Whoa is me

Rachel here. So apparently I really have been overdoing it. :( Yesterday I was washing the windows and putting some screens in our bedroom and began to experience some of the worst pain of my life. I couldn't even walk without wincing. I emailed Bryan, went to pick Reese up from preschool... crying the entire way. Once I got home, Bryan was here, and I was able to call my doctor's office. Before leaving, I looked up all of the symptoms of preterm labor and definitely had a few of them, which caused me even more anguish. After talking to the triage nurse at the office, I was told to lay down on my left side and drink my ass in water pretty much. She said that the doctor on call at the hospital would give me a call. After speaking with her last night and this morning, we've decided that the baby must be laying funny and bearing down on some nerves. I'm still in a lot of pain when I'm on my feet for more than 5ish minutes (allowing me to you know... do nothing), and there was quite a bit of swelling in my perineum area, so I've been told to "take it easy", keep hydrated, and lay down... as much as possible... because Reese and Emma Grace are really into sitting in one spot and staring at me. The baby is SUPER active, I have no lower back pain, no other swelling, and no signs of blood, and no loss of fluid, so in general... there is extreme relief. I hope this works it's way out soon because 7 weeks of this just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me.

Not to mention... there is schtuff to get done! Oy.

Sell THIS house... Bathroom Edition

Rachel here. We got a lot of feedback on the girls' rooms through the blog, email, and Facebook... we have awesome friends... for real. Those two rooms were causing us the most angst I think. To paint the stripes or not to paint the stripes. We decided to go ahead and leave the stripes. If it comes to needing to work into a contract funds for painting... then so be it... I'll pick up a brush. :)

We're feeling pretty confident with the rest of this joint, but I still wanted to share the pix in case someone had some crazy amazing idea and wanted to share. :) We've done/are still doing A LOT of work. Nothing too expensive because of my handy husband/father in law... but just enough to make some updates and make the place look comfy. Our home has 2.5 baths... here are 1.5... I'll share the master along with the master bedroom.

Here is the spare bathroom... aka... Reese and EG's bathroom. Fresh coat of paint, new tile floors, and new faucets. Anyone know the rules for showing a bathroom... shower curtain open or closed????? Yes I seriously just asked that. :)And our downstairs half bath. New faucet and floor.

A rainy Thursday

Happy rainy Thursday! Rachel here. The morning was pretty shot with our baby appointment and running errands, but once the girls got rolling... they were unstoppable. Of course we had to start with applying makeup like harlots. :) The girls love dressing up, and who am I to deny them?
Emma Grace got right to work on her letter e work. She actually followed the lines this go 'round as opposed to just coloring it in. PROGRESS! :) (CoaH)Reese worked on her numbers. (CoaH)The geoboard has become a favorite in the few short days it's been here. I should have bought two because I'm sure we'll have issues one of these days.
Reese worked on her number collages. We only tackled 1-3 today... it was easy peasy for her, but I want to make sure she understands the foundations before we get into anything too crazy. She's already adding 1 digit numbers at Montessori, but at least she's going with the flow and humoring me. :) (CoaH)
I attempted pattern work with EG. We're SO NOT READY, but she enjoyed using glue nonetheless. (CoaH)Reese didn't really enjoy this work much. The idea was to roll playdoh into a long snake and recreate the shapes of the numbers. She couldn't get the snakes quite long enough and wasn't willing to put the effort in. I think she got to number 4ish... it's back in her box for tomorrow... at least the remaining numbers. We'll tackle it together and see where we get. (CoaH)ELEPHANT and elephant letter tile matching. (CoaH)Reese cut out of her cutting book like her life depended on it. She did an AWESOME job. Once she's done coloring them, I'll post... you know... because I'm sure you're dieing to see them. :)Numeral to objects match 1-10. (CoaH)EG played with Reese's work playdoh. I wanted to show her how to roll it into a ball, snake, etc... she just wanted to smoosh it. SO smoosh it we did. :)Em started her uppercase e collage. I busted out the new M&D letter stamps. She didn't get far, so hopefully she'll want to finish up tomorrow. (CoaH)
Writing in the sand. :) While I was cleaning some school stuff out, we stumbled up my color test tubes. Emma Grace poured all the contents out and mixed them up with her rock crayons... and then left the mess. HA! It wasn't long before she realized I was going to make her sort the rock crayons from the tube contents, and then sort the colors. She had no problems with the work except that I'm sure she didn't learn her lesson. :)Here's to tomorrow being Friday! :)

32 wks

Rachel here. Just got home from my 32 week appointment. I'm up 23 lbs. I had protein in my urine sample, but my blood pressure was completely normal. They've sent it off to be cultured... doc is thinking a bladder infection as opposed to preeclampsia... as the only symptom I have is the protein. I should know for sure by Monday (it takes 2-3 days for results, and I'm in right before the weekend) morning if I need antibiotics. Oh the joy. :) I'm extremely sore and achy. I've never been so achy in my life. I'm blaming the fact that I'm "in my 30's". I'm sure it's because it's my 3rd... and then you have Frick and Frack. I'm also overdoing it... flat out. I'm trying to help Bryan as much as I can with this house production, and by evening I feel like I'm dieing. Frankly... it sucks. I pulled weeds in the front yard yesterday, and today I just want to sleep. It may only look like I've swallowed a basketball, but trust me... there is a kicking punching fetus in there causing all kinds of shenanigans. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still too far if you ask me. :)

Next appointment... April 3rd!

Wednesday = SO SMOOTH

Rachel here. We started the morning all eating breakfast... even Tiana. She requested Fruit Loops, but happens to be lactose intolerant... so hers was dry. :)We did our regular morning routine... and without me prompting anyone to do anything... this is how the rest of the day went...

Reese practiced tracing her alphabet before preschool.We hung out at preschool for about 45 minutes, so Emma Grace could try every practical life work known to man. ;) Once returning home, Emma Grace requested we string beads.And then she played My Little Ponies...... and cut wooden fruit.She spotted the geoboard, and after a quick tutorial began creating shapes like it was her job.There was also some preschool picking up, lunch eating, and nap taking. Snack at 3:00 followed by extreme outside playing/weed pulling.We ate dinner, and then something happened. The girls began doing activities in their work boxes. I placed them out for them, and let them do as they wished. I didn't tell them they were there, or what needed to be done when... they just went with the flow and did their own thing. It was awesome. And they were SO PRODUCTIVE. Apparently we work better in the evening. :)

EG did some ant size sorting. (CoaH) I asked her which ant was the biggest, she picked, laid it down... then out of what was left, I asked her which ant was the biggest now? We went through all of them like that until there was only the smallest left. She did awesome. She even did it again later by herself. While her second attempt was not as successful, she tried really hard and was SUPER close to having it down.Em also did her first Kumon sheet from her paste and stick book. It teaches kids how to cut things out and paste them in a particular spot. The beginning is just peeling stickers and placing them where they want to... it's really cute, and she seemed to dig it.Reese worked on her letter sounds. Picture with letter match. (CoaH)
Emma Grace finished her first hand print picture for her alphabet book. It's an alligator (still wet)! HA! I found a whole file of them on Pinterest. So cute.Finished with the 'a' and it's been marked off the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree! (CoaH)I also did Reese's lowercase letter assessment with her. (CoaH) She's been second guessing herself with the g & q... and with the b,d,p,q. I called out a letter, and she would say "I think this is the b, but I'm not sure..." and then she would get it. I told her to mark what she thought was right. It's something we'll still need to continue working on, but she got them all correct.Our first week's worth of work!I also placed some boxes out for Emma Grace's new letter 'e', and Reese will be working on number/shape/color reviews.

Reese had to place the correct number of stickers to represent the numeral. (CoaH)Numeral/word work. (CoaH)Emma Grace working with her sand paper letters, sand box, foam letter formation, and chalk board.
This totally cracked me up. Look at her face!Color by number. (CoaH) She was ALL OVER THIS! I haven't gotten her to finish a coloring project in FOREVER. We went over what each number was and what color to color it. She loved it.
Elephant cutting.We ended with puzzles... shocker. :)Tomorrow I hope to get an art project and a Science experiment in... it's supposed to rain!

Tuesday

Rachel here. I returned from my girls' weekend Sunday... I think it's safe to say we all had a blast. We met another Mommy friend at the outlets and went on a mini shopping spree. Pedicures were had... lots of food was consumed... in fact I made up for the 1 lb gain I had from 2 weeks ago... WITH NO PROBLEM. :) I had a hard time recuperating from the weekend and the time change, so Monday was a free day. I spent the morning finishing up the girls' bedrooms, while Emma Grace kept herself entertained in her room/upstairs. It was really nice.

Today we hopped back on the preschool wagon, but this time I let the girls rule the roost. Here's what they came up with.

Emma Grace worked on putting clothespins on the rim of a container. It was quite hard for her, so she settled on putting magnets on the outside of said container instead. :)We then stringed beads onto pipe cleaners and made little caterpillars. I'm the only one who actually finished, but we worked on them for a good 30-40 minutes.I can't remember what we were talking about, but I asked Reese what 10+10 was... her answer 11. :) So I told her to count both her toes and her fingers... she finished and yelled "20!" She's gotten really good at adding smaller numbers. They've started using the math beads with her at school, so I'm hoping to make some replicas for here at the house.We got dressed... IN SHORTS... and then headed across the street to the park. Reese went down the slide once and ended up with soaked shorts, so we headed back across the street to go on our field trip. I sent Frick and Frack upstairs to change their shorts... and waited... and waited. I went upstairs only to find the girls playing Mr. Potato Head. :)After they finished, we headed to this week's destination... Lowes. I know what you're thinking. That's HARDLY a magnificent field trip. BUT... the weather was beautiful, and the girls are all about some flowers right now, so we meandered around the nursery. The girls wanted a bird bath... I told them if they could lift it into the cart it was theirs. LUCKILY... they are wimps. :)The girls each picked out 2 flowers. Reese got violet Hyacinths and whatever the below flowers are, and Emma Grace got red tulips and the same flowers below.(We also headed to Michael's to buy some birdhouses for the girls to paint, but we didn't get to that yesterday... oh AND lunch at Panera.) We headed back home to paint some pots for our flowers... hopefully we can get those finished and plants transplanted tomorrow for your viewing pleasure.I pulled some weeds while the girls painted, found a worm, and that was the topic of conversation for about 20 minutes... "oh she's sooooooooooooo cute!" "it not a girl... it a boy!" "no Emma... it's a GIRL!"What's a beautiful day outside without riding bikes?EG went down for quiet time, while Reese played with her new geoboard... which is already broken. SERIOUSLY... she played with it for 20 minutes before a damn peg broke. This deserves and email to the company... stat... because homegirl loves her some geoboard play.I hopped in the shower while she played with her Polly Pockets. When I came downstairs, she was working in her workbook.
And then there was computer time.The day ended with snack, dance class, dinner, and a bath. Emma Grace said to me today... "where is my work... I want my work?!" I'm taking a different approach with the work boxes... more to come.