Halloween Shenanigans

Tonight was pretty fun. Everyone arrived at our house at about 6:30 for pictures. All the kids (and some of the parents) looked awesome! We had two Dorothys, two Glindas, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, a flying monkey, the Wicked Witch of the East, Auntie Em and Uncle Henry, and the Wizard (who opted out of pictures)(actually his costume couldn't fit in the door). Erin was supposed to be Toto but she was SUPER tired and cried from 5:45 on so I did not dress her up.

We started out just when it was getting dark and most houses did not have their porch lights on yet. We got about 3 houses down and Leah started dragging behind because her shoes were too big. She was having a hard time walking in them. Mike was also dragging behind because his costume kept falling apart. So, with Erin in the wrap, I carried Leah several houses. I was so irritated with Mike at this point because I had suggested that he not dress up considering he just got it all put together tonight at 6pm. My irritation was a little irrational, I admit. I was just frustrated that I needed his help with the kids and he was more worried about his costume. At that point, I decided to go home and get the stroller for Leah to ride in between houses and that worked pretty well. Then Erin, who had fallen asleep in the wrap, woke up crying again. So I decided to just go home and put her to bed. Mike took Leah around for another half hour, then they called it a night too.

A little while later, while sorting through and sampling candy, something happened that broke my heart a little. Mike and I were bickering back & forth over something really stupid. Leah was standing next to me. After listening to it for a minute, she said, "Mommy, leave Daddy alone." All at once, I remembered what it was like to be a kid and hear your parents argue. It was such an awful feeling, I never wanted my kids to go through it. I know that is not entirely possible, AND what Mike & I were doing was NOTHING like what I lived with as a kid. But still, I felt so guilty. Then she sat in my lap and hugged me and said "I love you, Mom." Crack, crack, now do you hear my heart breaking?

Carolina BalloonFiasco

Yesterday we had high hopes of a beautiful day spent watching hot air balloons take off. Laurie had told us about the Carolina BalloonFest in Statesville. It was about an hour's drive. We left home at 3:15pm and stopped for gas and diapers. At 4:25 we were turning about 4 miles away. At 5:50 we pulled into the parking lot.

That's right, I said 5:50.

It took us an hour and a half to go 4 miles! The line was ridiculous! There was a "Mass Ascension" at 4:30 that we had wanted to see. Well, we got to see it from the car. Mike & Leah got out and walked for a while next to the car. That's how slow we were moving.

At several points, I considered just calling it a day and going home. But at a certain point, you have waited long enough that you don't want to have wasted the wait. You might as well just go through with it. And at the time I had no idea how much farther we had to go. I kept thinking, surely it is right around THIS bend.

Our friends we were meeting there were in line to leave as we were parking. They waved goodbye to us from across the parking lot. Now, as this was supposed to be an afternoon outing, we were ALL in short sleeves (it was in the high 70s). The afternoon outing had turned into an evening/night outing.

My poor babies had no jackets.

I wore Erin in the wrap so I was able to tuck her arms in and she stayed pretty warm. Leah, on the other hand, was pretty chilly.

We were originally intended to stop on the way home and get dinner maybe at Cracker Barrel. But by the time we got into the festival, we were starving. We did not have enough cash for us all to eat. Thank goodness there was an ATM trailer there. Then we proceeded to spend $40 on greasy fair food we didn't even want. After the sun went down, we got to experience the "Glow." They shot flames into all the balloons at once so that they were glowing simultaneously. It really was beautiful. We raced for the car after that, to beat the traffic out.

It took us 15 minutes to get to the interstate instead of an hour and a half this time. After a few miles on the highway, cars start slowing down. Mike is about to start screaming obscenities, when I volunteer to drive home (I had driven there too). We do a Chinese fire drill in the middle of the highway in stopped traffic. It doesn't take long for us to find the source of the traffic. Construction at 8pm on a Saturday night. What idiot ordered that?!?!? Mike, my lovely husband, shouted things like, "3am would be a great time for construction" out the window to the workers as we passed them.

We stopped for Chik-fil-a and a double diaper change in the back of the van. On the road again, Leah munched a few nuggets and spilled her milk in her carseat. I had to climb in the back and crouch on the floor looking through the diaper bag for clothes for her. I had stocked a separate bag from my usual one and kept it in the car since my last poop incident. So I had a change of clothes for her. I undid her top buckle and switched out her shirt. After that, we had some peace in a quiet van. Amazingly, both girls allowed us to change their diapers and put them into jammies without waking up too much when we finally got home at 9:30.

So next year, no BalloonFest for us.

Leah-isms

Leah's Papa gave her a real working stethoscope and we taught her how to put it in her ears and put the other end on her chest to listen to her heartbeat. She claims she can hear it when we help her place it. So the other day she comes into the kitchen with it and says "Mom, it's time for your check-up!" She also wanted to give Erin a check-up. How funny!

Also she is going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Halloween. Whenever anyone asks her what she is going to be, she says "Daw-fee, Daw-fee, Daw-fee, Daw-fee." NO one can quite understand what she is saying. We actually had a Wizard of Oz party last night at Ian's house. Four families in our neighborhood decided to be Wizard characters for Halloween. I can't wait to see the pictures. Anyway, Laurie invited us all over for popcorn, pizza, and movie watching. After the first 45 minutes, the kids were in the playroom and the moms were in the dining room looking at L's scrapbooks. But Leah did get to see Dorothy and Toto and still really likes the shoes.

Last one, then gotta go get Erin up from her nap. We were looking at our wedding photos the other day. I think that may be the first time Leah has seen them. When she saw me with my headpiece on, she said "Mommy, you are a princess!" Got that right sister!

Diaper Capers

This morning while I was taking a shower, Leah laid on my bed and watched TV. When I got out, I heard her say, "Mommy, I taked my diaper off." I went in to ask her why and this is what I saw.

How hilarious is that?

In other news, the CDS girls had a scrapbook night last night. I did 2 complete pages and 2 partial pages. If you want to see my latest scrapbook pages, check out our website at G-Rated Life. Click on photos, then Scrapbook Pages on the right.

Sleeping like a baby

Erin is such a wacky sleeper. Two nights ago she slept from 7:30pm til 8:30am! She woke up to eat very briefly at 11pm and 4am. That was an AMAZING night's sleep for both of us. (If only Leah would get in sync.) During the day, it is not unusual for her to only be awake for like 5-6 hours total. She can only stand being awake for an hour and a half MAX before she starts getting fussy. That is her window. If I miss her window she is a real pill to put down. If I am in tune with her, she lays right down in her crib for a good nap. Today, she slept from 10:45am until 3:45pm! Does anyone else think she sleeps a ridiculous amount for a 10 week old? I thought this kind of thing was more the behavior of a one month old.

I finally bought a new camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3K. Mike is working to get the admin page of our website functional so I can upload to it. That is why you have not seen Corn Maze pictures yet. But look for them soon! I guess I can post a few here.

Maddex and Gallers kids

A family photo

These kids are so darn cute!

Blogsurfing

I was blog surfing today and I found this You Tube video from Sesame Street from 1977. (How do I phrase that sentence to not say from twice?) Check it out.

I don't have much to say

Everything here is going swimmingly. I guess I will discuss with you the two things I have been focusing on lately.

Number 1 is choosing health insurance for Mike's new job. It is significantly more expensive at the new job than the old one. We are trying to decide between the HMO and the 80/20 PPO. The problem is the HMO is like 300 more a PAY PERIOD than the PPO. That is a LOT over the course of a year. I know, everyone says get the HMO with kids. And they could be right. But the deductible on the PPO is not that bad (300 ind/600 fam) and the out of pocket max is not all that high either. So what do you think?

I was also trying to decide (still part of #1) whether to move with my pediatrician to her new office. We REALLY like her, but her new office is 30 min away as opposed to 10 min currently. I was trying to make sure she was covered under both possible new insurances. She is, so we decided to move to the new practice and suck up the drive. Hey, there is more good shopping there than Monroe anyway.

Number 2 (this is going to sound silly) is my chore list. I found this link from my pregnancy board on BabyCenter. No, I did not pay outright for it. The rest of 2007 was half-price and Mike had enough left in his PayPal account to cover it. He was never going to use that $ anyway. So I got it. It is VERY comprehensive. I never think to do things like clean my porch light fixture, but it is one of my chores today. I like that it forces you to do the obscure chores. My house has been cleaner since I started it. Now I don't do every chore EVERY day. Sometimes I switch them around and sometimes I skip things that I don't think are necessary. But I like having something to keep me on track.

Also, we have to buy a new digital camera this week. We are going to the Aw Shucks Corn Maze this weekend and I can't be without a camera! We had a blast there last year. Mandi bought the girls the cutest Halloween outfits to wear there. Anyway, any camera advice???

Long time, no post...

I know it has been forever since I have posted. We left last Saturday for a week in Florida and just got back last night. Our neighborhood had a garage sale planned for today that I did not prepare for and I ended up just throwing things out there to see if maybe something would sell. We sold our old lawn mower and a bug bouncer. So it was not too bad of a sale.

Back to our week in FL. Saturday night when we arrived, lots of our friends came over to watch the Gator game. Leah stayed up until 10:30 that night and Erin did her whole "I am asleep until you put me down thing" til then too. We went out first thing in the AM to get a swing from Wal-Mart for Erin. It worked like a charm the rest of the week. Sunday we went to Downtown Disney with Mandi & Barry and Mike's parents. My mom stayed with us the whole week too and she was an AWESOME GRAMMY! Thank you so much!

Monday and Tuesday were park days thanks to Megan. Leah told us the rest of the week anytime we talked about Magic Kingdom "I din like the Winnie a Pooh ride." There is a part with Heffalumps where there is lightning and thunder that she didn't like. She didn't like that part of Rainforest Cafe either. But she did like the carousel, Dumbo, an her favorite, It's a Small World. We met Mickey, which scared her yet again, and she saw Mickey's and Minnie's houses. At Animal Kingdom we saw Nemo, the musical. Erin had a poop explosion right when the lights went down for the show to start so I had to exit quickly. Then halfway through she got fussy so Mike took her up to the top to bounce around. But for the most part both girls did well at the parks. Leah did not nap at all while we were in FL, but was still pretty good.

Wednesday Mike went to a skate park where our CAMERA was stolen. Yeah, the one with all the Disney pictures. So we have to rely on my mom, who took a few, and Mandi who took some too that first day. BOO! Us girls went shopping with my step-dad. Then we ate dinner at one of those Japanese steakhouses. Leah liked watching them cook.

Thursday was Sea World. The Donalds met us there and we got to meet Corgan, who is 9 days younger than Erin. He was a sweetheart. Belle is such an awesome little girl too. She is so confident and sure of herself. Also, she and Leah are the same size! we had a great time with them, but were exhausted early that day.

We finally arrived home Friday night at 8pm. It was a great trip, but super tiring. Thank goodness we still have the weekend!

Don't forget to...

delurk!


Please comment if you read here or are just stopping by to see what I am about after reading my comments on your blog.

Girls Night Out... and the Consequences

Last night Laurie, Liza (a new neighbor) and I went to dinner at Miro's Spanish Grille. I had decided the week before that I needed a little break from Mommy mode and asked the girls to go out. Several of our regulars were out of town this week and another one had ballet practice tonight so we were down to three. Not taking a diaper bag as a purse was unusual and driving the Corolla with only adults in it was even stranger. The restaurant was FABULOUS!!! We ate the chef's selection of tapas for an appetizer along with a pitcher of Sangria. There were things like a Spanish omelette, fried calamari, some beef tips with an aioli sauce, etc. The I ordered the seafood mixture that comes in paella on angel hair pasta. We all shared a tres leche cake and a Belgian dark chocolate cheesecake slice. This meal was so delicious, the company was awesome, the night was perfect.

I get home at 11:00 and Mike is in Erin's room comforting her. She was due to eat so I fed her and it took about 30 minutes to get her back to sleep. At 1am Leah wakes up crying. There is nothing wrong with her, she just wants company. She cries every 20 minutes until 2:30. Erin wakes up to eat at 3am. At least she went right back to sleep this time. Then she wakes up at 6:10 to eat again, but dozes off shortly after in my bed. Leah is up for the day at 7am and Erin is right behind her. There was not much sleep for me last night. I don't think it was DUE to my girls night, but it was a rough night anyway.

So Erin has left behind the newborn stage of sleeping all the time, anywhere, anyhow. The car seat and the swing used to be the magic sleep-makers, but no longer. She wouldn't take a pacifier at all up until last night, but even with the pacifier every time it fell out of her mouth, she woke up and pitched a fit. Even nursing doesn't automatically induce sleep when she is tired. So we are having the sleep-deprived crying jags often throughout the day. I hate that I KNOW she is tired, but she won't let go and just FALL asleep. What is up with that?

Kaitlyn Stewart has arrived!

Congratulations to Christina, Joe, and Zach on the birth of their newest family member, Kaitlyn Marie Stewart!(Is that still her name, Christina?) We are so happy that she is here and Christina did great with the birth from what I hear. We can't wait to meet the newest member of the Hive. Lots of love to you all!