Muledeer, EGA, swimming, booty

It was a big week for Matt. After 6 years of waiting, he finally got to go Mule deer hunting trip in the badlands. He's been pumped about this week and I've dreaded it because while we went off frolicking in the hills, I stayed home and battled guerilla warfare with the kids. I ended up with some support. Grady ended up getting sick and due to me having to go to an event out of town, we had Grandma Michele come. She stayed through the weekend and not only helped me out but ended up helping Matt out when he brought his deer home.

He and his bestie, Brendan went out, something they'd been planning for some time. It took almost three days and practically 59 miles according to the pain in Matt's calves but was pretty happy with what he came back with. When he brought it home E and G were curious but E wasn't interested in all "dat red stuff"/blood from the inside.

The kids are starting to full into a bit of a rhythm at home and with Ains crawling everywhere they're not nearly as impressed with her getting in their stuff. She makes me smile. Her thing right now is to crawl up to the container of blocks, pick one out and then proceed to drag it around for the next hour or two.

Grady is interested in blippi, backpacks, and glasses. He is still very much all about his "baby." We tuck baby in each morning, otherwise, he's insistent that baby goes with to daycare and my worst nightmare is a meltdown at night on baby being left behind at daycare.

Eleanor has been going into "teacher" mode lately. Will read to her animals and instruct and boss them. A natural leader that one. If the shyness in new groups doesn't get her, she'll be fine. She had her last swimming lesson today and I was pleasantly surprised that she passed level 1. I believe all but 1 of the class were taking the class for the 2nd or 3rd time so I was expectant that she take it again.


EER in the bathtub, ALR: Let's get you washed up.
EER rolls over and pops her behind in the air above the water: I'm shaking my booty!
ALR: What did you say?
EER: I'm shaking my booty.
proceeds to bump up and down. ALR laughs.
After bath is dancing around her bedroom in a towel.
MJR: Eleanor, get your jammies.
EER toddler twerks a bit: I'm shaking my booty!
MJR: YOUR WHAT?
EER: My booty!
MJR looks at ALR: Did you teach her that?
ALR: Um, no. How often have you seen me shake my booty?
MJR: Not in the past 6 years. 
ALR: AND when I did, did I brag about it?
MJR: Hm, no.
ALR: I would say that was a little gift from daycare.
MJR: What do we do?
ALR: nothing! She thinks she's funny.
EER continues booty shaking. 

Work trips, Coloring, Elf Baby, Ear Infections

First week of November - the weather has straightened out a bit, the snow has been melted and not returned back for the most part. Matt and I both had business trips the first week. I went to Williston, Matt went to Aberdeen. I'm not sure who had the worst location. We had a CEO roundtable event and I was fortunate enough to call in a friend favor and have Kim, Ainsley's godmother/Matt's mentor, come to speak. The thing that could have made it better was to spend more time visiting and catching up. We don't get to see each other enough so it always feels rushed when we do get a bit of time.


When we got home, we had a bit of a rough time, Ainsley had her first ear infection as well as her second. She also had a touch of RSV - poor button. She had been sleeping wonderfully through the night but since September hit, we rarely have a night where we are only up once, let alone sleep through it. Due to her being sick, we changed our weekend plans. We had talked about going up to Lansford to "celebrate" opening deer with Matt's uncles. I stayed home with Ains and Matt took E and G up there for the day. They had a good time.

I was glad Matt made it home that night as we got snow overnight. The olders went out and shoveled while Ains and I supervised from inside.

E has been so busy lately. She's learning her letter, does a pretty good job counting, and her coloring has been so pointed. She has been gravitating toward arts and creativity lately and I love to support that. She drew a pic of the family this past week and it made me smile. Her
swimming lessons are going well, there has been some bribery with skittles lately so she listens to her teacher BUT she loves to go and it also gives us a chance to talk just her and I on the way there.

G is coming into his own too...he's become my social butterfly. He says good bye to his friends when we leave daycare, he's quick to talk about them, he's likes to play and follow Eleanor, and his new thing is to cheer Ainsy on. His words are coming along and we can catch 80% of things. His sentences and phrases are further and he's understands the power he has with his words. He's recently taken up with his "baby" it's an elf that he got last Christmas but this baby is his favorite at night. We go to bed with baby, get upset if baby gets lost in the night AND in the morning, we tuck baby in so baby is nice and cozy until we go to bed again.

EER: Momma, I went to Grandma's house. Do you know I have two grandmas?
ALR: I do know that. You also have two great-grandmas, Great Grandma Dar and Great Grandma Elaine.
EER: Yeah, how many grandmas do you have?
ALR: I have two - my grandmas are Grandma Dar and Grandma Elaine.
EER: And Dad has two too?
ALR: No, Dad doesn't have any grandmas.
EER: No, he has Grandma Dar and Grandma Elaine. 
ALR: Well, those are mom's but I bet they would both claim him.
EER: I have two grandpas too.
MJR: I'm not sure you got to comprehension level on that one. 

Dinosaur, Fox, Penguin, Monkey

It was Halloween week! As the kids are getting older they are getting the concept and it makes me laugh. Don't get me wrong, when we went trick-or-treating, they are probably more excited about ringing the doorbell AND whose turn it was to ring the doorbell.

They got to wear their Halloween shirts to daycare and then in the afternoon, they put on costumes and we did some trick-or-treating. We hit up my office before heading to Commerce, then Grandma's, Uncle Eric's, and then hitting up the neighborhood before heading home to trick-or-treat Grandma and Grandpa at our house.

E was a dinosaur, Grady was a fox, and Ainsley was a penguin.

The little penguin didn't do door to door, she was pooped and ended up taking a bit of a snoozer. She's officially 8 months old too - it's hard to believe it. We still haven't even doubled our weight yet - or hit 15 pounds.

We also started working on Christmas stuff - I know it's pretty far out but I figure the extra time doesn't hurt me at all. I'm hoping I'm not totally crazy this year.

MJR: Where did all the monkeys go?
GRR: Hiding
MJR: What do you mean hiding?
GRR: Hiding
MJR: Where
GRR points down air vent.
MJR proceeds to look for monkeys
ALR: what's going on here?
GRR: Monkeys hiding
MJR gives a rundown.
ALR holds vent while MJR shines light down duct: I just don't think a monkey could fit down there
MJR: Well, yes, that way they couldn't but if you took the vent out, they'll quite easily.
ALR: Seriously?
GRR: Monkeys hiding.
ALR: thanks grady
Monkey update: We are only down 1 monkey.... 2 were found, not in the vent.