So much, so much!!  This week we got the remainder of our vaccinations.  Cole got a shot on Wednesday with the nasal mist as well.  We have a policy here that if you get a shot you get a lollipop.  Works amazing.  So as the nurse is laying him down to stick him in his thigh, I totally distract him with taking the wrapper off the lolli.  Then as the needle is going in, I’m jamming the lolli in his mouth and literally his eyes bugged out for a second and he said “mommy, I love blue lollies”.  No tears.  Did I mention that we didn’t give them any Halloween candy after Halloween?  So I think that a lolli once a year (hopefully not more than that) is okay.  So they decided afterall to give Cole the nasal vaccine for the seasonal flu.  They said the pharmaceutical companies halted production of the shot of seasonal flu to crank out production of the swine flu vaccine.  Since Cole has not had any asthmatic attacks since Nov 08 and we discontinued the pulmicort nebulizer treatments on him as of ~Mar 08, he should be good.  And here we are on Saturday and all is fine.  So when I found out on Wesnesday that they had nasal H1N1 mist I immediately scheduled Paige and Drew for their vaccines on Friday.  The nurse adminstering them said we got the 2 of the last 3 available.  They really got off easy this flu season with no shots.  But they were highly disappointed they didn’t get any lollies!!  I think they might have preferred shots just for the candy.  So to sum up….Paige, Cole, Drew are vaccinated for both seasonal and H1N1;  Owen and Daddy are vaccinated for seasonal flu; and Mommy really needs to get on the ball and get some vaccinations.

Other news:  Owen is cruising everywhere and is much more vocal this week.  He had a few good nights of sleeping ~8 hours straight and we’ve been back to waking up every three hours since.  He popped his top 4 teeth all at once this past week so I’ve been trying to give him some slack because that had to hurt/ still hurts.  I have been trying to let him cry it out a little bit but he is SOOO LOUD it wakes up the whole house.  I’m going to give him one more week of multiple wake-ups in case it’s his teeth and then we’re in for Operation Scream It Out.  Actually, maybe it makes more sense to wait until after Thanksgiving before starting that Operation.  Other news:  the well has run dry.  There is no more breast milk being produced here and I’m returning the pump today.  I have mixed emotions about the whole thing…so I won’t go into too much detail, but I am beating myself up slightly for not making it the 12 months.  On the other hand though, it makes life a lot easier and I have much more flexibility and a tad bit more time in the day.  To sum up Owen:  he’s soooo cute and adorable and easy.  A true blessing. 

My birthday was this past week.  Best birthday ever.  The kids and family and Eric made it awesome.  Another awesome thing that came out of my birthday is my new Cruiser bike.  I have a bike seat that my mom saved from my little brother (?)  (I know she’s a total packrat!!) so hopefully it will work on the back of my bike and isn’t considered unsafe 25 years later.  So I’m superexcited to go cruising with Owen while the kids are in preschool.  That’s my plan.  I’m also registering Owen for Kindermusik one day in Spring.  He’ll be 11 months old when classes start and ~16 months old when classes end which is a great age for appreciating Kindermusik.  It’s going to be weird just having one baby in Kindermusik when I’m used to doing these Mommy and Me classes with three kids!!

Other news:  We had another playdate with one of Paige and Cole’s classmates and baby sister yesterday.  It went great and I think everyone had a good time (except maybe me getting the house in acceptable condition for guests!).  The thing I realized yesterday though is that I have asked three of their classmates on playdates since school started.  We are currently planning their 4th birthday party where we’ll be inviting all their classmates from school.  We have yet to be asked to any playdates or birthday parties from their friends from school.  What’s up??  Are we lepers??  Or are we intimidating because there are four of us and who wants to invite four other kids over to their house?  Is there a way I can politley advertise that I have a mother’s helper who can stay behind with the baby and Drew if need be so we’re less daunting??  And what’s up with the birthday parties?  Recession cut-backs?  People aren’t paying for birthday parties anymore??  Are we not in the cool clique??  Hmmm….maybe 4 years old isn’t when people start having parties.  Maybe friends go to parties at age 5….??

So in other news:  the kids have really got into Spiderman.  It’s a crazy obsession.  They love their Spiderman jammies, undies, shirts…etc.  Christmas will be soooo easy this year.  Spiderman stuff for the boys, princess stuff for Paige.  So strange coincidence…since we’ve been watching Spiderman fight all these bad guys our aggression level has skyrocketed these last couple of weeks.  Paige and Cole have become so aggressive and push, wrestle, and hit each other now.  What??   What is going on??  Actually my little angel Paige is going through another phase right now too which is making life a little challenging.  I know these waves of defiance come and go and we just need to work through them so I’m not phased.  Been there, done that.  Next???

Other news:  the kids are turning four in like 8 weeks.  Wow!!  Yikes!!!  What kind of sick time warp are we in??  So our parks and rec catalog came out for Spring and I was trying to figure out our schedule and I realized they are moving up in their classes because instead of being in the 2-3 age range, they are now in the 4-5 age range.  Less parent participation, but once again they are not going to be together.  Drew will be in the 2-3 and Paige and Cole will be in the 4-5.  Uugg..  Also because Owen is getting so easy and potty training is over for the other three…I was considering cutting back on the hours a tad for our mother’s helper.  We’ll see.  The spring schedule is going to be a mess.  And the funny part is that I’m not going crazy getting them in a lot of classes…it’s just hard to get each of them in their own age appropriate activities.

Okay…spent way too much time writing this.  Life is happening while I’m sitting here on the computer.