Charlotte the Chef
All of my girls love to bake and cook with their mom and I have been trying to find ways to spend more quality time with each of my kids, so I decided that it was time for Charlotte to do more than just pour in what I measured. I set up our area and got out all the ingredients:
As soon as Charlotte came home from school, we got started. She read the recipe:
Charlotte Lost her First Tooth
Charlotte has been very excited about the prospect of losing a tooth ever since she first discovered a tooth that she could wiggle a few days ago. Tonight her tooth had become very loose and she was so excited that she went on and on about all the different ways she thought it might fall out and how she’d react when it finally did fall out. She also told me that in her class, they get to share how they lost a tooth and the class sings a song to them.
The following is a little video of Charlotte telling some of the ways she thought her tooth would fall out and the dances she thought she’d do. When it actually did fall out she started jumping around the kitchen and I took a video of her telling how her tooth came out:
I wish I had taken a video of her singing the song that they sing to each other when they loose a tooth at school. Maybe I’ll take that video tomorrow and post an update.
Haircuts for Nicole and Ila
The verdict on Ramen
Lately Thomas hasn’t had much of an appetite. He had a fever for a few days after getting his second flu shot and hasn’t been very interested in solid food since then. He seems to want to go back to mostly nursing. I’ve been putting lots of different foods in front of him to try and get him to eat.
Today it was Ramen noodles, and he loved them: 
I love the little smile in this one:
My public journal entry on Election 2012
This election was a tough one for me, but I still want to record my thoughts and feelings about it. You should be warned that this is a very long post and I won’t be offended if you skip reading it.
t’s hard to believe that it hasn’t even been a week since the election because it feels like it’s been much longer than that.
I really started to tune in to election stuff during the Republican National Convention because that’s when we turned our TV back on. As the days progressed, I was turning the news on more and more. I watched every debate. I recorded two evening news programs each night, and during the day I turned on a 24 hour news station to listen to while I cleaned. I even read articles, or headlines at least, as I fed Thomas. Soon I was turning on talk radio in the truck instead of music. I became passionate about the choice our country should make and it was very clear to me that the success of our country depended on who won the election. 
Nicole’s First Bus Ride
Nicole was very excited for her first bus ride on Monday. I had heard a rumor that the preschool bus provided door to door service which I was very excited about. It turns out, they pick up and drop off at the same spot as my other kids. She was assigned to Isaac and Charlotte’s morning bus, which meant she got to sit next to her big sister for her first bus ride ever.
Here she is getting on the bus:
Laundry Idea
I’m on the look-out for new ideas to lighten my load of chores so I was excited to implement some ideas from two of my friends. One friend (who also had her 5 kids 7 and under) told me that she had a laundry basket for each of her kids so that she could fold laundry during the day without her piles getting messed up when she got interrupted (which happens a lot when you have so many little ones).
9 month well check for Thomas
Name: Thomas Deane Cochran
Age: 9 months
Weight: 17 lbs 13 oz 20th percentile
Length: 27 inches 5th percentile
Head Circumference: 181/4 inches 80th percentile
Last well check (6 month) comparison:
Age = + almost 3 months, weight = +1 lb 13 oz, length = +2 3/4 inches, head = +1/4 inch
Also, check out this kid’s teeth (he has 6 of them already)
Preschool
At the end of last school year, Nicole’s Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) suggested that we consider having her re-tested to see if she would qualify for the special ed preschool. Nicole’s testing began the second week of October. She was given a “non-verbal†IQ test and she was evaluated for adaptive/social/emotional skills through ratings forms and observations. Although she didn’t understand some of the requirements of the IQ test, she received a score in the normal range. Her scores in the adaptive and social/emotional evaluations were low enough to qualify her for services under the educational classification of developmental delay* and she was recommended for preschool.
Frog Fun
We had these fun little frogs on our sliding glass door,but they’re such good jumpers, that when Zach pulled one in for a closer look, it jumped away. 
Co-conspirators
Our Truck is fixed
Our suburban was down for about 3 1/2 weeks, but I’m lucky to have a husband who gave up so many of his evenings working on it and good friends who lent us their suburban so I wasn’t trapped in my house for most of a month!
This is from the day I thought I’d see if the things Zach replaced the night before had worked, it died before I got out of the driveway:
September 2012 pics
“Bed-buddies”
That was a term my dad liked to use. Did he have a song or phrase to go with it? I can’t remember.
Charlotte has been reading stories to Ila at night. Ila really loves it and doesn’t complain about going to bed as long as she can be in Charlotte’s bed (which by the way has a bed tent on it). They have slept together in Charlotte’s bed for the last 4 nights and tonight Charlotte asked us if Ila could just sleep in her bed every night. 
Thomas crawls and other things
Thomas is crawling now, although it’s not a traditional crawl. He has a little bit of a bear crawl mixed in. It makes for a funny sort of hoppng crawl:
Buckeyes!
I’ve been making buckeyes and it has inspired me to write about them.
I was born and raised in Ohio (the Buckeye State). Although buckeye trees are found in other states, they are especially prolific in Ohio. We had some in our yard. The nuts are encased in a green pokey hull as they grow:
Her OWN sense of Style
I usually just buy my kids jeans so they can dress themselves without worry about matching. Clothing that doesn’t just match anything goes in the top drawer and I pull it out occasionally when I help the girls with their clothes.
At some point, Nicole found her top drawer and started composing her outfits completely out of top drawer clothing which resulted in a lot of mis-matched outfits. Soon I discovered that she was not only just wearing top drawer clothes, but that her preference was for skirts. I found that if I offered an outfit with a skirt she got dressed right away without complaint or delay.
Recently, I picked up a few skirts and some leggings for modesty (we call them skirt pants). Now that I’ve indulged her in her skirt obsession, she will no longer wear pants and some of her outfits are not perfectly matched, but I suppose that’s just her style!
Here are some recent pictures of my little fashionista:
August Pictures
I haven’t spent much time the last few months labeling and sorting pictures, so I’m rather far behind. Here are the rest of the pictures that I meant to share from August:
Ila has mastered climbing up on the little neighborhood play thing and she’s proud of herself for doing it:
