Hallow's eve

A few great quotes from tonight. All courtesy of Jack in case you couldn't tell.

Jack refers to trick or treating as "sugar treating". When I tried to correct him, carefully enunciating "trick OR treat", he paused, then answered, "Treat. SUGAR treat!!" It makes perfect sense really...

For the first few houses, Jack would look into his pumpkin and count every piece of candy he'd gotten so far. This was abandoned in the mad rush of sugar-treating, until the end, when he looked into the pumpkin and exclaimed in surprise, "I have so many candy!!! I have too many to count."


On the way back down the street, Jack stated several times, "My energy is low. Carry me!"

After returning home, Jack helped Daddy pass out candy from the front step. He referred to this as "playing sugar treat". He happily told me that he "gave candy to SOOO many friends". Nat reports that his generosity was pretty astounding and that he enthusiastically waved his "friends" up on to the porch...(I just love that about him, that the whole world is his friend..)

Ivy seemed to enjoy her first Halloween, as evidenced by her putting off her nap for an extra half hour to watch the proceedings from her vantage point of the stroller (sandwiched in by a bulky snowsuit and several stuffed Wild Things). Next year she'll be walking. Whoa.

24 and 25 weeks

24 weeks. The gnome hat was Ivy's costume for the Owls and Howls Halloween event at the History Museum. (Tomorrow night she's going as a Wild Thing, per Jack's request..)





And a few other gems from last week...


And, as I am now a full week behind on these... here's 25 weeks too!!


Everyone likes to get in on the weekly pics...

A whole nursery full'a love.

What's the girl up to at 25 weeks, you ask?

She sits up on her own now, and can reach and play without falling-- until she unexpectedly topples straight back when we aren't watching, that is.

She babbles little strings of ya-ya and la-la sounds and is as social and smiley as ever. She giggles at silly noises and silly faces and everything Nat or Jack do.

She is seriously in love with the dog.

She also loves pears. She's up to about 6 different veggies now and just branched out into the world of fruit this evening. Even with a stuffy nose she was all about those pears.

She can transfer toys from hand to hand and can even stand holding onto something for about 15 seconds. She can prop up on her hands and knees for a few seconds at a time. She still kicks all the time and wiggles all over the place when I am trying to nurse her these days.

Her hair is a little less curly and a lot thicker.

She is a little grabber and seems to be particularly fond of dinner plates and my glasses. As well as Corydon's ears.

Halloween is upon us.

Which can only mean it is the end of October. The end of October?? How in god's name did that happen.

I cannot say that fall has gone by unnoticed. I have willed myself to be conscious of, to revel in, the fleeting foliage: driving home on SOM instead of the highway to see the rolling hills in their russet apparel and the carpets of gold on the manicured lawns of South Woodland, pointing out the most brilliant leaves with Jack and encouraging him to crunch through the piles on our walks. Yet it does seem that THIS part of fall has snuck up on me, this tail end of it when the trees are more bare than full and the nights are dipping into the thirties and I have to, finally, begin to wear socks.

We've had some gifts of days here in October, perfect weather that has landed on weekends and we've taken advantage of it pretty well, I'd say. On the most recent gift, near onto a week ago now, we went to the Botanical Gardens. Amazing sun on Wade Oval and two happy kids in the children's garden.






Last night we carved our Jackolanterns. Ivy is loving her first Halloween and couldn't keep her hands off the pumpkins.



Today we explored Beachwood park, a surprising bit of wilderness hidden in the median of Shaker Boulevard. We went there to join in on a Cleveland extension of the Rally to Restore Sanity. Which apparently didn't happen as we had the park to ourselves. Which was fine as it was a lovely crisp day for a walk and a warm and cozy trip to Starbucks.

Despite the insanity of it all, and the fact that baby girl has a cold (thus sleeping even less than normal), life is pretty good these days. Full, but good.

Pictures of our Wild Things out haunting....soon....!

Halloween is upon us.

October so far...

Behind behind behind

Feeling very, very behind right now, people. How is it even possible that life can keep speeding up like us??? Between new students and lots of IEP meetings and the approaching end of the quarter, work is a blur of, well, work. And home is a blur of babies in arms and bedtime routines and obstinate 3 year olds and plastic dinosaurs and laundry and dishes and....

Phew.

At any rate I think this post is just to say sorry for the lack of posts. A slight vent, too. Week 23 pictures are in the upstairs computer and I haven't made it up there recently-- but they are on the way, I promise! As are some fun ones from our apple picking adventures. Despite the drudgery of life we did manage to fit in a spectacular fall weekend complete with relaxing on a blanket in an apple orchard and a leisurely walk through the neighborhood admiring the foliage. We've been enjoying the peak week for the leaves around here, reveling in some cool, crisp and sunny days, and wishing this weather could last. Another high point-- last night we took the kids out to the Winking Lizard for wing night, which, while a strikingly different experience than it was 10 years ago (strange, that...) went remarkably smoothly and was actually pretty fun. Kids were great and Jack at as much there as he ever does at home and there were WINGS. Good times.

Kid news:

Jack is now up to 4 stickers on his "pooping on the potty" chart, working quickly towards his new pumper truck. He has not had any pee accidents in recent memory so I do believe we may be able to call this kids potty trained in the near future. Wonder of wonders.
Ivy is chowing down on a variety of foods. The list to date: squash, carrots, potatoes, rice cereal, and oatmeal. This evening she loved a carrot-potato blend. She's a pretty cute little eater. She is also increasingly vocal these days, making some endearing little consonant noises when she "talks" to us. Sleep is still an issue. Napping is OK but after 2 months of transitioning to her crib she is continuing to fight it for all she's worth. She is finally crying less than 10 minutes when we lay her down (and we've even had a few nights where she didn't cry at all) but then she is invariably up and screeching again within 2 hours... and another 2-3 times over the night. Despite our talk of taking more drastic measures, little still ends up in bed next to me for at least 3 hours a night. She is pretty cute in there, snuggled under the comforter. I think she likes to be warm. And next to the boobs, of course.

Off to bed with this mama. Pictures, soon, I promise you...

Edited:
Here are a few of the promised pics. Only took two weeks. Model of efficiency here. Those 23 weeks shots? Still on the other computer. Someday.

22 weeks

This week's pictures are a little blurry due to the fact that we actually kind of forgot to take pictures all weekend, and when Nat remembered on Monday the camera was in the Subaru that was in Lakewood... blame this convoluted situation on Jamo and Casey, with whom we had a lovely but very busy weekend of visiting. In the midst of which the kids continued to grow up. As they seem to do every time we turn around...

A few quick, possibly blurry updates to accompany the pictures. Must make this brief as I am up past my bedtime already..

Ivy's big news is that she can now roll over. Both ways. She rolled back to belly on Monday, and actually in Nat's presence so this is confirmed. I have yet to see it but I can believe it from the way she likes to grab both feet and wing herself over onto one side, grinning ear to ear... Suddenly she seems that much more mobile. We've stopped wrapping her arms at night (and she's not sleeping any WORSE, so there you have it) and now she moves around a bit in her crib at night...She can pivot in a circle on her belly and her back, and scootch a bit with her feet when she's on her back.

Also this week, she started eating solids. We had started offering solids at 4.5 months, at the recommendation of Dr. Mann. But this past Sunday she started really eating them. We were having squash and Nat offered her a bite and she leaned in and chomped on the spoon. That's what's happening in that really blurry one above. She had probably 5 or 6 bites of the squash and since then she's been chowing down on pumpkin and now carrots. You put the food in and instead of getting pushed right back out, it actually disappears into her mouth. We're hoping that since we're 0 for 2 on the good sleeper front, perhaps this one will eat well...

Jack's growth is not marked by momentous milestones these days, but he continues to astound and amaze us and generally has me wrapped around his little, ornery finger. It's been a good day. Preschool this morning and then he pooped on the potty when he got home (a bit of a contentious issue recently so, huzzah!!). This evening we went to Crazy Mullets for haircuts for the boys and never has a 3 year old been so grown up. Iv and I were doing errands, so it was just Jack and Daddy there. Jack chose to wait on his own in a chair by the front desk when Nat went back for his cut, and he followed the stylist over to the chair, hopped up, and kept up a running conversation with her the whole time, all on his own. I walked in as he was chatting with her about the colors of the various monsters on his cape. Looking all "little boy" with his close cut hair and his serious face and oh how I love that child.

Skin milk

Had a lovely walk to the park this evening. The sun came out unexpectedly after several days of rain and drear and after much cajoling I got the boy convinced to go for a walk to the park. It felt like old times, walking to Coventry with my boy. And now with a girl, too, who was thrilled to be outdoors for upwards of an hour. It felt great, actually, to get them out-- makes me realize how stir crazy I get spending every evening at home focused only on dinners and baths and bed. Of course, the price paid for the lovely walk about was that Jackie didn't get his dinner til 7:45, Ivy was overtired and did some major screaming when I put her down, and no one got a bath. I still think it may have been worth it.

If for nothing else it was worth it to hear this line:

As we walked I told Jack that we would be stopping at Marc's because we needed milk. He replied, confidently, "We have milk! We have grown up milk at home!" I told him, yes, we did, but we were out of Jack's special milk. "I like grown up milk," he insisted. I pointed out that whole milk was better for growing boys. He was silent for a moment, then, brandishing his hand before him, he proclaimed: "I have skin!" A pause as I tried to find the segue. And then my boy filled me in by explaining, "I have skin, so I can drink skin milk!" As I laughed in wonder at my son't impeccable logic, he proceeded to list all of his body parts that had skin. As well as stating that, "My eyes don't have skin. They're just eyes, that's all."

How could I love him any more?

From october 2010

20 and 21 weeks, all rolled into one...

Busy weekend, this one, with Nat off to Virginia for Mark's wedding (congrats, Mark and Leeanne!) and me home with the kiddos. We kept ourselves out of trouble by resaleing and hanging out with Gram and going to Greg's birthday party and making a big dinner and baking cookies. And ALMOST finishing all the laundry. If I can manage to fold that one last basket full before I crash for the night... It is daunting to be with the darlings full-time, on one's own. And again, it's not because THEY are hard to deal with. It's the fact that a weekend has come and gone and the list of things to do around here has only gotten longer and the only tasks to my credit, for the whole two days, are ALMOST finishing the laundry and mopping the floors. Sigh.

Don't sell the boat, Amanda.

At any rate, with no further ado, here's the girl's progression over the past two weeks. My how they fly...