Our Halloween lasted several days this year. It started Friday morning with a party at Patrick and Madelyn's school. They had a "trunk or treat" followed by a party in the classrooms. I was working but Papa was able to go with Angie and the kids and join in on the fun. Patrick had a fun time showing Papa around his school and seeing all his friends dressed up. Madelyn had a great time getting to play in the "big kids" room with Mommy and Patrick. Here's a slideshow:
Saturday we went to the Woodstock Square for a Halloween Kids Fest. However, an overly tired, overly hungry and slightly overwhelmed by the large crowd two-year-old made for not the most enjoyable trip. So, we won't spend any time on that here.
Sunday was awesome though. This Halloween was one of those days that reminds Angie and me just how lucky we are and how great our families and kids are. Both sets of Grandparents came over to see the kids go trick or treating as well as Aunt Abbie and Uncle Matt. Patrick was beside himself with excitement from the second they all walked in the door. It was actually difficult to get him in his costume because he couldn't stop wiggling and moving around trying to talk to everyone and tell them about what was going to happen.
Speaking of costumes, we really had good ones this year for the kids. When Patrick was born, his Aunt Mandie and Uncle Tim gave him a pair of chaps and a cowboy vest with a sheriff's star on it that says "Idaho." Patrick is finally big enough to wear it so that pretty much decided what he was going to be this year. Even with his costume decided months in advance, Patrick had several ideas of his own for what he should be. He had dozens over the last few months, but here are the top 5 he kept coming back to:
5. A Mosquito
4. A family of pygmy marmosets
3. A Howler Monkey
2. Parasauralophus
1. A Bench
The bench was his favorite choice. Angie and I kept trying to steer him towards other costume ideas but he continually came back to the bench. Luckily, once he tried on his cowboy boots and learned a few key cowboy phrases ("Rope and ride!", "Saddle up partner!", "Come along little doggies!" and "There's a snake in my boots!") he forgot about being a bench and set his sites on riding into the sunset. Since Patrick was a cowboy, I went as a cowboy too. That basically meant dressing in a pair of jeans and a brown button-up shirt that I wear to work and putting on a cowboy hat borrowed from Papa. Business-casual + hat + scarf = cowboy. Who knew it was that easy?
Madelyn and Angie both went as Indian Princesses. I don't really know what the difference between and Indian and an Indian Princess is but I went with it. Both of their costumes were made by Meme and looked great. Angie's was actually one Meme made for Abbie for a past Halloween. Madelyn's was made just for her and she looked adorable in it. We put a few feathers in a barrette for her to top it off.
The kids loved trick or treating. Like, really loved it. The amazing grandmothers stayed back at our house to hand out candy so Angie and I could both go door to door with the kids. And Aunt Abbie brought her camera - since ours took an unfortunate spill off the office desk and broke the lens (spill=Madelyn pulling it over) - and took all the pictures for the night. We are very spoiled. It was wonderful being able to just focus on the kids and spend as much time as we wanted letting them wander the neighborhood knowing that our candy-distributing duties were covered by Grandma and Meme and our memories were being captured by Aunt Abbie.
Patrick went house to house filling up his pumpkin with goodies and usually asking for candy for Madelyn too - he's very clever. The kids also made some good friends. A little girl walked by Patrick and remarked "hey there cowboy!" in a very...mature way, to her mother's surprise. Madelyn tried to make friends with the alien baby sitting in a highchair at one of the houses by chatting him up. Then she realized he had a bowl of popcorn and wanted nothing to do with him and everything to do with the popcorn (pictures in the slideshow). And, Patrick tried to make friends with a man "fixing" the ride on lawn mower at the same house. Despite yelling under the lawn mower and even tapping the man's legs, the top half of him never came out from under.
It was a great time. The only thing that would have made it better if the original plan of having Aunt Katie, Uncle Brandon and Carson come over had worked out. Unfortunately, Carson came down with a cough the night before. We missed you guys a ton though and can't wait to try again next year! Thank you again to the grandparents and Abbie and Matt for making the day so memorable and fun. Thanks to Meme and the Garitys for the kids' costumes and to Aunt Abbie for taking so many awesome pictures. Here's a slideshow of the fun or you can see the gallery here:
A couple weeks ago we went to Berry Patch Farms with Brandon, Katie and Carson. It was a beautiful fall day and we had fun watching the kids meander through the pumpkin patch. We got a kick out of Carson toddling around, enjoying her new found independence. She's walking like a champ these days!
Patrick liked trying to walk through the pumpkins rather than around them. He also tried to pick most of them up. I think that's why he loved the field with the mini pumpkins so much - he could pick up everything! Madelyn loved the little pumpkins too since she could hold them and hit them together and throw them. As soon as Patrick noticed, he wanted to bring her every one of them he saw and ended up burying her in them.
"Look Daddy!"
"You like this one too, Madelyn?"
Patrick and Madelyn had fun helping Daddy clean all the "gook" out of the pumpkins and carve them this year, which really means that Patrick helped Daddy some of the time with random dance breaks and sprinting up and down the driveway yelling, "Roxy, stay in OUR yard!" (Apparently that is a phrase he's heard once or twice before...). He also thoroughly enjoyed being the big brother and explaining every step of the pumpkin carving process to Madelyn. Maddy had fun playing with the "gook" and even sampled a taste or two. By her expression I highly doubt she'll try it again. She had a great time pulling up on the pumpkins and dancing; and loved when we put the candles in them at the end.
Although the title of this post sounds like a bad fundraiser for a little girl who's never tasted an apple in her life and for every comment you leave we'll donate one dollar to solving her apple crisis, it's actually about our trip to the orchard. That little girl gets no help from us. There are bigger problems in the world and she needs to stop being so selfish and focused on apples.* Anyway, a few weekends ago we celebrated Angie's birthday with the Suskay family up at the cabin. There's a great store nearby (Mercier's) that also has an apple orchard. They have over 100,000 apple trees and over 50 different kinds of apples. That seemed like the perfect place to start our celebrating.
The kids LOVED it. While you're picking apples, you can eat however many you want, to try out the various kinds so you know what you should fill your bags with. It was rare to see Patrick without an apple in his hand while we were wandering the orchard. He really liked the idea of just pulling an apple off a tree (if he was next to me while I'm writing this he would say "No Dad, we don't pull them. We twist them off so they don't get hurt.") and going straight to eating it. It was great for us because it meant the morning had a built-in, healthy snack! The other great thing about having Patrick there was that he's easy to lift up to get the apples that are way up high, as you'll see in the pictures :) Madelyn rode on Papa's back for the orchard trip and had a blast. We gave her an apple to check out that was almost as big as her head and she held onto it the whole time. She liked rolling it around, hitting it and, most of all, licking it and trying to take a bite. She also loved reaching for all the leaves and apples as we walked by them.
For the afternoon, we split up. The girls took Angie to a spa where they all got massages and the guys stayed at the cabin with the kids listening to football and relaxing. It was a perfect day outside and we spent pretty much all of it on the porch or in the front yard. When the girls returned from their time at the spa, looking very relaxed, we made a campfire and had dinner outside. Patrick got to roast his first hot dog over the fire and even got to make S'mores. The S'mores were the highlight of the night for him and he had been telling everyone about them all weekend. Madelyn enjoyed watching the fire and snuggling up to everyone there to keep warm. She's turned into quite the cuddler lately and I can't say I'm against it.
Over the next week Patrick and I made apple sauce several times (using this really easy recipe) and ate apples with almost every meal. The following weekend something rare and wonderful happened: Angie and I went out on a date night! It's the first time in almost a year that Angie and I have gone out for a nice dinner just the two of us. We had a great time and surprisingly managed to talk about topics other than the kids for a good portion of the evening; although, we couldn't help but discuss how proud we are of them, all their quirks and which obstacles we see coming up in our future with them and how we want to handle them (I'm looking at you Patrick's pacifier).
Thanks again to the Suskays for a fun filled weekend! And, happy birthday Angie. You are the best wife, friend and mother anyone could ask for and far more than I deserve. We love you.
Madelyn turned eight months old yesterday! Here are a few of the things she started doing over the last month:
Consistently sleeping through the night!! (Only a couple nights of letting her cry for a few minutes before she figured it out. Why didn’t we do that months ago?)
Transferring from object to object while standing
Saying new sounds: In addition to her dadas and babas she’s added F, P and S sounds.
Using her new sounds to babble
Waving hello and goodbye
She climbed a couple stairs one time. She could probably do it again but we don’t want her to know that so we’ve not let her try :)
Taking a bottle…JUST KIDDING…we’ve pretty much given up on that
Dancing to every sound that could even slightly resemble a song (i.e.: the bubbling sound when I made my coffee this morning)
Pointing at things – usually on your face. She loves to point at mouths when a person is talking
Getting teeth like it’s her job. In the last month she’s gotten five: three on top, two on bottom.
And here are a few of our favorite pictures of Maddy from the last month:
Over the last few days Madelyn seems like she’s gotten older. Some of it is that her fifth tooth finally broke through so the month-long crankyness has come to an end. But, she’s started verbalizing more lately and seems to have a new understanding of language and interaction. She still idolizes her big brother and thinks every move he makes is worth watching and every sound he makes is worth a giggle. Last night at dinner she had an apple slice in her hand and would hold it out for Patrick to eat. Patrick thought it was hilarious that Madelyn was feeding him (“Madelyn, you’re feeding me? That’s silly!”) and every time Patrick took a bite out of the apple it would send Maddy into a fit of laughter.
We’re so excited for this time of year and all the firsts Madelyn gets to experience. Her first Halloween is right around the corner and then we get to have her first Thanksgiving and Christmas and so many more firsts. Before we know it, she’ll be one year old and our baby won’t be a baby any more. Every day we try to remind ourselves to focus on the time we have now because she’ll never be seven months old again or eight months old again. I can tell you though that there is nothing that slows my day down and makes me live in the moment as much as a smile or hug from Madelyn. Happy eight months my sweet girl!
Last weekend, we went to Cagle's Family Farm with the Barker family. They have tons of stuff to do there but we did a tour of the farm and part of the big corn maze. Cagle's Family Farm used to be Cagle's Dairy Farm and had a ton of milking cows. The farm tour included visiting the milk processing plant and watching them actually process and bottle all the milk they made, seeing fields full of cows grazing and move into the milking station and so on. However, Cagle's is now a meat farm. We talked to the grandson of the original owner who told us that they were basically unable to compete with huge producers. They're a small farm, doing the milk process right and that costs more. So they were somewhat forced out of the dairy game and are now in the meat business. Lucky for us, they don't show the meat making process on the farm tour. Something tells me it's not quite as kid friendly as watching cows graze and make milk.
The good news is, the kids neither know or care about the economics of milk making. They just like to see farm animals and ride on tractors. The farm tour first takes you to a small part of the farm where they have several calves, goats, chickens and ducks the kids are able to feed. Patrick thought feeding the cows was a lot of fun and had a great time watching the chickens ride on the goat's back. We also got to meet the dogs we would later see herd a group of cattle. After that, we went to a milking demonstration given by Rosie The Cow followed by a trip to the defunct milk processing plant to see how the milk went from cow to shelf. Farmer Al explained the whole milking process and history of the milking process to us in great detail. The kids just liked the part where they got to put their hand on the suction thing they use on the cows' utters. Don't worry, this one was for demonstration only and not actually the one that was just on the cow.
The next part of the tour was really fun. We got to ride on a big trailer pulled by a giant tractor to see a herding demonstration. We watched as Tib, the herding dog, moved a group of large bulls from one side of the field right over to the side of our tractor. The kids got a VERY close look at the bulls and thought it was awesome. The tour ended with the kids getting to feed a group of goats. Patrick mostly just dropped the food on the ground, despite Uncle John's patient help, due to his inability to cup his hand. That must be a toddler thing. At least, I hope it is. Either way, he had fun holding his empty hand out for the goats.
After lunch, we headed into the corn maze. It was just after noon and the day was heating up tremendously so the grownups did the best they could to speed the maze process along. I imagine the maze would be really fun when it's the middle of fall and cool weather is on your side. But when it's 90 degrees and you're carrying a diaper bag, a hiking backpack and at least one child, the maze is more an exercise in "how fast can we do this." Also, Angie and I are TERRIBLE with directions. I can't tell you how happy I am that we live in a time of GPS. I hear people sarcastically say things like "we all drove without GPS for decades and somehow managed to live through it"... we honestly wouldn't have. Angie and I literally would have died. We are that bad with finding our way around. So a maze is an odd activity to participate in. I know there's help around the corner if needed and we won't really be stranded, but the back of my mind says "you might be lost forever in this corn." Luckily, the Barkers aren't as navigationally challenged as we are and made it out of the maze in record time. We'll have to go back when it's not so hot sometime and do the second part of the maze though because it was actually a lot of fun. Madelyn took this moment of quiet as an opportunity to catch up on her morning nap and fell asleep on Uncle John.
Then came the jumping pillows. I had never seen anything like this before but they were pretty awesome and the kids went nuts over them. They're basically a giant inflatable pillow to jump on, and who doesn't love that? When we first got to the jumping pillow, it was just the four of our kids and one other family with much larger kids. Patrick, Jordan and Andrew all bounced and ran and flipped and fell for close to an hour, giggling the whole time. As it got later, Patrick got increasingly tired and climbing up a bouncing pillow over and over again started to take its toll, so he figured out a way to get down without doing any work. He would start by climbing up yelling "sube!" the whole time (Spanish for "going up") then lay down at the top and let the bouncing do the work for him. As everyone ran and jumped around him, he would just flop his way down the side laughing hysterically all the way. The best video I got of this was messed up but here's a pretty good one that gives you an idea (there are more pictures of this in the gallery). He and Jordan started laying face down next to each other after a while and bouncing side by side. You'll also notice that the two of them are about half the size of everyone else on there:
Just a quick post to say that we're changing the name of the site. It was originally 'All About Baby' when we just had Patrick. Then, we cleverly changed it to 'All About Babies' when Madelyn came along.
But, since Patrick is no longer a baby, Madelyn is rapidly approaching adolescence (at least, in her mind) and we said we'd change the name about 6 months ago: it's time.
The name we finally decided on, as you'll see, is "Flowers. Family of Four." ("Like when they call our name at a restaurant," Angie tells me.) This one seemed like a solid choice because it's simple and has a nice ring. Plus, it's a proven fact that we as Americans adore alliteration (did you catch it?).
Here were some of the other names in the running:
The Flowers Files
Two Cute
Double Chubble
All About Babies...still
The Flowers Four
And now to make a boring post more tolerable, here's a video Ang took with her phone (hence the TERRIBLE quality) of the kids playing on the driveway. It starts with Patrick operating his bike with pretend levers then goes to Madelyn giggling because she's using Patrick's cup while he's not around then the camera goes back up and Patrick is doing yoga for some reason. Even Roxy seems confused. And something about the sound of the bike horn makes me laugh every time.
Among other things I love about my job, getting a 30 minute lunch break all to myself is a beautiful thing. I get to sit back, relax (unless my pager goes off) and lately, write about my kids...
It’s hard to believe that Madelyn has only been with us for 7 months; it feels like she’s always been part of our family. Our lives surely would not be complete without her but that’s the way it is with babies, isn't it? When they become part of your life you wonder how you ever went one day without their sweet little smile. How did I go 32 years without having this perfect little girl in my life? With only the hope and dream of her in my heart for so long and then all of a sudden, she’s here and she’s more than I could ever imagine. Our little Maddy girl is all personality and a tough little cookie - she needs to be with daily love tacklings from her big brother! She weighs 17.4 pounds (68th percentile) and is 25 1/2 inches long (32nd percentile). Here are some new and exciting things in the life of Madelyn:
School: She began attending The Goddard School two days a week while I am at work. Maddy was immediately taken with her teacher, Mojgan (pronounced Moosh-gan), who is very sweet and animated. Madelyn loves when she sings to her in Farsi while clapping her hands and dancing. It was no surprise on the first day when she refused to drink a bottle but we were told she made it through the day smiling. Each day Madelyn comes home with a daily activity report that tells us what she did throughout the day. It's adorable to read the things the infants do in language arts, life skills and creative art. I appreciate the details they include, the titles of the books they read, the music they listen to, etc. The teachers let Patrick visit Madelyn a couple times each day and often email pictures to us of him kissing her or talking to her. He is so proud to tell his friends in his class that his little sister is in the baby room.
Crawling: Right now her movements are not fluid or the most coordinated but she’s crawling nonetheless and getting where she needs to go. Of course when she finally gets to the object of her desire (usually Patrick or Roxy) it has usually moved and this frustrates her a bit. Madelyn loves to crawl into my lap while the three of us are playing on the floor. She giggles and makes happy little noises as she cuddles my legs. I never can resist the urge to scoop her up and cover her with kisses, which she tolerates for only a minute before she wants to be put back down to crawl again.
First Teeth: Madelyn’s first tooth broke through the morning I was getting her dressed to meet her new teachers and other babies in her classroom. She kept making a funny little face and a clicking noise. Sure enough her first pearly white was popping through! The second one made it's debut at Uncle Thomas's birthday party last weekend. Happy birthday Uncle Tom, sorry about our little fuss pot!
Love Bug: Maddy loves giving hugs and full-on open mouth kisses. She is content to be held if she is outside, especially if she's being rocked on the front porch swing or in one of the big rocking chairs at the cabin. She’ll even lay her little head down on your shoulder for a while to snuggle while she watches the leaves blow on the trees. Madelyn seems to prefer women to men (besides her Daddy, of course), and little kids to adults. She loves Jordan Barker because Jordan lets her stare at her face really close and even pull on her beautiful curly hair. Bless you, little JB!
Ba Ba Babbling: I went out one Saturday to get groceries and when I came home Toby had taught Madelyn to say "ba ba ba". (Side note: he's pretty amazing with the kids. He would be an incredible stay at home Dad. If there were no such thing as a morgtage I am pretty sure he would be content to be with them all day, everyday). It's quite possibly the cutest thing Madelyn has done thus far. Her lips curl in, which makes her cheeks look even more full, her jaw juts out with each "ba" and her saucer eyes look around the room, talking to everyone and everything.
Veggies, Fruits and Baby Shots: She loves her veggies - sweet peas, carrots, green beans, you name it, she’ll eat it! The day I first fixed her squash for lunch she went nuts. Each time I put another spoon-full in her mouth she would swallow and then giggle until the next bite. This went on and on until she finished the entire helping. Since Maddy has an aversion to bottles she's been practicing drinking out of a cup. Plastic medicine cups and shot glasses have a small enough rim that she doesn't dribble too much while she attempts to drink. She squeals and smiles when we let her hold it (with help) and she immediately brings it to her mouth and sticks her little tongue inside.
Pulling Up: Daddy started a pull-up game with Maddy a couple months ago where he puts out his hands, palms up, when sitting face to face with Madelyn. She grabs on with her chubby little fingers and pulls herself up then smiles and looks around proudly. It’s an easy way to become her new best friend, although when Patrick tried it with her it didn’t quit work out as he planned ;) She tries to pull up on everything now- on permanent and not so permanent objects alike (her brother and the dog). Last night she was standing in her crib twice in the middle of the night, crying. Her little brain couldn't help but practice her latest skill but her body wanted to be sleeping.
Big Bro: Patrick remains her most favorite person in the world. Whenever, wherever; he can always make her smile and laugh. This is very helpful when she is tired and fussy in the car. All he has to do is sing (which, as you've seen, takes almost no convincing) and she kicks her legs and shakes her head in excitement. When she does fuss he says sweetly, “It’s Ok, Sassy, we’re almost there”. She still has issues with reflux so when she spits up Patrick’s face distorts with the most disgusted look and says disdainfully as he backs away “she spit up! I better get away!” He’s not mad, just disappointed. It’s hilarious every single time to Toby and me. Maddy doesn’t seem to notice, she just keeps grinning and cooing at him, happy with any attention he gives her. Lately, all he has to do is look at her and talk and she bursts into a giggle fit. Patrick is starting to figure this out and loves it almost as much as she does.
There are days when I wish the kids would nap at the same time so I could get a bit of a break but when I take a second to think about it, I really am grateful to have the one-on-one moments with both of them throughout the day while the other one sleeps. This time is so precious and I want to be fully present for each moment no matter how small it may seem now. All the little moments are what we’ll remember anyway…singing and dancing after dinner, rocking on the porch while the sun sets, hearing Toby read Patrick a bedtime story over the monitor, watching the kids splash around in the bath…
The bench was his favorite choice. Angie and I kept trying to steer him towards other costume ideas but he continually came back to the bench. Luckily, once he tried on his cowboy boots and learned a few key cowboy phrases ("Rope and ride!", "Saddle up partner!", "Come along little doggies!" and "There's a snake in my boots!") he forgot about being a bench and set his sites on riding into the sunset. Since Patrick was a cowboy, I went as a cowboy too. That basically meant dressing in a pair of jeans and a brown button-up shirt that I wear to work and putting on a cowboy hat borrowed from Papa. Business-casual + hat + scarf = cowboy. Who knew it was that easy?
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