Happy Hallowe'en!

     I got started on Halloween costumes later than usual this year, mainly because Laura changes her mind/ interests so frequently, I didn't want to pick something too early and have her outrgow it in the next few months... So in July, Josh and I came up with a list of potential costumes the girls could be, but the final contenders would have to revolve around:

• being able to fit over a snowsuit or other heavy duty winter clothing
• Laura being into the character/ item
• the costumes 'going together'. Because I'm like that.

This was the first draft of the list we came up with:

• Princess & Dragon
• Princess & Pea
• Rapunzel & Pascal
• Ariel & Flounder
• Dora & Boots
• Pooh & Piglet
• Sully & Mike
• Cat in the Hat & Fish in the pot
• VHC Butterfly & caterpillar
• Dumbo & Timothy
• Bambi & Thumper
• Sun & Moon
• Burger & Fries (or hotdog?)
• (Grumpy?) Bird & Bee
• Batman & Robin tutu dresses (Josh's pick) ;)

Laura as Super Grover last year
and Daddy as The Count

      Mid-September I realized we had better make a decision so I could get working on the costumes, and took the time to refresh Laura's memory as to how Halloween works. When looking at pictures, she didn't seem to remember Halloween from last year, but was favourable about the prospect of going to other people's houses for candy. I then asked her what she wanted to be this year, and she said "Grover!" (And when I asked her who Daddy looked like she said "a fruit bat!" bahaha.) But then I explained she could dress up as a new character - or anything she wanted (a concept lost on a two-and-a-half year old, apparently). So, luckily we had made this list to help her decide, and as I was reading it and got down to Ariel, she said, "Arrel!", I continued reading the other options, and she repeatedly replied, "Arrel." The only problem was, that with my Type A personality, I might be a control freak I had already made up my mind that Rachel should be a bee, since that is her nickname... and she should have a special costume like that for her first Halloween. And according to criteria number three, Ariel and a bee just wouldn't work. Fortunately, I was fairly easily able to persuade her to dress up as Winnie-the-Pooh Bear, instead. (She probably likes him more anyway - he is her attachment object, after all. They can be Ariel and Flounder next year.) ;)

     So, without further ado, here are my little homemade Winnie-the-Pooh Bear and Bumble (or Grumble, as we sometimes call her) Bee.

Out Trick or Treating in the rain - note clever bee costume fits over baby carrier!

 Laura especially loved handing out candy to the other Trick or Treaters once we got home, while watching Ghostbusters and shoving unreasonable amounts of her candy in her mouth. <3 I love Hallowe'en. :)

Happy Hallowe'en!

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend Grandma joined us as we hit up a local farm that has all kinds of fun fall activites for the family.

We enjoyed pedal go karts,

a giant wooden playground,

 

tractors and climbing tractor tires,   

a large bouncing contraption (which Josh said he didn't want to go on at first, but after Laura asked him to go on it with him, he declared it worth the admission price on it's own),

(Laura's favourite was Daddy dropping on his butt)

 petting zoo,

For some reason there was a puppy in this petting zoo. I could have happily taken him home.

two different mazes,

and of course, the wagon ride to pick out pumpkins.

We were there for almost three hours and still didn't even get to do everything! We all quite enjoyed ourselves and will definitely go back next year.

Rachel: 5 Months

Rachel is 5 months today!

In the past month, she has:

• gotten really good at 'tummy time', much to Laura's enjoyment. "Let's have a tummy time!!" she says. (Laura has particularly latched onto this idea since we set up Rachel's toys we bought in Disney World when she was still a fetus, because Laura has been begging to play with them for the past 7 months.) And, subsequently, for the first time since the first time at 3.5 weeks, rolled over from front to back again! Josh had her in the basement while Laura and I were cooking and then we heard him say, "Hey! You rolled over!". So Laura and I rushed downstairs to see her do it again:

• slept through the night, from 10pm to 7am. Once. In her magical fleece sleep sack that Grandma made. I think she might have done 10pm to 6am one night, too - she always sleeps better in it than anything else. So, we were starting to make progress in the sleeping-through-the-night department, but the last week or two she has been having trouble breathing due to allergens of some sort in the air, and she is back to waking up several times a night again with a stuffy nose. And so I am back to being one very tired mama. She goes to bed around 7:30, or whenever we put Laura to bed, and is very good at putting herself to sleep. I can put her down wide awake, no nursing needed, and she just sucks at her left arm (yes, at, not on - strange, I know) and usually drifts off to sleep problem-free. I dream feed her when we go to bed at around 10:30 - 11:00, and then, depending on the night, may wake up as few as zero times, or as many as three. Hopefully we'll get back down closer to the zero mark soon.

• slowly started to reach for objects while seated and sometimes will even put them in her mouth. I remember Laura doing this a lot earlier, but then again, Rachel was born a month early, so I suppose she is entitled to be a little slower at some things. Apparently by four months they should be reaching for objects, and she had done it by that point, but it definitely wasn't a regular thing. It is happening a lot more often now, though. And just very recently (like, within the last week) she has become more interested in putting things in her mouth. Just in time for sickness season. Yay.

• started pulling herself up into a self-supported sit when propped up on the couch. Though she only just started rolling over again, she has been practicing her sitting up already! (I feel like this is such a more advanced milestone, but hey, she might sit up before she rolls back to front!) She is getting closer to being able to sit up on her own on the floor, too. I bet she'll have it before the month is out.

• having little tastes here and there of solid food. She sits in the high chair with us at dinner time, so I've started popping a grain of rice in her mouth or some other miniscule taste of something. 95% of the time she pushes it back out, so I'm not counting this as her real first food, yet.
  I have started slowly getting the baby food factory up and running again. So far I have pureed salmon, which she will get first, probably sometime within the next month, and squash and sweet potato are next on the menu. Laura had already demonstrated she was ready for solids by the time she was five months, but I feel like Rachel is not quite there, yet. So we will wait until she is closer to the six month mark. I would like to try more of a baby-led weaning approach this time because weaning Laura turned into a hell of an experience that I do not want to repeat. So, Rachel will get a variety of finger foods, as well, that she can feed herself.

• really started loving her big sister! Their relationship is really blossoming, and it is so sweet. (I'm only slightly jealous that she seems to prefer her sister over her mama most of the time now.) Where I used to get the huge grins, they are now reserved for her favourite sister. She also gets the giggles and baby shrieks and squeals.

• been making strange. Oh my, has she ever! She is a regular little mama's girl these days! We had a visit with Grandma a couple weeks back, but Rachel was having none of it; someone peeked into her stroller one day when we were out shopping and she just lost it (like, full on hysterical screaming. Because someone that wasn't me looked at her. Drama, drama!); and today, when the Canadian Baby Photographer came, she was beyond uncomfortable (again, with the hysterics). The guy actually just gave up and said she was too old for that kind of photography shoot. (Which, if I can rant for a moment, makes me mad because I called them to make an appointment when she was the right age and they told me that they did not have a photographer in our area anymore, and implied it wouldn't be happening. So I booked Rachel for 6 month professional photos at a different studio. Their loss, I guess.)

• gone swimming for the first time in a pool. We took her to the YMCA because they have a 'leisure pool' that is approximately the temperature of bath water, and,  I wouldn't go as far as saying she loved it, but she didn't scream bloody murder like she did every time we dipped her toes in the lake this summer, so that's a start! No pictures, sadly, as they have a no camera policy. We will be enrolling her in swimming lessons in the winter semester at our regular pool. 

• found her feet! And loves standing on them!

• been blowing raspberries, complete with lots of baby drool.

• started fitting into 6-12 month clothing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

     I. Love. Fall.
     And we had a lovely long weekend to celebrate the season. Friday night I didn't feel like cooking, so we did take out. If that's not a good way to start a weekend, I don't know what is. The girls were both really lovely all day, and we had an awesome jam with them after dinner. They went to bed early and Josh and I played a game together and had a few drinks. Everything I could ask for in an evening.

Thanksgiving banner and centrepiece Laura and I made

Saturday Josh let me sleep in and made breakfast. Love that. He also did a lot of digging in the back yard trying to finish prepping the site for our retaining wall. Laura and I worked on some Thanksgiving crafts to take to Grandma's for our turkey dinner. I may or may not have foregone cooking dinner again on Saturday, so we sampled the pumpkin cupcakes Laura and I made, and had some fruit, crackers, and cheese while watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. And then we watched it again in the morning, at Laura's request (Laura kept calling Peppermint Patty a 'he'. Hahahaha).

Our pumpkin spice cupcakes decorated as turkeys :)

The fall colours are simply stunning here this year, and Sunday we went for a Thanksgiving hike up at my dad's. My sister joined us, as well, and took some family photos for us. Afterwards we had our turkey dinner at my Mom's with the family. Rachel enjoyed getting kisses from Grandpa, and Laura enjoyed Grandpa copying her at the dinner table.

Monday we had set aside for chores and catching up on housework, etc. As we were leaving to get groceries in the morning, our neighbour brought us a huge box of veggies and things from his work. So nice. I am thankful for our great neighbours! Laura played with their little girl while we worked on the wall a little more. We spent the afternoon prepping veggies for the freezer, and putting away copious amounts of laundry. Tomorrow we are starting a three-week sugar detox.
Hope everyone had as lovely a weekend as we did! Happy Thanksgiving!