Happy Halloween!

We had a little gathering at our house Thursday night. It was supposed to be a kids craft party, but the only crafts were the samples that I made. We didn't even get to my pin the legs on a spider and mummy wrap games. I guess I will be forcing these on the girls the next couple of days. We did the "ick dig" (in jello for reptiles and bugs) and it was a big hit.

In addition to not doing our crafts, I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted...

Indian and Cowgirl


Tired Indian (no nap)

Truman



My undone crafts...

Boo

We are getting psyched for Halloween around here. We are having a little craft/pumpkin carving shindig tomorrow, and in preparation have been doing crafts and getting out the giant spider.

The favorite activity so far -- tossing the plastic pumpkins across the room.






Sidebar: why does every adult female costume have to be a "sexy" somethingorother? I went to the "Halloween Store" to try to find a Peter Pan costume to match the girls' Tinkerbells. They have sexy maids, sexy referees, sexy vikings, sexy Russians, sexy marine biologists, but nary a Peter Pan.

Theodorable

We are back from our trek to the great Northwest. Travel was snafu-free if not the easiest. The girls are good, it would just be much easier if we only had to move them around and not all our luggage and carseats. And Lucy made someone move because she kept kicking their seat... picky, picky.

I'm going to chronicle all of our adventures - starting with meeting my nephew Theodore. He is precious, smells delicious and has a strong resemblance to his Daddy. It was love at first sight.




The girls also wanted to kiss and hold him. I think Auntie Rachel has some pictures on her camera of this. I'll post as soon as I get them.

Little Disciplinarian

Lucy is turning into quite the little Colonel in this operation. The other day Harper must have done something she didn't like and she was saying "Oh no, time out, 2 minutes" and guiding Harper by the shoulders. Though I am wondering how effective timeout really is when today they were actually fighting over "getting" to go into timeout. "My timeout!" I guess I need to make it unappealing. Maybe I'll put it next to the litter box.

Today in the carride home from Target (sidebar: new Target at the Arboretum area has the best strollers, baby legs and Starbucks. The baristas are still working out the kinks. Took 8 minutes to get the worst latte I've ever had.) Harper was crying because she wanted to remove her shirt, Lucy looked over and said, "Harper, stop crying. Use words."

Bears Gone Fishin...

Daddy buys some clothes for the girls every now and then. Mommy actually approved of my most recent acquisition.

I have been trying to play some different kinds of music for the girls, but our home "stereo" set-up leaves a lot to be desired - Dell DJ plugged into desktop speakers in the living room. Sorry, I'm an ipod hater - not because it is Apple, but because I don't like the wheel and don't want to be locked into to iTunes, but also maybe for other reasons, like the same one that so many Mac users dislike Microsoft, it's essentially a monopoly, and I do tire of hearing people expound on how great their ipod is, but I digress. I play bluegrass, jazz, alt-country, McMurtry, but also a healthy dose of my beloved jam band music. I try and get them to dance and spin to my favorite songs.

Last night I attended one of my favorites, Widespread Panic, at the Backyard, in it's final season in what was once a serene Hill country locale. Now it is surrounded by a massive monument to consumerism - strip malls, big box stores, tons of paved parking, few trees and a bunch of the same stores that are just a few miles down the road - turning sleepy Bee Caves into the Arboreteum. But, again, I digress. The show was awesome, and I picked up a souvenir for the girls.

We went to the park today, me secretly wishing the whole time we'd run into friends so that I could bask in the compliments of how cool Lucy was. Alas, we didn't run into anybody, so I'll have to try again. Maybe Wed. night at the Farmer's Market in the Triangle after Seattle - though I may have to come home early to dress one of the girls up in it.

Here is Lucy modelling her new digs - talking on the phone while holding Big Puppy.

'Lil Rascals

I made a big mistake tonight. I looked at my E*Trade account. Either Mommy needs to go back to work or Harper and Lucy are going to need to start pulling their weight around here. I'm thinking modern day Depression Era skamp show a la 'Lil Rascals minus the racism. Even Murdoch could have a role.

2 Year Checkup

We finally went in for our two year exam, only about a month late.

Here's the stats:

Harper: 34" (45%) and 22.5 lbs (3%)
Lucy: 32.5" (10%) and 21 lbs (<3%)

Flacas. Its so weird. Harper feels much heavier to me, but its only 1.5 lbs.

We also got our flu vaccinations. None of us got the flu last year, even though they left out a strain that was going around. Hopefully this year they got the formula right.

Ladybug

The other day the girls were taking their baths when Lucy pointed with her cute, chubby little index finger and said, "ladybug". I looked up - giant roach crawling on the wall. If you live in Texas you know what these look like, we call them "water bugs". Ick. I hope the girls aren't too traumatized by Daddy smashing it with his shoe. Honey, that is no lady.

Teach your children well...

I have spent a lot of time around the under three set over the last year or so, and I have learned this. Children, when left to their own devices, can be little jerks.

There is always one in your class, at the museum or the park. The LS ('lil sh*t). In art class it was Gabriel. Gabriel would not do the art, but run to the other kids supplies and take them. Throw the water bottles meant for handwashing. Throw blocks directly at your child's face. Its not just me. I have spoken about Gabriel with the other Moms. And his Mom - so nice. She tries, but man, she's got her work cut out for her.

On a regular basis there is a LS at the Children's Museum. Today it was Coleman who ran up and grabbed the train from Harper. (Fortunately, she is used to it from her own LS sister). Then there was Jako who was throwing hard plastic tiles out of a 3rd story up opening. Where people walked below. His Mom saying a mild, "Jako, we don't concuss our friends." I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

And then there are the playground kids. Mostly these are older kids. The parents are completely checked out somewhere. There have been times when I wondered if they were there at all. These older kids ride their bikes on the playscape. With toddlers all around. They play running jumping tackling alien abduction games on the toddler playscape. They brag (to me, parents are nowhere to be found) that they can climb on the outside of the slide or tunnel. Whoopdeedo, good for you.

This makes me feel like a a jerk myself. My kids are far from perfect. The only thing I can say is that we have a lot more experience dealing with sharing/taking/hoarding/whacking that manifests itself on the playground and art class. My consolation is that one day Harper will be climbing on the outside of the slide talking to some hovering toddler mom while I sip a latte on the park bench.

Scuba Man

Dad prompting Lucy

scuba_man
Originally uploaded by TheRealSmooch

My first baby

Poor Murdoch. Before the girls came along, lots revolved around him. He had training, went swimming and running on a regular basis, and played "find Mommy" (hide and seek). Guilt ridden for working all day, we even had a dog sitter who came and picked him up in her Honda Element and drove him and a pack of other dogs to a dog park. Now mostly he's just hanging in there. Getting table scraps. Tolerating preschoolers who want to pet him at the park. And retreating to far off rooms for quiet napping spaces.

He is truly the sweetest dog. Yes, sometimes he pulls or crotch sniffs. But he has never been anything but gentle or sweet with the girls. Which is why I was so PO'd the other day when another dog jacked him while he was tied up at the park. The owner said her dog was "a rescue, can't be trusted, who doesn't like blonde dogs". Well, then its a really good idea for you to have him off leash at a playground with toddlers.

MDO has given me time to go running on the lake just with him. And he has even gone swimming lately. Hopefully that makes up for things like Harper puking on his head yesterday.

Little Girls Are Sweet

When they aren't crying or fighting Harper and Lucy can be unbelievably sweet. Case in point - on Monday evening I was putting Harper up on the changing table, about to take care of some soiled pants. As I started changing her, she looked at me and said "Daddy cute". It doesn't get any better than that.