rowan had his articulation test here at the house with his speech therapist, maria, this past monday. we won't know how he scored for a couple more days. rowan did very well and was very cooperative during the test, which took about an hour. maria said that she was impressed he was able to get through it in one sitting. she said usually she has to split it into two sessions with children rowan's age. anyway, after the test, he crawled up in my lap and promptly fell asleep! before maria arrived, i was fretting about doing the test right at his naptime... turned out not to be an issue at all.

tonight is new year's eve, and we are spending it at my dad's. we're eating dinner around 6:30, then playing poker and watching movies till the ball drops at midnight. i kinda wish we were doing something more exciting and "grown up" this year. the kids still aren't ready to go to bed without us, so i guess we'll try for next year.

i am still fervently enjoying knitting!! i cast on a pair of basic cabled fingerless mitts last night. i can't wait till they're done. i'm nervous about doing the thumb, but i know mama and katherine can walk me through it.

merry christmas!!!!!!

we had a wonderful, joyous, WHITE christmas this year! josh and i got some money and gift cards with which to buy goodies for his bike, and clothes for me (and quite probably a spa pedicure). micah and rowan got everything that was on their lists, and some surprises too. our big present to the kids was a bike trailer like this one. we can't wait to take them for a ride in it! if it's not too cold, we'll take it out tomorrow. there's space in the trailer behind the kids' seats for a blanket and picnic lunch. josh and i are so excited to use this a lot this spring and summer!

i'm so thankful that christmas fell on a friday this year and we got to enjoy a three day weekend! thursday night we had some family time and yummy food at my mom and stepdad's house. then we woke up early on friday and opened stockings and gifts at our house. this was the first year that we've put up a tree and lights and put the kids' gifts under the tree after they'd gone to bed, so it was REALLY fun and exciting. after that, we headed to my dad and stepmom's house for breakfast and gifts. i got to give my grandparents their handknit gifts (the only ones i did this year): an infinity cowl/scarf like this (pics of the one i made to come) for my grandmother, and a neck warmer like this for my grandfather (again, pics of his to come, as the ones in the picture there are more feminine than the steel gray one i made for him), to keep his neck warm on the golf course. it was really fulfilling giving handmade gifts to at least two people this year! after my dad's, we drove to rowlett to celebrate with josh's dad, stepmom and family. we ate a late lunch over there and hung out all day. around 5:00 we went to plano to see josh's mom. we ate dinner with her, visited for a while, then finally took our sleepy, overstimulated babies home and put them to bed. this morning we slept in (yay!), then went back to my mom and stepdad's for stocking stuffers. see, christmas is all over the place when both you and your husband's parents are divorced and remarried! i just think that makes it more fun. anyway, after stockings at my mom's, josh and i took the kids to run a few errands before going to my other grandparents' house. we all hung out and chatted and knitted for a while, the ate a delicious early supper, sang christmas carols and hymns (my favorite part of the evening), and played the traditional several rounds of catchphrase. if you've never played this game, you must. it's a riot. anyway, then we ate dessert, cleaned up, and left around 11:00. micah and rowan fell sound asleep in the car on the way home. phew! what a fun, busy few days! i love it so much and am energized by all the social activity, but i think it's a bit trying for josh and the kids. i'm a complete extrovert, while josh and micah are introverts, and rowan is just two. he can only share and play nicely with others for so long! : )

this week i'm bracing myself for the usual upheaval of emotions that i experience after a major holiday or event. it's kind of like an endorphine withdrawl - the anticipation and excitement of the upcoming event wooshes away and leaves me ever so slightly blue. it happens every year after christmas, sometimes after my birthday, and it happened after the births of each of my children. it never lasts that long, but the older i get, the better i get at readying myself for it.

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.