a lot in his head we just can't know because of his communication challenges. His new favorite thing in the world is trains. He says "choo choo" every time we see one or talk about them. I guess the train table sitting in the basement was a good choice for a birthday gift. Now I just have to find somewhere to put it which involves selling some more of the baby stuff on Craigslist.

Vivian is now our 1 year old baby. She is experimenting with crawling on her hands and knees more. I don't see her walking in the immediate future as she doesn't even like to practice while we hold her hands. She is quite the little imitator though. Her current favorite think is playing patty-cake complete with hand-clapping, rolling, patting, and throwing it in the oven. Hopefully I can get a video of that soon.