Highs and Lows

This past weekend, we had a few highs and lows in my house. Let's just get the low out of the way - unfortunately, my kids lost their great-grandpa Stan on Saturday and my husband and I lost the only remaining grandfather in our family. As Jason trekked off to Florida for his funeral during the historic October snow storm, somehow my mom made it in to Westchester from Chicago to spend the weekend with us.

The high notes of the weekend included dinner with the kids and my mom at the new Cheesecake Factory, (yum!), baking Halloween brownies (double-yum!), going to see a kids play and having a fun snow day on Monday with no school or work.

On Sunday, my little boy turned 18 months old! We celebrated with a shared piece of banana cream cheesecake at dinner, which he enjoyed eating as well as smearing the whipped cream into his blonde hair. Yum :).

Monday was Halloween and while Abby & Zach's daddy was stuck in Florida due to torrential rains there, I took the kids trick-or-treating with friends in the neighborhood. We literally went door-to-door to almost all of the 86 units and collected a ridiculous amount of candy and treats. Zach enjoyed his first bite of a candy bar (Milky Way, delish!) and looked adorable in his chicken costume. Abby was a beautiful Snow White, complete with bright blue eye shadow, lip gloss and blush. She will next be seen on "Toddlers & Tiaras"!

Tuesday, while I was still off work and I sent Abby back to school, got off to a sad start. We took Zach for his 18-month checkup and the little guy is still VERY much little. In fact, he fell off the height and weight charts for his age :(. The doctor recommended that he be tested for celiac disease and thyroid issues (both of which run in our family) to rule out those as possible reasons why he isn't growing like he should. Watching him have blood drawn was definitely a low point for the day. We'll get those results back in a few days. Part of me would love an explanation, but the other and more reasonable explanation is that Jason and I are not very big people, so our kids won't be, either. Plus, he has been so late in his gross motor skill development and getting his teeth that it wouldn't surprise me that he was late in growing, too.

Luckily the rest of the day ended on a better note, with a lunch date for Abby and I with her friend Jared and his mom, and then I got to take her to OT for the first time. Zach is also now walking about 99% of the time - a huge improvement in just a few days' time!

As winter nears and the ever-changing weather goes from high to low and back again, so, too, do our lives. Hopefully the coming months will provide more highs than lows though!