Happy Halloween!

So of course since I had said Blythe would probably be a monkey and a flower on Halloween, she instead was Princess Leia and a skeleton. That's right, the skeleton which got no votes was the winner for trick or treating (she wore Princess Leia to school). We painted her face though too so she would look scary. She was hard to recognize in all her scaryness.

Daddy dressed up as a....actually I'm not sure what he was. Scary farmer I think. I was a cowgirl (it's the only costume I own...oh, except Dorothy...Mom - I still have that one). And we got Ethan into the chicken costume without any fussing, though he didn't trick or treat for long...too tired! Here's a pic of the whole family:

We had practiced the trick or treating process with Blythe beforehand. "Ring the doorbell, then what do you say?" "trick or treat". Then they give you candy, then what do you say? "thank you". Great! We forgot to tell her the part about taking only 1 or 2 pieces of candy. Girlfriend kept taking handloads until the giver was smart enough to pull away. At one house they had left a bucket on the porch. Blythe told Daddy to stay back while she went to that house. He wasn't paying attention and then looked back at her and she must have taken several handfuls. So needlesstosay, we have A LOT of candy...for Mom to eat. I better dust off that treadmill.

Here she is with all her candy:

And one last pic of her while out trick or treating (at a neighbor's house):

Ethan takes a "regular" bath

I'm anal about the way Blythe's hair has to be blow-dried. Any girl with hair long enough to blow dry will tell you that if it isn't done right, you will just end up with a bad hair day. Problem is that Daddy likes to blow dry Blythe's hair and it just doesn't meet my standards. This was okay before Blythe had her bangs cut because no matter how crazy he dried it, I was able to fix it the next day by putting it up in pigtails or whatnot. Ever since she had her bangs cut though, I have taken over the task. I really like drying her hair...not sure why, maybe it's a "girl" thing so it's a type of bonding. It's not an easy task...I'd relate it to drying Bogie's hair (our dog). It's like hitting a moving target. Anyway, tonight Braden wanted to dry her hair and I just knew it wouldn't be right (I'm telling you I'm anal about it). He kept brushing me off saying, "she's 2...who cares" or "you're just going to put it up tomorrow anyway". But I had visions of crazy bangs and of course, tomorrow is Halloween so there will be lots of pictures. So I wouldn't give it up and finally he got mad and then let me do it. In hindsight, it probably wasn't worth arguing about.

And we took Ethan's bath seat out of the tub. I finallly got around to buying a new bath mat (so he won't slip). The last one had a lot of black mold..probably toxic. He loved it! He was splashing and playing with all the toys. Then about halfway through he started getting so tired that he couldn't even sit anymore, so that was a pain trying to make sure he didn't fall over and drown while trying to wash Blythe's hair. Blythe was super-tired too. Today was the first day that day care has ever circled "No nap" and "Not quiet" on her log.

Tomorrow there is the "Fall Festival" at day care, which means I have to: prepare the temporary tattoos, bring the supplies for the face painting (and create some designs), bring some bean bags, oh, and bring a 20 oz bottle and some "materials" for the 2's music project tomorrow. Then I have to be there at 2:30 tomorrow to help set up and then paint faces on wiggly children. Why exactly do I have the inability to say "no" when I'm asked to help?

Ethan is waving

I think Ethan started waving today. Either that or it's a fluke. Check it out:

Pretty crazy I actually got him on film doing it the first time. I was actually just trying to capture him "walking" from one toy to another. Really he just hangs on for dear life while shuffling over as close as he can to the next toy, then lets go and leans over to the next one. This results in many falls, but, hey, he's learning.

Braden is gone again tonight...they swam against UVA in Charlottesville. I'll be glad when the Fall recruiting period is over so then he's not gone so much! I took off work a bit early today to run a few errands. One errand was to head over to Home Depot to see if they had this wine cooler we're wanting for our new wine bar we're building. I have a Home Depot coupon (that I bought on ebay so am determined to use), so I wanted to make sure our Home Depot had the cooler so this weekend (when Braden is here) we could go and get it or drive to another Home Depot to get it. Anyway, they had the one I wanted and it was actually marked at $50 less than it was supposed to be. They said they'd give it me at the discounted price, so of course I had to get it today! I didn't have my coupon though, so I told them to put it on hold and I'd pick it up later. But now it was time to pick up the kids and I was already dreading going back to Home Depot with 2 kids by myself to pick up a refrigerator. Fortunately, I was able to send Blythe over to her friend Ashley's house so it was just me and Ethan. Thank goodness for good friends! Only downside is that Ethan does not like being in the car without Blythe so he cried the whole way there and back (maybe it would have been easier to have Blythe with us).

Eating and Drinking

Sometimes Blythe acts like she's going to the store. She'll take her baby in her stroller and walk around the house and say she's going to get "Cheetos, cookies, and beer for Daddy". When I ask her what she's going to get for Mommy, she'll say "I'm gonna get wine for Mommy". Makes us sound like a bunch of alcoholics! Daddy drinks usually one beer each day when he gets home from work and me, maybe 1-2 glasses of wine a week. Today in Blythe's log at day care they wrote, "Blythe had a great day today...blah, blah, blah....she likes to talk about what Mommy and Daddy drink at home". Awesome.

One thing I do think I'm doing a pretty good job on is getting Ethan to eat anything. When Blythe was his age, we didn't know the difference between choking and gagging. So anytime she gagged on a food she didn't really like, we'd jump up, try to pull her from her high chair, and then realize she was fine. But we were so worked up about it, it was like "we're never giving that to her again!". So it's no wonder she's the pickiest eater on the planet. With Ethan, anytime he starts gagging, I just say, "No, no, no...don't give me that...you eat that". And presto, he's stops gagging and eats it. If only I knew when Blythe was a baby that that would work. Tonight Ethan tried cottage cheese for the first time. It's definitely a completely different taste than cereal, fruits, and veggies, so I knew he would gag. By the end he was liking it pretty well though.

Last night our neighborhood had a Halloween carnival. Considering we are such a small neighborhood, it was really a good party. There were all kinds of games for the kids, a haunted trail, and a showing of "It's a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Fortunately they did an "age 4 and under" haunted trail first (with no people that jump out at you). When Blythe was coming out of the trail, one of the neighbors was getting ready and had her mask on and Blythe freaked out and cried. That was the first time she's ever been afraid of a mask or Halloween thing. Usually everything is "cute". Blythe did win the "guess how many candy corn" game. It's a good thing Mom added 400 to her guess of "5". We were the closest, even though there were actually 710. Here she is with her prize:

And it looks like Princess Leia and the flower tied on the Halloween costume vote. I really love the Princess Leia costume, but she was actually that last year so not sure that we'll do that one this year. She'll dress up twice on Halloween, once at day care, and once for trick or treating. I think we'll go with flower and monkey, but it'll really be up to whatever she wants to wear. Hopefully it'll warm up here...tomorrow is supposed to be high of 40 and maybe a few snow flurries...yuck!

Blythe's Halloween costume

Vote on the poll to the right on what you think Blythe should be for Halloween. Here are the options:

Princess Leia

Monkey

Skeleton

Flower

Ballerina

And Ethan's going to be a 3-D movie-goer:

Just kidding. Just thought the picture was funny. He's going to be a chicken (whether he likes it or not).

Chick-fil-a

Today Braden was planning to have dinner with a recruit and her family that were in town. So I picked up the kids from day care and was going to go to McDonalds but then decided to go to Chick-fil-a since it was close to Target and Target had baby formula on sale. Chick-fil-a is the only restaurant in at least a 25 mile radius from where we live that has a playplace...and it's even a small playplace. Basically just an oversized slide. So of couse I hyped it up. "If you're good in Target, you can go to the big slide". "Put that down or we're not going to the big slide". "If you eat all of your nuggets you can go play on the big slide". I have to say she was perfect in Target and ate all of her nuggets and was wasn't whiny or overly dramatic. The big slide worked like a charm.

Until we found out it was closed.

For Christ's sake, they should put a sign on the door as you walk into Chick-fil-a that the slide is closed. Not a little tiny inconspicuous sign on the door to the slide. But we still did pretty well. Fortunately she got a game in her kids meal, so we played that. Then she asked if she could go down the slide now. Not sure how many times I tried to tell her that it was closed and we weren't allowed to go in, but it was clear she wasn't comprehending. With the promise of ice cream at home we were able to leave before the meltdown that would have been coming.




As for Ethan, he was dressed in his gangsta rap outfit today. Check it yo...



Blythe's best friend Ashley has a little brother that is 6 months older than Ethan. He's also #4 so they are done having babies. So, we've been getting lots of cute hand -me-downs which have been great because I haven't had to buy anything for Ethan (or at least not much). I'm not a big fan of buying boys clothes anyway. Girl clothes are so much more fun to buy.

Ornament for Christmas

The other day when we were playing in the guest room (our favorite nighttime play area), Blythe opened a drawer and found a box. In it was a Christmas ornament that had been forgotten about. She asked if she could have it. I said. "No, it's an ornament for Christmas". She ended up bringing it downstairs where it has sat for the last couple of days. She picked it up today after dinner and this is how the conversation went:
BLYTHE: This is for Christmas?
ME: Yep
BLYTHE: I like Christmas
ME: Yep, me too
BLYTHE: I remember Christmas
ME: Mmm hmm
BLYTHE: I remember he held me. I like him.

So this is when I realize she thinks Christmas is a person. So I'm trying to explain that Christmas is not a person, it's a holiday, a celebration, kind of like a birthday "you get presents for your birthday and you get presents for Christmas". It's pretty hard to explain a non-tangible thing to a 2 year old. I'm sure once she watches "Frosty the Snowman" again, the whole Christmas thing will come right back to her. We watched that at least 57 times last year and watched it well into probably February.

Daddy came back from his trip today. Blythe says to him, "Why'd you come home?". Nothing like feelin the love (or lack thereof). She saved herself by saying she was glad he was home and didn't want him to leave again.

Playing in slippers

Today Braden had to go out of town to visit a recruit so it was just me and the kids after day care. I got the camera out so I could try to get a few good shots and maybe some decent video clips. I've written about Ethan talking (and he did say "mama" again today, so he's definitely got it down) and I managed to get some video of him talking at the dinner table.

Here's a cute pic of Ethan at the dinner table too. Normally he's not that messy, but he wasn't the biggest fan of the "Vegetable Beef Dinner" and kept spitting it out.

After dinner we went upstairs to play in Ethan's room. We almost never play in there, so it was a nice scenery change. Searching through the toy box in his room, I found the Elmo slippers Blythe had when she was a baby. Here he is wearing them and showing off his standing skills.

Then of course Blythe wanted to get her slippers too. She came back to Ethan's room with her Dora slippers and I tried to get the two of them together for a picture with their slippers, but they weren't having that. Blythe wanted the two of them to get in Ethan's crib to play. Here they are playing in the crib. Ethan is tickling Blythe (or so it seems).

Not only did Blythe come back with her Dora slippers, but she also put on bikini bottoms over her pants and a swimsuit skirt over all that. She also wanted to wear the bikini bottoms in the bath, which I let her do. Why not.

Ethan says "Mama" (I think)

Just as I was about to start typing, I heard Blythe get out of bed up there. She was in the hall when I went upstairs. That was the first time she has come out of her room after I put her to bed and closed her door. Ugh! I have visions of that Super Nanny show where the kid would get out of bed like 38 times before actually falling asleep. Please don't let this be the start of something like that!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Ethan said "Mama" today. I kept trying to get him to repeat it, but then he switched to "Dada" and "Baba"and wouldn't go back to the "M" sound. Today he was also very interested in "walking" while holding on to something (the chair, ottoman, whatever). He's starting to get more comfortable with moving around. He's also kind of attempting to pull himself up on something (like a pull-up). Definitely not strong enough (or nearly coordinated enough) to do that, but is that a sign that he's going to be a climber? I wonder. I think he also might be cutting his 4th tooth (the other top one), so a big day overall for Ethan.

A lazy weekend

I feel like I spent the whole weekend cleaning, yet my house currently looks like a tornado just hit. How does that happen? I probably should be doing a better job of making Blythe clean up after herself, but it just takes so darn long for her to do it! She did do some dusting today though. While I was changing Ethan, she pulled a wipe out from the dispenser then went over to the end table and started dusting it. She moved the coasters and dusted, then moved the lamp and dusted. Wipes don't work all that well for dusting, but she definitely gets an A for effort. That's one chore I don't do very often, so it was quite surprising to see her do it.

We had a very low key weekend and stayed in most of the time. Yesterday we took the dogs to the Vet School Dog Wash fundraiser. We thought it was free (donations accepted), but it turned out to be $10 a dog! For a 3 minute wash. Oh well, it least it was going to a good cause. The kids napped at the same time yesterday for over 2 hours!!! I wish I could say I did something productive during that time, but now I look back and can't even remember. I think I watched HGTV or something. The Hokies were playing at 8pm last night and our neighbors had invited us over to watch it. We weren't sure how we were going to swing that since Ethan is pretty unflexible in his "no later than 8pm" bedtime schedule. But they said to come over around 6:30 to eat so we figured we'd at least get some social time in. As was expected, Ethan was getting tired at about 7:30. We decided to try to get the pack n' play and bring it to the neighbors and have Ethan sleep there until we were ready to go. We would have never tried that with Blythe. We were always so afraid that if we woke her in the middle of the night that she'd stay up, or at least have a really difficult time going down. Ethan had no problem going to sleep in the pack n' play and when we were ready to go, I picked him up and walked up the street with him (in the cold) and put him in his crib and he never woke up. How easy was that!?

After such a successful naptime yesterday, I guess I should have expected a difficult nap time today. We went up around 1:30 and read books in Blythe's room til Ethan got tired and I put him down. Then I went back to tuck Blythe in. About 20 minutes later Ethan was crying and I knew he was still tired, so I figured I'd rock him back to sleep. On the way, I stopped by Blythe's room and told her to go to sleep. It took a while, but I got Ethan back to sleep. Before going back downstairs, I told Blythe to go to sleep. A bit later I needed to go to the grocery store. Just before I left Braden went up and told Blythe to go to sleep. I went to the grocery store, came back and Blythe was still not asleep. A little while later she must have fallen out of bed (while playing, not while asleep), so she cried. Braden went up there and told her to go to sleep. Finally, she went to sleep. Around 5:20, we went up there to wake her up. She was so cranky because she didn't sleep long at all. Though she was in her room for about 4 hours!

This may have been our last lazy weekend for a while (since Braden's swim season is starting up and we've got some traveling in November), so it was nice to truly be pretty lazy. Yet I'm still so tired. Hmm..

Hokie Pokie

So I guess it's now a new routine. When Blythe wakes up, she has to come wake us up. Fortunately this morning it was after 7:00 (7:05 to be exact). I got my 8 hours, but Braden didn't get home from playing poker until 3:00am. Ouch. Ethan actually slept until 7:30 (even after going to bed so early) so I guess he was really tired!

Blythe learned the hokie pokie at day care today. They wrote in her log that she loved doing it and wanted to do it over and over again. So when we got home I asked her if she knew the hokie pokie and I was quite amazed at how well she performed it. See for yourselves:

This evening we went to the Hokie volleyball game. They were playing Wake Forest. When we left it was tied 1-1. Ethan was so tired on the way there and finally fell asleep, but only for about 2 minutes. That was apparently enough to last him about an hour while we were there, but then on the way home he fell asleep and didn't wake up until I was about halfway through changing him into his jammies.

Blythe had worn her Hokie cheerleader outfit to school since it was "favorite team" day, so she was all set to cheer on the hokies and she did a great job. She loves just running around while we're there...up and down the stairs, along each aisle. I tried to keep a close eye on her but I did catch her twice pick something up and eat it (who knows what, where it came, or how long it was there). So disgusting. She was quite tired and cranky too when we got home so went right to bed. Maybe she'll sleep a little later tomorrow morning?

You are my sunshine

This morning Ethan woke up early fussing (a little after 6:00am). He fussed for about 30 minutes until he finally went back to sleep and I thought "thank goodness...now I can go back to sleep!". Not so fast! Just afterwards there was banging on my bedroom door. It was Blythe. I asked if she needed to go potty, but she didn't. She was just up and now, so was I. What happened to my perfect little sleeper that went to bed at 8:00pm and didn't wake up until 8:00am?

I got a little more of the booby story this morning at daycare. Braden and I were a little confused because yesterday after we had "the talk" about not showing her boobies to people, she said something about "balls" and Braden and I looked at each other like "what is going on at day care???". So anyway, what she was actually doing on the playground was putting balls in her shirt and saying, "Look at my boobies!". So that makes perfect sense! She totally picked that up from me....uh, no, just kidding. I don't have to use balls these days since I'm still nursing :) Actually they said one of the girls in the 3/4's room was doing it, so likely Blythe picked that up from her.

Ethan is still working his commando crawl, but getting a little better at it. He's also now attempting to pull up on anything he can. I remember this stage from when Blythe was that age and it is not fun. You turn around for a second and next thing you know, they're falling down and crying. He's also now eating foods with more texture...phase 3 baby food, small pieces of bread, etc. He's starting to do pretty well at it.

Ethan was SOO tired again tonight, so he went down at 7:15. Hope that doesn't mean he wakes up at 6:15. Anyway, Blythe had time after that to be silly and sing songs. Here she is being silly:

And here she is singing "You are my sunshine". So cute!

Blythe's first haircut and Ethan says Da Da

We had a really fun afternoon/evening today filled with several "firsts". I got finished with work early, and Blythe has been needing a haircut, so I decided to pick her up early from day care and take her to get her hair cut. Last Christmas-time, I trimmed it once so it wouldn't be so mullet-ish and a few months ago my mom trimmed her hair. Other than that, she has not had a haircut. So today was the first time going somewhere to get it done. We went to Supercuts. Pretty much we were in and out in less than 10 minutes. No tears and fairly good cooperation, so it was a success. Only non-cooperation was not looking at me when I tried to take her picture before:

And after:

Then we swung by Walmart to pick up some groceries and went back to the day care to pick up Ethan.

At home Blythe and I made a pizza (she put on the cheese and all the toppings), which turned out quite tasty! Ethan was so happy sitting in his high chair eating his puffs, which he's gotten really good at picking up and eating now. I was just thinking this morning that he hasn't tried talking much in the last week or so, probably because he's been focusing on trying to crawl. Then tonight at the dinner table he said "Da Da". Several times. And he was so excited with himself. Daddy was pretty excited too. So that was another new first. Hopefully "Ma Ma" isn't too far off.

We went to do bath after dinner since Ethan was getting so tired and I had to hold him off. Blythe said she wanted a bath too. In the tub, Ethan was going crazy splashing and laughing and splashing and laughing. I wish I had had my camera to video him. He was so funny! He crashed pretty hard though later as he was SOOO tired. Cute little man.

Oh, and when I picked up Blythe at day care, they asked me if she knew the word "booby". Obviously she does (since her baby eats boobies), so I said yes. They said she was out on the playground lifting up her shirt and trying to push her boobies together and saying "look at my boobies". They wanted to make sure she hadn't learned that at day care. Well she may have learned the word "boobie" at home, but she didn't learn the rest of that here! Where would she have picked that up? So Braden and I had a talk with her that she shouldn't show people her boobies. I don't think she was really listening. I think we'll likely have to have that talk again.

Picture Day

FINALLY...I got my full 8 hours of sleep last night :) There were no potty accidents and Ethan slept without any fussing all night long. Yeah! I'm sure Ethan was quite tired since yesterday he took a whopping 1 nap at day care for 30 minutes.

Today was picture day at day care. I like this new company that is doing the pictures since you get proofs same day. Ethan had one cute picture. The rest looked like he was staring in amazement at the camera (or likely whatever the camera person was holding up to make him smile). Blythe also has some cute ones. And they took some of the kids together. These pictures usually come out much better than when we take the kids to Sears or wherever because at day care mom and dad aren't there. So - 1. Blythe actually smiles, and 2. Blythe doesn't cry. And apparently she was so excited to take pictures with "her baby Ethan", whereas at Sears when mom and dad try to get her to lay next to him she acts like he has cooties. We did just recently get a bunch of pictures of Ethan at Sears, so we'll probably just order Blythe and the kids together.

We got a package today from Grams that had Halloween lights. We already had some skeleton lights that light up green. Now we also have pumpkin lights and candycorn lights. We also put candles in the pumpkins Braden had carved. So we are all ready for Halloween (except for the other 2 pumpkins that will need to be carved). Here is the front porch all lit up:

And here are close ups of our pumpkins:

Pretty scary, huh?

Ethan's on the move!

12:15...that's when Blythe was crying in the hall last night. I have to give her credit - she at least has been trying to go in the potty. That's a million times better than peeing in her bed. But still, normally she has a bladder of steel! Why has she suddenly felt the need to go pee in the middle of the night for the last 3 nights straight?! Again she got up out of bed, opened her door, made it to the bathroom, and then peed on the floor right next to the potty. But every time she has gone in her panties, so I'm assuming she just had to go too bad to actually make in the potty. Anyway, again she went back to her room, got new clean panties and put those on. Problem was that she had jammies that buttoned at the nape of the neck and she couldn't get them off. That's why she was crying and woke us up. So again I had to read Green Eggs and Ham in the middle of the night. Tonight, we cut off the liquid intake at 6:30 and made her go potty at 7:00 and again at 7:45. Guess we'll see how tonight goes.

On a lighter note - Ethan is on the move!!! I wouldn't say he's crawling, but he's definitely making forward progress. "Creeping" is what they call it. He started this yesterday afternoon. Yes Mom - just hours after you left. After his nap we realized he hadn't had much chance to practice over the weekend. He was in a baby backpack, stoller, car seat, exersaucer much of the weekend. So we put him down and made some block towers as motivation (he LOVES to knock them over!). And there he went! It's quite tiring for him. He has to take rests often. Soon he'll figure out that it's easier to be up on all fours. So 7 months and a week. That's one week earlier than Blythe was. Crazy how they keep on almost the same schedule. Anyway, here's a clip of our little man making his way toward Elmo (another great motivator...Blythe's first time "creeping" was to Elmo too).

Several accidents

So the night before last wasn't any better. Actually it was worse. We've probably been spoiled by having children that are such great sleepers, so yes, I will gripe if my 8 hours of sleep is interrupted. At about 3:30 yesterday morning Blythe was screaming and crying (supposedly from a bad dream), so I went in there to check on her. She had me lay in her bed and insisted I read her a book (at 3:30 in the morning). Since it was dark in there and I couldn't see, I recited Green Eggs and Ham by heart until she fell asleep. Then I went back to my room. Shortly after Braden left for practice at 6:30am, Blythe came crying into the hallway to wake me up. She had wet the bed. She hadn't done that in a long time, so that was odd. I got her cleaned up and tried to get her to go back to sleep in my room, but there was none of that. We were up for the day.

Gommy and Laura came to visit yesterday. They got here around 11:15 (actually a few minutes after since Speedy Gonzalez got a ticket on the way). We decided to go back to the pumpkin patch since Ethan didn't get to go before and neither did Daddy. Plus the weather was gorgeous again. We took the hay ride out to the patch and picked out 2 REALLY big pumpkins so we could carve them. And by "we", I mean Braden. Here we are on the hayride:

After we picked put our pumpkins in the car, we got some food to eat. Blythe had a balanced meal of Cheetos and Ice Cream. Since she's a semi-vegetarian, she won't eat a hot dog or a BBQ sandwich, so there you go. After eating, we headed down to the ponies to see if Blythe would ride one. We'd been hyping up the pony ride since we pulled into the parking area, and she seemed up for it. We actually didn't have to do that much convincing. She picked out the small pony and went for a pony ride.

We went back to pet the other farm animals and Blythe liked feeding the sheep, the goats, and the donkey. The sheep was quite aggressive and kept banging her foot on the gate to tell us she wanted more.

Lastly Gommy paid for Blythe to ride on the miniature pony carriage ride.

On the way home we were trying desperately to keep Ethan awake so he and Blythe would take naps at the same time. He barely stayed awake and when we got home we were all wrapped up with him, with diaper change, bottle, etc. Guess we didn't pay enough attention to Blythe because she had ANOTHER potty accident. I wonder what's up with that. Anyway, both kids napped for a while and then, since we had free babysitters, Braden and I went out to dinner and to the movie to see "Body of Lies". It was nice to get a good date night in!

I did get a fairly uninterrupted night of sleep last night (just at 6:30 this morning Ethan was fussing so I put his blanket over him and he settled down). Though when I went in to get Blythe this morning, her door was open (which was odd) and she had pajama pants and panties on the floor. She was in bed with a new pair of panties on. She said she tried to go potty. I asked if she peed in her bed and she said no. I felt around and she had not. Then I went into the bathroom and there was pee on the floor next to the potty. So - she actually did get out of bed, open her door, went to the bathroom, ALMOST made it to the potty (but went on the floor/in her pants instead), then went back to her room, got out of her dirty pants, put on new panties, and went back to bed. At what time this happened, I have no idea. No one ever heard her. So that's good that she tried, but disheartening that she had 3 accidents in 24 hours.

Today Braden carved 2 of the pumpkins. One big one and one small one. Here is Braden and Blythe with the small one that says "VT".

Blythe's friend Ginsey came over and she and Blythe played very well together. They were being so silly! I had a few candycorn men left over from the 2's art project, so I let them put some together.

So another great weekend. I love Fall in Blacksburg!

VT soccer game

Most mornings I wake up between 6:45 and 7:15 with Ethan "talking" or maybe even fussing a little as my alarm clock. I get him up, we go downstairs, play a little, let the dogs out, and then go wake Blythe up at about 7:45. But this morning I woke up to someone screaming and trying desperately to get in my room shouting "It's dark in here!". Of course that someone was Blythe. In my "no glasses" blindness, I thought it was 7:30 and Ethan was sleeping late, but then realized it was only 7:00. And of course, she had now woken Ethan as well. She did this 2 days ago too, though I was already up at the time. Hope it's not a continuing habit.

A couple of weeks ago I volunteered to come to "Family Friday" in Blythe's class at day care at do an art project. I bought a little kit at Walmart to make 20 candycorn men, where you stick on the hat, eyes, mouth, arms, and legs. I think the kids liked them though they were probably a little too difficult for the ones that were just barely 2 in the class. Afterwards I played outside with the 2's for a little while before I went to get Ethan and we went home.

The swimmers didn't have practice this afternoon, so Daddy got home early. We decided to go to the soccer game (VT was playing Maryland). Ethan had only taken 1 nap today, so he was quite tired and slept most of the time. Blythe jumped on bleachers seats, climbed back and forth to the seat behind us (and of course fell and cried), ran around, and basically did everything except watch the soccer game. Oh well. It was starting to get a bit chilly out so Blythe wore the "beanie" Daddy got last year for the H20kies. It was pretty cute. Here she is wearing it:

After Ethan woke up, he got to wear it too:

They had a good time, but of course we left at halftime. No chance we'll stay for a full game of any VT sport with these 2 for quite some time.

Exciting times for Ethan

It took Ethan a while to go to sleep tonight...he was just too excited! Not sure exactly why he was so excited, he just was. I'll take that over cranky any day of the week. I had a 5pm meeting today, so I asked Braden to pick up the kids from day care. Then he called and said he was going to go by Target after he got them so he could pick up a few things for his office. A little before 6pm, they weren't home and I was missing them already so I called and they were in Walmart (Target didn't have what he was looking for). I was kind of bummed because they wouldn't be home for a little while and I was thinking about how little time I would have with them before it was bed time. How crazy is it that I can't really enjoy a bit of time to myself? I'd just rather they all be home (or at least with me). Good thing I don't have 5pm meetings too often.

Both kids were starving by the time they got home! I need to check Blythe's day care menu to see what she ate (or didn't eat) today. Of course, the whole time she was with Daddy out shopping she was an angel, but when she gets home to me the whining started in full force. I think it was mostly to do with being hungry. I just made chicken tenders (which looked way bigger on the picture on the bag...they're really just skinny chicken nuggets) and mac n' cheese. Blythe ate 8 chicken tenders! Which meant I only got 3 and Braden got 7. Not like they're my favorite anyway. Ethan also had 2 meals basically. A normal serving of cereal and then a whole 2nd stage baby food. He also is starting to get the whole "pick up a puff and feed it to himself" thing. He's starting to realize it's not that hard and maybe it actually is better to do that than wait for Mommy to get Blythe's juice/cereal/hairbrush/baby that fell on the floor.

After dinner we played in the living room and got out the musical instuments so we could freshen up our "skills". Here is Ethan playing the maracas. He was really going to town!

Afterwards it was time for bed. We got into Ethan's room and I totally forgot that earlier I had started to lower his mattress (since he's been trying to pull up). So we had to finish up that job. I wasn't really paying attention to Ethan much, but I think he may have been making some forward progress. He seemed a little closer every time I looked that way. And he was SO excited! Too excited to go to sleep for a little while I guess.

Ethan also cut one of his front 2 teeth today (or really last night). Didn't seem to bother him though. So now he has 3 teeth!

And I also want to say congratulations and "Happy Anniversary" to my brother Doug and sister-in-law Lynette. 4 years they've been married and how time has flown by!

The Pumpkin Patch

Today Blythe had her Pumpkin Patch field trip with her class at day care. I was able to move a couple of meetings around so I could go too. For some reason it took us forever to get out of the house this morning, but we didn't have to be at day care until 9:15, so it was okay. When we got there I took Blythe to her room so she could stay there while I took Ethan to his room. I could smell that Ethan had pooped on the way to day care this morning, but I had no idea until I went to hand him over that he had blown out of his diaper ALL over his shirt, which was then ALL over my jacket. Lovely. And today was quite a chilly day too.

Amy Freel and I rode together and took Ashley and Blythe separate from the day care vans, so fortunately we had time to swing by the house and grab a new jacket. We still beat the vans by about 10 minutes. Of course when the vans got there, it was chaos. 2 year olds running around all over the place. We coralled them for a few seconds to take a class picture.

Then it was off to the tractor hayride which took us to the "kids" pumpkin patch. This is where there are smaller pumpkins, which are probably too small to carve. Blythe and Ashley didn't waste any time and went quickly to find a pumpkin (in the farthest away spot they were allowed to go).

Here's Blythe with the pumpkin she picked out.

Next it was time to go to the petting zoo area where there were chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, pigs, cows, a donkey, and a horse. Blythe loved it there. She especially liked the turkeys, I guess because they were the loudest. Here she is talking about the pigs that "eat mud".

And here she is trying to find out the names of the Sheep and her two baby lambs.

While a whole bunch of the 2 year olds went potty (in port-a-johns...thank goodness Blythe didn't have to go!), the rest of the bunch practiced milking a cow (a fake cow...with water). Then the last thing was the maze. They actually have a REALLY big corn maze at the pumpkin patch, but they also have a toddler maze with some hay bales. Here she is finishing up the maze.

So it was a fun trip. Good to get them out of their day care room even if it is complete chaos. Next year I guess I'll be going on 2 pumpkin patch field trips with each of the kids.

Ethan is 7 months old!

Ethan is 7 months old today! Where has the time gone? When Blythe was a baby time practically stood still. I think because I still remembered what it was like to be childless and do whatever you wanted to and just get in the car and go somewhere whenever you felt like it. Now that's too far in the distant past and life has completely changed (in a good way). Now time seems to fly by and I want to hold on to these days of Ethan being completely dependent on me. I guess they do have to grow though.

Blythe was in a cranky mood this morning. Daddy came home only for about 10 minutes after morning practice before he headed back to work and I think she may have heard him. When she came downstairs she said, "I wanna see Daddy". She looked so disappointed when I told her he had already gone. Just before it was time to go to day care she threw a fit about putting on her shoes, so I got mad, then she started SCREAMING at me (what is with this new screaming phase she's got going on?). So anyway, that earned her a spot in timeout for 2 minutes. Her nose had been running pretty bad this morning (and it's really bad when she's crying) and when I checked on her after 2 minutes she was sitting on the step leaning over and the snot was hanging out of her nose at least 2 inches, I kid you not. Gross! I am not looking forward to the winter sick season!

When we got to school, her little friend Nora came running to see her when Blythe walked in the room. How awesome would that be as an adult if people came running because they were so excited to see you every day at work or at home? Anyway, Blythe says to Nora, "Get back to the carpet!" (the carpet is where they dump the toys and the kids play with them). Then she says it again..."Get back to the carpet!". Geez, what a bossy little girl. Where does she get that from??? The day care teacher said yesterday when Nora's mom came to pick her up, Nora said to her mom. "You can't tell me what to do, you're not my teacher". How true that is....

Ethan did feed himself a banana puff tonight. The first few he wouldn't touch, so I had to put them in his mouth. Blythe feeds him some puffs sometimes too, so I suppose that doesn't help things either. Anyway, at one point he picked one up (between is forefinger and thumb even) like he was a pro at it and put it right in his mouth. Good job!!

Gommy and Pop anniversary

Today is my parents' 36th wedding anniversary. Since I haven't been alive for 36 years, that seems like a really long time to me. And it is! Unless they are very good actors, they are still going strong and very much in love. Congratulations Mom and Dad!

There really wasn't anything significant today that I feel compelled to write about. Still no crawling for Ethan, though he was making very good progress tonight when he was tired and fussy (so again, too wound up to even notice he was making progress). He's been eating those banana puffs for over a week now and he only fed them to himself on the second day. Ever since then he won't even try. I put them on his tray and he won't even look at them. I have to actually put the puff in his mouth and then he thoroughly enjoys it. Maybe that was my downfall...doing the work for him. Now he's lazy and doesn't want to try to do it by himself. I also gave him a "biter biscuit". One of those cookies that is really hard so they just gum it until mush comes off and they eat it. I gave him one the other day too. That time he was able to bite a big piece off and I had to pull it out of his mouth before he choked on it. Today he did the same thing. It was a more mushy piece though so I let him try to work on gumming it before swallowing it. He did well, though he gagged several times and I thought it was all going to come up, but it didn't. Must be strange for babies those first times when something solid goes down the throat after never having had that feeling before.

There was a new baby in the nursery at day care today. Another boy. The girl who he replaced turned 1, so she moved to the toddler room. She was the "biter" in the nursery, so glad to see her move up. One more girl will move up next week and be replaced by another boy. Then there will be 6 boys and 2 girls. Blythe's class is the other way around. Way more girls than boys.

Anyway, now I'm just rambling and 'Prison Break' is coming on pretty soon, so I better log off!

Checking email

So today Braden and I were in the living room and noticed Blythe had disappeared for a little while. I found her in my office sitting in my chair at the computer. When I asked her what she was doing, she said, "I'm checking my email". Clearly must be a term we use A LOT! She doesn't really have an email account (because what would be the use if you can't read or write?) I'm going to guess it won't be that long though before she does have one. How crazy will that be??!!

Ethan didn't start crawling this weekend even with quite a bit of coaching and encouragement. He can do the "butt scoot" on his back, and he has pretty much perfected turning while on his stomach, but there is no forward motion. Wonder if he's as frustrated as I am.

Anyway, today the weather was gorgeous! Blythe, Ethan, and I walked to 7-Eleven this morning to get the Sunday paper. Have done that the last 3 Sundays now. I'm into the coupon clipping now...hey, anything to save some here and there! Braden had meetings with recruits in the morning. Later we went to Old Navy for the Columbus Day $14.92 sale. Got a few things. Is tomorrow Columbus Day? I hope so because that would mean a bank holiday which means no clients calling. Anyway, we went to Panera for lunch, but by this time it was almost 2:00. Should've known. While we were there Blythe reached the meltdown stage. She was being so fidgety and almost knocked over the table so I got mad at her and she started SCREAMING (so of course everyone is looking at us). Ethan of course is delighted because she's crying. So I make her sit under the table in time out because that will at least muffle the screaming. So anyway, that was an awesome lunch.

Both kids slept for about an hour and a half at the SAME TIME!!!! Whoo hooo! In the evening Tommy came by (Ethan's godfather) before he had to drive back to Virginia Beach. Blythe was excited to see him and got a little sad when he had to go. All in all, another good weekend.

Hokie football game

Man am I tired! Today was a fun, but exhausting day. At about 11:30 the kids and I met up with Braden at the tailgating spot for the Hokie football game (against Western Kentucky..obviously an easy win). I had previously hyped up the Hokie Bird birthday party to Blythe which was today for the Hokie Kids Club. Which was also the reason we had an extra ticket for Blythe to the game (one game a year for the Hokie Bird birthday party they give out a select number of tickets to the kids). We didn't have a ticket for Ethan...more on that later. So anyway, Braden says he doesn't want to go to the Hokie Bird Birthday party, so whatever, I put Ethan in the baby backpack and Blythe in the stoller and get ready to make the 1/2 mile trek to the party. Just before we leave, Braden's boss's daughter (who's 3) says she wants to go too. So I offer to take her too. So it's me, a 6 month old, a 2 year old, and a 3 year old walking 1/2 mile (each way) to the birthday party. We made it there no problem, got some cake, said "hi!" to Hokie Bird, got Blythe's face painted with some bird tracks, and then headed back. At least it was a good way to burn some time (and some calories!).

So we didn't have a ticket for Ethan and we knew we were supposed to, but he's strapped to me and we always got Blythe in when she was younger with no ticket, so we weren't worried. We went to the recruit entrance since Braden usually knows whoever is working there. Gave them our 3 tickets and just as we're about to walk in we get stopped by a lady who says, "do you have a ticket for him (Ethan)?" Crap. So we say "No...didn't think we needed a ticket for him...blah, blah". They say we can pay $44 (face value) and get him a ticket. Hmmm....no. So we're standing there trying to decide what we should do and then finally someone says they can get us a ticket and we end up getting in. Good thing this is the only game we're bringing the kids to this year because that was a hassle!

Both kids did pretty good. Blythe was her antsy self...I think it'll be a while before she has any real interest in football. Ethan actually slept through the 2nd quarter. We ended up leaving after halftime, but making it til then was a big accomplishment! Everyone was tired when we got home and everyone took naps (except me...how does that happen?).

It was a fun day but I don't think I'll be up very late tonight!

The one parent bathtime

I think tonight was the first time I bathed the kids together all by myself. I thought I had done it before but then while they were in the tub I was thinking, "how am I going to dry Blythe's hair and get Ethan dried off and in his jammies all at the same time?" so obviously I haven't done it before.

It was no big deal though. I dried off Blythe, got her in her jammies, combed her hair, and then got Ethan out, dried, and in jammies. Drying Blythe's hair had to wait until after Ethan had eaten and been put to bed. Good thing Blythe's hair is much thicker these days so it didn't dry all crazy by itself.

Braden has recruits in this weekend and it's alumni weekend, so he still isn't home since he left the house at 8:45 this morning. Bummer!

Today I bought tickets for Sesame Street Live "Elmo Grows Up" on December 4. Last year we took Blythe and went with our next door neighbors and it was a lot of fun. I decided to buy tickets for the first night, since it's the "cheap" night. The show is at 7pm, so I have no idea if that will work for Ethan. Two months away is way too early to think of things like that!

Tomorrow we are taking the kids to the VT football game. Should be interesting. May mean that Blythe will not take a nap for the first time in her life. Then again, maybe she will (just really late). Before the game is the Hokie Birthday party for the Hokie Kids Club, so that should be fun. Looking forward to a nice weekend with beautiful Fall weather!

Going on bacation

Braden and I just tucked Blythe in to go to sleep. Daddy read her a story and on one page was a beach theme. Braden asked Blythe if she remembered when she and Daddy went to the beach (about a month ago they went for a few days just the two of them). She said "yes...we went on a bacation!". Here's how the rest of the conversation went...
Daddy: Do you want to go on vacation again with Daddy next year?
Blythe: Yeah...with Mommy and Ethan too
(pause)
Blythe: No, not Ethan....just Mommy

So looks like we're leaving Ethan home next year when we go on vacation...ha!

Blythe talks in such normal conversations these days and says the cutest things. She'll randomly say "I love you Daddy" or "I'm so happy". Or she'll say (as she did tonight) "Daddy, you have a big butt!". Ha, ha! So funny when she says that! Of course 20 minutes later she says, "Mommy, you have a big butt!". Such a sweet little girl. I really don't know where she learns this stuff.

Ethan is getting really close to crawling. He is now rocking on all fours so it should be any day now. Every day when I pick him up from day care I expect them to tell me he started crawling. Of course, I really hope he does it at home first. Though at day care he probably has more motivation, trying to take a toy from another baby.

First trip to the dentist

Today was Blythe's first trip to the dentist. Daddy had made an appointment (his first trip to the dentist in 3 years!), so I asked him to bring Blythe along so she could see that it wasn't too scary. Since I didn't go, I can't give the first hand play-by-play, but apparently everything went well. She came home with a yellow Dora toothbrush, a little plastic Care Bear, a little stamp, and a 49ers pencil (that Daddy said she picked out all by herself...yeah, right). They counted her teeth nice and slow so she would keep her mouth open for a while. 20 teeth and all looked good. Daddy still had zero cavities even after his extended break from the dentist.

Gommy and Poppa came today too, back from their West Virginia vacation and here to pick up Laura. Since they were coming in the afternoon, Blythe didn't go to day care. Ethan went, but I picked him up early. Blythe probably should have gone because she took a really short nap (if any at all) at home, though she was in her room for over 2 hours. After about 20 minutes of napping, I heard her playing in there so I went in there and she said she had to potty. I took her potty and then told her she had to go back to sleep or Gommy and Poppa wouldn't come. So she went back to her room and was quiet, though I heard occasional noises confirming she wasn't asleep. When Gommy and Poppa got here I went to get her. She was standing by the door wearing one of her dress up princess outfits. I told her Gommy and Poppa were here and she said, "I slept a little more so they could come!" Mmm..hmmm....sure. Oh well.

I showed her my blog from yesterday with the video of her crying from the spider. She wanted to watch it over and over again. When Gommy asked Blythe if she liked the spider from yesterday, Blythe said, "I cried". At least she didn't hold a grudge!

And here's a pic of Blythe and Ethan playing when Gommy and Poppa were here.