Okay, It Is Really Cold Now!

Wow!! It is chilly here! We have been in the 50s all day with strong winds, and it will be near freezing tonight. I guess I will have to bring a few of my plants inside tonight. Mike is always saying that he hates the cold. I keep thinking, "It's is not so bad." I think I am changing my mind, though. Standing out there in the cold wind this afternoon, I was wishing for warmer weather. I know so many of you are calling me a wimp right now, so I will just admit it......"I am a cold weather wimp!!!"

We had a busy weekend. Mike had to go into work Saturday morning. I got the girls out of the house around 9:30am. We ran and picked up a gift card and headed to a birthday party at 10:00am. Rachel and I hung out at the party until 10:45am, and then we went to Harmony Farms for Rachel's riding class. Turns out, a lot of people down here are cold weather wimps. It was a beautiful day, but it was in the low 60s and really windy. Out of about 15 students, only 3 showed up Saturday morning. A neighbor brought Allison and Leah home from the party for me. Rachel and I stopped by a local park on the way home from horseback riding and signed Allison and Leah up for spring soccer. They have never done soccer before, but they are both saying they want to try it. I was hoping I was going to be able to make it through motherhood without having to be a "soccer mom."

Sunday, we went to church. It was over at around 12:30. From there, we headed over to the nearby Catholic church for a Christening. After the Christening, the family invited everyone to the country club for brunch. It was nice and the kids had a good time hanging out with all the other neighborhood kids that were there. We got home from that at about 3:30pm. A little later the same family invited us over to their house to hang out. They had the hot tub going, so the kids were having a good time splashing around. We stayed over there until about 9:00pm. The kids were worn out! Good thing that Monday was a holiday.

Poor Leah.............Dentists don't take off for MLK holiday. She had to get up and go to the dentist yesterday. She had to have another tooth pulled. She had this done not too long ago, so she knew about "THE SHOT!" She was so worked up about having it done that the dentist had to keep taking a break and going on to other patients and coming back to Leah. Leah refused to open her mouth, and the dentist didn't want to be forceful. After an hour of trying to talk Leah into it, I was more than ready force Leah into it, but the dentist kept her cool. She is really nice and did not act like this was annoying her. I know she had to be looking at the time and thinking, "let's just get this over with!" Leah got the shot, finally, and the dentist got the tooth out in a nanosecond. Over an hour of bribing, bargaining, and pleading for a half second procedure.

Leah dutifully put her tooth under her pillow last night. As I was waking her up this morning, it dawned on me that she had probably put the tooth under her pillow. "D!@#$%!!! I forgot all about it!! If letting the kids play out in the rain does not make me a bad mommy, this surely does. This is not the first time this has happened. Actually, it happens with such regularity, that Leah was not too surprised to find her tooth still under her pillow. I hope that I don't forget it again tonight!!

The big girls got their report cards today. Leah got all Os for Outstanding!! Allison got all As and one B. The B was in math. It is her least favorite subject. I am sorry to say that I can't fault her for that. I was never really great in math either. I am very proud of both of them.

Leah minus another baby tooth. These pictures are starting to all look alike, aren't they?

This is a project Leah had to turn in today. She had to make a collection and label it. She decided to do seeds. We rounded up seeds from the kitchen and the neighborhood. When she was done it didn't look half bad.

Brrrrrr!!!!!

Oh my goodness, I hope all of you up there in the frigid North are staying warm!!! Guess Florida did not want to get left out of the cold weather either. Fortunately, for us here in Central Florida, cold means lows in the upper 30s and 40s and highs in the 60s. It was so funny last night watching the local news. Believe it or not, this was big news on the newscast!! Some areas around here were going to get a freeze, but since we are on the coast, we are a little warmer. This is supposed to last for several days. Before it is over, I may end up having to bring in my pineapple plant that I have on my back porch. There won't be any kayaking or playing in the rain for the next week or so! Hope everyone stays warm and safe. Those of you with snow, enjoy it for us!!

I Am A Bad Mommy!

Well, if you can't play in the snow, you might as well play in the rain.........Yesterday afternoon, the girls wanted to go out to play. It was cloudy, but warm. A short while after they went out, it started to rain-nice to see rain, because it has not rained here in a very long time. At first the girls told me that they were playing in garage because it was raining. Not too long after that, I could hear little voices circling the house. I knew they were out there in the rain, but I thought... ....why not. They were having fun. They came in soaked, but no worse for wear. This morning was another story, though. Their shoes got soaked yesterday, so they were still wet this morning. That, as it turns out, was a BIG problem. It appears that Leah only has one pair of shoes that are "comfortable," and now they are wet. We were late getting out of the house because of the shoe crisis!

Kayaking Adventure

Wow! Another week is over. Rachel and I made it to the Down Syndrome Center last Wednesday. After getting up and on the road before dawn, we were both worn out when we got home at 3:00pm. All the staff at the center think she is doing great, and the education specialist really encouraged me to put Rachel in kindergarten this fall. I was thinking about keeping her in preK one more year, but the specialist thinks it would be a good idea to get her into the classroom with "regular" kids and into a more academic setting. I was thinking that since Rachel only speaks in single words (very few that you can actually understand) and does not seem to know her numbers, letter, colors, etc....that I should keep her in preK, but the specialist told me that my thinking should be to put Rachel in the regular classroom with the assistance she needs and go from there. She says that Rachel is very bright, and that I would be doing her a disservice holding her back. I am somewhat excited about the idea because it would put Rachel in the same school with Allison and Leah. The thought also scares me to death, because Rachel just is so tiny and still looks like a toddler. She still has not broken the 30lb mark at 5 years of age. The school district will be doing it's testing in the next couple of months, and we will be meeting in May to plan for next fall. I am trying to psyche myself up for fighting for the best placement for Rachel if I have to.

As the weekend approached, the girls started talking about going to Seaworld. We had thought about going last weekend and didn't, so the girls were ready to try it again this weekend. I finally remembered to check the expiration dates on our Fun Passes, and sure enough, they expired December 31st....thanks for telling me to check on that, Jane. I am so glad that we did not get to Orlando and find that out. We would have had to turn around and come home! That certainly would not have gone over well with the girls, to say the least!

After that realization, Allison decided to start in on the whining. "We never get to do anything...........!" So we decided to go kayaking on Sunday. We have one kayak, but it just seats two, so we rented a second kayak so that all five of us could go and went up to an area called Thousand Islands. It was a neat place. We only saw a little of it because it is a really large area and we had three kids in the boats. "Why does it make a difference with three kids?"you might ask. Well, that would be because the kids want to sit in the boat and eat while the grownups paddle. Actually, Allison is a pretty good little kayaker, but Leah is not into the paddling at all. Rachel loved putting her hand in the water as the kayak cruised along. She did that when she was not eating. She also wanted to sit in my lap while I paddled the kayak. I don't have any idea how many times I clocked her in the head with the paddle. It didn't seem to bother her though, she just kept eating! We got to see some really neat birds and even a manatee. Actually, I am the only one who saw the manatee, and it was for only a brief second as it came up to take a breath. It was interesting kayaking too. For the most part, we were in approximately 6-12 inches-yes, inches-of water!! The tide was really low and it was difficult to find areas that were deep enough to kayak across. After a while of cruising around, I took Rachel's life jacket off. It just seemed silly to make her sweat it out in life jacket while we paddled around in 6 inches of water.

I almost forgot to mention the fun we had when we paddled up a narrow channel. We saw a spider web glistening in the sun and thought it was really pretty....it was an omen, but we missed it! A couple of minutes later, I look up over my head to see bunches of spider webs spanning over the channel, just inches above our heads, and guess what was in all those spider webs?!?! Lots and lots of spiders. I HATE SPIDERS!! Turns out, Leah does too. We could not get out of there fast enough!! It is hard to maneuver a kayak when you cannot raise the paddle tip above your shoulders . Every time I tried to paddle I would hit the spider webs over my head and jostle all those spiders around. I just kept waiting for one to fall on my head.

At some points during the trip we let the girls get out a scout around. The had a great time playing around and looking for interesting things. We will have to go back there sometime. Below are some pictures from the trip.

Last Week of Winter Break

Well, winter break is over. The girls went back to school today. They were none to happy about it. On Sunday the 28th we went to the beach for about an hour. One of the neighborhood girls went with us. I was sure the girls would not get in the water, but they went right in! It is a little chilly, but it didn't even slow them down. As you can see from the pictures, Leah had a lovely time. She is never very excited to go to the beach, and she kept stepping on rocks in the water, so she was grouchy. Rachel loves going to the beach. She does not really care about getting in the water, but she loves to walk up and down the beach, and up and down the beach......and up and down the beach. I try to look for neat shells on our walks, but she is often so fast that I just have to try to keep up with her.

Monday and Tuesday Mike worked all day, so the girls and I just hung out around the house and took down Christmas decorations. Wednesday, Mike took off early and we all headed over to Tampa to help Jane celebrate her birthday. The girls LOVE to go over there to see their cousins!!! We got to Jane's, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and called it a night. We all managed to still be awake at midnight, but it was not because we wanted to be. The girls just get so wound up when they are together!

New Year's Day Jane had to work, so we stayed at her place and watched her girls. We loaded everyone up and headed to the zoo where Jane works. It is really nice and we saw lots of neat stuff. It is also fun to have a connection at the zoo to take you behind the scenes. We got to hand feed monkeys, check out the manatees in the zoo hospital, and watch Jane feed the chimps and orangs. It is too funny to see those great apes recognize Jane and try to get her attention. We ate dinner at Jane's and then headed home, getting home around 11:00pm. The girls were worn out!

Friday Mike was back at work. I kept telling myself that I was going to get some cleaning done around the house, but it never happened. Saturday was Leah's birthday. She turned 7!! We did a little party with cake and presents. At first we planned on going to Seaworld for the afternoon, but Leah decided she wanted to stay home and play with her new stuff-a new Wii game. Later Saturday afternoon, we all went biking to a playground nearby-sort of nearby, it take 45 minutes on bikes to get there, be it is a really nice little ride, and the playground is perfect for Rachel. Sunday after church we went to a nearby park and let the girls play on another playground and then we went on the hiking trails that wind around the park. Allison had a great time because she LOVES that kind of stuff. Rachel thought is was great, because she is so into that walking thing. She was walking and giggling. She was also trying to collect sticks. She managed to carry four, before she reached her limit.

Monday the kids just laid around the house dreading the start of school on Tuesday. This morning we jumped back into our routine! I got the kids to school and ran to a dentist appointment. Tomorrow, Rachel and I will load up before dawn and drive to Jacksonville. It is 150 miles away, we are supposed to be there around 8:00am. We are going to the Down Syndrome Center for a check up. They are a wonderful group of therapists and doctors who work exclusively with children with Down Syndrome. They are a great source of information!! They (PT, OT, ST, education specialist and an MD) will do an assessment of Rachel and mail a report to us in about six weeks to tell us the best thing to do for Rachel at this time. Should be an interesting, but long, day.