Oktoberfest!
Oktoberfest is a big deal in my family.  Even before I was born, my Dad's side of the family would gather together to watch the big parade, and then have a get together afterwards with beer, brats, and all the rest.  When I was young, we would walk to the parade from my Gramma's house, and then have the party at her house afterwards.  Now, we get there really early to find a parking spot, sit for a while waiting for the parade to start, and then when the parade is done we go to my Aunt Betty's house for the party.  My aunts, Betty and Pat, are usually the ones who stake out our parade spot on Friday afternoon.  They sit there all afternoon and evening, and finally when it's ten or midnight or something like that, the police patrolling the area allows people to leave their chairs and blankets on the boulevard.  So we usually get our same spot each year.  I didn't get many pictures this year because Claire kept me busy with her trips to the bathroom.  She was wearing her new Doc McStuffins underwear, and she wanted to make sure they stayed dry.  And she was worried about the haunted house coming in the parade, so I think that was another reason she had to keep going to the bathroom.  But here is a picture of Evan and Gramma enjoying the parade.

 

Awkward first roll-overs



 

 Evan has been working very hard with his teachers in the Help Me Grow program.  They have been coming once a week to work on strengthening his muscles, and stretching the right side of his neck where he has torticollis.  Before we knew he had diabetes, because it wasn't being managed, his body was starving.  Most of the nutrients from the milk he was drinking were just coming in and going out because his body couldn't use his insulin to get the nutrients out of his blood stream and to his cells.  Because his body was starving, his muscles were being attacked to be used as "food" for his body.  Right around 3 1/2 months of age we started noticing a decline in his muscle tone and core strength, and then just a couple weeks later we found out about his diabetes.  He will probably reach certain milestones later because of this, but we're working hard to keep him on the right track.  We work with a physical therapist and an occupation therapist, and a teacher who coordinates our visits, and also watches for other developmental delays and behavior issues.  So far it's just his muscle tone that is causing some delays.  Thank God Evan has such an easy going personality.  He has many reasons to be a crabby little guy, but he never is.
 

 

 Claire still loves sucking her thumb.  Sometimes we still have to give her a pacifier at night to give her poor little thumbs a break.  Last week we had a popsicle after playing outside on a nice day.  There must be a LOT of food dye in those things, because afterwards, when she was sucking her thumb, she noticed it, too, was dyed red!  She said she was turning into Pinkalicious, from the Pinkalicious story books.

 

 

 Evan loves swinging in our  back yard just like Julia and Claire did, and still do!

 

 So proud of my little sewer!
Julia craves "big girl time," as she calls it, so sometimes I have an activity ready for her to work on while Claire and Evan take their nap.  I am up a lot during the night with Evan, and sometimes I am too tired to read a book, so I just look at things on Pinterest while I feed him.  I'm SO glad Jeremy got me a smart phone the last time we had to get new phones, even though I told him I didn't want or need one.  This was a little Pinterest project that Julia loved!

 

 

 

 

 
 I didn't think she would use all of the leaves I cut out for her, but she wanted to use every single one.  And she insisted on sewing them together in a certain color pattern, too.  Her leaf garland turned out great!  It makes a pretty fall decoration (or a nifty little scarf!).