pics from the patch

Fall has an unfair disadvantage with me. It follows my most favorite season, summer. How can you not love summer?! Long days. Sunshine. Swimming. When you're little, no school! Camping, vacations, etc. 

But fall does have its ups, though I usually loathe it's return. I can appreciate cool (not cold) crisp days, like a breath of fresh air. And I do heart scarves and boots (still not enough to yearn for summer to be over). One of my favorite things about fall is our annual pumpkin patch trip. Is it just me or is it becoming less and less about the actual pumpkins?! The place we go to now has duck races, super yummy food (and lots of it!), pig races, a corn field/maze, corn bin, hay mazes, wagon rides, go karts, and a cow train. And more that I'm forgetting, all sorts of stuff in the kid's area. It's super fun. 

Poor Andie with her band-aid...this was not too long after her first laser treatment. 

It was baby Avie's first ever trip to the patch! Not thinking she was super impressed. She was all about snuggling with daddy though, and I did get some smiles. 

Duck races... The white one won. 

Corn bin!

She was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin...

Cow train! Every time, with those two fingers...

This girl loves to bounce. 

Aannnndd here we have a potty accident. I didn't obviously realize it until after the picture was taken. Awesome. 

It was pretty fun. And I think I'm done until next year. Ready for summer again! 

this minute...

Because a lot is going on. So here is what is on my mind~

Work. Started this last week back at work and yeah it was stressful. Avery did pretty well with the whole mama-being-gone and first bottle thing, but it is an adjustment for both of us. I haven't been away from her for more than a few hours before, so the last week and a half has been...interesting. I actually said, before my first day back at work, "I hope I get something really easy like a car seat monitoring or something," and alas, I did! Buuuttt then it was back to the usual Prov, with emergent sections, stressful situations, etc. Without going into too much detail i'll just say there were a couple of births that may have given me some gray hair. I know babies still come out the same way and blah blah blah but it's still a little nerve-wracking to go back to a high stress job when the tasks that required the most use of your brainpower in the previous months were how to change a crappy diaper while dealing with a toddler temper tantrum at the same time. So, there is that. Work and the stuff associated with it (like catching up on my continuing ed for my nursing license and RNC...ugh) is on my mind quite a bit.

 Computer. I currently hate it. This post is taking way longer than it needs to, because this thing is a POS. ugh

Hair. Jeff is now learning to do it! Having mastered the pony long ago, he has now moved on to the basic french braid. And is, of course, ridiculously proud of himself. I basically told him there was no way I was doing 4 heads of hair, including my own, every day, and set him up in front of YouTube and offered tips. YouTube is da bomb. If I ever need to reassemble a jet engine, i'm gonna YouTube it. I learn everything there.

Lawn Mowing. Speaking of YouTube, it came in handy when I decided to learn to mow the lawn. And was promptly told never to do it again, or touch any other of husbands tools. WTH I did a fab job. I am getting more and more redneck though. What you can't garden in uggs and a nightgown?? Damn shame. 

 
Naked Spa. One of my friends thinks my woes can be cured with lots of running and trips to the naked spa. Not sure about that, but I do enjoy the naked spa (thats not actually it's name, just what I refer to it as since there are no clothes or swim suits whatsoever allowed in the pool and scrub areas). I went the first time when I was about 14 or 15 weeks pregnant with baby, and hung out in the pools but didn't get a scrub because first off I was pregnant and trying to hide it and secondly I wasn't sure how I would feel about being naked in front of a bunch of strangers. But as I sat in the pools watching other people go get their scrubs and coming back looking all fresh and glow-y, i kinda wanted to go too. So I did this time. It's a little strange, sure, as you are sitting all nakey on a table with a whole line of tables with a couple feet between them with naked woman on them, and they are moving you, lifting your legs up, and scrubbing the heck out of every part of you. And then they poured warm milk and honey on me...I was as smooth as a baby's bottom :-) But it was fun, and I felt very refreshed afterwards, and all the other rooms (salt room, tea room, meditation room, etc) were all very relaxing and nice as well. 

Bacon Chocolate. Ummm yeah it's amazing, my hubby brought me some and I love. I've always liked weird flavor combos and this is definitely a trend I can get behind. My thighs, not so much. 

And of course we should talk about baby Avie, who is even more delectably delish than maple bacon chocolate bars. She is just my little love muffin. She loves to be held and is happy and content all the time so long as she is getting enough cuddle time. She's an excellent sleeper, great nurser, and gives super cute smiles.

There we are doing some rolling. It's her latest skill, one she started around 3-ish months. Honestly she doesn't spend much time on the ground so it's hard to be sure. When she is awake, usually someone is wanting to love on her :-)

Jeff is now back in school, for now taking a bio class. He is pretty ambitious, his goal is to get 100% in the class. Buuutt unfortunately this can no longer happen, he missed a class due to an ileus that kept him in the hospital all night. Poor bubs. Our girls did great though, they stayed there and watched shows on my ipad and were awake all night with no tantrums. Aili still wanted to go to school the next day too, crazy girl. She wasn't even that tired. No wonder I cant keep up with her...

 Jeff, studying :-)

Jeff made a little creek through our backyard where the rainwater naturally had dug out a little creek to a swampy area. He used a tractor to dig out a little pond for it to collect into, the girls just discovered it back there and love it. One thing I love about our yard is that due to the natural slope, from the upstairs I can see the whole backyard (and the neighbor's yard too) very easily and keep track of them. We are building a fenced-off kid's area to keep them contained a little better when we are inside though, and there has been black bear sightings at the neighbors which is worrisome although usually those bears are skittish and afraid of humans and avoid them.

 That back deck, up high in the left part of the house, serves a few purposes. I can see the kids, store beer and trash, and put kids in time-outs.

Andie + Laser. So we have started laser treatments for Andie's mark above her eye with the amazing Dr. Hornung (awesome derm). Obviously she no likey the laser :-(  Thankfully so far the insurance company has decided that at least the first treatment is covered and medically necessary, hopefully this will continue as she will probably need up to six treatments. She did so well without anesthesia with the first that we'll probably only use it for the last treatment, to ensure that the laser had reached all ares, which is harder to do on a kid's eyelid when they are in pain and scrunching their eyes. So, we will go to Children's OR for that one and have her gassed. But for the others we are going to proceed with doing it at Bellevue Children's procedure room without sedation. I've been down the conscious sedation road with Andie  before, and didn't have a strong desire to do it again unless it would be really traumatizing for her. The doc, Jeff, and I all thought she did really well though, she cried the whole time (feels like you are having rubber bands snapped on your eyelids and she said he thought it felt hot) but recovered really well afterwards. Unfortunately she will look quite bruised for up to 3 weeks after the treatment and they are every other month.  Her eye might swell shut tomorrow morning too, we'll see.

 

Cream is on and on the way to the appointment. She is pretty tired here from hanging out in the ER with daddy until 430am.

She knew something was up.

In the procedure room.

Afterwards, there was ice cream, and a special lunch with mom and dad and all our attention. (Meaning, Aili was at school. Avie was there)

OW. Poor girl...

She wanted a cherry on top. Seemed reasonable.

  Well there are more happenings around here, particularly with Aili and school, but that will have to wait for another day. Because after several back-to-back nights of being up til 330 am or later, starting up at work, Jeff and Andie's stuff, etc, etc, this is one tired mama!