Fall Cleanup

This weekend we focused on getting the yard cleaned up for Winter, which meant a big pile of leaves for the kids to play in.

Liv was very intrigued by the leaf blowers. She kept saying and signing "more" while we watched, any time Mike would turn it off.

Jump!

Toddlers jumping is one of the cutest, funniest things ever. Liv has the BEST jump. She squats down and throws her arms up and laughs like she is really doing something amazing.

Unfortunately, this video only captures her jumping once. Then we sort of derail. As you can see from her Halloween shirt, this is from last week.

Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was the coldest in history (as far back as the records go, anyway). It seems like each year, the weather on Halloween is a little colder and crappier. Hard to believe it was in the 70s last weekend.

Liv and Ben both had 3 Halloween shirts each (all hand-me-downs or gifts; lucky us!), so they wore their festive gear almost all week.

I tried to get a picture of this adorable outfit, but Liv was too interested in climbing under the high chair over and over again. Who can blame her?

Here's a closeup of her eye. She came down with an eye infection on Wednesday. It looked like someone punched her. The next day, her other eye looked the same. Poor kid. But such a trooper. You'd never know by the way she acts, except she will occasionally point to it and say "eye."

By Friday, she was looking a little better thanks to eye drops from her doctor. I went to the kids' Halloween parade at daycare, which had to be inside due to the cold,

 Ben doing the fish song.

Liv getting ready for the parade. Once she saw me, I couldn't go back to Ben's room. She was glued to my hip. And she'd been crying because they'd just administered her eye drops--no surprise that she is not a fan!

 Ben in the parade. Like I said, the parade was inside...and a little lame because of that. :-(

Liv just wanted to play in the big kid area. She kept trying to have a conversation on the phone using this mouse.

Ben found his sidekick!

And then we came home to play and get ready for trick-or-treat.

Once Daddy was home, we headed out before it got dark.

It was soooo cold and windy. Miserable. We made it to about 5 houses, and Ben decided to call it a night. Liv was having fun despite the cold. She was holding our hands and walking like she had made the grade. If I let go of her hand to help Ben, she held it up and insisted I take it back. So sweet. But made it hard to take a picture, which is why there are none of us actually trick-or-treating.

After we got home, we ordered pizza and waited for trick-or-treaters to arrive. Ben and Liv both sampled the goods as well. Ben discovered a new love for Starburst (no chocolate for this one).

Livvie was less discriminating. She just like grabbing from the bowl and chewing on candy still in the wrapper. Oh, this kid.

After we got home, Ben handed out candy. He loved this and took his job very seriously. At one point, Liv wanted to put candy in the kids' bags like Ben, but she couldn't get out the door, so she improvised by grabbing a piece from the bowl and put it in the potted plant right by the door. She cracks me up and is such a cutie pie.

Here she is doing her new favorite "trick" of climbing up Mike and sitting on his shoulders. Over and over again. Mike is very patient. She has caught on that Dad might stop letting her climb, so she holds tight to his thumbs to make sure he can't get away.

Happy Halloween! Hoping for better weather next year.

Big Girl

Liv has never been a fan of her high chair or booster seat. Lately, she wants out pretty quickly and then prefers to sit on my lap and eat--which is cute sometimes, but also a bit prohibitive for me.

Last Saturday night, she was even more emphatic that she did not want to sit in her booster chair. I held her for a bit, and then Mike held her for a bit, but she was squirmy and kept getting off and on our laps.

Finally I just suggested we let her sit in a real chair and see how it goes. I had him put her in his chair, which has a pad. Pad = less sliding around.

It went great! She is so much more willing at this age to sit and listen to directions than Ben ever was. She happily sat in this chair and ate her dinner. I'd gotten take out--Taco Fresco for Mike and Potbellies for Ben and me (they're right next door, luckily). Liv had a little of both--refried beans and meat off of my sandwich, along with a veggie pouch.

Ms. Independent also has to do the spoon/fork for herself. But she is getting pretty good at it.

She looked so little and adorable sitting in that big chair at the other end of the table from me.

We let her sit on her own again this morning, and it went well. So far, so good.

Pumpkin Carving

It's pumpkin carving time. Possibly my least favorite holiday-related activity on Earth. Ugh, the mess. Especially with a 1 year old. I try to make the best of it.

We took Liv's shirt off since we decided to have her paint her pumpkin. Ben thought this seemed like a good idea, so he took his shirt off too. Then he said we should all do so. Haha. We told him it would be best if Mom and Dad kept their shirts on this year.

Liv saw me wiping the dirt off the pumpkins, so she had to get in on that action. This kid loves to wipe things down.

Painting time. She's no Picasso, but she had a good time.

Someone call the police immediately. Psycho alert. Thank goodness he didn't go shirtless, as Ben suggested--it would have only made this look more creepy.

After she painted her pumpkin, Liv wanted in on the scooping action. I let go of any hope of keeping this activity tidy, and let her loose. The kids proceeded to make "pumpkin soup."

I attempted to paint stripes on mine. Total Pinterest fail.

Ben smeared red paint all over his, and then told us it was blood. Here are the finished products, excluding mine, which wasn't even worth displaying.

 

Weekend Projects

The kids went to Nana's to visit on Saturday, so I used the time to get several projects done as fast as I could. It is amazing what I can get done in 6 hours by myself!

First, I tackled the chair rail in the dining room. I wanted to paint it white. I was hoping it would look okay to leave the trim wood and paint only the chair rail white. We have sooooo much wood trim, I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle such a big project. I figure if the chair rail doesn't look good, I can always take it off.

The verdict is still out. I think it looks kind of weird with the trim being wood.  I definitely like the white MUCH better overall though. The paint color looks much prettier next to the white.

While I was painting, I took this stool Mom had given me out and sanded it down (there were some paint clumps) and gave it a few fresh coats of paint. So it is looking happy!

This stool serves as our timeout spot. But despite that, the kids both like sitting on it and reading. Ben also likes to line up his animal figurines on it.

Photo bomb--Ben was too impatient for me to take these photos. He wanted to play with his Lincoln Logs up on the table so that Liv wouldn't knock down his master piece.

See how the wood and white look weird...

I also gave this previously brown lamp a few coats of white spray paint. Our family room is so brown. Trying to lighten things up where I can.

That's all I got done yesterday before the kids came home and it was back to Mommy mode. Pretty good for 6 hours though.

Enjoying the Last of the Nice Weather

We had some unseasonably awesome weather this weekend, so we made the most of it on Sunday. Our front tree is almost bare, but fall is still hanging on around here.

Mike started the day with a 5k. The kids and I dropped him off in Oswego for it, popped into Target for a few things, and then picked him up. It was his best time ever--23:41. He was 3rd in his age group and 35th overall (out of 474). Impressive!

After that, Mike mowed the yard while I cleaned the garage and Ben played outside. (Liv was napping.)

Once Liv was up from her nap, we went on a bike ride. Liv was super excited for her helmet, and super cute.

Ben opted to ride his own bike. We took a long ride and stopped at the park to play.

After we got home, we decided to play in the yard for a bit. Liv found Ben's juice box and thought she was really sneaky.

I gave her a bottle of water, which she promptly spilled all over the driveway, and then played in. Such a tomboy.

Next, the pool noodles kept her busy for a while.

Then we headed in to carve pumpkins. More on that later.

I'll leave you with this video of Ben practicing his casting. Mike keeps it classy, as always.

http://youtu.be/LhbKOIUlR2M