The Rest of November.

November has been filled with sports.  We took the girls to the last BYU home football game of the season.  It was cold and wet.

Reagan refused to wear a hat.

She was more concerned with catching snowflakes on her tongue.

 She was soaked by the end of the game.  We all were, actually.

Our neighbors, the Stevenson's went with us to the game.  So, we were all cold together.  We only lasted until halftime.
Then we packed up, and headed in to SLC to eat.  Nick had been craving R&R BBQ.
If you haven't tried that restaurant, you should.  The best BBQ, west of the Mississippi!

There's been more basketball too.
Elsa acts so excited about it, and she tells people that she plays basketball.  But when game time comes around, she suddenly hates it.
At least, in this picture, she's attempting to do one of the drills.

 But most of the time, she looks like this:

She pouts if she doesn't always get the basketball.
We have some work to do when it comes to teaching that girl about being a good sport, and playing on a team.

Reagan had a Thanksgiving meal at school.  It was the kindergartener's first introduction to cafeteria dining, and school lunch.
I went down to help out, and was curious to observe how Reagan would do?
I had figured that I'd send her with lunch from home every day, when she is in school full-day; this experience cemented that decision.

She ate a few spoonfuls of peas, but wouldn't touch the turkey, mashed potatoes, milk or even (gasp!) donut.

 I'm honestly shocked that she put her pilgrim hat on.  But, I'll take it.
 In other "Reagan News", she has her first appointment with an occupational therapist this Monday, and I have a meeting with the psychologist on Thursday, to get a full report.
I am chomping at the bit to get started on helping her!
Figuring out what's going on with her has been a relief.  But it hasn't stopped any of the problems.  School has been particularly trying.
I have been looking forward to the Thanksgiving break, probably more than Reagan has!  I only had to worry about how she was behaving at school, two days this week; rather than 5!
Bring on the help!  I can't wait for her (and me!) to learn coping skills.

I mentioned that we turned Cohen's crib in to a toddler bed.  He likes it.  Just not sleeping in it, apparently.
Every night we have to move him, back on to the mattress.  And at nap time, he has been sleeping on the floor.  I'm not really sure what the solution is, to get him to fall asleep in his bed?  But it sure is entertaining to go in each night to see where he has fallen asleep:

 Cohen and Elsa love the camera feature on my phone.
The first picture, is one that Elsa took of Cohen.  And the second one is a "Cohen Selfie".  If he weren't smiling in it, I'd swear he was doing a Blair Witch impression.  Gotta love the gross runny nose.

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving.  Yesterday, my Mom and I ran to Whole Paycheck Foods.  And since we still had time, we went to Trader Joe's too.  I should have switched the order in which we went.  I was totally kicking myself for spending so much money at Whole Foods, when I could have purchased everything on my list for half the price at Trader Joe's!  Old habits die hard.  I've always done my Thanksgiving shopping at Whole Foods.  I didn't even think about going to Trader Joe's.
Next year.... It'll be Trader Joe's.  The End.

Spelling Relief: SPD.

This post will be all words.  And heads-up: more than anything it's going to be like a personal journal entry.  It's going to be long.
I need to put all of the stuff that is in my head on to paper/blog.

Reagan has always been a difficult child.
I love her dearly.
But man alive! has she kept me on my toes.

Reagan was a fussy baby.  I was an ignorant new Mom.  I used to hold her and bounce while I walked, up and down the little hallway in our 1 bedroom apartment, in Lake Forest Park, WA.  When Reagan was six weeks old, I remember that I had been trying to comfort my inconsolable newborn for several hours.  My knees were hurting from bouncing so much, and I had the thought, "I have to give this baby up for adoption.  I cannot do this!".
I hate admitting that now.  And I am sure that postpartum had a lot to do with it.  But it was a rough time.

Fast Forward to when Reagan was 2 years old.  Nick and I went out to dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We took Reagan with us, and she threw, yet another, of her epic temper tantrums.  We brought her home, and were at total losses about how to discipline her.  I remember tearfully telling Nick that, "Reagan sucked all of the enjoyment out of my life".

When I sent Reagan to pre-school I purposely paid the tuition on a month-to-month basis, because I was scared to death that the teacher was going to tell me that she couldn't handle Reagan anymore, and that I would need to send her somewhere else.  I didn't want to be "out" several months' worth of tuition.
Jolynne Porter, at Start Smart Preschool was a Godsend.
She not only worked with Reagan, but she loved her too.

Reagan has been a trial.  But at the same time, I love her so fiercely!  And I would give my life to protect her.
She has brought joy to my life as well.  I am amazed at her intelligence, I love watching her learn.  And I think she is such a pretty little girl.  The first thing I fell in love with, in the hospital with Reagan, was her lips.  They are so full, and beautiful.

But I have always wondered if there was something "different" about her?

As Elsa has gotten older I have become more concerned, because I see the differences in development between her and Reagan.
Reagan always hit her milestones, ahead of schedule, actually.  But my questions had more to do with her behavior.  I honestly felt like some connections in her brain were not being made.

In the spring of 2013 I felt like Reagan was the best she had ever been.
I remember sitting in Relief Society, at church.  The lesson was on trials.  I wasn't paying a ton of attention to the teacher, I was being internal.  I thought. "the only real trials I have had in my life have been 100% self-inflicted.  I've fumbled my way through them because I've taken personal responsibility for my actions, and recognized that I need to pay penance for my poor choices.  I wonder what it would be like if Heavenly Father sent me a trial that wasn't brought on by my own faults?".  The moment I had that thought, I remembered a talk by Elder Eyering, in which he spoke about a time when he asked God for more trials.  And immediately, I wanted to reach up and literally grab my prior thought out of the air, before it could reach God.  I totally wanted to take it back.
Too Late.

Shortly after all of this, we went to California and vacationed with the Sims'.  Reagan went from being only mildly-concerning; to acting like a monster.
Things continued this way through most of the summer.
Nick and I tried "upping" our discipline, with her. 
It didn't work.

And then, it was time for Kindergarten.
I did a post about Reagan's first few weeks in Kindergarten.  It was so hard.
I kept hoping the situation would improve, but it never did.

Home life wasn't much better.
I would take the kids to do fun things, and Reagan would scream like a banshee when it was time to leave.
She was pulling the same antics when I'd pick her up from school.
Neither Nick, nor I; enjoyed picking her up from school on a daily basis.  It was a common scene for one of the two of us to be seen carrying a screaming/crying Reagan to the car from the school grounds.  It was embarrassing, and aggravating.
It was to the point that I refused to take all three kids anywhere by myself, because I knew Reagan would act-out; and I was so tired of feeling judged by other people.
It was the reason that I didn't take my kids to the trunk-or-treat that was sponsored by my church's youth group.  Nick had to work the night it was scheduled.  So, I opted to stay home with the kids.

It was wearing on me to hear bad reports about Reagan's behavior at school day in, and day out.  I would literally keep my head down, and grab Reagan's hand; hoping to get out of the melee of children leaving school, with as much anonymity as possible.
The gym teacher has sent Reagan back from P.E. class every week.

Never, in a million years, did I dream that my child would be the worst kid in the class.

I will say, that even through all of this, there have been tender mercies.
I'm grateful that I have a husband to share the load with.
That my Mom has taken Reagan off my hands for a few hours on the days that have been particularly rough.
And, I don't know what I'd do without my friends; Stephanie, and Kelli.
They are two people that have given me a shoulder to cry on.  Both of them are so non-judgemental.  I've felt comfortable enough to do things with them, outside of the house, because I know they won't raise an eyebrow when they see me dealing with Reagan.

I have been at a loss.  Completely anxiety-ridden.

I have had no idea about how to help Reagan be successful?
Not to mention, the mommy-guilt I feel over neglecting Elsa and Cohen, because most of my time and energy has been spent on Reagan.

I called my wonderful pediatrician.  He suggested I take Reagan to a psychologist for an evaluation.
I made an appointment.  But that appointment was a month away.
In the meantime, Dr. Swensen prescribed a low dose of adderall for Reagan.
Nick and my Mom were really opposed to this.  They're both medical professionals.

But I insisted that we give it a shot.
My own impressions were: that it seemed to help Reagan at school.  But at home, she started acting very violently.

At my lowest point in all of this, I had no idea what to do?  I hate feeling like I am at a loss.  I was talking to one of the parents that has a child in Reagan's class.  I brought the topic up, so her opinion wasn't unsolicited.  She said that she thought that I ought to pull Reagan out of school, and wait a year to send her.  She also said that I shouldn't automatically assume that: because Nick and I are intelligent, that our children would be as well.
I tried to explain to her that I felt very strongly that Reagan's problem had nothing to do with immaturity, or her smarts (or lack thereof, like the Mom was insinuating).  But I left the conversation feeling more dejected than ever.

On Oct. 28th I met with the psychologist.  Dr. Tristyn Teel.  She had been practicing in Seattle (love that!); and had recently moved to SLC to join Dr. Sam Goldstein's practice.
Immediately, I felt like she was a good fit.
Some of the highlights of our conversation were:
I told her that my biggest fear was that she'd tell me nothing was wrong with Reagan.  She said that there was definitely something going on with Reagan, and that it had nothing to do with poor parenting.
Oh, how I needed to hear that!

I also told her that we'd always been placing blame on other things, as to why Reagan acted the way she did.  I always wondered if it was because I hadn't fed her enough before she went to school, or elsewhere?  Nick's big thing was to blame media.  That Reagan played on the iPad too much.
Dr. Teel said that People Magazine has demonized parents that let their kids watch TV, etc...  She said that she's probably one of the only psychologists out there that's attitude is: "Do what gets you through the day"!

At that point I was hearing the hallelujah chorus in the background.

Dr. Teel told me to take Reagan off of the adderall.  So, Nick liked her too :)
The first day off of the adderall was the most difficult day Reagan has ever had at school.  But the following two days were good.
I'm still not sure what to think about that medication?

Also, I probably ought to clarify what, precisely constitutes Reagan a bad day for Reagan, at school.  Reagan has a very difficult time concentrating on the task that has been put in front of her.  Her fine motor skills are pretty poor.  She has always hated coloring, and still hates it.  She is getting better at writing her name, but it's not great.  The same thing goes for cutting paper with scissors.

The most disruptive thing Reagan does in class is have an emotional outburst.
She will cry and WAIL, and with great intensity.
There have been days where her crying fits have lasted two hours.  Heaven help her saint of a kindergarten teacher!

After the intake appointment with Dr. Teel, I had to wait two weeks before I could get Reagan in for her full evaluation.

In the meantime, they did the Primary Children's program during worship service at our church.
Most parents look forward to this.  I was dreading it.
I was worried about how Reagan would do?

Reagan wanted me to walk her up to the front, with all of the other kids.  I handed her off to her teacher.
She didn't sit very still.
She kept getting out of her seat, and touching different things around her.

There is a young family that moved in with their parents (while they are having a house built), and they are living two houses away from us.  I don't know the Mom so well.  But her little boy sits across from Reagan in Kindergarten, and he is very sweet to Reagan.
Anyway, this Mom motioned for Reagan to come sit on her lap.
Reagan went over, and laid down in that Mom's lap.  And Cami (the Mom) let her.  I was surprised, and very touched.
When it came time for Reagan to say her part, she said: "My name is...."
When she paused, the congregation laughed.
Reagan always thinks people are laughing at her expense.  Not that they are chuckling about how cute she is.
She didn't finish speaking.
And she didn't sit back down with the teacher. 
Instead, she came back to sit with Nick and me.

Keep in mind, I was PMS'ing at the time....  But when Reagan got back to me, I started crying.
I wished I had a "normal" child.  That would behave appropriately in public, and would participate with all of the other kids.  It was hard to see children 12-18 months younger than Reagan sitting nicely in their seats, and singing the songs; when Reagan wasn't.
Strangely enough, we could hardly keep Elsa in her seat.   She wanted to be with the big kids, so much.  She'll participate next year, and I am sure she will do splendidly.
One of the ladies in the congregation saw my emotions, and she came and gave me a hug.  She has a grandson with special needs.  She was also Reagan's nursery teacher, and she's always given me such praise, she told me that Reagan is with our family for a reason.  Again, tender mercies.

We finally made it to the evaluation day!
It's a 6 hour evaluation.  Dr. Teel split it up over the space of 3 days.  Reagan went for 3, 2-hour sessions.

The first thing Dr. Teel did was an IQ test.
Reagan scored very high.  Dr. Teel said that Reagan is very bright.  Take that! Doubting Thomases!
She also said that children that are highly intelligent don't usually get diagnosed until later, because they use their intelligence to overcompensate in the areas where they are lacking.  She said that is probably why my pediatrician wasn't able to diagnose Reagan.  It was no fault of his own.

She asked Reagan a lot of questions.
One, in particular,was: "What makes you happy?".
Reagan answered: "Dogs.  And when my Daddy tickles me".

I really hoped Dr. Teel wouldn't tell me to buy Reagan a dog!

It was very interesting to watch.  Certainly educational.
I have a very limited realm of knowledge in the psychological world.  I figured Reagan either had Autism/Aspgergers, or ADHD.

At the end of day 3, Dr. Teel told me Reagan has the most extreme case of Sensory Processing Disorder (when it comes to seeking touch), that she has ever seen come through her office!
Reagan also has SPD aversion to sound, and smell.  It's possible to have both seeking and aversions in SPD at the same time.

Dr. Teel is going to have a full-report available for me on Dec. 5th.  It will include a letter to the school.  I will finally have some direction!  And I'll know what I can ask for, to help Reagan be successful.

The SPD may not be the only thing plaguing Reagan.  Dr. Teel said she would have to look at all of the test results, and do more evaluations.  But the SPD is certainly major.
The down side, is that Dr. Teel doesn't treat SPD.  I have to take Reagan to an Occupational Therapist for that.  I spent HOURS yesterday, trying to find one.  Our health care system is so broken.

So, I don't have the entire picture to work with, yet.
But, for the first time in Reagan's life, things are making sense, and I have a bit of direction!

With the SPD that Reagan experiences, her brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes through her senses.

One article that I read was very informative.  It said:
Many children with sensory processing disorder start out as fussy babies who become anxious as they grow older. These kids often don't handle change well. They may frequently throw tantrums or have meltdowns.


SPD explains so much about Reagan.  When Reagan was 2-3 years old she used to eat all sorts of non-food items: Sand, crayons, paper.  I thought it was PICA, but it turns out that it was the SPD.  She was exploring the textures of those items by putting them in her mouth.
Reagan's Kindergarten teacher said that Reagan frequently puts her fingers in her mouth, and uses her "spit" to paint on her desk.  Again, SPD.  Not immaturity.
Dr. Teel said that the reason Reagan has such a hard time staying on task, at school, is because her SPD overrides her desire to do school work.  Reagan has a stronger urge to get out of her seat and touch/explore all of the things around her.
It's why she has such a hard time at sit-down restaurants.

When another neighborhood Mom took Reagan and several other girls to the park a few weeks ago, the Mom reported back to me that Reagan went immediately to the sand pile at the park, and played there the entire time.  That she had no interest in playing with the other girls.
I was thinking it was a sign of Aspergers.  But no.  It was the SPD.  She had a strong pull toward the sand, and wanted to explore it's texture.  Fortunately, she doesn't eat it anymore.

It's also why she loves water.
And why she cried/acted like she dying- last weekend, when I used the lawn mower to suck up all of the leaves in our yard, rather than letting her play in them.
It's the reason she is still so attached to a particular brand of sippy cup.  Fill it with milk, and let her drink it.  She'll be immediately calmed.

I don't have all of the answers.
And I don't intend to allow her to use the SPD as a crutch.  I need to be taught new way to discipline her.  She isn't going to be able to get away with anything and everything, just because she has this disorder.
But I do think she needs to be cut a little slack.
This certainly sheds new light on everything.
Is my little girl different?  Yes.
But I love her that much more, because of it.
The sense of relief I have at this partial diagnosis is palpable.
We may all make it through this trial, after all.

November So Far:

We've been very fortunate to have unseasonably warm weather.
There have been a few cool days.  But I think that, as of today, we have seen the last of the beautiful weather!  I am really trying to prepare myself for living though another cold and snowy winter, and not going crazy.  It may mean that I just find a way to endure.  Because I don't think there will ever be a day that I will be able to say I enjoy winter.

Elsa, prefers a warmer clime, as well.  She and I talk about moving to St. George.  But I don't think I could ever get Nick to head that direction.  It's puzzling, because he says St. George is too hot.  And yet, this is the man who spent 2.5 years living on the equator, while he was on an LDS mission?!

Anyway.... Elsa will be able to smile through winter because it means she gets to wear hats.  That girl loves hats:

Reagan was invited to the birthday party of a cute girl in her class!  Thankfully, I don't think there is a "mean girl" among this little group:

I signed Elsa up for basketball with the Kaysville Rec program.  Yes.  They let 3 year olds play basketball.  And it is HILARIOUS!

I think Elsa is the only girl on the team.  Last week, in the middle of a "game", Elsa wanted another boy to pass her the ball.  When he didn't pass to her, she sat down in the middle of the court, and folded her arms, and refused to play.
I thought it was awesome, and funny.

I'll openly admit that I've been struggling with my life more lately, than I think I ever have.  There have been several external factors that have been making my life difficult lately.  But the past two weeks there have been three things that have been making me feel particularly disgusting.  It's been a "perfect storm" of problems that make me feel gross.
Around Halloween I came down with a cold.  And I couldn't get rid of it!  That horrendous cold made me miserable for two and a half weeks!

When we were in Seattle, I was so proud of myself.  I never missed a day of running!  I ran on the treadmill at the hotel.
When we got home, I was looking forward to running outdoors again.  I don't know what happened while we were in Seattle, but when we got back my right hip was hurting when I ran.
I'd managed to run through all of my previous injuries, so I figured I'd get over the hip pain eventually too.
But it just got worse.
And soon it wasn't only hurting when I ran.  It was hurting all of the time.
I went to my Doctor.  She said she thought it was bursitis, gave me Naproxen, and sent me to an orthopedics doctor.
He said he thought it was bursitis too, and gave me orders for Physical Therapy.  Even after I told him that there was no way I'd be able to do PT 3 times a week, for 3 weeks.  What a waste of time, and money.  So frustrating!  Since I'm not a drug-seeker, I'm having a hard time figuring out why I ever go to the doctor in the first place?!

It was all very discouraging.  Add to the equation the fact that I was PMS'ing; so the skin on my face was acne-ridden, and oily, and I felt more wasted, than usual.

Life was not good.

I decided to take an entire week off of running.  In hopes, that my hip would feel better, and that I'd be able to "hit it hard" in the week and a half that I'll have before the Turkey Leg 5K in Farmington.  I also purchased a new pair of running shoes: Saucony Omni 12's.
Today, is day 4 of no running, and it has been the pits!
I feel like a blob.

At the beginning of October, a pair of jeans I had ordered, arrived.  They were Calvin Klein skinny jeans, in a size 8.  They were too big!
So, I exchanged them for a size 6, and they fit!
Granted, they were stretchy material.  But I cannot remember the last time I wore a size 6 anything?!  Jr. High School, maybe?

Since my running has suffered in the past three weeks, so has my weight.  No more size 6 jeans.
I had been complaining that I wasn't loosing any more weight, and couldn't get the lb's down past 150.

Now, I'm longing for the days of having my weight hanging out at 150.
My hip has got to get better!

Cohen Turns 2.

Gah!
Will I be able to survive having a 2 year old, for the third time?  I don't know?!

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to have toilet paper in my bathroom that hasn't already been unrolled multiple times?
Or, if I will ever see the day when the pots and pans will remain in the cupboard, where I put them?

Last night, there were just enough eggs to make french toast for dinner.  Of course, Cohen reached up on to the counter and pulled the entire egg mixture down on to himself, when no one was looking.  I undressed him while Nick cleaned up the mess.
The first thing that boy did was run in to the dining room, climb up on the table, and start swinging the chandelier back-and-forth (one of his favorite pastimes, if I forget to push all of the chairs in around the table).  I took him down from the table, and ran next door to see if one of my neighbors would let me borrow some eggs?
When I got home, I found Cohen drawing all over his body, with a pen.
Dinner was saved.  Wendi was kind enough to gift me with eggs.  But my heavens!  What will I do with that child of mine?

On the flip-side; since he is my last baby, I don't want him to grow up.
He reverted back to waking up multiple times a night, and screaming in his bed, until someone brought him something to drink.
This boy has been the worst sleeper of my kids.
Anyway, I asked the pediatrician about it, and he suggested letting Cohen stay up a little later at night, and putting him in a toddler bed.

Sidenote: by the age of two, both girls were already sleeping in twin-size beds.  I had to move Elsa to a twin-size bed when she was 14 months old, since Cohen was arriving.
But I'll be honest.  I wanted to keep baby Cohen, and the thought of putting him in a bigger bed had never crossed my mind.

Begrudgingly, I let Nick turn the crib in to a toddler bed.
I also started keeping Cohen up until 7:45PM.
What do you know?  It did the trick.

I guess I don't have a baby anymore.  I have a little boy.  And a handsome little boy, at that:

The week leading up to Cohen's birthday had been busy.  I was suffering from a cold, and was exhausted.
The kids stayed up late on Halloween night. We were all dragging on Friday.
We decided to have a relaxing night.  We ate dinner, and sacked out in the basement family room to watch the latest episodes of Avatar: The Legend of Korra.
About an hour in, Cohen started wandering around.  He walked over to me, and started coughing/gagging.  I put my hand up to his mouth, and he threw up on my hand.  There were staples in the throw-up!

I looked in to his mouth, and saw more staples in the back.  I didn't react very calmly.  I started screaming at Nick to get Cohen's mouth open.  That he had staples in his mouth.  For the record, he had fished them out of a box of office supplies that I keep on the desk downstairs.

Anyway, by the time Nick got Cohen's mouth open, the staples were gone.

Nick called Poison Control.  They told us to take Cohen to an instacare or ER.
We ran the girls to my parents house (LOVE having them so close!).
I called the Bountiful instacare, to let them know we were coming.  They asked me not to bring Cohen to them, because all they could do was x-ray him.  They couldn't do anything about getting the staples out, if they needed to be removed.

We ended up driving to Primary Children's Medical Center.
We did a lot of waiting.
Cohen's X-rays finally came back.  We could see 7 staples in the top part of his intestines:

Great.
A lot of people were chuckling over Cohen's predicament.  Apparently, they've seen kids swallow anything and everything.
Cohen's doctor said that they only two things they worry about are the button batteries, and multiple magnets.  Both of those things need to be surgically removed.

Since none of Cohen's staples had lodged themselves in his airway, the doctor wasn't too worried.
He told us to give Cohen Miralax, and let the staples "pass" naturally.  And he told me I didn't need to search Cohen's diaper to make sure that they came through OK.

I told the doctor that I was worried one of the staples might pierce Cohen's intestine, or something?!

I guess there wasn't a high-risk of that happening.
And they discharged us.
It made for another late night.

The following day, November 2nd, was Cohen's birthday.

Nick handles lack of sleep a lot better than I do.  He can function normally on 6 hours of sleep.  I don't know how he does it?!
It was a good thing that he had energy the next day, because I was dragging.

We took Cohen to the Hill Air Force Base Museum.  Cohen loved being able to run around, and see the airplanes.

We left the girls at home with a babysitter.  So that Cohen could have one-on-one time with Mom and Dad.
We had lunch at the Burger Bar, in Roy.  It's yummy.

In the evening, we invited both of our families over for Cohen's birthday party.  We took advantage of one of the last nice days of weather that we'll have, and we grilled outside.
I bought a pumpkin-caramel-pecan cake.  Delicious!
We got one good picture from the party.  Here it is:

Cohen was my surprise baby.  But these days, I couldn't imagine my life without him!  I love my little buddy.

Halloween 2013

Halloween was relatively uneventful this year.  We skipped the neighborhood trunk-or-treat (more on that in another post).

So really, the kids wore their costumes only once this year.  On the holiday itself.

I started the day off by helping out with the Halloween party at Elsa's preschool.  We made witch hat treats out of fudge stripe cookies, and Hershey's kisses.  We played Halloween BINGO.  And we did a craft.
Elsa wanted to be a monkey for Halloween this year.  And I may have had a little influence in that choice, considering that I purchased a monkey costume on clearance last year for $1.97.  Thank you, Elsa, for always being cooperative, and cheerful about it too!

Pretty much, the day after Halloween last year; Reagan declared that she wanted to be a Pink T-Rex for Halloween in 2013.  She never wavered from that desire.  So, over the summer, I found a cheap-o pink T-Rex costume on eBay, from a seller out of China.  The costume only came in adult sizes.  The model wearing the costume in a picture was a petite Asian girl, so I figured that I'd be safe ordering Reagan an adult size small.

The costume showed up, and it was the perfect size for her height; but it needed a few alterations around the waist.  

My sewing machine needs to have the tension adjusted.  I don't know when I'll get around to having it fixed???

So, I opted to take the costume up to a neighbor friend, and I asked her to do a quick alteration job.

She called me a few days later.  Very apologetic.  She said that she had been talking on the phone when she was using the serger on Reagan's costume, and that she had accidentally cut a hole in the back of the costume. 

I may have mentioned how little I care for Halloween...  :)

I told my neighbor not to worry too much about it.  Sew up the hole.  I'm sure it will be fine.

But Shanel (neighbor friend) is a perfectionist.

She showed up at my house the following week with an amazing pink T-Rex costume that she had sewn from scratch.

It was awesome!  Reagan loved it: 

 For Cohen's costume, I found a pair of Superman PJ's on clearance last year.  Easy enough. He was Superman.

In the evening I put a Cosmo the Cougar fleece costume on over the Superman PJ's, and sent Cohen out in to the cold night, to trick-or-treat.  He had two costumes.

Since we have lived in this house, there has only been one Halloween when we have had a large amount of trick-or-treaters come by, and that was the year when it was pouring rain.

In the past year they have built a lot of new houses near us.  I was hopeful that we'd see a lot of kids this year.
I bought a box of Halloween candy that had 300 pieces.
The day of, I was considering going out and buying more.  I was really worried about having enough candy!

In the end, I think I answered the door a grand total of 15 times.  Granted, there were usually several kids at the door each time.  But we had a ridiculous amount of candy left over at the end of the night.
Sigh.
And guess who ate a lot of it?  Really, all of us.  But I had my fair share.
Yep.  I'm definitely not Halloween's biggest fan.

Seattle Family Vacation 2014

Over UEA weekend we went to Seattle.

For the most part, it was marvelous!

The entire time we had been planning this trip, we were anticipating that we would drive.  Two weeks before we were scheduled to go, Nick and I decided that flying would be better, so I booked some plane tickets.  It is the last time I will be able to buy only 4 tickets.  Cohen turns two in a few days, and won't be eligible to be a non-ticketed lap child anymore.

I was sad that we wouldn't be driving, because it meant that there'd be no stop in Boise, ID to visit with my dear friend, Lindsay.  But 2 hours on a plane is far more preferable to 12 hours in the car.

I cannot count how many pictures we have of our family in front of Pike's?! It never gets old.

Day 1:  With all of the last-minute changes I made to our mode of travel, I was having a hard-time finding affordable lodging.  Originally, I had booked us a 2 bedroom unit at the Residence Inn, In Bellevue.  But then I found out that the reason the rate was so cheap was because they were replacing the siding on the buildings, and there was going to be considerable: noise, dust, and fumes.  No thanks.

Against my better judgement, I booked us a room at a Springhill Suites in Renton.

The hotel itself, was fine.  I just prefer the area North of Seattle.

Oh, and the hotel was full, the weekend we stayed.  I booked us a room in an extra-large suite.  But they gave us a regular room.  My irritation with this, was compounded by the fact that Nick is Silver Status with Marriott.  We've logged enough stays to earn a little preferential treatment, I think.  Call me a snob.  I don't care.

So, after we arrived, we took the kids to Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  Nick managed to get a picture of Cohen's "mad" face:

Cohen's turning in to full-fledged a 2 year old.  Already, I'm longing for the days when my little boy was sweet.

Reagan particularly loved Rainforest Cafe.  It was one of the best dining experiences we've ever had.  It was OK for her to get up and walk around.  We sat near one of the fish tanks.  It was cool to see the animatronic gorilla's, and elephants.  The waterfall was cool too.

The price of the meal was ridiculous.  But if you can't splurge on vacation, then when can you?

We went back to the hotel, and Nick took the girls swimming.  I took Cohen with me to the store.  I intended to go to Safeway.  But when we got there the parking lot was full of police cars, with their lights flashing.  I decided to try Walmart instead.
It was no less scary.  And I felt like my dislike for the Renton area was beginning to be justified.
Inside Walmart, I had an Asian woman approach me.  She didn't speak English well, but she managed to convey to me that she wanted me to check the date on a bag of bread, to see if it had expired?  After I helped her, I had two more ladies showing me their groceries, wanting to know if anything was expired.
I didn't mind being helpful.
But it was weird.
And when Cohen and I left the store, it was dark.  It was fairly disconcerting to see: not one, but two! private security vehicles/golf carts patrolling the Walmart parking lot.
Needless to say, I never went back to that Walmart.

Day 2: We woke up.  Ate breakfast at the hotel.  And then drove to Eatonville, WA.  In researching activities, I found the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.  I thought the kids would enjoy it.  I was right.
It was fantastic.  All of the animals there were either born in captivity, or suffered from an injury that made it impossible for them to return to the wild.
It was so cool to be able to get that close to them!
See?  Reagan played with this beaver for several minutes:

 This was the raccoon enclosure.  He was playful too.  Just not at the moment that I took the picture.

We went on a Friday morning.  And it wasn't busy at all.  The setting was really neat.  It felt like you were literally, running around in the forest.
We took their 55 minute tram-ride.  It was too long for the kids.  But it was awesome to be able to drive right up next to bighorn sheep, bison, and moose.

It was a bit pricey.  But I'd do it again, in a heartbeat.
Cohen fell asleep in the car, on our way back from NW Trek.
We decided to drive for as long as he slept.  I knew if we went back to the hotel, and tried to put him in a crib, he'd wake up.

We made it all of the way to Snoqualmie Falls.

We walked around at the falls for a while.  It was nice to stretch our legs. 

And... Here are some more pictures from NW Trek.  When blogger arranges things in the wrong order, it is too frustrating to try and re-arrange them.  So, here they are.  More pictures from NW Trek.

That night, there was more swimming at the hotel.  Of course.  And, it was really difficult; but we managed to find a decent place to eat in Renton.  We did take-out from a restaurant called BurgerTown.  Apparently, it's a burger joint owned by a Vietnamese couple.  And let me tell you!  They know how to do burgers.  They were good.  The onion rings were swoon-worthy!  They are the best onion rings I've ever tasted.  Bar none.

Day 3: We went to Pike Place Market.  It has to be one of the places I love most on the planet.  The first thing I did was stop at the Daily Dozen, for donuts.  Then, the kids wanted to take a ride on the pig:

We meandered through the market.  Stopping at all of our favorite places.  3 Girls Bakery, is the best bakery in Pike's.
Reagan and Elsa were fascinated by the statue guy.

We always park at the Seattle Art Museum.  It's the most affordable place to park, downtown, on the weekends.
Here are the kids in the underground parking structure.  It was a kodak moment.

We ate our fill at Pike's, and purchased some t-shirts.  Because, despite how I feel deep inside, we are tourists in Seattle, no locals; these days.

Then, we decided to hop on the ferry.  I thought it would be fun to ride the ferry the opposite way, of usual.  I was wrong.

We drove to Edmonds, to take the ferry to Kingston.  We had to wait FOREVER.  The kids hated it.

But they liked the cold ferry ride:  (PS- every day we were in Seattle was overcast.  I told Nick that if we ever moved back, it would probably take me an entire year to get used to to the fog again). 

And: a random picture of the kids watching cheese being made at Beecher's, from earlier in the day when we were at Pike's.  I hate you blogger.

That night, our friends: the McDaniel's came over to our hotel.  We all went swimming.  I didn't get pictures!  Too bad.

Day 4:  My very best friend, Kris picked me up and we went to breakfast at The Barking Frog.  This gal never leads me astray when it comes to worthwhile food!  I had their Challah French Toast, and it was scrumptious!
It was so good to see her.  We talked, and laughed for hours.
Then, we met up with Nick, and the kids at St. Edward's park. 

You have to pay $10 to go to St. Edward's now.  I think that is so dumb!  The playground is cool.  But not THAT cool.  We may have to find a new place to go when we are in Seattle.

So, I never would have anticipated that "Angel Elsa" would have been the most difficult child, of our three, on this vacation.  That girl was hell on wheels!  There was a lot of tantrums, selective deafness, and running away; on her part!
Also, she went from never having any sort of bathroom "accident", to acting like she had forgotten that she was potty trained!  It was a nightmare.
At the park, she told me that she had wet her pants again.  But when I went to change her pants, I  discovered that it was WAY more than just pee-pee.  And, we'll leave it at that.

By this point, she had used up all of the clean underwear I had packed her.  I put her in a diaper.  And I told Nick that we needed to stop somewhere and buy her some more panties.
We figured we'd head over to University Village Mall, because, heaven knows, that I wasn't going anywhere near the Renton Walmart again... U-Village has always been a fun place.
I took Elsa in to the GAP, to get her underwear.
Holy pretentiousness!  A 6 pack of little-girl panties was $24!
Just when I thought I was going to have to take one for the team, and pay that much for undies.... I spied a 6 pack of boys underwear, on clearance for $5.97.  I bought them instead, and that is what Elsa wore for the rest of the trip.

In the afternoon, we ate lunch at Duke's Chowder house.  Everyone LOVED their meal.  Except for Reagan.  She insisted that she wanted Salmon!  We ordered it for her, and then she wouldn't eat it.  Nick was happy to finish it for her.
McCormick &; Schmick's has long-been our favorite place.  But they were purchased by a different company, and the food quality has declined.  The sadness we feel over this is inexplicable.
And that's the reason we ate at Duke's instead.  Their seafood is good.

We took the kids to the Ballard Lock's.  It's always a fun, and free thing to do.
I don't remember if we went swimming that night?  But chances are, that we did.

Day 5:  Our flight home wasn't until 6PM.  So, we went swimming in the morning, before we checked out of the hotel.
Then we took a trip to our old 'hood.  Lake Forest Park.  We went to the Lake Forest Park Town Center.  We had lunch at the Honey Bear Bakery.  The BLTA sandwich was just like I remembered it.  Delicious.
The kids played in the play area.  And I felt acute pangs of homesickness.  I wish we could have stayed.

On our way back to our car, we decided to stop in at a shop that was new to the Town Center.  The Chocolate Man.  The handmade chocolates were $1 apiece.  But they were a bite of true goodness.  I am still craving the strawberry lemonade truffle I sampled.  Add it to the list of places we will frequent on subsequent visits.

We finished things off by going to the Museum of Flight.  Since it was close to the airport.
I don't think the kids liked this, as much as they liked some of our other excursions.

When Elsa snuck under the ropes, and climbed in to the Lunar Rover we knew it was time to leave.  See?  I told you she was a little devil on this trip!

I was sad that there were several old friends we didn't have the chance to visit with, on this trip.
Next time.
Although, I'm not sure when next time will be?  We've been so lucky to be able to make it to Seattle at least once a year, since we moved.  But we already have 3 vacations planned for 2014, and Seattle is not one of them.  We may not make it back to the Emerald City for quite a while.
So, we made the best of it while we were there.

Pumpkin Patch

Oh, Blogger.  Every time I think there is no possible way you could become any more un-user-friendly...

Maybe things will get better when we get a new laptop at Christmastime.  Until then, I'll just continue to grit my teeth.

So, Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays.  In fact, I cannot understand all of the hype it gets?  I think it is dumb.  There.  I've said it.  I am sure a lot of my friends probably think I ought to be tarred and feathered for feeling that way.  Oh well.

I have been just as frustrated, only for a different reason.  People in Utah (and maybe in other places?) do Halloween overkill.  When I've been out driving, Reagan has asked me several times, about when we were going to decorate our yard for Halloween?  You know, since everyone else does it...

Let me tell you right now: we're not.

The only reason my front porch has pumpkins is because we went to a pumpkin patch on a field trip with Elsa's preschool.  The pumpkins were free.

I have no intention of carving them.

As I've done in years past, I will pull out my electric jack-o-lanterns, and put them on my porch.

I'm not a total spoil-sport.  I do pass out candy.

And I let me kids get dressed up.

So, about Elsa's field-trip, that I mentioned:

We went to Pack's pumpkin patch.

This marks the 3rd year that we've been there.

It's great for the pre-school age set.

 Is there anyone that makes better faces than Elsa?  I don't think so!

Nick hauled Cohen and Elsa around in the cart, while we searched the pumpkin patch for pumpkins.

 Elsa had a great time playing with her pre-school friends, and running around the hay-bale maze.

 Oh yeah, so back to Elsa's array of "faces"...  That child has and endless supply.  When we were in Seattle she was playing with my camera, doing "selfies".  She took nearly 200 of them.  Aren't they beauties?:

I love that girl.  She's hilarious.