Busy, busy!

I know I haven't been updating the blog as much as I usually do, but we have been so busy lately!  Last week, there were 7 children here, ages four months through four and a half years.  With the exceptions of Jack and Ben, this was an all girls' playdate, so most of the time was spent doing crafts.  I wish I had been able to snap pictures of everyone, but I only got a few!  Thanks to our friends Kacey, Maeve, Maddie, and Audrey (and their moms!) for a fun morning!

All three kids had their first appointments at the dentist in the last two weeks.  Thanks to our friends, the Descheneauxs, who recommended this dentist's office.  They were so incredibly patient with the kids and it really was a positive experience for everyone.  I never thought Ben would let them even look in his mouth, but he hopped up into the chair first and was seriously a model patient.  The hygenist kept praising him and said to me several times, "Really, he is just awesome.  I can't believe it!"  While she was cleaning Ben's teeth, Jack was sitting nearby and kept saying, 'Not me.  Not my turn!" so he was not as enthusiastic.  But, he sat on my lap in the chair and let her do the entire cleaning from there (which is why I don't have a picture of him).  I was SO proud of both boys!  I wrote in a separate post that Mairead was a rock star, too.  I really could not believe how good they all were!  Huge thanks to Jen who babysit twice so that I could take the boys one day and Mairead another.  The kids LOVE hanging out with her (and with Bean), so they loved it.

We went to a party to celebrate the 80th birthday of a wonderful family friend, Theresa.  Theresa has been part of our lives since before I was born, and we were happy to spend the afternoon with her and her family.  The kids were great and looked very cute!

All three kids are in school now, which means a lot of time in the car for me.  Mariead and I take the boys to school on Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:30.  She helps me walk them in, get their bags hung up in the cubbies, and get them settled.  Then, she and I head to her school for 1:00.  Sometimes, we even stop for an iced coffee and an apple juice at Dunkin' Donuts.

                                               
I pick the boys up at 3pm and Mairead gets off the bus at about 3:45.  These days are a little hectic, but we are settling into a routine.  This does mean that twice a week, I have about 90 kid free minutes.  It's strange when the house is so quiet!  This works out since I am still teaching my University of Phoenix courses, in addition to the online tutoring I do for Pearson Education.  Dave is involved with several committees at the high school, so everyone in the family is spending a lot of time in a school or working for one!

I mentioned that Mairead is getting so much more independent lately.  While we are very proud of this, there are some drawbacks.  For example, for months, Mairead's OT and her teachers have been working hard to get Mairead to be able to use scissors successfully. Well, it looks like she has accomplished that goal since she cut several sections off of her hair the other day while I was in the shower. She was quite proud of herself.

She wants to help with everything lately, especially with housecleaning.  This would be useful to me if she were about 10, but right now, it's a little dangerous since she likes to spray the cleaning chemicals!  She goes back to the stroke clinic at CHB in February, just a few days after seeing her cardiologist for an echo in Waltham.  We hope that both appointments go well!