Halloween 2009

Lots of photos of Harper, not many of Lucy, who was off playing with her friends instead of posing for photos. Lucy also walked ahead of us much of the night as she was on a mission. Harper, who had no idea at the beginning of the night that you were able to go begging for the sweet stuff and folks actually delivered, quickly caught on. She buzzed up to the first house held out her bag, recieved compliments and candy and was on her way. No slowing her down, there was candy to be gotten, and she as the bee to do it. Neither of the girls were spooked by anything, in fact, I think they preferred the houses that were decorated with skeletons and spiders, monsters and ghosts. I had chosen a small bag for Harper thinking that she would lose interest early on and that she wouldn't be able to carry much anyways. I was wrong, she wanted her bag full, a candy bar in the other hand and her sights on the next house. She would climb up a step to go to another door and spill her whole bag and when she walked across a lumpy yard she would leave a trail of candy like Gretal. She only noticed once that I was emptying her bag into Lucy's so that she could continue to fill her tiny little pumpkin.

Earlier in the day the Parrish and Caroline joined us for a few hours. The kids got ready for trick or treating by listening to Lucy's Candyland Mix Cd that we made for bday party favors. The favorites were "I want candy" and "Lollipop, Lollipop" with all 4 kids dancing and singing around the house. Then at 5 o'clock, on the dot, Ronin and X showed up, ready for tongue tattoos, arm tattoos, candy and running through the neighborhood. We avoided most of the rain and the weather was actually very warm and humid. Once trick or treating was ended and the kids had looked through their loot and filled their tummies with sugar, they climbed into their pjs- Harper off to bed dreaming sweet dreams and Lucy and her friends off to watch a movie. A late night for Lu and she woke up several times in the middle of the night but she awoke Sunday morning looking for a sugar fix. To remedy the rainy day, sugar buzzed frenzy that was our house, Ian took the girls to the rec center for swimming. They crashed this afternoon and were ready for more candy. See a trend? I am sure we will let them indulge for a few more days. The more candy they eat, the less I do.

Boo at the Zoo

For the past few years it has rained on our ticketed day to go to Boo at the Zoo. I mean RAINED. This year looked to the the same fate. Taylor was in town, Ian was in Vegas and the girls and I were geared up for Boo at the Zoo. Bon Bon had delivered on the perfect jockey costume for Lucy, Harper had mastered saying "buzz" for her bee costume and I was prepared to brave the crowds with three kiddos in tow. And it rained. Not a little sprinkle, but downpours for hours beforehand. Taylor kept checking weather.com and I decided that we were going, no matter what.

We loaded the car with the kids, costumes, and picked up dinner on the way, in the rain. We drove the 25 minutes to the zoo, in the rain. And then, there it was, a clearing sky. Just in time. We "tailgaited" (don't get me started on how much the term tailgait has changed in the past 10 years for me) and did final touches on the costumes and off we went.

The two things Lucy was looking forward to? Getting an apple (no joke!) and going through the giant tiger. Let me explain the tiger. You enter through the mouth as the tiger "eats you" then you proceed through a tunnel that takes you through the entire digestive track of the tiger, complete with sounds and other bits of food that the tiger has eaten, and then you are pooped out at the end, again with sounds. Lucy is endlessly delighted by this and actually remembered it from last year. Neither of her favorites disappointed and new ones were added: seeing cockroaches crawl in and out of their own jack-0-lantern, seeing and hearing the male lion roar from happiness at his own treat-filled pumpkin, seeing the orangutans covered with blankets and sleeping in their hay "cribs" and the octopus that was suckered to the side of the tank.

Harper loved the goats, tortoises, the snakes and the treats. She was tired half-way through and thank goodness Taylor was happy to sit with her and let her gorge on treats while Lucy and I tried to conquer more of the zoo.

All in all, we had a fantastic time, stayed dry and while Lucy was officially "pooped out" of the tiger tunnel twice, we all left a bit pooped in the end, but with yummy treats in hand.

little cuties

Graham at 6 weeks.

Graham having a tough day and only being able to sleep on the floor, I was just happy he was sleeping for more than 3 minutes at a time.

Harper at 17 months has taken up the Atlantic-City-casino-regular-look with skin tight colored leggings, a diaper butt, oversized tshirt and crazy hairdo. Oh yeah, and she has begun nursing her babies and stuffed animals.

Spooky Walk

Lucy's school put on their annual "Spooky Walk" for the kids on Thursday. All the older kids came in costume and paraded around the school for the parents and smaller children then had Halloween parties in their room. We contributed a Ghost bean bag toss, ghost lollipops and a pass the pumpkin game. Lucy loved making monster hands out of plastic gloves, candy corn and popcorn and decorating cookies. Harper was there, too. She made herself a typical little sister nuisance by laying in the middle of the floor during the games and stealing the bean bags, then throwing a tantrum because she wanted another lollipop. I was not able to take photos of her shenanigans due to the fact that I was balancing Graham and trying to drag her naughty self out, but they did ask for monsters, and she delivered.

Harper the toddler witch

Into the pile

Lucy has been so excited about the prospect of having enough leaves to jump into in our yard this year. We certainly do not have a shortage of leaves and they have just really begun to fall. After raking a sizable pile, with the girls help and the help of a mail cart and a dump truck, the pile was big enough to envelope my wee little ladies. Lucy never hesitates to jump, into a pool, in a moonbounce, on the floor, on the couch, on a bed and certainly into a pile of leaves. Harper was a bit more casual and hesitant about it. Graham even got into the action when he stopped crying for all of 2 minutes (for the day) to pose with the girls. Jump in!

Diva

Harper thought she was pretty cute this night after bath when she ran in and had Gramzie put Lucy's sunglasses on her. Then she ran around, sometimes INTO walls and showed off her new look. Who needs a shirt when your future is so bright that you gotta wear shades?

The Stairmaster

So, here I am doing laundry in the basement. Both girls are playing upstairs and Graham is in bed. Then Lucy comes in, as always, to "tell me something" (Lord, that girl always has something to tell me, and it usually is total nonsense about some storyline she has running in her head that involves her "husband" Matt or a horse named Ryan or one of her 12 kids. But I digress...)

And then, here comes Harper. Now, why is that monumental? Because as I stated before, Harper was upstairs. She was UPstairs. And now she was down. I didn't know whether to celebrate or be upset. She had never tried going down the stairs before. Never even tried. And here she was, all the way down. I applauded, if she can go downstairs all by herself then I don't have to constantly take her down there to play (constant, since she gets carried down and then comes up to tell me something or show me something or get a drink, etc and then wants to go back down immediately).

Well, I applauded until about and hour later I witnessed her trying to go down them all by herself. It made me a nervous wreck. She doesn't scoot or slide, she tries to walk down, just as she sees Lucy and adults do. She doesn't hold onto a rail, she tries to grip the wall. She wobbles, catches her balance and then goes for the next step. It is a concussion waiting to happen.

I have since tried to show her how to go down other ways. Sometimes she does it, sometimes not. For now, she isn't allowed to wear just socks in the house for fear that they will just make her all the more slippery.

And as a note, the stairs are not just for climbing or descending in Harper's world. They are a whole new place to play. She loves to go down just a couple and sit there. Like it is her own little nook. She also will go down to the landing and look out the window. Right now she stands there and yells "Spider!" or "Bones!" or "Ghost" because of our Halloween decorations that we have out. We have a no playing on the stairs rule but there she is, many, many times a day. All little and cute on the third step down.

Zanne's visit

Here are a few photos taken while Gramzie was visiting and of Graham's 4th week. The girls were slathered in attention for more than two weeks, I had the help I needed and Graham got extra cuddles every day, but not many photos were taken, not much time for that when you are ALWAYS holding somebody.

I scream, you scream, we all scream

Lucy and Harper have a new game. This is how it goes:
-Harper screams, a happy scream, but a loud and obnoxious scream, nonetheless
-Lucy "shushes" her
-They giggle.
Repeat, 1 million and 1 times each and every day. The only variation is that Lucy will also scream.
Another fun game:
-Lucy says "mmmmmm!" very loudly, as in "mmmmm, this food is really good!"
-Harper also says, "mmmmmmmm!" even louder.
Repeat 1 million and 1 times each meal time.
It has gotten old. It has been about a week since this started. What this means is that I have had a week not only of listening to these not-fun games, but I have also had the joy of hearing it first thing in the morning when Harper starts it up, wakes Lucy up, wakes me up and eventually wakes Graham up. The same goes for naptimes. With little sleep occurring on my part, this is not a game I want to continue. Ask Harper, she went to tim-e out four or five times today for screaming. Lucy went twice.
I told them they could scream all they wanted outside. Even that had to end today when I had heard it no less than 20 times in 10 minutes. The neighbors should not be subjected to their "games". It can't be ignored and unfortunately, all it makes me want to do is, well, scream.

Three weeks ago at three weeks

Ok, so things have been a bit crazy around here. Here are photos that I took three weeks ago of Graham. As I look at him snoozing in his bouncy chair right next to me, I realize that our little man has really changed over the past three weeks. You would know that, if I had time to load the current photos on my camera onto the computer and then onto the blog. For now, just take my word for it. He might be cute in these photos, but he is about twice this size now, eating his weight in milk each and every day. Here are some other quick highlights of Graham's 5th week:

• he went to the zoo for the first time. Boo at the Zoo. He ate and slept through most of it. But, yes, we did fill a treat bag in his honor, and have divvied up the spoils accordingly. Too bad for Graham, they don't pass out milk.
• Harper now feels the need to tell me each and every time that Graham cries. She will come barreling around the corner, stop an inch in front of me and say, "Am Nying" (Graham Crying). This even happens if I am holding said crying Graham.
• He has officially outgrown his Newborn sized clothes and is nearly out of some of his 0-3 month clothes.
• He has rolls on his thighs, his chin, his arms and his belly is beginning to bulge over his pants.
• He is cooing. He loves his mobile and talks and coos at it. He will also occasionally coo at me at 4am but I try my best not to coo back, 4am is for sleeping, not for chatting.
• He is smiling socially. He saves most of them for me, but Lucy is also the benefactor and she loves it!
• He only woke once last night and was on his way to sleeping in until 8am. That is until Harper began screaming at 7:30. Please see blog entry on screaming.
• He is burping, finally. For some reason my kids do not like to burp and I spend much of my days trying to get them to burp. He is finally starting to burp which seems to be helping his demeanor quite a bit.
• His baby acne is on its way out and his soft skin is coming back.