Rant on CP

Please ignore this post if you do not want to read ranting or are easily offended. I rarely get upset about what people choose to do in their own lives. I have too much stress in my life to worry about the choices of some stranger's life. However, I have been completely aggravated with what is going in Aria's class at school. Two children in the infant program have come down with Chicken Pox. I am constantly praying that Aria is not next given that she isn't old enough to be vaccinated yet.

I'm not angry at the school or the poor kids with Chicken Pox. I'm angry about this virus still existing despite there being a vaccine. What is making my bloodpressure rise is the people who do not get the vaccine for their children and then purposely infect them with the illness. I'm fairly certain that was NOT the kids at daycare, but they might have come in contact with a kid like this.

Purposely infecting your kid with this virus is CRUEL. It is 1-2 weeks of sheer misery for the average person infected. Moreover, it is foolish to believe that you are only infecting your own child. Chicken pox has a really long contagious period. Your kid would have to be in complete isolation for 2-3 weeks or even longer. Infecting another person could kill them even if you are willing to take that chance with your own child's life.

If you can't get this vaccine, I'm cool with that. If you can get it, but choose not too, that's fine with me. However, purposely infecting someone is something that I cannot stomach. I literally kept me up for several hours last night thinking about how terrible this is.

Just a few months to go (fingers crossed), and I will get Aria vaccinated. I will not be buying pox-laced lollipops off the internet or going to a pox party. I cannot bare to think of her or anyone else suffering with this illness despite having survived it myself.

On a positive note, Aria does not show any signs of chicken pox!

Proto-toddler

Aria is getting to be such a big girl. I swear her head grew since yesterday, and that's not just because I couldn't fit another 18month size shirt neck hole over it. Every time she has a growth spurt, I always seem to notice it in the head first.

In addition to shear size, she is just learning in leaps and bounds. She's learned to wave bye-bye or night-night. It mostly looks like her just stretching out her arm with an occasional full arm flap, but she's trying.

She's starting a few, very short attempts of free standing. It took me a few tries because it doesn't last very long, but I did catch a picture of it. She is a bit more cautious than her bigger brother when he learned to stand. She tends to stand next to things so that she doesn't fall all the way down. Xander was atypical (or at least his teacher's told us that). He first attempts at standing were in the middle of the room.


Also, very rarely, if highly motivate by something really interesting, Aria has been caught with a bit of cruising. I caught a few steps here on video. In this case, the motivation was Xander acting like a crazy person.

Copper is Copper again

For about a year, we've been battling some strange problems with one of our dogs, Copper. She got multiple skin infections, lost hair, put on a lot of weight, and seemed really lethargic. Treating the skin infections while taking care of a newborn was a real challenge as I had to give her frequent showers with special soap, and remember a complicated schedule for her medicine.

After several months of battling with this, the doctor suggested a thyroid screening, which came back normal. On the most recent skin infection occurrence, he decided that despite the normal reading on her thyroid, we should treat with a thyroid supplement. I've been giving it to her daily since October. It's really made a huge difference and our Copper is truly Copper again.

Her hair has grown back. It started growing back in all the bald patches at the same time. She lost the extra weight she had put on. As you can see in the video, she is a playful dog, which is great, because Xander is now started to enjoying playing with the dogs in different ways. He loves to throw toys for fetch, which both our labs love to play.

As a side note, the vet had also recommended this special dog food, at one point, in case Copper skin problems were allergy related. This was a huge failure. While I initially was able to get her to eat this super expensive grain free food, after a couple days, she out right refused to eat it. Even if I mix it with her normal Iams food, she will eat around the new food.

I'm glad that our Copper is feeling better. After all, she really was our FIRST baby.

Feeling productive

This time of year is my spring cleaning time, as you'll notice some posts from last year. I try to organize or de-clutter. I would love to do this all year long, but I don't always have the vacation time nor the energy to always be perfectly organized at all times. My accomplishments thus far this year:

1) Organize the master closet. This resulted in 36 cubic feet of clothes, shoes, and bags for good will. Plus, the closet is no longer hazard to walk into.

2) Get rid of every possible baby item
- Clothes 0-6mos went to a coworker who had a little girl
- Clothes 6-9mos went to goodwill
- Clothes 9-18mos are going to a friend in California.
- Extra carseat and Xander's crib bedding went to a local Freecycler
- Co-sleeper sold on craigslist
- Baby bath and baby swing given to Dolphin's coworker
I almost sold the baby bouncer, but the buyer changed their mind so Aria can plan with it a few more times.

3) Take a load of books to the used book store. Yep, I no longer feel the need to keep around "Baby's First Year".

I have a day off later this week while the kids will be in day care. Then, I plan to shampoo the carpets, clean the garage, and possibly repair some bricks on our house. There's a whole bunch of other list items I'd like to get to, but not sure I'll have the time.

Christmas Cottage Fever

Finally, it stopped RAINING! Nothing like being trapped inside to make you go crazy. We bundled up for the blistering cold weather 50 degree weather. Brrrr...and we headed out to one of our favorite parks.

We bundled up Aria the best that we could, and she seemed pretty content. Of course, she loved swinging. This video and her smiles on the swing give you a good view of her 4 teeth. Speaking of teeth, she has such slow teeth compared to Xander. Xander at this age 8 teeth already, and they would come in super fast. Aria's teeth take weeks to come in all the way. I've also noticed that Aria doesn't drool at all. Xander was constantly wet in comparison. Such unique teethers I have!



Xander loved feeding the ducks Cheerios. I hope Cheerios are ok for ducks. I recall that last winter we came to this same pond to feed the ducks but they were all afraid of us. These ducks were definitely not afraid, nor was Xander afraid of them.

Cutest Spaghetti Eating Ever

Quiet--the sound of trouble brewing

Xander was in the bathroom for a really long time. I went to check on him to find him counting and filling these little cups. He said he was doing "science". I've learned that when Xander is quiet, it's a good idea to be worried as usually there is some mess making in progress. This one wasn't too bad.

Merry Christmas

We had a nice quite Christmas at home this year. We took the kids out to see Christmas lights. A few miles away there is a home that synchronizes the lights to a local radio station. It was a very impressive display. Both kids fell asleep in the car before we even got to that house. We'll have to remember that sleep trick for next year.

For Christmas breakfast, we had monkey bread. I think we're trying to make a tradition of it. There is a store bought brand that only takes 2 and 1/2 minutes to heat in the microwave and it tastes awesome. We enjoyed it with coffee from Dolphin's new Aeropress and Cocao Loco from my stocking.

Xander's present from Santa this year was a corrugated paper (lay people call this cardboard) castle. It was easy for Dolphin to assembly while I...I mean er...Santa had the tough job of eating cookies. This gift was inspired by a few of my old childrens books. After reading a few to Xander, I kept seeing this old advertisement for a house that kids could draw on. Low and behold, they still make these houses and now, in quite a few shapes and sizes including this awesome castle. Xander is totally in to art these days so I thought it would be perfect. What was most surprising about this gift was that it took Xander something like 7 passes of walking right by it before he noticed it. Seriously? It's gigantic! This is possibly another indication that he takes after me..."one track mind".



Aria's present from Santa was a little tykes outdoor swing that I got off craigslist. She's going to love it when get it set up in the backyard. As expected, she was pretty much interested in eating the paper. I did put a few outfits for her under the tree. One was this yellow sundress which I layered with a onesie to make it appropriate for the colder weather. Despite an ear infection, she brought her usual ray of sunshine personality that matched her dress well.



Grandma Carla and Grandpa Tom got a Kindle for the kids. Its instantly become a family favorite. Xander and I spent a good 30 minutes playing Angry Birds. Time wasters aside, we've enjoyed readying some of the free books already including Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know and When Cows Fly.


Our Christmas dinner was steak, potatoes, spinach salad, and green beans. I made little personal sized fruit hand pies filled with cranberries, apple, blueberries, and blackberries. Yummy!

Christmas Preparations

I did not do much in the way of Christmas preparing this year compared to some years in the past. I did have one day off with the kids to do a few last minute preparations.

Last year, we did all sorts of homemade cards for various people. This year, I was only able to get Xander to do one. Why? Let's just say we had creative differences in that I wanted him to make cards for people, and he wanted to cut random shapes of paper. He's just obsessed with cutter paper these days. For daddy, though, he did agree to make a card. Yay! We all know daddy is the best and most deserving.


Santa apparently deserved some of our attention as well. After going to two stores, I finally found some pre-made sugar cookie dough to make something for Santa. If it weren't for the artistic experience, I think Santa would have probably preferred a different kind of cookies. In any case, Xander helped with the whole process while Aria mostly chewed on the cookie cutters.

Cookie Cutting


Cookie Frosting


End Result


My Cookies

Christmas Challenge

This year, for reasons that I won't go into here, I gave myself a challenge for my Christmas shopping. I tried to stick to buying as local as possible, buying used, or buying practical things that I would get anyway. The result is that I didn't succeed in many cases, but it was a learning experience none the less. I'll mention of few of the experiences below.

1) Wrapping - Well, it seems most wrapping paper and bows are made far away in China, but Scotch tape is made in the USA. I did end up getting both paper and tape, but many a times I held myself back from getting bows. It was really hard. I love bows, especially big giant, shiny bows for Christmas.

2) Online shopping - Since 2001, nearly 90% or greater of my holiday shopping has been online. I continued to stick with this model, but it did not mesh very well with my challenge. It is sometimes hard to figure out where things are made or from where they are distributed. I was impressed that Amazon did have a significant number of items showing up a "made in usa" search.

3) Software - A lot of software is made in the US, in fact, right here in Austin, TX. Who doesn't need software? Games? Personal organizational tools? There's an app for everything, right? Granted the hardware that runs the software is all made somewhere very far away.

4) Media - I invested a lot in media gifts. I know the blank paper, ink, DVDs are made and printed far away. There are a lot of good local artists and authors of all sorts out there. I probably should do more electronic media, but I just can't quite give up on real books. Change is a process. Maybe that is next year's challenge.

5) Craigslist - If you want to get good stuff, you cannot wait 'til the last minute. I ended up only finding only one thing off Craigslist this year. Maybe next year I need to set up some RSS feed searches so my software does the shopping for me. What fun is that though?

6) Food - I love giving and receiving this. Although these days I often find myself too busy to make food for my family, let alone others, I found tons of online resources to help me send the gift of food. Yay for farmers, chefs and restaurants.

7) Regifting - Yay that's right. Or at least, Xander is helping with this one. He's giving some of his hold things to Aria.


In any event, I enjoyed the shopping challenge this year and will likely try these rules on a more long term basis....hopefully, with better success rate. This is a new thing for me as I have previously only done budget challenges for my shopping. Previous years, I found myself with a lot more time to prepare for holiday giving. Previous years have had a lot different composition of things underneath the tree. Change is good. I think I needed this challenge to revitalize my interest in things beyond surviving my daily life.

A tour of pre-K

A conversation at dinner:

Mommy: Xander got to spend time in the pre-K room this afternoon. (This is the room for 4-5 year olds)

Xander: I got to go in there the rest of the afternoon.

Daddy: Were you in that room because you were being bad, Xander?

Xander: No.

Mommy: Were you in that room because you were being good, Xander?

Xander: No. Because I'm smart. But I'm little. I'm only 3. [holding up his fingers to count]

The reality is that he was in that room because there is low attendance and fewer teachers during the holidays. The preschool class (for 3 year olds) was a completely packed zoo. It's so funny which ideas Xander picks up though.

Only Teachers

Only teachers would be able to get so many little kids to sit long enough for a picture. One of kids in Xander's class and a mom who is a teacher at his school. Her birthday party was mostly teachers and their kids. Such well behaved kids!

It was a bit tough to get Xander to spend time bouncing. This was a little surprising since he talks so affectionately of bounce houses. Instead, at this bouncy gym, he wanted to read books and play with blocks. After some coaxing though, we got him to bounce for a while. He wouldn't go on the high slides though despite every other kid doing it.

Christmas Kid Proofing

Here is my attempt at kid proofing the stockings this year. I have these pretty metal present stocking hangers, but they are a total kid hazard. One pull on a stocking, and they'll come crashing down. Instead of hanging the stockings on the hangers, I used 3M Command Adhesive Hooks for the stocks next to the present hangers. I've never used them before, but my mom recommended them as an alternative to nails. At the end of the season, I hope that I can just pull of these hooks with no damage to the wood.

Poor Aria though, I still haven't had time to get her name on to her stocking. I vow that I will get it done before she can read!

Letter to Santa

Xander and I made his first letter to Santa this year. There was a little bit of coaching involved here, but he wrote his name.


Xander drew a picture on the back. It was a picture of Santa, but they he decided to glue a Christmas tree on top. This makes it look like Santa got squished by the Christmas tree.


I "mailed" off the letter. With Christmas magic, Santa responded by video-email. Here is Santa's personalized response to Xander's letter from the Portable North Pole.

Aria's 9th month check up

At 9 months, Aria has a host of new skills to share:
- She said her first word. Dolphin isn't convinced but I think Grandma Jo and I are. While eating, if she wants a food, she says "mah" while intently staring at the food item. Since I have been trying to teacher her "more" by doing the sign and saying the word at the same time, I think she's got it. She can't do the real sign which involves coordinating two hands, but she does beat one hand on the table. I'm working on "all done" next and also our special word for nursing..
- She's definitely go object permanence down. She's a bit persistent when she wants something and we take it away. Oh the sibling fights have already begun. Mostly verbal (or should I say vocal) thus far. Xander yelling "No, Aria" or Aria just crying when he takes something away.
- She seems to understand and try to mimic some actions. For example, Xander has a toy where you put two toy cars at the top, press a lever, and the two cars race down spirals to the bottom. I showed this to her. When the cars were finished racing and at the bottom, she picked up one car. Instead of putting it into her mouth (which she does with many new objects), she reached to put it back up to the top.
- She's got her pincer grasp down well. In fact, it's annoyingly perfected as she likes to pinch us as a sort of a soothing activity. She pinches both Dolphin and me so I don't feel like the only one suffering. She also uses this skill to annoyingly pick up the smallest specs of dirt on the floor and put them in her mouth. Suddenly, I feel if we live in a pig sty. Who knew there was some much dirt on my floor!
- She is standing nut. She pulls up to standing and can sit back down rather nicely. She can stand just holding on to something with one hand. She'll use almost anything vertical to pull up on: laundry baskets, tables, and other older kids at school (poor guys).

As for her check up, it went fine. She measured 20lbs 4oz (75th-90th percentile), 27.4 inches (25-50th percentile), and head circumference of 45.4 CM (75th-90th) percentile. I think the height is a bit off because Aria was a crazy squirmer and would not stay still for the measurement. She kept arching her back to turn over.

Unfortunately, as with her last appointment, Aria had an ear infection. In fact, it was a double. I had suspected as much but was kind of hoping she would get over it on her own. In any case, we have the pink stuff now and oh boy, she SLEPT SO much better last night and during her naps today. I'm glad she is getting some relief.

One more thing, as the doctor was examining Aria, and I was holder her in a laying position, I noticed the tiny buds of two top teeth just starting to poke through. Finally, we're getting some more teeth!

Please oh please, no more Mickey Mouse!!

This week, I picked up Xander's first book without pictures. The book is kind of fantasy book about a magical treehouse and part of a series of books. I wasn't sure how it would go down but he listened very well. We've read a chapter a night and then Dolphin asks him questions about what he read the previous night. I guess this is Xander's book report and he's done pretty well. He remembered some key details from the story. Whenever we mention the book, he wants to get it out and read it right away. I almost feel bad telling him that we have to wait until bedtime.

One of the reasons that I decided to venture into new book territory is that Dolphin and I were really, really, really tired of reading what Xander affectionately calls the "Mickey Mouse book" and Curious George anthologies. We have on Disney anthology of Mikey Mouse and other character stories. We have two Curious George anthologies. Despite having many other books, Xander had got into a 2 week rut of only wanting to read these three books over and over again. It got so bad that Dolphin had to start a new book rotation rule system. We put books into a pile and can't read them again until we read all the other books on the shelf.

Trap

It's a trap. There are all these pretty shiny balls, beads, and lights. When you try to grab one, you get poked by a bunch of green pointy things.

Walking Dead

Aria's had a bit of a cold. I thought maybe a little extra vitamin C would help. So, after she downed the last bit of leftover cranberry sauce, I got thawed out some frozen blueberries for her. This called for a special attire of no clothes. After I futilely tried to wipe some of the berry mess of, Dolphin thought she took on the appearance of one of the zombies from "Walking Dead".

After I gave up on wiping, Dolphin took her straight to a bath. I promise we have a clean, live looking baby again.

Baby proofing

I'm learning that baby proofing is entirely more essential with two kids compared to just one. With one kid, you can watch them like a hawk and generally keep them safe. However, with two kids going in opposite directions, it's a seemingly impossible task.

Moreover, with kids of different ages, there are a lot more choking hazards around. By the time we survive this period, Xander is going to be an expert on baby choking hazards. I'm constantly telling him "Keep that away from Aria. She'll choke on that." Fortunately, one of his favorite activities seems to be "keep away from Aria" so he's generally obliged to help.

There is just something about my kids that makes them drawn to electrical hazards. For Xander, he just loved outlets. He still does. He just loves plugging stuff in. I suppose there is something a little satisfying about how a plug fits perfectly into an outlet. Aria is just as troublesome thus far. She just seems fascinated with electrical chords. The other day she was flossing with the chord of a video game controller. She, of course, has her eyes on the lights and garland of the Christmas tree.

So, while Xander survived just fine without ever using a play pen, the joovy play pen is coming in really handy to keep Aria safe. She doesn't really always like being in there because its separate from everyone else. It is at least a safe place that I can put here if I need to leave the room temporarily. It also keeps her toys in a relatively confined space.

Little legs

I was a little fearful of tights for a baby, but now that I've tried them, I'm sold! These cotton tights are no harder to get on than a pair of pants. They also stay on unlike socks. Not to mention, they are super cute. Now that the weather is cooler, I think Aria will be donning these babies quite often.

Helpful elf

Xander surprised me this year by being extremely helpful putting up the Christmas tree. He patiently waited me to put up all the branches and lights (fake tree, obviously). Then, he helped get the shatterproof balls out of the package. Although it was a little hard for him to hook the ornaments on the tree, he handed them to me one-by-one so I could put them up.

The shatterproof ornaments are a lesson learned from last year when I lost 6 ornaments due to Xander, the dogs, or my own clumsiness. With my little human vacuum cleaner, Aria, we need to avoid little pieces of glass as much as possible. The shatterproof ornaments are awesome. They look just like regular glass bulbs but they are made of plastic.

We still have work to do to decorate the front yard. Hopefully, Xander will be helpful there, too.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, I'm thankful for my family. Grandma Carla and Grandpa Tom came to visit. Grandma Carla did almost all the work for our delicious meal. We had a turkey, which Dolphin brined. For sides, we had sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, bread stuffing instead of a pumpkin, rolls, and gravy. Yum! Grandma Carla also made two pies, apple and pecan. The pecan pie was made from pecans that they harvested off a tree near their home. Xander helped decorate the table this year. His decorating included rationing out the napkins in proportions to how messy he predicted people would be and putting some sparkly/shiny objects on the table.

The evening of Thanksgiving, it cooled off enough for us to enjoy a backyard campfire. Grandpa Tom did a great job of getting it burning well. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. When it was dark, we told a few ghost stories. Xander made up a story about a ghost alligator, who was as big as the sky. The ghost alligator would chomp on the bad guys. Then, Xander said the rest of the alligator story was boring and that I should finish it. Thanks for the boring part, buddy.

Seaworld San Antonio

Grandma Carla and Grandpa Tom came to visit during Thanksgiving week. The weather was perfectly beautiful, sunny with high in the 80s. We rented a gigantic vehicle, a Yukon, to drive down to Sea World San Antonio.


Xander's favorite activity this trip to Sea World was riding a rollercoaster. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that. A close second was the dolphin feeding exhibit. Xander loved feeding the dolphins so much he wanted to feed all the animals in the whole park. We ended up doing it twice, when we first arrived and right before we left. These two pictures below are from my mom who had a zoom lens with her.





Of course, no trip to Seaworld is complete without some kind of treat. I gave Xander the choice of ice cream or kettle corn. He opted for the cheesiest kettle corn I've ever seen. Such a mess and I'm thankful for wet wipes.


While Xander complained about his feet getting tired from all the walking, Aria had a sweet ride in the stroller. She crashed for a nap just as we were leaving.

Fairytales

Recently, Xander learned about "Fairytales" at school. Following that, in the car one day, I decided to make up a fairy tale on the fly for Xander. He totally loved it. He kept asking for another fairytale as soon as the last one finished. The offer of fairytales is now an enticing bribe to get him to do boring activities like grocery shopping.

I have to admit that Daddy's made up fairy tales are usually a lot better than mine. His have morals or humorous endings. Xander is not hugely discriminating though. He usually is happy with any story just as long as the character is NOT named Xander. For some reason, characters with the name Xander upset him.

Just this week, Xander started to make up his own fairytales. What was exciting about his was that have way through the story, the character comes to life and he pretends they are interacting with us. He had one story about an "old mom robot" who kept coming to life and we had to keep trying to get it back into the story.

Beware of Independent Art Projects

Recently, Xander has become more independent in his artistic endeavors. In the past, he always insisted on someone else doing art projects with him. He liked to be a supervisor, demanding how things be done. However, as his drawing skills have dramatically begun to improve, he now has the confidence to start projects on his own.

One recent morning, he made the project above. I don't know what it is. However, it involved writing the letters X A and D on sheets of paper towel, gluing them together, cutting them into pieces, and then some more gluing together.

So, all of this art seems cute, creative, innocent, right? Unfortunately, along with this streak of independence came the desire to start to create master pieces on non-paper surfaces around the house. He penciled a big work on Aria's bedroom wall because he wanted to "make the wall pretty." Fortunately, I had painted a satin finish in her room so I was able to wipe off the art. The other day, I turned around to find random marker blue drawings all over the window seat in the kitchen. Thank goodness for washable markers.

Wrapping presents

This is what happens when Mommy and Daddy are sick. Xander goes on a present wrapping frenzy. He wrapped all sorts of presents for us with a giant roll of paper towels that he found in the laundry room.

Bunch of sickies

We've got 4 simultaneous colds going this week. The instigator? Well, Aria showed symptoms of the cold first so odds are it was her. Then, it was Xander, followed by Daddy, and finally me. It is just a cold though. No fever, and we're all surviving.

I really hate being sick. I've subsequently become the biggest fan of the flu vaccine. This year, we all got it. First, I got mine the day that they became available at Target. I don't mess around. It took a little longer for everyone else because the kids have to be done at a real doctor's office. We ended up going to a Saturday flu clinic where we could do the remaining members of the family all at once.

Giving a shot to an infant is easy. It's questionable if Aria even noticed getting the flu shot. She didn't cry at all. Xander on the other hand was quite a handful. The whole ride to the doctor, he cried about not wanting a shot. He was the last one to go at the doctors office. Despite Daddy and Aria receiving shots uneventfully, he was just terrified. So, Daddy and the nurse had to hold him down. Even after the shot, he was just completely out of sorts. It took a good 30 min to calm him down. It's all worth it in my mind if we can avoid the flu.

An appropriate story for Veteran's Day

I was playing with a monster puppet with the kids.

The monster: "Hi. Little boy. What is your name?"

Xander refuses to say his name as he is scared of the monster.

The monster: "I demand you tell me your name or I will have to eat your sister."

The monster starts to move it to eat on Aria. Xander immediately runs across the room, gets in between the monster and Aria. He grabs the puppet off my arm and starts pummeling it with his fists.

Xander: "I'm tecting (protecting) my sister"

If you mess with Aria, you mess with Xander. It's pretty selfless to face your fears to protect your loved ones. Thank you veteran's of our armed forces.

Sweet big brother

Yesterday, I had to make an emergency stop at the gas station to fill a leaky tire with enough air to safely make the trip home. Both kids were in the car. It was the time of day when Aria is really hungry, tired and cranky. While I was battling with the air machine, Xander was such a good sweet boy. He waited very patiently as he had to listen to all of Aria's screaming. He held her hand and tried to cheer her up the whole time. When we finally did get on the road, Aria was still fussing a lot. So, Xander helped me sing her some songs which finally calmed her down. When we did get home, he didn't want to let go of her hand. He can be a sweet boy sometimes.

Getting her veg on

Here's Aria getting some yummy veggies. Yay table food! Just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Smokey the Aria

A future park ranger?

Pulling up

Aria just loves to stand up. She's already started to pull up to standing. Yikes! At school, she pulled to standing and then lowered her self back down. She is just so mobile. We've entered that stage where it's a huge struggle to get her dressed or change a diaper. She's just constantly moving!

Happy Halloween

We had a great first Halloween for Aria and fourth for Xander. Aria was an extremely cute Minnie Mouse for a total of 60 min before heading off to bed. Xander was a "Spiderman riding a dog that looks like a dinosaur".

After our neighborhood block party for Halloween, Dolphin took Xander around the neighborhood with our next door neighbors. They are out for a long time after it was dark, which was an extremely rare opportunity for Xander. I am a big stickler for getting the kids to bed on time. I think he got a little bit scared during the whole experience because he's had quite a few nightmares since then. He also scared me by showing me a picture he drew at school of "mommy with blood coming out." He also slept on his floor Tuesday night because he was afraid of a witch. It seems I've failed to protect my sweet little boy from these scary things. I hope he's not destined to be a serial killer now.

Despite being scared by something, Xander really enjoyed trick-or-treating. He enjoyed it so much that he asked me to do it again the next day. He was extremely disappointed to find out that we couldn't do it again.

Our wonky pumpkin was designed and carved by Dolphin and Xander. It's got two teeth like Aria. Xander really wanted a happy face. I think it turned out quite nice. Unfortunately, I burnt the seeds so we didn't get to enjoy those.

Picnic

The weather in Austin just turned perfect the past few weeks...high in the 70s/low 80s. It's perfect weather for a picnic. Xander just LOVES picnics. He's constantly having fake picnics indoors( spreading out a blanket, toy food). Now, we can do real picnics.

Sparkly Yarn

Great ROI on this sparkly yarn. Xander just had a blast. He found it and started making all sorts of picture on the ground. Next, he ran around the house with it throwing the ball at "bad guys." The he tried to "decorate" the dogs. It's nice to see him demonstrate his creatively, which he does more and more clearly every day.

A few other fun creative tidbits from Xander:
1) In the car ride home, each day, he usually hosts conversations between his left and right foot.

2) He figures out ways to make Aria laugh like no one else can.

3) Ever since a purposely mispronounced "chicken" as "chickown" to him one day, he thinks making up words is the most hilarious joke ever. The words he make up sound like they should be English words, too.

Blur

It's getting more challenging to get a clear picture of Aria these days. She is just constant movement while she is awake. She is on the verge of crawling. She gets up on all fours. Sometimes she ends up scooting backwards, sometimes spins around in circles.

She's also trying to pull up on things. I sat her down in her crib. She grabbed the rail and pulled her self up to standing. She wasn't up very long before falling over but she was standing.

Show and Tell - Letters

This is what Xander elected for his Show and Tell item this past Wednesday. They were supposed to bring in something with the letter "E". I don't really go out of the way to enforce this as its hard enough to get a 3 year old to agree to anything. So, we talked about how he could point out the little elephant teether toy that comes with the baby doll. Then, he got all excited. "I know another thing that starts with E, Mommy"! He then pointed at her ears. Good job with the letters, X-man. Telling him that "eyes" also starts with "E" didn't go over so well. "No, Mommy, it starts with I". That's kind of cool though that he's really thinking about sounding out the letters to spell.

Who's afraid of the dark?

It turns out Mommy and Daddy are afraid. We gave Aria a trial in her own room for the night. She still wakes up at night so there are still trips to her room to get her to settle back down. We try to keep the lights off to facilitate her going back to sleep as well as ourselves. Unfortunately, we've been watching some scary TV lately, and the long, dark walk from our room to hers totally creepped both of us out. Time to invest in some nightlights.

Best Pumpkin Pie Ever Made

We finally bought our Halloween pumpkins at the grocery store today. We got one large carving pumpkin for Xander. Then, I thought a cute little pie pumpkin looked good for Aria. All the way home and through the afternoon, Xander kept going on and on about how he wanted to eat his pumpkin. So, I decided it would be fun if we cooked Aria's pumpkin.

While I don't understand it, Xander thought it was a very important first step to "tickle" the pumpkin with a kitchen brush.


We cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, and cooked the halves in the microwave with a little water. We did our initial steps on the floor just in case it was really messy, the mess wouldn't have far to go. Copper and Peanut waited hopefully, but cleaning out a pie pumpkin wasn't nearly as messy as the average carving pumpkin.


After the pumpkin cooled a bit, I scooped out the flesh. I pureed the flesh with a stick blender. There was more than enough puree to make a pie. Aria devoured the excess puree while Xander helped with the mixing.


I used this Perfect Pumpkin Pie recipe using fresh pumpkin puree as a substitute for the canned. I also left out the ginger and made my own pie crust. The mixture was really lumpy because my stick blender battery died and Xander's mixing was more for play then effectual.



The pie turned out to be the best pumpkin pie that I have ever made. It had a much milder flavor that those I've had made from canned pumpkin pie. It tasted like a very rich custard. Even though the batter was lumpy, the end result was very smooth. Visually, the pie was more yellow like the flesh of the pumpkin. I was also impressed that it didn't have a single crash or wrinkle on the top...just smooth perfection.

The Cat in the Hat is Causing Some Trouble Next Door

Our neighbors have twins that just turned a year old. While I think having twins would probably kill me, there are just so many darn cute things for twins. The theme for this party was "Thing One and Thing Two" from Dr. Suess's _The Cat in the Hat_. How cute is that!!!

Aria did pretty well at the party despite having a raging ear infection (diagnosed the day after the party). She did try to steel the birthday boy's pacifier sending him into tears. We'll have to work on those manners. She smiled at everyone and even got snuggles from a few people.

While the two little birthday kids missed out on naps for the day, they were just super cute. They both got to smash little cakes. Thing 1 was pretty cool with the experience and tasted some of her frosting. Thing 2 started screaming and seemed to be totally mortified that he had cake on his hands.

Speaking of cake, I'm a little embarrassed how Xander is such a birthday party professional. The minute we arrived, he was looking for the cake. When it was actually cake time, he got his own plate and fork out before everyone sang "Happy Birthday". The guy just loves birthday cake. With the tons of birthday parties we've been to lately, he's become a bit of a professional.

You're buggin' me

Xander's preschool class made rock bugs last month. They put them in a cage with a little flag labeling each kid's bug. Xander's is the one sitting all by itself next to the palm tree (potted plant). It's sitting up high, seemingly looking over all the other bugs. I guess it is keeping an eye on its minions. All the bugs turned out a lot prettier than I expected when I heard about the rock bug project.

Teach me how to drive, Big Brother

Xander was such the good brother. "P" is for Park. "D" is for Go. This is where you honk the horn. I have to say that these carts are the best thing to end sibling rivalry. Xander was in a 30 min grump fest in Target because Aria got to sit in the front part of the cart while he had to sit in the basket. At least with these race car carts, they are equal. It made from much more peaceful shopping.

Motivation

Oh how big brother always has the coolest toys. Perhaps, this will be the thing to get Aria moving.

'Speriment

Xander is just fascinated with water experiments, which he calls "Speriments." This is a picture of the first one that Daddy did with him. They put those milk storage bottles to scientific use by putting colored water and celery in them. He also has "pothesis" (Hypothesis) about what happens when you put drink flavor tablets into water. Almost every day at school, he comes home with some leaf or stick that he wants to put into water to see if it will grow.

Today, he was all upset because the bamboo shoot he put into a cup of water didn't grow all the way up to the ceiling. I told them that only magic beans or seeds did that. Of course, he wanted to know where to get magic seeds as I informed him they do not sell them at Target. I guess we'll have to keep an eye out for some magic beans. If only we had a cow to trade for them...