Irene, Please Hang Right

Boy, mother nature really has not liked the Grodacks this month.  First we had to endure a wet and at times, chilly, vacation up in Nova Scotia.  And now, just as I've been looking forward to a wonderful weekend at a hotel on the beach in Palm Coast (north of Daytona), Hurricane Irene comes barreling in.  I've been looking at its path about every two hours for the last few days.  It seems like it's shifting to the east but I'm afraid that while it won't be a direct hit, it's still going to cause a bunch of rain.  I'm trying to stay positive though.  As far as the weekend, Duncan's department is having a beach retreat for all the leaders and their families.  The resort looks really awesome but I'm not crazy about the thought of sitting inside of it all weekend.

As far as what we've been up to...Sabbath was a good day.  Calleigh was in one of her little moods on the way to church and declared that she didn't want to go to her Sabbath School.  Of course, I ignored that and took her right to it after church got out.  They have a memory verse booth that you stop at when you first get in there and Calleigh recited the verse at break neck speed. "For I know there is no God in all the world except in Israel.  2 Kings 5:15."  Practice makes perfect!  As soon as she was done, she raced across the room to tell the teacher she said it all by herself.  I didn't even get a backwards glance so I took that as my queue to leave.  Just as I thought...the talk earlier about not going was all hot air.  Aubree, meanwhile was in one of her clingy moods and made me go up with her for every felt she put on the board, etc.  It's so annoying when she gets like that.

Saturday night we had the cousins over for supper and games.  We hadn't seen Tiffany, Anthony, and Megan since Brady's birth or before it even in the case of Megan.  So it was great to catch up with all of them.  David and Yully regaled us with the tale of their trip home from Nova Scotia which culminated with their finding a stray horse in the middle of the road in Calais, Maine.  The parts before that were pretty humorous too.  After the girls went to bed (and miraculously both fell asleep in like five minutes), we played the name game with the girls against the boys.  Yes, we did have one more player than they did but thanks to the names Sofia Vergara and Zooey Deschanel (the boys couldn't remember the names), the girls were victorious in both games.  I don't think the men took it very well so I'm sure we'll be having another round at some point.  I was contemplating that it's nice having friends that don't have kids because at least they can come over and not worry about needing to get home at a respectable hour.

Sunday morning after First Watch we headed up Forest Lake Academy where they were having a family fun day for the church.  The purpose of the event was to get people signed up for Pathfinders and Adventurers.  Calleigh is now officially an Adventurer.  That's right.  They take 4-year olds . They have a meeting two Wednesdays a month from 6:30 - 8:00.  I told Duncan that he'd probably be the man since having Brady doesn't make it very conducive to my being there.  Allen will be taking Braelyn so I told him that the two of them can sit in the back and gossip.  As far as the event itself, it was loads of fun if not terribly hot.  Picture being outside at midday in Florida in mid August.  Yup, pretty darn hot.  I had sweat dripping down me and that was standing in the shade.  But the girls had a really great time so that's all that matters.  There was this big bouncy house thing that was a water slide.  Calleigh was apprehensive at first but then she ended up going down it like 25 times.  Aubree sat in a tiny baby pool with the twins and seemed perfectly content.  After that, we went over to the big pool and Calleigh swam in that for like an hours.  So I'm thinking, it was like a thousand degrees out, Calleigh was up and down that big bouncy thing, she swam in a pool, yup, she'll definitely take a nap today.  Nope.  No such luck.  Duncan and I were dying to go to sleep but we were out of luck.  After all that activity, we went to Ron & Elaine's for supper and swam some more.  Can't get enough.  This time, I even went in.  I was still hot from the morning.

Italian Ice time

Pure joy!

Yes, even the dads had a good time!

Yesterday we didn't do anything too exciting.  Aubree was down to two binkies (where do they all disappear too??) so we said we would get her a few new ones.  She was thrilled!  She talked about getting new binkies all weekend.  So we went to Walmart yesterday morning and she gleefully picked out a package with a pink and a purple one.  Well, of course we had to clean them and then much to my dismay, she takes them and declares, "Awwww, these are crunchy binkies!" and throws them on the floor.  Remember, crunchy binkies are ones that squeak because they have water in them.  Oops.

Today we went to the story time for the first time in weeks.  It was nice to stock up on some new books.  On our way home, Yolanda called and said that she and Emma were going to stop by for a quick visit.  We haven't seen them in weeks so it was really great to catch up with them, albeit briefly.

The last few nights haven't exactly been the best.  It's at least been nice being back in my bed, although for only a few hours.  Since Brady has been starting out in his Rock 'n Sleeper" (I want to keep him tilted because of his cough), I decided to just put it in our room.  He falls asleep quickly but then every night around 4:00, he wakes up and won't go back to sleep and so I bring him down to the swing.  Sunday night I felt like someone slipped me some caffeine because I couldn't fall asleep.  And then later that night, and even more so last night, Brady woke up as usual and had a big challenge going back to sleep even in his swing (maybe someone slipped him caffeine too).  It's not so much that he cries, because he doesn't, but he thrashes around in the swing and his binky falls out.  So for like 30 or 40 minutes, you're putting the binky back in like every five minutes.  And then the sound on the swing will go off after about 8 minutes and you have to go over and turn that back on.  He finally went to sleep but then an hour later, the cycle started again.  Anyway, I suppose I shouldn't complain since in the scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal.  I'm at least not having to nurse him during these times (he's still lasting until he wakes up at like 7 or 8).  Nonetheless, I know I didn't have this problem with Aubree so it's a little frustrating.

I had been thinking about trying to potty train Aubree but so far we're just focusing on the # 2 portion of it which, happily, has been working.  The reward is two M&M's for both Aubree and Calleigh.  This has motivated Calleigh to basically sit next to Aubree in the bathroom and coach, cheer, etc all in the name of scoring two M&M's for herself.  At least it seems to be working.  That reminds me of the jelly bean and gummy bear from Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Somehow, the tradition now is that every time we leave Ron & Elaine's, the girls get to pick out a jelly bean and gummy bear.  Well, now that Calleigh very rarely naps, Duncan has started taking Calleigh over to the Ron and Elaine's on the weekend.  Usually by the time they get back, Aubree is already up.  The first thing Calleigh does is run over to excitedly to  Aubree, takes out a carefully folded napkin, opens each little portion of it, and retrieves a jelly bean and gummy bear out of it that she brought home for Aubree.  Apparently this was all Calleigh's idea and it just warms my heart!

Have a good rest of the week.  And Irene, please go away!

A friend made this for me as a baby gift.  That bow is made out of diapers.  Isn't that the coolest thing??