Winter

Yes, I am still alive. And yes, I knew it had been a while since I posted, but - yikes! - I haven't posted since September 16th. Let me take a quick minute to tell you why:

1. Summer ended, along with Grant's growth spurt, and he quit taking afternoon naps.
2. We had something going on every single day of the week: Sing and Sign class at the church on Mondays, Toddler Development Class in Coalhurst on Tuesdays, Moms and Tots on Wednesdays, Grant's music class on Thursdays, and Stay and Play in Coalhurst on Fridays. It has been very busy and very fun.

Now, the Toddler Development class has ended, music class is over until January, and I have abolished Moms and Tots. We will now be doing Sing and Sign on Mondays along with Stay and Play on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Grant will be doing gymnastics again on Saturdays, starting December 17th. Rachel will also start that week if there is enough interest to run the class for her age. I'm not really sure what they do for "gymnastics" with 9-18 month olds, but the government is picking up the tab, so we'll give it a try.

The kids and I will probably have something every day or nearly every day of the week once January comes.

A little bit about the Toddler Development Class: a free class for parents run out of the Parent Link Centre in Coalhurst. They even took care of my kids for me while I learned how to be a better mom. I loved it - I don't think they told me anything I didn't know, but I always need the reminders. I also loved it for the two hour break from the kids. This part was a bit of a learning curve for Rachel; the first few weeks she didn't stop crying while in the play room so I had to go get her and bring her to the library where she played nicely. But I kept taking her, and it slowly got better. The last few classes (there were eight total) she stayed in the play room the entire time, and when I dropped her off at the very last class, she immediately went in and started playing by herself - she never even looked back to see me leave. I could have just burst I was so proud of her.

Also, Halloween happened:

Yes, we are awesome.

Now, we are getting ready for Christmas, we are eating pork and beans every day so we can save for a house (or at least we will be by the end of every month once we've run out of grocery money), we are staying warm since the snow has come this week and winter is officially here, and Trevor and I are just LOVING our little babies. Grant is so super fun. He loves Cheerios (I think another growth spurt started this week, which means an upcoming pants shortage for him), he loves doing chores, he loves singing ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle. Rachel is ridiculously cute and I love her flawless skin. She is already her own little woman, full of independence and sass. She's wonderful at playing on her own. She loves blueberries (biggest messes of your life), bananas, mandarin oranges, and swipes all her food onto the floor when she's done. 

Most importantly, she took her FIRST STEPS today during church (because she wanted to get into the garbage can I had taken away, of all things). Trevor missed it :( She was standing at the garbage and I took it away. She remained standing on her own, then took four or five little steps over to the garbage. I've been saying for a couple weeks now that she could walk if she tried; she walks all over the house with her walker toy and she's getting really good at standing for long periods of time. I'll be thrilled due to the fact that she gets her socks and the knees of her pants insanely dirty when she's crawling. 

One last update about me: I finally used my spa gift certificate from Carolyn and Bob that was my birthday present last year to get a mud wrap - it was amazing. They put the mud (more like lotion) on your arms, legs and back, put plastic around you, and then a big cocoon sleeping bag thing and let you sleep for twenty minutes. Plus I coupled mine with a massage.... heavenly. Thank you Eclipse Spa. And more thanks to Carolyn and Bob for such a thoughtful birthday gift.

That's all for now. I make no promises as to when I'll be back. Happy Winter!