Where did August go

Well the old blog has taken a backseat to life. Soon I will blog about the following, which nearly all happened in August:

- We went to (and fully enjoyed every minute of!) our town's Labor Day Parade.

- We sent summer out in style, eating ice cream with friends, and taking a family bike ride.
- Robbie and Ellie had mysteriously recurring nighttime coughs for weeks that were finally diagnosed as asthma. Apparently asthmatic kids can be 'wheezers' or 'coughers' and mine? They're the coughers. Makes it really tricky to nail down a diagnosis.

- Maddie got sand heaped into her eyes and had to be taken in for a thorough flushing and cornea exam. Spoiler alert, her eyes were perfect. I don't know how, I'm calling it a miracle.

- Ellie moved from playing with the idea of being potty trained to fully potty trained (except for nighttime).

- Robbie started his second year of preschool - 4's! And Ellie started preschool for the first time - 3's. Both are in heaven.

- Maddie talks. Maddie got pigtails the other day. Maddie is learning how to pray. (It's a good thing God knows what's on our hearts because she is sending up her requests in jibberish, and man it's cute.) Maddie sneaks off and plays with little toy puppies by herself. Maddie loves taking showers by herself in mommy's bathroom. Maddie blew every single adorable old man in a convertible, tractor or pick up truck a kiss during the parade. (Most of them returned the favor.) Maddie is learning how to yell at her mama and siblings when she doesn't get her way. Maddie has all of us wrapped around her finger.

- I am co-leading our women's bible study small group which starts in 2 days. I am so excited but it's a lot of work!

- Robbie and Ellie are taking a weekly tennis lesson together.

- Robbie tends to sneak off and get into trouble when I'm not looking. Big trouble. Sometimes he sprinkles sugar around the house. Sometimes he eats a cupcake for breakfast, leaving a big trail of crumbs up the carpeted stairway. Sometimes he fills an oral medicine syringe with water and gives his camera monitor a bath. Sometimes he sucks on the kids' tube of toothpaste. (the nontoxic one.) Sometimes he steals my phone and messes with my apps. He deleted one (the space is empty) but I cannot for the life of me remember which one is missing. I am wasting precious brain cells and neurological activity on this mystery.

- Ellie tends to have potty accidents in the bathroom when she has (disobediently) removed the step stool from the bathroom and then doesn't have it when she needs it to mount the potty. I will hear "Mommy! Potty!", then the patter of feet to the bathroom, then a panicked "Oh no, where's the step stool!?" (Me: "Wherever you last moved it to. I told you to leave it in the bathroom so that you have it when you need it, but you won't listen to me.") and then "MOMMY! Oh noooo, mommy... I had an accident.". Potty experts: am I wrong to let her suffer a few natural consequences in this way? She HATES accidents, but is very stubborn and refuses to listen to me when I ask her to leave the step stool in the bathroom. I would be carrying it back to the bathroom 100 times a day if it were up to me.

So you see, we are very busy over here.