Halloween

Here it is, the Halloween post.

About a month before Halloween, I asked Eddie what he wanted to be. "A dog". So I searched and searched and could find no pre-made costumes. Then we went to the grocery store and I found a dog--yes at the grocery. I didn't really like it (it was very similar in style to last year's hand-me-down turtle, but picture a brown dog instead) I bought it and he tried it on. It was a bit too small as it ripped.

As we got to talking, I asked him again what he wanted to be (this was about 2-3 weeks out). A blue dog. Long of the short was I realized I should try making a costume--not my speciality, but I was game. Here we are assembling the costume (I know a few of you have been waiting to see me actually physically making the costume).

Below is the finished product. He didn't like the barrettes on his head--they hurt when I put them on--so we hooked them to one of my headbands--which he loves to wear. I told him I was making a collar and he asked me to cut out an 'E'. Then he asked for a 'J'. He said the J stood for Josephine. He was adamant about not wanting a tail. So, I attached it when he wasn't looking and managed to get him in and out of the costume two times before he noticed it on the final wearing.

I hadn't really planned to dress Josie up, but Cookie asked Eddie what Josie was going to be and he thought she should be a cat. Fortunately for me, Target had a cute little cat hat and socks and then a bib to match. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find black for a baby--especially a young baby? If I'd wanted her to be pastel anything, I'd have been all set.

She looks kind of cool in her goth-esc outfit here. I like her in black.

First jog

Last week, Den was setting up our new computer, so I couldn't post. He had some transferring of files issues, but we think have it all resolved...now to just get the internet functioning and we'll be all set.

Oct. 28---Josie's first jog. The mnual (such as it is) for the jog stroller says that between 6 and 8 months, babies can go for a jog (necks will be strong enough, etc.). I needed the break, Den needed a jog, Eddie needed to go to the park, and it was high time Josie took a run. Apparently she did great.
I've ordered a rain/weather guard, a handlebar tray and carseat converter and we're all set for anything.

Ed--Mr. I-don't-want-a - blanket man, has decided it's fun to share a blanket with his sister. I think it's so adorable. I've also realized the thing about him switching to a toddler bed that makes me so sad is that he is definitely not a baby anymore and is on his way out of toddler-hood and entering what they call a preschooler. All these classifications I never even knew existed.

It's beginning--and I guess it's really been ongoing, but this transition was a bigger deal to me than I think just about any of his others. He needs us less and less. I expected that I would rejoice. I am not a baby person, yet I've tried hard not to wish away the time they are young, as I know their youth goes all too quickly. Yet, the idea of him being old enough to be in a regular bed is hard to swallow and comprehend. I'm forever 6 years old to my mom and I wonder if Eddie will forever be 2.5 to me?

Random Days

So I was clearly quite tired when I wrote my last post.

I'm slowly catching up. Check out this bitty little snail on our pumpkin. We just said goodbye to the pumpkin with today's trash. He didn't want us to throw it out, but I told him to say goodbye and we could get another one. I keep thinking about the absolutely huge snail I saw in FLA that must have been 10 times the size of this one...but we were in too much of a rush then too stop and notice snails.

These pictures were taken before Halloween--we got a lot of rain--enough to fill the entire back end of Ed's car!




Eddie made sugar Cookies with Cookie. I had gone out and bought a box of 100 shapes covering letters, numbers, and practically every immaginable holiday.
At dinner time one night, I captured these goodies...

What I Did This Weekend

We'd been having our houseguests sleep in our partially finished basement the last couple months (g'parent Wisc. asked to sleep in the basement once a while ago and it had continued for them) but G'ma Ohio finally put a stop to it. She vowed not to stay with us again until the guest room was returned to the upper level of the house. Then we scheduled a visit from them for the first weekend in Nov. (mind you, they are in the habit of visiting monthly).









For the last two weeks, we've been working to prepare ourselves (taking measurements, talking it up to Eddie) and the house for the transition which would involve: cleaning out the basement (including divesting ourselves of some old metal kitchen cabinets--only thing really done in advance), moving our office to the basement, moving Eddie's bedroom to our old office, and (are you breathless?), moving the rest of the guest room contents from Josie's room (the original guest room) to Eddie's old room (the 'new' guest room). In short, a massive rubix cube.

And we were trying to do it in 2 days. G'parents Ohio spent the entire weekend playing with the grandkids, breaking to provide us the ocassional assistance in our move. They stayed in a hotel, and were to leave on Sunday. I used my patented Chinese Water Torture and got them to stay one more night (Sunday night) so we could largely finish up.

The picture at top is that last time Eddie was in his crib. He had just woken from his nap. He was definitely ready to be done with his crib and I thought I was too--but I'm pretty sad about it--and not because he can now run around at will--that was part of why I wanted to do it--so he would quit asking for one more thing to be brought to his crib--now he will have to find a new way to stall at bedtime.

We'd heard all kinds of stories about making the switch from crib to bed and then we were going to be moving rooms too. I'd not really done much to decorate Ed's old room and really wanted to do some decorating of the new room, so I let Eddie pick out the shade of light blue he wanted and he and the g'parents went to the paint store to get the closest shade. G'pa and daddy applied it and Eddie was rapt watching. I figured it would help with the transition, not be the most exciting aspect--I think he's most thrilled about having a blue wall (Den felt it too dark to cover the whole room--we'll continue to work him on that).

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

(Eddie wanted to help type).

Eddie didn't want to pose for a picture in his new bed after the room was done because he wasn't ready for bed, so we had to sneak one after bed. After a moment of hesitation, he was very excited to see everything from his old room appear in the new one. He loved that his rocking chair had been rescued from Josie's room, that he could climb in and out of his bed. In fact, you could almost see the mischievous glean in his eye about getting in and out of bed.

Come bedtime, I put him in his bed and soon after I discovered I'd not latching the door fully, as we heard little feet running across the floor and the door opening and Eddie descending the stairs. G'pa took him back up and put him in bed. Then again, only this time, he just started calling out, threatening to wake the newly sleeping Josie. G'pa again went up and I was so bone tired by this point, I almost didn't care what he had to do to keep Eddie in bed. Turns out the threat of turning out the lamp, leaving him only with a nightlight was sufficent. This morning, he stood at the door, calling to be let out. He was very happy and really excited about the options afforded one not tied down by a crib. Yes, we cleaned out the crib after the photo.

Now to finish unpacking my office and putting everything away...g'parents Ohio snuck out at 6:30 this morning, earlier than ever before to beat the DC traffic.

Ed in October

I've said recently that it was almost as if a switch went on with Ed when he turned 2 1/2 (almost to the day). Now he is 32 months old and Den and I are just floored. He has decided doing just one 12 piece puzzle is too easy, so he typically does 2 at once, taking all the pieces out and then putting them back together. I bought him some 24 piece puzzles and those still were not challenging enough because the first night he put the puzzle together in no time.

We (anyone who works with him) have been trying to teach him about corner pieces, edge pieces and finding and grouping like pieces. Apparently it's sinking in.

A couple days before this, Eddie and Den were playing with his doodle pro (the thing pictured below) and I don't remember exactly how it happened, other than Eddie saying he wanted to draw an 'E'. The next thing we know, he has every part drawn except the last tail at the bottom. Den and I were separately holding our breath, willing him to know to draw the last line--and he did! We were just amazed. Apparently Cookie has been working with him on this. He didn't seem to think it was a big deal, and I guess why would he.

Oddly, Ed has started to like riding toys. He now likes to ride the airplane around and he likes to ride in his new blue car. Here he is with daddy's shoes on. One area we're not doing so well is potty training. He was well on his way when we left for FLA. I thin our mistake was not having a perceived 'safe' place for him to pee where he didn't feel he was going to fall in. Prior to the trip, he had been asking us to pee and been peeing a couple times/day. Now, it doesn't matter what sticker we offer, he doesn't want to pee. Ugh. He knows when he has to pee too, which makes it all the more frustrating.

Cookie told me to get tough with him, but when I tried making him stay in training pants all morning, it back fired...in a big way. He wouldn't let me put a diaper on, yet kept peeing right through the training pants. It was as if he was holding it until I changed him, then peed again. Argh. Next step is to check out from the library some books (for him--and apparently maybe me) on potty training. I'm just frustrated with myself that we let a good pattern stop.

Well, I'm offically caught up...sort of. Several more posts from the last week, but no longer a month behind. Enjoy the photos, only me and g'parents are likely to trudge through the text I'm guessing :)

Jonesin' for Josie

After such a long time of no pictures, I've got a whole bunch coming. Now if I could only catch up in printing them...Ed has started requesting printed pictures, similar to the one of daddy in the bullet train, so I need to get crankin'.

Josie is really enjoying her jumper chair and still loves bath time. When we used this blue one, she always seemed to try and slide down, so we've now (as of a couple nights ago) switched her to the larger inflatable one we take on trips. Interestingly she freaks when it's in the big bathtub, but is fine when it's on the kitchen counter. Whatever works.

Here Ed is feeding her peas and then below Den is feeding her carrots. She's doing well with the food, but not to get too detailed, her body is having some trouble adjusting to solids and we've had to load up on the apple juice, applesauce, fiber and have a couple sleepless nights while she writhes in pain. Ugh. The ugly side of babyhood.

We think we've passed by the initial bowel problems and now we are dealing with not only wanting just mommy, but wanting to sleep with mommy. Right now, as I type this, she is screaming her guts out. And that's while Den holds her. I really don't know how he is able to hold her while she screams. It's not like she has colic or something and we know her digestive tract is back to work. Den suspects she is at this point just pist that we let her cry for 20 minutes. And as Cookie says, she wants what she wants and she'll hold out til she gets it. Can't wait for the teenage years (and better yet, the preteen years).

I have some more recent photos of Josie to post, but still catching up...

Anna Maria Island--part 6 of our FLA holiday

Some friends/neighbors have a beach house we decided to check out. They said it was very relaxing and they couldn't have been more accurate. This was exactly what we needed. Josie got to break out her bikini, Uncle David got to watch high def TV, Den got internet (but not too much) and I don't know what Lore' and I got except for the beach and being entertained by the kids.

I'm still learning how to feed Josie. But in the bottom picture she decided to take matters into her own hands...literately.

Eddie was still afraid of the water (after the Tybee incident in which he fearlessly let go of my hand, only to be knocked over and rolled around by a wave), but he did let us carry him in and he did stand on the edge of the water a little. I do hope he learns to get back in.

If you ever need a relaxing trip to the beach, this house is the best--fully stocked, great for kids and it's one house from the beach. It's the closest we've ever stayed and man is it ever the way to go.

Brace yourselves for a lot of text on the following posts...it's been a while.

Disney Part 5--yes we took a lot of photos

I take a lot of photos and apparently Aunt Lore' does too. Lots from which to chose. Uncle David had no qualms about toting Josie around and she I think liked the view.
It rained while we were there, but it was pretty hot, so not a big deal. Eddie was having a fabulous time. Being a crocs fan, we spotted these and Ed really wanted them. I hadn't done any (!) shopping, so we got them. I'd been wanting a pair anyway, so Ed was all excited we had matching crocs. There will be snow on the ground and we'll have to convince him not to put crocs on--he really loves these shoes. Sure get out money's worth!
We were in such a rush in the morning we didn't get a group photo on our way in, when the light was perfect, so instead waited until the sun was shinning in our eyes to try and get 2 tired kids to look at the camera.

Disney Part 4 --Following Uncle David's Lead

Being the musician that he is, Uncle David had a good time with these drums and pretty soon a bunch of kids were too, including Eddie. He was particularly fascinated by this long one and stuck his head inside. I was lightly tapping on it and when I wasn't looking some kid came along and really walloped on the drums. Eddie didn't seem to care, but I was appalled.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is my least favorite park at Disney (there are 4 theme parks and 2 (?) water parks). It's kind of like a zoo and a couple rides. But, this was perfect for Eddie. Have I mentioned how nice it was to have Aunt and Uncle with us? Not only for the extra set of hands and photography, but Eddie and J really liked hanging with them and it was fun to have them interact.

No self-respecting zoo would be without a petting zoo and Disney is no different. You take a train where you have to leave behind or fold up your stroller (another reason to bring your own stroller and not rent a Disney one). Getting two kids (one of whom can barely sit up, let alone stand) out of a stroller, while juggling a back pack, a camera, and trying to keep track of everything can be an interesting feat. I was glad I'd put Eddie in this bright blue shirt--he sure was easy to spot.

He picked out a blue brush and had a great time brushing the animals. Most of them were just roaming around there for the touching, but they did have a couple shaded areas with what looked like outdoor kids play equipment for the animals to hang out in a protected zone. A whole lot of them were packed in these areas, out of reach of all the little hands that longed to touch them.

Uncle David did his best to keep Josie out of the hot Florida sun--difficult when the only shade around was for the animals. These animals were so tame. Ed accidently steped on the hoof of this one after he was done brushing it and the animal didn't even acknowledge anything had happened.

Ed thought these cutouts were pretty cool.