Carving Pumpkins

I had a vision of how I wish our pumpkin carving night would go.  "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" is playing in the background, Daddy and I have a pumpkin beer cracked,Tyson is loving every minute of creating the best looking jack-o-lantern on the block and Mila is happy to overlook the fun in anticipation of her turn next year. It's worth mentioning that in my vision the toddler is dressed.

In reality, pumpkin carving involved Tyson crying for 20 minutes (yes, he's crying in that picture) because his hands were dirty.  Mommy and Daddy quickly cutting out two of the worst jack-o-lanterns you have ever seen. Mila watching screaming, and eating her toes. No pumpkin beers were consumed (or purchased), "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" is never on when I want it to be, and Tyson never wears clothes.

Parenting is never the way I picture it.

Tyson's 3rd Birthday Party

Tyson is turning 3 on Monday. I'm still not entirely sure how that is happening. 3. Seems old, right? Just typing it was hard.

The better part of my weekend will be spent writing his third birthday letter, crying, and trying to drink away my sorrows. Sounds like a party to me, but since most other don't consider it festive, we opted to have Tyson's birthday party last weekend instead.

Superman wanted to have a Halloween party this year and I was up for the challenge. Spider web dip, mummy juice boxes, pumpkin decorating, jack-o-lantern pizzas and tons of little kids in costume. It was a blast!

 

 

 

All Aboard the Choo Choo Train

A few weeks ago (okay, it was over a month ago-it's our busy season at work-I'm busy) we went on a train ride through the St. Croix river valley.

Tyson wore his too short engineer overalls which were ridiculously cute. For the record, I plan on purchasing him a new pair of the same overalls every year until he refuses. Maybe longer. I'm also slowly setting aside a therapy fund for him.

Mila sat patiently on my lap for the better part of the two hour trip. No, really, a 7 month old sat still on a lap for two hours. Christmas miracle! Yes, I'm bragging about how wonderful my 7 month old is.

For every amazing seven month old, there's always an almost three year old who wants to crawl over every seat on the train to negate the wonderful feeling I was having about my well behaved kids.

There was an actual conductor who took our tickets. I'm fairly certain that this is one of Tyson's career aspirations as he frequently asks for our tickets to do just about anything these days.

The entire crew survived (although I'm not sure what's going on with Tyson's face in this picture). Dan and I are praying every night for a ten month old that sits still on a lap for three hours during our plane ride to Florida. I'm also silently saying a prayer that my three year old no longer thinks it's ok to climb over every seat at that point.

Trick or Treat

Halloween was waay more fun this year than it was last year. Reasons being:

1) Tyson really got into it. He yelled, "trick or treat" at every house and did a decent job of saying "thank you" for all of his candy. Also, it helped that I wasn't pregnant, so, I didn't want to consume every piece of candy Tyson brought home within ten minutes of getting in the door.

2) It wasn't that cold, so, walking around the block for two hours was do-able. Mila even managed to troop out past her bedtime. Also, I wasn't pregnant, so, walking around the block for two hours was do-able.

3) Did I mention I wasn't pregnant? That meant I got to consume the delicious hot apple cider cocktail my neighbor made for us.

4) Also,I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I wasn't pregnant. That means this cutie was there with us.

8 Months

Dear Mila,

Today you are eight months, one week and two days old. Told you I would be late with the eight month birthday letter. I've been much too busy chasing around my semi-mobile little lady to sit and type. Priorities, right?

You have had quite the month, baby. You are learning, learning, learning. Each day I'm convinced you have discovered something new. Your thumb, crawling, waving, playing so big, your voice...

A few a highlights from your last month:

You started feeding yourself. It's not clean, but it's your preference. If we try to feed you, it typically becomes a game involving you blowing raspberries (and whatever is in your mouth) all over the place. You feeding yourself is equally as messy, but I'm convinced you get more in your tummy that way. For the record, no teeth yet-we're eagerly waiting in anticipation.

 

You sort of hold on to your own bottle. You and Daddy work on this trick every night. I'm not a willing participant because I plan on keeping you a baby forever. When Daddy changes that, I'll be pushing even harder to get you a baby brother or sister. I consider this is fair warning.  

 

 

You went on your first bike ride. As you can see by your face, you weren't so sure of it at first. Don't worry, it wasn't as tortuous as it appears in this picture. Two minutes in and you were laughing up a storm. I hope this will be a regular event next summer.

You got your first baby doll from your Nanny and Papa and you are madly in love. I think it might have something to do with her hard plastic hands that you can't stop chewing on.

You aren't officially crawling yet, but you are close. Really, really close. You are easily frustrated these days because you are so aware of your surroundings but have to work so hard to get to what you want. I have a sneaking suspicion that when you figure out how to crawl it won't be long before you run. I'm currently saving my energy.

You wave, do "SO BIG" and give high fives like no bodies business. You are saying words that sound like ba-ba (bottle), hi, and da-da (which I think secretly means Mommy). You also still make a high pitched screaming sound--a lot. If this is preparing me for your teenage years, I'm scared.

You're the coolest eight month, one week, two day old little girl I know. I'm enthralled with watching you get older and discover everything but cringing that my little baby is quickly becoming my little girl. Promise me that even if you stop being a baby, you'll never stop being my little girl, ok?



I love you, Mimi.

Happy 8 Months,

Mommy

Photo Friday

Trouble

Last week Tyson figured out how to do this:

That's the toddler lock we used to keep him in his room. Off the door. No longer keeping him in his room.

I promptly started digging my own grave.

I'm well aware that locking your toddler in his room is frowned upon by some parents. I'd like to formally invite those parents to come to our house each night and deal with the twenty seven times our toddler now gets out of bed and comes into our room for a glass of water/to go pee/to go poop/to put his PJs on/to take his PJs off/help blow his nose/find him another blanket/help him pee again/tell him a story/take off the blanket/tuck him in/help him pee again/get him more water/and help him pee again.

SERIOUSLY.

I understand that we couldn't keep him locked in his room until he turned 17, but there is such a thing as wishful thinking.

Any suggestions as to how to stop the twenty seven times the toddler needs something at night would be greatly appreciated.

PS: While we do did lock our toddler in his room at night, we do not make him wear a leash in public. THAT I would frown upon.