Trick or Treat!

We just got home from trick or treating. If you've been to our house, you know we're not in an area very conducive to walking house to house, so we went out with some friends from our small group. There were 4 little boys (ages 2.5 to 4.5 (Conner) ) and 2 little girls (Peyton is 7 months and Aud is 21 months now). We had a good time and got tons of candy!

Audrey started with a red mouth, but it didn't last long!

From left to right: Noah, Peyton, Conner, and Landen

Audrey and Nonna

Audrey finally started trying to say Conner this week. On Monday she started referring to him as "Nonna". I think he's just happy that she's saying his name now!

If you're around Cincinnati, you probably know what a beautiful week it was - blue skies, comfortable temperatures. Until Friday, the day of Conner's field trip to Shaw Farm. It was pouring rain on the way to his school (when I realized that I'd forgotten my jacket and had to call Eric to bring it to me!). It never stopped raining while we were there, but it did slow down a bit - enough that we could go on a hay ride. Conner was very excited about that; I'd promised him when we were there as a family that they'd go on one during the field trip. Thank goodness! The kids seemed to have fun while we were there - I was happy to be able to go, but was happy to get on the bus to go back to his school, too.

Today we left around 1:00 and went up to Buttelwerth stoves to look for a couple of things. We'd like to get a screen to put in front of our new fireplace so little fingers don't get burned (and it's hot!!), a hearth rug so our new carpet (installed in 2 weeks!) doesn't get burned, and an ash vacuum to help Eric clean up. We didn't find any of the three! Oh well.

After leaving the store, we drove to the Zoo for the last weekend of Hall-zoo-ween. Usually they give the kids 6 tickets apiece for the treat stations, but this year it was free reign. The kids wore their costumes - Conner is the red Power Ranger and Aud's a clown (but I need to get her a wig and some clown makeup!). We got lots of candy, a cookie, ice cream, and chapstick (Eric was disappointed that they were only giving one per person, as opposed to packs of it like in years past!). Basically, lots of sugar. We left the zoo a little after 5 and went to a restaurant called Bela Luna to eat. Very yummy (I stuffed myself with my lasagna and I'm still full 5 hours later!). Eric got Aud to say "thank you" to the waitress - and it came out very clearly! Super cute. She was ready for bed when we got home, and Conner followed pretty soon.

the piggy

I set Audrey on the scale this morning - she weighs 27 lbs. I was thinking that was chubby (she's got quite a belly on her!) so I checked Conner's baby book. At 2 years old, he weighed 26 pounds. With over 3 months to go before she hits that mark, I wonder how much she'll weigh by then?!

Our two eventful days

It's been a couple of crazy days. I'll go chronologically.

1. Yesterday morning Audrey woke up before I was done getting ready, so she was wandering about as I finished up (and Conner'd woken up, too). I was brushing my teeth when I heard her start crying - I turned around and she was standing holding the cord to my (hot) curling iron. Poor thing! I ran her hand under some cold water which seemed to help. Aud wasn't too interested in eating breakfast, but she did take some tylenol. Once we got in the van to go to the sitter's she got upset again (and cried the whole way there), but Angela said she calmed down after a few minutes and was fine the rest of the day. She has a couple of blisters, but isn't favoring it at all and doesn't want any ointment on it (she immediately wipes it off).

2. Another Audrey moment - before her bath last night I sat her on the potty (she's naked and right next to it, so why not!) and she peed! Quite a bit, too. I was very excited. I have no expectation that this will continue, but it was a nice moment!

3. Eric came home yesterday from work talking about a guy who discovered a kitten stuck in the dashboard of his pickup truck. The guy went home last night and had to take the dashboard apart to get the poor kitten out! So guess who has a new kitten?! Eric came walking up the driveway with a box this afternoon and a teeny tiny kitten. Conner was sooo excited! He's been asking for a cat, and Eric's been wanting one to keep outside and take care of some of the mice and other critters that roam around. So poor little "Dash" has a little home in the garage (for now) and is driving the dogs crazy with his mewing. It will be an interesting night!

Conner's in kitty heaven, but Audrey doesn't really care too much.

More words

Audrey's latest word: "nooo" (And she seems to use it appropriately, too!) Tonight she was carrying around Conner's new pencil that he'd gotten at school. I told her to give it to me, and there it was: "nooo".

Her "please" sounds an awful lot like "cheese". So Conner's started her saying "Cheese, please" (which, of course, is just "cheese cheese"). It's pretty funny.

We went to Shaw Farm on Saturday to pick out some pumpkins. The kids had fun running around and checking out all of their neat cut-out things.

Conner was disappointed that we weren't going on a hayride while we were there, but his class is going back next week for a field trip (I'm going to try and arrange the day off so I can go, too) so that seemed to placate him.

Our new toy

I was given a webcam to use for a school project-thing I'm doing. I just installed the software on my computer, so of course Conner and I had to play with it! Here's our first video (Conner's new take on The Pledge of Allegiance):

Oh man!

I bought the kids some Anderson sweatshirts and was trying to get some pictures of them. I couldn't get one of them both sitting (Audrey thought it was a game and kept popping up) but isn't it funny how quickly the mood can change?!