Halloween

I can't believe how fast October has raced by. Suddenly, the big day is here... Halloween. I am basically obsessed with Halloween. This month, I have dragged the girls and Chris (when he has been free), to every single event I could find that had anything to do with harvest, pumpkins, ghosts, and candy. We have been now to four harvest festivals, three pumpkin patches, two Halloween carnivals, and one nocturnal animal night hike. Natalie has climbed on tractors, run through corn mazes, sat on hay rides, and has saddled up on three different pony rides. It has been an amazing Halloween season! I have been happy to notice that Natalie does not seem affected at all by the "scariness" that can come with the holiday. While we walked by decorated houses the other night, she told me "Momma, I see a ghost! I love ghosts!" Maybe she will end up like me, a lover of all things spooky.. or the fright factor will hit her next year. Noelle points out each pumpkin, spider and bat with the same joyful yell of "Ball" while she points eagerly for me to notice the particular decoration she is referring to. On one night, she was calling pumpkins "Nan-nin" but the next night, they had turned back into "ball"s. Two things have put Noelle over the edge and petrified her this month and they include the person dressed as a giant penguin at Sea World and the pastor at Natalie's Christian preschool. All he had said to Noelle was "Well, hello there!" Her face crumbled into an expression that could fit someone who just lost a finger in a machine. I had flashbacks to the kid in "The Omen" (the devil as a child) when he realizes his parents intend to take him inside a church. Pretty funny really.

Now the month and alas the Halloween holiday season is coming to a close. Our Halloween parties are already done and soon trick or treating will be here and gone. My little spiders (they have spider costumes this year) will fill up their candy bags and then it will be all over. While part of me will be sad, the stores are already gearing up for Christmas and that will bring with it new and different holiday experiences. I must say though, there is simply nothing like Halloween.

Happy October Everyone!!

Fall is always my favorite time of year. It is a time of school and class starts, fall festivals and spooky events, apple picking, and crisp fall weather (unless of course you live where I do and then you get an additional summer month for September). This Fall is off to a great start. Natalie has started preschool and at the same time, a gymnastics class through the Y. This is not yet a perfect arrangement for her. She is going to take a few months at least to adjust to a new schedule and to listening and following directions from a different set of people (other than from all the playgroup Mamas and her own parents of course!) I am happy though that she genuinely enjoys going to school. Noelle has also started school- her very first school experience! I take her with me to a Mommy and Me one year old program one day a week. Even though she has only been once, she seemed to really embrace the fun of playing with new toys, making messes in a new location, and clapping with the new songs at circle time.

Speaking of Noelle, she is 15 months old now! My little baby is growing up so quickly! She has about ten "words" now. She can say Mama, Dada, no, uh-oh, and ball. She also says "duh" for duck, "wrap" for giraffe, "es" for yes, "nguh-nguh" for thank you (used at the appropriate times), and "mmm mmm" for yum yum. Noelle is a fairly independent soul like her sis. She often insists on doing things herself (like holding ice cream cones and using the spoon). She wants to do everything that her sister does. Noelle is very playful and loves getting tickled and chased. She is also very affectionate and often gives hugs and kisses, even to older sister who usually grumps about it. These days Noelle would rather race around and climb than read a book but she will still grab one eagerly when her sister is doing the same.

What Noelle loves..

1. Tickles

2. Starbucks blueberry coffee cake

3. When Dada comes home

4. Running around with her sister

What Noelle dislikes..

1. Getting splashed in the kiddy pool

2. Coming in from playing outside

3. When her sis swipes toys from her

Natalie is now 34 months old or two months shy of 3 years old. She is very eager to learn new things, especially about animals. Her favorite animals are giraffes, frogs, pigs, ducks, and orca whales. Lately she loves drawing and building with duplo blocks. She also loves jumping which is why I put her in gymnastics since they have a trampoline. While Natalie can be a handful these days with transitioning and cooperating, her excitement about learning and her silliness and playful nature make her a lot of fun. She has keen insights about things and loves to make up simple stories that usually involve her giraffe or meeting Diego.

What Natalie Loves...

1. Animals (especially orca whales and giraffes)

2. Jumping

3. birthday cake

4. drawing and painting

What Natalie dislikes...

1. Having to get off the swing

2. Having to share with her sis

3. Holding hands

Natalie Tid-Bits

Here are a few other Natalie tid-bits from lately. She now can draw happy faces. You can click on the second pic so you can see the face. Also, I gave her snap pea crisps to eat the other day and she put two of them in her mouth and said "Look Momma, I'm a walrus and these are my tusks-sks." (She pronounces tusks a little funny.)

Making Letters

Natalie has been really into drawing and making letters and numbers these days. Here are a few pics of her creations. Can you guess the letter?

A 13 month old can have a tough life. They want so desperately to be able to explore the world on their own and tend to get very frustrated when they are unable to do so for a variety of reasons. First of those reasons may be that every three seconds, they fall on their faces and cry like wild banshees or they are strapped into a stroller, high chair or car seat. Secondly, their attempts may be limited by a worry-riddled Mama/Dada and a power hungry two year old (if the lucky tyke happens to have those at home). Lastly, the 13 month old may try to communicate their desires but given their very limited vocabulary, they struggle endlessly.

Take my Noelle for instance. The poor little thing has but 5 English words under her belt and then the rest is simply toddler gibberish. An episode in the car often goes something like this. Noelle asks for my attention while on the freeway by shouting "Mama..Mama.." I say "Yes sweetheart?" She then explains to me apparently about her favorite toy/snack/drink for that second in her lap "ahbodusldgusodigsodgsdf." I say "Oh yeah?" Then she drops it or flings it on the floor and states "Uh oh." After this, a finger points vaguely at the floor and then I can see the worry creep into her eyes. In a concerned pitch she asks "Ball?" Now I need to add that "Ball" is the term for every single noun in the world other than Mama, Dada, and bubbles. "Oh honey, did you drop it?" I ask, certain of the answer. Noelle pleads with me as her eyes grow big "Ball???" "I am sorry honey but I can't pick up your toy while I am driving." I say for what seems like the thousandth time. 13 month old land just got fire bombed. "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!" She screams at the top of her lungs before erupting into a fit of short spasming sobs. Her little hands fly to her eyes, tears pour down her face like rain, her whole body trembles in agony. "Sweetheart, it is OK!" I reach for her with one hand and hold the steering wheel with the other. I think about about how smart it is to multi-task while going 65 miles per hour. I feel her grip one of my fingers desperately and her strength is incredible. This is when my two year old joins the discussion. "Noelle, it is not a time for making noises! Noelle no! No! AHHHHHHHHH!" My two year old has absorbed the energy in the car and is now screaming along with her sister as she holds her ears and attempts to crawl into a ball in her car seat. Of course Noelle takes one look at her sister and doubles up on sobs. The noise level in the car is deafening and I wonder if I would hear a police siren if there was one sounding right behind me. I begin to shrink into my happy place in order to protect my mind from trauma. Both of my hands go back on the steering wheel and it takes all my focus to calmly state to my off spring "We are almost home." Then I floor it.

After pulling into the driveway, I race around the car to Noelle's door. I open it, quickly unstrap her from her seat, grab her beloved fallen object and pull her to me in a hug. She is immediately fine, even more than fine. She is all smiles and kisses even. 13 month Old Land is restored to its happy existence. A switch has been flipped and the world is a merry place once again. I sigh and hug my little one. I wonder what 14 months is going to look like.

My one-of-a-kind Natalie

Today Natalie was eating mini-pancakes for lunch. She looked at her silver dollar sized pancake and said "Look Momma, it's Luna!" (This is what Diego calls the moon on her favorite episode.) Then she ripped the pancake in half and said "Look Momma, it's Luna in pieces!" (Once again, in Diego, the moon breaks apart and Diego must find the pieces.) Lastly, Natalie eats all the pancake except one small piece and exclaims "Look Momma, it's a luna moth!" (This is from one of the Eric Carle books.)

The Stripping Artist

I have considered blogging about this topic for a while now but haven't due to possible embarrassment. I decided now though that it is more funny than embarrassing and this also gives me a venue to vent. My daughter Natalie has spent nearly a year now attempting to strip down at nap-time with the intent to make a giant mess with products discovered in her diaper.

This started innocently enough. One day I went in to wake my toddler only to find a naked child smiling up at me. At playgroup the next day it was handled like a rite of passage. "Oh yes, Natalie has now tried the whole taking-off-the-clothes-bit that some of your kids have attempted." I foolishly thought it would stop there. Little did I know that Natalie had tasted freedom and now she was hooked.

The second stripping incident was traumatic. As I opened the door, the stench hit me like a raw sewage tidal wave. I wondered for a split second why Natalie's room smelled like a toilet exploded. Then I caught site of some bare skin and nearly fainted dead away. My sneaky little two year old looked like a character out of 'Lord of the Flies.' She appeared as a wild feral child possibly found in the amazon jungles. The difference: instead of being covered with mud and grass, she was covered in poo-poo. It covered her entire body like a kind of war paint or psychotic finger art. There were also streaks of excrement lining her crib headboard, speckling her crib tent, and (gasp) dirt clod sized pieces both in the crib and little ones that had rolled out onto the carpet through the crib tent screen. Before I could consider against it, I moaned a loud "No!" My feral child grinned broadly, obviously proud of her creation. She stood there naked but confident and exclaimed "I have poo poo all over myself..why did I do that?" As I screamed for my husband to come help me spend the next two hours cleaning, I began to realize that this was no small challenge to overcome.

Thus began the many months of trying to one-up my daughter's stripping cleverness. My playgroup was all very helpful and provided a wealth of ideas in order to stop her from (what we started to call) "taking out her poo poos." First we tried putting non-elastic pants on her before bedtime. Natalie had them off the first day. I also tried onesies over leggings but my child would simply unsnap the onesies, pull down the leggings, and go to town. Then we went out and purchased a few one piece outfits where the shirt and pants are all together. We thought that we were finished. Natalie began reaching up through the leg holes and pulling out her art medium. Next we bought sleep sacs which we turned around backwards so she couldn't (we thought) make use of the zipper. We thought wrong since she started pulling her arms in, turning the sleep sac around, and then accessing the zipper. I even tried bribing her with M&Ms whenever she kept her clothes on after nap but she grew tired of the candy and refused it.

At this point, months had gone by with many nap time messes. The crib tent had been disassembled, washed, and then reassembled by my husband multiple times. The crib mattress had been thrown in the backyard and disinfected so many times that we no longer even put a sheet on her mattress anymore afterwards. Finally, after weeks of after-nap showers and cleaning frenzied afternoons, we discovered a solution. Here it is in case any of you out there also have a stripping artist like we do. The answer is duct tape. You put the sleep sac backwards on your child and then put a ring of duct tape under their arms. This way, they cannot turn the sac around to get out and thus, parents, we are home free in a land where poo stays in the diaper!! Wooohooo! Duct tape is like gold around our house. God bless the stuff!

So anyway, Natalie, our stripping artist will now have to find other outlets for her artistic endeavors. And when Noelle begins to shake off her clothes at nap time, my husband and I will be prepared.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good:
Yesterday was Noelle's first birthday. I no longer have an infant in my house! It is bittersweet to know that my days of cuddling her while feeding her milk are numbered. Soon my little girl will be running off to keep up with her sister and leave me in the dust! This is the first step toward freedom of individuality for her. She is revealing her likes and dislikes more often these days. If her sis swipes something from her little fingers, she squeals like a pterodactyl and bounces her body up and down in a little fit of rage. I can almost visualize the future. "Natalie give that back NOW! I had the phone first..." It is a very exciting time though. Noelle is clearly understanding a lot more of what I am saying and is making progress with her words. She can now say "buh-buh" for bubble and her cat noise sounds more like a cat than a humming noise. We took the girls to Sammy's for Noelle's birthday lunch since birthday girls and boys score a free "messy sundae." I should have noticed the name more because that is exactly how our girls ended up--very very messy! It was worth it though because they joyfully dove into that sundae with all its chocolate and caramel syrup seeping over the sides of the glass. Before I knew it, Noelle grasped a handful of pure chocolate drippiness and stuffed it happily into her wide open mouth. If only broccoli gave us such pleasure in life! Happy birthday little girl of mine.

The Bad:
This morning I went downstairs to get Noelle her milk and I discovered that for the first time since this house was built, we are under attack by ants. What are they going for? Of course it is the crumbs flung nearly three times a day by my little girls. I try to clean the floor up after meals but it is a bit like trying to keep sand off the beach (or like keeping sand in the sandbox which I will get to later). Now we have little lines of ants racing from crumb to crumb in the kitchen and into the living room. Perfect. Now we have Bug-Land since we already had the big fat flies that race around our house in the summer months since our house was built with french doors instead of sliding doors with screens. I am really not looking forward to having pesticides near the children. Did I mention that Noelle is at the peak of her bug eating stage?

The Ugly:
We bought a sandbox about a year ago. I fantasized about two girls playing quietly and happily with their shovels and buckets. I daydreamed about making elaborate sandcastles with the girls and knocking them down. Those were my fantasies, now I will tell you the realities. My children's favorite activity with the sandbox is taking the sand OUT of the sandbox and pouring it elsewhere. Thus we have sand covering every inch of our patio that then gets tracked into the house whenever anyone is hungry or in need of the potty. Also, Noelle loves to eat the sand and all other objects small enough to be crammed into her little mouth while in the sandbox. All these matters I could live with but here is the reason that my sandbox is on the next craigslist train out of here.. A cat has discovered our sandbox. I tried to remember to close the lid every day after we use the sandbox but it is not easy with two children under age three. Plus Natalie can open it herself so there are times when I think it is closed but actually it is not. Natalie will now tell you that a cat thinks that the sandbox is a potty. Lately I was completely grossed out to discover large turds under the sand while searching for plastic animals. Then there is the wonderful aroma of cat piss mixed into the sand. In a few nights, our sandbox has turned into a litter-box. Did I mention Noelle eats the sand? Goodbye and good riddance to the sandbox. We can frequent the parks to satisfy our urges to dig and build thank you.

Life These Days

Well it has been about 4 months since I have written. My husband was laid off in February and I just hadn't felt like writing bad news. Currently he is still seeking offers and we have expanded our search to include many other cities. His job is very specialized and it is not looking like our city in Southern California has many of that type of job. While we may have to move, there is still a chance that we will secure a job here and our life will return to what has become normal for us. The good news is that Natalie and Noelle have had a great deal of Dada time for the last four months. This has been very fun and also helpful to me.

The girls are doing great. Natalie is two and a half now and at times stubborn but always very cute and perceptive. She is infatuated with Diego and Dora the Explorer and also has become my little bug scientist out in the yard. She is also taking the first steps toward potty training by using the potty before nap and bedtime. Noelle will turn one this month which is mind-boggling to me. She is cruising around and has taken one or two tiny steps while standing unassisted. She says Mama, Dada, and Uh-oh, as well as making basic animal noises for the lion, snake, and cow. She points out everything and wants to have the world in tiny little hands. Outside on our patio, Noelle races for our cozy coupe car and performs dare devil stunts on chairs that she can now climb onto. She still can't be trusted to not eat the pill bugs. Noelle is also a very affectionate child. All day long she wants to climb into my lap and give me kisses and hugs. It is really very sweet. Natalie has become more affectionate too, maybe taking a page from Noelle's book. She especially likes to shower her Dada with affection.

It is hard not to obsess about where we will be living in the next few months. The waiting game is a challenge. In a way though, it is also exciting to think that we could be anywhere in the country within six months. For the meantime, we are spending a lot of time hanging out with our great playgroup and with all our friends. Our plans are to attend a particular preschool in the fall which means we need to be potty trained so that will be coming up in the next couple months unless we move. The last nine months have been trying since we nearly lost our house to the Southern California fires in October and then Chris' job was lost in February. What we keep on thinking about is how lucky we are to have each other. This year has really taught us that as long as we are all healthy, we are going to be fine wherever we are. Our family has grown even closer through neighborhood walks, trips to the zoos, and just relaxing on our back patio. We are enjoying simple pleasures these days and especially the simple pleasures that come with having two little girls.