Halloween 2012

We started off the day with a little Fall Festival action at a park near us. It was way bigger than I expected, with way more people, which meant way longer lines! It was a Dr. Seuss theme, so all the games were named after Dr. Seuss books and there were lots of Dr. Seuss characters running around. We met Mary, Shelly and the girls and Thomas, and Katie and the boys there. We rode a hayride, played a few games, had some snacks and waited in line FOREVER to ride a 1 minute train ride. But, that's what the boys wanted to do, so we waited and rode. Quickly. It was a nice day, not too hot or cold and the kids had fun running around as a pink princess (Haley), a purple fairy (Annabelle), a football player (Thomas), Darth Vader (Wade), a leopard (Lily), Ironman (Jack), and Superman (Ford). That's a lot of kids!



Checking out the Truffela Trees

Snacks with Uuma

Haley, Annabelle & Thomas

Kisses for sister

Rawr!

Jack and Wade, being silly

The little-known battle between Ironman and Darth Vader

Later, Wade went trick-or-treating with Mark, while I stayed home with Lily (who was fast asleep, due to her poor, sore little mouth) and handed out candy. Mark said they walked for blocks and blocks and came home with quite the haul. He had a few pieces of candy and about 10 minutes after he went to bed, was asleep. A very successful Halloween!



Darth, about to take on the town

Tons of treats!



Pumpkin carving and science

Today we carved one pumpkin. Yes, only one because the big one that I really wanted to carve is about 6 inches thick. I may be exaggerating a bit, but it took me 10 minutes just to cut the top out. So instead, I just let Wade scratch at it and make designs with the tiny saw since that is how he it wanted it decorated anyway.

Picking out the seeds. One by one.

Making the same face as his pumpkin.

Then we checked out our egg experiment. The vinegar had made it into a bouncy ball egg! You couldn't really see through it, but it was definitely cool that you could pick it up. We were curious as to what was inside, so I cut it open and it basically popped. Pretty gross.

Super cool egg! The shell completely dissolved in vinegar and you could pick it up.



Still an egg inside. Wouldn't eat it though.

6 months old!

Seriously!? Halfway to a year? Walking? Sigh.

Here are her accomplishments this past month:

Can sit up very stably (is that a word?) on her own. Will even bend in half or lean to her side to retrieve an especially yummy looking toy.

Trying out solid foods. We started out with avocado and bananas, which she liked, then moved on to carrots and sweet potatoes this week. She hates carrots. Made her gag. Apparently they made me gag as a baby too. My daughter :)

Loves to play peek a boo. When you suddenly appear in front of her, she giggles like crazy! She's even started covering up her own face with a blanket and pulling it down. So cute.

We are starting baby sign language. "Milk," "all done," "food" and "more" are the words we're starting with. She hasn't signed anything yet, but is very interested in it. In fact, "all done" makes her giggle. Wade has picked them back up too, and will sign and say the words over and over and over. I tried to explain to him that he didn't need to say the words if he was going to sign them. He didn't believe me. Ugh, plan foiled.

She is starting to notice when I'm not around. If she's crabby, she'll cry when I leave the room. Sometimes she just wants to be picked up, and now she's very vocal about it :)

Teething again? Possibly getting in the top two...? Just a guess, but she's been awfully fussy lately!

She's gotten the hang of a bottle and will drink at least half of one every night at dinner time with her food.

She's also experimenting with a sippy cup. She loves to play with it and bite on it. She even drinks from it sometimes ;)

 

Just before she fell out of the basket...
Yes, I caught her. Because I'm like a ninja.

Halloween, almost

Of course we're trying to get as much use out of our costumes as we can.

So today we headed to Safari Champ, for their "Halloween Extravaganza." Which apparently meant that if Wade was dressed in his costume, he got a goodie bag. I expected a little bit more, I don't know- balloons, facepainting, something... but he had fun dressing up as Spiderman for the occasion. Lily got all dolled up in her leopard costume that Mary found while I was still pregnant. I am amazed that it was just the right size and it was even pretty chilly today, so it was perfect! Who knows if she'll even make it trick or treating this year since she goes to bed so early, so I want her to wear it as many times as possible. It's adorable!

I am Spiderman and this is my webslinger. Or 'I love you' in sign language...

Little leopard

Hanging on for dear life

Still a little groggy from her nap

I think she has perfected the mean face

Up to no good...

I spoke too soon

What was I thinking? By this point, I really should know better than to brag about a perfect day.

That night, after the arguments and meltdowns that technically don't count because they happened after 6:30, I went to bed sometime around 11 still glowing about my wonderful day. Mark came to bed around 12, and right after that, Wade woke up and wanted to sleep in our room (on the floor) at 12:30. Still early enough to get a full night's sleep... Oh, how wrong I was. Then Lily woke up at 1:30 and stayed awake for TWO HOURS. Never in her short little life has she been awake in the middle of the night for this long. I finally came back to bed around 3:30, where Mark was not-so-peacefully sleeping. I kicked, pushed, and unsuccessfully tried to get him to roll him over and FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY, STOP SNORING, to which he answered by sitting up, checking his phone (which lit up the room like a spotlight) and laying back down. On his back. And continued to snore. I finally got him on his side, when Wade started kicking the bed and playing around on the floor. I guess all the racket from us and the baby monitor woke him up. Not to mention the spotlight. I finally got him to stop playing somewhere around 4:30ish. Then both kids woke up at 6:45. Super.

My only saving grace was that this was Wade's "Uuma day." So, I loaded the kids into the car bright and early and dropped him off at Mary and Dave's house. I apologized for forgetting to brush his hair and teeth and gave them a head's up about his lack of sleep. I think there was a "good luck" somewhere in there too.

I did catch a short nap that afternoon, which was good because Mark had a work thing until late. Which means I had to put both kids to bed by myself... They both go to bed at the same time and wake up here and there, but we all survived and I ended up coordinating their baths other essential bedtime routines successfully.

Last night was a little bit better. Lily woke up once (dirty diaper, I think her system is still working out how to process solid foods) for a half an hour and Wade woke up once and went back to sleep pretty quickly. In his own room none-the-less. So today, I was coherent and decided it would be a super fun science day. This is what we did:

Made a volcano. It was cool for about a second.

Then Wade cut up some "chicken" with the rest of the clay.

Next I found a recipe for "elephant toothpaste" which was a little cooler.



Especially when we poured it out and played in it :)

This one is a work in progress. It's supposed to be a "naked egg." I guess the shell will dissolve and the egg will become jelly-like so you can touch it and see what's inside. Sounds neat. In theory. I'll let you know if it works.

Lily tried a sippy cup. She's getting the hang of it and seems to like it. She even drank some breastmilk out of it and I got her to drink out of a bottle. Yay me! Oh, and Lily too :)

 

Getting big!

Random cute picture :) Playing with her toes

It's a great day to be alive...

Today was a great day. Nothing spectacular, but just wonderfully normal. There were no time outs, no fighting sleep (by Lily, Wade doesn't nap anymore), no arguments about eating, no meltdowns. Well, until about 6:30. But after that point, I consider the day basically over with so I still think that counts.

We got up, had breakfast, got all dressed and ready for the day, and I laid Lily back down for her nap (she had gotten up pretty early this morning). While she was napping, Wade and I played outside. He rode his bike and did "tricks" and we raced. Then we came in and cooled down, and played play doh for awhile.

Ridin'

When she woke up about two hours later, we went to the library. We had taken a break from going because it was getting boring for Wade, so this time was all new and fun again. He listened to The Cat in the Hat and one of the Little Critter stories on the computer, while I collected a few books to check out.

Got home, had lunch. Lily enjoyed her avocados again, then I laid her down for another nap. While she was napping this time, I let Wade watch a Wild Kratts so I could do a bit of cleaning (we've been cutting out some TV lately, so he only watches about an hour a day). Then he went into his room for a half an hour of quiet time. We used to call this nap time, but let's not kid ourselves, he never sleeps anymore :) I cleaned a bit more and had about 10 minutes to myself before he "woke up."

He wanted to read a few of his new library books, so we did that and then headed outside again. He had found those poppers you get at 4th of July, you know white things that you throw on the ground and they explode/pop... Well, we did that and then came right back in to bake cookies.

These things are AWESOME

Wade loves to decorate cookies. I will occasionally buy the pre-made kind, just slice them up and let him go at it. Some have more sprinkles then cookie, but whatever. I'm not planning on them actually being healthy ;)

 

Concentrating on making the perfect cookie

See what I mean? Mostly sprinkles, very little cookie under there.

Lily woke up after another good two hour nap and we played on the floor for a bit while Wade listened to a few stories on CD. After that it got pretty boring- I made dinner, we ate, Mark came home (he had to work late), he ate. Oh, one new thing, I did feed Lily bananas tonight. I know you're supposed to only feed them one thing for a week, but really, I have never heard of anyone being allergic to avocados so I think we are safe there. We're going to stick with bananas and avocados for awhile and see how it goes.

Very intense. Trying to kill the cupcake liner

Listening to a book on CD

Wade took this picture. Pretty good, huh?

Woo hoo! Bananas are just as good as avocados!

How is she so clean? This is AFTER she ate!

Random picture of the beautiful roses we picked from out front. They smell even better than they look.

Anyway, it was a great day and I will just stop there. Before the meltdowns and arguments about bed. That was after 6:30 and it doesn't count :)

Football and mean faces

Mark took Wade to his first football game this past weekend. It was the UT and Baylor game here in Austin. THEY. HAD. A. BLAST. Mark couldn't quit talking about it and how good Wade was, and everything they did and ate and saw (...) and apparently Wade had so much fun. I say apparently, because he won't tell anyone about anything lately. In fact, sometimes the only thing he will say is, "shh, don't tell her about that, Dad." Ok, you can have your little guys secrets :)

They didn't get home until after midnight, but he didn't even get tired until he crashed out halfway home. Wade, not Mark. Here are a few pictures Mark took on his phone:

 

 

Lily has been perfecting her mean face lately. She scrunches up her nose and then will breathe in and out through her nose quickly, making kind of a stuffy, panting, piggy noise. It's quite funny. For now. I'm sure when she's throwing a tantrum at 2, I'll think it's way less cute.

Avocado = win!

Today we entered the world of solid food. It was bittersweet. Mostly because this time around I know what's in store for me at the diaper end of things. But, in all honesty, everything is going by so much faster this time around! I feel like Mom & Dad were just here and I was still pregnant and couldn't wait to not be pregnant any longer. I was actually doing the math today, and I'm halfway done with breastfeeding. Possibly. I know studies show the longer the better. With Wade it got hard to pump at school all the time. With her, it's hard to nurse her all the time with Wade running around. We'll see. But, I digress. Back to the food.

This little girl has has been eyeing our food like a (very hungry) little hawk lately. She even makes chewing motions with her mouth and will stare at us while we eat. It's like she's trying to figure it all out. So we figured, it was time.

We started out with an avocado/breast milk mush that Wade thought was pretty gross. Lily, however, ate it up. Literally. She ate probably a 1/4 of a small avocado at lunch time and another 1/8 at dinner time. I was surprised at how much she actually ate. I remember with Wade, he mostly just played with it and wasn't all that impressed at first. He was only 4 months old though...

I figure we'll stay on the avocado train this week and maybe throw in a banana or two. Just play it by ear and see how it goes :)

I'm ready, Mom! Bring on the food!

Are you sure about this...?

Here, just give me the spoon. I've got it figured out.

**Please ignore the honking noise in the middle. Apparently, that's what my phone sounds like when it's on vibrate and recording a video.

Basketball and highchairs

Every week, Wade gets an Uuma & Papa day. He goes with them all day long, just by himself, no little sister to compete for their attention :) He loves it and, more often than not, comes home completely exhausted (thank you, Mary & Dave)! They always do something fun and out of the ordinary. One week, they went to the outdoor water garden supply place and fed the huge coy fish. Another time, they went to the mall and rode the train. This time, they went to the Georgetown Rec. Center and played basketball. Here are a few pictures and a video courtesy of Mary :)

Wade & Papa

Working up a sweat. Wade is actually wearing Mark's old baseball shirt. He wants you to know that the red star is for a home run.

In other news, Lily has been joining us at the table in her big girl highchair. She loves being included and will add to the conversation whenever she can get a word in edgewise. I think we'll probably start her on solids in the next week or so. She seems ready- extra hungry and interested in our food. I have given her a tiny taste of avocado one day and banana another time and she didn't immediately spit them out... She doesn't seem to still have that tongue reflex where everything foreign immediately comes back out. So, maybe we'll see what she'll do with a spoonful :) That should be fun. And messy. Look for a million pictures of eating very soon. It was one of my favorite things to photograph with Wade.

Look at me, in my big girl highchair!

Sitting at the table at Fuzzy's Tacos. Very proud of myself!

It got a little chilly here one day, you know, in the 60's...
Thank you for my warm hat, Aunt Shelly Brooks!!