Big week for the US of A!

I can't believe it's Friday!  Actually, that's a lie.  The week has been looong.  But...but so much has happened!  Between the things going on in the Texas Senate and the DOMA stuff, my head is about to explode!

And then there's Aaron Hernandez.  OMG!

Ok, on to things that actually happened in my home.  Well, not much.  I swear, it must be the heat, but I just can't seem to do anything around the house!  The A/C units are going almost constantly trying to cool the house.  The upstairs unit is especially getting a workout on this 106 degree day.  Yep, we set a record!  It still hasn't been nearly has hot as last summer, so I can't complain too much.  We've been spending most afternoons at the pool.  Not exactly relaxing for me, but the kids really love it.

I know you might have been confused, but this isn't me.  And this isn't our neighborhood pool.

Snack at the pool.

Dancing at the pool.

Logan has another follow up dental appointment.  All went well, but he STILL had some damn plaque buildup.  We're using a rotating brush on his teeth at least 2x's a day and flossing!  I'm like come ON.  What is the deal?!  It's so frustrating.

I also had a quick chat with his speech therapist and she was thinking about reevaluating him soon because he's made such huge strides in the past few months that she thinks he might be 'on target.'  Say whaaa?  That's huge!  I actually hope she doesn't cut us off, because obviously he's made such big improvements with her that I would hate for us to lose this momentum!

Logan also had his preschool conference this week.  I talked a lot about what it would mean if Logan has an ASD diagnosis in a couple of weeks and what our options are.  Logan's teacher taught for 14 years in the PPCS program, specifically with children on the ASD, so she is a huge help.  Our neighbor also happens to teach there too.  Coincidentally I caught her the same day I had Logan's conference and we talked for a long time about services, etc etc.  She is amazing.  She has a special needs child, so she has the unique perspective of being an educator and mom of a special needs child.  While our preschool teacher thinks it would be so great for Logan to be in the program, our neighbor definitely told me to proceed with caution.  It seems like I've been really getting 2 very different opinions from people I talk to this about.  Hopefully when he is done with his evaluation and we go over everything we'll have some more clarity.

Isabel has had a pretty good week.  She is growing up so fast.  Some of the things that come out of her mouth just floor me.  She's definitely not a toddler anymore.  She is very opinionated and competitive, but is so fragile right now.  She gets absolutely crushed when she's disciplined for something unexpected or when she doesn't get the attention she wants.  It's hard to see her feelings hurt.  She's very curious about family and who is in her family and when she gets to see them, etc etc.  We WeChatted with Joanne today and she was thrilled to hear her voice!  She's been watching "Ni Hao Kai Lan" and picking up some Chinese.  It's pretty cute to hear Logan and Izzy repeating words back in Chinese.

A very rare 'safe' ice cream treat for Isabel (and Logan).  She dresses herself.  You try to tell her completely different flower patters/colors don't match.  I dare you.

Pool Time!

We didn't do much this weekend.  We went searching for something Brian needed.  We went to almost every store in the world.  Sunday we woke up and headed North to check out the outlet malls.  On the way there we stopped at Java Cafe.  It's this little breakfast place right by our old law school apartment.  The food is fantastic.  There is almost always a long wait.  We had to wait about 20 minutes, but ordered as soon as we sat down and our food was out in less than 5 minutes.  It did not disappoint.

Out running errands and we see Ms. Pink Sneaker Pony.

Logan admiring his train stamp on the little train at the outlet mall.

Logan was pretty excited to be riding the train.

Her face!

Brian left to go out of town Sunday evening and I put the kids to bed at 7:15pm.  Yep.  Earliest bedtime attempt ever.  By some miracle they both went right to sleep.  I was fully expecting them to be up around 4 or 5 am, but they slept in until 7am!  Logan got up around 5, but went back to sleep.  Who are these kids?!  They must have known I needed some time to recharge Sunday night.  Do you know what I did?  I thought about all I could be doing and then decided to take a 'nap' around 8pm.  I didn't get up until Logan whimpered at 5am.  It was glorious.

Isabel said she wanted to help Brian pack and then rolls in with her suitcase.  :-)

Today I took the kids to they gym and did 2 classes while they played and didn't miss me.  We came home, ate lunch and then packed up and headed to the pool.  For another 3 hour marathon.  We went to the new pool this time and it was really fun.  The last time we went (last year) it was packed, but today it was very quiet.  Isabel's school buddy was there too, so that made it fun.

After the pool I had to go to the store.  If they didn't have preschool tomorrow I would have put it off, but I knew that sending them to school with oyster crackers, cheese and carrots probably wouldn't go over too well.

Isabel asked for brownies.  I don't usual make baked goods, mainly because I just eat them all in a day, but I decided to make them for her.  She wanted to put jello and jelly on top of her brownie.  Ok.  Logan, being the awesome little brother that he is, just went along with it like it was a totally normal thing to do.  I asked him if he was sure he wanted jelly on top of the jello and brownie and he said 'yes' in that super cute enunciate every.single.letter way that he does.

They watched a little "Dumbo" *ps isn't that show super creepy?  What is with the Elephants Marching song?!  Can you say D.R.U.G.S?  Wow.

I put the kids to bed right at 8pm and they were DONE.  Ready to go to bed.  Yesss!

Snow White.

Brownie-blue jello-jelly

Motivation to do nothing

I'm not sure where my motivation to clean the house has gone. It's nowhere to be found. After the usual Friday morning stuff we found ourselves at home by 11:30am with no plans for the rest of the day. I planned to get some cleaning done. I set up the kiddie pool and sat down to watch them play in 98 degree nasty weather. Logan lasted about 10 minutes and then wanted to go inside.

I was feeling bad about having to tell Isabel she needed to come in because she (obviously) can't play in the pool by herself, when she decided to squirt Logan in the back with water after I told her not to and after he was back in regular clothes. It made that decision much easier.

Everyone inside. So now it's about 11:40am. So much time to fill. We had the kids' absolute favorite lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese. Then I wanted to clean, but ended up piddling around doing a lot of nothing. Anyway, it was a long afternoon.

Three hours of swimming

Yesterday after our usual Wednesday stuff we ate lunch and headed off to the pool. We got there at 1pm an left a little after 4pm! Three hours of Isabel practicing her swimming. She was a little fish! Logan wasn't very thrilled about practicing his swimming. He did it a couple of times, but mostly just wanted me to hold him. He didn't really want to go down he slide either. Finally towards the end of our time he started going down the slide a couple of times.

After the pool Isabel wanted to swim in the baby pool. I sweet talked her out of that. Where does she get her energy?!

I didn't get any pictures of the day but did take one of this. The spare set of car keys!!!! They've been lost for about a yer. Found them hiding out next to the foot peg under the dryer. We checked there, but must have missed them because they blended in to the peg. Anyway, yay!!!!!

Fire Station Trip

Yesterday we took a field trip with the MOMs Club to the Circle C Fire Station.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Intently watching Firefighter Matt get his gear on.

Logan giving firefighter Matt a big hug.

How cute is this?!

The gang and firefighter Matt.

Checking out the truck.

Looking at the exhaust system.

Waiting to get stickers.

Isabel getting a sticker.

Showing off stickers.  Ready to walk home.

Father's Day weekend

Since Brian was gone last weekend I was really looking forward to this weekend. I had plans of getting everything sparkling clean and preparing delicious meals for Father's Day in my perfectly clean kitchen. So that didn't happen. I can't complain too much because Brian so rarely travels, but him being gone an entire weekend was hard. I really rely on the weekend to have a couple of hours to myself and get caught up on things that didn't get done around the house. So come Friday I was ready for a break.

I was going to insert a funny GIF about hoarders and messy houses, but it gave me such anxiety that I nixed the idea.  I have issues.

Isabel wine rover (this was auto correct.  I must say it was a good one.  Should have said WENT OVER) to Maddie's house for almost 5 hours on Friday. It made the house pretty quiet, but it also made Mommy Logan's #1 playmate. We played cars for HOURS. I would get up and try to do something and I would hear 'Mommy! Will you come pway wit me? Pweeze?!" How can you say no to that? We had some pretty fun 1 on 1 time. But the house stayed a mess.

I went to bed at 8:30pm Friday night. Felt so good. Saturday we woke up and decided to use our Groupon to go to the Austin Zoo. The Austin Zoo is great. It's about 15 minutes away from our house and we were in and out in 2 hours. We saw everything and had our picnic lunch. Perfect. It was cloudy and a little breezy, so the 94 degree weather was actually sort of pleasant.

How cute is Logan?!  He was very cautious.  And then the Lion sprayed us.

The Llamas were intrigued by a seeing eye dog in the vicinity.

How cute is this?!

After the zoo we came home, watched a show and decided to go do mini golf. In Dripping Springs. Again, we had a Groupon. It was deserted. We were the only people playing. Perfect for us! The kids were into it for the first half and then Logan was done. He was hungry and ready to leave. Isabel was still going strong, but once we totaled up the score card and she realized she didn't win the tears came out. OMG. This girl is SO competitive. She actually did get one hole-in-one!




We had dinner at BJs. Totally disappointing. :(. I hate wasting money on sub par food. I'll usually eat anything, but my fish was gross. Brian said his food was pretty bad too. The kid's meals were pretty good. We usually don't do dessert, but Brian was thinking a pizzokie thing would maybe make up for dinner. Nope. It was gross too. Grr

Today Logan decided that 5:15am was a perfectly acceptable time to wake up. Really? He usually sleeps until at least 7am. What a little jerk. He must have been so excited about Father's Day that he wanted to spend every second of almost daylight with Brian. Isabel not up shortly after and we made coffee. And then breakfast. Breakfast tacos. Eggs, bacon mushrooms and cheese. Those HEB freshly made tortillas are little pillows made from clouds. So amazing. Ever since Isabel has been cleared to eat eggs she only eats hard boiled. No scrambled. Luckily it's pretty easy to boil up eggs at the beginning of the week and give them out to her every morning.

After breakfast we headed to the movie theater to see 'Epic.' It was really cute. Logan and I left about 15 minutes before the movie was over, but izzy really liked it. I really liked what I saw too. Hopefully we can see this one on DVD soon.

I thought about making a fantastic dinner tonight, but unfortunately I just my back at the gym yesterday. It was so acute and immediate that I was worried I really hurt something. I've been living on a heating pad. It was really bad yesterday and this morning, but I THINK it's getting better tonight. I really hope so.

Anyway, it looks like pizza for dinner. The most we've eaten out in a really long time. Oh well.

Not My Best Work

If mothering, stay-at-home-moming, etc were a job....today I might have been fired.  I woke up with such fun plans.  We would go to the gym, return just one thing at one store, then go to the pool!  At the pool we would eat our delicious and nutritionally sound lunches and then head home tired and happy.  We would read book and play games and then it would be time for dinner and bath.  After bath time we would have a special treat.  Popcorn!  Everyone would fall asleep watching a movie and I would carry wee little ones up the stairs and tuck them in bed.

Instead the day went like this.  Stop screaming.  No, really STOP SCREAMING.  You are making my ears bleed.  We're going to the gym.  Why?  Because I said so and I need an hour break, that's why.  Ok team, wanna go to the pool?!  (said with much enthusiasm and joy).  You don't?  Really?  You just want to go to the pool in our backyard (the little baby pool).  Um, ok.  Isabel smashed a book in Logan's face getting into the car on the way home from our ONE LITTLE STOP.  I may have overreacted and told her she lost all of her privileges.  No TV, no pool, no sprinklers.  She actually asked me if she lost the privilege to eat lunch.  Oops.  Might have overreacted a teensy tiny bit.

So after somehow letting Izzy 'earn' her privileges back I filled up the pool and let the kids have some fun.  Logan lasted an hour and then wanted to come in.  I tried to get them to watch a movie because I desperately needed to clean the kitchen, but they wouldn't have it.  Logan pooped.  And then dragged his ass on the carpet like a dog trying to wipe his butt.  Lovely.  Then he pooped again.  In his pants.  Then again.  He is having some issues.  Poor guy.  Isabel and Logan both have colds and probably sinus infections.  The green snot is getting out of control.  They have both started to cough too.  Anytime Isabel coughs it's time to sound the alarms.  When she landed in the ICU it started with a cough.  So I've been giving her Xopenex and crossing my fingers it's just related to this cold and won't progress further.

After dinner making the kids' favorite food (tomato soup and grilled cheese) I thought we would have baths and a movie.  Why did they insist on jumping off the couch, wall, end tables, etc etc.  At the suggestion of our occupational therapist, we have one designated 'jumping chair' that I let them take the cushions out of and just jump and go crazy on.  They always have to push it.  Logan decided to try some new acrobatics.  I don't know how they have this energy, but it's amazing.

Logan had a truly spectacular week last week and then today the wheels just fell off.  He was whining and screaming most of the day.  He even reverted back to hitting himself.  It was frustrating and I felt like I did this all day long.

Did I mention that Brian is in San Diego for the SUDC benefit?  Well, he is.  I surprised him with airline tickets Thursday night.  He was not as excited as I expected.  I mean, almost 48 hours kid free in San Diego?  Yes, please!  Brian's exact words were (after telling him how much I pricelined the ticket for) "you should have gone cheaper."  Really?!  REALLY?????  He also said something along the lines of 'we should have donated that money instead.'  OMG.  I mean, I know he only really gets excited about soccer or Aggie football, but come on.  San Diego, SUDC benefit, beer.  Did I mention beer?!  But then I get this picture

and I know I made the right call.  He needs a little break.  Even if he doesn't know it.

Now I will go sleep with Isabel in her bed because I keep hearing coughing and I'm worried about her.  Since Logan is coughing too and they sound identical I don't know if she's really coughing a lot or if it's Logan + her.  Either way, it's unnerving.

I can't wait to get some pictures and post about the SUDC benefit.  If you would like to donate please head over here
Bikes and Brews Charity Bash
We would much appreciate it!