Fall!

Is it Fall already! When I had Gwen I went in to labor when it was summer, and came home when it was Fall. I think I will always feel that way now about the transition from Summer to Fall. Here are the kids with pumpkins from our garden. We did not plant pumpkins, but three productive plants and two mini pumpkin plants all popped up as volunteers. We went today to buy some plants from our winter garden; out with the old and in with the new. We celebrated the kids birthdays last weekend with a ridiculously huge party. But it was amazing. Our circle of friends has grown so much, especially as our friends with babies have more and more babies! We are well into the new school year and actually have a schedule that we keep to since Gwen's class starts at 8:30am M/W/F, and Graham has to be dropped off at 8am (ish) Mondays, my work day in Gwen's class. Parent Participation preschool is much more intense than when she was just 2 years old and it was Mommy and Me class (Graham and I do that Friday's now in the same classroom with the same teacher's aid). Being in a class with as many as 24 4year olds, 8 parent helpers, a teach and an aid is a bit insane. Don't get me wrong, it is very organized with a nice balance of 'choice' time and 'table time' (assigned activities), but the class is just buzzing with energy and I find that exhausting. Since I have gone back to school as well, full time to finish my Masters in Public Administration at NDNU, we have hired a sitter for the nights I have class. We made it almost 4 years without paying anyone to watch the kid(s), and what a luxury we have been missing out on. The sitter arrives at 4pm giving me ample time to finish getting ready, leave early to avoid too much traffic, and have time to catch up on my reading (or rest my eyes) before class. This is a welcome change from this summer when I was late almost every class since Spencer had to rush home from work, ditching a 5pm meeting. And if the kitchen sink is clean, she will wash whatever dishes are on the counter :-) The kids seem to have adjusted well to this new change (though Gwen pointed out the sitter is no Malia), and it has forced us to have a routine since the sitter has to feed the kids and get them ready for bed. We now finally have a more reasonable bedtime (usually asleep by 8:30pm or so), and they wake up consistently around 7am (bummer on weekends). Gwen refuses to nap and I have stopped pushing it during the week, so she probably is getting the minimum of sleep needed, but it seems to be working plus or minus a tantrum here and there. Graham continues to wake every few hours to nurse....not sure what to do about that. The kids had their well child visits and Dr. G gave me an earful on how I need sleep- no sh*t. If I knew the secret on how to get Graham to sleep through the night without screaming like he has been left to die, I would of course be a well rested. I suppose I have, literally, made my bed and have to lie on the bottom bunk now with a man-child suckling at my teet, then requesting "Otherside?" I also got a talking to about how big our biggest kid is- off the charts for weight and height Miss Gwen is. Graham is off the charts for height, with his little string bean self hanging out around 75th percentile for weight. We boiled it down to watching portion sizes, cutting down on snacks between meals (not cutting them out, just not more than one), and watching for hidden sugar and calories. While I am happy to not have to buy two types of milk anymore (I am going to start getting 1% for both), I have been second guessing myself and eating habits. Which is really annoying since I have been taking pride in our diet. I will continue to be mindful of excessive sugar, and will not let the kids snack while I am making breakfast/lunch/dinner (Hello! of course they won't be hungry for their meal then), other than that: whatever. I am supposed to be reading my statistics book, so back to the grindstone!