October 5K Day

     Today was our 5K for the month of October. We headed out to Hermitage House to participate in their "Heart to Home" Festival. This is the 5th year they have done a 5K and even though I've been working with their art club for the last few years I have had a variety of reasons not to do the 5K. As part of my decision to do at least one 5K a month I knew that I would do this 5K this year.
     We came away with one of our best times (even though it wasn't the fastest overall). We finished in about 46 minutes AND Big Brother ran approximately half of it. This is the first time we've let him run more than a few hundred feet since our first 5K in July which took us over an hour to complete. We bought him brand new running shoes yesterday so he was REALLY ready to run this morning!
     It was nice to see a lot of people we haven't seen for awhile and I'm really proud that Big Brother likes to run. After the 5K there was live music, a chinese auction, hay rides, pony rides, games, food, and a lot more. We tried our luck at the chinese auction and Big Brother got to ride a horse for the second time in a month all while Froggie slept! She woke up briefly but did spend the majority of our morning asleep in the stroller.
     I must say that I have a new found appreciation for the people I see running along the side of the road! Today's 5K was ran primarily on dirt roads and the side of the road. It's A LOT harder to run in the dirt and over rocks and dips than it is to run on the pavement. Hubby thinks he bruised his foot because he's still getting accustomed to his Vibrams.
     We did a lot of running around this afternoon and the kids were exhausted this evening. I'm finding that the more time we spend out and about the harder it is for me to stay awake in the evenings and I've been falling asleep holding Froggie quite a bit.
     Right now she's keeping me company snuggled up on the couch cushion beside me. I suppose at some point she will have to sleep in her crib but I love snuggling her so much and it's nice not to have to worry that when she wakes up to eat that she'll wake up Big Brother too.

Before the race

Our view while we ran

Running with a 2 year old can be fun

Hubby and the stroller

After the race

Showing off his shirt and shoes w/a mouth full of banana 

Waiting to ride the horse

Going for a ride

He did a great job!

Froggie's First Parade

     Saturday was a day packed with things to do. October is always our busiest month and we typically have something (or multiple things) going on each weekend. This year is no different and we kicked off the month with Homecoming festivities, a fall festival, military ball and a birthday dinner.
     I think I've mentioned before that we live in a college town and it just so happened to be homecoming weekend. Hubby and I are both Alumni of the school and I've been attending homecoming parades since I was a little kid so we continue the tradition and head out to watch the parade and participate in the festivities. We met up with some of my familyat the parade route and ran onto some people I hadn't seen in awhile.
     This year the parade was an hour earlier but was still as packed as it's every been. Big Brother and Froggie got to watch and collect candy as it was thrown. Froggie did great for her first parade and was completely unfazed by the loud noises. After the parade we walked down the street to campus to see what was going on. Big Brother got some goodies, including a tattoo, and we all snagged a quick lunch before heading out to a fall festival. We walked around for a bit and I got some cute hair clips for Froggie and Big Brother got some sweets.
     It was a nice start to our day and we were able to get home and relax a little before getting ready for the Navy Ball.

Hubby and Big Brother

Watching the parade

Fire truck!

Family picture

Froggie and I

Hubby and Froggie

Baby's need to eat everywhere!

Big Brother showing Froggie his tattoo

Getting a ride with Hubby

Fall festival

Fall festival

Fall festival

UPDATE: Froggie's Hips

     So, I know you've all been waiting all day to hear how Froggie's appointment went.
     We got moving a little early and dropped Big Brother off at school. He's always a little thrown off when he gets dropped off alone since we go in as a family every day. Hubby stayed in the car with Froggie since she had fallen asleep and we headed to her appointment from there.
     Traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be (read as we didn't get stuck behind as many buses as I thought we would) so we sat in the parking lot and talked while we drank our coffee for a few minutes. It was nice since Hubby and I don't get a lot of time to talk without the kids around. We will be going out in formal attire this weekend, but that's for a later blog.
     We got in and were quickly sent back to radiology. The ladies there were very nice and were exceptionally tolerant of Froggie's melt down. She has become very uncooperative for people she doesn't see very often and even though we have the same staff every time we go to Shriner's she was not happy to see any of them today.
     We got through the X-ray and there was a marker in the wrong spot. It didn't obstruct the view of the joint space, which is what Froggie's doctor wanted to look at, but they needed to check with the doctor before they sent us back to the main waiting room. Once they tracked down Froggie's doctor he said the image was readable and we were sent back to the waiting room.
     Froggie got to eat her oatmeal and watch the bubble wall while we waited. She really seemed to like the bubble wall and she REALLY likes being able to move herself around.
   

Bubble wall!

     We were taken back and Froggie weighed in at 16lbs 2oz and she is getting SO big. We were taken back to an exam room where we played with Froggie to keep her entertained. We hadn't ever been in this room and it had dolphins in the lights!

In the exam room

Dolphin light!

Hubby making Froggie smile

     Before Froggie's doctor came in the nurse and an intern came in to talk with us and check on Froggie. The intern wanted to do a hip exam on Froggie and she once again went into a melt down. Screaming, tears, batting at anything and anyone.... As soon as I picked her up she patted me and smiled.
     Froggie's doctor came in and said that her X-rays looked good and there was a consensus that her hips were stable and still in the proper position. Her treatment is officially considered over and she will have to go back only one more time in 6 months (once she's walking) to have one last X-ray.
     On our way out we took Froggie's picture with the Frog statue in front of the hospital. Overall it was a great day!

Froggie and the Froggy

LBM Update

     The wonderful ladies at Poison Control called me at approximately 7:30pm to check on Addi. She reminded me that if she hadn't thrown up or shown any signs of belly pain that she was in the clear and the LBM wasn't poisonous (or she didn't actually ingest any of it.)!
     We were a single car family today since Hubby's car needed to be inspected. While we were waiting to pick up Hubby once I was done with work I took the kids to the zoo. It was in the 70's again and it was another beautiful day. They have been setting up for the zoo's Halloween festivities and some areas of the zoo are closed off for setting up but Big Brother and Froggie still had fun. We tried to snap a group picture and it turned out ok.
     Tomorrow is the day... we head in bright and early to have a set of x-rays done to determine whether Froggie's time in the Pavlick Harness remedied the issues with her hips! Wish us luck!

I'll take what I can get from them... 

Beautiful Weather, Pirate Baseball, LBM's and Government Shut Downs

     With the temperatures in the low 70's I'm starting to wonder if Fall decided to take a vacation. I'm not going to complain about it though and it makes for beautiful afternoons.
     So I decided to walk the kids to the park furthest from our house so that I could get in some exercise and they could play. It was a nice walk and Froggie fell asleep while Big Brother tried to point me in the direction of the park every couple minutes. Hubby met us there and we enjoyed the park for a little while. I decided that I also wanted to take pictures of the kids.
     Big Brother went first and I had to bribe him with the offer of a new cup to get him to participate. Luckily I pulled his camel back bottle out of the cupboard and he doesn't remember the 1 other time he used it so he was really excited about his new water bottle.
     Froggie was up and she really liked playing in the grass and trying to eat it. Hubby and I were pulling her hands away from her mouth the entire time and she would crawl a little then sit back up with a handful of grass. At one point she found a mushroom, an LBM to be exact. LBM stands for Little Brown Mushroom and covers any small brown mushroom since they all look the same. This is good and bad. Good because they're common so we were able to find another very close to the one she grabbed to have. Bad because not only did she find a LBM she was chewing on it... LBM's range from harmless to poisonous and after 15 minutes of searching for the type of mushroom on the internet I found a site about LBM's.
     After reading a little I decided we should probably take Froggie in to the ER to be checked out since I didn't know which type of LBM she had chewed on and I wasn't sure if she'd actually swallowed any of it since I had nearly gaged her trying to get all the little pieces out of her mouth. Big Brother didn't want to leave the park and, honestly, we were pretty abrupt in our decision to go. Once we got in the car I had Hubby call poison control (I didn't immediately think about poison control for a mushroom, but I'm glad we called).
     The woman was really very calm and nice. She was patient when Hubby asked to put her on speaker phone so that I could hear what she had to say. She was very insistent that we didn't need to go to the ER (yet) and that observation would be suitable for the time being. We were instructed to look for vomiting, diarrhea, signs of nausea and abnormal behavior. If we noticed any of these things in the next 24 hours we were directed to contact her doctor/head to the ER.
     When we started unloading the car at home Hubby tossed my picked mushroom into the yard (I almost strangled him!) and then started kicking around the grass for it when I explained that we should keep it until we know that she isn't going to have to go to the doctors. I was pretty angry that he hadn't even thought about keeping it until we knew Froggie was ok (it must have been a mom moment) but after asking where he had thrown it from I picked up something of a similar weight and tossed it from the same spot and TADA mushroom found... It's now in it's own little bag in the fridge until about 6:30 tomorrow evening.
     Froggie has been fine so far but I will probably still not sleep much tonight since I'll be in observation mode... At least now I have the blog to work on and Pirates baseball to watch while Froggie sleeps in Hubby's lap. The Pirates are in the playoffs for the first time since I was 11 and they're holding strong so far! I wore my Pirates gear to work today and if Hubby didn't have to wear his uniform and I wasn't afraid that Big Brother would ruin his Jersey EVERYONE would have had pirates gear on today. Big Brother did sport his Pirates hat, which is amazing since he rarely wants to wear anything but his Lightening McQueen hat.
     Speaking of uniforms... Hubby is still heading into work though some of his civilian co-workers have been sent home. If you weren't aware the federal government shut down today it has... lots of things are closed or have lost funding/priority. If Hubby's school schedule wasn't up in the air before it is now and we're back to waiting to see what's going to happen.
     Ok... That's enough for now, I'm off to obsessively stare at Froggie for the rest of the night!

Climbing at the playground

My favorite!

Love this little girl!

My cute crawling girl

Chasing my camera

Mushroom Mouth!

Port Farms 2013

     Because we still don't know when Hubby will be heading out for schooling we decided that we were going to take advantage of the amazing weather today and take the kids to one of our local pumpkin farms.
     It was such a blast to be out of the house, hang out with some friends and embrace fall. Port Farms has a TON of stuff for the entire family and we didn't even get to do everything! Admission to the farm includes EVERYTHING (hay rides, corn maze, slides, play equipment, animals, etc.) and today was mascot day so there were mascots from local sports teams and a variety of other places walking around throughout the day.
     Both kids had a lot of fun today but I think Froggie especially liked the corn box because she was free to play on her own. Despite the fact that she looks less than enthused about being covered in corn she really did enjoy it and stayed like that for a little while. Big Brother says that the pumpkins were his favorite part of the day though I would bet that he had more fun running around the hay bales!