...and a Happy New Year!

...and I'm being pestered about not hanging out with my family right now (by John, of course), so that's really all I have time for. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Okay, that's all I really wanted to say to whomever might be reading. Merry Christmas!

Time to go!

It's nearly time to head home for Christmas. Our bags are packed, and we're just waiting around for John to get off work this afternoon. I hate this part: the waiting. I usually end up loading the car by myself because I'm so antsy, but not today. We've got too much for me to try and do that this time. It'll be interesting to see how it all fits into the car...and to see where we end up putting Hank! Maybe I'll take a picture.

It's potty time!

Finally, finally, finally Aidan has shown an interest in using the potty. Last night as I was packing, he was in the bedroom with me watching cartoons. He got excited about something and did a little hop, and I noticed that he had major droopy drawers. I told him I wanted to change his diaper, and he whipped it off for me. (Thank goodness it was only wet!) On a whim, I decided to put him in underwear. I'm not really sure what came over me. I turned on the light in his bathroom, showed him where to go if he felt the urge, and went on with packing. Before I know it, he's in the bathroom sitting on the potty. I walked by to get something from another room and told him to call me if he needed any help. A few minutes later, he's calling. I go to help him, and he's trying to sit straight on the bit potty by himself, no kiddie seat. And once he's up there, he peed in the potty! I was so excited. He even went one more time before bed! We put him in a pullup to sleep, and he woke up with it dry and has used the potty all morning today! Of course, he picked the night before a road trip to start doing this, but I am so thrilled that he's finally decided to try! I'm not holding my breath for the number 2's yet, though. But we're finally getting somewhere.

Helper

Look what Aidan helped me do the other day! He wanted me to play with him, and I told him that I would once I'd unloaded the dishwasher. While I had my back turned, he started unloading the silverware for me. See that big scary knife? God was watching over his little hands. He'd already stashed it before I realized it was even in there!

Aack!

Packing is kicking my booty, so I'm taking a break. Our house literally looks like a tornado went through here. It's going to be terrible to come home to, but we've been in a whirlwind of laundry, wrapping, and packing all afternoon. I've paused to finally check my e-mail today, update my iPod for the road trip home, and warm my feet by the space heater. Ah...

Elf Yourself...It's baaack!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Shopping

I want to pause and reflect on the shopping experience I had this morning. I needed to pick up a few last-minute stocking stuffers, and I wanted to get everything done while Aidan was at Mom's Day Out today. I spent a little while at the mall. I always see little things that make me laugh and that I want to share.

For instance? The first thing that caught my eye was a Proactiv kiosk, with gift-wrapped sets of cleansers adorning it. Now, who wants to get a box of Proactiv for Christmas? Seriously. That kind of seems like an insult. "Here, I thought you might like to get a handle on that acne this year." No, thanks. That's not really a discreet way to help somebody out, now is it?

And of course, every store in the mall has a giant banner in the window, advertising what a great present something from their store makes. It amuses me to see the ones in places like GMC. I guess for some that would be an okay gift. I can only imagine if I got something like that. "Um...yay, vitamins!" I'd have trouble feigning gratitude for that one.

Then there's the fact that you can get just about anything with High School Musical on it or Hannah Montana. You can give a child a Hannah Montana pillow, calculator, umbrella, t-shirt, etc. If you gave them a regular calculator or umbrella, though, they would not be pleased. Unless they were me. I'm pretty sure I asked for an umbrella one year. {What a weirdo!) I think the one I ended up with was teal...or aqua. Regardless, it didn't have an exciting theme.

What else happened on my trip to the mall? There was the usual waiting in long lines for no apparent reason. In every store that I made a purchase, I was the second person in line. And in every store, I waited for at least 10 minutes before paying. Why? In the first shop, the woman in front of me appeared to be returning and then repurchasing a gift card. I really didn't understand why. In another place, I waited behind a woman who I think was purchasing gifts for everyone on her list at one time. She needed a gift receipt for each item separately. I listened to the cashier count them out as they printed..."16, 17, 18, 19..." It was insane.

All that to say, my shopping is done, and I am glad of it. Now it's time to start packing...

Kimba's Open House

P.S. I've linked up to this. I put an old post of mine up, but it's fun checking out everyone's Christmas decorations!

For my first gift of Christmas...

...my husband gave to me, a shiny new WiFi printer. Ain't it pretty? I know. I'm a dork. It's what I wanted, and John didn't want to wrap it when UPS delivered it yesterday. So now I have it all set up, ready to use. Hooray! Technology is fun!

Mittens, yea!

Aidan loves his new stripey pair.

Mr. C

On Saturday, we finally conceded to Aidan's fervent desire to visit Santa Claus. Seriously, ever since we got back home after Thanksgiving, he has asked daily to go see Santa. Saturday morning, as we're eating our pancakes, John and I calmly inform Aidan that we will be taking him to sit on Santa's lap today. He talked about it all day long...nonstop. "I want to see Santa. I want to see Santa. I want to see Santa!" Finally, afternoon naps were over, and it was time to load up in the car and go see Santa.

At our lovely outdoor mall, there are two Santas. One is in the Bass Pro Shop, and the other I knew nothing about, other than that he was there. We tried to see non-Bass Pro Santa first. I'm sorry. I just didn't want my daughter's first time to be with redneck Santa. It's just too Louisiana. As it turns out, non-Bass Pro Santa is mobile home Santa. Ironic, isn't it? The whole thing is set up where you have to walk through one of the homes and talk to a salesperson before you get to see Santa, so we did not go see this Santa. I kind of snuck in without the saleswoman seeing me to figure out what the deal was and scurried away when I realized it was a trap!

We headed off to see Bass Pro Santa after all. When we got there, at the opposite end of the mall, of course, Santa Claus and his elves were leaving for their dinner break. We told Aidan that we'd go eat dinner and come back when Santa returned. We ate at IHOP, and it was our most miserable dining experience to date. Neely decided she needed to eat too, so I had my first-ever public nursing experience. Not public like those women who will raise their shirt anywhere, no matter who is looking. Public as in safely hidden under a thick, fleece blanket, but people give you dirty looks nonetheless. While this is happening, Aidan is throwing fits, because he doesn't want to sit by John, he doesn't want to eat his food, he wants to wallow under the table, etc. Finally, the nightmare ended, and we went back to see Santa Claus.

We waited in a long-ish line to see Santa Claus, and I thought John was going to put an elbow into the child behind us. The kid was everywhere. I believe the straw that nearly broke the camel's back was when he started trying to push Neely's stroller in the opposite direction from where John wanted to go. I don't think his mother ever reprimanded him. John got out of line with the stroller and left me with the two kids at this point...I think to avoid doing/saying anything he'd regret.

At last, it was our turn!...and Aidan wouldn't budge. His earlier taunts of "I want to see Santa!" turned into "I don't want to see Santa! I don't want to sit on his lap!" So Neely did, and Aidan got to watch from John's arms, on the sidelines. He couldn't even be forced into the photo with John or I there this year. Sorry, grandma's and grandpa's, no picture of Aidan with Mr. Claus this year. But look at Neely...she looks so happy. It must be all that tickly fuzz.

Overnight visitor

Barksdale got a very cool overnight visitor yesterday...the space shuttle! We took Aidan to go see it. He thought it was pretty cool. I can't lie, so did I.

Just one more!

I can't leave Neely out! Here she is, smiling with her tongue sticking out again. I love those little half-moon eyes!

Aidan also likes...

...eating icing straight off the beaters. Can't say that I blame him.

I love hot chocolate.

I have recently introduced Aidan to hot chocolate. He is a fan.

More from Thanksgiving

I just discovered a few more photos from Thanksgiving on my backup camera. Don't laugh at me. Yes, I have a backup camera. It's one of those tiny ones that fits in my purse/diaper bag/whatever I happen to be carrying that day, instead of lugging around a giant camera case.
Here's Aidan building with Coke cans.

And I believe this little episode was called "Ab Attack." They did this AFTER dinner, the bunch of crazies. Papaw looks like he's working the hardest, doesn't he?

Everybody loves a sleeping baby.

Ooh...

We used our fireplace for the first time last night. Love it.

My prize!

I went to my first Christmas party of the season last night, our squadron wives' group's ornament exchange, and I came home with the door prize! This is the most beautiful gingerbread house I've ever seen! A lady in Haughton, Louisiana has a little shop behind her house where she makes these. She's having an open house next weekend with a house-making demo. I may have to go watch. We're going to wait a few weeks, of course, but we're definitely eating this baby before Christmas is over.

Haunted House

She probably didn't know photos of this would end up on the internet, but here's the funniest Thanksgiving story ever. Okay, maybe not THE funniest, but it's pretty good.

This year, my family celebrated Thanksgiving at Jasmine Hill, an old plantation home in Mississippi that my father's family owns. Rumor is the place is haunted. The first night we were all there, my dad and a couple others thought they heard something in the middle of the night. Dad said it sounded like chains dragging on the wood floor. He got out of bed to see what it was, but it was gone by the time he got there.

The second night, a few more said they heard the same noise in the middle of the night. Again, whatever it was had disappeared by the time anyone made it out of bed to check things out.

The last night of our stay, I woke up around 3:00am hearing all kinds of racket going up and down the stairs, and I'm thinking, "No way a ghost makes that much noise." So I get out of bed to see what's going on. By the time I make it to the stairs, I hear my dad and my aunt Cheryl laughing. Here's what we found at the bottom of the stairs:

My grandmother, wearing a white nightgown over her clothes, underpants on her head, and dragging a chain attached to a length of rope behind her. It was hilarious. She must've wanted to get caught that last night. If she'd done it the same as every other night, she probably would've gotten away with it. Anyway, it's a good story to tell, and it was definitely memorable. If he didn't before, John definitely thinks my family's crazy now.

A Smiley Lil' Turkey

This is a photo of Neely on Thanksgiving day in her lil' turkey outfit. I'd have one of Aidan here too, but he wasn't nearly as cooperative. Neely Caroline is the happiest, most generous baby I've ever seen when it comes to smiling...and her smiles always involve that cute little tongue you see sticking out there. Precious! I have some video of her playing and smiling that I will post just as soon as I unearth the cord that connects my video camera to the computer.

Boots

On a much more pleasant note than my last post, I wanted to share a picture of Aidan when he put his shoes on to accompany me to the grocery store yesterday evening. He chose a lovely pair of navy blue rain boots to accompany his black sweats. And to top it off, he tucked the sweats into the boots! He would not let me change his shoes to leave, so we went this way. Ah, the joy of letting your toddler dress himself. This was a little more entertaining than when he puts his shoes on the wrong feet. I usually let him do his shoes by himself, so more often than not, he gets them switched and I leave them, since he did it by himself. I have to explain that one a lot. Total strangers come up to me to ask me if I know that I've put my child's shoes on the wrong feet. Yes, I know. I let him do it himself. He's becoming independent!

Boys will be boys

Well...we have now successfully lived through our first emergency room visit...wait, that's not right. We have now successfully lived through our second emergency room visit with Aidan. Or I should say I have. John was midair somewhere between here and Kansas at the time, of course. Here's the story.



At about 10:00am on Friday, I decided it was high time the kids and I get out of the house. I had Neely all ready in her carrier, the diaper bag was packed, I had my shoes on, and as I went to put Aidan's shoes on him, I realized we needed to do one more diaper change before leaving home. I took him up to our bedroom and changed him in the middle of the floor. As I was bundling up the dirty diaper and he was exiting the room, he tripped over his own two feet and whacked his head on the floor. This kind of thing happens all the time. Aidan has just hit a little growth spurt, and he's usually clumsier until he gets used to his new, bigger self. When he turned around, he was screaming and clutching his head. It took me a minute to pry his hand away from his forehead, and that should've been my sign that this was not the usual bump on the head.



The poor kiddo's head was split open pretty deep, deep enough that I was seeing things in there that you're really not supposed to, and it was bleeding like crazy. That's when hysteria set in. A million things are running through my mind...what to hold it together with, who to call for help, what to do with Neely, what emergency room to take him to, etc. I get hold of a friend down the street to come over and help me, and as I'm waiting for her, my adrenaline kicks in. I don't know how it affects you, but me? Adrenaline just makes me nauseous. I honestly thought I was going to pass out in the floor. It is at this point that I realize that I will not be able to drive him to the hospital and, for the first time in my life, dial 911. I had to repeat my address several times before the dispatcher could even understand me, Aidan was yelling so loud. I'm sure the recording of my call is hilarious. I am shouting at the top of my lungs, "1-0-7 F-O-U-L..." You get the idea.



A few minutes later, I have two EMT's and three MP's (that's military police for those who're unfamiliar with the acronym) in my living room firing questions and trying to take care of Aidan. What's Neely doing? Sleeping. No, I'm not kidding. No amount of hysterical shrieking could wake her.



Now, it's time for the ambulance ride. Aidan was so excited to be riding in it, that he actually forgot about his head for a little while, and he was compliant enough to actually let me hold an ice pack on his head. The EMT's got word that there were trains coming (and we had to cross two tracks before reaching the hospital), so they actually turned the lights on and did the whole crazy driving, weaving all over the road thing. Whenever we'd take a sharp turn or hit a bump in the road, Aidan would go, "Whoa! Whoa!" It was funny.



The benefit of taking the ambulance to the emergency room is that they have a room waiting for you when you get there. You get to skip all of that waiting room stuff. It still doesn't make them treat you any more quickly. I think we were there for an hour and a half before they tried to stitch him up the first time. Yes, I said the first time.



I'd asked the nurse preparing all the things in the room for the doctor if Aidan could be sedated for the procedure. She looked at me as though I were nuts for wanting to drug my child and assured me that they'd be able to hold him still. They wrapped him in a bed sheet and strapped him to this board thing with Velcro. I think they called it a papoose. It was, essentially, a straight jacket of sorts. Actually, come to think of it, a straight jacket might have worked better. My friend Ashley and I (she's the one who followed the ambulance in the car with Neely and was a total Godsend all day) were trying to keep Aidan's body still, while two nurses were supposed to be holding his head. Cue hysterical screaming again. It was along the lines of, "Mommy! Mommy! I don't want to lie down! I want to get up! Mommy!" It was awful. The nurses could not hold him still enough for the doctor to stitch him, and the doctor stormed out of the room telling them to go ahead and sedate him. I mean, I hate to say, "I told you so." But seriously. He's two years old. What did they expect?



An hour later, he's being given a shot for conscious sedation and getting his little head fixed up with six stitches. Next, we had to wait for the drugs to wear off again. He was so funny while he was sedated. It was like he was in slow motion. Everything he said took twice as long to come out. At one point, I was hanging over him, playing with his hair and talking to him, and he points at me and says, "Mommmmmy.......four.....eyes." I can only assume he was seeing double. I laughed for a while over that one. He said a lot of other funny stuff, I just can't remember all of it.

At 3:15pm, he was released to go home. The child still wasn't back to normal until closer to 6:00pm, and luckily, he really hasn't noticed that he's got stitches in his head since. I guess he'll be reminded on Wednesday when we go and have them removed.

I'd attach a photo, but I have no clue how to get them from my phone onto the computer. It's probably just as well. It was pretty gruesome.

God's Clues

I repeated this story to a friend on the telephone yesterday evening, and she assured me it was blog-worthy. While Aidan ate his breakfast yesterday, I was reading my Bible and copying down some notes into a journal that I'd taken during church a couple of weeks ago. The night before, we had worked on his letter to Santa Claus (I'll have to scan that and share it at some point). He looks at what I'm writing and asks, "Is that your Christmas list, Mommy?" I told him, "No, Mommy is writing in her journal." He looked at me like I'd just grown a third eye. As in, "Does not compute. I do not know this 'journal' you speak of." I tried again, "It's my notebook." I could tell a little light was dawning, as if he was trying to figure out how he knew what a notebook was. I got there before he did. I told him, "You know how on Blue's Clues, Joe writes down the clues in his notebook? Well, Mommy is writing down the clues God gives her from the Bible in this notebook." To which he says, "Yeah!" Who knew you could compare your daily quiet time to Blue's Clues? Only the parent of a preschooler.

This one's gonna give you deja vu.

I got Aidan's turkey t-shirt done this afternoon. I couldn't find a solid white shirt for him, so I had to go with green. I think it turned out nice, and this way, he and Neely won't be too matchy-matchy. I love making turkeys. They're so much fun! I wonder what John would do if I made him one...

Lil' Turkey

I got a little crafty today, and I'm very proud of my handiwork. On Sunday, Christina and I painted t-shirts with our teenage gals, and I was inspired to make Thanksgiving shirts for the kids. I went to Joann's and chose a few festive colors last night. I cut out feathers, circles for the turkey's body, and a little beak from the fabric. I used Stitch Witchery to attach the pieces to a little onesie for Neely. (I have oodles of these white ones, so I figured if this turned out as a disaster, it wasn't a huge loss.) I glued on some googly eyes and traced all the pieces in coordinating colors of shiny fabric paint. Then, I did the lettering on the bottom by hand. I think that's the only thing that I would change. Next time, I'll probably buy some of those printable iron-ons and do the lettering on the computer so it looks more uniform. Now, I need to do one for Aidan. Should it say "lil' turkey" too, or should I write "big turkey" on his?

Two-month-old girl

My tiny little girl is turning into quite a chubby little baby. I love it! Chubby babies are the BEST anyway. I'm posting the best/most recent picture that I have of her...taken yesterday wearing an outfit her Granny bought her while she was still in preemie clothes. We thought sure it'd take her six months to fit into it. Ha! Two months, it only took two. She had her check-up today. Neely now weighs 9 pounds 15.8 ounces, so in another hour or two, she'll be exactly 10 pounds. She's a little over 22 inches long now, too. I think the last time I shared her height/weight, she was in the 5th percentile. Now, she's in the 50th. She has definitely made up for lost time. She's grown so much! And having to watch her get shots for the first time was awful. She really is not a crier, so when the nurse stuck her with the first one, she did that whole silent scream deal and held her breath for about 10 seconds. She turned purple. When she finally caught her breath again, she was screaming. I've never heard or seen her get that upset. She had the biggest crocodile tears, too. And Aidan's standing in the corner saying, "Poor Neely." I'm also adding a photo of the little man today, so his grandmas and grandpas and aunties and uncles can see him, too.

One last thing

Sorry! I keep forgetting things that I meant to post as they happened. Joe and Maggie sent Aidan this adorable card this week asking him to be a ring bearer in their wedding. I showed it to him and read it to him and then asked, "Do you want to be in Joe and Maggie's wedding?" He answered, "Yeah!" Emphatically, I might add. I showed him the picture on the front again. "Do you want to wear a little suit like this one?" Again, he says, "Yeah!" I hope he's that excited come June.

Bake Sale

I love bake sales! Our squadron OSC is having one in front of the commissary tomorrow beginning at 8:30, and I have been baking all week to get ready. It's the one productive thing I feel like I've done all week. I hope the weather is nice in the morning!

Nightmare

Aidan has been a little monster this week. I have found that his happiness is directly related to the amount of time we are able to spend out of our house each day, and this week, it has been raining and raining and raining. In the photo to the left, you can see that Aidan spent the better part of the morning destroying his room the other day. He pulled his rocking horse in front of the dresser, climbed on it, and pulled everything within reach off the top until I heard a telltale crash. Apparently, he was after his piggy bank, and he got it...in a zillion tiny pieces on the floor. See that look on his face? That's the "Dang, I just got busted," look.

He's also been throwing tantrums like crazy, I guess because he doesn't really know how to express that he's going nuts from being cooped up. Yesterday afternoon, he refused to take a nap, and later on when John took something away he wasn't allowed to have, he ran screaming through the house until he finally crashed in the corner of his playroom. We let him sleep there until he woke about an hour later, not missing a beat. He immediately started screaming and ranting all over again. He got to go to Mom's Day Out today. Hopefully he'll be happier this evening.

Help me!

My Christmas mantel is a work in progress. I started working on it Saturday, and I still can't get it quite right. John is no help. He can only tell me what doesn't look good. Right now, I know it looks kind of barren on the ends, but I'm not sure what to put there. Tall candles? I intend to hang our stockings at either end (two on each side), since with the way I had to rig my nativity, I won't be able to put stocking holders in the center at all. I need suggestions! Post me a comment if you have a good idea of something I can use to fill in the dead space.

New Window Hanging

For those of you who follow The Nester, you know what a window mistreatment is. For those who don't, you can go hunt around her blog for a definition and wonderful pictures of some of the windows that inspired me. Ever since I worked at Pottery Barn, five years ago, I have had this blue silk curtain panel that I've had no idea what to do with. I bought it on clearance with my discount on top of that, and it was dirt cheap. I couldn't pass it up, but it was only a single panel.

Ever since we moved into this house in April, I've had this naked bathroom window. So when I saw some of the Nester's mistreatments, I decided to try one with that lonesome curtain panel.

I had a hard time getting a good photo of it because this bathroom is so small, but I think it turned out pretty well. (Yes, it's just tacked to the wall, no curtain rod.) Now if I could only find a shower curtain for in there. Maybe I'll mistreat the shower somehow as well.

I couldn't wait...

...any longer to get out my Christmas decorations. I'm not sure why I was so eager this year. I may have Aidan confused. As in, why are we celebrating Thanksgiving with Santa Claus and the baby Jesus out? Oh, well. I've taken a picture of my sideboard in the dining room. It's very festive. It's my favorite little decorated "nook" so far. I haven't figured out exactly what to do with my fireplace mantle yet. I've never had one to actually decorate before. The big bummer is that my nativity is too big! I finally get all the components collected, and now I haven't got a good spot to put it. That figures. I may have to buy a new table especially for putting it out. I've also gotten another rag garland finished. It is also adorning my dining room.

Over and over yesterday, John would say, "I can't believe you're decorating for Christmas already." I told him he's an enabler. I asked him if I was allowed to, and he said it was fine as long as I didn't put anything up outside (where people can see it and think we're weirdos, I guess). He even brought down a couple of boxes from the attic that were too heavy for me to carry. Ergo, he's my enabler.

So Merry Christmas!

Arts & Crafts

I had fun with paints while Aidan was at Mom's Day Out today. I can't wait to hang them up with my Christmas decorations! I'm so ready to decorate. Maybe I'll start tomorrow.

Photo Session

I took the kids for portraits today. Aside from the fact that I thought I might have to build an ark to get them to the car this morning and Neely staying asleep for most of the session, we came away with some really adorable photos. Here are a few.

It works!

Those of you who know my laundry drama of late will understand why I have posted a picture of my WORKING DRYER on my blog. For those who don't, the short version is that over the last six months, we burned out the motor on our old dryer (which wasn't really even that old, actually) by running it on an outlet that was putting out too much voltage. This is the shiny new dryer plugged into the outlet that the electrician fixed this afternoon. It has now run for over 40 minutes, which is twice as long as the old one would go on the crazy voltage. I am now able to dry a load of laundry all at once, rather than at random intervals throughout the day. Hooray! Now I must attack the mountain that has accumulated in the absence of a working dryer. I've never been so excited about doing laundry in my life, nor am I likely to be ever again.

Our Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone. (and only those who dressed up got to be in our family picture) We had a lot of fun this year. I dressed up as the tooth fairy, Aidan was a handyman, and Neely went as a ballerina. We started celebrating with a party at John's squadron on Thursday night, where they played "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and had a haunted house/trick-or-treating throughout the building. Several of the offices had scary decorations up, and the kids had to go into them, frightened or not, if they wanted candy. Aidan was hilarious for this portion of the evening. He'd see something he was apprehensive about, and he'd talk himself out of being scared. It went kind of like this...if we walked into a room with a cauldron full of fake fire, he'd say, "I'm not scared of fire, Mommy. I'm not scared." It was funny. The most widely feared costume by all children present? You're never going to guess. The squadron mascot is the red devils, so lots of the guys were dressed as the devil, of course. But the costume most of the kids were terrified of was...wait for it...Jesus. Yes, Jesus. It was very strange.

On Halloween, Aidan went to Mom's Day Out, and they had a big party there. Aidan came home from class with more candy than he got actually trick-or-treating. It's nuts.

Aidan actually got to go trick-or-treating for the first time this year. Last year, he refused to put his costume on when it came time to try, so he didn't get to go. We probably went to about six houses before he tripped and fell, spilling all his candy, and he got very upset. I think he was more embarrassed than anything, but he really wasn't into the door to door deal after that. We went home and he got to help pass out candy and go through his bucket, so it turned out to be alright.

We ended up our night by getting on the webcam and being serenaded by Willie Nelson. It was a wonderful Halloween night.

Happy Halloween!

You are now entering the one day of the year where it is completely acceptable to consume candy at any hour you choose. Proceed with caution. I personally have just finished off my first fun size bag of M&M's for the day, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I have dropped Aidan off at Mom's Day Out in his handyman costume. I am wearing my Peanuts Halloween t-shirt. I have just finished hanging my "spooky cobwebs" and black light. Halloween has arrived. I hope you're having as much fun as I am!


**And this morning, after Aidan finished watching the Halloween themed cartoons on Disney, he came to me and said, "Mommy, it's Halloween night!"**

Good News

I went to the orthopedist this morning, and he told me that my ankle has healed. I no longer have to wear that unsightly, irritating boot. Hooray!

Neely and the big red flower.

Neely's little red bloomers came in the mail today, and I thought I'd try my hand at getting some portraits of her in them and her giant red flower headband. She didn't really want to stay in a pose, per se, so I don't really have any good full body shots that show the bloomers. But that darn headband is so adorable, and I got several photos that I'm happy with.

The State Fair

Papa took us to the State Fair today. We had lots of fun. Aidan was a bit apprehensive about riding rides, so we spent most of our time observing and feeding the animals in the State Fair Zoo. We got to see elephants and llamas. Aidan rode a pony. We watched pig races. And Aidan fed the goats and a tall, tall giraffe (that took his whole hand in its mouth to get that carrot). After lunching on some yummy corndogs and lemonade, we finally convinced Aidan to ride a couple of rides. He had a really good time on the airplanes, and the motorcycles...well, they were a little bit fast. He looked to be a little bit angry at his Papa for abandoning him. But all was well as we finished the day with a hot, sugary funnel cake. Hooray!

Painting Pumpkins

Also today, Aidan painted the pumpkins that he picked out at the pumpkin patch last week. He had a blast. He painted all three of his little pumpkins, and then he wanted to steal mine! He's going to have so much fun when it comes time to carve the big ones next week.

One Month Old

Neely had her one month check-up today. She is now 20 inches long, weighs 8 pounds exactly, and has a head circumference of 14 inches. All these things put her in about the 5th percentile. She's a very little girl, but in one month, she's put on over two pounds!

My Kiddos

By request, I took a picture of Aidan and Neely together and am posting it. It's not the greatest photo, but it's all I've got for now. I think Aidan is trying either to hold Neely's hand or give her five, and given the fact that she's asleep and smiling...I'd say she's probably passing gas.

Eeeuuuw!

I made it one month and two days without Neely pooping on me. She broke me in good today. There I was, with her laid out on the ottoman in the living room, changing her diaper when pfffft! She sprayed me with that fun neon yellow baby poopie. It startled me so badly, that I let out a pretty good shriek. It was all up my arm. It covered my t-shirt and one leg of my jeans, and she even got some of it on the sofa. I'm pretty sure John was praying all the while...thanking God it wasn't him. Stef, you can tell Andy that I now know how he feels, and I'm sorry for laughing at him.

Pumpkins

The time of year has come for choosing the perfect pumpkin. As a child, I remember this being an event I both anticipated and dreaded. I loved picking out my pumpkin, but it was a meticulous process, as my father was very discriminating when it came to our pumpkins. This has apparently rubbed off on me. There were very few pumpkins in the patch that I thought worthy of coming home with us. Aidan and I wandered through the sea of orange, while John and Neely waited in the shade of the single tree on the lot. In the end, I think we came away with some good ones. I'll share photos of those once they've been transformed into Jack-O-Lanterns. For now, I have pictures of Aidan making his selection...

...and of the tiny pie pumpkin he chose for Neely.