Pre-Halloween Fun & A Surprise

The Friday before Halloween Ady had her costume parade at school...

Her teacher (who we ADORE!) dressed up right along with the kiddos...

And then on Friday evening I had some photography sessions. On my way there I broke down crying as I had heard a couple other friends that day mention that their families had surprised them and came into town to watch them run the marathon. My parents and brother had made it very clear they weren't going to be able to make it and I had a little cry.

BUTTTTT... when my sessions were over, guess who was in the parking lot to surprise me!!!!!!! It was easily the best surprise of my entire life.

So we made the most of the weekend carving pumpkins, eating at some yummy restaurants and relaxing before the biggest race of my life that Sunday!

Melissa & Kev

We've been friends with Kevin and Melissa for 12 years now and met them when we lived in Florida for a year. They are awesome and it's NEVER a bad time when we're together. Anyway, they were up in DC for a conference so Derek and I met them for dinner and drinks one night. The next day Melissa and I spent the day shopping and visited the Capitol for a quick stop before going separate ways. Love friends who you see only once or twice a year and nothing ever changes. We always pick right back up where we left off and I love them to death!

Learning To Ride a Bike

Drew's bike was getting a bit small for him so we decided to purchase the next size up and just not even put the training wheels on. 

Smartest. Decision. Ever. We took him up to the high school basketball court and he kicked ASS with learning to ride! With daddy's help he totally picked it up right away and was quite excited about doing it. We've gone up since then and he can make turns and ride awesome. We're working on breaking and getting started but I'm so proud of him! 

Meanwhile we're making Ady ride the balance bike more so she'll be younger than 5.5 when she learns to ride without training wheels. ;)

Cox Farms

Every year I look forward to taking the kiddos to a pumpkin patch for some fall fun. We normally venture to Mapleside Farms in Cleveland but this month we ventured out to Cox Farms now that we're in DC. This place was MASSIVE. I mean, like hundreds of acres with SO much to do. We were used to waiting in line for activities and, don't get me wrong, we had to a bit but not that much at all. There was probably 4 toddler slides, 4+ big kids slides AND a huge slide. Then there was goat feeding, an awesome maze, tons of animals to pet and see and so much more.

We obviously had to get our picture on the yellow brick road.

And do a hayride!

There was even rope swings in which my shy little guy actually did. I was so proud of him and he swung pretty far!

I'd highly recommend this place to anyone in the NOVA area. It was about 30 minutes from us but I would have driven an hour! Plus, cider donuts sooooo duh!

MRTT Fun Run

One of the BEST things I did when we moved to DC was to join the local MRTT chapter. It stands for Moms Run This Town and is a national organization with chapters all over the country. It's full of joggers and runners fast and slow and is an awesome group of girls. Our local one has over 2,000 people and I've made a few friends through it. 

Last weekend they had the Halloween Fun Run where the little ones ran a 1/4th mile run and the big kids went either a 1/2 mile or a full mile. 

My little bunny was up first with her 1/4th mile run and when the gun went off this is what she did. 

If you noticed the girl in red above, that's what we thought she WOULD do.

But nope. Cried the entire run.

Why? NO clue. Thank god for an older kid who had a BLAST! 

I guess we know who will be a runner with mommy someday! :)

Randoms

We ventured to Great Falls the other day and it is absolutely beautiful. If anyone is ever in NOVA you should go see it!

The weather is still amazing here. Like it was 85 degrees a couple weeks ago and is 65+ this weekend!

Ady had a trike-a-thon for her school in which she collected pledges for how far she could scooter around a parking lot. She wouldn't do it so daddy walked by her. My children definitely got daddy's introvert side when it comes to stuff like that. Drew is almost 6 and still terrified to get face painting and Ady is almost 2.5 and hasn't gotten one either.

This is the majority of my running group who is running the marathon together. I love and adore these girls so much.

My girls.

Ady vs The Clothing Rack

A couple weeks ago my friend and I were shopping with our 2 year old girls in Old Navy. I was looking at something on her phone only to see Ady fall in my peripheral next to the clothing rack near her little buddy who was under another one. She stood up and looked just fine but then when she turned to look at her friend, there was blood. Lots of blood. She was balling her head out and kleenex didn't seem to stop the bleeding. We filed an incident report with Old Navy and because she wasn't crying anymore I decided to take her to urgent care just down the road. Upon arrival, the doctor took one look and sent us on to the ER. Thus began my 9.5 hour visit to the ER with a 2 year old. 

We of course had to wait a bit at the ER before seeing the doctor but I could tell immediately that he was on the fence about doing the stitching and recommended we see the plastic surgeon on hand. I said a huge YES right away because seriously, if he was on the fence about doing the repair then NO... you won't touch my baby's face. We had to wait a while for the plastic surgeon to come down but when she did she was absolutely great. She assured me it was a normal gash and that it would heal overtime and gave me tons of information on how to help minimize scarring. BUT, the worst part was that I'd have to hold her down to be sedated again. I'm sorry, all the sickness in the world doesn't compare to holding your child while they go limp in your arms. It's terrible. But whatever it takes for my little worm. 

So then we waited. And waited. And waited for an OR to open up. Thankfully they moved us to a room with a TV for the kids to watch and daddy and Drew brought up the ipad for them to play as well. The issue was that she couldn't eat meaning we couldn't eat in front of her. thankfully Derek gave Drew some snacks before heading over around 5 making holding dinner off until 8 more manageable. 

It was around then that they wheeled her back for the surgery and we waited. Of course she screamed wanting daddy after we made the decision that I would take her back so that was fun.

The surgery took about an hour because she spent a bit of extra time trimming the skin to make it as smooth as possible. We then got to see her in post-OP while we waited for her to wake up. Seeing as this was about 9pm, we decided that Derek would take Drew home while I waited with Ady. He had school the next day and needed to get some sleep and Ady could be recovering for who knows how long.

Finally around 10:30 she started to wake up. They warned me that generally the toddlers wake up screaming and very upset and my angel woke up barely making a peep, even smiling at the nurses. She definitely just wanted to cuddle and I squeezed her up with my entire body. We were discharged around 11:45 and by then she was ready to party and would not go to sleep when we got home. Thankfully daddy rocked her for an hour while an exhausted momma went to bed.

She's been in absolutely NO pain since and we have already had a checked up with the surgeon saying it looked great. It does have to be covered by a steri-strip for a while, then we have to keep silicon on it for months. All of this should help minimize the scar. Although it's terrible that her perfectly plump cheek is where this happened, we are so thankful it didn't get her eye or on a more prominent part of her face. I'm hoping if we do everything we can now that it won't be too noticeable by the time she's in high school.

If you scroll down there is a picture of the gash so you've been warned if you don't like blood!

Navy Game

Our friends here in DC are huge Navy fans. They invited us to a game a few weeks ago and so we spent the day in Annapolis. It was chilly and VERY wet with nonstop rain but at least we got to see the city and field and watch them play for a bit after tailgating under a dry tent!

Bike/Walk to School Day

A few weeks ago Drew had bike/walk to school day. Since biking for a mile would have worn him out, he went on his scooter and I pushed him up some hills. :)

Upon arrival they had a fun field morning full of activities and a visit from the local fire station!

Naps

At the end of August we decided to pull this little one's naps. She had only been taking 20-30 minute naps and was having a very hard time going down at nighttime. It didn't seem to effect her daily life and going to sleep at night became much easier. It's surreal as Drew could still nap 2 hours a day as a 5.5 year old, but all kiddos are different. At night now, we rock her to sleep (I know, it's bad and we plan to do CIO again soon), around 8pm and generally sleeps until 6-7a. I say generally as there have been a few times she wakes up around 5am.

That being said, she still does nap from time to time. She's like her momma and immediately falls asleep in the car if she's sleepy so we do get naps there sometimes. Also, the other day she crawled up onto Mimi's lap and just passed out. The poor thing was exhausted so, of course, we let her sleep for a bit. If kids only realized how amazing naps were and how badly adults wish they could take one daily!!