1st grade, Dance Class, and where not to practice

Natasha has has some really excited things going on lately. She started 1st grade and is loving it. She loves eating lunch at school, and having recess twice a day.

She also had her first day of dance last week. She is taking a combo class for one hour a week where she is learning tap, jazz, and ballet. It is a really cute class and she loved it.

Unfortunately, she learned the hard way that you shouldn't practice your new dance moves in the shower. She hit the soap dish on the way down and ended up with 14 stitches.

The doctor told her over and over that she was the bravest girl in the hospital. She was a real trooper at the ER, and didn't complain at all while she was getting her stitches. She was given a purple bear by the hospital staff, and mom and dad gave her the choice of anything she wanted for dinner, a hot dog at Sonic, and a hot apple pie at Mcdonalds.

Cassie Craziness

Cassie is a darling girl, and we love having her in our family. She is very different from Natasha, and some days it is easy for me to forget that she is in that very curious 2 year old stage. Here are some recent pictures of what I found when she was quiet for too long.

She got into Natasha's nail polish and painted her doll's face. Amazingly she only got a little on her hands, and none on the white bathroom rug where she was painting!


For some reason, Panda Bear needed to have a bath, or so she told me when I asked why in the world he was in the toilet. We washed him up and cleaned everything in sight.

Jessica turned 30!

As most of you know, I turned 30 on August 10. People kept asking me if turning 30 was going to be hard on me. My response was always, "I have a house, two kids, and a mini-van, I have be 30 for a while already!". It was a nice day, Aaron and the kids pampered me, and we had my family over for a BBQ. Aaron is always very creative and thoughtful with his gifts, but he really pulled out the stops this year. Most of you know that he requested you to send in stories, memories, or pictures related to me. He put them all together in a blog and surprised me with it that night. Thank you for all of your warm, funny, and somewhat embarrasing stories and pictures! It is always funny to see yourself through others eyes. He has included a link to the blog on our main blog, so you can check it out. If any of you haven't had a chance to get yours in and still want to, feel free to e-mail him and he will include them as well.

Update

I know it has been a while since I have done a post, but my last one should give you a little idea as of why. Things are somewhat better on that front. Natasha hasn't woken up at 3:00 since that first day, in fact we had to drag her out of bed this morning at 7:30 so she wouldn't be late for school. She still has about three times her normal energy, and getting her to finally fall asleep at night is a challenge, but it is MUCH better than the first day. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Pray for me!

This isn't the post I was planning on today. I was hoping to post about my birthday, and the wonderful gift my husband gave me, but that isn't working out. We are in the beginning of changing Natasha's medication to hopefully improve some issues, as well as make things easier at school. We are weaning out one and slowly starting on another (all regulated by her doctor, of course). Yesterday was our first full day of change. She was happier it seemed, which was great, and there was certainly an increase in energy, which means VOLUME as well, but nothing that was too terrible. This morning when Aaron got up around 6:00, he found a WIDE awake Natasha on the couch, it appears that she had been up for HOURS based on how many movies she told us she had watched. It is just 9:00 now and she has done more things this morning than she normally does all day. She has thrown a major fit with her father, and then cried to me about it for an hour, taught Cassie how to play tag (remember the volume is up, so now add a screaming 2 year old as well), played on the computer, fought with her sister over a frizbee they are calling a pizza, had a big breakfast, played with every toy in her closet, cleaned all of the toys, made her bed, and is now giving us a quite amazing magic show. My head is spinning and I am exhausted all ready. We might have to slow down this weaning process, but for now, pray for me to have enough energy to get through till quiet time, and enough patience that Natasha will make it that long too!