Halloween Costumes!

We went to our ward Halloween party on Tuesday, so I got the kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes and took pictures of them. The party was a lot of fun! Every year they do a soup potluck (yum!) and this year they had the young men and young women set up games for the kids.

There was fishing, bowling, duck toss, golf, web maze, and balloon room maddness. Nicole had a LOT of fun! I like the ward Halloween parties alot more since my kid is finally old enough to enjoy it for herself. Here are pics of the kids in their costumes.

Daniel as a pumpkin at 6.5 months

Nicole as the same pumkin at 7 months

Nicole now with her goofy smile.

Missing Sarah

Sarah moved to the far off land of Albuquerque, NM. I miss her already. Why!?! Curse you New Mexico!
We had a goodbye dinner for her on Sunday. These are our farewell pics.

I am missing her already.

Wordy Wednesday

Nicole is an excellent little helper. She loves to help me load the dishwasher, cook, throw things away, and do laundry.

She has actually gotten really good at folding laundry. I let her fold the burp cloths and kitchen towels all by herself because she is so good at it. If I am slow at folding the laundry, I will find piles like this next to the basket of laundry.

She digs through the basket, finds the things she wants to fold and then folds them. It is times like that that I know she is my child.

Many Owls!

I made owl hats for my nephews. We tried to get some photos of all the boy cousins together... but I didn't get one where they all looked good. So do a mental cut and paste and pretend they are all looking at the camera at one time or another.

Pumpkinland!

Last week I took a long lunch and met Matt and the kids at Pumpkinland. Vineyard Gardens on Geneva Road does this feature every year for Halloween and it is so much fun. There is a corn maze, a bunch of animals, fun Halloween themed structures like a castle and a hay house and a giant pumpkin. And, they have bounce houses, a playground, a pumpkin pyramid, and a Halloween house of lights. We went last year and it was a lot of fun, so we decided to go again this year.

Anthon and Marie came with their kids, but we didn't really get to spend time together. They went into the corn maze and we went around the corn maze and we never saw them again. They probably made it out of the corn maze, but not before we had already moved on. When Nicole is a little older, we will try the corn maze, but it is just a little too much for her right now.

I had Matt put the kids in their costumes because it makes pumpkinland a lot more fun. Dan came as a pumpkin and Nicole as a fairy/butterfly. Really she is a fairy, but she thinks she is a butterfly. I let her go on thinking that. I also let her think that a giraffe says "Moo" last year. Whatchaya gonna do?!?

Nicole was feeling a little off this day. She was lethargic and grumpy. Really, she was just really tired. We ended up leaving before we got to see everything because she just couldn't handle it. We got all the way to the bounce houses, she took one look at them, probably had nightmarish flashbacks from my company party when she got trampled and cried until we left.

But, at first she did okay even though she was tired. We walked around the corn maze.

This year

Last year (look how much she has grown!)

And stuck our heads in funny things. (or tried to at least)

Then we looked at the animals. Nicole still talks about the chickens eating pumpkins. She thought it was so funny.

You can tell from the pics that she was not her happy self. She was just kinda going through the motions. We checked out the giant pumpkin.

And then she had a meltdown, so we walked out through the house of lights, picked a pumpkin and went home. Well, the kids went home for a nap and I went back to work. I wish she would have been feeling better that day so that she could have enjoyed it more, but kids are very unpredictable. I never know if it is going to be a good day or a bad one.

Dan slept through most of it in the stroller, so he missed it too. We will try again next year when Dan is hopefully walking and both kids can enjoy it.

6 Months!

Dan is now 6 months old! He is half a year. It does not feel like it has been that long. It is bitter sweet. He is getting older, which is great, but at the same time, everytime he gets one month older, he is one month farther away from being my little baby boy. I like babies.

I took Dan for his check up and I only remember his weight, which is 18 pounds! Yay Fatty lumpkins!

Dan's favorite things include:

• Peek-a-boo
• Solid foods (apples are his favorite). He likes solid foods better than bottles. He yells at us between each bite because we can't get the food into his mouth quick enough.
  He also likes to eat his little gerber snack puffs. Unfortunately, Nicoley likes them too. Everytime I give Dan a bunch on his tray, Nicoley says, "We are going to eat them together." Then she feed him one and then herself one. I let her do it because then I don't have to constantly be putting snacks in his mouth, she does it for me.
• Sitting up on his very own. He's a pretty good sitter. He loves to sit and play with his toys. Nicoley loves to push him over when he is sitting and playing with his toys. I tell her not to and she tells me that he wants to lay down.

Tummy time is NOT Dan's favorite, but we force him to do it every day. He still won't roll over, but I'm thinking it is possibly by choice. He does not wish to roll over. He has rolled over before, but he just doesn't do it any more. Maybe he has forgotten how. I figure he will catch on eventually when he is ready to start getting places.

Dan loves playing with toys. He can grab them and get them too his mouth. Which is funny because he still won't hold his own bottle to his mouth. Nicoley loves to steal whatever toy that Dan has. As soon as it is in Dan's hand, she says she needs it. Technically, all the toys used to be hers, so she still thinks they are. Luckily, she will get Dan a new toy before stealing the toy he is holding.

Spitting. He loves to spit and blow spit bubbles. This is funny, but loud and a little gross.

Dan got his shots on Tuesday and my poor little man has had a fever and has been grumpy since he got his shots. I know that immunizations are important, but I always feel so bad after they get their shots. I love my little Dan the man. He is so funny and happy. I want to squish his cheeks nine times a day.

Mommy Guilt

So, I took the advice of Moms who read my blog and I got the safety handles for Nicole's room so that when we put her in her room, she stays in her room. Bedtimes last week were just awful because I would spend an hour just repeatedly putting her back in her room. So, we got the handles on Saturday and it worked beautifully!

We gave her three warnings to stay in her room before we shut the door and then she threw a big fit and fell asleep. Awesome. Last night, we went through the same thing. Three warnings, then we shut the door. But, the third time that she came out of her room, she asked for her throw-up bowl. She does this a lot! Every night she comes up with new excuses to try and get our attention and get us to come into her room. Most of the time, she lies to us about poopy diapers that do not exist.

But, we always listen to her and check for poos when she says she has them and give her a flashlight when she insists that her room is scary (she already has two night lights). So, last night, Matt got her throw-up bowl and put it next to her bed. But, that was her third time out of her room, so we shut the door. She threw a fit, like she had the night before and then she fell asleep.

Matt went into check on her after she fell asleep and left her door open after he checked (like we always do). I like her door to be open during the night so that if she needs me, she can get to me. This morning, after feeding the baby and then showering, I was getting dressed when I heard Nicole start crying. I went into her room to calm her and I immediately smelled vomit. Great.

I asked Nicole if she threw up and she said yes. The bed smelled like vomit, she smelled like vomit, but I couldn't find the vomit. I know she told me she had, but sometimes Nicole just answers yes to questions because we tell her not to say, "no" to mommy (because she tells me no all the time when I ask her to eat her food or lay down for a diaper change).

I took her to my room and laid her on a pillow on the floor. Then I stripped the bed, searching for the vomit. I put the bedding in the washer, then returned to her room, determined to find the vomit so that I could believe that I am not just a crazy person who smells vomit everywhere. Finally, I check the throw up bowl (you'd think I would have looked there first right? No!) and there it was. My big girl was telling the truth last night, she really was sick to her stomach and she responsibly asked for a throw up bowl and then threw up in the bowl like a big girl!

I immediately had Mommy guilt. She was telling me the truth and I didn't believe her because she has lied about throwing up so many times before! I should have believed her! I locked her in her room when she was sick and she really needed me. I didn't check on her in the night to make sure she was okay, my Mommy senses weren't working and I didn't know that she was really sick. Guilt!

Matt swears that when he checked on her after she fell asleep that he didn't smell any vomit, so it must have happened in the middle of the night. I'm impressed that she actually made it into the bowl. She has never done that on her own before.  Usually she just vomits wherever she is. Then, she was apologizing to me this morning when I was stripping her bed, "I'm sorry Mommy." Break my heart! More guilt.

She is doing okay. Matt got her into the bath this morning as I was leaving for work and she was in good spirits, but I wish I were there to take care of her. Matt will take awesome care of her, he is a good Daddy and loves that little girl so much, but I wish that I could be a good Mommy and redeem myself for leaving her alone last night by caring for her every need today.

Darn you Mommy guilt!

Missing My Kids

I see my kids every day. I get to see them from 4:30pm until 9pm everyday. I get to see them even more on the weekends, but I still find myself missing my kids. Even when Nicole is driving me crazy because she won't stop taking the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher, I still love her to death and would rather be with her than anywhere else. I seriously love my two kids. So, everyday, when I have to go to work, I find myself missing them very much.

Before I had kids, I didn't even really like kids. They are annoying and sticky and loud and messy. But, then I had my beautiful Nicole and I fell in love with her big brown eyes and her sweet little voice. And then I had Dan and I fell in love with his baby comb over and his chubby knees. I didn't know I could love two kids so much. I love them so much that I sacrifice everything for them. All my actions are, in some way, to serve them.

I go to work everyday so that they can have a house to live in and food to eat and clothes to wear. I go home everyday and spend my time feeding them, bathing them, playing with them. And then I do it all over again the next day. And I would do it forever because I love my kids that much. But, I miss them. I want to squish their little cheeks and see them grow and learn, but I'm a working Mom, so I miss a lot.

I didn't realize how fast kids grow until I started working and the time seemed to fly by. I swear that I was just barely pregnant with Dan, and now he is six months old (today). So, I shall savor my time with them. Stare into their cute chubby faces and treasure my moments with them. And kiss them nine times so that they know how much their mommy loves them.

Wordless Wednesday

Why Do You Hate Your Parents?

I'm starting to think that my children hate us. The past two nights have been awful! Two nights ago, Daniel woke up crying 30 minutes after we put him to bed. He cried for what seemed like forever with no reason that I could see. Matt shielded me from this and he took care of the baby so that I could sleep so that I could work.

Nicole, two nights ago, would not stay in her bedroom at bed time. She repeatedly came out of bed and into our room and we just kept putting her back every time and explained to her that it was bedtime and time to stay in her room. She wouldn't stop and we eventually had to lock our door so that she would stop coming into our room. We can't really lock her in her own room because the lock is on the inside and then she would be locked in there forever. And that would be bad.

Last night, we had the same Nicole situation and had to lock her out again. She has no interest in wandering the house or anything like that, she just wants to be in our room at bedtime. Perhaps this is because Dan sleeps in our room and she does not. But, when we attempted to have Dan sleep in her room, it was a disaster. They would not stop playing at it was 10:30pm before we finally separated them and got some sleep.

So, Dan and Nicole were both really naughty last night. Matt let me go to bed at 10:30pm, but he stayed up putting Nicole back into her room until 2am! At which time, Dan also woke up and started crying. Kids! They think day is sleeping time and night is awake time. I chipped in and helped at 2am so that Matt could sleep. I finally got both kids back asleep at 3:30am. Then, I went back to bed.

Dan woke up at 6:30am. Nicole woke at 6:45am. Just awesome... I bet they are going to take a long nap today. Maybe I just need to put them both in the same room and try it again and bear through a few nights of staying up late until the novelty wears off and then they learn to go to sleep together easily.

Happy Birthday Matt

This weekend was Matt's Birthday. He turned thirty something. Matt is not into Birthdays and usually likes it really low key, so that is what we did.
Saturday morning, I made him pancakes for breakfast. Then, I took the kids out of the house and he had the house all to himself to do his massive amounts of homework. In the evening, my Mom came to babysit and Matt and I went out to Goodwood for dinner and then we went window shopping at Best Buy. We never get to shop for leisure any more because shopping is a battle when you have children.

On Sunday, Mama Kimball had us all over to dinner to celebrate Matt and Omar's Birthdays. We ate, walloped DJ and Jenny in Dominion and there was much merriment. Not a partying Birthday for Matt, but hopefully a pleasant Birthday.

Hoot!

Because I love my kids and because I think this is just too cute, I made some little owl hats for my littluns.

I found a free pattern for this hat here. And I thought it would look awesome on my Dan (which it does).

I made Dan's first and I made a few adjustments to the pattern. Like I added a colored iris to the eye. And, I neglected to do a single crochet around the whole hat on Dan's cuz I'm the worst. Dan's really was a trial run. But, it didn't turn out too bad. It took me about 4 hours to make his.

Then, when Nicole saw Dan's hat, she wanted one. But, because the pattern is for baby heads, I had to try and figure out how to make that hat bigger for Nicole on the fly. I made one hat and it was WAY too big for her. It fit me, that is how I know. So, I tried again and made another hat and it was a little small, but I said, "Oh well." And forced it on her head.

Nicole's hat turned out a lot better because I learned from my mistakes with the first hat. And, it would look even better if it was just slightly bigger. I think maybe she will just stretch it out. This hat also went faster because I didn't have to look at my pattern as much because I had done it once before. This hat took 3 hours to make.

After I had already given the hats to the kids and taken pictures of the kids in the hats, I went and bought buttons for the eyes. I've never bought buttons before and I didn't realize how darn expensive they are! I paid 30 cents a button! I'm thinking I need to raid my mother's button tin for the next owl hat I make because that is just a lot of money for a bitty bitty button.

So, anyway, I sewed on the buttons this morning before I came to work and here are the hats with their eyes.

Yes, that is a camera strap in this pic. I'm the worst photographer.

I think that they look much better and less alien with their little eyes. So, now I'm on a kick and I want to make more owl hats and do different kinds and color combinations. I think I might have an obsession. It is like the year that I crocheted scarves for everyone because I liked making scarves.

So, if you have a baby coming or a baby already here, you just may be getting an owl hat from me. I do take requests if you are someone that I like and/or are related to. For the low/low price of the cost of yarn and expensive buttons, you to can make your baby an owl. If you are not someone I like or are related to... then you can have a handmade owl hat for $22. What a steal!

Wordless Wednesday

Nicoleyisms

Funny things by Nicole.

Nicole: Mama you are fat!
Me: That's not very nice sweetheart.
Nicole thinks...
Nicole: Mama, you are a good runner!
(The second best compliment she could think of.)

I start feeding Dan a bottle. Nicole runs upstairs.
Nicole comes back downstairs holding a baby doll and my hooter hider.
Nicole: Baby is hungry.
Me: Okay sweetheart, are you going to feed baby?
Nicole: Uh huh.
Nicole puts on hooter hider around her neck, puts baby doll under the hider, lifts up her shirt and puts baby doll to her belly button.
(everyone else in the room is laughing at her at this point and I have to be straight faced Mommy because she knows when we are laughing at her and she is very sensitive and will start to cry)
Me: Good job sweetheart, you are feeding baby!
Nicole: Baby is done.
Takes baby out and takes off hooter hider. Then, she grabs a burp cloth, puts it on her shoulder and burps her baby.
It was so very funny, but I could not laugh at her for fear that she would cry.

Riding in the car on the way home one night.
Me: Nicoley, look at the moon!
Nicole: I see it, it is white!
Me: Yes, it is white.
A mile later.
Nicole: Mama, the moon is following me.

Sleepover

The other day, Nicole decided that it was time for a sleepover with all her friends. So, she did this.

But, then, there was not any more room on the pillow for the other "friends." So, she asked me for more pillows. I gave her two off of my bed and she did this.

I guess bunny and herself didn't make the cut to actually lay on the bed. Nicole has been doing this a lot lately. Putting her animals to bed. I don't get why it is so fun. Perhaps because she gets to be the Mommy? It is cute either way.