corn maze

On Saturday we took the girls to a Corn Maze/Fall Festival. It was yet again another beautiful fall day so we had to take advantage! We were not there very long and it was kind of expensive, but we had a lot of fun!

Practicing for family photos this week. The photographer has a big challenge ahead of her!

Squinting in the beautiful fall sun.

So cute!

A cheese and a squint.

So tired but trying to have fun...

Oh my gosh, so adorable. Heading to the maze.

Playing in the HUGE corn pit. The girls thought it was very strange.

What is all this stuff and why is it so hard to move around in here?

Little Pie liked to jump in and "wipe out". Then she wanted to get all the kernels off.

Trying to run.

An odd pic.

HATING the hay ride. Good thing it was only $2. Little Pie kept saying "all done tractor". Then when she realized we weren't getting off any time soon, she started saying "almost all done tractor".

Little Bird also hating the hay ride, but she recovered a bit better. She was pretty glad to get off though.

Little Bird wanted to try the big slide, so she and Daddy went for it.

At the top!!!

Heading down and having fun.

What a ride!

Wanting more!

Yeah, I'm cool. I just went down a BIG slide!!

I'm kind of surprised that Little Pie didn't have any meltdowns considering she still isn't sleeping well. For the past 4 nights or so, she has been waking up around 2 or 3 and either not going back to sleep or taking 3 or so hours to fall back to sleep. She doesn't cry or scream, she just talks to herself. I can hear her as I'm trying to doze back to sleep. I sometimes go in there to see what's wrong but she just smiles and gets giddy. I took her books away thinking that was too much of a temptation for her, but it hasn't changed anything. She doesn't nap well either; taking no nap at all or only a short nap. I'm thinking this is all molar related as every time I put my finger in her mouth she's got some new sharp growths. It's strange that she is not crying or whining more (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about that!). I just hope this "phase" moves along quickly!

addicted to books

Recently, Little Pie has insisted that she take a book to bed with her. She typically chooses Goodnight Moon since it's usually the last book we read together before bed. I do not object since I don't want to convey that books are not important enough to sleep with. I mean, who hasn't fallen asleep with a book in their hands before? 

After we put the girls to bed, we can hear Little Pie reading to herself (by nightlight) for about 20 minutes. This is so much better than the jumping and squealing that she used to do.

There is one downside to letting Little Pie take a book to bed. It is waking up at 3 AM to her giggles and squeals as she picks up her book for just one more read. She is so excited about reading, but seriously? 3AM? 

I'm of course afraid she is going to wake Little Bird (who would be really mad) so I stand outside her door waiting for her to say, "Goodnight stars, good night air. Goodnight noises everywhere." and then of course cheer for herself. Then I sneak in there and tell her it's time to go night night. She typically gives up the book without a protest, but she talks to herself (or maybe to Violet?) about it for a few minutes before falling back to sleep. She is just so darn excited about her books!

It is completely adorable and sweet and precious, but I sort of wouldn't mind if it stopped or at least didn't occur every night.

frustration

Naps are becoming a very frustrating part of our day. It seems like all I do is fight with the girls to take their nap. They are DEFINITELY not ready to give up the nap, but I don't understand why they fight it so much. 

On a typical day, our nap routine ends up like this...

• After eating lunch we sit around and read almost all of the books we own or have checked out from the library...ok, maybe not all of them since that would take all day, but we read a lot of books.

• After awhile, Little Pie gets tired and starts sucking her thumb and positioning her bunny into the perfect position and lays her face on her bunny...starting to get comfortable. I take this as a sign that it's nap time. 

• I announce that it's time to put the books away and go upstairs to take a nap. Both girls sing the "books away" song and help me put them away. They grab their bunny/frog and run to the stairs excitedly. I take this as a sign that they are ready for a nap. 

• After a couple of diaper changes, the girls get snuggled in their "cozies", I give them each kisses and they both say bye bye. I take this as a sign that they are ready to fall asleep.

• I head back downstairs to clean the huge lunch mess and no less than five minutes later I hear the girls squealing and singing and counting and talking and laughing and being the silliest they can be. I take this a sign that they don't want to nap. :(

Unfortunately this can go on for over an hour. They eventually fall asleep, but sometimes it's so late that by the time they get up it's almost time for supper and we don't really have time to go anywhere for an afternoon excursion. sigh. I've tried putting them down a little bit later, but we still end up going through the same process and lose even more afternoon time. I don't know what the best thing to do here so I'm just going to keep trying! The girls will nap. The girls will nap. The girls will nap. The girls will nap.

I am really dreading the day that the nap goes away. Right now it's such a relief to have a break from chasing them around and keeping them safe. I know that as they get older, I can trust them more, but right now it's so exhausting just to keep them alive with no broken bones, that nap time is a necessity for me to get some energy back. I need to stop thinking about that time though and enjoy the nap time that I do have now... however much longer it lasts!

 

swimming take two

Yesterday was our second parent/child swimming lesson. Prior to going, we talked to the girls about the lesson. We wanted to talk it up a lot so that they would be so super excited that they would forget the water was so cold. But we should know that we can't pull a fast one on Little Bird! When Daddy asked her if she was ready to go swimming she burst into tears and said "No! It's cold!!!". Uh oh.

After dinner we got our suits on and Little Bird seemed to have no problem with it. When we got to the school she still seemed to have no problem with going swimming. Guess she just wanted to remind us that the water is cold. When we got saw the pool, Little Bird still had no problem with being there. I thought we were in the clear. But as soon as they told us we could get in the pool, the crying and the clinging began. I tried really hard to get her excited but she kept saying "cold!!". The teacher suggested having her wear a t-shirt so I grabbed hers and put it on her. Then, I got in the water and turned around to grab her but she ran for the locker room door!!! I jumped out and pulled her kicking and screaming back to the pool. We just sat on the edge while the rest of the class went about their skills. She took off for the locker room door again though when I suggested we get in. I tried getting the frog toy to see if that would entice her, but she just wanted to take it to the locker room. 

Finally, after sitting on the edge a while and watching the kids "have fun" I suggested we get in and sing the songs with them. I moved really fast and pulled her in before she could protest and all of sudden she was having the time of her life! She was still shivering but she was having fun. She kept saying cold cold cold. I tried to tell her that it was warm and soon she was trying to convince herself that it was warm. 

Meanwhile Little Pie was a champ. Even though she was shivering, she and Daddy were all over the place. She was pulling herself out of the pool and jumping back in. She was kicking all over the place and having a great time. When it was time to get out she almost jumped back in on her own as she was yelling "more swimming!". Looks like we may have a little fish on our hands...

car ride, ELMO and molars

This weekend we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa; and to see Elmo...Live! We talked about going to see Elmo for a couple of days before, but the girls had no idea what they were about to get themselves into!

The 3 hour drive to see Grandma and Grandpa is usually a challenge, but this time it was beyond a challenge. Daddy and I are starting to regret not getting the DVD package in the van. (We thought that since we survived without it when we were kids so could the girls and they should learn to entertain themselves in the car. Ha! Who are we kidding?!? The DVD is not for them, it's for us! So we can have a PEACEFUL trip in the car). Anyway, we left home during nap time thinking the girls would nap on the way there. No. They don't nap in the car anymore. They both dozed for about 30 minutes and then Little Pie woke up and CRIED HARD for an entire hour. We tried everything we could think of ... even stopping at a rest area to see if running around would help. Nope. She just cried until she couldn't cry anymore. She was sure happy to see Grandma and Grandpa though!

Grandma and Grandpa got the girls new Elmo jammies to get them prepared for the Elmo show. They sure love these cozy jammies!!

Playing a little golf before the big show.

I love Little Bird's big cheese.

All set to see Elmo!! They have no idea what's going on, but are willing to go along with us!

 The Elmo show was a HUGE hit with the girls. Little Bird was so into it. She wasn't scared or nervous about the unusual setting (they turned the lights down in the stadium and I thought it would freak the girls out). The characters started coming out one by one and she started yelling out their names...it was like she couldn't believe they were there! I don't think I watched much of the show because I kept watching her and her reactions. She was always so concerned about who WASN'T on the stage. Any time a character went off stage she would say, "Where did Ernie go?" "Where did Big Bird go?" "Where did Osacar go?" (That's how she says Oscar). Little Bird had a great time sitting on Grandma's lap and dancing and clapping. She definitely LOVED the show.

Little Bird having the time of her life!

 Little Pie was of course a little more reserved about what was going on. She instantly became a koala when we sat down and needed to be on my lap. She whined a little because she didn't know what was going on. When the lights went down, she got a little scared. And when the music started playing she was more unsure about what was going on. It just takes her some time to take in a new situation and see if it's good for her. After the characters started coming out and singing and dancing she soon realized it was just Elmo and his friends and she settled down and watched very intently. She didn't say much and sucked her thumb quite a bit, but she definitely enjoyed it. When we were leaving she kept saying "Fun Elmo show". 

Sitting with Daddy and Uncle Rye. Little Pie liked the show but was very quiet throughout. We think that since she is getting her two year molars, she is not quite herself.

On to the molars...Little Pie is getting her two year molars right now. She has never had a problem with teething (complete opposite of Little Bird). It always seemed like one day we would look at her and she'd have a new tooth. But these molars are a totally different story. I think the cry fest in the car was partially due to molars and partially due to being overtired. Anyway, Little Pie has not been herself...eating poorly, whining a lot, crying for no reason, fighting with Little Bird, and chewing on weird things. Naps have been tough too. She doesn't take very long ones and then wakes up EXTREMELY crabby. Yesterday she woke and cried for 45 minutes. Nothing we did seemed to relieve her. She screamed and cried and laid on the floor kicking. It was quite the sight. Finally I thought of giving her a popsicle and all of sudden she snapped out of it. She sat on the floor and watched football and at her "popisicle". In fact, she had to have 2 of them. Whatever works, right??

I'm not looking forward to when Little Bird's molars start popping through. She definitely is one that cannot tolerate teething pain. Oh boy!

leaves!

Today we went to see Nana and Papa. Mommy also got to have lunch with her BFF and shop at her favorite store. Couldn't have been a nicer day to drive in the car and play outside!

Nana and Papa have a GREAT backyard to play in (I should know...I used to play there!). Today, the girls had a great time running around and playing in the leaves. 

first swimming lessons!

The girls had their first swimming lesson on Monday evening. We weren't sure how it was going to go since it's at 6:45pm which is about the time we start getting ready for bed. But since it's a short lesson, we figured that we could do it and still get the girls in bed by 8.

It's a parent/child class so both Mommy and Daddy get to go in the water. :) BFF and her daddy are also in our class so it makes it really fun! 

We started talking about going swimming during supper, and Little Pie could hardly wait to be done eating and get her suit on. She talked and talked and talked about how she was going swimming. She was so excited! When we got to the pool, we had to wait until class started and it was all Daddy and I could do to keep the girls from jumping in the water. 

But then, it was time to get in and all of a sudden nobody wanted to get in! The water was FREEZING so I can understand how it wasn't very inviting. However, the girls didn't really get over the cold and had a really hard time doing what the instructor wanted us to do. Little Bird clung to me so tight and shivered like crazy. It wasn't until the last minutes of the lesson that she let go of her death grip and kicked her legs to go after the Froggy toy (thanks to BFF for trading her frog for our duck!). 

As we were getting out of the pool, Little Pie started yelling "more swimming!" and Daddy again had to work hard to keep her from jumping in the pool. 

As we were driving home and the girls were all cozy in their jammies and ready for bed, they excitedly talked about swimming. I really hope that they really do want to go back next week. We may have to have  to practice some cold baths before then!

zoo, sick, pumpkins and trains

It was a tough week since Daddy was gone, but we managed to get a lot of activities in. On Thursday we met Nana at the zoo. It was a BEAUTIFUL fall day and it was so fun to be there when it wasn't busy. The girls ran around like crazy hardly ever sitting in their stroller. (In fact, it was a huge challenge to get them in the stroller!). We had several meltdowns but we still had A LOT of fun!! Thanks Nana!!

To nobody's surprise, Little Pie wanted to climb into every exhibit.

Little Pie wanted to run through the water SO BAD. Nana had to corral her near the bench otherwise we would have had one soaking Little Pie.

Could not be cuter.

Oh wait, it can be cuter!

Of course we saw lots of exotic animals, but the favs were at the farm!

Both girls LOVED the goats even though they called them cows. They tried to feed them, but got scared at the last minute. They just laughed hysterically.

And again, Little Pie would have jumped right in with her favorite goat.

We were at the zoo for a while and we still had an hour drive home and the girls hadn't napped yet. I was hoping they would sleep in the car, but unfortunately that only lasted about 30 minutes. When we got home, we had to watch Elmo and lay on the couch. Both girls were so exhausted. Uncle Rye came to visit and play for a little bit but the girls had to go to bed early. But, he helped Little Bird out of the bath, get her lotioned up, and put on her diaper and jammies. There is a first time for everything! Now he can babysit all the time! ;)

Unfortunately Thursday night was really rough. Little Pie had a really hard time sleeping because she was coughing and wheezing so badly. We had to try the nebulizer treatments but they only helped for a little bit. At midnight, I had already been up with her 3 times. At this point she puked from all the mucus drainage. But it did make her feel a bit better. She tried so hard to go to sleep, but I could just hear her hacking away. Daddy got home at midnight just in time to see me cleaning up puke. We ended up getting up with Little Pie 3 or 4 more times that night. By morning she was doing a bit better, but was so tired. I put her in bed around 10:30 and she slept until 4! Little Bird was also quite crabby from two days with no nap and waking up with Little Pie's cough, so she went down at noon and also slept until 4! I was so glad they were catching up on sleep. That also meant that I could catch up on sleep too!

By Saturday, Little Pie's cough wasn't that bad and she didn't need any more nebulizer treatments. By afternoon we were all crazy to get out of the house. We decided to get some pumpkins. It was another beautiful day, although a tad chilly. We picked some great pumpkins!

This is a really great pumpkin, but how am I going to get it out of here?

Little Bird has found her favorite.

Or maybe she likes this one better. She's kind of like her mommy and always seems to find a better pumpkin.

Are you sure you don't like this one?

There are a whole bunch of good ones over here.

Cheese!

After the pumpkin patch, we took the girls OUT TO EAT! We went to Broadway Pizza and had a blast! Daddy and I felt so funny being out in a restaurant. We could even relax because the girls were mesmerized by the train going around the restaurant and by the TVs. Little Pie was so excited to watch football. They also were busy coloring their menus. Daddy and I enjoyed pizza and beer and took our time eating it. The girls enjoyed some spaghetti although they only had time for a couple of bites. We are definitely returning for some more Saturday night fun!