Adventures in Lynchland: November 2012

Although I typically like warmer weather, it has been fun to experience a Colorado fall after being in Houston for so long. It has actually been unusually warm, and we are enjoying temps in the low 60's this week. The kids have been able to play outside a lot, and we got some good pics of the pretty red tree in the backyard before all the leaves fell off.

Our neighbor has a huge tree that hangs over our yard, so we had TONS of leaves. Fun!

This crazy boy has been day potty trained for a few months now. It was surprisingly easy, and he got the hang of it really quickly. I feel so blessed, because I know it is a very frustrating process for many parents. I just put him in some Thomas underwear, gave him one m&m when he went pee and two when he went #2, and changed him patiently when he had an accident. It only took about a week and a half. He still has an occasional accident (usually when he is engrossed in a show, and doesn't want to get up). I am half-heartedly working on nighttime training. I don't want to use pull-ups, because I think they would be as absorbent as diapers, and I want him to wake up and be uncomfortable with any wetness. I have two pairs of cloth training pants that he wears a few nights a week, and the rest of the time it is disposable diapers. Half the time he is dry in the morning though, so once I buy some more cloth training pants we should be able to wrap this up rather quickly. So proud of my little man!

Free pancake and safety day at the local fire station.

My favorite pic of Mary right now :)

There have been some exciting changes around here the last few months...

New job for Alex: Alex found a job in September after looking hard for the past 6 months. The timing was totally providential, as my contract unexpectedly ended within two weeks of him starting. He is working at a small paper company called Western Paper Distributors, and is doing sales support. Not exactly his passion, or something he will probably do long term, but we are grateful he found something so that I can be home with the kiddos.

New job for me: I am now a stay-at-home mom and absolutely love it! It has been so hard being away from my babies the past few years and I am definitely relishing my time with them now. Even though they drive me crazy 90% of the time, and I often wonder how I will possibly be able to handle 3 children 3 years and under in a few months, my days are filled with such joy. Our days are starting to have a nice flow to them, and as I get more organized I'm sure they will be even better.

Preschool for little Alex: I bought a curriculum for Alex called Little Saints: A Catholic Preschool With Classical Disciplines. There is one lesson per week, but I am stretching each lesson over two weeks so that I can use the program until Kindergarten. So we are doing the odd numbered lessons this year, and will do the even numbers next year. I really like it so far. There is a selection of about 15 books related to the topic that I request from the library in advance. There is a bible verse for each day, finger play and nursery rhymes, songs, learning games and art projects. It is a lot a prep work, but at least I don't feel like I am not doing enough with him!

We are part of our parish homeschool group, and they do a few activities a month, but there are not a lot of kids his age right now. There will be more in the future as he approaches school age, and more parents with kids in his age group decide to homeschool and get more involved in the group. So since there are not a lot of social opportunities through that group right now, I have joined a co-op group that will provide about 10-15 educational activities per month. The members were part of my former playgroup, and wanted more intentional learning experiences for the kids. In the past it had been a lot of playdates where the moms chat and the kids play by themselves. So it transitioned into more of a formal co-op, and I am excited for all the fun stuff that is starting to pop up on the calendar!

Mary update: It's starting. The frequent tantrums when she doesn't get her way IMMEDIATELY. When I am out with her and others observe this behavior, they tell me she is definitely female, and to expect lots of drama in the future. Luckily, she can be easily distracted most of the time. I love to watch her with little Alex. She copies everything she does, and tries to repeat a lot of what he says, so I think that is helping her learn new words. I am glad they will have each other when the baby comes; she is very clingy and wants to be right next to me all day. Hopefully the adjustment won't be too difficult for her.

Baby update: I am almost 34 weeks and baby is very active. We were a bit nervous a few weeks ago when the doctor heard the baby's heart skipping beats at my 30 week appt. They scheduled me with a high-risk OB that afternoon and did an ultrasound. He said the structure of the heart looked perfect, and only skipped twice during the 20-30 min ultrasound. He didn't seem worried, and said I didn't need to have any extra monitoring. It could have been caffeine, although I hadn't had any that day, and only had a Coke or some tea a few days a week. I researched online a bit, and it sounds like it is not an uncommon condition, and when the structure of the heart is normal, fetal arrhythmia's are almost always benign. And at my 32 week appointment, all sounded normal. What a relief!

And now for some pictures! Here are some from August and September. We got a new camera (our first dSLR....so excited!) and have taken a lot of pics in Oct, so I will post those another time.

Aunt Cindy and Uncle Mike's 25 wedding anniversary party!