The Mundy Family: Happy Fall!

It sure has been fall-type weather around here. This has been the most mild summers here in Northern California since I have lived here. This August marks 11 years of living in the Bay Area. Pretty crazy!

We've been busy as ever...Matthew took a great vacation with his dad, brother John, Michael Ageno and another friend. They went up to a remote place in Canada to fish for a week. They had a great time...caught lots of fish, ate lots of fish, talked a lot of whatever they talk about for days on end, etc. On the home front, I kept everyone busy here while they were gone. Lots of the normal stuff, but I somehow kept the kids going and going and going.

We had two different countdowns going on during Matthew's vacation: one was a countdown to when Grandma and Grandpa would arrive; and the other was to when Papa was coming home. Grandma and Grandpa came in on Thursday 8/30/07. The kids were beyond excited (I KNOW they were tired of my tired face and voice!), and are by now well conditioned to expect some presents. Grandma pulled through like she always does and brought some fun new books, bug vacuums and new dress-up clothes. The kids showed Grandma and Grandpa how well they swim at Del Amigo Pool, they decorated a birthday cake for Grandma, went to the French Fry store (another grandparent staple) so I could have a night out with the girls, and just had a ton of fun.

Eating strawberries from the garden

The princess in her PINK! dress.

Matthew came home on Saturday happy and tired. We had a big family dinner with my mom and dad, and Pat and Fred that Susie prepared. She made a dinner that could have come right out of a restaurant. It was delicious and a lot of fun to have everyone together!

The Tuesday following Labor Day was the first day back to pre school. Annabelle was as excited as ever to be going and had no problem saying good bye. Wyatt hung in there (how could he not with Annabelle leading off with such a show of strength???!!!) and I think he was excited to see some old friends. They are only going Tues./Thurs. right now...hopefully in the next couple of months they will be switched to the M/W/F schedule. Either way, I am sure Wyatt will be ready for Kindergarten next year - both intellectually and socially. Having both kids in school for me was kind of difficult...it still is. Anybody in their right mind would be jumping for joy! I'm slowly getting used to having a huge chunk of time to myself, but it hasn't been easy. I really thought we'd have another baby by now, so it has been an adjustment - emotionally - for sure. I have not doubt that I will adjust and really enjoy the time that I have!

I finally decided to take Annabelle to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist after this last ear infection came on the heals of the one in Tahoe just three weeks ago. When we went to our regular pediatrician I had her write down all of the times we'd been in for ear infections in the last 12 months...poor Annabelle has been on antibiotics at least 8 different time in the past year! That was all it took to convince us that she needed to see a specialist. So, the ENT said, yep, she's got big tonsils and big adenoids...she's a perfect candidate for having both removed and tubes put in her ears. After a tiny bit of consideration, I booked the appt. for October 16. I know it's the right thing for her...I want to be rid of all this misery due to the infections. It's still tough, though, to imagine my little baby going into surgery.

On a different note...this weekend we had the pleasure of babysitting our neice and nephew Jackson (5 1/2) and Maile (4 1/2) while John and Chieko had a couple of days away. The kids have had sooooooo much fun together, and Matthew and I have had fun keeping it all under control. We've always said 4 was a magic number for us, and this experience has given us some confidence, for sure!

A few words about Wyatt and Annabelle:

Wyatt

he's gonna be that kid that never really wants to go to school...I guess I just make it too much fun for him!
he's growing faster than you could imagine - he truly looks like he could be 6 years old!
he continues to be sweet and thoughtful...just ask his Oma or Grandma...he says the nices things!
he's going to be Grizzly Bear of the Week in his class at preschool this week...I may have more to write about him as we work on his poster. Usually good things come up while working on it!

Annabelle

her signature color is now PINK! anything in PINK! she would like
she changes in and out of her dress-up clothes about 5 times a day
when she puts on any one of the ballerina/princess dresses, she holds her arms out in a flowy way and dances around
when you ask her a question that she's not sure about, she starts with "Well..."
she absolutely repeats 100% of what Wyatt says
when she's ready to get out of her crib she says, "Mamaaaaaaaaaaaaa, where are youuuuuuuuuu?" over and over!