September 2012

 Emma's first Friday of school - notice the shoes!!!  They light up on the ties when she walks - that's what $60 will get you these days.  Ridiculous!

Emma has played soccer this fall, on a fantastic team.  It is so fun to watch them play boy sand girls together right now.  Emma has a number of friends on the team who go to school with her.  She is especially fond of Carter - a small little blondie, very sweet boy.  We were driving the other and she was telling me something about Carter (who also rides her bus!) and I said, well he sure seems like a nice boy. She replied, "Yeah, and he's cute!"  Oh man!!!!  Not ready for that:)  However, I have loved the whole starting school thing.  I love waiting for the bus to go by and drop her off every afternoon, I can;t wait to hear about what her day was like.  That is like pulling teeth however, and I learning how I need to ask the right questions to actually hear what she is learning about!  I LOVE seeing what she brings home in her yellow take home folder.  I love hearing about recess, the monkey bars and hoola- hoops.  She has become so much more interested in reading and writing, and will certainly be reading on her own by the end of the year.  She is already figuring out sight words, sounding out words, reading the pictures...  She is sounding out words as she writes, and often wants to play school.  I feel very blessed to have two healthy children, willing and able to learn, grown, explore and play.

 Sweet Olive is almost one!  She LOVES to swing, and just giggles and giggles, kicks her legs, and loves every minute of it.  We try to go to the park after Emma's soccer games.

 Last weekend was FREEZING - of course in MN it has gone from summer to late fall.  No himming and hawing or slowly moving form season to season!  We had to bundle up for Em's soccer game the other morning and I thought Olive was adorable in her coat and hat!

 Olive is on the move and climbing up on to every single thing she can get to lately!  In to the middle of the bar stools is a favorite, or under, over and through the dining room table and chairs, in the middle of her high chair, and ALWAYS up the stairs.  If she is playing on the main level while I am working the kitchen, cleaning, or generally getting something accomplished, as soon as I hear her babbling I go check to see if she is half way up the stairs.  Usually, she is!  

 We took Emma, her friend Lizzy, OG, and my mom and Denny to pick apples at Emma Krumbee's last weekend,  It is a tradition here since we moved back, however there were hardly any apples left in the tree's this year and we are thinking we will try some where new next fall.  However, we still had a fantastic time!  Grandma and Grandpa fed her chicken and dumplings for lunch!

 Emma and Lizzy having Cotton Candy Ice Cream for lunch.  Elliott thought this would be a good idea - I did go back and get them corn dogs!

 Olive is finally happy with Daddy, reaches for him and will often not want to come back to me once she is with him - yay!

 Ugh - we were SO unhappy with the apple orchard!  There were literally no apples on the trees and we were looking for a ladder!  Elliott had to lift the girls on his shoulders or put them up on a branch so they could throw down the apples for us.  It was also 84 degrees, not the best apple picking weather.  That was last saturday, and this saturday the high was 42.

 Sweet Olive...  Our porr girl had her second trip to the Children's Hospital ER Friday night.  The first trip was on her 9th day home form the hospital, when she'd gotten a virus and had to spend the whole weekend in the hospital.  

We have all had colds this fall already, once school stated again, and back to daycare.  Olive developed a second cold on Thursday, and by Friday she was getting a cough and a bit wheezy.  Before bed time (which is really dinner time!) Friday night she cried for almost an hour (VERY unlike her!) and was trying to give her her nebulizer but I couldn't get it to work.  Ugh!  Elliott finally got it to work part way.  Got Emma to sleep but Olive kept waking up making a terrible noise.  I finally went in to hold her and hse was wheezing and breathing was so labored.  This was about 10pm and I called in to the pediatrician because I was worried.  She asked the skin was sucking in around Olive's ribs and neck - sure enough it was - that was out sign to take her Children's Hospital.  So I put my big girl pants on and took Olive down to the ER on my own, so we didn't have to wake Emma up in the middle of the night.  Poor girl OG just wanted to snuggle in to me, was crying when anyone new would come near her.  She had two nebulizer treatments wich have a little kick of something added to them, and she was also given steroids.  It was amazing the difference in a matter of two hours!  Basically, moving forward she is going to need the nebulizer at the first sign of a cold.  Since she had RSV when she was 3 months old, she is susceptible to a virus induced asthma of sorts.  Poor girl...

 Grandma Loerch, a sleeping Olive, and happy Emma

 Emma and Daddy hard at work!  How sweet is she?  SHe was busy answering phones, typing away - her active imagine always working.

 Olive is becoming quite the picky little eater!  I am never sure when she is going to eat her food or not. It is almost a guarantee however that she will eat whatever meat we put in front of her, especially chicken.  She also loves stir fry, fried rice, mac-n-cheese, pancakes, toast with butter, string cheese, and Pirates Booty - ALL SALTY FOODS!  She still has no interest in a bottle!  Maybe she will never take one?!  

She is also becoming very interested in eating on her own, after watching us eat.  I finally gave in the other night when, after being sick and not eating, she wanted to try the yogurt with a spoon on her own.  Elliott said I was being a "yes mom":)  She had yogurt all over me and her!

Olive is ALMOST walking - a few steps on her own here and there - all the time with a grown-ups hand!  She is also a CLIMBER!  I can;t keep her off the stairs, the dish washer, the hearth of the fireplace, the rocks outside, the drawer under the stove!