Cooler Temperatures!

I think we can officially say we are in Fall.  The temperatures have dropped enough that the heater is on, especially at night.  The leaves seem to be falling faster.  There are so many all over the ground.  The kids have enjoyed finding the different colors and crunching them.  We have found ourselves baking Fall foods like muffins and discussing what else we can make, like pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes.  We do seem to love our food!

Tim's transition from nights wasn't as smooth as other times.  He really struggled to flip his schedule this time.  He was also spending some time in his clinic as well as another sports medicine clinic, so he was really struggling for most of the week.  For the next two weeks he is on a self-directed rotation.  He will be studying x-rays and MRIs to help his as he continues to prepare for a future in sports medicine.  This also means that he will be around for dinner, because he is doing this by himself.  

He also gets weekends off, which is nice for everyone in the family.  He and Hyrum did a project this weekend.  Due to mold issues (which finally seem to be under control...knock on wood) we have two extra plywood boards.  Tim decided that it would be fun to use some of the boards to cut wood with Hyrum.  I think the ultimate goal is to build a bird feeder.  They did the cutting this weekend and will most likely finish it this coming weekend.  Hyrum sure had fun going to Walmart to buy a saw and then helping to cut.

He continues to love his preschool and is pretty independent.  He also continues to love reading and is starting to figure out more complicated words.  He still has a long way to go to be independent, but every step is fun to watch and he gains skill and confidence.  We have had a lot of issues with his VERY strong emotions.  This week we started retraining him with more positive coping strategies.  There has been some pushback, because he is one stubborn kid.  We had a couple of successes and give us hope that in the next few weeks we can help him mellow out a bit.  

Lila's language continues to explode.  It is so nice to be able to understand her and to see her put words together to share her thoughts.  She has stopped practicing her talking so much at night.  She would be be awake for 30+ minutes talking and singing.  She seems to over that phase and falling asleep a little faster.  We were able to spend some time outside at a park this week.  We have been trying to go to the less populated ones and have been lucky that there is only one other family present.  Lila had lots of fun being chased my Tim and then learning to chase him.  

 This week I started working on my list for getting ready for baby.  I have been doing little bits here and there, but with all the mold issues I wasn't able to get much done.  I pretty much have everything ready for the baby, which is a good feeling.  I have plans this coming week to do a little extra cooking and then the cleaning will be the following week.  It's really hard to believe we are so close be having three kids.  I think the kids are getting excited.  Hyrum is sometimes questionable, but with his moods who knows.  He is asking lots of questions and wondering when this is all going to happen.  

We managed to take a fall leaf drive today.  We checked out the Duke forest and discovered they have some walking paths.  We are going to go back to explore at a different time.  Not sure it will happen this year, but it looks promising.  I'll end with a funny Hyrum quote.  We were reading tonight before bed.  Hyrum is usually very focused on the stories, but tonight he was a bit distracted.  "Hey, guess what I just discovered?  My big toe is bigger than my thumb." Very random, but also very true.