October Update

Oh my! Have we EVER entered the 3 year old "dress up" phase. I forgot how adorable and annoying it can be all at the same time. Luke wakes up and wants to put on his pirate costume first thing. And at nap time (now quiet time since he hasn't napped once in THREE LONG weeks) he always asks to put on his too small, size 2T Superman costume. He just learned how to fully dress himself in the last few months so moving up to complicated costumes requires help from a parent. Hannah even joined in on the fun this week getting dressed up in a few outfits she still has (we got rid of the princess stuff about a year ago). I had a few sweet hours of both children dressed up for lunch. It was heart warming. :)


Luke was scheduled to sing in "big church" this past Children's Sunday with the day school. My sister and her family came to watch - we were excited to see him in his first performance. Well, poor guy has been fighting a cold and I think the uncertainty of it all contributed to his complete refusal. Mrs. Fields walked him into the sanctuary during worship and whispered to me that he didn't want to go. As soon as he crawled on my lap he started bawling so we had to leave service. Not sure what was wrong except he kept saying he wanted to go home. Big bummer, but he did return to sit thru his first big church worship service. He sat between Uncle Neal and me and loved flipping thru the Hymnal and tried to read the music. Adorable!


Ryan is still my squishy love bug, can't get enough of his sweet smiles and snuggles. He still struggles to take longer naps - it frustrates me mostly b/c I can't get much done during the day, but he has learned to put himself to sleep which helps A LOT. Last weekend we moved him upstairs to his nursery "full time". The transition went very well, so very thankful for that. We had him taking at least one nap in his crib so he was used to the room. Having to take that trek upstairs at 5 am is just the worst but it was inevitable, it was time -we moved H and L to their bedrooms between 3 and 4 months as well. My good boy gave me a nice gift last night and slept from 8:15 - 7:15 when I had to wake him to take Hannah to school. So nice when they throw in a true "all-nighter" once in a while.

Ryan has lost almost all of his baby hair and he has a LOT of it. His sheets/sheet savers are covered with it. Yuck! I find stray hairs of his on his sweet cheeks and in my mouth quite often. The new, lighter hair is growing in - I think he's going to look a lot like Michael. It's been different having a baby with fuzz hair, but I like it. I'm also losing what seems like a ton of hair (a lovely post-pardum perk) so at least I have someone to share the experience with. LOL!

Smiling more each day.

Loves his Bumbo!

Ryan's "serious" face. How about those rolls?

Hannah had her first sleep over this month! Morgan came over to play store, makeup and paint each others' toenails. We had some pizza and ice cream sundaes and the girls got in bed around 10:30, but didn't fall asleep until 11:30 or so. Too much fun going on! They were the cutest!






Last weekend I took Hannah on a Mommy-Daughter date. We had a quick dinner at Chipolte and then saw Dolphin Tale in 3D. Fun night out with a very excited little girl. It was neat to see her eyes light up when we entered the theatre and enjoy her popcorn and candy. Made me feel like there is still such thing as a special occasion.


We had fun at International Walk to School day. We got there early to help hand out goodie bags. Great that we had 550 students participate but sad that we only had 300 goodie bags. All the kids wore their Healthy Zone T-shirts - Marion won some sort of award for this. Took us 20 minutes to walk three blocks but it was a great way to start our day!

With Maverick

I also took the kids to the neighborhood Fall Festival - in the drizzly rain and squelchy mud. Luke was covered head to toe in mud from the obstacle course bounce houses. They enjoyed popcorn and snow cones and got some recycled toys from the pick-a-duck with a star game. Just what we need - more junk. But they were over the moon happy and who knows, it might be something they remember from their childhood. I loved watching them strap into the bungee trampoline and jump, jump, jump. The inner gymnast in me wanted to try it too.

Columbus day was like a repeat of summer. Woke up late and did things out of order throwing the morning off kilter. Breakfast was a battle, what to watch was a problem...so I turned off the tv and carried out my plan to spend the morning just playing with the kids. After we all were dressed and fed we headed upstairs to play 30 minutes of an activity Luke selected (marble runs) and 30 minutes of house (Hannah's choice). "Gabe" didn't engage very well when playing house, but we worked thru it, and almost 2 hours later it was time to leave. When putting laundry away that afternoon, I came across this "To Do List" for Hannah's day. CRACKS ME UP! She's a sweetie - notice #8 (probably something her Daddy put in her head before he left that morning). Translation with correct spelling... "Be nice and don't make Monday hard on Mom"....


Looking forward to lots of October fun to come - pumpkin patches and Fall/Halloween parties and the State Fair on my birthday!