Well, now that the kids are finally in bed I can type to my heart's content. It's been one crazy week here at our house. I have pretty much been in Halloween costume Pergatory. I took that sewing class so that I could finish Audrey's costume. I learned a lot in the class, but now I think I know just enough to be dangerous. The class ended on Monday night, so this week I have been slaving away over the machine trying to make sense of the pattern and the fabric. Just for the record, I do not recommend working with fleece as a beginning project. I'm lucky the silly dress fits her! I just completed everything this evening and then had to bake cookies for the pre-school Halloween party. Audrey didn't sign me up to bring juice boxes or Cheetos or something. She signed me up for the home-baked cookies. Thanks a lot! Anyway, back to the sewing. Tuesday I was so frustrated because my hand-me-down sewing machine that is an ancient relic kept seizing up on me. Every 15 minutes I would have to stop and untangle everything and re-thread it all. (I'm sure it's all the machine's fault and nothing to do with the operator). Vince and I were trying to talk about Christmas gifts for the girls and he happened to ask what I wanted at a moment when I was cussing my machine. So, the next night we went out and I got a new sewing machine. Yay! Except I feel bad because I really don't use it all that often. Oh, well. It's not like I picked the $300 one. Maybe I'll just have to use it more often, especially now that I have this pattern figured out. I can make some dresses for the girls.

So, not much else has been going on in our lives recently. Vince has been working a lot and the kids and I have been going to the YMCA a lot. I think I'm over that hump where I hate to exercise. Now I look forward to the classes. Except for the one day when we did 200 squats. Yes, you read that right-200! If I ever walk in and she has those little tiny weights and a squirrely gleam in her eyes, I'm outta there! That sucked. But I was so proud because I was one of the only ones to do them all without stopping and I kept my weight on my shoulders the whole time. I was so happy I treated myself to some ice cream afterward. You see why I need to exercise more? I have also been going to a class called boot camp. It's on Saturday mornings and it's filled with mostly older folks who can kick my ass! I'm always the last one finished. But at least I finish. We basically do cardio to get our hearts going and then go do some strength training and then repeat. I come out of there like a wet noodle! And I'm still going to spinning. It's getting easier. Not that it's easy, but at least I can now participate a little easier and not just sit there trying to keep pedaling. Like you all care about my workout routine, right?

Katie is talking way more lately. She's still a little hard to understand sometimes. We still rely on Audrey to translate. The past couple of weeks, she has been saying two funny things. When you ask her a yes-or-no question, sometimes she'll say, "Yes, but no." or "No, but yes." Huh? What the heck? I have to keep asking her until she gives me a straight answer. Then she also will say, just out of the blue, "Mom, I don't love you right now." Uh, thanks. She's still smothering Sam all the time. I have to tell her constantly to get out of his face or to get off of him. She will lay down on top of him to love on him and he's under there grunting just trying to catch his breath. Poor thing. She LOVES her brother. She always tells him he's "da bess baby in da woowd." (best baby in the world for those of you that don't speak toddler) or that he's "da cutest baby evuh." (spoken in a shrill, mommy-esque voice) She always wants to hold him or carry him or kiss him. I really have to watch her.

Audrey is still her precocious little self. I swear she's a smart little toot. Today we had edamame at lunch and sometimes when the girls are trying to get the beans out of the pods, they shoot out. We always laugh about it because those little suckers can really go far! When Vince got home, he asked Audrey what we did today and she told him that we had a bean toss. I didn't understand at first, but then I realized she was making a joke about the edamame squirting out. It was cute. Maybe you had to be there. On a side note, it wasn't until recently that I realized they liked edamame. I made a big deal about how fun it was to squirt the beans into your mouth and they loved it. We eat them all the time now. I can't get enough. Katie will eat all hers and then ask for more before she eats anything else on her plate. They are so good and good for you!

Audrey is really liking school and I think she's doing well too. She LOVES her teacher, Miss Holli. And I think she's thriving there. Miss Holli seems to enjoy having Audrey in her class and Audrey is coming home with all kinds of neat stuff and seems to be learning a lot. Everything right now is about letters. They do a new letter every week. This week was H for Halloween. So, when she picks up a toy or sees a picture of something, she'll say, "Does this start with the letter H?" and make the H sound. She tries to sound it out herself. It's neat to see her starting to put it all together.

Sam is starting to eat more solids. I tried to give him rice cereal, but he just hated it and would refuse to eat it. So, the doctor told me to just try some vegetables and see if he likes those better. He's had carrots, peas, sweet potato, and pears. He likes them all and is starting to get into it more. He opens his mouth really wide when he sees the spoon coming at him. This afternoon, I nursed him and he was still acting hungry, so I gave him half a jar of peas. He was still hungry after that and ate a whole jar of pears too. He definitely has a hearty appetite. The doctor also told us that we should be better about making him sleep through the night. He was still up nursing 3 times a night and the Doc said that it's just a habit and not because he's truly hungry. So we let him cry it out for a couple nights. Now, he just eats around 10:30 or so and then sleeps until 4:30, which is way better than his old schedule. That was a rough couple of nights for us. Well, it was for me and him. Vince snored through the whole thing! The man can sleep through anything. I don't know what our poor kids would do if they had to rely on Daddy for anything at night. I tell him all the time that he's lucky I'm around to do everything. If I was gone, he would be in serious trouble! Dishes would be rotting in the sink, everyone would be sick to death of eating goulash for every meal, there would be no toilet paper anywhere near the toilet-roll hangers, and the only person with clean clothes would be Vince. I swear. I could go on, but I won't. I love him, but sometimes...

It's been a long week and I've been up late every night, so I'm hitting the hay. Right after I switch the laundry around, do a load of dishes, feed the baby, let the dogs out, pick up the living room, wash my face, check on the children and make sure the alarm is set and the doors are locked. Until next time.