Last Couple of Months

As usual, I don't even know where to begin. This fall has gone by even faster than the rest of the year seemed to, if that's possible.  I think it's because we (Mary) has been so much more busy.  It's been great for her...and me.  She is doing so much better going to school.  She wants to go and is happy there.  She has been doing her singing and dancing class and her dress rehearsal for the Christmas performances is this week.  She has been taking tumbling again with a friend from preschool, Elle, and still really enjoys it.  I've noticed though that she is a bit of perfectionist.  She's taken tumbling a few times before this and was able to do most of the tricks and exercises fairly well.  But for some reason she is having a little more trouble this time around.  Doing somersaults and such have been tricky for her.  I was wondering what could have happened and I think I've figured it out.  The instructor is new and does things differently than the previous ones.  She also explains how to do things differently.  Mary is trying to do exactly what she says and it's throwing her off and making the exercises more difficult to perform.  She's thinking about it too much.  Anyway, she still loves it and is excited to do it with a friend.  We took Elle with us to tumbling this week in our car and it was so fun and interesting to hear Mary talk with her.  She said such grown up things like, "I couldn't believe my eyes!"
Mary also had her school Halloween program.  I was so excited to finally see her perform.  She is such a little actress and singer all the time at home.  She wanted to dress up as a witch for the performance.  Unfortunately I didn't think through the possible problems with having to wear a hat.  From the get go it wasn't staying on.  She kept messing with it.  And then it happened.  The hat fell off and landed on the floor under the bleachers.  Unreachable.  No big deal you might think.  To a 4-year-old girl with Mary's personality and sensitivity it was disastrous. She was devastated.  At first I thought she would burst in to tears and wail and it was obvious that was how she felt.  But she held it in.  For the next 20 minutes or so she tried to sing, but kept looking behind her down at that hat.  Her face would crumple like she would cry and she would try so hard to hold it in and keep singing.  It was gut wrenching as her mom.  I wanted to cry.  I wish I would have stopped the show and climbed under the bleachers to get it back.  We made it through and after a good long hug at the end she seemed fine.  It was just too bad.  Her teacher said she knew every word and action and was one of the best singers.  Next time we'll use bobby pins and/or glue.
Anna loved the performance.  She gave a pretty impressive performance of her own singing, dancing and clapping on the second row.  Poor little girl just gets dragged around to all of Mary's activities, unable to participate.  But she sure wants to.  She has become so vocal it's crazy.  She can convey anything and everything she wants with words.  In fact, just a little bit ago she was playing and said to me, "back minute."  Meaning I'll be back in a minute.  Some of her favorite phrases are, Mary where are you, nope, NO!!!, go outside, and ummm.  She's gotten pretty clingy lately and when she's feeling anxious or tired has to have both binkies (one in her mouth and one in her hand), a blanket, her stuffed doggie and her chocolate milk.  It's pretty awkward to hold all of those things but she does it.  She's often telling me to watch this or look and then does something silly.  The other day she pooped in  the toilet.  That was exciting, but hasn't happened since.  One day I asked her if she was ready to do her hair and she said no, and I asked why and she said BEcause.  Nursery is not going well, but I don't know why I thought she would be any different than Mary.  She wants to be like Mary and does just about everything that Mary does so go figure.
I did run my marathon...and then some.  I took a couple of wrong turns and ended up going about 2 miles further than the 26.2.  So, my time wasn't that great.  4:38.  But considering it was my first and the extra mileage I think it wasn't too bad.  I loved it though.  I had a really good running day and mentally was totally fine.  I did a half 2 weeks after and it was a real mental battle.  I don't think I was quite ready to run that distance after the marathon, but ended up finishing in 1:56 which is fairly respectable.  Since then the weather has turned and I haven't been running hardly at all.  I have a new hobby though.  Finding deals at DI and on KSL.com for Christmas presents for the kids and needed clothing items and shoes.  It's almost as addicting as running.
John continues to trudge through school.  He is still enjoying it.  He has made more of an effort this semester to spend time with me and the girls.  They just love to play with him and I love having him with us so it's been nice.  Finals are coming up though so we might have a few weeks of not much daddy.  It'll be ok though.  We'll have lots to do to get ready for Christmas!