Growing and Bonding

Lucas' big head and big personality is emerging and I could just eat him up.

He has a little temper. Likes to mimic screams and is not the shy guy we thought he would be. He's all smiles and tilts his whole body to the side (like a little teapot) when he really wants to be cute. He  loves to cuddle unlike his big sister. He lights up when Olivia walks into the room or when we walk into her empty bedroom simply because it is associated with her.

He LOVES her and the feeling is mutual. She introduces Lucas to everyone strangers, waitresses, and the teachers of other classes in her school tell me about her daily reports about her little brother Lucas. She's a protective and doting big sis.

She's only wanted equal opportunity lap time in the last week. She's rough with him, wrestling, tickling, and pinning him down every chance she gets and he just takes the abuse like a champ--laughing all the way. He's so strong I find myself warning Olivia less about being gentle with him because he can almost hold his own with her.

Olivia's is in an interesting phase. She's giving lots of compliments (she likes my eyebrows! lucky me) She is also asking "why? what is that? where does that come from?" OFTEN. We answer lots of random questions on a daily basis. Today, among other things, she asked me why our backyard was fenced; why I chose a certain route to her Spanish class; and why I was putting our patio furniture in storage.  Sometimes I impress myself with the explanations I come up with. Without prompting she also told me at breakfast today, "I'm thankful for you, mommy." Needless to say, we are pleased with her school which claims to only be teaching Civilization 101 at her age, but we couldn't be more impressed. She never wants to leave the place when I pick her up after a full 8 hour day--a good sign.

I enjoy watching their bond mature and strengthen as they learn more about themselves and each other. They are "beeest friends" as Olivia often says---and I hope they always will be.

The rest of October

Let's not waste any time with long apologies or explanations----I'm swamped!

Without further ado, here's what we've been up to...

We went fishing at one of our favorite city parks, Robert E. Lee,  which was recently taken over by Baltimore County and got a $6.1 million makeover.  The park looks great.  Olivia has been asking to go back to fish since we left.

Charm City Daddy ran the Baltimore marathon, aka Under Armor Running Festival and we cheered him on at Mile Six with our noisemakers.

He did well with very little preparation. This was his 5th marathon, I think--and the second time he's done the Baltimore event. I remember the first time he did the Baltimore, because we were still dating. We partied and danced the whole night before and he got up the next morning and ran the thing in no time and met me for lunch. That's not normal. He never does extensive training or preparation and does well. It makes you sick. I'll never forget the first time he ran the Baltimore marathon because it was the day I had my weave removed after 2 years of investing time and money every 6 weeks. It was my farewell to my pageant image and transition to natural, professional me . My hair was sooo thin, and he made me feel good about it, because after all it was all mine!

This time around---his cross at the finish was so symbolic for our family is so many ways. He was in tears--and I was in tears when he recounted the story to me in our kitchen--telling me how much pain he was in and all of the things going through his head about our lives, our beautiful children and all that God has given us.  What a difference 6 years makes...

My niece (my oldest brother's baby girl) made Olivia's day when she came over for a playdate on race day, too.

Then before we knew it, it was Halloween!

 And I decided Lucas wasn't just any ordinary skeleton (that I got on sale and figured would be most comfortable for him and usable as pajamas aftward), he's a Karate Kid Cobra Kai! Love my 80's movies.

O was a pirate at home and then a ballerina fairy (Thanks Uncle Kevin!) for school since she was already a pirate at school this year for annual pirate day.

 
My sister and nieces came to visit. We made s'mores by the fireplace and carved pumpkins in the basement while it snowed outside.

We all crashed the kiddie Halloween Parade in my parent's neighborhood--while they were out of town! My neighborhood has a parade--but we never go. Too stiff. And we gave them a chance with the 30-second Easter egg hunt, but HUGE disappointment. By disappointment I mean, we missed the event entirely because they didn't even hide the eggs! They just sat them down in a small roped off grassy area to keep the children from trampling over (or anywhere near) the precious tulip beds. Give me a break. LIVE a little.

Anyway--just look at this REAL family fun. No exorbitant property taxes required. Imagine that. (clearly it's time for us to move. I'm becoming a tad bitter). 

And that...for the most part...was October!

Hand, Foot, Mouth, and Everything Else!

Lord have mercy. The last few days in this house have been....exhausting.

Last weekend Olivia came down with a crazy fever in church. I mean she was HOT. She took a nap, was clingy (which she never is) and was totally sluggish. It scared me to death. So we got some fever reducer in her and lots of liquids and she managed to get some food down, but the temp just spiked again a few hours later. Overnight was rough--clingy, constant waking, crying, fever. We kept her home from school Monday. She did well during the day, but the fever went up again at night. By Tuesday morning she was acting more normal and eating fine but I noticed a rash developing on her hands, calves, and toes. AHA! Chicken Pox!

I made an appointment with her doctor to confirm my sharp diagnosis. The doctor took a look--nope not Chicken Pox. Then he took one look inside Olivia's mouth and then look at me and smiled, " It's Coxsackie." My response "damnit." I had heard about "Hand, Foot and Mouth disease" from my sister's experience with my neice and another friend of mine and her kids, now Olivia had it. In fact she was pretty much done with it--and handled it pretty well considering. Apparently the rash shows up when the fever breaks. After the fever she's no longer contagious but then we were freaking out about how she got it and if Lucas had been exposed. The doctor said she was safe to return to school once she had no fever for 24hours. So Wednesday she returned to school with non-contagious rash just in time for her first SCHOOL PICTURES! HIP HIP HOORAY! I covered her arms in long sleeves and legs in tights and it was a beautiful 75 degree day. Come to find out three other kids in her school had been out with coxsackie as well. Aha! And turns out sandboxes can be breeding grounds for this thing. Olivia comes home with gobs of sand in her shoes and pockets everyday.

I'm glad that it is behind us and she is now immune--and also thankful that Lucas dodged the bullet, but I am not looking forward to dealing with this thing again with him anytime soon.

Charm City Daddy and I crash every night, only to be constantly awakened at least twice a night by Lucas! Lucas was just beginning to improve in the sleep department but had a total relapse this week--with daytime naps, bedtime all of it.  It is driving us both to near tears.We thought we had a fool-proof system all figuredwith Olivia--no frills, no fuss. It turns out we may have just had a fool-proof little girl. He JUST gave up swaddling at 6 months. If it were up to him--he would still be swaddled.


Lucas' separation anxiety is off the charts too--and to top it all off he seems to be a shy guy. He balls his eyes out when he sees an unrecognizable face. The well-meaning church ladies who crowd around him every Sunday are the worst for his nerves. Poor baby.

Also--Olivia is officially done with the paci at bedtime. She has never needed it at naptime at school and it was time to let it go to avoid her mama's overbite. It wasn't easy, but I told her I simply threw it out of the window of the car--just like she did to her paper elefante from Spanish class on the ride home. She certainly understood the permanence of that action and it ended our discussion. Awesome.

Oh! And CCD celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary this week. We decided to celebrate the way we've celebrated all of our anniversaries--with a family dinner out--but at a nice restaurant to give the kids the experience. They were well-behaved, and the restaurant was wonderful to us--food also incredible. Olivia loved the live jazz trio and I taught her how to skat. It cracks her up--but she is pretty good at imitating me.

CCD and I have been researching vacations (to keep our sanity and hope alilve) but we both agreed today that we would feel bad asking anyone to take care of our kids (ha!)---at least until Lucas gets this sleep patterns under control. So then we started looking at family vacations--then we looked at family airfare---then we stopped looking at vacations and went back to work. HA!

More to come---I didn't even tell you about my car accident. We just got our car, "The Milk Truck" back this week.