The good and the bad

First the bad.  I think I finally have to come to terms with the fact that my migraines aren't going to go away until this baby is born :(  We (okay, mostly me, but everyone else by proximity) had to deal with another one yesterday.  Matt took the day off, did the drop off and pick up for Anna, played with Kate all day, took the girls to the park after school, took them to Culver's for dinner, and then put them to bed.  All while I was cooped up trying to either sleep or keep my mind off of my headache :(  Oh, well.  Only a few months left for me and Matt confessed to me last night that though he doesn't like watching me suffer through a headache, he really had a lot of fun yesterday :)

Now the good.  Other than the yucky migraine moments every few weeks, things are going very well here.  I had my 28 week checkup on Monday and everyone is growing and doing just fine.  Kate seems to be thoroughly enjoying her mommy-time during the day and daddy/sister time on the weekends.  Work for Matt is relatively calm and relaxing these days.  And Anna is still doing great at school.  We are truly very blessed.  Plus, Matt is able to take Fridays off again this fall!  Hooray!  Granted, there are plenty of things to be done, but it's nice for all of us that he gets three day weekends from now until when the baby is born :)

 A couple of fun things lately ... for the past two weekends we've had a campfire one of the nights out in the backyard, complete with s'mores.  It's been a nice way to enjoy the cooler, darker evenings.  We'll have to see how long these campfires will last this fall :)  This past weekend, the girls got to have two different park dates, one on Saturday with me and one on Sunday with Matt.  (Here they are playing with some cattails that Matt picked for them.)

They loved both experiences, especially Anna.  It's been awhile since we've been able to visit parks.  After a few weeks of school under our belts, I've realized that it's pretty important for Anna to just have some down time at home right after school so it hasn't really worked to head out to a park for the three of us girls.  With all of the park/playground fun that we've had over the last several years, I think Miss Anna missed them.  This fall is full of adjustments for all of us.

Finally, this week Anna is the "special person" at school.  In case you're not up on your pre-school/kindergarten lingo, this means that she gets to have a special time at the beginning of the week devoted to her.  She made and shared a poster, brought in pictures to share, brought in snacks for the week, was interviewed by her class, and (probably the best part for her) gets to be line leader ALL WEEK.  Matt, Kate, and I were able to stop in her classroom right away on Monday morning for her sharing time and the class interview.  Anna did a great job, but was understandably nervous (or at least we could tell that she was).  The visit also affirmed for us what a great place this is for her this year.  The last part of her special week is that one of us is going to get to join her for lunch at school on Friday; she can't wait!

New Routines

Now that we are fully into school mode, we're having to make adjustments to our various routines, for better or worse.  I've found that our (my) mornings (6 a.m.-8 a.m.) are a bit more hectic, as are the evenings (5 until 7).  Plus, on the days that Kate and I take Anna in to school, we usually are running errands or doing some morning activities until lunch time.  Then there's not much time before we end up leaving to go get Anna.  On the days that Matt takes Anna in, Kate and I get to either lazy around for a bit at home, or try to get a bunch of stuff done at home.  Either way, it's just different from what life has been for the past several years.

Kate has made a new buddy lately during the day.  Shadow LOVES Kate's bed, for some reason, and will often snuggle up with Kate for awhile when Kate is resting.

School is still going great for Anna.  We've done the quick first-time-parent-of-a-kindergartener check-in with her teacher, and all seems well.  Anna really loves going to school every day and seems to be soaking up all kinds of good things.  She willing shares all sorts of things that make her feel good during the day and the only events that seem to bother her so far are when other kids get in trouble.  She also seems to be making some good connections with other kids in her class.  We are very thankful to be blessed with such a wonderful start to the school year.

Kate and I are working hard on harvesting still.  Last week we canned tomatoes, tomato juice, two batches of applesauce (not our apples, though :(, and some more plums.  Matt dug the second round of potatoes on Saturday and I have more tomatoes in the fridge and on the vines to deal with, in addition to more plums on the tree.  It's just hard to find the right time to do some of this preserving now with school starting and baby boy making me more and more tired by the end of the day.

Kate and I had a nice week last week, also, with her school year activities.  She gets to go to story time at our local library with some kids she knows on Tuesdays, music class with Miss Debbie on Wednesdays, and then we both head over to church for women's Bible Study on Thursday  mornings.  Kate did pretty well with all of those activities last week, but she certainly has a hard time saying good-bye to me.  So on Sunday we had Anna drop Kate off for Sunday School after church :)  That worked well :)

This past weekend was the McFarland Family Festival and we headed into town to enjoy parts of it on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday we spent time at a Dave Landau show (the girls still love to seem him perform ... they're regular groupies),

checked out some exhibits (Anna's confidence never ceases to amaze us - here she is holding a snake!),

and rode some carnival rides (with Matt, by themselves, and then again together).

 

Sunday the girls and I went to the homecoming parade.  Fun times.  And now we're into another week!  Life is just rolling right along.

Successful transitions!

Last week was the first week of kindergarten for Miss Anna and this week is the first week of full days.  So far so good!  The word of the week last week for our family was "transition" and we talked a lot about how different people deal with big changes in different ways.  I think everyone felt the differences, but in their own way.

Anna has been hearing about kindergarten for so long that I think she got herself worked up a bit last Tuesday.

Anna's attempt at a smile shows a bit of her anxiety before the first day.

Then on Wednesday when I picked her up, it was almost like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders and a lot of her anxiety was gone.

Starting school didn't stop us from playing in the pool one last time and then snitching raspberries as a snack!

We still had some challenges with her on Thursday and Friday, but by the weekend we had a wonderfully cheerful 5-year-old to have in our midst.

Kate wasn't quite sure what to think or feel last week.  She had a rough time on Wednesday morning while Anna was at school, and then just really wanted to play with Anna in the afternoons, but by that point Anna was having a harder time.  Again, by the weekend, Kate found a nice rhythm and just enjoyed having her playmate around.  Today went much better for Kate, too.

Another big transition of last week was my birthday :)  My family and friends made it such a special day  for me!  Matt and the girls surprised me in the morning with an awesome full body pillow to help me through these last few months of awkward sleeping, plus a new baby sling for baby boy.  I also got flowers from Matt, flowers from Adam, hidden 33's all day long, a birthday coffee date with some friends whose oldests are also starting kindergarten, and an ice cream cake from Culver's for dessert.  Definitely a good birthday.

In addition to starting school last week, Anna also got to be a part of the dance routine for the McFarland High School football game last Friday night.  I guess every year the high school dance team opens up a mini-camp for kindergarten through fifth graders for the opening football and basketball games.  The little girls go to two short practices, learn a routine (sort of), and then perform at the beginning of the game.  We decided to let Anna choose if she wanted to do this or not, knowing that being able to be a part of a football game would probably ensure a "yes" from her :)

Not surprisingly, Anna had a lot of fun.  There was another girl from her class participating in the mini-camp and she and Anna got along great.  Matt, Kate, and I watched from the stands and then we all stayed for the first quarter of the game.  The girls really enjoyed seeing a football game and asking all sorts of questions, although Kate still uses the term "Packers" for any football event or team :)

Saturday was a wonderful day for our family.  It was obvious early in the day that our daughters genuinely missed each other during the course of the week.  They just wanted to play together all day long.  It was very, very sweet.  (And Matt and I got a LOT done, including draining and taking down the pool.)

The girls spent a good part of the morning creating this "car" in the kitchen and then pretending all sorts of things with it.

Sunday was a big day at church.  The girls helped lead worship with other kids who were a part of this summer's music camp; it was the first day of Sunday School; and it was the church picnic.  Lots of fun, and lots of memories (including another motorcycle ride by Anna).

Awesome action shot of Anna activating the homemade stomp rocket!

The girls and I spent the afternoon watching the Packers while Matt worked on his truck and now we're starting another week!

The last hurrah!

Last week we tried to make as memorable as we could, all things considered.  We had our trip to the zoo on Monday, a morning in Stoughton on Tuesday (complete with plenty of time at their great children's library, a local park, and donuts at the bakery), surviving Wednesday (more on that later), a day at home on Wednesday, and our field trip on Friday.  Plus the weather got hot again, so we were able to have time in the pool several days.

During the last of these pool days (Friday, I think), Kate finally decided that she liked putting her head underwater ... hooray!  She was even trying to swim underwater like Anna does!  Now we just have to make sure that we visit pools this fall and winter so we don't forget all of these good skills the girls have learned this summer.

Wednesday was a pregnancy day; I had my glucose testing to make sure that I'm not suffering from gestational diabetes (for which their was no real concern anyway).  Apparently since I was pregnant with Kate, the guidelines have changed.  Now the test requires a 10-12 hour fast, then a blood draw, then a sugared drink comparable to a can of soda, then a blood draw after an hour, followed by another blood draw after 2 hours.  At that point you can finally eat something real.  I was dreading this day from the moment I heard about the test.  I have a hard enough time with hunger problems without having to purposefully fast.

I did the best I could to prepare (big, protein filled dinner, plus more protein before bed), but was still not looking forward to the experience.  It turns out my mom was right and the anticipation of the event was much worse than the actual morning.  My glucose levels were "fantastic", in my doctor's own terminology, and the doctor's office was wonderful about making the experience as painless as possible.  I even got my own waiting room with a recliner and dimmed lighting!

Along with the sugar test was my 24 week check-up.  Everything is moving along as smoothly as can be, and in my opinion, this is probably the healthiest I've been while being pregnant.  That doesn't make it any less uncomfortable, though :)  Our baby boy is growing as he should and is one very active kiddo.  We can hardly wait to see what kind of kid he will be!

My main pregnancy complaint right now is dealing with this heat.  My tolerance for heat and humidity has been going down pretty steadily over the course of the summer and the 90 degree days we've had this last week have been very annoying for me.  What a blessing air conditioning is!

Back to the rest of life ... our field trip on Friday was to the McKenzie Environmental Center.  The girls and I had a memorable time seeing all sorts of native animals (wolves, coyotes, eagles, hawks, bison, bobcats, etc) in addition to having our picnic lunch.

The best part was probably the girls' excitement at finding a dozen or so lady bugs on a tree near our picnic site.  They LOVED catching them and having them crawl all over their arms :)

Then we stopped for ice cream on the way home :)

At one point during the day, Anna asked if she would ever get a year off of school.  When I questioned her further, I think she was starting to realize that she wouldn't be free to do these kinds of field trips anymore, so I reassured her that we'll always have the summer to do our fun family field trips :)

Saturday we spent the day as a family at the Rock River Thresheree.  Matt and I couldn't believe that we hadn't been there since Kate was born!  It was certainly a contrast to our previous day's field trip, with all of the old machinery and engines to see.

We rode the train as a family and then Anna chose to do a pony ride for her special treat (whereas Kate and I split an ice cream bar for our treat and Matt got a funnel cake :)  Fun times, but we (especially Kate and I) were very tired at the end of the day.

 

Tomorrow Anna and I head to school for an hour orientation.  We already met Anna's teacher last week on evening at an ice cream social.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Anna attends for half days, and then next week she starts full days.  What a transition this will be1