Tales from the Elastic Waistland: Life in motion

I haven't had much time to sit down and write much of anything lately. We have been busy enjoying the unseasonably warm fall days and spending time outdoors with the girls. Rick has been busy getting things battened down for the winter months - raking leaves (or rather blowing them to kingdom come with his superpowered leaf blower that he managed to snag at auction awhile ago), putting patio furniture away, building a temporary shelter for his newly-acquired-but-used-and-in-need-of-an-overhaul tractor that he bought for the purpose of regrading and moving dirt around, taking down the window screens and putting them in storage, etc... The usual household stuff that needs to happen in the fall. He also recently found some active termite damage on the outside wall of the garage. So, being the kind of do-it-yerselfer that he is, he did some research and found out how to make his own "witches brew" concoction that will do away with the termites and significantly reduce the liklihood that they will return. Yesterday, he boiled up his anti-termite brew and proceeded to apply it liberally to the affected areas of the garage. The next step in the termite wars will be to remove the oversized bushes on that side of the garage and regrade the area so that the siding can more easily dry out and thus be less inviting to the wood pulp eating little bastards. That will be one of many spring projects.

As for me, I've been busy with my many craft projects (quilting, knitting, baking) as well as general household decluttering. Part of that decluttering has been to pull out warm clothes for the fall/winter for the girls and stow away the warm weather stuff. I've organized the hats/mittens/scarves for winter use and put away the sun hats. And I've been working on cleaning out my own closet of some of my ill-fitting clothing. I'm tired of wearing stuff that is baggy, stretched out and stained. So, I sorted through my closet - I bagged some stuff that was just too old and stained to be any use to anyone else and threw it away and I filled a box with serviceable stuff to donate to my church for their holiday fair this coming weekend (they have a craft room, baked goods area, used books, clothing, and white elephant room among other things). I've been spending way too much time and money of late trying to revamp my wardrobe. But, at least now I have clothes that fit and look halfway decent (I hope!). I was even able to rid my dresser of my nursing clothing and bras! Miss E has been doing well on table food and a few weeks before her birthday I introduced whole milk. She had no reactions and has transitioned very well. In the last week or so I've been encouraging sippy cups or bottles of whole milk to replace nursing. She occasionally asks to nurse (by pulling on my shirt) but I explain that it is "all gone" and the few times I've let her try to nurse I think she has gotten very little so she is getting the hint. We were down to one nursing session a day for a while and now it's been a few days with no nursing so I think I would say that the weaning process is complete - and without any real trauma for either of us. I feel so blessed that I was able to nurse all three of my girls for about a year each (R was 10.5 months, A was actually closer to 19 months, and E was just over a year) and I feel like I gave them a great start. I loved nursing them and will always cherish those snuggly, close moments but I can't really say that I'm sad to see the end of my nursing days. I'm ready to be done! It's a nice feeling to have my body back - albiet a fair bit saggier and with many more stretch marks than I had about 7 years ago when I began my journey as a mom. So, my next big project is to go through all the nursing clothing (and also the maternity stuff that I had not yet found a moment to deal with) and wash it and sort it into a donation box and a consignment box now that my local consignment store is selling maternity and nursing wear.

I've also been getting back on track with my morning walks with my neighbor. Last week I think I made it out for our 4-mile loops through the neighborhood three times. A couple of mornings were misses for me because of a crappy night's sleep. Today starts a new week and I made it out this morning even though I was up at 12:30a with E and awoken again at 4:45 by A who needed an escort to the bathroom. Rick was kind enough to be her escort but then she kept us from really sleeping after that because the poor thing was having a coughing fit. I gave her some meds and the coughing subsided a bit so she could sleep better. Then my alarm went off at about 5:40 and I got up to walk since I hadn't really been asleep at that point anyway. I kept A home today from school and she is still having some bouts of coughing that sound a bit phlegmy but overall she seems okay. I am hoping she has a better night tonight so she can go back to school tomorrow - she was so sad to miss school today.

So, I've been doing a bit more walking these days and so has little Miss E. I can proudly say that she is now a full-fledged walker. She occasionally reverts to crawling when she falls or wants to get somewhere quickly but I'd say she's walking at least 75% of the time. It's fun to see her walking around - she seems so pleased with herself and you gotta love the lumbering frankenstein walk of a newly upright toddler. Here's a video of one of her first real successful forays across the living room (and a game of "take the paci from the baby and make her laugh"). She is much more stable these days, but I thought I'd share footage from those first few days of our newest biped...