yay, we got to go to santa's village on friday night! the weather was perfect. i got the kiddos all bundled up, and micah had a blast - she didn't get cold. i was soooo happy. we met several friends and family members there - some we had planned to meet up with, and some just happened to pick the same night to go. micah was a little wary of going inside all the different little houses at first. they ended up enjoying the petting zoo, the bakery (where they got a green, sprinkly sugar cookie from mrs. claus), the music house, the fire dept. house, and the "beary" hospital, where they got weighed and measured. we also heard some great live music and danced, and got to see santa leaving for the night. the line to sit in santa's lap is always ridiculously long, so we didn't do that - BUT, they have a clown to entertain the kids waiting in line, and he was a riot. it was the same clown who does the garland library summer program. we missed him this summer, but now that i know how much the kids loved him at santa's village, we'll have to catch him next year.

rowan has un-potty trained himself now. he wore underpants for two days with no accidents, then on the third day decided he preferred diapers. it was a bummer for me, but as several people have pointed out, when he actually is ready, it will be a complete breeze because he already knows what to do.

i was only able to get two handmade christmas gifts done this year, and one of them isn't even done - it's only begun.

still haven't made the kids' dentist appointment. i really need to do that today. i've been feeling extra lazy lately, and just haven't wanted to do anything but knit and watch movies all snuggled up in bed! luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), that's pretty much all the kids have wanted to do lately, too, since they've been feeling under the weather. the weather is SO gorgeous, i wish we were feeling better so we could enjoy it!

rowan potty trained himself a couple of days ago. he refused a diaper, and began telling me he needed to go to the bathroom. i went out and bought him some underpants and everything. he's been going all day long, with almost no accidents. yesterday he wore his underpants from the time he woke up, over to my mom's at 1:00, back home asleep in the car, and for an hour at home while he napped - and he stayed dry the whole time! i was amazed he could go that long without peeing. when he woke up from his nap, i was SURE he needed to go... but he didn't want to sit on the potty. i kept asking, but he kept saying no. so a few minutes later, micah made him mad in the dining room and he started to cry, and he peed all over the dining room floor. i guess he got a bit overwhelmed! today, so far, he's been a little hesitant to go. just now in the bathroom, he was standing on the step stool and started to pee. he's getting the hang of it, definitely. i'm just amazed at how this has all his been his idea and initiation! i wasn't even thinking of trying to potty train him yet.

hopefully this weekend the weather will be okay and we can go to santa's village. i'm so excited!!

i took the kids to the pediatrician this afternoon. rowan had his 2-year check up, and they each got shots. they each had a really hard time today. i guess it's because they haven't been since may. for a while there, we were going once a month to get them caught up on immunizations. then our medicaid lapsed when we moved because i failed to give the HHS office our new address quickly enough, and our recertification letter went to the duplex. we just now got coverage again, so we're getting back into the routine. they'll need some time to get used to it again. micah was so brave beforehand - she said she wasn't going to cry or be scared, and that she "loved" getting shots. haha :) when it came time to actually sit down and hike up her pant leg for the nurse, she lost it. it makes me sad to see them so scared and uncomfortable.

i'm curious to see how they do at the dentist (haven't made that appointment yet, but i'm going to tomorrow). since that visit won't involve any pain, i'm hoping they'll do much better!

micah is 32 lbs, and rowan is 28.5 lbs. i can't remember how tall either of them were! it's funny to me that they're so close in size. a lady at the grocery store today asked me if they were twins.

we had plans to go to christmas on the square in downtown garland tonight, but it was just too chilly out. micah is really sensitive to the cold and gets really cranky, and the moment we got out of the car to walk over to the festivities tonight, she said she wanted to go home. i knew it wasn't a matter of her just warming up to the idea... i could tell she was cold and uncomfortable, and that it would only get worse. so instead we drove around our neighborhood for a little while and looked at christmas lights (one of my FAVORITE christmastime activities!), then came back home. oh well! :) i'm hoping like crazy that the temp sunday night isn't quite as low, because we're planning on going to santa's village with jill, alison, and possibly mel.


jill is coming into town this weekend, and she's going to spend all day sunday with us. i'm so looking forward to it! she's josh's twin sister who lives in wichita falls; we get to see her five or six times a year. while she's here, we're going to put lights up on the house, put up and decorate the tree, and go to santa's village. it should be a super fun weekend. :) the only thing i'll miss is knitting group - it'll make two whole weeks since we've met! waaahhh!! i'm going to bind off my scarf tonight, and i'm making progress on josh's scarf and hat, which will be his christmas presents from me. next i'm planning on starting mittens and socks for micah (not sure which of those i'll do first), and a hat for me.

a few weeks ago i called an 'early childhood intervention' program and set up an intake and assessment for rowan, to see if he needs speech therapy. i'd noticed him making some different noises when he tries to talk, and not trying to sound out too many words. a few different friends mentioned to me that i should have him assessed for speech services, and since we have medicaid and it's free, i went ahead and set it up. they came out yesterday morning and did his assessment. the ECI assessment team is made up of three people: a teacher, a nurse, and a speech therapist. i really liked all three of the women who assessed rowan. they were all really friendly and open with me and josh, and had a wonderful, nurturing way of talking to and working with rowan. i was worried about him cooperating for the tests, because he gets really shy around strangers, but he warmed right up to them. the speech therapist, maria, was primarily the one working with rowan. she sat on the floor with him and showed him different pictures - for example, she had him look at a picture of three non-food items and three food items, then asked, "can you show me all of the things we eat?" the test took about an hour, and maria kept commenting that he was focusing and participating remarkably well for his age, and that she was having to go further and further into the material with him because he had surpassed what was normal for his age and kept going higher! that made me happy and proud. on the 'receptive development' - his cognitive skills - part of the test, and he ended up scoring at 30-32 months, i think. he scored at 22 months for the 'expressive development' part - his language. he is 26 months old, so that's not TOO much of a delay... but enough to qualify him for weekly speech therapy. maria noticed during the assessment that he drops the beginning and the end sound of a lot of words, and sometimes when he talks he puts the sound in the back of his throat instead of in the front of his mouth where it ought to be - which is what i had been noticing too. he makes a sort of gutteral sound in his throat sometimes when he tries out new words, kind of like gollum (i told micah that and she got the biggest kick out of it. "rowan talks like gollum!" luckily he's not old enough to take offense...). so, they told me rowan has to have his 2-year check up at the pediatrician's office before the weekly therapy sessions can begin, so both the kids have an appointment tomorrow afternoon. rowan will have his 2-year well visit, and they'll both have a vaccination. then i get to take them to the dentist next week - yipee. not looking forward to that.

okay, that's it. no more ignoring my blog because my camera's broken.

nothing too earth-shattering has happened over the past few weeks. josh got a bump up to full time and a 75 cent raise at work. he's still enjoying school, and is planning his classes for next semester. he doesn't have much time for his hobbies lately, but he and i are excitedly planning a vegetable garden for next fall, and he plans to start bicycling every friday night with our neighbor, poncho, at white rock lake. he really needs some "him" time in the midst of work, school, family time, and making sure i get a break on the weekends. we're hoping he gets a drafting job after he completes this semester. we're looking forward to being able to get the jeep running, pay back some family members who've so generously helped us out over the past several years, and get some things for the house that we've been wanting for a while.

micah will officially be 4 and 1/2 on saturday. she's really turning a corner as far as her obstinate and defiant behavior. she seems to be channeling her fierce will and determination into learning new tasks. she incorporates it into her pretending, too; i hear her playing with her dolls, and sometimes she sounds like a drill sergeant! but i prefer her ordering her dolls around to her being bossy and demanding with me or rowan. and she doesn't seem to act that way with her friends, except on occasion, and then we talk about it. she's quick to correct it when i explain that her friends won't enjoy being around her if she's bossy. her tantrums and meltdowns have almost disappeared. when they do happen, they're over quickly, and she's able to talk about it immediately after. i'm so amazed at her ability to understand why she's feeling a certain way. she seems very self-aware for her age, to me. her letter and number recognition is moving right along; we don't sit down and actively teach her with flashcards or anything, because so far that has not been enjoyable or effective for her... and results in the teacher (me) getting a little impatient and frustrated. i've just been following her cues as to what she'd like to learn, and how she'd like to practice it. she now recognizes letters and numbers on clothes, signs, buildings, packages, anything. she randomly surprised me yesterday by spelling her name out loud - something i'd been trying to teach her for a while, and had been getting very irritated about her refusal to even try repeating the letters after me. turns out, she was listening and taking it in the whole time, she just needed to show me on her terms. we've also been doing simple adding and subtracting, using tangible objects like blocks, spoons, hot wheels, etc. she really seems to enjoy this, and asks to practice sometimes. maybe she's going to be one of those people for whom math comes a lot easier and more naturally than reading and writing. she does not seem to be at all interested in arts and crafts. we decorated christmas ornaments with our friends a few days ago, and she enjoyed painting and decorating her little wooden stockings and wreaths, but she goes for weeks and weeks without touching paper, paint, brushes, stickers, markers, or anything of the sort. she occasionally asks to paint, but hardly ever wants to color or draw. her favorite activities lately are reading books, pretending with her dolls and playing dress up.

rowan celebrated his 2nd birthday a couple of months ago, and he is an absolute joy. he is a climber (just like micah was/is), is into everything, and the word "no" does not yet register in his big, beautiful world! he is very active, playful and outgoing, as was demonstrated for me yesterday morning when i took the kids to one of those bounce house party places for a friend's birthday. rowan practically leapt out of my arms, disappeared into the array of bounce houses, and never looked back to see if i was nearby. ha! he can count up to two things, brush his own teeth, kick a soccer ball around with me, and ride his tricycle. he's had a huge language explosion over the past week; he can say all sorts of things, and seems to learn a new word or combination of words every day. right now he adores hot wheels, his little farmhouse and animals, and playing dolls and dress up with his sister. he's not too crazy about books; when we do sit down to read, he wants it to be short and sweet. if i drone on too long (more than two pages) he takes the book, flips to the end, and hops up to find something else to do. i have dreams of reading "the hobbit" aloud to my kids every night at bedtime, so i hope a love of stories grows in rowan over time!

i've been staying really busy with the kids, knitting, volunteer work, and typing home study reports for my dad. the extra money i'm making working for daddy has been a huge help! i also really enjoy the work, and getting to chat with my dad just about every day. : ) five of my good friends are expecting babies right now, so i've got baby fever to the max. josh has agreed to keep the subject open, and to talk about it more in the future when he has a good drafting/designing job and we're not struggling so much with money. sounds like an excellent compromise to me.

today was thanksgiving! i loooooove this time of year. we went to josh's dad's house in rowlett this afternoon and had turkey, ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc., including these awesome sweet potato empanadas josh's stepmom makes. i ate... oh, i don't know, twelve of them. i was kind of embarassed when ellen (josh's stepmom) went to send the rest of the empanadas home with her mom and grandma as they were leaving, opened the basket and exclaimed, "oh my god, they're all gone!" i didn't say anything; i'm hoping she took it as a compliment. anyways..... i'm excited about the kids' christmas presents this year. i think they're going to love what we got them. i'm also excited about decorating the house for christmas. this upcoming saturday we're celebrating thanksgiving with my dad, vesta, jo ann & sheridan. the day after we plan to put up our tree and lights. i'm hoping naomi will come over and help out, so we can spend some extra time with her.

phew.

BAH! not having a camera makes me lazy about posting on my blog. our digital camera broke; the screen got smashed in my purse, somehow. i feel foolish for having it in my purse without the carrying case. oh well... perhaps we can get a new one for christmas.

speaking of christmas, i wish like heck i'd started my knitting hobby earlier in the year so i could give everyone handknit gifts!! i'll have to settle for PLANNING everyone's gifts for next year, which is just as fun for me, but slightly anticlimactic for the recipients. i love my knitting group, aka mama and katherine. we met today at starbucks, where i drank a pumpkin spice latte, shared a piece of banana walnut bread with mama, then for round 2 had a blackberry izze and a pumpkin cream cheese muffin. holy cow, that muffin was good. before knitting group, wesley fed me a yummy spicy lentil burrito!! i have eaten gooooood today. back to knitting group... i look forward to it all week long! today, i get to the end of one of my skeins of araucania chacabuco multy yarn on my long scarf for myself. i also made some progress on my malabrigo poncho for rowie. the colors are looking so incredible together... i might ask mama to take some pictures of my projects for my ravelry page, and here on my blog. in fact, i will definitely do that. tomorrow.

this weekend has been so much fun! on friday we met some friends at the mary heads carter park in carrollton - the most awesome playground i have found, and so worth the drive. i don't know if our friends agreed, though; they got lost... anyway, after playing at the park, we met them for dinner at cici's pizza in richardson. they have two young kids just about micah and rowan's ages, so it was a lot of fun. on saturday, we went to two birthday parties for two of our most favorite kiddos! my best friend, alison's middle child, gabriel, turned 3 on october 6th, the day after rowan's 2nd birthday. they had his party on saturday afternoon, and it was pirate themed. the kids wore costumes (though mine didn't, because i forgot), and ate yummy homemade cake and vanilla frozen yogurt, and got to swing a bat at a pirate pinata. micah was in kind of a funk and preferred to observe the pinata goings on, but rowan got right in there and took a swing. we stayed till late in the afternoon, and THEN headed back to richardson for miss lina bean's 1st birthday party! now, i love lina, and thoroughly enjoyed kissing her and wishing her a happy 1st... but the highlight of this party was the food. seriously. lina's dad, christian, is an excellent cook, and he made the best brisket and mashed potatoes. lina's mom, samantha, followed it up with THE BEST banana pudding you have ever put in your mouth. EVER. come to find out, it was paula deen's recipe, so... you know, DUH. and i was just kidding, lina was totally the life of the party... she was so cute, playing around with her aunts and grandparents, and ripping into her gifts with 1-year-old gusto. now, on to sunday... i went to starbucks to knit while josh took the kids to the huffhines art festival. then we took the kids to trunk or treat at church! micah was NOT into it at first... she didn't want to walk up to the people by their decorated trunks and hold out her basket, but she definitely wanted candy, and did not want to leave. so it was kind of frustrating there for a while. but she warmed up, and made the rounds with her brother. rowan and i tried some homemade root beer, which was good, but it ain't had nothing on A&W. the kids collected lots of candy, which they sampled on the way home and before dinner... oh well. more to come next weekend!

i love knitting. i love the thunderstorm that's going on right now. and i love working for my dad so i can make a little extra money. and did i mention i love knitting? i'm going to go knit myself to sleep right now...