End of October and we're finally back!

Where have the last couple of months gone? Getting ready for Halloween next week already? The summer flew by way too fast, and we virtually had no nice Autumn. Seems like we went straight from family vacation in swimsuits to building Alison's first snowman in snowsuits in a matter of days.

In all honesty, I haven't posted lately because I discovered Facebook. I have a tendency to post updates and photos on FB but forget about my poor lil' blog. For those of you who are also FB friends, please forgive the duplication of photos and info.

Vacation photos should really come before snowman photos but this silly site won't let me move my snowman photo and the kids' naptime is ticking away as I type, so this will have to do. Alison wanted to "see winter" when we had a snowy week in October. So we bundled up during Christopher's naptime and headed out to make a snowman. It was a lot of fun and she didn't want to come inside.

Now back to August and September: Summer vacation up north was wonderful. The kids both did very well staying in the "cabin house" as Ali called it. Alison loved the beach and beautiful, shallow, clear lake. She also loved riding in the boat with Daddy. Christopher had a cold for a good portion of vacation but was still a trooper and managed to have fun.

Back at home, Alison and Christopher started ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class in September at the school down the block. We have class every Tuesday morning and the kids love it. And I love it because it gives me a little Tuesday-morning-break away from the kiddos. (After about 30 minutes of together playtime, the parents leave for our own little class next door.) The kids probably need a break away from their mom, as well. I have also joined the St. Paul All City Advisory Council for ECFE. We meet once a month to help plan fundraising, awareness, legislative lobbying, etc. for ECFE. It's good for this stay-at-home mom to have something to be involved in once a while. Plus the kids get to come to the meeting site with me and childcare is provided for them. Yes, I brought my kids somewhere where I didn't know who who would be watching them and left them for two hours. (Even though I was right down the hall). A HUGE step for this overprotective mama bear, but it was good for everyone. Turns out one of the women watching the kids was one of our regular ECFE teachers so it was good to see a familiar face.

Lastly, we started potty training five days ago. Alison decided on Saturday that she wanted to wear her big girl underwear, so away we went. We've had a few accidents here and there but she's really giving it the ol' college try and is doing quite well. I'll be a happy mama when I can proudly proclaim that I have only ONE child in diapers!