You can tell we are feeling better...

...because the past week we've been gone and busy and having fun again. It feels good to finally be getting back to normal.

Last Monday (Oct 22nd) was a beautiful morning. So I decided to surprise the kids with one last trip to the petting farm to get pumpkins. I even called my mom and told her that Ian was taking a nap but when we woke up, would she like to come too? When we got in the car a couple hours later, the sky was very grey and it was feeling colder. But we decided to go anyway and hope that we didn't get rained on. We had fun, we were cold, but it was fun. Alison had to see "her" ponies one last time. They had some photo stations set up and we got a couple cute ones.

The kids each got a cute little pumpkin. Ian wanted to lick his, so that's why it's where he can't reach it!

Tuesday we went to our normal playgroup. We left Ian home with Daddy because he still had a pretty goopy runny nose.

Then on Wednesday we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum . We met two of Ian's friends and their moms and had a ton of fun. After they left we ate our lunch and stayed for another couple hours. Both kids had fun at the bubble tables. Alison also loved the light box.

Thursday we went to story time at the library. Then we stopped at the Farmer's Market and got a half bushel of peppers. Friday was grocery shopping for me and Ian. Alison stayed home with Daddy while he smoked the peppers. The whole neighborhood smelled like smoked peppers.

And finally today Dan and I gave Ian a new haircut. He wasn't super thrilled, but he looks really cute! He's really tired in the pic, it was right after his bath to wash off all the hair clippings and right before he went to bed.

We've been sick!

I haven't posted at all this month because Ian and I have been sick. He started getting sick Oct 1st. Started with a cold, then a fever, then a rash. The rash lasted over a week and he still has a few spots left on his arms today (the rash started exactly 2 weeks ago today). For the first week he was so miserable, he cried so much he lost his voice. Poor baby. He's starting to finally act more like himself, but he still has a horribly goopy nose and a cough.

At the same time I came down with a bad cold. There were a couple days that it was all I could do to sit on the couch and hold my head up. I'm almost all better now, but the pesky, tickly cough is still hanging on and my nose randomly stuffs up. That's pretty much normal for this time of year for me though.

Luckily, Alison only had sniffles for a few days and got over it pretty quick. I'm glad she was spared. Dan was only sick for a couple days too.

Now that Ian is feeling a bit better he's testing limits. He figured out how to climb over the big footstool that I was using to keep him out of the dining room and kitchen. So I put the pack n play up to block him. He figured out how to climb the side of it and into the chair. I caught him a few times trying to figure out how to go over the side of the chair. Now I'm babyproofing the dining room and kitchen. I can't fight him much longer. The hard part is that Alison loves to take over the dining room table with her art and projects and Ian can reach pretty far past the edges of the table. This and the couple drawers in the kitchen will be our biggest problem spots.

Not much else is new around here. Alison is doing good with her school work. She's almost finished her first math book. It's all addition and subtraction up to 20. She definately needs more practice with them, but she's grasping the concepts and proud of herself for learning different ways to figure out her problems. So far she can use a number line, her fingers, and she's starting to memorize some of the math facts too. She's not good at doing flashcards. She gets frustrated too quickly. I know that they have math facts songs though and I think she'd really like that, so I'm going to look into those. I know from working with other kids that the key to math is learning and memorizing the basic facts. She is reading really well for only being 6years old. She's amazed that she's actually reading, but then she gets upset because she still has to ask for help. I keep telling her it's normal to be where she's at right now and it's ok because she'll keep getting better and better.