Carvin' the pumpkin'

First, Megan drew a picture of the pumpkin face.


This is what she wanted it to look like. This was all her idea.


Then she ripped out the guts. Connor watched and touched every now and then.




Daddy cut out the eyes. Megan put them to good use.


Megan got to carve (with a butter knife)...after she drew the hair on the "head". She was a little ticked at Daddy for cutting the "lid" without hair.


The work of art. Not bad for a 3 year old (with a little help).


Oh, she also drew this picture of me with a Megan in the belly. :)

Cousin night

Okay, my cousin night wasn't as elaborate and exciting as the ones that Aunt Kelly throws, but I gave it a shot. Last night we managed to make it through a round of family pictures, then met together afterward for dinner and decorating cookies. Alex, Mandy, and Megan were in ultra-pretend mode...they "came to dinner at a restaurant", and I was their server. The kids are really getting good at this whole cookie decorating thing. And thanks to Aunt Kelly and Gran for cleaning up the sprinkles and icing...



Poor Connor-man. We could tell during family pictures that something was bothering him. But then when we got home we found out it was a 102 fever. Yeah, nice. We think it's teeth. We hope it's teeth.

I can't wait to see the family pictures....

I get it now

It's not often that I have an epiphany while folding a load of laundry, but one smacked me upside the head last night in the middle of folding a load of whites.

When I was younger, and before I had kids, it used to drive me crazy that my mom didn't buy clothes and do nice things for herself. She would always put school clothes, toys, holidays, and everything else associated with kids ahead of herself. I loved it when my dad would give her spending money to get whatever she wanted, but would be so ticked when she'd spend some of it on us kids. I never understood it until last night, as I looked at our dingy white laundry with holey socks and worn out clothes.

I totally get it now.

First of all, it's just so much easier and much more fun to do/buy things for the kids. Kids clothes are cuter, fit better, and are cheaper. Toys are fun, fun, fun, and bring joy to their faces.

Then, there's all the work involved. Sometimes I dream about going shopping for myself and by myself. Usually that dream is a nice little trip with me skipping down the mall, bags in hand, sans kids, and looking hot and sexy. The reality of that trip is just such a chore. Today, I asked myself, "Self, why don't you do things for me?" And all I could come up with is the amount of work associated with doing something for myself right now, as I'm sure entered my mom's brain many times - except for replace my "2 kids" answers with her "5 kids" answers.

Let's say I want to go shopping for new clothes. Either I drag the 2 unwilling kids with me, and spend more time: packing for the day, making sure both kids are presentable, unloading the stroller and other paraphernalia, finding a parking spot, dragging Megan out of the clothes racks, stopping to nurse Connor at least 2 times, trying on one pair of jeans that DO NOT fit, apologizing for Megan's antics in the store, changing a poopy diaper, finding a potty, digging for a snack, taking items out of the stroller that Megan has decided I need (no thank you to the black thong), and then leaving the store in exasperation. Notice I only tried on one thing? OR, I leave the kids at home after I have: pumped enough milk, dressed both kids, left 3 pages of instructions, removed Megan from the car seat kicking and screaming, move all of the necessities from the diaper bag to the 5 year old purse, filled my water bottle, retrieved said water bottle from a running-away Megan, and waved goodbye to one stressed out looking Daddy and 2 screaming kids. ETC. And that just scratches the surface! That doesn't even count saving the money, scheduling the time, wrestling the clothes in the dressing room, and all else associated with buying clothes.

Although I am in desperate need for new clothes, socks, shoes, and many other things, I think I'll just sit here and continue to "get it." And not be so hard on my mom about it.

Buddy Walk

Our friends let us join their Down Syndrome Buddy Walk family team this year. It was a beautiful day out at the Ballpark. Megan was very excited to get "to wear her Buddy Walk shirt, for Jakob," and refused to change clothes until PJ time - then she wanted to snuggle the shirt in bed. Megan was also very excited about the day because she got to hug Ranger's Captain a few times...



and she got to hang out with her neighbor friends, including Kyra.



Connor was a little, okay a lot, fussy for some reason, so Justin took him to give me a break. Yeah, does Connor look fussy here? Of course not.



Due to all of the rain recently, the walk was moved to the Ballpark at the last minute. It was a nice area, and it had a nice path for everyone to walk on - not in the mud!



We found a nice place to rest, and let the kids eat sno-cones.



Thanks, Jakob and crew, for letting us come with you! We had a great time.

Baby storytime

It's no secret: I am a nerd. Been that way for as long as I can remember. I like all things academic (except for math), and I LOVE books. Hence, we are at the library a lot. A lot. Due to my current work schedule, we are only able to go to the Friday "baby story time" session. Megan is okay with it because she gets to be the helper to me and the librarian. Although we've been many times before, today was the first day that Connor really showed interest. He listened and watched so intently that I thought maybe he was paralyzed. After the librarian finished each story or song, he'd turn to me, smile, and flap his arms. 'course I didn't have the camera out for that part, but I did get him playing "catch" with Megan. He'd crawl to the ball, bat at it, and "roll it" to Megan. He learned very quickly that it's not easy to stand up using a beach ball...


Megan's reward for "being haved" during story time is to get to go read books after. Today, as most days, she read books about dinosaurs...


And Connor used books about dinosaurs to scoot around the aisles. He thought he was so clever to figure out that a book could get him around so quickly.


The best part about our trip to the library today is that I found a set, a whole entire set, of dinosaur CD read-along-books. Now, someone else can pronounce all of those ridiculously hard dinosaur names. And they're great for the car.

This is a picture of...

me giving up control.



She wanted a PB&J, and she wanted to make it "by herself". Although I knew it would take a very long time, and although I knew it would be a huge mess, and although I knew I would be squirming in my chair for the entire ___ minutes, I let her do it on her own. And I lived through the entire ordeal, licking fingers and all. This was a major break-through for me. Sad. (And yes, it's a little blurry, but the girl never sits still!)

"No-No" kisses

Cousin Nolan a.k.a. "No-No" is visiting Grandma this week. He came over today, and all he wanted to do was "kiss" and wrestle Connor. I kept watching Connor to see if he even cared, but he didn't - until right at the end.





I showed Megan the picture of Nolan on Connor's shoulders. I said, "Look, isn't that a sad face? It's so cute!" She turned to me, in her most precious voice, and said, "Mom, how do you think it would feel to have someone pushing down on your shoulders? Do you think that would be cute?" *sigh* Corrected, yet again, by a 3 year old.

Adventures in the Pumpkin Patch

We had plans to go to the pumpkin patch on Friday, but someone in this house was still sick. So, we improvised. We met Grandma and her crew at a pumpkin patch on the way home from work today. It was comical.

Megan was SO excited!


She was on a mission to pick the perfect pumpkin. And to step/climb on a few along the way.


Family shots...the cousins.




One VERY happy Grandma!


A picture for Aunt Krissa and Uncle Matt. No-No is doing great!


My sister, Karlie, and her family (Dan, Jayden, and Karah).


My kiddos...








Megan indeed found the perfect pumpkin. She rolled it to the check-out and to the van.


Oh, and my favorite part? As we were walking to the car, Megan said (very enthusiastically), "The pumpkin patch was GREAT!"

Faces of Megan

Sibling entertainment

Apparently when you're cooped up in the house for a while and can't play with your friends, playing with your brother isn't so bad.





He's very entertaining now that he's figured out there's more to the house than just the living room. We cleaned out the playroom to make room for his stuff (and to get rid of the choking hazards), so now he has free reign. He's SO excited! Megan...not so much since he found her princess castle and horse carriage...

DinoKids

Connor started doing this really freaky throat groan today, and he thinks it's pretty impressive. So he does it a lot. A lot. Megan is infatuated with dinosaurs (thank you much, PBS's Dinosaur Train), so she decided that he sounded like a dinosaur. Well, it just wasn't right that I recorded just Connor's dinosaur, so Megan gave her best _______ dinosaur impression (I can't even begin to spell that word she said). Remember people, we've all been cooped up in the house together and are a little nutty...

Thumbs up?

Megan came into my room, climbed up on the bed, and announced (out of no where):

Megan: I'm going to stop sucking my thumb. Three year-olds don't suck their thumbs, so I'm not going to anymore. Okay? I can do this.
Mommy: Um, okay. Are you sure you want to stop it?
Megan: Yep, I'm sure. I can do this.

5 minutes later...while watching TV....

Megan: I can't do it! I need to suck my thumb while I hold "Little". I'll try again later.

Hermits

Well, we're officially hermits. Megan is sick with a nasty bug. I took her to the doctor today, and they used that nasty word - "flu". They're also testing her for strep. We're hunkered down and resting, resting, resting.

Founder's Day

Saturday was the town's Founders Day celebration. Yeah, we were mostly concerned about Megan's first dance performance (see video in a previous post). Megan had quite a crowd: Mommy, Daddy, Connor, Grandma, Grandpa, Gran, Papa, Kati, Ryan, Aunt Karlie, Jayden, and Karah. Whew.

Jayden was so cute about being there to watch Megan. He really enjoyed it.


Connor was a little less thrilled about the whole thing. He was tired and cold.


They had to wait at least 15 minutes in line. And it was cold.


I was a little nervous about whether or not she'd back out, but she rather enjoyed the stage. Ready!


This one speaks for itself.


After she danced with her class, she got to show off some of her tumbling moves in a VERY LONG stretch of 21 kids tumbling 3 different moves. So, I won't post those videos. But I will roll my eyes while I say that Megan put on her own show while waiting for everyone else to do their tumbling moves...she jumped around, waved, did karate chops, threw "signs" at us, and just acted plain goofy. It's darn hard to hold still and not try to steal the show.


Granna, Double G, Aunt Kari, and Uncle Gary weren't able to be there, but they sent her a cookie bouquet. It was SO cute! And she loved the "cookies on a stick!"


Grandpa treated the kids to a pony ride. Megan thought it was great until - her pony stopped to poop. Then it wasn't so great. She cried and held her feet up while she was riding as if they were going to get dirty 4 feet away.


Megan got her face/hair painted. Need I say more?


Papa and Connor just hanging out...they both needed a rest.


After the busy morning, we at YUM-O omlettes at a local restaurant with Gran and Papa. The kids and Daddy went home; I headed off to Houston to see a friend. Thanks to everyone for the help throughout the day!

Cookies at 10 p.m.

Kati and Ryan came to spend the night Friday night, so they could be here bright and early for the dance performance (THANK YOU!). Kati and Megan made and decorated sugar cookies after 10 p.m. Megan kept trying to lure Ryan away from the game to help her. She said, "Ryan, you can come over here and give me a hand." :) Ryan, of course, was so sweet to participate...I think I got a few stink eyes from him while he was frosting.

Oh, why not?

Megan asked if she could please feed Connor his dinner. Why not?

Look at Daddy's stance in the background...ready to intervene at any second.




Yes, some if it actually made it into his mouth.