October - Minus a few things

So, there are a few things that I will post as their own blog now that I'm getting caught up somewhat, but here is what our month of October looked like for the most part.

At the beginning of the month I snapped this picture of Mckayla as she moved into 2T clothing and started looking more and more big to me.

I know, that's a random place to start, but that's what happens when you follow the order of your pictures...  The next thing to mention was that I had my birthday the beginning of the month.  I was still really struggling with my morning sickness, and wasn't having a fantastic day as a result, but Steve came home and pushed me to get out of my sick funk, so we went to dinner at Applebee's with the girls to celebrate.  We ended up having a fabulous dinner as a family and I was glad he helped urge me out the door that night.  I know it's dark, but this was Mckayla showing off her "hat" over and over at the restaurant.  

That night Steve and I also agreed it was ok to spill the beans about Baby Bennett #3.  I was starting to get laughed at by my boss at work that it wouldn't be a secret much longer - what happens when you work in a swimsuit.  And I have to admit, it was a gift to myself to be open about how terrible I was feeling and why and not try to pretend I was feeling great all the time or just stopped caring bout little things like getting out of sweatpants when I took Ellie to preschool.  We decided to announce by mentioning that it was really strange to be pregnant two birthdays in a row - some people got it, and others not so much.  We had to post our ultrasound the next day to clarify...

We also got a surprise back as when I texted my sister, Jennifer, about the baby, she texted right back.  It seems that our pattern of having our babies together continues, and they just keep getting closer in timing.  She is exactly 3 weeks ahead of me in due date, so this baby should have a new cousin waiting for it when it arrives.

The next big event for October will actually be it's own blog post, and that is that Steve and I decided to take the girls on a weekend vacation.  Starting in October I was working Saturdays to help out with a gap at the pool, and wouldn't have another weekend off till Thanksgiving, at which point we knew it wouldn't be great traveling weather and we'd already be traveling a lot to visit family.  By the time we got back to traveling weather after the holidays, we figured I would be very pregnant, so we took the opportunity to take a mini vacation from the 11th through the 13th.  More on that later.

On the 16th, our growing Mckayla girl decided that "hat" wasn't enough for her anymore, and added "touch" to her vocabulary.  Soon after she would say "dance" although that word seems to have disappeared a few weeks later.  Don't worry, she still likes to dance, she just doesn't say so anymore...

(Completely unrelated picture that I love of Mckayla enjoying Ellie's Rody.)

Also on the 16th, Aunt Jennifer and her children Wyatt and Aubrey and Aunt Julie all came down for the day.  It was fun to have the cousins play together, even if I was awful and just enjoyed the time talking with my sisters, made food for way more people than I was used to, and felt nauseous all day instead of taking pictures.  Well, I did grab a few snapshots, but not of cousins playing.  Instead, I took the amazing pictures of Mckayla being hilarious and making faces at the camera after wearing her chili instead of eating it for dinner.  She had recently decided she would only eat things she could feed herself, even if that meant her dumping spoonfuls of food on her lap in the process.

Laughed till I cried after taking this picture.

On the 18th we finally made it out to pick apples for applesauce.  We went back to our favorite local orchard, Ray French, and Ellie had an absolute blast being a "helper".  I couldn't even get clear pictures of her she was moving around so much in excitement.  We picked some 60+ lbs of Fuji apples, and it's a good thing Fuji's keep since they are still in our basement!  I promise I'll get them done....

After that, on the 19th I came home from work and started decorating a cake.  My folks and Aunt Julie came out and celebrated Mckayla's upcoming birthday with us for the day.  I made my first birthday cake flying solo without my mother-in-law's amazing support, and insanely decided to attempt my first ice cream cake as well.  I have admit though, I'm dang proud of how it turned out.  I used to kind of loath this tradition because I was so intimidated by it, but I am slowly growing into some confidence and am always so proud of what we make for the girls' birthdays!

 This was Mckayla's main present from us, and of course we know we'll get lots of use out of it for both girls in years to come, as well as much contention.

 Photographic evidence I was there.

 I love the way our girls love reading, and their Daddy.

 So, this is my very enjoyable progression of Mckayla eating her first cake.  She was not real keen on the cold initially, but then dug in - literally trying to eat the whole piece at once, and eventually made sure to mop up every last morsel she could - and then painted herself in it with tired eye rubs.  It was awesome!

Around this same time, I started to feel increasingly human, so Mckayla and I started going to story time at the library again while Ellie is at preschool one day a week.  She loves her books these days and does really well for the first part of it, even if she is squirmy by the end.

On the 22nd, we celebrated Mckayla's actual birthday, and I have to admit, did a whole lot of nothing for it.  We'd intended to take the girls out for ice cream or something after I got home from work, but I think we went to a school volleyball game to support Steve's school instead, and then the girls were so tired it wasn't worth the trouble.  Someday Mckayla might forgive us for this enormous slight and undeniable resulting emotional scarring.

The girls also got sick the beginning of that week.  Initially everything just seemed like a fever with nothing else and eventually bad cold symptoms, but by Thursday night Ellie was just lying around crying although Mckayla still acted happy as a clam.  When Ellie was still emotional Friday morning and then told me her ear hurt, we went straight to an urgent care clinic to get them both seen.  Turned out they both had bronchitis and Ellie had a double ear infection.  Talk about feeling like mom of the year....  But, they both responded well to their medication, and were much better after a few days.  Ellie was completely over her illness within a few days, but Mckayla seems to like to hold on to congestion for weeks after an illness has passed and follows that pattern currently.

The nice thing was that on Halloween (all Halloween festivities are in another post as well) Mckayla had her one year well check, so we got a follow up with her pediatrician who said all was going well, despite her continuing rasp.  We also found out that she continues to be enormous at 26.6 lbs and 31.75 inches tall.  As usual, the doctor just commented on our daughter's being all Steve's, and showed us that Mckayla is off the charts on height, high on weight (but proportional and fine that way) and that she has her own head circumference curve she's creating off the charts around 98th percentile or so.  Yeah, Ellie is big for her age and Mckayla may make Ellie the runt of our family...

 

Our happy girl on Halloween with a cute little ponytail before heading out to become a sad little pin cushion.

We also had another fun doctor's appointment just a few days earlier.  This one was for Baby 3.  It was just a routine test they do between 12 and 14 weeks now to look for signs of Down-syndrome, which we tested negative for, but the fun part is you get an ultrasound out of the deal.  So here is our best picture of Baby from October 29th.  I could not stop smiling while I watched our baby move its hands and feet and roll over in my belly (in typical Bennett baby fashion, mostly keeping its back to us).

Oh, and we are officially on countdown to December 19th, when we find out if Baby brings us to 3 wonderful little girls, or starts Steve's antics with a son.  We are EXCITED!