Halloween!

I’ve never been a big Halloween fan.  I am a big scaredy-cat, so that may have something to do with it.  But I love an excuse to make my cute little ones even cuter, and nothing does that like a costume.  And candy?  Yes please!  Holidays are so much fun with little children!

We started off our Halloween with Mimi’s homemade pumpkin bread for breakfast.  Then, while Meredith took her morning nap, Russell and I decorated a pumpkin.  I asked him whether he wanted to use paint or dot markers – dot markers it was!

We went about our day with nothing else Halloweeny until dinner: mummy hot dogs!

We dressed up our little Calvin and Hobbes and headed out the door for our very first Trick-or-Treating experience!

Before we left, I explained to Russell what we were going to do.  He was very excited.  And not just about the candy – he was excited about knocking on people’s doors, saying “trick-or-treat,” and the candy part.  I think he was happy to do something out of the ordinary.

Our first stop was Grandmother’s house – where Calvin played with trucks and Hobbes needed baby food.

We quickly rushed to our friends David and Lisa’s house. The plan was to get some candy there and then come back and trick-or-treat in our neighborhood (we live 5-10 minutes from them).  But once we saw the great fire they had going in their fire pit, we decided to just trick-or-treat around their neighborhood and come back and hang out by the fire.  (I know Lisa has a few pictures of that so maybe she will send me some that I can post!)  (edit: here's a pic from Lisa!)


Russell loved “chasing the fire” (really running through the smoke) and blowing on the fire.  I’m not sure if he was blowing on it to stoke it or to try to cool it off.

We all had a great time!  We stayed until Russell’s bedtime – past Meredith’s bedtime – but they were both being good! 

Happy Halloween!

Pops and Mimi visit

We had a wonderful, low-key weekend at home with my parents in town.  (It would have been more wonderful had Russell not been sick again, and had we been able to go to the 2 parties we were supposed to go to this weekend…but that’s life I guess.)

On Saturday, Mimi and Meredith read books – well, Mimi read books while Meredith tried to eat them.  I don’t remember Russell trying to eat books, so this is a little new to me.  I always have to have a toy or paci on hand when reading to Meredith so she doesn’t grab and eat the book.

My lovely parents (and sweet Bogie).

My aunt came into town and visited with us for a little while on Saturday afternoon.  Russell just loves Aunt Nancy.  The feeling must be mutual because she will play cars with him for a good long time!

We went out to dinner at CiCi’s Pizza on Saturday – close to our house, cheap, Russell loves pizza – can’t go wrong, right?  It started well: Meredith’s first time sitting in a high chair instead of her car seat and she was so happy and good, and we were excited to go out with my parents.  But we noticed Russell wasn’t eating (very unlike him) and was being pretty whiny but wouldn’t tell us what was wrong.  So I felt his forehead and he felt warm.  Then, he threw up all over his plate in the restaurant.  Not one of my favorite moments.  We went home immediately and did baths and bed.  I actually think he just got worked up – I don’t think it was a stomach bug.  He had a low-grade fever this morning (99) but that was it.  Who knows.

Anyway, because of that, my parents kept Russell at home this morning while the rest of us went to church:

He was better this afternoon (and even before nap time today) so we are ready for our first trick-or-treating experience tomorrow night!

Bad and Good

Two completely different things from the past 2 days:

1) Poor little Meredith has thrush and an upper respiratory infection.  Thank the Lord I don’t have thrush (yet at least) – well, I don’t think I do – I’ve been told I’ll know if I have it.  The doctor said hers is very mild.  As for the infection: she did have a cold last week, but since yesterday afternoon, her main symptoms have been not sleeping well, not eating well, and pulling at her ears, so obviously I thought she had an ear infection or was teething.  It wasn’t until tonight that she had a fever.  She’s now on Ny-something (for thrush) 4x/day and if the infection doesn’t clear up we’ll start Amoxicillin on Friday.  Poor baby girl!

On to better news:

2) Some family friends have started doing a devotional with their little girl once a week.  Just by her telling me, it made me want to do it – so thanks for the great inspiration, Kathy!  Our first family devotional was last night.  We had a lesson on Jesus calling His first disciples (Matthew 4:17-19).  We read the Bible verses, had Russell repeat verse 19, explained it (the best we could) in 2-year-old terms, and made a “fisher of men” door hanger craft.  We all really enjoyed it!

So there you have it: one thing I hope continues for 17+ years (family devotionals) and one thing I hope ends very very soon (illnesses)!  I’m nervous about this winter, sickness-wise.  We had plenty last year with just 1 kid – what will it be like with two?

Meredith’s 6 month Photos

Well, I was going to try to get a few more 6 month photos of Meredith, which is why I hadn’t posted these yet.  But since everyone in this house has been sick except me, it just doesn’t seem like it will happen – and I’m very happy with the ones I have!  So here they are!

Favorite:

She was holding Kitty in this one

And one non-tutu/fall-ish shot:

Love this sweet baby!

Things to Remember

{We have had a low-key week – Russell ended up getting croup on Wednesday (although we didn’t know that’s what it was until Saturday, it was misdiagnosed at first) – so we’ve been keeping to ourselves.  He’s over it now though, so we’ll be out and about again starting tomorrow!}

All of these are cell phone pics – this one is Russell playing in our trailer:

I just want a little snapshot of Russell at this point in his life.  He’s growing and changing so fast!  Here’s the newest news about him:

Favorite song: Wheels on the Bus.  Every time we’re in the car, he wants it on repeat.

Favorite thing on TV: CARS.  While he was sick this week, he watched the entire thing every day.  When he’s not sick, I limit it to 30 minutes of the movie per day.

Favorite foods: yogurt-covered raisins, Graham Bites (graham cracker-ish things that are in the shape of the CARS characters), grapes, strawberries, cheese.

Favorite drink: “apple juice.” (half the time, it’s some other type of juice, but he thinks it’s all apple juice.)

Funny things:

1) The bathroom is right next to Meredith’s room, so when Meredith is sleeping and Russell has used the potty, I sort of whisper “yay!  you pee-peed in the potty!  I’m so proud of you!”  So now when telling someone else he went, he’ll often whisper, “pee-peed potty today!  So so so proud of you!” (yes, he calls himself “you".  And he always adds “today”.)

2) Cooking dinner is a huge accomplishment for me because both kids get crazy around 5 pm and they both just want to be held.  Generally, what ends up happening is that I’ll complete a small part of cooking, then have to hold Meredith in one arm while gathering ingredients/stirring/etc with the other.  Russell has been taking it upon himself to then grab both of my legs and walk with me, saying “goofball.  Goofball.” (because that’s what I call him when he does this.)  I wish I could take a picture – I know this  is quite a site.

3) Russell can say entire prayers now.  At meal times, he will say, “Dear Lord, thank you for this food.  Amen.”  At bedtime, I’ll say, “Dear Lord, thank you for” and before I finish, he interjects his own thoughts.  Some examples: Daddy, Fuzzy, lunch.

There are many, many more funny things; at least this way I’ll remember these few!

Happy half-birthday, baby girl!

Meredith is 6 months old!

At 6 months, Meredith is:

• Wearing 6-9 mo clothes and 9 month clothes
• Wearing size 2 diapers
• Taking 3 naps a day, (loosely) at 9:30, 12:30, and 4:00 – first 2 are 45 minutes and the last is an hour and a half.
• Sleeping from 7:30 pm to 6:45 or 7 am – sometimes she wakes up once to nurse and sometimes she sleeps through the night.
• Eating peas, squash, apples, pears from a jar, and homemade butternut squash and banana, and rice cereal mixed with breastmilk – loves all of it!

• Sleeps sucking her thumb (since we took away her paci for sleeping) and with her kitty (lovey) right next to her cheek – it’s so adorable.
• Favorite song is “I love you a bushel and a peck” – she gives a huge grin just from hearing the first line.
• Sits independently, but still falls over reaching for toys, so I usually leave the boppy around her.
• Is definitely teething, which has caused a couple of rough nights. Her top gums are swollen and we can see the top two front teeth under the surface.
• We expect her to crawl within a couple months (at most) – as I’ve said before, she gets up on her knees and elbows and scoots herself forward, and today she was rocking on her knees and elbows. If she can get up on her hands, she’ll really take off!

• Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz (25th percentile)
  
• Height: 26.25 in (75th percentile) - still tall and skinny
  
• Head: 16.5 in (25th percentile)
• Had 2 of her 6-months vaccines today plus a flu shot - she cried but recovered quickly!
  

Meredith is our little sunshine – our squealy, cheerful girl – and she lights up our world with her frequent smiles! Happy 6 months, baby!

Farm Fun

We had so much fun last fall at a farm about 20 minutes away from us, and we knew even then that we would do it again this year.  Well, it was very different having a baby with us, but Russell had a blast!  And Meredith was pretty content, even though she was very overdue for a nap.

A friend organized the outing so that a bunch of families from church could go on the same day.  It was fun to see all of our friends!

When we first got there (after a potty break for Russell) we headed straight to the area they staged for photos.  I knew we wouldn’t get them otherwise!  From a mom standpoint (though not from a technical/photographic standpoint), I love them!

We then made our way over to this tractor where Russell found his friend Elaina.  I just love this photo – looks like they’re having a sweet conversation!

Then we headed for the swings and the teetor totter.  I wish I had a photo of Meredith and me on the teetor totter – she just loved it!  She was laughing and smiling like crazy.  And so was Russell.

Teetering with Eliza and her dad!

Russell and Jason rode the cow tractor ride again this year.  I don’t know what happened, but it took them forever to get going.  The driver kept getting off the tractor and checking this and that.  I was thinking when they finally did get going, they might not make it back!

Meredith was ready to get down and play.  I ended up picking her up again because she just wanted to eat the grass.  By the handful.

We finished up with the hayride:

I think we’ll go again next year!