Grandpa Pritchard Visits!

This week Grandpa Pritchard is visiting.  He was visiting some of his cousins in Ohio, so he decided to come visit us too.  I was great having him around.  My parents gift to me for my birthday was money to get a manicure and pedicure, while my Dad watched the little ones.  So, that is what I did.  It was great to have a sitter and get away.  He also babysat while Dennis and I went out to dinner for my birthday Thursday night.  We had an amazing dinner at a restaurant called Recess.

He was supposed to babysit during Evan's field trip Thursday.  I was looking forward to going, but soon after I got to the school they decided to cancel due to the rainy weather.  So, Grandpa watched Leah, while I went ahead and picked up Logan and took him to story time at the book store.

The week wasn't perfect though, Tuesday night I was having a lot of stomach and back pain, I tried to sleep but after a couple hours of not being able to, I woke up Dennis after midnight to tell him I was going to drive myself to the ER.  Long story short, they did a CT scan and discovered I had a very large kidney stone causing a blockage.  Apparently, it had been there a long time!

Wednesday morning, I had to follow up with a urologist.  He did X-rays and said that I would need surgery to remove it.  He also was shocked at how long it had been around and kept saying how tough I was.  Anyway, surgery is set for next Wednesday.  Sadly, that means I won't be able to go Evan's field trip that was also rescheduled for Wednesday.

Storytime with the kiddos...

Daddy and Leah selfies...

Leah 10 Months Old!

Leah is 10 Months old!  I can hardly believe it.

Leah at 10 Months is crawling on her belly.  She is also coming up on her hands and feet occasionally. She seems to be less interested in her own chew toys and instead likes to crawl over to Logan's duplo Lego's .  I think it might be time to pull out some more toys from storage for her.   These days she mostly crawls around the living room and spends a little time in the exersaucer.  She only goes in the swing when she seems bored and fussy and I'm trying to get something done, or if I am showering.  She doesn't seem too interested in the swing these days.

Leah is eating 3 meals a day.  She is pretty much done with baby food, though I do bring it if I need to feed her out, just in case there are no baby friendly foods available.   I also occasionally give her baby food with her oatmeal in the morning.  Otherwise, she is eating what we eat if it is soft enough and lots of fruits and veggies (sweet potatoes, canned veggies, avocado, mango, kiwi, berries, fish, etc).  So far she isn't too picky about food, but she is a noticeably smaller eater than the boys were.  I give her a sippy cup of water with her meals to "practice" drinking out of.  I would like to be all done with bottles by the time she turns 1 and goes to regular milk.   Speaking of milk...she still nurses 4x/day (around 7am, 11am, 3:30pm and 7:30pm).

Leah sleeps from about 7:45-8pm to 7am.  She never wakes up in the middle of the night.  She also is taking 2 naps, usually around 9-11am and 1:30-3:30pm.  That varies though depending on if we are out running errands.  Occasionally, she will miss the morning one and just take a longer, earlier afternoon nap.  She is fairly flexible as far as that is concerned, but still doesn't really nap on the go to well.  She usually waits until she is home in her bed.

Leah is waving bye bye now.  I've also been trying to teach her sign language for "all done", when she is done eating.  Right now it looks like she is waving bye bye.  She also loves to shake her head and say AHHHHH....  Dennis and her like to play a game where he does that and then she copies him.

Well, I guess that is it.  Can't believe we just have a couple more months before she will be 1!

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Family Photo Session.

I have been wanting to get a good family picture done outdoors for years.  Me being the frugal practical person I am, I waited until after our family was complete.  So, I was thrilled when I went to Logan's school's silent auction this past spring and saw that a photo session was one of the prizes.  I was even more thrilled when we won!  So, this weekend we did the photo session.  The kids were well behaved and it went great, here are some of the "teaser" pics she sent us...

Leah's Ears Pierced!

A few highlights from this week...

I took Logan and Leah to the park and we did a picnic...I have so much fun with these two, it will be such a sad day when there are no babies home with me during the day anymore.

We broke out some Redskin gear for the Redskin game, Dennis tried about 10 times to get a pic of the little 2, but they kept moving...

Thursday, Leah got her ears pierced!!!  I didn't have a strong opinion one way or the other about when to get her ears pierced, but I found out our pediatrician does ear piercing and I spoke to a couple people that had done it as babies and that convinced me to go ahead and get it over with.  I'm not gonna lie, I almost called and cancelled the appointment, because I felt so bad causing her pain for something so silly, but I ended up sticking it out.  It was hard though, she cried a lot.  Luckily, she was done crying by the time we left.  I hoping one day she will thank me for getting it done before she will have a memory of it.  And, I am able to easy take care of them at this age and she is too young to yank them out, so so far, we are happy with the decision.

Friday was a beautiful day!  We spent some time outside, Leah loves crawling around on the grass!

Kids Sports...

School is going great so far.  Both boys seem happy with their teachers and are doing well on their tests.  It is nice to be back in a routine around here.

Leah is almost completely off of baby food.  She is eating table food good, but has a much smaller appetite than the boys had.  I will still give her baby food occasionally, especailly if I am having to feed her out on the go, but she mostly feeds herself some small pieces of whatever we are eating or other soft foods.

Love her big smiles when I go in to get her up from nap!

Cheering Evan on...

The boys had soccer and football games this morning, both at 8am.  So, this time I took Evan to football and Dennis took Colin to soccer.  Colin's team won 5-1 and Colin scored a goal!  He played goalie for the first time this season.  He hates playing goalie so he usually tries to get out of it.  Evan did great in his game.  It was close, but they managed to score in the last 35 seconds to win 7-6.  The other team almost scored again, but Evan pulled a flag saving the game!  That was the second time he pulled a flag in the game.  He also had a great run as running back today.  Evan is really getting a hang of the game and really enjoys it too.

Also, last Friday Evan tested for yellow with a green stripe belt in TKD and Tuesday night he was awarded the belt!

Labor Day at Kings Island.

We had no plans for Labor Day this year.  It was nice to have a weekend with no sports going on.  So, we got lots of things done around the house.  I went to the mall to run a few errands and I also took the three boys to the movie to see Planes.  Logan was a mess at the movies.  He was tired and restless and kept talking, but the other two were great.

Then Sunday night we decided we should take the kids to Kings Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati for Labor Day.  It has been a couple years since we have been to an amusement park and the kids had no memory of going to one so it was really fun to drive up to it and hear the kids excitement when they saw the big roller coasters!

Colin tried his very first big roller coaster, The Beast.  He said it was scary at first and he was nervous, but he ended up really liking it.

All the kids had fun and they were all pretty well behaved which made it fun for Dennis and I too!  It was just an all around great family day!