Pumpkin Picking

This year we went "pumpkin picking" at our local farmer's market.  I go there all summer long and they are only open a few more days.  They have the best produce at incredibly cheap prices and it is all locally grown.  Must remember to stop up there this weekend to get the last of the fresh goodies.

Now I cannot wait till we carve them up for all those delicious pumpkin seeds!

One of those mornings...

Today is just one of those mornings...

• Lila woke up at 5:30am after she went to bed at 10:30pm.  Unlucky tooth 13 I guess.
• I had the joys of hand washing dirty dishes in our bathroom sink
• Waiting patiently for Roto-Rooter to show up so I can hopefully catch up on tons of laundry and run the diswasher (which is filled with dirty dishes)
• Lila ate half my breakfast
• I need to work on Brendan's monster costume and fold a couple loads of laundry

Today is one of those mornings...

• I got to talk to my best friend on the phone and hear about her sweet little boy.  He's almost 5 days old!
• Lila is taking a nap!
• I had a yummy coffee and I made sure to make enough for an extra cup later
• I text Jason "teenager code" that I learned on the show The Doctors and he thought it was Lila texting him
• I also watched some of Ellen and she makes me laugh
• On Demand wasn't working so I didn't have to watch Caillou

21 months of Lila

 Little Miss Lila is 21 months today.

I simply cannot believe that 21 months have passed since Lila came into our lives.

She has the funniest personality with a little wild streak.  By little I mean she is all kinds of crazy!

She is talking so much more now and will have "conversations" with you.  She loves to pretend talk on our cell phones and has been known to call people without my knowledge.  That is what I get for putting pictures on my cell phone!

She is obsessed with ducks, goose, her stinky seal, and Caillou.

She says: ducks, "oose", "ah-pees", Caillou, "mom-me", "dah-dee", "mam-muh", "dew", aunt that, aunt yummy, no-no, oops, uh-oh, thanks, "doh-doh", not yet, "scuse me", night night, hi, bye, love you, lila, "coco", meow, dog, juice, "leebs", up, down, "eep", I, this, baby, yeah, go, shoes, eyes

She still signs, please, more, thank you(sometimes), cookie, all done(sometimes), goose, book, eat and milk

She loves to play outside, read books, cuddle before naps and bedtime, take baths, eat, Brendan, go for walks, mommy and daddy, singing, and dancing

Her favorite songs are "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "I love you", and "Old Macdonald"

She has been testing her limits lately and has gone to time out on more than one ( a lot) occasion.  She has started hitting, kicking, and even biting when she gets mad.  She kicked Jason the other night so I asked her to go tell daddy sorry and she went over, smiled at him, and kicked him again.  The joys of toddlerhood!

She sleeps around 12 hours at night and usually one 2-3 hour nap during the day.  She has been fighting her nap recently and some days doesn't take one.  She has 12 teeth and is working on more!  Lots of drool around here.

Lila, you make us so happy and keep us on our toes!  We love you!

Lost tooth

Right before Brendan started school, I took him to the dentist for his teeth cleaning.  His dental hygienist/my friend's mom, noticed that his tooth bottom teeth were starting to get wiggly.  The x-rays showed the bottom teeth making there way up.  Brendan wiggled that tooth all the time, every day.  He kept telling me his tooth felt wiggly and it was getting ready to fall out.

Fast forward about 5 weeks and sure enough, that tooth was getting loose.  We would wiggle it and then look at it and wiggle it some more.  Brendan then became nervous about losing that tooth.  He was scared about the tooth fairy coming in his room while he was asleep.  We assured him it was just like Santa coming and she even left you money for your tooth.

So one chilly October evening our neighborhood friends invited us over for smores after dinner.  We made our way over and the kids ate smores, ran around, wrestled, and pushed each other on the swings.  While we were standing in the kitchen, Brendan and his buddy, Nick, come running inside to play.  Brendan took his jacket off and I caught a glimpse of his mouth.  His smile now missing a tooth. 

"Brendan come over here and let me see something." I said and glance into his mouth.  There is all the proof I need.  That tooth was gone!  "Hey Brendan.  You lost your tooth.  Did you know that?"

Insert a lot of excited shrieking from the adults (well the moms) and the four kids.  They all excitedly ran to the bathroom to check out his new grin and I called outside to Jason to see if he had the tooth.  Nope.  No idea where it went.  We did try to look for it but the dark sky, rain, and leaves didn't make it any easier. 

Instead he wrote a note explaining that he lost it outside and then put the note under his pillow.  He was thrilled when he woke up the next morning to $2 whole dollars!  He even planned out how he was going to spend it. $1 for Cookie Friday at school and the other dollar for when we go to the restaurant with all the games.

Hopefully we will get tooth #2 when it decides to fall out...

Lila's one true love...

Lila has recently discovered the preschool show "Caillou" and is OBSESSED with it.  If you have never had the privilege of watching this show (and I'm totally jealous of you) it is about a little bald 4 year old and his family. The show info states something like "inquisitive four year old blah, blah, blah..." 

Image source here

This show is pure bliss because it allows for approx 25 minutes of mommy quiet time.  Examples...

1.  It is 5pm and both kids are cranky and dinner needs to be made.  Turn on Caillou and you will be able to whip up a yummy dinner without two children crying at your feet.

2.  It is 9am and you want to get laundry done.  Turn on Caillou and you are able to take laundry up and down from basement, fold, and put away clothes in the same amount of time as one episode.

3. It is 2pm and a little certain someone does not want to nap.  Turn on Caillou and you are able to relax on the couch and snuggle with your little one for an entire episode.  Bonus if you can shut your own eyes for a few minutes.

Lila also talks about "Caillou" non-stop all.day.long. 

You ask "Lila who do you love.  Mommy or Caillou?"  She'll say "Caillou" every single time.

When I go to get her out of her crib in the morning, she says "Hi. Caillou" in her sweet little voice.  She even bypassed a daddy hug today for Caillou.

When I get her up from her nap in a little bit, I know the first thing she will ask for is "Caillou."

When she says her prayers at night, she is thankful for ducks, da-dee, "dew", and Caillou.

I guess she could be obsessed with worse things than Caillou. 

Bucket list: Hayride

Last month I came across this bucket list of fun fall activities. 

The creator showed an idea of placing it in a frame and using a marker to check off the activities as you go.  This looks so cute in our home with some other fall inspired decor.  Brendan looks at the list all the time and picks what we should do next.  Apple or "ah-pee"(according to Lila) is at the top of his list (this afternoon Brendan!)

Our first item to check off was going on a hayride.  Our local nature center hosted a Haunted Halloween hayride last weekend.  The weather was 70 degrees that night and perfect for an evening out!  The kids dressed up and we enjoyed many fun games, saw the ducks, and went for a kid-friendly hayride through the woods.

Overall a perfect evening of family fun!  A great investment for any family would be a big huge pile of hay!  Brendan and Lila would play in it for hours.  If only we had a barn:)

Perfect fall weather

This past week her in Michigan has been just lovely.  The temps have gone back up into the 70's and the sun has been shining every day.  This sounds like the perfect weather to go on nature walks, play a little backyard baseball, have an outdoor picnic, and go apple picking right? 

Not for us.  Poor Brendan has been stuck inside all week with a fever, cough, ear infection, and pink eye.  This kid is the definition of an active child.  He rarely sits (unless he is watching a show) and is on the move 24/7.  His temperature spiked yesterday to 103.5 and we went back to the doctor.  He then had a chest xray for possible pneumonia (came back negative) and a nose swab to test for respiratory infections.  Last night we had to pull out our trusty nebulizer and once again do some breathing treatments to give his airways some relief.  Luckily no wheezing this time around.

This is what happened the first time Brendan had pneumonia. 4 day hospital stay with oxygen.

We go back to the doctor this afternoon for a follow-up and pray that his two antibiotics will kick this nasty back to school infection.  The weather is supposed to be nice for another few days and we really want to go to our local nature center's Halloween Hayride on Saturday evening.  He is so excited for it!

Lila did get to enjoy some of the fresh fall air this week.  Brendan took a two hour morning nap on Wednesday morning so Lila and I went outside to play in the leaves and do a mini photo shoot. 

Our neighbors tree...can the sky get any bluer?

Brendan's 1st library card

The month of September was library card sign-up month at our local library for school age children.  Now that Brendan has begun kindergarten he could not wait to get his very own library card!

First we went to the front desk and gave the librarian our information for the library card and then he got to sign his name on the back of his card.  He took this very seriously and he received a voucher for a free book from the children's section.

 Next we took his voucher to the children's desk librarian and he was able to choose a book to take home.  He loved being able to pick (Clifford's First Autumn) a book that he was able to "keep forever!"

 He picked playing on the computers as his next activity.  He scanned HIS card and played his favorite Caillou game.

 Lila and I worked on puzzles and found lots of Berenstain Bear and duck books to check out.

 When it was time to go, Brendan asked if he could use his card to check out and do it all by himself.  Lila helped by putting the books next to the scanner.

We love our local library and I know Brendan and Lila cannot wait until our next visit!

That time Brendan told me about how he was born

Recently my best friend got the news that she would be spending the remaining 5-6 weeks of her pregnancy on modified bed rest.  We said a little prayer for her and baby boy and then Brendan started with the questions...

Question 1
Brendan "Why does she have to rest mommy?"

Me "Because she needs to stay healthy for the baby."

Question 2
Brendan "Why doesn't he just come out of her belly now mommy"

Me "Because he has to grow and get bigger.  It is a little too soon for him to be born."

Question 3
Brendan "What will happen if he is born too soon mommy?"

Me "He might not be ready to come home and have to stay in the hospital like you did when you were born too soon."

Then I asked him, "So why did you not want to stay in mommy's belly and be born so soon?"

His response, "Well mommy, it was all dirty in there and gross.  You ate this cookie and it got all crunched up and I saw it and it was gross so I wanted to get out of there."

Now we know why Brendan was born 10 weeks too soon.  It was gross inside my "tummy" and he had to get away from that disgusting crunched up cookie.

Thanks for clearing that up Brendan.