Happy Halloween!

 The beginning of October - shorts and t-shirts!

 Alvin and the Chipmunks for Halloween

The end of October - snow!

You may realize that I'm writing my Halloween blog post in January.  Yes, I understand I'm a little late but I have a reason!  Shortly after our trip to New Mexico my mornings of freedom as I like to refer to them abruptly ended.  I had a couple weeks in September where I was getting ready for the trip and all my children were happily at school...and I had ONE, just ONE lovely morning when I came back before the devastating news that Seth could no longer go to preschool.  Yup, that's right, KICKED OUT!  "He's not at all interested in potty training and I can't keep changing his diaper," was what the teacher said.  Ugh!  I know, terrible, naive me thought maybe she'd just continue to wipe the smelly poop and I'd keep my freedom.  Not the case, not the case.  Any mom who has a couple, 3, 4 kids knows that when you are expecting "me time" and you get shat upon (literally in my case) that it's a pretty big blow when something comes up and you don't get that night out or whatever it may be.  In my case I got a whiny, clingy 3-year-old to take care of 24/7 again.  Yay me!

In a panic, the next week, I found a place for Seth to go 2 days a week.  It should have been apparent after the first day when an aide, whom I know, told me that Seth had a total breakdown after they tried to change his diaper with gloves on.  This was not too long after he'd just had his surgery for his tonsils and he was still having angst over anything remotely related to a doctor, nurse, medical supplies.  We had to reschedule a dentist visit when he had a complete meltdown after seeing the girl in scrubs call his name.  It's sad, I know.  Either way, he endured 6 weeks of "the new school" where he cried when I dropped him off and when I picked him up.  I endured terrible behavior and INCREASED fussiness.  His mantra became, "But Owen does" whenever he screamed and became non-verbal.  And all that potty training help they said they'd give.  Nada after it was a challenge to merely change a diaper.  We left after Thanksgiving and decided that mommy had to give her full attention to this potty training thing in December and get Seth back to preschool with Ben pronto!  We buckled down and got her done!  It finally clicked and Seth is now an underwear-clad kiddo, happy to be attending Little Clippers with the lovely Miss Carla again.  Mommy is super psyched to have mornings of freedom back for the new year!!!  HELLS YEAH!