My Baby!

My baby is almost 13. I am almost the mother of a teenager. That just doesn't seem possible to me - throw in the fact that in less than a month, I will be entering another decade of my life and this has the makings of a really crummy end of the year for me. Last night, Josh and some of his friends had a sleep-over after we took them out to Razzoos. We had a really nice night. We got in and out and were back home in 2 hours (thank you Grammy and Grampy) for watching the other kiddos so we could enjoy time with our "soon-to-be teen". As I type this, it is 11:19 pm, less than an hour from the actual time of birth (11:59 pm). His goal is to say up until then. Good thing he took a nap today, since I don't think there was much sleeping going on upstairs last night. (also, one major design flaw of our house - the playroom is directly over our bedroom, as is the air hockey table). Oops. Well, here are some pictures of my baby!





I guess that I can "out" Josh in that if you look closely, the shirt in the pictures from last night and the last picture taken a few minutes ago is one in the same. I am told that at some point in the teen years, the boys start bathing like 6 times a day. Please tell me that happens the day they turn 13!

Julie

TEETH!

Well, Abby and Izzy both have one tooth each - so I guess we could say "teeth". Saturday, Caleb lost a tooth and the girls seemed to have found it. They each are sporting a very small, but everpresent bump on the bottom left. You can't see it yet, just feel it. Now you will draw back a very wet finger when trying to feel said teeth, but they are there. They are also crawling up a storm, and they are starting to want to pull up. Isabelle pulled up to her bumbo seat saturday. They are getting there.

Now - Save the date. We are going to have a BIG party for the girls first birthday, Olivia's second birthday and Matthew's fourth birthday. November 15th - details to come!

More later, Julie

Labor Day

Well, we had a great holiday. Everyone came over and we had a wonderful Luau. We had Kalua Pig, chicken long rice, mac salad, sticky rice, shoyu chicken, spam musubi, fruit salad and coconut pie. It was a wonderful day. The kids played outside in the sprinklers and had water balloon fights and Abby learned to crawl - forward.

The First Day of School

Well, I guess officially it is not the first day for the smaller 4, but here is the picture so humor me. We are off and running. After school, Caleb had soccer practice. I took all the paperwork for the 3 oldest to fill out. Too bad they just can't have a district wide database for all the emergency numbers, addresses, etc. And how many "Code of Conduct" books do we need exactly. The amount of paper that I threw away, wow. Oh, well - here is the picture.

Too bad I forgot to move the girl's toys out of the way, but you know what they look like.

Sitting Up and Getting Wet

Well, the girls are on their way to crawling. They are getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and today we tried sitting. They actually did it. I have a feeling that they will be doing a lot of catching up in the next month or so. They go back to the pulmonologist this week to evaluate for Synagis again this year. Hopefully they will be able to get it, especially since they are in daycare now. Speaking of daycare, we are starting our 3rd week. Everyone is doing well, just slight runny noses and hopefully nothing more serious creeps up.



We have spent the last two saturdays with both of our parents putting together the playset that has been making our garage smell good for about the last 6 weeks. It looks great and it is DONE! I put the periscope and pirates ship wheel up tonight. We got the slide up just as a MAJOR thunderstorm rolled through last night. We were all running for cover, picking up tools and cardboard trash from the backyard.





Caleb was baptized last week. Daddy did it. It was wonderful. Many people came up to me and said that Rocky had made them cry. I am so proud of him! Here are some pictures of that.

RAIN

Well, it has been raining most of the day. It really hasn't mattered since I have been in class all day, but the evening is approaching and I was wanting to get out and go for a walk. I actually packed my exercise stuff - ready to walk. The gym in the hotel costs, and I may just fork it out. I really feel like I need to do something. There is a Clam Bake party tonight at the conference - hope they have Chicken (I don't eat clams). Rocky would be in heaven!

Forgot to tell you about the RATS I saw running from under the fence of Boston Commons onto the sidewalk to get pieces of food people had dropped. They were HUGE and really bold. They were like squirrls. Actually, they had probably eaten the squirrils and were moving on to bread crumbs. I couldn't believe how many of them there were! NASTY! I got pictures and I'll post later.

Live from Boston

Well, I made it to Boston. It was a good flight, too long, but nice. Quick trip to the hotel for more money than I was told - but, I'm not in Texas any more. Got to the room, unpacked, made room for the Fridge that I have to rent for my stay to keep the breastmilk so I can bring it home, get out the pump and realize that I have made the most horrible mistake - again! I have forgotten a most important piece of my pump, the same piece that I forgot when I left for camp this year. Too bad someone isn't coming from home tomorrow to bring it to me. I called mom, in tears and she looked into shipping the part. Just to get it here by Monday was going to be $150 or so. NOT worth it. So - head to the Concierge desk and ask the poor GUY there to try to find me somewhere to find a breast pump. Probably not his most weird request, but close to it I would gather. BINGO - in the cab, off to Target, buy a NEW pump and then head back to hotel. PUMP. This will go in my book as one of the TOP stupid mistakes I have made (and expensive, too!) I then took off on a long walk to Boston Commons. It was a brisk 25 minute walk there. I also visited the "Cheers" store. The weather is really nice here - NOT 107 degrees, but a nice 80 or so, and once the sun goes down, it is supposed to be inthe 50-60 degree range. Too bad I can't sleep outside. I brought the camera, but didn't bring the cord, so no pictures for now. Oh well, they are not that interesting anyway.

On a side note - We gave the girls Bananas yesterday. I was wondering if it would go down easier if it tasted better than rice cereal. It made no difference for Abby, but Isabelle is really getting the hang of it. They will probably be walking by the time I get home wednesday...