Happy Halloween! Er, All Saints Day!

Due to the ugly, windy, rainy weather we had yesterday on Halloween, Trick-or-Treating was moved to today.  No complaints here!

 

I've had a pretty rough week (.....er, month..... no, make that quarter) at work and so I decided to skip out of work today at 3:30 and pick up the kiddos a little early so we could come home and take our time getting ready for Trick-or-Treating.

 

Lily was super excited to go Trick-or-Treating.  She asked me no less 47 times on the way home from daycare if we could go trick or treat.  How about now?  Now?  Can we go now?  Mommy?  Now?  Her excitement was really cute (and only slightly annoying). 

 

We came home and gave the kids some snacks and milk and took our time to get them ready in their costumes.  I took about 82 pictures and then we headed out the door to go to "Trunk-or-Treat" at the kids' daycare. 

Lily was soooo confused when we told her we were going back to school.  She got a little upset, "Mommy we're going to trick or treat!  I don't want to go to school today!!"  When we pulled into the parking lot she got a little more upset but we told her that she didn't have to go inside school.....just in the parking lot to get candy.  She was extremely skeptical.

 

So we head off toward the festivities and I grab the camera.... turn it on.... snap a picture.... then look down at the display and see the most horrifying thing written across it. 

 

NO CARD

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! 

Those 82 pictures I took at home of the children behaving and posing so well in their costumes.... GONE.  Actually, probably not right to say they're GONE when they were never there to begin with.  I teared up.  I was devastated.  Why in the world didn't I check any of those pictures after I took them to see if they were any good??  I can be such a doofus.  (Feels like these days I'm a doofus more often than I'm in my right mind.....sigh.....)

 

But, thank goodness for camera phones.  All is not lost.  Oh wait!  I forgot my phone at home too.  I was really on a roll, eh?

 

But, thank goodness for my husband's camera phone!

 

Someone had an old-timey car there so we snapped a couple pictures in front of it.  Lily is decked out in her Doc McStuffins outfit.  And Tyler's sportin' Jackson's old lion costume. 

 

He was not in to the hood.  At all.

The lady at the first trunk knew Lily was Doc McStuffins which thrilled me to pieces.  Lily was so nervous and shy, she couldn't bring herself to say anything.  She just stared at the lady like she was the boogie man.  "Mommy, go with me."  That was the phrase of the evening. 

Tyler was all over the candy.  He was working hard at trying to get that chocolate open.

 

Trunk-or-Treat was a really nice thing that the church did.  We got candy, we bowled with a pumpkin, we drank cider and we stuck our hands in ghost poop to look for prizes.

 

 

After Trunk-or-Treat, we ran back home and ate a super quick supper so we could "get more candy."

 

Oh, and a picture re-do.

 

While sister's not looking, brother sneaks in and tries to swipe some candy!

 

 

And then finally, we hit the streets!

 

Tyler did wear his lion head for a good portion of the time we were outside which was good since it was a little windy.  I'm pretty sure he's the most adorable lion I've ever seen!

(He's giving Lily this look like "Girl, don't even THINK about LOOKING at my candy.")

Lily immediately tore into a pack of M&Ms.  She wound up with chocolate all over her face before we got the second house!

Look at that face!  Tyler, don't ever grow up, ok buddy?

This picture gives the illusion that Lily was brave and walking up to houses on her own.  But no.  She actually did better with that last year.  She wouldn't even "ring the ding dong" at any houses.  "You do it Mommy.  And come with me."

She did however, always say "Trick or Treat!" (sometimes so quietly that probably only I heard it, but it still counts).  And she said "Thank you" about 50% of the time without me reminding her.  That's pretty good for a not-even-3 year old.  

Lily was a good big sister and when the home owners told her to, she would take a piece of candy and put it in Tyler's bucket.  Skittles!  

(I know it wasn't the intent of this picture to capture Lily, but the teenager at this house (who snubbed out a cigarette as we were walking up) said, "Oh!  Are you Doc McMuffin?")

Lily walked quite a bit tonight.  I was really surprised at how long she lasted.

In fact, when we got home, she said, "I'm not done getting candy!  Are we going to get more?"

 



 

We then spent the next hour or so, passing out candy to about 15 kids.  The traffic was really slow, so we have a lot of candy left over.  Not good.

 

Lily however, was super excited when people came to the door.  If it were young kids (like 5 years old or less) she would hold the bowl so the kids could pick their candy.  But if it were older kids she didn't really want to have to get that close so she said, "You do it Mommy."

 

Tyler played and played and played and played.  For 60 straight minutes.  With his candy.  In and out of the car.  Candy in the seat of the car.  Then in the "trunk."  Then squeeze it and bite it through the wrapper.  He was having the time of his life.  And these pictures are the proof.

 

 

Everyone feeds himself or herself in our house.

And while that sounds like a simple thing, it's really pretty remarkable!

We have really been working with Lily on her meal habits. About a month ago, I got fed up. Completely fed up. Dinner time was complete misery. Lily wouldn't eat the majority of her food unless we fed it to her. And even then, she wouldn't eat much supper and 30-45 minutes later she'd be all up in our faces crying "I want something" which is code for "I want a snack and I want it to be something good like fruit snacks or cookies or candy or cereal."

So one day, I instituted new rules, no exceptions. We will no longer feed Lily her food. She must feed herself, she's plenty capable. Secondly, she must eat everything on her plate (which by the way isn't ridiculous portions.... nice, realistic amounts of fruit/veggies/protein). If she finishes everything on her plate, she gets a treat (one cookie or one piece of candy). If she doesn't finish her plate, it gets plastic wrap on the top and put in the fridge and if she starts in on "I want something" that plate gets pulled out of the fridge. At least that's the threat, but ever since we started this rule, she EVENTUALLY eats everything on her plate! It takes her a while sometimes, and often I have to remove her plate from the table at least once and put it in the fridge. She'll then scream that she wants candy and I say "No, you didn't eat your food" so she screams to get her plate back. This usually works well if I wait about 2 minutes before getting it back out and then tell her if she gets back in her seat, I'll bring her the plate. Most of the time, she'll then finish her plate so that she can get a piece of candy.

As for Tyler, about a month ago, he really started to show an interest in utensils and would fuss and grunt for someone's fork or spoon. Mostly he just wanted to chew on it and bang it on the table. Then about a week and half ago, he was able to use a spoon to feed himself applesauce, with my help on loading it up.

Then this week, I made the bold move to entrust him with an actual bowl of applesauce on his tray and let him completely feed himself.

And he did great! He didn't throw the bowl full of applesauce on the floor and managed to get about 90% of it in his mouth! Last night, I made the even bolder move to give him a container of strawberry yogurt. I was sure that it was going to end up all down his bib and in his hair (but it was bath night so I told myself to relax.... even if it was in his hair, we could deal with it - I don't know why I get so worked up over messes.... I really need to chill out).   Anyhow, again he did really well and managed to pretty much eat the entire container of yogurt. I think he did a better job than even Lily does with getting out the last few spoonfuls. 

He's so proud of himself!

EEEEEEEEESE.

We had a really gorgeous afternoon today so we let the kiddos carve their pumpkins. 

I tried to get Tyler to dig around in there and get the guts out.

He contemplated it for a second or two, but he wasn't too interested in sticking his hand inside.

 

 

Lily drew the face on her pumpkin and then helped Daddy cut it out.

Tyler held on to that scraper like he might stick his hand in there.....but he never did.  Lily wanted to cut by herself but Daddy said he had to help.

Lily didn't hesitate for a minute before she said she was NOT touching that yucky stuff on the inside.

 

And the finished product!   

I only had to tell Tyler one time to stay out of the seeds we'd pulled out.  And he only tried to take one bite of discarded pumpkin.  He immediately spit it back out.  I guess raw pumpkin doesn't taste that good.

 

It was so nice this afternoon, we played for a while after we finished the pumpkins.

 

 

Photo creds go to Lily on these next shots.

 

Tyler looks petrified.

 

Tyler was really fussy all day yesterday and off and on today.  I don't know what's going on with him.  He is getting 2 more teeth so maybe that's what's bugging him.  Though, I give him teething gel and/or tablets and that doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

Ever since he was sick, his appetite has been suppressed.  It's picked back up a little in the last few days, but with DRAMITICALLY reduced variety.  He won't eat meat of any kind, hardly any vegetables, rarely any breads (crackers or otherwise).  He has been eating the crap out of a cantaloupe that I bought and it's not even a good one!  Occasionally he'll eat peas or a bite or two of banana.  He's been living off of yogurt, out-of-season cantaloupe and applesauce. 

 

Except one night last week, he had been SUPER fussy so we put him to bed around 6:30pm (and he had only eaten about 2 bites of dinner).  A couple hours later he woke up screaming his head off right after Joel and I had made a few chocolate chip cookies (a vice I just can't seem to give up).  Tyler took one look at those cookies and he started grunting and whining and reaching for them!  So I had to share.

 

 

That's chocolate on his face.

 

About 15 minutes later, he was ready to go back to bed!  I guess he just needed a little chocolate fix.  Don't we all?

 

 

He also has no problem eating these "spinach cheddar" Cheeto things.  He dug them out of the diaper bag one evening and went to town.  At least he was offering me one after he got busted.

 

Tyler is still at only 4 words.....well maybe 4.5 words.  Today while we were taking pictures of the pumpkins, we were saying "Say Cheese!"  And of course Lily was pulling a great big "CHEEEEEEEESE" face and Tyler started going "EEEEEEEEEESE."  Too cute.

 

His sign language is going well.  He's very good at doing "more" without me showing him first.  We're trying to get "milk" down but he's not really consistently doing that one.  I'm also doing "eat" but he's not getting that one yet.

 

We got the new stove installed this week!  You'd think that would be the most exciting thing.  But no, it turns out that the BOX that the stove came in was the most exciting thing.  The kids have been playing with that like crazy.  The first couple days, Lily just wanted to be in the box with it all closed up.  Eventually we cut a door and a window in it.  It's slowly starting to lose it's appeal so probably it will go out with the trash at the end of this week.  A fun distraction while it lasted!

 

 

And here's a couple pics from last weekend that I just found on the camera.  Meme and Papaw were giving pony rides.  The kiddos just eat. that. up!

 

 

 

We are pooped out.

What a weekend!  I feel like we haven't stopped moving for days.  I feel like I went shopping 47 different times.  I went with just Lily once for clothes, by myself a couple times for miscellaneous items, with both kids to the outlet mall for shoes for Tyler and a shirt for Lily for pictures, to Lowe's about 3 times, to Walmart I think twice.  We did about 6-7 loads of laundry - I lost track. 

We've had major progress on the kitchen renovation....I'll post pictures in a few weeks when it's completely done.  Thanks to Meme and Papaw's babysitting yesterday, Joel and I could go shopping kid-free and get everything purchased or ordered.  Joel then spent a lot of the rest of the weekend installing things.  He's one handy feller.  I think I'll keep him.

Today we spent the afternoon taking pictures in the park for Tyler's one year milestone.  He's 13.5 months.  Poor planning on my part to get it scheduled with Aunt Ree closer to his actual birthday.  Better late than never though! 

Meme and Papaw came to help entertain the natives and witness the mayhem that is photo shoot day.  Here are a couple snapshots I took from Meme's camera.  Marie's pictures to come at a later date!  We took some of the whole family first.

Joel and I were reviewing the pics on Marie's camera......

While Tyler was getting his solo pictures done, Lily was living it up on the playground.

Tyler had a little fun on the playground too.  Swinging with Auntie Ree.

When we got home, Lily was giving Meme a makeover.  I really love what she did with Meme's makeup.  Very classy application of lipstick. 

 

 

My Little Work Helper

Tyler has had a mild fever (100.0 +/- 0.5 degrees) since Wednesday afternoon.  I stayed home with him yesterday and today so that he could get some rest since he doesn't sleep very well at daycare.

 

When he wasn't sleeping, he was fussy. Today he wanted to sit on my lap (and bang on the keys of my computer).  Luckily he slept a lot this afternoon so I could get some work done!

 

In other developmental news, we've been working on sign language with him.  We had long since abandoned sign language with by this age.... but Lily was up to nearly 100 words by now.  Tyler's still at 4 and really he doesn't even use those 4 words that often.  But, he seems to be picking up on the sign language really well!  Today, unprompted he signed "more" during lunch when I was feeding him yogurt.  When he appeared to be done eating I asked him if he was "all done."  Then I tried to give him another bite and he shook his head no and did the "all done" sign.  Tonight at dinner, Lily hollers, "Look!  He's doing milk!"  Sure enough, he was making the milk sign, although we think it was just a coincidence because he didn't actually want his milk.  We'll have to keep trying that one because he'll probably catch on to it pretty quickly.  

 

Tonight, Lily was "super super duper duper DUPER" cute!  (That was one of her favorite things to say tonight.)  She was all wound up and talking, talking, talking non-stop.  She was playing pretend about 47 different things and I could hardly keep up with her.  She was "shopping" and "going swimming" and putting Diego in time out for hitting Ellie and she was getting candy for everyone and serving it out of empty shoe boxes. 

 

I didn't take any pictures of Lily tonight, so here's one from a week or so ago in her Doctor coat.