Fall is in the Air!

Last night I had on a long sleeve shirt and it was glorious! It has been so terribly hot here and to FINALLY have cooler temperatures was wonderful. Today was only a high of about 68 but with bright sunshine. We hit up First Watch early this morning as we usually do and it was only in the low 50's so both the girls were dressed in their sweat suits, socks, and shoes. I could imagine that Aubree was trying to figure out what in the world those things were that were on her feet. I don't even know if she wore socks in Nova Scotia because it was so hot up there too. Duncan got the cleaning bug when we got back from eating and he opened up all the windows and the sliding glass door and declared a "fall cleaning." He worked hard cleaning things that I have to admit have never been cleaned before (like the sliding glass door track) while the girls and I took in some yard sales. We then watched the Patriots game with the cool breeze drifting through the house. It was snowing in Foxboro during the game and it was great to feel like it's really fall. This begins my favorite time of the year - - watching football, cooler weather, pumpkins, falling leaves, and the anticipation that Christmas is right around the corner. Ahhh, good times!

Yesterday we had a very busy day. We went to church and Sabbath School as usual and then from there drove up to Silver Springs for a picnic to celebrate Ron's dad's 90th birthday. We haven't been up in that neck of the woods in a long time so it was a nice drive. The picnic was at a state park and there were probably around 35 people there including half a dozen kids whom Calleigh enjoyed running around with. She bumped her face off the slide pretty badly and got a big red welt on her face but it didn't deter her for long. She did get to enjoy a nice big piece of birthday cake which I'm sure helped! We left in the late afternoon and arrived at the Winter Springs Hometown Harvest festival just before sunset. Calleigh had fallen asleep as soon as we got in the van and was still sleeping when we got there so we let her sleep a little longer and Duncan took a short snooze while I fed Aubree. We had a good time at the festival especially when Calleigh worked on her very first art project. They had a station set up where you could buy a ceramic pumpkin and then the kids can paint it. And paint with gusto she did. I turned my back for a moment to look at Aubree and when I looked back at Calleigh she said "We don't eat paint?" She looked a little suspicious so I asked her if she had eaten some and she said "Yes." I guess she couldn't resist sticking the brush in her mouth. I wiped her tongue off as best I could and I think she was no worse for wear. There was a hay ride there and I would have loved to go for a ride but there was a giant line so we skipped it. We didn't get home until about 8:30 so it was a late night but it was definitely a fun day!

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A big thing that has been going on with us the last week and half is that we've had to find a new tenant for our other townhouse. After two years, our current tenant decided to move on to greener pastures when the lease expires at the end of the month so we began our search a week ago Thursday by placing an ad on Craig's List and Rentals.com. I was somewhat nervous about it since I know that it's a tough market out there with all the second homes people bought and are renting out. So I wasn't sure how quickly this would all go down. We knew it was possible it would take weeks to find someone. Well, God is good! Someone contacted us the very next morning and was very interested. Things didn't end up working out with them for a myriad of reasons but we did find another fellow the next day and I'm happy to report he has just signed a 2-year lease (although we can break it if we were to sell the place). He and his dog are moving in at the beginning of November and he seems like a great guy so we are very happy.

The things that Calleigh has been into the last week have been 1) Eating a banana like a monkey as she calls it(aka, with the peel still on it pulled down) 2) Undressing herself and running around either naked or with her clothes put on all wrong because she does it herself. The other things she's been doing a lot of lately is coming up to me and saying "I love you SOOOO much." Is there anything better to hear? Then the other day I was holding Aubree on my lap and Calleigh came over and hugged her and said "She's my best friend in the whole world and earth." Indeed, she has been very affectionate with Aubree, telling me and Aubree how much she loves her and hugging her a lot. Every morning when I go get Calleigh out of her crib (I'm usually always up first feeding Aubree), she has a big smile when she sees me come in and she'll say "You have Aubree! Oh, let me make a spot." And she'll clear out all her books and dolls in her crib so that there's room for Aubree to lie next to her and she'll spend a few minutes hugging, kissing, and talking to Aubree. I must say that I very rarely, if ever, see signs of jealousy. I keep telling Calleigh that before too long Aubree will be able to talk to her and it will be even more fun. Somehow we got into a discussion on what Calleigh's first word was and I told her "baby." That prompted a whole long discussion about what word she said after "baby." I said "hat." And then she said, "what was the next one?" Every time I said the next word she had said she would ask me what the next one was until I had rattled off like 20 words (which of course, after about the first three words I have no idea what the words were or the order that she said them so I was laughingly making it up).

Aubree is doing well on the eve of her fifth month milestone. However, I have started up on the herbs. I started getting a little paranoid about a week ago when I weighed her and found that she had only gained about 4.5 ounces in a little more than two weeks. That's definitely below what she should be gaining. I don't think it's a real big problem or anything but it's right around the same time as my milk scare with Calleigh so you can't help but think "Do I have enough milk?" Sometimes late in the day she'll get fussy while she's nursing and pull off so I do wonder about it. I had Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle leftover from Calleigh so I started back on them. I try to take three capsules three times a day of each but it seems like I'm always forgetting to take them. Nonetheless, they do seem to be helping in my humble opinion. Not that I've weighed her again but I think she's nursing better late in the day.

I'm going to wrap it up here as I'm very tired. For some strange reason, Aubree woke up this morning at 5:30. She did go back to sleep but I had to go to her room to hang out for a little bit to but the binky back in, etc. I'm going to try and post more often but as I said, this exercise program, which I'm still very much on track with, is taking up a little of my evening time. I guess that's a good thing, right??