Tick-a-Teek!!

Miss had a wonderful time for her first trick-or-treating experience. She didn't really know what it was all about, but she did have fun saying "Tick-a-teek!" around the house as we were getting ready to go and she was very excited to put her costume on. She was a garden gnome. Here she is getting ready.

Heading out. I couldn't believe she kept the hat and beard on!

Once we actually started Trick-or-treating, she seemed a bit puzzled by the whole thing. At the first two houses we went to, she just stared at the person who answered the door and put random colorful things into the cat bag she was carrying. She stared when we encouraged her to say "Trick-or-treat!" She stared when we prodded her to say "Thank you." Then at the third house she brightened up with the receipt of a cool orange toothbrush. This was by far her favorite item to go into the treat bag. And when we prompted her, "Say 'Thank you'" she said, "More??" Well.

We only went to the six nearest neighbors houses. We had fun and I think she did too. Here she is ready to head home with her Daddy.

When we got in the door she sat down right away and started counting her booty. She counted several of the pieces and had fun identifying the colors of the candy wrappers. She didn't seem to have any concept that there was anything inside the wrappers, so the Crunch bar was just "Blue!!" and the Kit Kat "Orange!" And she seemed to derive plenty of pleasure just from that. Until we let her have some after dinner. Yeah, my girl is a chocolate lover. We had lots of "Mmmmm!" and "Num num!" and maybe even a "Deyiscious!"

Lass was getting tired about the time we were going to head out to trick-or-treat, so we didn't put her in her costume. I just put her in her wrap so I could carry her and she could sleep. But I did put her "Wiggle Worm" costume on her before her bath for some photos.

Overall our Halloween was a great time. We didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as I thought we would, so we have waaaayyy too much candy left over that I am trying very hard not to eat in huge handfuls all day long. The kids here are so polite. Even when I said "take as many as you want" they still only took about 3 pieces of candy. And later when I began to realize just how much candy we were going to be left with I was saying, "Please, take a lot, we have way too much" and they still didn't take more than about 3 or 4. But polite is good, and we had fun visiting with our neighbors and meeting some new people in the neighborhood.

Happy Halloween!

The progression of a dance party

Two posts in one day, but I couldn't resist sharing tonight's antics by Miss and her Dad.

Pumpkins and Tiggers and Boots, Oh My!

We went to a brunch and pumpkin carving on Sunday. Miss was sort of interested in watching her daddy carve the pumpkin.

She was more interested in this large chunk of pumpkin "mouth"

Got it!!

She did enjoy the finished project and likes to look out the front door at the jack-o-lantern on the porch. The Daddy did a great job, I think.

She loves music and dancing and is always asking me to play her favorite songs on my computer (which she calls a "pooter"), pointing to it and saying, "Dance! Dance! Mooz! (music)" She also has her own mini laptop computer. The other day she was playing mooz on her pooter when she scooped up Tigger and started this great dance, sort of waltz, with him.

By the way, the song was "B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his Name-O"

And did I mention I have a thing for shoes? I just love these boots.

2 months old

Somebody turned 2 months old on Sunday.

She had a doctor's appointment on Monday, where she weighed in at 13 lbs, 2 oz and measured 23.5 inches. She got three shots, which really tuckered her out.

She is growing so fast. She is in 6-month-size jammies and many 6-month clothes as well. She loves to smile and coo and has given a short chuckle a few times. She is sleeping through the night and eating a lot during the day. She had fabulous chunky baby rolls and loves to get a bath.

She enjoys time on her play mat and is especially fascinated with this elephant toy.

She is quite entertained by her sister as well, which Miss just loves. Lass smiles at her often and Miss loves to give her hugs and kisses and to "show" her things.

She is always trying to sit forward when seated or held in a reclined position, so it seemed like a good time to bust out the Bumbo. She seems to really enjoy it.

I love how her left ear sort of sticks out. Hello pretty baby.

Oh, the Cuteness

When Miss and I made apple pie a couple of weeks ago, she wore one of my aprons made for me by my aunt. She looked adorable of course. But the other day we got a package from my aunt containing this:

The most adorable Miss-sized apron!! She loved it. The above picture doesn't show the fit quite right because I didn't realize at first that the neck strap, and thus the length, is adjustable because it runs through under the pits and can be pulled shorter by just pulling on the waist tie. So I got it fitting right here:
Miss wore it to help me make dinner last night. Here she's helping wash potatoes. I think she's making sure they smell okay.

Here's the link again to my aunt's Etsy shop where she sells her adorable aprons. Thanks Aunt Mag!!

And in further cuteness, Lass is such a sweet little Snuggle Bear.

She'll just stare and smile and coo for the longest time. And she loves to snuggle up to her momma.

I went to a local shop with lots of handmade items last week. I found this barrette for Miss that has the same fabric on it as the pants I made her! I was so excited to find it. Unfortunately she's already almost grown out of the pants.

Check out the amazement on Lass's face when she watches her Daddy play the guitar.

Watching football today and going to a party tonight. Our first night out since Lass arrived. She doesn't really take a bottle yet, so she'll be coming with us, but she's easily portable. Happy weekend!

Smile, Baby

Today I'm smiling. Ear to ear. I finally joined a book club worth joining. I've been trying to find a book club since we moved here. I love reading and crave adult interaction these days, so what better than a book club?? Except that I've never managed to find one that either A) met at a time I could make, or B) had enough members to actually be a club/group. This is the 4th book club I've tried. The first two never actually met because they didn't have enough participants and the third one met at a bad time for me and was also very small.

This new one is a women's book club and today was the first meeting. It was a blast! I don't know the last time I got to hang out and just chat with other women in a setting that wasn't a playdate. Now, playdates are great, but the conversation is, by necessity, always pretty fragmented and disjointed. Today Miss stayed home with her Daddy and I took Lass with me. She was a dream, and I was able to have great conversation with great people without constant interruptions to corral my toddler. Heaven!

The first book we're reading is "The Miracle of Mercy Land." Each of the group members in attendance go to pick a book for an upcoming meeting, so the reading list is quite interesting and varied. My pick was for December and I chose "The Red Queen" by Philippa Gregory. I just finished reading "The White Queen" and it was quite good, so I'm looking forward to my pick, as well as some of the other choices made by the group members.

And speaking of smiles, I haven't yet been able to capture the 1000-watt smile of my youngest that can completely light up a room, but here's a little grin.

I love how she sort of crinkles her nose. Ain't she cute??

Mother of the Year, Or Not

When I was a kid my mom used to joke about being "Mother of the Year." Or rather, the things she did that disqualified her from that lofty status. It was all just for fun. If she didn't cook dinner or do something "motherly" she would say, "Well, I guess I just lost my bid for Mother of the Year." And we'd laugh. Don't get me wrong here. My mom was great. She did all sorts of motherly things and more. But of course no one is perfect, and often she could joke about it when she wasn't.

Some days feel like "Mother of the Year" days. You know those days when everything clicks? The TV stays off. We take fun trips, go for walks, do crafty things, and have lots of mother-daughter-bonding time. The days when I can still be calm the tenth time I say something like "No Honey, we don't pull the dog's tail/put a book on your sister's face/climb on the counter/insert toddler behavior. Come on over here and let's read this stimulating and oh-so-educational book instead." One of those the-house-is-picked-up-delicious-dinner-is-made-kiss-the-hubby-at-the-door-domestic-bliss kind of days. Okay, not quite so Leave It To Beaver, but you know what I mean. If you're a mom, you have those days when it just flows. It works. You get in your groove.

Yesterday was one of those days. It started with Miss and I making an apple pie in the morning. This was a first for both of us. Prior to yesterday my experience with making pie consisted of putting a pre-made (pre-baked even) pumpkin pie in the oven to warm it up a little bit on Thanksgiving. So yesterday I took the apples we got from the farm last Friday, got Miss all set up in her Tower, and proceeded to make pie. I did not make the crust from scratch, but we did the rest. We started by donning our aprons. I don't have a little one for Miss yet, so I took my waist-down only apron and adjusted it to fit her.

Miss's apron and mine were both made by my aunt. She has an Etsy shop, which you can check out here if you're in the market for an apron.

Miss enjoyed "helping" me wash, peel, core and slice the apples. She pretended to "wash" the cores, and she ate half of one of the apples (that one didn't go into the pie of course).

I pointed out to her that her apron had some pockets and she stocked them with apple peels.

After I zested the lemon and squeezed the juice onto the apples, Miss wanted to eat the lemon. She actually took quite a few tastes of it and didn't even make a sour face. In fact, I had to keep her from taking a big old bite of the peel, which I think she would have chowed down on if I had let her.

She kept an eye on the progress of the pie as it was baking and we were very pleased with the finished project, both in terms of how it looked and how it tasted!

The rest of yesterday was kind of more of the same. We went to the grocery store, Miss played outside with her dad, we had a good dinner, Lass was super fussy in the evening and nothing was working to soothe her until I figured out what she needed and then she was happy as a clam, and so on. It was a, "Yeah, I got this" kind of day.

Today was not so much. It wasn't a bad day. In fact, it was a just-fine day. I just wasn't on my game. Once again I woke determined to get ready and get to story time at the library. Once again, we did not get ready on time. I planned to go to the library again anyway, but I was rushing to get out the door with enough time to get to the library and browse for books before having to get home for lunch. It was after 11 when I finally got in the car with both girls and started driving to the library. And then I realized I had forgotten my wrap for Lass. I could have pulled her out of the car in the infant car seat and carried her around the library in that. But at the thought of that, I said, "Ah, screw it." And I headed for the Starbucks drive through. I got myself a decaf, venti, nonfat, no whip, 2 Splenda Mocha and drove. It was really quite nice. My girls tend to like the car and so they chill. And I chill. And it's nice sometimes to just hit the drive through. So that's how I rolled through the library too, with the drive-through book drop. So I guess I just lost my bid for Mother of the Year. Oh well. I'll try again next year :)

Another Fun First and a Sneak Preview

Piggy Paint - Natural, non-toxic, kid-friendly. Miss picked the color.

Another first this weekend is that Miss sang her ABCs all the way through. She skipped "J" and "K" and says "Momomo" for "LMNO," but I still think it's pretty cool.

And now for a little Halloween preview.