September {2012}

Like the posts I created about June/July and August, this shows only some, not all, of our photos and activities for the month.

For us the most significant event in September was the beginning of our first child's public education. Kindergarten! She enjoyed the testing they did with her in August, and the kindergarten open house, and she was so excited to start. She had to wait longer than a lot of kids, since her birthday is November. Except for falling down and hurting her forehead on the first day of gym, she loves school. She loves to tell me about what they do and which girls are her favorite. We have this conversation while we walk home after her three-hour school day (it's two hours on short day). I've noticed -- maybe it changed as the newness of school wore off -- that she only tells me a few of the things they did. I often have to ask if I want to know. It's been good to make sure I read with her and her sisters for twenty minutes each day. Sadly, we hadn't been spending that much time on books. But I'm impressed by the words she knew how to read even before school began, and I'm impressed by her speed when she does it. My husband had the idea recently to have her read the first verse of our nightly Book of Mormon reading, after she watches one of us read it.

watching the other students

one of her fancy hairstyles for school

I participated in birth junkie stuff two days in a row. First, an Improving Birth National Rally for Change, with took place on Labor Day (get it?). One of my friends who was there was born on Labor Day, too.

 

The purpose of this annual event is to encourage all maternal health care providers to practice evidence-based care. You can click on Improving Birth's web site for more information, and also watch this 3-minute video I got from there. Did you know that in the United States the maternal mortality rate (number of women per 1000 who die of causes related to childbirth) has increased in the last twenty years or so?


Second was an ICAN meeting (two of my ICAN friends had also been at the rally). We decided to include our families this time, not just the ladies. We ended up not talking much about what we usually talk about, but it was fun being at the park and meeting the husbands and kids.

 

my birthday. My sister and I and our kids played in the water at a park. I had invited a few friends but they weren't able to make it. Then my husband and I had a date (no photos): window shopping at a mall and laughing at silly gifts for sale, then eating dinner at Zupa's. He, my little sister, my visiting teacher and another friend in our ward gave me presents, and my parents gave me money.

 

 

 

 

fall leaves. We don't hike often enough, I decided. (I did narrow down the number of photos . . . lots of good ones!)

 

 

 

 

 

 
other September stuff:

 

 

 

 

Our new friend Lisa E. gave us this double stroller. Our kids are in the same school class, but the first words we spoke were when we passed at the entrance to our apartments. She said, "I have a double stroller we're not using. Do you want it?" It's great to have one again because baby C was sometimes sweaty in the carrier during our walk to/from the school. I like this seating better than the side-by-side double stroller we got rid of.

 

It was Family Day at my husband's unit. Since we weren't at a park this time, he actually got to teach the girls about what he does :) He showed us the equipment and trucks, and let the the kids take turns sitting in the driver's seat.

August {2012}

{How is this already the second half of October??}

August was my husband's second month of working a freight position full time. It's his "until I get a better-paying one" job, in addition to his three-evenings-a-week job and the Army Reserve. I probably mentioned before, but he is working 50+ hours a week (about 68 when it's drill week). August was also the month in which a railroad company paid for him to fly out for a panel interview for a manager trainee program. We felt like he was very well qualified because of his specific background in the military and his bachelor's degree. He thought he would get the job . . . but he didn't. However, he learned from the whole experience, and while on the short trip he got to go (with another job candidate from our state) to a cool museum:

It was my mom's birthday, and we went to a farmers market. My husband took this picture.

For about six weeks this summer our van was our only working vehicle, because the Civic needed an expensive repair. We decided to sell the Civic instead, nearly ten years after he bought it. It sold very quickly, and that was kind of a sad day. But the stereo had been stolen -- for the second time while we've lived here -- a few days earlier, and it was time to say goodbye to that car. We bought a PT Cruiser. Although the van needed two repairs in order to pass safety and emissions testing, and the Cruiser already needed a small repair (I don't remember what they needed), that total is still a few hundred dollars less than what it would have cost us to fix the Civic.

I didn't mind being at home more (grocery shopping was one of the few challenges). The girls and I couldn't do M__ Park Monday and F__ Park Friday anymore. Many days we walked to nearby playgrounds, or just walked to see the ducks, or ate lunch outside in our neighborhood. They love pretending and coloring in our fitness center while I use the treadmill. Oh, and we swam (the girls mostly sit on the steps) in our pool a few more times. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I love swimming for exercise, even though I doubt my strokes look very good and I'm still a slow swimmer. It's never felt as good as it did this year. We reorganized our dresser drawers and Shboogoo was excited about folding things "the new way" so we can see everything. Some days we cooked delicious new recipes I found online, like this Mexican bean and rice casserole. If we wanted to see friends, they were able to come to our place. And we're thankful that we were never down to zero working vehicles.

Marbleworks

We like to make flowers out of fruit.

Here's a picture of my husband and me on a date in August. We're trying to go out together at least twice a month. We are also having regular meetings and writing down what we discuss in a notebook; it was his idea and it's been very helpful. We're more aware of things, and we're starting to actually budget!

Might as well include this here. He sent this photo to my phone one day, after asking a coworker how to write it in Spanish.

On August 29th, I had the baby in the actual seat part of a shopping cart, and let the other two kids sit in the part where you put whatever it is you're going to be buying. I wasn't looking at the kids and accidentally bumped the cart into the corner of a display. That made L fall right back out of the cart and hit the back of her head on the hard floor. She had been sitting on the edge, not down where she was supposed to be. She started bawling right away, and a bump formed. I took us straight to the closest emergency room. Daddy was working his part-time job but came over before we even got to see a doctor. The doctor said L seemed just fine; she didn't think there was any reason to do a CT scan.

The next day L was a little different. She was not her happy self and did not have much of an appetite, so in the afternoon I took her to the pediatrician. He said, from the way she was acting (maybe I don't remember everything) she had a concussion and we needed to give her extra fluids. 

Then, when she was in bed about 9 p.m., she threw up. The next morning (August 31st) she threw up a little two times. I called the pediatrician again, who told us to go right to the ER. At the hospital they examined her and of course I had to explain several times what had happened. They did a CT scan to see if there was any internal bleeding. She was not afraid at all, just laid perfectly still during the CT scan. Daddy came up from work, and by the time he arrived we found out the results were good. The last doctor who saw L said he thought she did not have a concussion, and that the throwing up was not related to her fall, since she didn't throw up until over 24 hours after she fell. It was a 12-hour stomach bug, I guess. We're so glad she is fine!