new pics

You can see them here and here and here .

Lake George

We're home! It was wonderful, although we got a day late of a start, because the truck broke down 45 min. from home and we had to get towed back. Long story short, Tom and his mom's neighbor, who is a mechanic, tried to fix it, but no luck :(. So, Thursday morning we unpacked the truck and packed the car and got on our way.

We had a *lovely* time. The trip was easy, the scenery beautiful. I will post pictures and more details later. I must say that Laura and Brian spoiled us. Their kids and our kids had a blast. Soren begged not to leave. She lost two teeth on this trip!

Anyway, a loud shout out to Laura - thank you for everything. We had so much fun and hope we get to see you in Feb. I would just about give up my annual beach trip to come to Lake George for 10 days :)

I'm sick. I have the headache from hell. We're supposd to already be on the road to Lake George, but I haven't packed a damn thing yet, because I was at Seabreeze with the kids all day yesterday (pictures to come later!) with a pounding headache and a sore throat. Thank god for Advil. Then I had to work. Ugh.

Anyway, I am going to start packing soon.

My mom was in the ER yesterday. She left me a message at 7:30 a.m. that she couldn't breath and was dying and that she loved me. I suspected that it was a bit dramatic ;). She was having an anxiety attack apparently, although she won't admit it. Well, mom, of course a heart attack wouldn't show up on the EKG! Anyway, I think she's really struggling with being alone - she's called 911 twice in the last 6 weeks.

Teeth

Everyone is having teeth issues! Soren has her 6 year molars coming in, and has two loose bottom teeth, with her permenant tooth coming in behind.

Jude has one bottom and two top teeth coming in and is not sleeping. At All. Ever.

Emma had an evaluation at the orthodontist yesterday, which went well. He couldn't figure out what was holding her loose tooth in...the one that she's had loose for 8 months. The one that I couldn't even bribe her to pull out. He told her that if she didn't get it out in the next two weeks, I should make an appt. with our regular dentist to have it removed ;). She pulled it yesterday.

He also said to give her tooth that's come in way back behind the loose tooth about 6 months to move forward and that if it hasn't by then, we'll look at options. Otherwise, her teeth look great and her bite is fine. woot! David and I were seriously stressed about how we were going to pay for orthodontics. Especially since there's no doubt in my mind that Soren will need serious work done. Her new tooth is twice the size of one of her baby teeth and her mouth is crowded just with those. ::sigh::

On another subject, we went to my BIL's bday party last night. I made a marguerita pie. OMG, it was so good. We had a good time then came home and made real margueritas. Yummmmy. Then we watched one of the Neverwhere shows so we can finally send the damn DVD back to Netflix.

Tom let me sleep in until 9:30 this morning. He is the best.

soren

She got her round off back handspring on the floor tonight by herself! I can't believe how hard she is working :).

Emma seems to be doing well too - I got to see her tonight for a bit and her form was really good.

She said her haircut has turned her into a new person ;)

haircuts

Soren and Emma got haircuts today. Emma's is really different! Soren just got bangs, but didn't cut any length off. They look so cute and E. looks so much older IMO.

fun game

Guess the google

Dinner

We went rock climbing last night and had a blast, except that Emma has had a tummy ache since Wednesday, but with no other symptoms, so she didn't climb much.

Tom and I even got to climb a bit, as David came to help belay and watched Jude for a bit.

Then we went out to our favorite Indian place to eat. They recently opened a new restaurant that is larger and when we got there, they were setting up for a huge family birthday party. It was so much fun! We sat and ate and were the only customers and more and more people piled in. All the little girls in their gorgeous outfits and the women dressed up with matching toenail polish and jewelry. They setup huge speakers and played music. It was great, because I wasn't worried about Jude making noise. There were a ton of kids running around!

They kept apologizing, but I reassured them that we were having a great time.

In the afternoon, before Tom came home, Soren had a play date. It went OK I guess. The girls are a bit of a challenge and the mom stayed, so I had to socialize and didn't get any chores done ;).

The girls are with David today and going out to their friends' aunt's house to swim and pick green beans. We were supposed to have dinner w/ my MIL tonight but it's canceled, so we hope to finally get to our friend Bernie's house tonight or tomorrow for the weekend! I only hope I have time to vacuum up all the dust bunnies before we leave!

Jude is cranky today and won't let me put him down. As soon as he naps I'm going to shower and rush around and clean.

Update

Things have been so busy, it's been impossible to blog. Jude is officially walking now. He walked halfway across my friend's kitchen on Sunday night and is taking steps and standing up from sitting by himself consistently now. He is so thrilled by his new accomplishments. He is also talking more and loves to play ball - especially the throwing part.

He also loves going up and down the stairs, necessitating me putting the gate up when I'm trying to do something other than follow him up and down ;).

Soren and Emma spent a week in Ohio with their dad. They had a great time; everytime they called they were excited and told me all the fun they were having. They went on a rowboat and Emma swam along behind, holding on to the tie rope. Soren and Emma also started swimming so well. Soren ran across a snake in the water while she was swimming and was mostly annoyed that it was in her way! Then she came out with a leech on her heel. Ewww! She was pretty freaked out by it. David didn't know to put salt on it, and pulled it off instead. It apparently bled quite a bit.

Soren also has her first loose tooth! It hurts her quite a bit I believe. Her teeth are quite crowded on the bottom and it's hard to wiggle it. Emma also is about to lose another tooth. It's been loose for about 8 months, believe it or not. It got jammed in between her own little crowded bottom teeth and the permanent tooth came in behind it. It's finally loose enough to come out and she won't pull it. It's driving me mad for some reason ;).

Jude got his second tooth in on the bottom and his first tooth on top is poking through too! So now he has 3 teeth. He's taken to biting while nursing unfortunately. And other times too. He is very congested right now, which doesn't help.

While the girls were gone last week, a bed became available for my dad at the nursing home. They didn't have a bed in the special needs unit downstairs, so will have him in the locked dementia unit during the days and sleeping upstairs at night until they can move him downstairs full time.

It was very difficult. We didn't tell him that he was moving until the night before, so that he wouldn't be agitated and create problems. He really never seemed to understand, even after he had spent two nights there, that this was where he was living. I made up his room as best I could to look like his room at the assisted living facility, but it is very confusing for him to spend the day downstairs and then go upstairs to sleep. He doesn't understand why he can't just go up to his room whenever he wants. I think it will be much easier when he's downstairs all the time.

He also wears an a bracelet that sets off alarms at elevators and doors if he goes in. A not very bright nurse tried to show me how to turn the alarm off in front of him. Duh. That's right, teach him that, and he'll be gone.

I hate seeing my dad have to be in a locked facility like this, but his dementia makes it the only safe option anymore. It is so very sad, there are really not words to describe it.

So, we went down on Friday and moved him in on Friday and Saturday. We spent some time with him on Sunday before we came home. Mike and Danielle were nice enough to watch Sully for us on short notice, especially because we were supposed to keep their boys overnight on Friday night so they could go away for their 10th wedding anniversary. They were able to make other arrangments, but I felt terrible. There was nothing for it though, as I didn't want to take a chance on losing his bed, and if I had tried to do it this week I would have had to take off work and find care for the girls.

So that's about it. I'm starting to work some more hours to get ready for fall. I think I shall have to resign myself to working Saturdays in the fall. I don't want to, but I don't see anything else I can do. We really need the money anyway.

gratuitous diaper post

I am so stupidly excited. Jennifer sent me these really cool tie-dyed diapers when I was pregnant with Jude, and I'm too lazy to find my clips to use them. BUT, I just discovered that they fit perfectly in my Fuzzi Bunz.

I have been a bit frustrated with my FB lately, because Jude is a heavy pee-er, and the inserts that come w/ the FB don't seem to reach the edges, causing the diapers to leak. The diapers Jennifer sent solve that problem perfectly, as they even fit into the corners of the FB!

Thanks Jennifer. I adore you!