Fun at Okoboji

We had a great weekend at Okoboji with Jeremy's aunt Sandy, uncle Al, their 3 kids, Jer's cousin Tyler, his wife Tina and their son. Sydney & Hayley got to go tubing for the first time. They had a BLAST. Even Jeremy got out on the tube with Hayley. He found that it just wasn't as easy to go outside the wake as it use to be.

Addy slept through the first part of the boat ride. And Trevor fell asleep toward the end of the trip sitting up.

Personality

Addy has such a BIG personality. She's such a little sweetie. She is still squinting at the camera (as seen in one of the pictures). But she LOVES playing ball with anyone who will play with her and tug with dOg. (Notice the handfull of dOg's hair she has. He is SO good with her.)

Sydney's first day of frst grade

Sydney is THRILLED to be starting first grade. We went last night to her open house and her teacher, Mrs. Monfore, seems very nice. As we were ALL getting out of the car to walk her in to school she told me that we did not NEED to walk her in. She could do this on her own. I told her I wanted a picture of her on her first day. "Just ONE picture mom, please!" She is so grown up.

Mrs. Monfore greeted us this morning and we were able to sneek a picture of Sydney with her.

After the picture Sydney was off to the gym (it's raining again- so no playground today). We tried to get a hug good-bye, but she was off. Hayley ran down the hallway after her because she needed a hug. It's hard to think that Hayley will be going through all of this next year!

Stormy skies

We've had a lot of rain the last few days, thank goodness! Here is a picture of the interesting storm skies from last night's storm.

Why am I late for work?

Do you want to know why I'm late for work? You try just ONE morning in my shoes. This morning it went something like this....

The alarm goes off at 6:30 (20 minutes later than usual because it was a LONG night). As soon as the alarm goes off Addy is standing in her crib ready to be up for the day. *yawn*

I get Addy out of her crib and place her on the bathroom floor with some toys. She is NOT happy about that. Have YOU ever tried going to the bathroom with a baby on your lap? NOT easy. So I try to make her dolly look as interesting as possible- but it just isn't cutting it.

I climb into the shower and have to now pull the outside shower curtain IN to the shower because Addy is crawling over to the tub to stand up. She could pull it down on top of her which would cause more trauma for the morning.

THANK GOODNESS Sydney wakes up and comes into the bathroom to entertain Addy while I finish showering. (By the way- Hayley is at Jeremy's parents for the week- so this is just a morning with 2 kids.)

As I get out of the shower Addy is under the bathroom sink getting into things. (Note to self- this weekend figure out a way to baby proof that cabinet- maybe put a toy basket under there and move the cleaning supplies and other dangerous things to the highest shelves behind the door).

I move Addy over just a bit so I can blow dry my hair. Which REALLY makes her mad. So she crawls over to the toilet and starts pulling the caps off of where it screws into the floor. So I move her back to the toys. She screams at me.

I finally get my hair blow dried after moving her 3 times from that darned cap. Now she is standing by the toilet paper roll. Nothing is more fun than pulling ALL of the TP off of the roll right?

Sydney is trying to be helpful so she tears off the TP Addy has pulled off and puts it into the toilet (Note to self- buy more TP).

Sydney lets the dog in from outside. Either it rained last night or there was lots of dew, so the dog's paws are muddy. Of course he jumps up on to the unmade bed. So now Jeremy has muddy dog prints on his side of the bed. I dont' have time to give the dog a bath, so I put him in he kennel until I can let him back outside.

Now to get dressed. I didn't get my clothes ironed last night like I usually like to do because Jeremy decided to go to bed at 9:00. So I have to find a way to keep Addy entertained while I am ironing, because nothing is more interesting when I am ironing than the legs of the ironing board.

Finally get to ironing and notice that there are little finger prints on the back of the white shirt I want to wear. Hmmmm- wonder where those came from. I don't have time to iron a different outfit since I already have my mind set on this one so I get out my Tide To Go Stick (A mother MUST have invented this thing). It takes out most of the fingerprints. The rest I will wear proudly as my badge of motherhood today.

Breakfast (It is now 7:30 which is 30 minutes later than I usually start breakfast). Addy is NOT happy with Cheerios this morning or yogurt. But she DOES take her medicine which is HUGE for this morning. But she won't take the whole teaspoon all at once- just about 1/8 of a teaspoon full at a time.

Sydney is getting so grown up- she pours her own cereal and milk! THANK GOODNESS without a spill!

Sydney of course wants her hair done in these special new piggy tails- that takes a good 5 minutes.

We finally walk out the door at 7:55. About 5-10 minutes to daycare (thank goodness I live in a small town) and then straight to work.

So that is WHY I am late for work. ;) Wanna make something of it???

Push or let be?

In order for me to become a mother I had to push. You know PUSH PUSH PUSH- now STOP pushing. (YEAH RIGHT!) Do you ever stop pushing?

One of the hardest parts of being a parent, I've found in my LONG almost 7 years of parenting (ha ha) is knowing when to push and when to let it be. This seems to be a constant struggle for me lately.

With Addy- it started with baby food. ALL babies are supposed to eat baby food, right? Well, not my babies. Sydney didn't like it. Hayley didn't like it. Why did I expect Addy to be any different. So finally instead of pushing what she "should" have she is now eating table food like the rest of us. And can you blame her? Have you TRIED baby food. (I did at my baby shower at church. Who know all of those yellow fruits and veggies really did taste slightly different? )

And sleep- I mean- YES she SHOULD be sleeping all night. I get that? But is it worth pushing her to her cry and cry and cry for hours night after night? Yes, I realize EVERY baby slept through the night at 6 weeks, but mine do not. Yes I realize that she SHOULD just cry a few minutes less each night- but that hasn't worked for 8 months- when will it start? So is it going to scar her for life if she sleeps in my bed nursing to sleep for just a little bit longer?

With Hayley- she really knows how to push MY buttons. But we got past the food and sleep issues. Now it is clothes. Do I need to PUSH her to be dressed in normal clothes when she is home? Or are jammies and 2 different flip flops ok?

Now with Sydney this weekend it was going to Grammie and Papa's house. She was THRILLED to get to go for another week with Hayley. But something clicked as she was buckled into their truck and she did NOT want to go? As a parent- do you just make them kick and scream and cry that they just want to stay with mommy? Or do you just let them come home?

My mom and I joke still about my first day of middle school when she had to PUSH me out of the car crying because I didn't want to go. And guess what, I survived. Yes, middle school was NOT the best time of my life, but she HAD to push me- or I would have pulled the same thing day after day. And what parent can deal with that?

But when do you know when is the right time to push and when is the right time to just stop pushing and let things just be?

"Super Surprise Fun Day"

I took this past Monday off of work to enjoy some summer fun with the girls. When they woke up I told them to get dressed for "Super Surprise Fun Day"All through breakfast there was speculation as to what we were going to do as the surprise. A few of the guesses were: Go to the shops? Go to the Mall? Pick our noses?
We started out with a trip to the Sioux Falls Zoo http://www.gpzoo.org/. The girls favorite parts of the zoo were the carrousel and the petting zoo.

After the zoo we went to McDonalds for lunch (oooh- so nice! Sorry there isn't a picture of that) and then headed over to Falls Park in Sioux Falls. The girls had a great time climbing around on all of the rocks.

Crusing

So how is it that they go from baby to almost toddler so fast? Addy is only 8 months old and is already pulling herself up to stand at things. Of course this as caused quite a few bruises on her noggin. (And still with the squinting thing? Darn the flash!)

Hayley's gymnastics friends

Aren't these some CUTE kids! These are a few of Hayley's friends from her gymnastics class this summer.

Addy is 8 months old

Where has the time gone?
Addy turned 8 months old on July 21st. She is crawling like crazy. She is also eating just about anything you put in front of her, but her favorite thing is blueberries. (And dOg's rawhide bone- YUCK!)

I had to include this crying picture to prove that she isn't all smiles ALL of the time. (Just most of the time.) At this point she was tired of mommy trying to take pictures. She wanted to crawl!