Busy few weeks.  Kate had a fever two weeks ago and ended up in the ER in the middle of the night followed by a four day stay at Primary's while we waited for blood cultures to confirm the problem.  Bacterial infection.  Her line is okay so that's something.  We took her to sacrament meeting for the first time in 15 months.  It was fun to sit together as a family.  Kate lasted for about 20 minutes.  She loved the music.  She was very loud, though, and Maren was totally embarrassed and told me to take her home.  I unpacked some old clothes of Maren's a while back, including a little silky, floral dress.  Kate loves it and calls it her "I Know" (I guess she thinks it's a little Sleeping Beauty dress and is referring to the song "Once Upon a Dream.")  In the mornings I'll ask, "What do you want to wear today" and she predictably answers, "I Know."  She's still not walking on her own.  A physical therapist comes out every week to work with her, which ends up being 30 mins to solid crying.  I think it's helping though; she's making progress, even if it's slow.  I hope she's walking on her own by her birthday.  She's becoming more of a two year old each day, a feisty personality is surfacing and I think it's only more frustrating for her that she can't get around on her own.

We had parent-teacher conference yesterday, which is always a positive experience.  Glowing report of Maren and she's doing great.  Her reading to really taking off, she's awesome at math and her penmanship is excellent.  I guess I don't need to be told she's an amazing little girl but it's fun to have others discover how wonderful she is.  She put on a magic show the other night...turned a panda bear into a polar bear and an orange into a carrot.  It was awesome!  She's pumped for Halloween, as usual, and is going to be a Box Troll.  More photos to come!

I finished a new, striped quilt for Maren and used a black gingham for binding.  It turned out really darling.  I'm still working on a little knit cardigan for Kate, and will hopefully finish it before she grows out of it.  This will be my first finished knitting project (except for a weird hat I learned on) and I think I love it.  It's seriously taken me a few years to make a simple baby cardigan.  It turns out that knitting is a lot harder than it looks, if you ask me.

Greatest Show on Earth

Can you believe this weather?  It can't last too much longer, but we love it!  We saw the supermoon lunar eclipse Sunday night (Maren prefers "blood moon") and it was amazing.  I finished my first shirt...I used Grainline Studio's Lark Tee pattern.  The shirt was a decent first draft and I even wore it to church.  I used a denim which doesn't have very good drape, so I'm searching for different fabric for number two.

The hospital gave me tickets to the circus last week, and it was pretty exciting.  I took Maren and we got to meet the elephants before the show.  We saw all the amazing tricks...painting, soccer, baseball.  Really cute stuff.  I think I loved the poodle act the best, but the whole thing was pretty amazing.  Kate is fat and happy.  She's almost 27 lbs!  She's still not walking, but she's an amazing bum scooter.    She has a physical therapist coming next week, so I hope we see more progress in the near future.  I'm not going to be able to lug that big girl around much longer.

September

Things are happy and calm around here.  Maren is really getting accustomed to her new schedule.  She brought home a flier for Jr. Drill team and begged me to sign her up.  (I secretly knew she wouldn't like it.)  I stayed for her first practice and could immediately see the misery on her face.  She told me it was "boring" and was all too happy to get home her her rock collection.

Kate is happy, busy and getting into to mischief and messes all day.  I don't think Maren wrote on the walls once when she was a toddler.  Kate does it on a regular basis.  She took a marker to the office wall yesterday.  When we caught her, Maren said, "She just like Elf on the Shelf!"  Kate is still having some problems with her little intestines not wanting to digest, so she's been on TPN and lipids 16 hours a day.  She's been doing well and gaining lots of weight so the docs are letting us taper down to 12 hours, which is huge!  The less time she is hooked to a backpack the better.  Kind of hard for a toddler to move around and learn to walk when connected to tubes all day.  Kate still isn't walking on her own.  She needs someone to hold both hands, but we are seeing some (slow) progress.  Maybe by her second birthday?

Chris finished the picnic table and we ordered some metal chairs in mint from Target.  I made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles this week.  It was easy, but I don't know that I loved them more than egg noodles for a package.  We are also loving this new shrimp and avocado salad.  I used this recipe but simplified.  Lettuce and spinach, avocado, cucumbers, tomotoes and grilled shrimp seasoned with paprika and garlic salt.  Top it off with blue cheese dressing.

Labor Day weekend

Good Labor Day weekend with the whole family happily at home.  Projects underway, including a picnic table and a new quilt.  Chris and I are always trying to squeeze in a little DIY here and there,  taking turns with the kids while one runs out for supplies.  Trying to figure out sewing myself a new shirt, but thinking it might be a flop.  Gonna try the Lark Tee pattern from Grainline Studio.  Hmmm...

Kate had another round of steroids.  The past few rounds have been some of the most miserable days of her life...really awful, icky stuff.  I was prepared for the worst, but it was actually bearable.  Maren has decided she likes school, thank goodness!  I was ready to go in after school last Tuesday and talk to her teacher.  She came out happy as can be, excited that she earned a starburst for bringing her homework back.  I said, "I'm glad you had a good day."  To which she replied, "Not a good day, an OK day."  Whatever.