4 Happy Family

C and I sat out on the back porch last night enjoying the balmy weather knowing that there is a chance for snow this weekend. Really just trying to squeeze the last ounce of warmth out of the season before it gets frigid.

Wow. Where did Summer go?

Happy Halloween

OK, OK that is my interpretation. Maya kept calling herself a dinosaur. C had a rough day with her Mom in the hospital still for her hip and helping her Dad out. Big pile of stress. Maya hasn’t been sleeping well lately. Up early, no nap and she has gotten her full brat on which has been tiring, especially for Courtney obviously.

They battled back and forth all day. Maya was screaming pretty much the entire day. After not sleeping and being a total monster C was able to get her to calm down with some painting and decided not to bat an eye when she started to turn her masterpiece into performance art.

She was pretty sweet the rest of the night and was excited to turn from a dinosaur back into Maya; especially because she got to turn the water in the tub green too.

Sorry for the lack of posting. Hope to turn a corner here soon. The mother in law’s hip replacement surgery has gone well so far. Saw this walking home from the train.

Hopefully more soon.

So, Maya has been in school for a couple of weeks now and she is really flourishing; absolutely loves it and it is pretty cool that ever since she has started she seems to be growing mentally by leaps and bounds. The unexpected twist is that we used to be “in the know” of everything that happened during her day. She does not always talk about her day at school so it is unexpected to have her have something happen in her life and we have zero knowledge of it.

The picture below (click to expand) was taken before school one day; you can see that it as big as her.

I was able to be the parent-helper at school last Friday so I got to see first hand what they do on a daily basis. I was going to take pictures with my phone but I thought it probably would not be advisable for some dude taking pictures of a group of 10 3-year-olds. first of all, I have the utmost respect for teachers who can herd that many kids for a 3-hour period. Wow. Second, I can see why people want to be teachers for the good days, it seemed like it would be pretty rewarding.

We sang songs, had treats and got to play and learn as a group doing some simple crafts. It just seemed like yesterday she was learning to walk. Crazy.

“hey. Is there a faucet on downstairs?”

Not the best thing to walk into from work. After about three inches of rain yesterday we discovered a crack in the foundation by our crawl space. Ever 90 minutes or so I would crawl in there and retrieve the cooler we had positioned to catch the water.

Did I mention that this was the same day the plumber gave us estimates for fixing the shower in the master bedroom which meant he had to cut four holes in the living room ceiling and one in our bedroom wall? Trying to start a new trend of ceiling pictures, revive the Sistine thing.

In nonbitchy news, Maya has her second trial day of school today. Her first full day by herself is Monday which I will be there to see. She is pretty excited and a little nervous. I will leave you with a better picture of a cooler since I am so bitter about using one to catch crawlspace leakage.

She finally fell asleep…

Trying to publish from my phone so hopefully this will look ok.

All of Maya’s festivities went well. She has now entered the rarified air of a 3YO. Courtney is devising a “chore” chart to help cement the fact that she is a big girl. C rejected my line items of cutting the grass, cleaning gutters and depooping the yard. Isn’t this why you have kids.

StL was nice and relaxing even if it was as hot as Satan’t kitchen. One of our dogs is showing signs of Lyme’s disease again. She’s lost 10 #s in a day and a half. Took her to the vet to get fluids and drugs. Courtney got a crown replaced the following day. Nice to drop $1K in 12 hours. Ever feel like you are bleeding money (not in a good way).

Went to see Incendio (Latin influenced world music) at the concert in the park in Independence Grove here in Libertyville. Good times. Brought sandwiches for lunch and just tried to relax and listen to some good beats under a setting sun. Of course we bought Maya a snow cone, it is her new vice. She chose pineapple. I took a bite and had to suppress the gag reflex from the chemical sweet flavoring. She loves it though.

The half marathon I was planning on running is in jeopardy, just haven’t been taking the time to train. I haven’t run in almost two weeks. I am going to try for an 8-mile run on Sat and see how it feels to determine if I should proceed. Had guests in town last weekend and some more this coming weekend. Looking forward to planning a camping trip to Souther Ill in October, so that is good. Feels like Summer is waning…

…but you can’t take the junior high out of the kid.

Sorry it has been so quiet lately. Maya’s b-day party is tomorrow so of course we have been spending all week sprucing up the house, doing yardwork and cleaning (which I am sure is to all be destroyed in 10 minutes by 3-year-olds).

Need to start packing for our trip to StL next week too. Wow, where does Summer go. Work has been super crazy on top of it. Hoping for good weather this weekend.