Halloween

I have been a slacker both as a mom, and a blogger. In all the weekend festivities, Halloween photos did not get posted... oopsies!!

Halloween Friday was lots of fun. It has been a long anticipated day in this house, and both boys had specific costumes they wanted to wear. And this year, they were SURE about what they wanted to be... no indecisiveness around here!

Trevor had a party at school in the morning, and while Blake was jealous, he found entertainment in watching all the Halloween cartoon specials that were on TV. The morning was also filled with requests for candy and wearing his Elmo costume. Both requests were denied!!

After lunch, I went to work, so Grandma got to deal with the over-anxious children who couldn't wait for me to get home. I returned from work, and was rushed upstairs and into my costume so we could go "trick-treating". There is NO doubt Trevor knows exactly what this holiday is about... CANDY! And he was ready!

The boys walked almost the ENTIRE neighborhood (about a mile all told!) without a complaint, or slowing down. They were really into it this year, and for the first time, there was no skipping of houses. In the past, I have gone to the home of the neighbors I knew... not this year. Every house was a source of candy, and so we must go and ring the bell. Blake, even pushed aside his fear of dogs for candy.... WOW!!

The highlight of the evening for Trevor was discovering that a new friend from school is also a neighbor! He lives just 4 houses down the street! So we joined forces trick or treating together for a while, until E had to go home for a party. Trevor is THRILLED to have a friend right here in the neighborhood (and I'm thinking this may make going to Kindergarten next year, a WHOLE lot easier!!).

Oh, the other high point of the evening was Grandma's costume. She was the HIT of the neighborhood. Her costume, was all Trevor's idea!!! And Kudos to Kate for making both Trevor and Grandma's costumes, and enhancing Blake's. Take a look....

Me (Care Bear), Trevor (spider), Grandma (mushroom)

Blake as Elmo dressed like a Bat (his request)
T & B in the wagon as we neared the 1 mile mark... only 3 houses left!!Me in my care bear costume. I was quite proud of this idea, and final product. The tummy, rather than the traditional care bears I grew up with says "Mommy To Be Bear" and was my way of announcing my pregnancy to everyone. And, with a little of Steve's help, I did most of the construction, myself!

Fall Photos

Looking at my camera, there are lots of fun Fall things we've been doing, and I just never posted about. So here's a quick recap in photos....

A walk in the woods

Picking out pumpkins (it was warm that day, hence the shorts)At a Halloween party with friends..... decorating pumpkins
Playing on the bouncies


On the Barrel Train
Feeding the goatsMore fall fun soon to come I hope.... as long as we don't get more snow flurries, like we got on Monday!! =(

So long Captain!

Okay, I'm done.

After 10 days of underwear and potty-training, Blake has made me crazy and insanse. He doesn't want to wear diapers, but he won't tell me when he has to pee, won't go potty on his own, argues with me when I tell him to go, cries when I take went undies off him, and is generally SO bull-headed that I'm ready to scream (oh wait, I've been screaming all morning!). I'm done.

I just took all the undies and pull-ups (for nap and bed time) out of his room, and brought back all the cloth diapers and baby wipes etc. He's pissed, but I don't care! He's so not his brother....which is fine... but it makes this extra-hard.

Captain Underpants has been de-pantsed (is that a word?).

And 8 hours, after taking away the undies, he is absolutely perfectly gloriously HAPPY in a soaking diaper. Apparently, he just ain't ready!!!

No Beer for the Baby

This is one of many posts I have longed to write about this topic. Today, as Blake napped, Trevor and I had a phenomenal conversation. We've had a few of these in the last few months, but since I wasn't publicizing the pregnancy, I wasn't able to blog about them. Now I can....YAY!!

This afternoon, I sat here at the computer, as I usually do when Blake is napping, with Trevor alongside. Most of the time he'll do a 'project' at his desk (cutting, coloring, etc.) for a while, before demanding requesting his turn on the computer. Today, when his requests were being ignored, he climbed up in the desk chair behind me and sat behind me, hugging me. I casually pointed out to him that he was hugging the baby. He hugged and squeezed a little tighter. I told him he was turning her (yes, I refer to the baby as a girl WAY too often!) into lemonade, since this week she is the size of a lemon. He thought this was hysterically funny, and sqeeezed some more, until I moved him to my lap instead!

He proceeded to talk about the baby, and how big she is, how she's not coming out until after Easter, when she's as big as a watermelon, and so on. He and I have had these conversations for a while now, and I know he enjoys them. At times he tells me, he can't wait that long for the baby, but I think for him it's important that he has time to get used to the idea of another child. He's a kid who NEEDS time to adjust to new things!!!

We talked about her for a while, and proceeded to switch over to talking about him as a baby, and the things he knows about that time. He knows he was in my belly first and that after he came out, Blake was in there. He knows that he came out 'upside-down' (as in face up), and that he had a squished nose because of that. He knows that she has a cord that goes to her belly button and that's how she eats, and that he too had a cord when he was inside. In fact, the other night at dinner, I was wiped from work and asked hubby for a beer-JOKINGLY!! Trevor told me I couldn't have a beer because then the baby would have a beer, and she wasn't old enough!!! How smart!!

And then he started wanting to know more about him as a baby. So, we went downstairs and found the work-in-progress that is his baby book. Hmm... Trevor is about 4 1/4.... in the baby book, he's just come home from the hospital! Oopsies! I do have all the 'stuff' for the baby book put aside in a tupperware tub (and Blake's stuff in his own tub) but I have not found the motivation or time to work on the baby books much in a LONG time.

We opened the book, and saw pictures of me pregnant, me in the hospital, ultrasound pictures (he really liked those!), Trevor just minutes after birth and so on.
He loved the tiny hat that he wore in the hospital and begged to try it on. It just barely fit, and kinda looked like a nylon stocking on the head of a robber it was so tight!! Funny!

We found the wrist bands that I had to wear and that he wore, and he was STUNNED how small it was! (So was I....*sob*).

He found the baby footprints that they put in the book, by stamping his foot, and pushing on the paper. He put the book on the floor and stood next to his baby footprints. The tiny print goes from his heel, to about the middle of the arch of his foot. He was shocked!! He pointed out to me what a BIG boy his is, just based on that!

He was confused by the pictures right after birth, that he was messy (something he hates to be!). And he was even more confused to see the clamp on the umbilical cord, and the scissors. He's known for about a month that the baby eats through a cord, and the he had a cord, and that's why he has a belly button. But apparently, what happened to that cord when he came out, never occured to him. He was shocked that we would cut the cord. And save the scissors!! And save the little dried piece of belly button that FINALLY fell off! He was very worried and sad about this-momentarily (as 4 year olds are!). Then, recovering quickly, he asked if he could cut the cord when the baby comes out. That question left me stuttering, as to why not, and why he wouldn't be there, and I quickly distracted him with other pictures!!! (whew!)

So, my sweet boy, continues to grow up....







PS... This post, in part, is inspired by my dad. Who shocks me by reading my blog (shocks, only becuase my dad and the computer just don't go together in my head), and then sending me wonderful, touching comments. Reminding me, that the original reason for my blogging, is much more of a personal, journaling intent so that I can look back on fond memories, years down the road. Thanks for reading Dad, and thanks for commenting.

My first *gasp* Meme

I've been tagged by a 'dear' friend to respond to a meme (what the he!! is a meme???).

THE MEME

Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences on your blog along with these instructions. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag five other people to do the same.

RESPONSE

Okay, so I'm sitting in our office, and the computer is on hubby's desk. Hubby is a geek. I keep the interesting books in other rooms. So my choices.... um, suck!!

Book: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Solar Power for your Home (2nd edition) [Seriously, enough interest for 2 editions?]

Sentence 5: "Here's another important financial resource: your local utility. Most public utilities and many private ones are encouraging energy efficiency by coordinating all the resources. The offer information and advice, develop lender packages, certify and recommend builders, identify and certify energy systems inspectors, and related tasks."

Well, nifty useful, huh??

As for people to tag... well, most of my blog readers are readers of Two Mom's and A Baby blog, who tagged me, so.... I'll just tag anyone who reads this blog and actually has a blog to participate with!! Come on....it's fun, free, and painless!!

Feedback, Puh-lease!

Okay... we're trying a new name! I need input and thoughts.

Once I find a name to stick with, I will change the URL to complete remove the too-personal references. Yes, I know that means any of you (okay, all 2 of you!) who have me bookmarked, will have to change those! I'm sorry, but I really need to get the family name off the web!

There is a story relating to the title, but not one I'm sure I should tell. I think it would scare off the few readers I have!!!

So, feedback please...

Oh, and if i keep the name, which i like... what do i make the url??? it's too long to use the whole thing, isn't it?

DWTS-biased!

So, I still love Dancing with the Stars... but I'm not always gonna blog about it. Tonight however, I must. I must register my frustration with the show.

I was SO excited to hear they were going to do 4 new dances tonight. Dances that I figured would make people like my mom, and my mother-in-law watch the show. Except they are BOTH on vacation, so I doubt that it worked!! But 4 cool new dances in fun, different generes. I figured since they were new, we might even get to see pros (not ones on the show) show us how the dance should be done. Well, they didn't do that, and that makes it hard for the audience to judge, since we've never seen these dances before. But that isn't my biggest beef with the show this week.

Why am I frustrated? Because they give Lacey a dance that she is a champion in, and that her father is a champion in, while they give Derek, Julianne, Cheryl and others a dance they've never taught before! How is that fair? Give Lacey something she doesn't know, like Hustle, and give someone else the West Coast Swing so that everyone is on uneven footing!! It's just not quite right.

I guess the flip side is, that she didn't take advantage of that head-start, and is in fact tied for last place. Now I don't want to see her and Lance go home. I really thought he had a great week last week, even though I hold 'NSYNC against him! He's finally learning how to mix being an original, and not following the commonly taken route, with what has to happen in a classic ballroom dance. Now this! Oh well!

Will Cloris finally go home?? Somehow I doubt it. I think she's been trying harder these last two weeks, but when it comes down to a dance COMPETITION (which it is Carrie Ann!), I find it hard to keep her as a serious competitor.

Captain Underpants

Holy cow, I thought this day would NEVER come!

Blake has willingly sat on the potty and peed 7 times in the last 2 days! (Yes, I'm counting!). He is such a stubborn child (who knows where he gets that!?!??!), that any suggestion of going potty has been met with FIERCE resistance. He has set his mind not to do this, for so long that I've just kinda not fought it.

Part of me wants him trained now, because T was trained at this age. But they are NOT the same child, that's not really fair of me. For a while I pushed him that he needed to go potty before his birthday so he could go to school with Trev. That also is not quite true, as he can go in pull-ups and I think he knows that. He also is anti-school lately, so I've had to drop that tactic as it works in his favor right now. Then I mentally readjusted, and said that as long as he was trained before the baby arrives, I don't care when or how it happens. I didn't push Trev and I really think that was a key to his success..... he had control, he was ready and talking about it, and he wanted to do it.

When Trev potty trained, it started because I asked him when he would use the potty. His answer was simple and logical for a 2 3/4 year old, "When I run out of diapers Mommy!". So he ran out of diapers (all the cloth were dirty in the laundry) and the disposables were gone. So he put on underwear. By no means was that it and he was trained, but he was ready to try and learn, and he did so in a brief amount of time (2-3 weeks I think). He's still not dry at night and I'm not worried about that. He's always been a heavy wetter at night and he's growing out of it bit by bit.

Ironically, Saturday morning, Blake had no cloth diapers left, and no 'sposies either. So he wandered aimlessly for a while, and then at my suggestion, put on Thomas underwear. (Note: Thomas trumped Elmo, how strange!). He has been wearing underwear while awake since then, other than a brief break this morning to go to a Halloween party (I don't need pee on the Elmo costume, that would be the END of the world!). He's been trying to hold it and tell me and learn, and it's happening slowly.

The best part, by far, was the smile on his face, when he sat down and peed a "river" (his words) and he could hear it! He was grinning and laughing and SO happy with himself! It was great!!! Somehow, caught up in the moment of it all, I have no photos of all this to embarass him with, or to prove it to the world! That's okay....we're just starting down this road. I'm sure I'll have lots of time to get the great pee pictures!!

Apples, Apples, Apples

You may recall, that I briefly mentioned (during a much more important post about TV!) that we went apple picking. In fact, it deserves more than such a slight mention!!

We joined 2 close friends and their 3 kids, and hit a great apple orchard/commercial fall play area known as Apple Holler. It's fun, it's a good size, and it's not too far from home. We met there after lunch early last week. The 5 kids get along WONDERFULLY! Seriously. Trevor loves the one girl who is his age. We tackily (is that a word?) joke that they are boyfriend and girlfriend (I swore I wouldn't do that as a mom! Ooops!), and he acts like a big brother to the other little girl. Blake
usually doesn't mind much who we are with, and this time was no exception.

We walked and we walked, and finally found a section with apples still for picking. It was somewhat surprising how few there were, as it was early in the season. We ended up picking 1/2 a bushel for us, and the other 2 mom's shared a 1/2 bushel.

Note for next year: don't be greedy....share!! 1/2 a bushel is too much for us!

Eventually, we found a great section and picked and picked and picked.... Jonathon's and Golden Delicious. The kids ate and ate as we picked, and I think in the end Blake had 3 BIG apples! Then of course, it was time for the commercial play-time. We shelled out money for 'train' rides (a lawn tractor pulling wagons), a maze, pony rides, and more. But the kids really had a good time, so I guess it was worth it.

We brought home our 1/2 bushel, and stuck them in the extra fridge. T & B also got to pick out 1 item from the gift shop, and they chose....Taffy Apples. (An aside, Steve and I have discovered another East coast/mid-west difference: Candy vs Taffy Apples. Holy Hannah....I had no idea it was such a big deal. It's an apple covered with sugar....move on people!!).

Fast forward 1 week...

Oops, I still have 1/2 a bushel of apples in my fridge. Now what do I do????

Ah....make Applesauce, Apple Crisp, and Carmel Apple Bars. YUMMY! The applesauce recipe is an easy one, I found on AllRecipes.com. The Apple Crisp recipe comes from Grandma, and I'm not sure I can share it.... oops, bad blogging protocol probably, but there ya go. Old family secret and all! But the Carmel Apple Bars, well I found that one in the newspaper, so I'll share, willingly.

The kids helped make all 3. They really enjoy mashing the apples for the applesauce after they were cooked down... they really enjoyed that. But it was a little to messy for a photo op (don't want to get the camera covered in apples!). They helped mix and pour all the other things to, but again, I'm not good at getting photos while coordinating recipes! And most importantly (to my sanity and fingernails), they unwrapped all 14 ounces of carmels for the Carmel Apple Bars!! Yay!!


Carmel Apple Bars
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup oats
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional-I didn't use)
4 1/2 cups chopped, peeled apples
14 oz carmels
3 tbsp margarine

Cream together 1/2 cup margarine and brown sugar. Add flour, oats, salt, baking soda and mix well. Stir in pecans. Set aside 2 cups of this mixture. Press remaining mix in greased 9x13 pan.
Toss apples in 3 tbsp flour. Spoon over crust.
Melt carmels and margarine together. Drizzle over apples. Top with rest of flour/oat mixture.
Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.

Oh my goodness....it's like heaven. ESPECIALLY, to a pregnant woman who hasn't been craving any food, or even wanting to eat. I could eat the whole 9x13 pan of this tonight!! Time to stop blogging, and eat!

Quality Time with Blake

As is often the case, child #2 seems to get the short end of the stick. I felt awful SO many times when B was young that I didn't have the energy, time or ability (since he's #2) to spend 1-on-1 time with him. I tried to make myself feel better that WHEN T went to school, we would have our mornings. Alone. Together. Last year it was 2 days a week, now it's 3. Promising thoughts. This is what our quality time amounted to this morning...

We drove home from school, the LONG way, spending 1/2 an hour to save $0.30 a gallon on gas. (I paid $3.01 and filled up for less than $60 for the first time in who knows how long.) Maybe the price of gas was worth it, but the loss of 1/2 an hour....not so sure. Then we got home and came up to the office. This is standard procedure for most school mornings. B 'works' at his desk, and I work at mine. Usually, after a while, B is in my face asking for computer time, wanting to play his "Thomas" game. And he usually gets to, since when both boys are home, he doesn't get much time on the PC.

Well, this morning I had tons of work catch-up to do, and lots of personal stuff too. So, here's the educational, valuable, enriching activity that B took on.





He found a roll of yarn in his craft stuff, and decided to make a spiderweb. It was a wonderful spiderweb.... just maybe in a poor location (such as a hallway, where Mommy wants to walk to get out of the office eventually!). Taz joined in the fun and played with the web making it more twisted together.... but she would not cooperate for the photo shoot (darn cats!).

Oh well, it was easy to clean up, although we're not bothering to un-tangle it!! At least it wasn't paint or crayon on the wall, right? And I'm sure he had some educational 'ah-hah' moments while constructing it, right???