Halloween

Well, we had a pretty great Halloween I would say. Yesterday, Teah had her Halloween party at preschool. We all dressed up and they had a little "parade" around the building where the parents lined up so the kids could "trick or treat" from us. Teah and I were pirates and Carter was a crocodile. After preschool Carter took a nap and then we were off to a Halloween party thrown by a friend that I met through a playgroup. It was kid oriented and we had a good time. Today, I decided to take the kids out in their costumes in the morning and get all of the pictures that I wanted. I didn't want to have to worry about pictures while we were actually trick or treating. Sometimes I miss the fun trying to take pictures... Robert was on-call tonight so the kids and I were on our own. Trick or treating hours are really early here - 3 to 6pm. At 3 o'clock I had hung up some decorations and downloaded some Halloween songs and had them playing. Carter woke up from his nap and we had a few early trick or treaters - we don't get many anyway - maybe 30 kids total. Well, then Teah got quite lethargic and told me that she wanted to go upstairs and take a nap. She told me that her throat hurt earlier, so I figured that she might be getting sick. I took her temperature and it was 102, so I laid her down and she fell asleep at 3:30pm. It was a REALLY beautiful day - the temperature was almost 70 degrees - so I had the windows open and Carter and I decided to walk to our next door neighbors during Teah's nap (we live in townhomes, so it wasn't far :) and trick or treat a little. He caught on to the idea pretty quickly and seemed to really enjoy carrying around his pumpkin basket and going up to the houses. He took a little break to eat a sucker on the front porch - it was really relaxing and fun to spend some time with just Carter. At 5pm I woke Teah up - her fever had gone down from the Tylenol, so we went out trick or treating around the block. I really didn't want her to miss out on that. The kids had a great time - Teah said Trick or Treat and Thank You. About 3/4 of the way, Carter pooped out, but I convinced him to sit in the stroller with another sucker. Teah started pointing out "scary" things that she wanted to avoid - like a guy who was dressed in a pretty scary devil costume and some window decorations. One of the last houses we stopped at there was a sign that said "The wicked witch lives here". Perhaps this should've been a hint for me to skip this one. There were 2 little kids lined up in front of Teah and the woman came to the door dressed as a witch (green face, hat) and cackling. When Teah saw her she freaked out, dropped her basket, and ran away screaming and crying! It took me a few minutes to get her to calm down. Hopefully she will not be having any bad dreams about witches. The kids had a little candy when we got home and it was fun to relive the joys of Halloween as a child through them :) Check out the slideshow of pictures:

Flashback Friday

2007 - Carter in a bowlfull of candy!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

A Morning Surprise

Yesterday morning Carter woke me up as usual. I went to get him from his room and noticed that Teah's door was open. We don't shut it all the way at night, so sometimes it creeps open. I went to shut it and it didn't look like she was in her bed. I figured she was just hiding under her covers a bit, but went in to check. Sure enough, she was nowhere to be found. Normally the minute Teah's feet pitter patter across the floor it wakes me up, but I guess I was sleeping very well that night. I went downstairs and found her asleep on the couch with a blanket over her. It was 8am and I thought that she must've woken up an hour before and came downstairs. Well, when I told Robert about it when he got home from work he told me she was there asleep on the couch when he left at 6am! I guess it's time to start shutting the gate when we go to bed...

Pumpkins!

We went to Aaron & Pam's pumpking carving party tonight and had a great time. Martha gave me a great pumpkin idea (check out the pick). The kids weren't very interested in helping, but they had a great time playing. We were able to get them both to fall asleep at Aaron's and picked them up to leave around midnight. Teah didn't wake up at all - she went from house to car, car ride, then car to her bed without waking. Carter on the other hand was awake the entire drive home, but went back to bed with a bottle. So, all went well and a great evening was had by all!

Carter's obsession with dogs

Carter is pretty obsessed with dogs. He always points when we see them on walks and gets upset if they start walking in a different direction than we are. Our next door neighbor has a dog and every tme we leave the house we have to walk in that direction to see if Buddy is out on his line. Last week in Michigan he followed Skeeter (Robert's parents 15 year old Beagle) around the house. For the first few days he didn't even try to touch her - just followed her around. Even after that he was very gentle. He loved just following her around and bending over to look at her face! If she laid down he would sit down next to her (see picture!). We went over to visit the Wade's for dinner yesterday and they have a much larger black lab with a very big bark. I was carrying Carter inside and Ella barked a few times. Poor Carter just started screaming and crying. For the first hour we had to keep Ella separated and he would cry if he just saw her. Then he must've forgotten about the barking because he wanted to watch her and try to pet her again.

I wasn't expecting that!

I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning and Carter was hanging around climbing up on the stool next to the toilet. The lid was closed and he was behaving himself. I stopped watching him for a minute to put my hair up and he opened the lid and started to climb on in! One foot was all the way in the toilet before I pulled him up!

Carter Update

Carter is 16 1/2 months old now. Last week while we were in Michigan he perfected his run. He had been walking really fast, but last week he decided to work on picking up his knees and running. He picks up his knees a bit too much which makes him wobbly - it's hilarious to watch! Other things he has learned recently: perfected his eating with a spoon, sometimes can poke things with a fork and eat them, animal sounds: cow, dog, duck, snake, and monkey. When he wants something he will reach his hand for it and then open and close his palm - it's funny how he just made that "sign" up all on his own. He will also vigorously shake his head no if he doesn't want something. He has been saying the "mama" sound for awhile now, but only recently has he started to use it to actually get my attention. He's growing up so fast!

Our Trip to Michigan

Last week we packed up the family and headed to Michigan for the week. Robert's sister Marj, who is now a permanent resident of Tampa, was up for a visit, so we drove over to metro-Detroit on Saturday. It took 6 hours total and the worst part of the drive was the stop at the rest area because Teah was afraid of the bathroom and refused to go. It was busy and the toilets were loud - she doesn't like the loud flushing. Anyway, here are some of the highlights of the trip.

Good Sleep

Finally, the kids slept well while traveling. We hadn't traveled since I stopped having to rock Carter to sleep - and not having to do that this time around was GREAT! When we were in Michigan for his birthday in June I ended up walking around with him (since neither of our parents have rockers) for 15 minutes for naptime and bedtime and he weighed 22 lbs at that time! It was hell on my back. Well, this time around I just gave him his bottle, laid him down in the pack -n- play, and walked out. Voila! he fell asleep without issue. It was tight quarters at Robert's parents house (Thanks to them for having us all stay!) so we brought Teah her Thomas the Train tent and a little kids pullout foam couch that fit inside of it. She slept in there and thought it was great. Now I wish I had taken a picture of her sleeping quarters!

Cousins

We drove up to Flint to visit Robert's grandparents, his aunt and uncle, and their children - Emily and Sarah - who are Robert's cousins, but more the age of our kids. Emily is 5 and Sarah is 3 - Teah and Sarah were born only a few months apart. The kids had a great time playing together. Emily did a great job watching Carter if he would walk out of sight and playing with him! Sarah and Teah played nicely without too many problems - a big feat for 3 year olds!

The Library

Here in the Chicago burbs we live in an unincorporated section of the city, which means that we pay no city taxes. The downside is that we also cannot get a library card without paying for one. So, we haven't been to our library much. While in Troy we all took a trip to the Troy library and had a really great time. Teah checked out 15 books and read them all numerous times in the 2 days before we left. I think that her favorite was called Mommy in my Pocket.

The Corn Maze

After Marj left to drive back home, we drove to my parents house in the country. Right across the street is a field with feed corn, so this time of year the corn hasn't been harvested yet, but it's all dried out. While Carter and Daddy napped on afternoon, Teah and I went out to play in the "corn maze" (field across the street). We had a REALLY great time finding a few cobs of corn inside the husks and playing the game, "trying to get out of the corn maze" after we would walk in a little ways. Here are some pictures that I took.

It was a great trip and we all enjoyed seeing Marj as well as the rest of our family and even a few friends. We headed home the following Saturday after a BBQ. Carter had woken up early from his nap because Teah walked into the room where he was sleeping at my parents house because she wanted to get to their computer. Well, we didn't get home until 9pm - at least an hour after their bedtimes - and neither of them fell asleep on the way home. I couldn't believe it! Now I'm still trying to adjust the kids back to Central time - Teah has yet to wake up later than 6:30am since we've been back!

Flashback Friday

Well this is my first "Flashback Friday" blog. Thanks for the idea Becky - I love it! I started it on Friday, but am publishing it today, so I guess now it's a "Flashback Monday"... doesn't quite have the same ring!

3 years ago... October 2005
























2 years ago... October 2006
























1 year ago - October 2007







Currently - October 2008