Ahh... Fall!

The leaves! The cool weather! The colors! The incessant coughing! Every year around this time, NB develops this horrible chest-y cough. It seems no matter what we do, we can't get rid of it. We've tried cough and cold stuff and allergy stuff. We've taken her to the doctor to see if it might be asthma since Tim has it, but even that trip proved worthless in defeating the cough. It has gotten to the point where yesterday she was having a bit of difficulty speaking, so back to the doctor we will go. Hopefully we can get her an appointment for this afternoon.

In other news, I feel like a complete jerk. Nadia has been chirping about popcorn at school for the last few weeks, and I had NO IDEA what she was going on about. It is sometimes really difficult to get information out of NB that makes sense, because you have to try to filter it through her 5 year old brain which is jammed packed with shiny things and unicorns and rainbows and happiness from what I can tell. I thought it might have been something that the school supplied for snack every once in awhile, so I tried sending snack money for a week or two. According to NB, all they ever gave for snack was chips and juice boxes and she was tired of eating the same things every day, so we went back to sending her snack from home. Then yesterday, I'm reading over the daily behavior report that they send home DAILY, and I notice in tiny print along the bottom "Kid's may bring popcorn money every Friday" or something along those lines. So now I feel like "jerk mom" because it's probably been there for weeks, and it's only $0.50, and I haven't sent any money, and she really, really wanted that popcorn. I sent the $0.50 today, but I still feel like a jerk. I hate for her to feel left out of things like that, and it's obvious from the way she asked about it before that she did. I apologized for my jerk-ness on the way to school this morning to which NB replied, "It's okay, Mommy!" and all was again right in the world.

In other news, Calvin did the sweetest thing a couple days ago. We had just gotten back from the store and Lena was crying to be fed. I propped her up in the boppy and went into the kitchen to fix her bottle. When I returned to living room, Calvin was crouched by her pillow and alternating between giving her big sloppy kisses and poking her in the face with his sippy cup. It was obvious he was trying to console her as well as share his milk with her. It was so sweet, my heart just melted. However, Lena was not impressed. All she got out of the idea was brother slobber and a face full of milk. I have to admit that sometimes I am surprised by the amount of empathy Calvin feels for her. Whenever she is upset or crying, he will come over to "pet" her and say "Ohhhhhhh."

I finally finished up all of the Halloween costumes and things people had ordered in the last few weeks. I am also all finished with NB's and Lena's costumes. We are doing an Alice in Wonderland theme this year with NB as the Cheshire cat, Lena as the queen of hearts, and Calvin as the Hatter (of course!). All I have left to finish Calvin's costume is to make his bow-tie. I can't wait to get a picture of them.

Other exciting news includes:

We're soon getting a new (not brand new, but new to us) car that will actually fit all of us comfortably and safely!

We're going to a big pumpkin patch this Sunday with my sisters and their kids and possibly some visiting relatives from New Orleans. There will be corn mazes and hay rides and a petting zoo and of course PUNKINS!!

I have a stack of fire wood to burn!

And that about wraps it up.