October 2023

Grant is reading to Blake.  These are the moments I love seeing as a parent.  There are fewer moments than I imagined before becoming a parents so I cherish them.

We potty trained Claire this week and it went well.  I was not excited to try since I failed with my boys multiple times, but she showed a lot of readiness signs.  Claire did great if she was naked but the minute I put underwear on her, she peed.  We sent her to daycare Monday and she had a bad day but had NO accidents Tuesday!  She did well pooping initially and now she only poops in her underwear so we are still working on that.  The daycare teachers are not too happy about it and so I hope Claire figures it out soon! Claire even surprised us by staying dry during nap and bedtime every night!  Greg and I are ecstatic to be almost done with diapers!

We got the boys Halloween costumes and they look so good!  They are going to be Sonic and the costumes are so cute on the boys!  Blake loves shaking his tailfeather. Claire is going to be a princess and she is so excited!  I ask what she wants to be and she says "pincess".

We celebrated Greg's birthday at sports all day long! Greg's mom came over and watched the kids in the evening so we could go out to dinner which was nice.  Then we had family over Sunday night for pizza and cake.  Grant and I made homemade cake for Greg!  We made homemade picture frames and Claire decided the paint was her makeup and put it all over her face.  Good thing it was washable!

Blake still says "gamote" instead of remote and Greg and I love it.  We will be so sad when he stops saying it.  Grant tries to correct him and we get mad because we don't want Blake to say it the right way.  I got it on video so we dont forget.

We had another appointment for Blake at the University of Iowa.  We went up the night before because we had to get labs early the next morning.  Blake was so excited to have a special day with Mom and Dad! We got to swim in the hotel pool and then went to the Children's museum the next morning between the labs and the appointment.  His labs came back good and the doctor said we didn't have to increase his meds which we were ecstatic about.  His other labs looked good also other than he has low iron.  So we have to add a multivitamin with iron in it and get the labs rechecked in 6-8 weeks.  Other than that we will have another EEG in February and see if it all looks good and we can wean off meds.  Only a few more months and we hope everything keeps going well and we can make it to February and get off these meds!  Blake is on a regular diet with no restrictions and has been tolerating it well.  We wanted him on a regular diet before trying to get off the meds. 

Grant has his last football game.  It was the Super Bowl according to him and he was so nervous and excited for it!  The weather was cold and rainy but he had a good game.  He got the ball a few times and made a few good passes even though his teammate didn't catch it.

Claire plays with our neighbor Carly and they have fun! It is fun to watch girls play together.  It is a night and day difference between girls and boys.

Greg and I take turns taking the boys to church and Claire stays home since she is still potty training.  Claire has been getting up early so she fell asleep on me at 10:00 in the morning and I couldn't wake her up so her nap for the day was a morning one! She doesn't cuddle me very often anymore so I did enjoy the cuddles for awhile before I put her in her bed.

Blake has been sick for about a week and a half so he had a day with just me and him and we also went to the doctor.  The doctor gave us an antibiotic and we are to start the albuterol treatments again.  The whole family has been sick the past week so we are hoping we are on the end of this.

Blake still mispronounces a few words and I still love them and think they are so cute to hear. Here he is saying "gamotions" instead of emotions.

I picked up some pumpkins to carve and the kids were so excited!

We took the kids to a Halloween Party at the Raccoon River park.  We got to go on a hayrack ride, do some craft activities and ate s'mores.  We ended up running into the O'Holleran's and Grant was so excited to see Tyler!  It was chaotic for Greg and I but it was a beautiful night out and a fun Halloween activity. 

Blake and Claire had school pictures taken and we just got them back!  They were all adorable but we ended up getting one with Blake and Claire.

My dreams are coming true!  Grant spent one Saturday morning reading his football book in his room all by himself!

Greg and I went to a friends house to watch a football game for a few hours and came home to kids being crazy and wrestling.  Pure chaos always.

One night Claire was going into the playroom and would come out and say "Mom" and wait for me to to tell her how pretty she was.  Then she was walking around on her phone calling people with her baby.  She is ready to be a mom. It was adorable!

We went to Howells Pumpkin Patch one beautiful day after school and the kids had a blast.  It closed at 6 so we didn't have much time but we sure had fun with the time we had!

Uncle Peter's work had another trick or treat this year!  The kids had a blast other than the spooky hallway.

We had fun carving pumpkins this year!  Greg did the cleaning and I did the carving.  They turned out great and the kids had fun.

Greg went on a guys trip the last weekend of October and I took the kids to the jump park Sunday morning to burn off some energy.  It was cold outside so we couldn't go outside to play.  I was nervous about taking all 3 alone but the kids did great and it was a success.

Claire went poop in the potty when Greg was gone!  She has gone a few times in the potty and it was the first few days of potty training.  So this was exciting that she told me she needed to go and went!  Lets hope this continues.

Caught a rare moment of the boys sitting nicely by each other and getting along.  Of course, it was playing nintendo but I will take it!

Trick or treat night was cold this year but the kids didn't complain!  They were too busy running house to house to get more candy.  The boys were Sonic and Claire was a princess.  This year was a fun Halloween.  We did a lot of fun activities and the kids are getting to an age where the meltdown aren't AS continuous.  But they are still interesting in the activities.