Highlights

No, not in my hair. I can't afford the maintenance anymore. Therefore, I have gone back "au naturel". My hair is darker than dark. Even my grandmother says this. Anyway....I noticed I hadn't updated in a week. And, wait, pause, Nate is screaming. Darn bouncer.

Back, temporarily. Anyway. It's been a week, very busy. I don't remember everything. Here are the highlights:

1) James has successfully peed on the potty three times!! This is exciting. Each time, of course, he's been bribed with the promise of a cookie or a toy. Greg says I need to bring down the prizes. So I'm going to create a sticker chart and if he goes 5 times, give him something. Is this reasonable?

2) Nate has tried solids! Oatmeal! With warm water! I just can't get myself up to pump a few ounces here and there. Maybe when he's eating more than a tablespoon. It is a struggle right now for him to get the swallowing thing, but, he will eagerly open his mouth time and again for spoonfuls of oatmeal. This is exciting. I swore I wouldn't start him until 6 months, but he just seems SO hungry! So I'm going to go very slow, and start solids in earnest in January.

3) Nate rolled over! Yes, it's happened! Yesterday he flipped from his back to his stomach and this back to his back...so he did a little circle. I pray this helps the return to good sleep. I think last night he did a 4 hour stretch. This is good, compared to past weeks.

4) The minivan is still in the shop. This sucks. This is a lowlight. On Thursday when we arrived to get Greg, I had a meltdown from the traffic, rain, and screaming children and messed up schedules. On Friday, the boys and I chose to stay home while Greg took the car to work. I was happy, and got some good exercise pushing the boys, double stroller and groceries to and from Giant. Groceries only on the way home, but still. The walk up I suppose I was pushing 80 pounds. On the way home, easily 100. I had juice boxes, some food, AND a bottle of Scotch for my BIL's Christmas gift. PLUS, it was VERY cold and windy. Poor James got the brunt of it, sitting up front. He learned how to put his hands in his pockets. I learned I can jog very quickly if need be. Nate slept the whole time in a little warm cocoon.

5) We had a very busy week of playgroups and visits and such with friends. I also got out on Thursday night for the moms group cookie exchange. It was a nice time out of the house. I made 92 cookies for the exchange, so did that during the week in addition to taking Greg to and from work.

This weekend has been nice. Friday night our playdate with Elizabeth, Matthew and David turned into pizza and beer/wine with the husbands. Yesterday Nate and I went up to Baltimore for my annual college friends get together. We visited and went to brunch. The drive home was tough with some traffic but I am grateful that Nate must have gotten the memo and slept the entire way home (2 hours because of the traffic). Greg and James kept busy here at home with no car. Today they went to James's last swim lesson and Nate and I got some stuff done. They are home now so I should sign off. This is looking like a semi-busy week but manageable. School two mornings (tomorrow I'm singing carols for James's class and Thursday is the party), Mom and Dad here Tuesday as I have a doctor's appt., MOMS Club party, and just general Christmas prep. I managed to wrap and box up the gifts that need to be mailed this morning. Hopefully I can get everything else done by doing a bit each day. I have a potential cookie exchange on Thursday night as well so would need to make cookies for that if I go. We'll see. I managed to freeze almost all the cookies from last week, although we should bring out a few here and there. Otherwise I'll let them go bad!!

Off to take care of the guys!