Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was a quiet one this year. We skipped the Children's museum and the library. We tried to keep it as low key as possible.

We did go with cousins to a Halloween party a couple of weeks before the holiday.

We also went to our church's Trunk or Treat event the week before.

The weekend before I took just Liam over to ISU for Tune or Treat. The strings students decorate the music hall (which is in a spooky castle) with spider webs and bats and then play music throughout the building. The kids have a code that they are trying to figure out and with each musician they would be given a letter to write on their sheet. It was pretty cool. They even allowed the kids to play a cello and violin at the end. After that we went over to a small Halloween carnival also at ISU which was ok but would have been a bit better for Caroline's age group. It was fun to just have a little time with Liam on our own.

On the actual day we went to Evan's work for a little party for the kids and then out trick or treating in our neighborhood. The kids had fun but Lucy was pretty cold. And Caroline wouldn't talk to anyone. After about 30 minutes I decided to take the girls home and Evan took Liam out more with the boy who lives a couple doors down from us. Evan said they had a lot of fun together.

This holiday is still one of Liam's favorites. He loves to go to the Halloween stores in town and check out all the creepy stuff. He had a hard time picking out an outfit this year though. He was trying to pick something really scary but I told him he had to dial it down a notch. So he decided on a skeleton.  He wasn't too happy with me when I told him that for the church events he couldn't wear his mask, so when the actual day came around he was determined to wear his mask. He wore it for about 2 blocks before taking it off since he couldn't see anything. (just like his parents said)

Caroline was talked into being a tooth fairy and then changed her mind to Queen Elsa. Of course.

Since Lucy can't talk yet I decided to have her be the tooth fairy instead. She was super cute.

Pumpkin carving was an Evan activity this year. (I think I was making cookies) The kids drew what they wanted their pumpkin to look like and then Evan carved it for them. They were ecstatic once they saw the finished jack o'lanterns. Evan also carved one for himself.

These three sure do keep us busy! 

11 months

This girl will not slow down. I can't believe that she is almost one year old! Walking a couple of steps just a couple of weeks ago has now turned into walking half way across the room.  A brisk pace is completely normal for her. I think she is trying to run. She still will crawl places but walking has become her preferred mode of transportation.

She still loves the dog and now will say "Dog. Woof Woof." She will also say "cracker" although that sounds more like "cr-ckr". She has even said, "bye-bye" while waving. She has also said "Liam" and "JJ" (the other baby at the babysitters). She loves to give kisses (open mouthed slobbery ones) and enjoys reading her 'Huggy Kissy' book. Her Alphabet book has become a favorite as well.

We are now nursing just twice a day. Once in the morning and once before bed. She has started drinking whole milk with some hesitation. But I am completely out of all of the breast milk that I had pumped throughout these last 11 months and at work I was only getting 2-3 ounces at each pumping break which really wasn't enough for the 4-6 ounces that she would drink while I was away. So, we introduced the whole milk a month early. She isn't super excited about it and while at the babysitters if she sees the other baby getting a bottle she gets a bit upset that she doesn't get one as well. I feel that she is going to hold onto nursing longer than Caroline did. While I'm ok with that I'm also ready to be done. (I nursed Liam until 16 months and Caroline was done right about 12 months) But I will try to remember that this is it. Our last baby. She enjoys nursing. And in the middle of the night it's the only thing that will get her to go back to sleep. That is pretty special.

Sleeping has been going well though. It's the rare occasion now that Lucy wakes in the middle of the night. She now goes to bed between 7:30-8 pm and doesn't wake until around 7 am.

Napping is still happening twice a day during the week but on the weekends most of the time we consolidate to just one nap.

Lucy is a great eater. What she is not great at is being patient or using her baby sign language on a consistent basis. She really likes to scream while in her highchair. We really don't like it when she screams in her highchair. We are really trying to work with her to use her sign language to tell us what she wants. 'More', 'Drink', 'Please', 'Thank you' and 'All done' are all signs that we are currently attempting to use.

The baby time is winding down. We are moving into toddler world in just a few weeks! My little one is almost one!

Because why not

Walking at 10 1/2 months???? Why not. After all she has a big brother and sister to keep up with.

3 year old funnies

Tonight after putting the kids to bed Evan walked by the kids room and heard Caroline talking and playing. He promptly told her it was bedtime and that she needed to be quiet so that she wouldn't wake up Liam or Lucy. She looked right at him and said, "My baby is trying to sleep too but she's upside down just like a bat."

Earlier Evan was asking Caroline if he knew what her shirt said today. (it said Always Brave) She didn't and wanted Evan to explain to her what brave meant. So, Evan tried to tell her it means that sometimes you can be scared or nervous to do something but then you get stronger, have courage and become brave. He asked her if she is ever scared. Her reply? "When I get scared I just yell for Jesus...in the water." Not sure what being in the water is all about since she is fearless while swimming.

I seriously love this age. Being 3 means saying all sorts of ridiculous things that don't quite make sense.

Milestones even while not feeling 100%

Standing on her own?        
















Taking a step with no help? 







Waving?


Saying uh-oh!


Getting another tooth (#8)

This girl can't and won't slow down.

Even when she's so sick it turns into croup.

Even when the steroid she's been taking has her sleep schedule so completely messed up and she's so wired she literally cannot fall asleep.

Nope. Not even for that. She's one tough cookie!

10 months

Wow! Just two short months away from having a one year old!

I think this is my favorite time of having an infant. Lucy has changed so much in the past month. Just recently she has started to stand unassisted and stay standing for several seconds at a time. She still loves to climb the stairs and crawl everywhere. She also still loves to make her own obstacle courses. Climbing over the dog, under chairs and around the table are great activities. Now that she is tall enough, looking out windows has become her new favorite thing to do. She will now also dance when music comes on. It's adorable.

She has also become much more aware of being able to communicate with us. Using baby sign language she will tell us when she wants 'more' of something or if she is 'all done'. I'm beginning to introduce drink next. This is much better than her just screaming at us from her high chair, although that sometimes still happens as well.

Her hair has started to grow and just yesterday I put it into the cutest little pigtails. *sigh*

At this point I think it's safe to say she has three words to her vocabulary. "dog" "Dad" and "Mom". She doesn't say any of them consistently but every once in awhile she will and we kind of look at her like, "Did she just say a word?". She babbles and "talks" a lot though just not any real words besides the three up above.

Lucy now has 7 teeth. Four on the bottom and three on the top. She loves to smile and show them off at anyone who takes time to talk to her.

My most favorite thing about Lucy being 10 months old? She has now consistently been sleeping through the night for the last 1-2 weeks. It's marvelous. We haven't done anything differently. In fact, right before this giant milestone we had a couple of nights where she woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. She would quiet down while holding her but if we tried to lay her back down she would immediately wake back up and start to cry again. Evan even laid out the sleeping bag to sleep next to her crib. *he's such a good Daddy* Those times the next morning she would have a new tooth so at least we had a reason for the waking. And as I type this I'm sure tonight she won't sleep through the night but can I get a Hallelujah! And apparently my body is still trying to recover from lack of sleep because when the girls take a nap I still try to take one too. 9+ months of sleeping for only 4-5 hours at a time is hard on an old body like mine.

And just recently, for the past week, she has also started protesting morning naps. I'm not sure if she is transitioning herself out of them or what. I will say that I'm completely ok with that choice if she is. Two naps a day is very difficult. We miss out on so many of the morning activities like Baby Rock at the library (story hour, music), Rader Pumpkin Farms, Children's museum. We still try to do those things but between the naps gives you only such a short amount of time. It would be nice to be able to get out in the morning again. We shall see what Lucy decides to do about that.

I really can't believe that this little girl came into our lives 10 months ago. It has gone by so fast! She is our last baby and soon to be toddler!

The Funny things she says

I love how Caroline says...

"I need a wiper towel."

"Mom, do bees make peanut butter?"

"I'm saying hi to the sun."

A recent conversation had me giggling to myself as well.
M: "Caroline, Cubbies is going to start soon! You can go to AWANA just like Liam and learn bible verses and wear a vest! Do you know what color your vest will be?"
C: "Purple."
M: "Actually it's blue. Cubbies wear blue, they always have."
C: "Mine will be purple."

"When I was a baby I didn't like when Aunt Emily held me."

One of the great things about being 3 that I have always loved, saying whatever comes to mind.