The Nelson Narrative

It's the end of the last week before preschool and I wish I could say that we've been living it up but unfortunatley we haven't done much.  The weather has been nice but not quite hot enough to go play in a lake or the splash park.  We've mostly just hung around here and played with our friends a lot.  I guess we still have Tuesday for a last hurrah.  I'm thinking about taking them to the Ballard Locks, but it's a good 45 minutes away, though, so I don't know. Yesterday we did the drop-n-go at Dizzy Bus since I had a Living Social voucher, so I went and browsed in Old Navy then went to Target for some essentials and then I had just a few minutes to browse in TJ Maxx before I had to go pick them up again.  It was still fun, and they of course had fun at Dizzy Bus.  When they are in preschool I will have about 20 minutes more than I had yesterday but I know it's going to go so fast.  I'm probably still going to feel like I can't get...

It's the start of the last week before preschool.  I was trying to decide what fun thing to do (from my list ) when the girls decided they wanted to ride their bikes/scooters (Olivia rode her bike and Kayley rode her scooter) to the library to claim their prize for completing the summer reading program.  Then they of course had to get a cake pop from Starbucks since it was right there.  They had never ridden that far before (probably about 3 miles round trip) but they did really well.  On the way home we passed a park that we used to come to back when they rode in the stroller but now is a bit far for when they're on bikes/scooters, and I was hoping they wouldn't want to stop but of course they did, but it was lunchtime and I was hungry so we didn't, but then they really wanted to make a picnic lunch and go back so we did (we took the car).  Then after being there not very long Olivia had to go potty and it's a small park with no bathroom so we got back in the ...

(I've been documenting certain highlights of my pregnancy in honor of the 5th anniversary, since I was not yet blogging at the time). On Sunday, August 26th, 2007 my dad and stepmom, who spend most of the year in Arizona but were visiting at the time, went to church with us and then we all went out for brunch.  It was an all-you-can-eat buffet type brunch at a golf course restaurant.  The next day was Monday and I went to work.  I was feeling kind of yucky but chalked it up to morning sickness.  But, I was 11 1/2 weeks and hadn't had much morning sickness for awhile, plus this felt different.  When I got home from work I was worse and went straight to bed, but I just got worse and worse.  I would get really cold, so I'd bundle up in blankets, then I'd get super hot and throw them all off.  I took my temperature and I had a fever and Paul and I were both worried about the babies, so he made me get in a cold tub.  After awhile we decided to h...

The fertility clinic we used to conceive the girls (Seattle Reproductive Medicine) hosted a day at the zoo today for all the families they helped create.  We got free admission, a free barbeque lunch and free face painting for the girls!  It was really fun.  We got to chat with our doctor for a bit and even ran into a couple from our church (not knowing they'd gone through SRM but we really don't know them that well).  We hadn't been to the zoo in over a year so it was fun to go back and this was the first time we didn't use a stroller, which was so nice.  I didn't take many pictures because by the time we were actually looking at animals (after lunch and all that) our phone battery was getting low. Yay for all these infertility success stories!   Unicorn face painting   Riding the carousel (blurry because it went by so fast)

A few nights ago Kayley really wanted to wear underwear to bed (they normally still wear Pull-ups to bed).  She's woken up dry a lot lately so I decided to give it a try.  Of course, Olivia (who also has woken up dry many times) wanted to wear underwear, too.  I put a waterproof mattress protector on both beds, then their sheets, and then another protector (the crib-size ones from way back) on top of that.  I figured then if they wet the bed in the middle of the night, all I'd have to do is peel off the first protector and they'd be good to go, no changing of sheets required. When Paul got up at 4:00, I got up and went to take them potty.  Olivia was still dry, I took her, she went, and I put her back to bed.  Then I checked Kayley and she was wet.  And she partially missed the protector and had the top sheet and comforter kind of tucked under her so those got wet but not the fitted sheet.  So I changed her jammies and to...

When the girls were first born, one of the things I couldn't wait to do with them was storytime at the library.  We went for the first time when they were about 14 months old and have gone fairly regularly since.  Today was the last one until early September, at which time they will be in school on Wednesday mornings, so I made a point to go one last time.  They have a Monday afternoon storytime that we could still go to, and a Thursday evening pajama storytime, but after 3 1/2 years, today was it for Wednesday mornings.  So weird. Another thing we'll never do again is the Sno Valley Indoor Playground.  We didn't go nearly as much last year as we had the previous year or two, but we did go one last time in May (they don't have it in the summer) because I had a punch card freebie to redeem.  They only have it Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings during the school year, so that's now out for us, too.  It's kind of the end of an era.

In exactly 3 weeks, the girls start preschool!  I am SO excited.  I've been fantasizing for months about all the things I can do in those couple of child-free hours 3 days a week.  Such as: Grocery shop (by myself!) Run errands (by myself!) Read Exercise Clean Projects around the house Maybe get around to doing a scrapbook of our wedding (that was 6 years ago). On their very first day I've decided that I'm going to go straight to Starbucks after I drop them off and sip a latte while reading a book.  Most days I'll do productive things like clean, grocery shop and run errands, but I'm setting aside that first day for something fun and relaxing. My excitement isn't completely selfish, however.  I'm also excited for the girls--for the opportunity to make new friends, learn lots of new things and have fun, new experiences.  Can't wait!

The girls start preschool in less than a month.  I took them to Walmart on Tuesday for backpacks.  Kayley is so proud of hers and wears it around everywhere.  It's bigger than she is, but she wouldn't go for the smaller ones because, heaven forbid, they didn't have any characters on them.  They both had to have the Disney Princesses.  Then Wednesday we went to the outlet mall for some school clothes.  I thought it would be fun to have our very first mother-daughters school clothes shopping experience, plus I wanted them to be able to pick out stuff that they'll actually wear, but it turns out they have the attention span of a gnat, so we didn't last long.  At least at the Gymboree outlet they have a video playing.  I guess I'll keep doing the clothes shopping by myself for awhile. They did enjoy a ride on the carousel, however. In other news, we are experiencing another major bedtime battle.  For the longest time now, t...

We went camping last weekend at Lake Tapps.  Paul's company owns their own chuck of property on the lake that has a campground as well as a nice day use area.  We took the girls' on their first camping trip there last summer and went again last weekend.  It's first come, first serve, so we got there on Thursday and we were able to get a great spot right on the sunny side of the lake.  It was just the 4 of us the first night, but another couple joined us on Friday for the rest of the weekend.  Before they came on Friday, we met up with another couple and their daughter to watch the Blue Angels practice (they perform for Seattle's Seafair the 1st weekend in August every year).  The girls and I did that last year and we decided to make it an annual thing, so Paul will plan on taking that day off every year if possible.  It was awesome as always, but the girls were hot, tired and cranky and didn't seem to enjoy it as much as last year. Fri...

Wow, I can't believe it's August already.  Summer is going to be over before you know it.  I meant to do a post at the beginning of summer listing all the things I hoped to do with the girls before preschool starts and never got around to it, and now several of those things are checked off.  We still have a few to go and only a month left, so we'll see how many we can squeeze in. Picnic/Play at Rattlesnake Lake Spray Park Picnic/Play at Luther Burbank Park Dizzy Bus Redeem last Living Social voucher at 3-2-1 Bounce Pick blueberries Go on an easy hike Northwest Trek Pacific Science Center Gasworks Park Ballard Locks Go to the farmer's market/outdoor concert We're camping this weekend and seeing the Blue Angels practice.  But as fun as the last few weeks have been, I am SO ready to get back to our normal routine.