October Update

We went to the Pumpkin Patch for the 2nd year in a row, and it was....interesting this time around. Last time Ryan was about 2 weeks old, but this time things were a mess. Addie has hit an extremely defiant stage and would not listen to me for anything, so I was trying to keep up with her and keep her from running into the road, while manuevering Ryan around in the stroller. He was really fussy and wanted out, but he does not like to hold my hand and walk with me (of course), so he was pulling away and screaming while I was trying to go over to Addison, who would not come or even turn around when I called. To top it all off, there were several muddy sloshy parts in the grass, and Ryan would pull away and then fall right into the mud, and scream when I'd pick him up to try and wash his hands or pants, and then Addie stepped in the mud and fussed about her muddy toes and shoes, so I put Ryan back in the stroller to get more wipes for Addie's feet and he kept trying to climb out and get away!!! Plus, I forgot my camera's memory card, so I had to rely on my wonderful friends to document the "fun" outing. Note to self: some things are worth doing just for the photo op - this was not one of them (although we did get some cute pictures somehow).

The girls have sure grown up since last year!

Addie's birthday party was a lot of fun! We had a lot of kids come, and it was a beautiful day. We cooked brisket and beans for everyone (hot dogs for the kids) and mostly the kids just ran around and played with all the toys. I had a few craft tables set up in the living room. Addie's cake was a haunted house, and it turned out great. It was really easy to do and ended up looking really nice. We had asked for no gifts from our guests, simply because we have an abundance and toys and generous grandparents, but they did get a some nice things.

Haunted House cake with pumpkin patch and graveyard

Enjoying birthday cake!

The poor, poor dog was gated off and forced to wear a witch hat.

Little buckroo and big Papoo

Back to back presents!

On Friday the 30th, we went trick or treating at Ainsley Courte, a retirement home, with our MOPS girls. Addison was sort of wild at first, but at the end, she surprised me so much! I had talked to her last time about shaking the peoples' hands, since they all love to reach out and pat the kids. Addie thought that was neat. This time, when we were leaving, I told her to go up to each resident and tell them thank you. She went up to every single one, looked directly at them, shook their hands, said Thank You, and then game them a hug!! There were probably 15-20 people in the lobby and she did that for each person. I was so proud of her! Most kids would not be nearly so interactive. And most of the time Addison certainly isnt. We'll see what happens next year, but even if it was just a fluke, I was really proud of her. That night, we went to a carnival and Trunk or Treat at a friend's church. The kids wore their costumes again and got lots of candy.

On Saturday morning, Halloween, Addie woke up and watched her shows (they had Halloween episodes of all her favorites - Diego, Dora, Backyardigans, Tigger and Pooh, Little Einsteins, Yo Gabba Gabba, Imagination Movers, Handy Manny, etc), and then Daddy took her in her Halloween pajamas to get donuts. She picked out a big gross looking one with sprinkles for herself. Then, as we set her at the table to eat, she saw her big birthday present: a Littlest Pet Shop with lots of animals. She simply adored playing "pets" this summer when Camryn had some of hers here at the house, and was really sad when we had to mail them back to Cammie, so when I saw a building with a bag of animals at a garage sale, I knew I had to get it. Addison LOVED it, and played with it all day.

Three snakes, three spiders, three year old girl (and one gross donut)


Littlest Pet Shop, biggest mess of pieces



Last year - my little baby!

That night, after our traditional Halloween dinner of chili dogs, we went over to Matt's sister Jennifer's house to go trick or treating with their son Hunter, who is almost 4. We weren't planning on hitting a lot of houses, but on just the one street we stayed on, almost every house was lit up. The kids had a fantastic time, and even Ryan toddled up the walkways with his bucket in hand to get candy. He had a death grip on that thing! Their buckets were loaded down by the time we got home, and they ended up in bed an hour late, which worked out perfectly since it was Daylight Savings time. It was a really fun night for all of us!

Hunter was a "cowboy pirate", once he saw that his cousins both had horses.



The three musketeers


Ryan tried to walk into every single house.

"We're the law in these parts, so give us some candy!"

We bought a Wii a few days ago. It's our first gaming console since Matt's old Sega he bought in grade school. Our ultimate goal is to drop our huge satellite bill, since we can now get the internet, Hulu, YouTube, etc. through the Wii and watch whatever we want online. We're still checking out the features to see how it will all work. That's our early Christmas present to ourselves.

Both kids have been slightly sick lately. Ryan is super stuffed up and super grouchy, and so is Addie. Matt and I noticed that Ryan's clinginess seems to be more directly related to me. I had never paid any attention to it before, but Matt says that Ryan isn't whiney and clingy while he is alone with him, it's just when I'm around too that Ryan feels the need to velcro himself to my pants. Well, too bad for him! Addison is just all kinds of a mess lately too. She cracks me up with eveything she says, then drives me crazy with her deliberate disobedience. She will just stand there and stare at me when I ask her to come eat, go potty, pick up a shoe, heck, even eat candy! It's like she can't believe I would have the gall to speak to her. Preview of teen years already??!!

I bought this skeleton yesterday on clearance to put out front next year on Halloween. If you will remember from a post or two ago, Addison was terrified of skeletons. Now, as you can see, it is her best friend. I think this is one of my favorite "weird" episodes so far. The pictures are priceless.

Hugging and wrapping him up on the couch

Reading him a story


"Press the button Skeletor! Not that button, THIS button!"


He went to Hobby Lobby with us, riding in the "big girl"seat (where there's no car seat), and she had to hold his hand


Hugging him with a "death" grip - I had started to take him upstairs to put away with the other decorations, and she stood at the bottom of the stairs WAILING. I had pity on her and brought him back down. See how red her eyes are?

She found a Santa hat and said, "Santa is at the mall!" I said, "Yes he is, do you want to take a picture with him?" (part of my ongoing scheme to get her used to Santa). She said no, and then I said we could just go look at him, but she said no, and I told her about sitting on his lap and she finally said, "No, I will look at Santa, but I don't want him to look at me." That sounds EXACTLY like me. Then I told her about kids sitting on his lap to tell him what they wanted him to bring them for Christmas, since he brings presents. This was a new concept for her, since last year she was too young to understand any of that. "Presents?" she asked. "Yes," I said, and suddenly she was very ready to sit on his lap and tell him that she wanted a present. I asked her what present she wanted, and she said, " A new animal." She of course already has a million animals, but she gets great pleasure from them! In fact, I couldn't help but buy her three new beanie babies at a garage sale - a monkey, a turkey and a unicorn, because she has her set of "baby animals" that she lugs around. When I asked her later what animal she wanted Santa to bring her, she thought really hard and said, "A cow. "

Here are some random things:

- For some reason, Addie has started to say that when she flushes the toilet, the toilet paper (and everything else) is going to the Y (MCA). She will watch it go down and say, "There it goes! It's going to the Y!"

- She loves her stage/dress up area (mostly at night, right before bed) and often dances beautifully in her mirrors. Often naked, or pantsless.

- Ryan calls everything a "duck". Not sure why, or what he's really trying to say, but he will walk quickly up to me with a shoe or book or toy, holding it high and looking right at my face and say "Duck!!!" as he falls into me and pushes the object into my face. He likes to play in the toy kitchen, especially pushing buttons on the microwave.

That's all I can think of for now....I've got to stay on top of blogging or it becomes too big of a chore!