Ghost Parties

That's what Nicholas calls Halloween parties regardless of the presence of ghosts or not. I think it's a result of reading Cliffords First Halloween.

I try to have us attend as many Halloween parties as possible. The food, the photo ops, and getting my money's worth out of the expensive costumes I fall in love with. Somehow I ended up with two octopeds this year.

Alexa was not happy with my choice of costume for her. It was worth the tears.

Nicholas changed his mind frequently but decided to go with a "happy" spider because he does not like "scary" spiders. And yet whenever Nicholas donned his spider costume he feels the need to roar at people and pretend to eat them. Me thinks that'd be a very scary spider.

In addition to attending a moms group party, we hosted a little get together at our place. Rememeber this? For our party we tried to do a number of fun Halloween inspired treats. I made the dirt cake again and turned it into a graveyard. I don't mind that graveyard one bit.

Another fun item; Frankentreats. They are rice krispie treats covered in green colored white chocolate. While making these I had another issue with the chocolate burning and not melting. I went threw two bags of chocolate and had to bring up our old countertop microwave from the basement in order to get it right. That was a rough morning.

Luckily our school hasn't gone completely moonbatty so the kids will get to participate in a Halloween parade at school tomorrow. Hopefully Alexa will cooperate a bit more for her teachers than she did for me.

I'll end with a funny Nicholas story. One of his teachers came up to me at pick up giggling. Apparently at circle time they were discussing trick-or-treating. One girl in class mentioned how it will be dark outside when its time to go trick-or-treating. After discussing how it would be dark outside for a minute or two Nicholas spoke right up and said, "When I went to the Ghost party it wasn't dark outside. And I was like, I don't know why." I can see his facial expression when he said this too. His eyebrows down, eyes rolled, and a smirk on his face to accompany his hands up in question. He cracks me up!

We're baaack

Despite awful weather for our entire visit, I'd called our first major road trip a success.

We hit the road after dinner hoping the kids would fall sleep and make the trip go smoother. Outside of a few potty stops for Nicholas the drive was a breeze. Unfortunately, it wasn't once we stopped to sleep at Michael's place. Boss dog, city lights, and traffic noise kept the kids up 3 hours before they finally fell asleep at 1 am.

The remainder of our drive was uneventful except for the fact that the rain began about an hour into our drive. Too bad it did not stop raining until we hit the same spot on our return trip.

Our first order of business was visiting Omom. Fortunately she was awake and we were able to enjoy lunch with her. While her memory is not what it used to be she is still her old self in so many ways. At one point she offered me anything out of her closet. Specifically commenting on how pretty the pink and lavender was. It was a nice visit.

After our visit we quickly checked into the hotel before heading to the Natural History Museum. Nicholas was especially loved the dinosaur exhibit and Insect Zoo. But of course, the kids favorite item in the museum had nothing to do with nature or history but was a plain old tunnel. The two of them, along with many other young companions, crawled back and forth through that tunnel with squeals of glee for what seemed like hours. Well maybe it was only 30 min but it felt like a long time.

The hotel was perfect. New, an indoor pool, steps from the Metro, surrounded by great family friendly restaurants, Whole Foods next door, a decent breakfast buffet and easy highway access. We'll definitely be happy to stay there again.

The next day we tried visiting Omom first thing in the morning. As our luck would have it she was put to bed minutes before we arrived. Apparently meal times are the best times for visiting.

The remainder of our day was spent at the Air and Space Museum breaking for lunch at the Museum of the American Indian. Our favorite part of this visit was recognizing that the book Curious George Gets a Medal was based on a true story about a monkey named Able. Funny how you can go to a place dozens times and see things differently with each visit.

Saturday we were singing "rain, rain, go away". It didn't work and our plans to visit the National Zoo were kaput. We hit the mall instead for what turned out to be a hectic visit to a very crowded playspace. Regardless of the crowds, the kids were thrilled to climb, run, jump, and scream to their hearts content.

Kids are not so good about taking turns.

Alexa was very vocal about wanting everyone else to get out of her way when she wanted to climb on the structures.

Here's we are enjoying our train ride.

Nicholas did not have a single accident. I'd say that was a huge feat since he was not a fan of the public restrooms and ended up preferring to go potty in the trunk of our car. Thank heavens we have a wagon. We couldn't resist capturing this potty break on film. Apparently, there is not much a parent won't do to get their child to go to the bathroom.

So glad we were able to get a picture of us with Omom. Unfortunately all our other pictures got either accidently deleted or rejected from the camera. Hopefully we can try again in the spring.

10 for Tuesday

1. This blog is now one year old. I can't believe I've kept it up for this long. I've planned on converting this into a photo book using Blurb. Just need to find some time.

2. On Friday I decided to step out of my mommy role and do something for me. I took advantage fo the Columbus Day sales and went clothes shopping for myself. A new friend was there to help and guide me through the scary new fall/winter trends and I emerged unscathed and looking awesome in my new duds.

3. It looks like Alexa is done nursing, or at least we're at the beginning of the end. Last night after a very short session she refused to continue with a firm shaking of her head. My little baby is growing up.

4. On Sunday we enjoyed our new neighborhood and hit the conservation trails behind our house for a mini "hike". We had lots of fun overturning rocks, picking up acorns and pinecones, and exploring a couple streams.

And he's off...

All that running tired him out. Good thing we brought the Ergo.

Alexa took advantage of her confinement with a little catnap.

5. Nicholas is officially pottty trained. Yes, he's had a couple accidents but I think we reached the point of no return once Nicholas "watered the trees" on our hike on Sunday.

6. Despite doing so well on the potty Nicholas has developed a funny little potty "habit". It must be revolving around a need for privacy and yet also being unsure of himself because when he wants to go poopy he'll tell me to close the bathroom door, turn off the lights, sit on the stool with my back turned towards him, and not say anything. I wonder how long this phase will last.

7. I'm trying to make a bigger deal out of the holidays. For me and the kids. Unfortunately I did not succeed in my latest effort. I had planned on doing a modified caramel apple lollipop crafty recipe I found in Family Fun with Nicholas. Instead of using caramel the instructions tell you to use butterscotch chips. The instructions to melt the chips clearly state they can be microwaved. Big FAIL. Not sure if it was our microwave or what but the butterscotch chips would not melt. They burned. I even tried melting them in a double boiler and got similar results. I had to resort to covering the apple slices in peanut butter and rolling them in sprinkles. Nicholas didn't seem to mind but I think I'll use chocolate next time. At least I know it will melt.

8. We got a message from the woman who purchased our home about a package for us that was delivered there. Jim stopped by to pick it up and found out the house had a major water leak that they had to deal with. Apparently they had to rip out the ceiling of our old study and replace some of the plumbing. I hate to wish anything bad on someone else but I am incredibly thankful that we did not have to deal with that. Phew!

9. Too many people around me have been raving about the Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks lately. I may have to give in and try one out of curiosity although I'm afraid it could be a costly mistake.

10. Megan at Perspectives Photography has the photos from the beach photo shoot we took at Good Harbor beach last month. The pictures are great. If you want to take a peek go to http://perspectives-clients.com/shop/index.php?gnum=175 and type in your email (or my hotmail address). The password is: GoodHarbor (not case sensitive) The kids are the second to last set under "blueeyedmom". Happy viewing.

"Best First Day Ever in the History of Potty Training"

That's what Nicholas's teachers told me when I picked him up yesterday after wearing big boy underwear to school for the first time. I ran into them separately and they each said the same thing. They were so impressed at how well he did. One teacher said she was particularly impressed at the fact that he could do it all by himself. Apparently some parents forget to include the getting your pants & underwear down/up in their training. They might say that to all the moms but I'm so proud!

I know it's not a competition but he's the first boy potty trained in his room too. Way to go Nicholas!

Fruits of our labor

We had so much fun apple picking last year, Nicholas could not wait to go again. He's asked frequently and starting jumping for joy when we told him we were going back to Tougas Farm.

It was a wet Sunday morning after a very rainy Saturday yet it was perfect. The dampness and clouds kept the crowds down and there was still a lot of great fruit on the trees. Much better pickings over last year.

Nicholas wanted to make sure to get the ripest fruit from the very tipity top of the trees.

Alexa was thrilled to enjoy the fruits of others labor and keep her pants dry in the stroller.

The "Gang".

Nicholas enjoying one of the 1/2 dozen apples he sampled of the course of the morning.

A little playtime before heading home.

More pics to share here. Check out Enzo making the moves on Alexa.

Adventures in Potty Training- The Final Chapter

Well, the final chapter for Nicholas at least.

A week ago Saturday I picked up a new potty. Maybe because it was something new to try, maybe he didn't like the ones we had, or maybe just coincidence but Nicholas wanted to start using it and wearing big boy underwear. Our first day went great. Only one accident and he was the one asking to use the potty.

Since it was still new and early in the potty training process we sent him to school wearing pull-ups last week. He used the potty with the other trained kids but he was still using the pull-ups as a crutch while at school yet when the underwear came back on at home he did great. We were super impressed.

After a good week we decided Saturday was it. No going back. Big boy underwear here on out. Saturday had a few more accidents than we expected. We began to doubt ourselves. Maybe Nicholas was trying to catch our bluff. Unfortunately for him, we've heard too many warnings to not go back once you've started the process.

Luckily for us, we knew we turned the corner once Nicholas went poop on the potty. He was fascinated by his poop. Especially the fact that there were many and "one looks like a hot dog". Ah, kids say the darndest things.

Yesterday Nicholas totally impressed us. We had two outings, apple picking and portraits, and not a single accident while out. He did have one, but of course it was while he was having too much fun outside on "big digger" to be bothered to come inside to use the potty.

Only a 10 month process if you count from when he first used the potty or a week since we decided to go gung-ho. I'm sure there will still be accidents but to have reached this point feels monumental.

I do feel for the guy. On a few occaisions while sitting on the potty he said it was hard. That diapers were easier. Hearing that inflicted me with pangs of guilt and left me feeling conflicted. As a parent of course you want to make their life easier. Luckily that guilt was very short lived.