Two Star Dress

So one or two times a year at Celia's school she has to wear 2 star dress.  This means a uniform.  Quite honestly I am 100% okay with uniforms however it would be nicer if it was an every day event rather then once or twice a year.  Thankfully I had a friend who gave us the skirt, the shirt was $1 on clearance somewhere, lands end sweater was $2, tights were $3 and I forget what the shoes were but you get the picture- it was not all that pricey!!

Celia was about as adorable as you get.  I told her that I wanted to take her on errands with me after school just because I wanted to walk around with a cute little Quaker school girl.  She was not amused. She also thought I was kidding, I was (okay if she said yes I would have found some errands to run).

Her little sister had her Thanksgiving show at the same time as Celia's 2 Star Dress event- it was Grandparents day at Celia's school.  So Celia got to hog Mom Mom for the event.

This is what Audrey looked like for her school's dress code

My little Native American!  Interestingly, I missed Celia's show in the same classroom (still the same amazing teacher!!) 3 years ago because I was giving birth to this little peanut.  Glad I got to see the costume.  

Happy Thanksgiving from our little Culturally Diverse House Hold (you know the Quakers and the Native Americans)

Celia's Thanksgiving

Happy Birthday Audrey!!

Enjoy your day little girl.  

Oh and for comparison, Last year around this time.

Three years ago today I was awaiting this little bundle.  She was busy stressing me out even before she arrived, little did I know!!!  Going late when you are pregnant is not fun, especially when your first came early.

I remember that she gave us nearly 2 weeks of thinking that she was the perfect, peaceful little baby and then bam she was insane.  I do not miss her 1st year of life, really I don't and I say that lovingly.  Actually I don't miss it for her either, she was absolutely miserable.  Nothing could calm her and little did we know that she was likely in a lot of pain a good bit of time from her reflux.  She has had (has) an ATTITUDE.

I will have to say though that Audrey in general has changed.  She certainly has her opinions but she likes to please others and is very well behaved 80% of the time.  In the morning, she is abusive to us.  Okay, she is typically kind to me, but the rest of the household gets abused.  Until she has some food in her, she can not be "wooked at" or talked to.  Celia gets yelled at almost everyday by her in the morning and Celia does enjoy provoking the situation.

At school, I am told she is the perfect child.  She is so well behaved and so sweet.  It always makes me laugh.  But I do believe it.  When I take her most places, especially new places she is great.  I can take her to doctor's appointments, meetings, etc and she will typically entertain her self and is great.  She is getting a little less shy lately which has complicated things because she is a bit more bold about talking. So I think my time bringing her to appointments is ending- why would I ever expect a 3 year old to behave at something like that anyhow!!

She still loves going for long walks in the BOB but that has not happened lately but she has not stopped asking so I am assuming she will still be great for me when I can walk for exercise again.  She also loves the outdoors and she loves to run outdoors.  We go outside frequently on my days off and I just let her run.  I don't even think that Pete knows she likes to do that, she just likes to run, run, run.  Audrey just finished up a session of Soccer shots at school and had a great time.  Another session starts in January and I think we will sign her up again!  Actually I will have to say, I love that program, they are great with the kids!

Child Safety

Celia has taken child safety to a whole new level

Seriously though, if you want an easy entertainment for the day, drag the car seats into the house.  Audrey and I played car for over an hour and then she played in it for 30 min by herself.  We are transferring the seat back to Pete's car, that is how it ended up in the house.

Monkey bars

Celia has been frustrated by the monkey bars for awhile.  Until today!

Way to go Celia!

Organizing and misc update

So I started writing about my pursuit to get the house organized and then I stopped updating. In between that was my knee injury which is still hurt, but much, much better. I did not tear my meniscus but I do have some things wrong with the knee. So I am in PT and per the PT's strong suggestion, I am going for a second opinion on Tuesday. I am typically an optimistic person but quite honestly I think this is going to be a complicated recovery. There is no clear cut answer as to what is going on with my knee and so it is going to be experimentation of physical therapy and altering my exercise routine. My knee is still swollen and I am still on a prescription anti-inflammatory. My xray showed a previous fracture of the knee (weird as I can not recall ever fracturing my knee) and the MRI revealed a patella tilt and avascular necrosis. The orthopedist thought that he saw part of my cartilage was broken off. As you can see, a lot going on with that left knee! The good news is that my regular doctor went off the reports with me and the avascular necrosis appears to be old and not progressing (something that the original orthopedist did not share).  I know not a whole lot of people read my blog but if anyone out there has info on avn of the knee, please sure as I know it is not all that common.  I do feel odd when I go to PT, as clearly there are people who need PT more then me and who are not functioning with normally daily activities and I feel sort of guilty.  I get around fine, but having been very active and athletic for so many years, I can not imagine that stopping. Although I am resigning myself to the fact that running just may not be an option for me.

So I am slowly moving through areas of the house trying to organize and sort through things.  Last Monday I tried to tackle parts of the kitchen and the pantry.  I have resolved myself to the fact that it will be a big process, sort through, try a system, reevaluate.  One of the biggest things I did was to cut the amount of tupperware I have in half.   My Mom and Pete constantly complained that they could not find the lids to match the tupperware so I tried to keep only the containers that matched the same lids (same lids by size, I do have different sizes).  So far I have not missed the extra tupperware containers.  I also slimmed down my cookbooks yet again.  Does anyone use cookbooks anymore??  I do use my crockpot ladies cookbooks frequently and I think i will keep them.  But the rest, I either know the recipes or I can easily looking them up and prop the iPad up to follow the recipe.

I am not sure where my next organization area is going to be, likely still digging deep into kitchen cabinets.  I am just trying to evaluate and really think hard as to if I really use this item or love it, if I hesitate at all then usually that means no and it goes into the donate pile.

I leave you with some Celia pictures

This was pre- hair cut, the frizz is slightly contained now.

Her hair has a mind of it's own.  But I sat in back of 

3 sisters with curly blonde hair in 4th and 6th grade, very similar to Celia's and I had a glimpse of her hair in a few years.  

I have many years of frizz to try to contain.

Her new way to go down the slide.

You can not see it that well but check out this pinterest- 

the skirt was made out of my old t-shirt!

It took my 15 minutes to make and it is super soft and she loves it.

I love that she loves it.

Oh and I am sure it is on pinterest somewhere but it was my own idea.