Rainbow Loom

When Becca got a Rainbow Loom for her birthday I did not expect that Ben would be the one making bracelets all afternoon with it ("Can I get one of these for Hanukkah, Mom?")

Birthday Cookie Cake

After he got back from services with Ben, Joel went to school to share birthday cookie cake with Becca. She is the only one of the kids at school today (having really wanted to celebrate her birthday at school with her classmates). 

Throwback Thursday...

September 25th 2007:

My birthday girl enjoying a breakfast treat (those 7s on the Rosh Hashanah pan of brownies came in handy, LOL ;)

Happy New Year!

Graffiti Artist

I enlisted the help of Abby and Mary this afternoon to paint the spirit rock in honor of Rebecca's birthday tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain hasn't washed it all off by tomorrow and that she actually notices it when she gets to school tomorrow!

Chilly :-)

Caroline thinks it is a very chilly first day of fall! Actually it never made it out of the 60s today so it IS chilly just not this chilly. 

Sunset

Inaugural iPhone 6 Post

Thanks for the early Hanukkah present Joel!!!

Birthday Party

Rebecca's wish for a birthday party this year was to have a slumber party. So she and several friends are up in the bonus room watching Lion King in their PJs right now, after a full evening of pizza, cupcakes, bingo, and a craft project. I am seriously hoping they all fall asleep soon :) Major shout out to Aunt Abby for coming over to help!! 

Throwback Thursday

This picture was taken seven years ago next week, a day or two before Becca was born. 

Apple Pie

Joel took Ben and Rebecca apple picking on Saturday with J-tribes to their favorite apple picking destination, Carrigan Farms (home to their favorite dogs, Lady and Murphy). In exchange for two sacks of apples, Abby baked us a pie! YUM! Best Monday morning breakfast ever :) Thanks Abby!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Caroline's buddy Josh celebrated his third birthday at Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville on Saturday. It was Caroline's first trip to the museum and she had a blast despite missing her nap time! Happy birthday Josh!

Monkey Girl

I had a little monkey instead of a dancer this morning! But week four of dance = she marched into class with no hesitation and didn't look back! Yay Caroline!

Double Bee Stings

Rebecca received her first bee sting yesterday (And poor Amelia received her 2nd and 3rd). I am not sure exactly what happened except that they were playing on my porch and seemed to have angered a nearby bee or two. I did investigate later and found no sign of bees, hive or anything suspicious in the vicinity of the porch so I can only assume it was just very bad luck!

Anyway I was at my desk working yesterday afternoon when I suddenly heard VERY LOUD SCREAMING. I rushed outside to see Amelia standing on the porch shrieking and Rebecca running up the street away from me shrieking. I incorrectly thought that Rebecca's screaming and running was due to being scared of the bee that I had by then deduced had stung Amelia. So I snatched Amelia up and brought her inside and began tending to her, only to be joined a minute later by Abby, carrying a kicking and screaming Rebecca who we quickly realized had also been stung. (Next time, I told her, please run INSIDE when you get stung, do not just take off running up the street). 

After some baking soda & water on the bee stings and some popsicles, they were doing much better. But my ears were ringing for about an hour from all the screams ;) Aunt Abby couldn't help herself in the picture taking department ;)

She's Done with Pull-Ups, Just Like That...

As followers of this blog know, we have long struggled (and I mean LONG STRUGGLED) with Becca in the pee-pee training department. We tried several medications,  pee-pee watches, behavioral therapy, pretty much whatever we could think of to get her to use the potty when necessary and keep herself dry during the day. With only incremental success, as she would still usually end the day at least a little damp although full-blown accidents have been rare. We hadn't even attempted to address her nighttime wetting issues, and she has been wearing pull-ups to bed her whole life and very rarely keeping them dry at night.

Until recently that is. Coinciding with her awful stomach bug a couple weeks ago, she started staying dry both day and night. Now, at first I attributed this to dehydration :) But then she got better, and kept staying dry. And then Friday at bed-time she announced, "I am not wearing a pull-up to bed any more. I hate pull-ups." And she went to bed without a pull-up, and stayed dry. Repeat Saturday night, repeat Sunday night, although Sunday she did have a pee-pee accident during the day so I think we aren't 100% yet but DEFINITELY moving in the right direction.

Hooray for Becca and her new-found determination to stay dry :)

Caroline Discovers Neil Diamond

And then I had to play it for her about 20 times, although she did eventually stop jumping :)

Sisters

Back to School Night

AKA Curriculum Night. Joel went to Becca's on Tuesday night, and I went to Ben's last night. After the annual forced PTA meeting tradition, I went to Ben's homeroom class to meet his homeroom/ literacy / social studies teacher Ms. Ebert (not to be confused with the Ms. Ebert who was Rebecca's teacher last year).

Ms. Ebert was AWESOME! I mean, first impressions only and all, but, she seemed awesome to me. She has been teaching 5th grade since 1977 and her enthusiasm and love of teaching and of her 5th graders was evident. She is all about getting the kids to think deeply, to draw parallels between seemingly unrelated objects/concepts, teaching them little pearls of wisdom or "maxims" that she writes on the board every day or two and discusses with the students, and talked about the need to have "balance" in the classroom so that she is not always talking/they are not always listening but the day is "balanced" between different types of learning and activities. She is also big into giving them choices and responsibility during portions of their day, concerning how, when and where they do their work.

Also, as I was getting ready to leave her room and head across the hall to Ben's science/math teacher's room, she stopped me and said, "Are you Ben's mom? I just love having him in my class! He is such a hard worker and so quiet and well-behaved! He is doing really well!" WOW, way to impress the teacher so far Ben! Hoping that the rest of the school year turns out as well as these first couple of weeks have gone!

Labor Day Weekend

Becca came off the bus Friday afternoon saying her stomach hurt again, and spent the afternoon lying on the couch. She got off the couch and came to the dinner table, only to run to the bathroom half way through and throw up AGAIN, after two days of keeping food down. She had diarrhea all day Saturday but made it to dance class anyway (might not've been the smartest idea).

Sunday she seemed much better and we went to a birthday party in the morning and then to the pool, and yesterday I took her and Caroline to paint pottery while Joel and Ben saw Guardians of the Galaxy. Really hoping the tummy troubles are behind us now!

Caroline had a relatively uneventful first visit to the dentist this morning (MUCH better than Rebecca's first dentist appointment) after which she got a princess crown as a reward, pronounced that it must be her birthday, and went happily to school to show her friends :)