Playing in the Leaves

So this past weekend, Miss Ava wanted to rake up some leaves and jump in a pile of them. She must have heard about this fall fun activity at school and could barely wait to try it out for herself. So on Sunday - we played in some leaves :)

As you can see, a good time was had by all involved :)

In other news -- Ava had the swine flu vaccination on Monday. She did a very good job and so far is not showing any side effects whatsoever. I am thrilled I was able to get her a shot when they first became available in the area -- with her immune system issues and the asthma, I just didn't want to take a chance.

We have a busy day tomorrow. Ava has her Halloween party at school and then tomorrow evening is Wheeling's Trick or Treat. Originally I was kind of miffed at them holding Trick or Treat on Thursday since Halloween fell on a Saturday. But considering the weather report for the next few days I am absolutely thrilled it's tomorrow. Should be a beautiful fall evening and PERFECT for begging for candy from total strangers :)

We got Booed! last night :) Not in a "we suck" kind of way - but as a fun little game in the neighborhood. We now get to Boo 3 more of our neighbors, so the girls and I will be doing that this evening. I already have plenty of treats sitting around the house - so watch out if you live in our neighborhood - you might get Booed! :)

Boo at the Zoo

So we decided to head over to Oglebay Park's Annual Boo at the Zoo event last night. It's a great fundraiser for the Zoo and the kids get to dress up and "trick or treat" throughout the zoo. They have various stations handing out goodies! We did have to wait in line for almost an hour to get in....the weather has been so poor here that all last weekend it was rainy and cold and the same is being predicted for this weekend, so a crowd that would normally have been reasonable on a Thursday was insane because the weather was so nice.  Alls well that ends well though - the kids had a BLAST!

So after all of that fun the kids were wiped and went to bed content :)

Tonight we get to get them dressed up again for our friend 's Halloween party for the kiddos. I can't wait to see what they do - all of their parties have been SO much fun to go to! Ava's been looking forward to this party with her friend Leah ALL week long. Thankfully - she is feeling TONS better and I think she's gonna have a blast!  Tomorrow we are heading out to the Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts Christmas Festival to check out all of the cool arts and crafts. It's a big event - and I do love my craft shows!  Aside from that - we will be getting the garage cleaned out and ready for winter this weekend, moving the kids toys inside and to the basement. I am also keeping my fingers crossed the weather holds up for us on Sunday and I can get some pics of the kids with the leaves. I will definately post some if I am so lucky :)

Have an awesome weekend!

Perspective

I really do have some fun stuff to share in the next post - but I need to type this one out because its just been on my mind the last few days.

Some days - I get mired down in the frustrations of daily life. Got to work late. Furnace isn't working. Dog peed on the floor...you know what I mean.  And some days - I allow that kind of thing to up and ruin my whole day. I do that because I am human - and I suppose that's a very human thing to do. But these past few weeks I have been focused on learning how to put events, good or bad, that happen into perspective. I have been taking mental notes (a very 90's thing to do, no? lol) to try and process life in an entirely different manner than I have before. I think by doing that - and just changing my perspective on life's happenings, I will be a better person, a better wife, a better mother in the end. Hopefully, at least.

Well - what happened to Ava was certainly an eye opener and a wake-up call to perspective if I have ever seen one. And lately - any of the "little things" that would generally get me down just aren't.

Yesterday - Phil hit a telephone pole with the Mercedes. He was trying to avoid hitting a deer that had darted into the road.  He is ok - thank goodness. But the car- well the car is not as pretty as it once was. And you know what? I don't care! I didn't care yesterday and I don't care today  - because my husband is ok, my kids are on the mend and that's all that matters.

 I am a member on a message board for other crazy mamas like me that have similar interests. And one of them lost their husband two weeks ago to the swine flu at age 29. He left behind his wife and 4 small children. My heart aches for her - because I have no idea the pain she must be feeling. My husband is my best friend - my entire world to me - and I don't know how I would live another second without him in my life. And again - its offered me another lesson in learning how to process life in perspective.

So my thought for the day is that this little inner-peace project of mine is working - and each and every day I am feeling more and more blessed to be living this life I am living. Even if the dog peed on the floor.

I have a secret...

So lately - Ava's been trying just about every stall tactic in the book so that she doesn't have to go to bed. She needs to brush her teeth again, she needs a drink, needs to potty, etc. Generally we do give in to her first stall tactic (because sometimes she really does have to go to the potty), but by round 2 I usually lay down the law and force her to bed. So last night I hear a knock knock at her door and I go to get her and she says she has to go potty. We go into the bathroom and she tells me that she really just has a question for me. So I ask her what her question is and she says "I don't know mommy". Ha! So I send her off to bed. About 30 minutes later I hear another knock on her door. I answer again and it's Ava telling me she HAS to tell her Daddy something.  I know its a stall tactic, so I try to get her back to bed and she pleads with me to let her tell her Daddy something. So I go get Phil and she says "Daddy, I have a secret to tell you". She whispers to him "I love you Daddy - you are my best friend in the WHOLE world". Seriously? Melt-my-heart cuteness. So she then asks him to tuck her in and she was down for the night finally. My take aways from last night are two fold 1. Ava's got her Daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger and 2. She's got cuteness down to an art form at age 4 :) That's my girl :)

Only a Week This Time!!

So its just been a week since my last post - for that I am quite proud of myself. I will get better at this blogging thing - I promise. And then you will be annoyed with me and my life you will never want to visit this blog again :)

Sooo...what have we been up to....

We went to the Houston Pumpkin Festival this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, but very, very muddy. Which paired with a 4 year old and a one year old meant mama was in for some killer laundry :). Ava got to ride on the train though and she LOVED it. I was even more impressed that she didn’t have a complete meltdown, when after waiting for EONS to ride the thing, the rope cut off right before her when we got to the front of the line. My daughter held it together and simply said “now I get to pick my own color, mommy”. Lemons to lemonade! I was so proud of her.


On Sunday I went to the flea market to try and rid our house of some baby items Ella has outgrown. Wasn’t very successful at all – but I did get a pretty big self esteem boost watching some of the people who look like regulars there. No offense to bargain hunters – but you guys know who I am talking about. The people for whom lycra is a fashion statement. Oh yeah.

In amazing mom fashion, I also made it to church on Sunday with Ava and she got to go to her 2nd time of Sunday school. She seems to really enjoy it. She brought back her little page they were using for their lesson and it was about sharing. I noticed on the front she had colored two of the children red around their heads. I asked her what that meant and she told me “they were bleeding mommy”. It took me a few minutes to absorb that information, all the while imagining the HUGE therapy bill we were obviously going to need for our toddler. I then asked her why they were bleeding. “They were hurt, mommy”. So after  a bit of pondering I had finally figured out what she meant. You see – two weeks ago tomorrow Ava experienced something that I hope that no one EVER has to experience with their child. She couldn’t breathe. It was 11:30pm. We had just gone to bed and heard her crying on the monitor. We assumed she was having a bad dream. Phil went upstairs and ran back down with her frantically. She couldn’t breathe. In between what little breath she was taking she would cough and it sounded like croup to me. We took her outside in the cold air and tried steam. This process altogether took about 10 minutes and without any success, I rushed off to the ER with her still frantic and not breathing in the back seat of our SUV. I called 911 and told them my 4 year old asthmatic was on her way to the ER so that they would be ready. When we got there – they gave her epinephrine and a steroid and after about 20-30 minutes she was breathing more normally. It was, by far, the scariest moment of my life to date. And obviously was pretty scary for our daughter too. I asked her on the way to school yesterday if the kids on the picture from Church were hurt because they couldn’t breathe? She said - yes mommy, that is why they were hurt. That is why they were red.

So that was that. I hope she is able to make peace with it soon. I know this mommy won’t forget it though. Not ever.

Tuesday, Tuesday

So I updated the look of the blog. I really like the change! I think it makes it feel "homey" in here, don't you?

Not too much going on in our world today. Ava's still feeling like poo. We have to start giving her prentative asthma medications again after last week's incident with croup. Poor thing has been a mess now for a week. I don't think I will ever forget how scared I was when she couldn't breathe -- it was definately feeling like I was one step closer to knowing what hell feels like. And so it goes - I guess it's official now that fall is upon us now that we are back to humifiers, inhalers and nebulizers!!!

Phil & I caught up on some TV last night....we are loving the new show "Flash Forward". Really is an amazing and very timeless concept - If you could see your future - would you try to change it? Very thought provoking indeed.

So I thought I would add some pictures to each post to liven them up a bit. Here's a recent fave taken of both girls at the pumpkin patch. Enjoy :)

First Post Pressure

Everytime I start a blog I do so with the intention of making it about my girls. A way to keep in touch with family so that they get to watch these adorable little ones grow up from the comforts of their own couches. I would be remiss to say that this blog is not going to be my kids, because its not possible. They are who they are because of me and I am who I am because of them. I do feel as though  it is time that I step out of the "blog box" I painted for myself.  Thus - the creation of this blog. I would like to use it as a tool to not only post funny things my girls say - but as a place where I can be ,well, me! I am sure you have heard time and time again how the new mother "loses" herself in her kids and doesn't recognize herself in the mirror after entering motherhood. I am here to tell you - it's sadly true, and I don't want to be so one dimensional. Thus - this blog will hopefully be an entertaining read for those of you in the blog world and also a testament to finding oneself again after having kids.  I will write about my girls, my husband, our dog, Gracie, our house, current events, politics, tv shows and figuring out how to look like I am 20 when I am approaching 30.