Cole and I made an early morning run to Wal-Mart to stock up on a bunch of stuff. Included in all of that was a pink sweatsuit for Accalia. She's going as a pink ballerina fairy princess, but her original costume of tights and leotard is just not warm enough for our trick or treating temps of 30-something degrees. So, I came back home, presented Accalia with the sweatsuit, and told her all about how fairy princess's turn into snow princess's when the weather gets cold and their clothes change too. She was extremely excited to get more pink clothing (my mom must just be so happy!), so all is well.

As Cole and I came in the door from the aforementioned shopping trip, Accalia excitedly said, "Look Mama! I can jump rope all by myself!" And indeed she can. I've been helping her jump rope by having her stand in front of me while I man the rope and she jumps when it's time. She doesn't need my assistance anymore, though, and was only too happy to tell me: "I don't need help anymore, Mommy! I can do it myself!" Sniff, sniff.

Oy. An early start to our Halloween. Cole was quite restless throughout the night and was ready to be up around 5 a.m. Mama was not. So now it's nearly two hours later and I'm still not ready to be up.

Cory's staying home from work today. He's still feeling pretty awful. When he went to the doctor yesterday, she didn't even examine him - just looked at his chart and said, "Yup, it's the same thing as before" when Cory was telling her it didn't feel the same. So she prescribed an antibiotic that "should wipe everything out". Then I made an appointment for Cory to go to our chiropractor, who helped Cory feel much better right away. Dr. P. adjusted areas that affect by the prostate and kidneys.

Now Cory's up and I'd better go.

Poor Cory. He came home sick from work and is going to the doctor in about an hour. He thinks it's a kidney infection. He's upstairs resting right now. The kids are in the bathtub. Not sure what we'll do with our day now. We didn't really have anything planned. Kind of aimless today, I suppose.

Finally there's a report out showing that vaccination rates are actually quite high. You'll have to complete the free registration at "Pediatric News" to read this article, but the gist of it is that vaccination rates, except for Hep B, are at 95% or higher, which is what officials were hoping.

As a non-vaccinating parent, I really get sick of hearing the media and officials blame those of us who choose not to vaccinate on all of these outbreaks - whooping cough (pertusis) is the current one. What these same media "professionals" and officials fail to say is that the people who are usually passing on these diseases have been vaccinated. This makes sense, of course, since each vaccination carries with it the little gift of some of that particular virus or bacteria. They also usually fail to tell us that many of the people who acquire the disease during these outbreaks have also been vaccinated previously.

Vaccination is an extremely personal and very, very difficult decision to make, and I would never want to make a parent feel bad about the decision they do make. I just hope that it is a well researched and educated decision. It's a decision we certainly didn't come lightly to and one I still struggle with occasionally. Knowing what I know now about vaccinations and how our bodies function, as well as about the diseases children are vaccinated against and what other treatments are available, I feel that we've made the right choice for our family.

Oh, I found that link thanks to NVIC.

Mouse Trap is a fun game, but it's a pain in the butt to set up and keep set up! That's another one of our Goodwill games (just missing one piece) that Accalia has been playing today.

This morning Accalia and I were talking about the differences between our right and left hands, namely which is which. I showed her which was her left hand - "that's the one that you're holding the banana with" - and went on to say that her left hand is the one she usually uses for writing, coloring, cutting, etc. After a few moments of intense thought, Accalia said, "And my right hand is the one I use to pick my nose and butt!" Ah, my sweet, sweet, uncouth daughter!

We're heading off to storytime in just a little bit. Accalia's quite excited because there will be a Halloween theme. Last night Accalia and Cory carved pumpkins. He had told Accalia they would do it after the season premiere of "24" (priorities, ya know), and Accalia was running in every few minutes to ask if it was time yet. Cory's been enthralled with the Pumpkin Masters carving kits for a few years now, and this year Accalia had her own kids carving kit that included a wooden mallet and colored pegs (think Litebrite only much bigger).

After that, the evening went downhill. It was one of those nights where we were all tired and rather cranky. It was one of those nights when, if your four year old starts crying, instead of feeling concern and compassion you just feel annoyance. Ick. Thankfully today is off to a good start.

Cole slept in a little later today - until almost 6 a.m. Lucy's frantic barking at the newspaper carrier woke him up. I have to figure out a new nighttime diapering system. Cole is turning out to be a very heavy wetter - much heavier than Accalia - and is waking up most mornings leaking. Okay, I realize that I could just get up at some point during the night and change his diaper, but I'm really too lazy to do that on a regular basis. We use prefolds and Bummis Super Whisper Wraps all of the time, and at night I just add a doubler and a flannel strip. I really wish I were one of those people who loves to experiment with diapers and try out all different sorts of combinations. I'm not. I just want a diaper that works and stay up!

Okay, it's off to get us ready for some spooky stories.

Another early morning for Cole and me - a smidgen past 5:30 was our wake up call. I'm getting used to it, though, because it wasn't nearly as difficult for me to get up today as it was the day before and the day before that.

Accalia had dance today and was so excited because she wanted to show her Swan Lake "moves." Lucky for her they were having solo performance time in class so Accalia was able to perform her interpretation for the others. She was also thrilled because today she was the leader. I think that basically involves her being the first in line and leading the other girls from one room to another.

During dance class, Cole and I ran to Wal-Mart so I could price supplies I need to purchase for the Leader Recognition Ceremony I'll be in charge of at Leader Day on November 15.

Right now Cole is napping and Accalia is waiting for me to finish this so we can play Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Games have been her deal lately, and she usually only suggests playing them when Cole is asleep. I think she's figured out it may just be easier to wait to play them rather than risk Cole knocking everything over.

Right now I'm reading "The Culture Clash: A revolutionary new way of understanding the relationship between humans and domestic dogs" by Jean Donaldson. Definitely a must for any dog owner.

Yesterday I was searching for all sorts of sites to download sheet music from since Accalia was begging for different songs and I haven't bought any new music for myself for a long, long time. Lots of good stuff out there! I have a mixture of classical and contemporary pieces to try out now. I even downloaded The Simpson's theme song for Cory's sake. I was really pleased with Lori Line's site. She puts up a new song every month for downloading.

Okay, now to finish up and play a game with Accalia.

Accalia had fun today playing songs on the piano. I printed off a bunch of blank music sheets, and she composed her own melodies. She was very excited to show Cory what she had done when he came home around 6.

I was sitting on the floor with Cole playing with a few Matchbox cars, and I said "Can you make the car go vroom?" Cole then proceed to jump up and down (a skill he's been working on lately). Each time I'd say vroom after that he's jump up and down. Pretty cute, although I have to wonder about his comprehension skills ;)

Tomorrow is the season premiere of the show "24". Cory and I have been hooked on it since the first season two years ago.

With Halloween coming up on Friday, it's definitely put me in the mood for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think we probably traumatized our friends Heather and Jeremy when we showed it to them the first year we were living in this house in Yankton, which was going into our second year of marriage. Hee, hee, hee...

Cole continues his early mornings. Today we were up at 5:30. Either this is just temporary or his sleep needs are changing and I may need to try to keep him up a little later at night so that he sleeps in a bit in the morning. That would definitely be nice.

Accalia can play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the piano! The other day she was playing games here. One of the games is a keyboard that has the notes along with songs in all different colors. She was showing me what she could do, and I said, "Hey, we could do that on the piano." "Cool! Let's!" was Accalia's reply. So this morning I color coded the treble cleft and started transcribing songs to match the colors. Her favorite so far is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Then she requested Old McDonald Had A Farm. Now you can hear her sitting at the piano and saying "Green, green, black, black, pink, pink, black" as she plays the song. I write the names of the notes on the pieces of colored construction paper and explained that to her, but I don't think she really cares :)

Today I was helping Accalia brush her teeth, and I noticed that she had a bunch of red spots all over her gums and her tongue. She hadn't complained about her mouth hurting her, although after I asked she said it did. Then I realized I had seen these same red spots on the bottom of Cole's feet the other night. Cory did a little googling and I called my mom, and we came up with hand, foot and mouth disease, a pretty benign viral ailment of children. We did take the kids to the convenient care clinic, though, because I wasn't sure about the kids being able to go out and have contact with others since it's very contagious. All should be fine, though, when our social calender picks up on Tuesday.

While we were in the clinic waiting room, Accalia and I were looking at the fish in the aquarium. One of the fish was relieving itself, and if you've been around fish you know it seems to take forever and ever. Accalia noticed this, and her advice to the fish was: "It has to wiggle its butt to get the poop out - like this!" Then she went on to demonstrate.

Cory prepared supper - a lovely casserole - and we're just waiting for it to cook. It should be a quiet night around here.

Cole's starting to exhibit the crazy sleep patterns of a newborn. Lovely. This morning he sat up in bed at 3:30 a.m. wide awake. So we were up for an hour or so. Then both Accalia and Cole were wide awake at 6:30 a.m. Accalia woke up saying a prayer of thanksgiving: "I love my mommy. I love my daddy. I love my Cole. I love my Lucy. Amen." I could barely open my eyes at that point, so Cory got up with them and I slept for another couple hours.

Accalia's been complaining on and off all day that she's not feeling good. I'm not sure what's going on, but she's taken a rather lengthy nap this afternoon.

We took the kids for some pre-Halloween festivities at a local assisted living/nursing home. A bunch of the residents line up to hand out candy, and this year they also had a haunted room and a bunch of games and a maze. Accalia loved it. In the haunted room, she was more scared than curious and was looking in and under and at everything to figure out how it was all working.

The mysterious package deliveries continue. Today I received another package from the U.S. Postal Service for Amy Greve. This time there were Priority Mail envelopes, tape, and a bunch of customs labels. I am so confused, and I really hope I find out who ordered all of this one day.

Well, neither Accalia nor Cole much improved their moods today. Hopefully it will be an early night for both! Perhaps Cole's short temper is due to the fact that he's cutting four teeth right now. That would probably make me cranky, too.

Two packages were delivered to me today. One I was expecting. The other still has me scratching my head and really curious about who sent it. I was intrigued right away because the name on the label was Amy Greve. I haven't been Amy Greve for more than six years now, although sometimes my family forgets. The package was also from the U.S. Postal Service. Hmm. So I opened it and discovered a whole stack of Priority Mail boxes ready to be put together and used. Okay, since I've never ordered supplies from the U.S.P.S. and probably wouldn't do so under my maiden name, I called the number on the label to find out about the delivery. The operator told me the order had been mailed in, but that's about it. So now I have all of these ready to use boxes just waiting to be mailed, and I'd really, really like to know who sent them.

My good mood is hanging quite thinnly by a thread right now. Both children have been in rather delicate moods since they woke up. Cole is now nursing down for an early nap, so I'm assuming part of his bad mood was just not enough sleep. Even listening to the latest Barenaked Ladies CD that Cory picked up yesterday while he was in Sioux Falls didn't help. So he must be exhausted! We shall see how it goes with Accalia.

After I put Cole down, I think I shall shower. It's been a couple days, so it's probably a good idea :)

After six years of marriage (8 years of knowing each other and/or dating) and two children, I think it's safe to say that Cory and I are past that lovey dovey newlywed stage. I really do miss it sometimes, but I can't think of anyone I'd rather be with no matter what.

We spent the two summers before we were married living in separate states (he in South Dakota and me back in Minnesota living with my parents). It was awful. It didn't seem as if our visits and phone calls lasted nearly long enough. And this was before either of us had email - imagine that! - otherwise I'm sure we'd have been online every spare second. So we wrote letters to each other every day. Every day. And we saved all of those letters. Sunday was an awful day because there was no mail. Cory put together tapes for me, too. I have a dozen or so compilations of songs he made for me - with commentary :)

Gosh, we almost sound co-dependent, don't we? LOL! That couldn't be further from the truth, though. We just really, really enjoy being together. Good thing for a marriage :)

All of these sappy ramblings have just popped up because I was listening to an Indigo Girls cd while unloading and loading the dishwasher this morning. Cole was my little clingy monkey and laughed and giggled while I held him and we danced. Cory introduced me to their music (now we just need someone to introduce us to them! Jessica, I know you have connections! ;). We danced to "Power of Two" at our wedding dance. We saw them at Lillith Fair just a few days before our wedding. We just really, really like them in case you hadn't picked up on that.

Okay, now I'm losing my train of thought. A fairly common occurance unless both children are asleep. Oh, who am I kidding. I'm getting more and more absent minded with each passing day.

Now it's time to pass along the computer to Accalia.

We went to storytime this morning, where Accalia made a ghost out of a craft stick and tissues. They went outside to see if their ghosts could fly. The kids had fun - always seem to with all of the crafts so far - but I have to wonder just how small their budget is with the typical craft the children's librarian picks.

This afternoon we went to a park to feed the ducks and geese. As we were standing near the pond throwing bits of bread, Accalia turned and ran all the way to the other side of the park to the playground equipment. Cole and I followed shortly after. Accalia was just starting to climb up the ladder to a slide when she saw us coming and jumped down to the ground. "Mom, what are YOU doing here?" she asked quite innocently. I started laughing once I realized she had wanted to play on the equipment by herself. I love those flashes of independence she shows more and more each day.

Accalia's keeps asking to go to the "black park." I wasn't quite sure what she meant, and when I asked she pointed to the wheel of the van and said, "It has one of these that you can swing on." Ah. Okay, now I just have to remember which park has a tire swing. LOL! I think it's one by the lake.

I just love the decade series' on VH1 right now. The commentaries are usually hilarious. It was funny watching "I Love The 70s", but I wasn't familiar with a lot of the things they were talking about. Now that they're running "I Love The 80s", I'm remembering a lot. I was born in 1976, so I was becoming quite aware of the world around me as the 80s progressed. Smurfs, friendship bracelets, scratch 'n sniff stickers, Dukes of Hazzard, etc. etc. So a lot of those things were lame, I'll give you that, but I'm suddenly remembering all of these fads my friends and I went through in elementary school.

Accalia has discovered the humor in mooning us. NO idea where that came from. One day she just pulled down her pants and let the full moom beam upon us. It reminds me so much of my cousin Scott when we were in elementary school. I remember that happening quite a lot during recess.

For Halloween, Accalia is going to be a ballerina princess. She came up with a combination of her ballet clothes and Rapunzel like hat. Of course it all has to be pink, including her hair, nails, makeup, etc. Today we bough pink, glittery spray for her hair, and she wanted it on immediately. She loved it. "I don't like my old hair. I like my new hair!" Tomorrow she'll be heading to storytime with a reddish tint to her locks.

I think the fertility waters are flowing strongly in my group of friends and family. Cory's parents told us over the weekend that his cousin Peggy and her husband, Dalas, are expecting their first in June. Congratulations! We honestly didn't think they were going to have children. They've been married about 8 years, and we always had the impression that they weren't heading in that direction. Such wonderful news!

This afternoon the kids played in the bathtub for a while. They both got out at the same time. While I was drying Cole off with a towel, Accalia insisted on drying herself off with one tissue. Needless to say, she really didn't get very dry. She put a lot of effort into it, though!

Last night while I was reading this blog, I came upon a quote that really fit well with my new frame of mind:

"Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed."
Eileen Caddy

It's been a good day so far. Accalia has been wanting to help me around the house, so we've made chocolate chip cookies and loaded and unloaded the dishwasher. Good stuff.

I was rubbing Cole's gums this afternoon - he was leaning into it like Lucy does when we scratch around her ears - and discovered that he has two upper molars starting to poke through! And I think he's working on a lower incisor or has been for a bit. Poor guy!

I'm feeling really at peace as the day ends. There have been a few things that have been troubling me for a while, but I've resolved them and am feeling fine with these things. I know - very vague - but this isn't something I really want to get into on my blog. I did want everyone to know there's been a shift in my mental state. A good one - just in case Cory starts looking for a therapist for me :)

It hasn't been a terribly exciting weekend around here, which is probably not such a bad thing.

After we went to lunch on Saturday, Cory dropped me and Cole off at the house while he and Accalia continued on with some errands. Since Cole hadn't napped, we figured he'd go down for a nap and then I'd be able to do a little work. Of course he didn't nap, but that was okay.

We all raked up leaves from the front yard so Accalia and Cole could play in a big pile of leaves. Cole and Accalia used their big plastic shovels from Discovery Toys to scoop up the leaves.

Cole is making his requests known in many different ways now. Yesterday, when he wanted to go outside, he picked up my big, clunky sandals and pointed to the door. Then, when he wanted to go for a ride in the stroller, he first brought Lucy's lease to me and then got my shoes and went to the stroller. So that was Lucy's lucky day, too, with an extra walk thanks to Cole.

Today Cory cleaned both our vehicles inside and out. They look quite lovely. Once Cole is awake and (I assume) the Vikings game is over, he's going to take both kids out for a bit. This means I'll have to focus on my session outline, I guess!