School has begun

well, like it or not, the school year has started. so far, so good. no real stress yet. :) matthew has certainly enjoyed himself so far which is good. just a little homework thus far... i'm assuming more is to come... yuck.

football started tonight! yeah. gotta love football. gotta love it even more when the redskins look miserable! :) double yeah!!

maia is doing more and more. wow, she seems to be getting 'old' already! i guess knowing her 7 months would bring about a few changes... :) we have a single step in our living room, and she can now go down it easily, in the past 24 hours. before then, she was sitting to go down. then she learned to go to the edge and use the (middle) of the railing to help her get up. then recently, she'd sort of get a running start and kind of run off of the step and her momentum would take her feet away from it before she regained control. well, last night, she took a step, and that was that. just decided to try it and she did. she always goes down with her right leg first so far, but i'm guessing she'll branch out eventually and use her left leg too.

she LOVES raisins. two boxes for a snack are nothing for her. she would eat many more if i let her.

she LOVES cheese. any cheese!! she would eat it all day long if i let her. i don't. depending on other protein she's eaten, i don't serve her any. but since she eats so little other protein (atleast meat...) i often will give cheese if nothing else is cutting it. i do give her other proteins though too to make up for the lack of meat... eggs, cheese, yogurt, cheese, milk, cheese, fish, cheese, shrimp, cheese, lobster, cheese, cheese, milk, cheese, milk, cheese. :) did i tell you, she is just like matthew used to be! she'll gobble down fish, and shrimp and lobster, but turn her nose up at regular kid food. i hate to tell her, but i can't afford lobster every week. (my parents bought the special treat when we visited their house for matthew's birthday!) it was awesome! anyway, there are definitely things she likes, and definitely things she does NOT.

i'm tired after three mornings of the alarm going off at 4:50... i don't have to get up that early, but that gives me quiet time in the morning to myself that i don't get any other time. all summer, that went by the wayside, but i missed the quiet in the house and time to be alone, so with the start of the new year, i started it again. truthfully, i couldn't get up this morning because i stayed up too late watching the RNC, but otherwise, we haven't watched TV the other evenings so that we could wind down more easily. it really helps to be quiet and get more tired, faster, if you turn off the tv, and get off the computer!! of course, tonight i'm online at the moment and watching football, but i can tell i won't last too much longer!!

my parents will be coming up here on saturday. since football season has begun, they will be attending all the ravens home games... with matthew. therefore, at least 8 weekends this fall they will be visiting. on monday, however they are headed to my sisters house to watch her 4 children while they (my sister and her hubby) go out of the country for a week... Good timing, regan!! There are two hurricanes on the way and you are leaving mom and dad with your four kids on you live on the coast of SC! i can just imagine my parents having to evacuate with 4 kids.... it makes me laugh, actually, but not really.

in reality. they have a plan all figured out, so all should be ok. let's just hope, for everyones sake that these hurricanes turn out to sea or fizzle out with no need for evacuation! pray for safe weather and travels for everyone!!

ok, i need to go eat something for dinner. last night i realized i hadn't eaten at about 11 pm, so i had to grab a quick snack to get me through the night. crazy! i don't forget to eat breakfast, i don't forget to eat lunch, but i do often forget to eat dinner. ???? i don't know how or why!!!