Cinderelleton (or Skelerella)?

Cinderella

Fear the Skeleton!

 

What a difference a year makes! Katie was really into trick-or-treating this year, asking to go up to every neighboring unit with a light on. Sure beats the two households she had the attention span for last year. Anyway, Halloween was a success all around, and we are all heading to bed to sleep well after the evening sugar-rushes. Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend...

Sanity and/or Fear? You Decide!

What in the world is Traci doing here? Is she at some strange Halloween costume party? Nahhhh, she, along with 10s of thousands of others, headed down to the National Mall today for Jon Stewart's/Steven Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. It was a hilarious hoot to walk around and check out everybody's "sane and rational" signs. The people-watching was just marvelous. And, of course, Stewart, Colbert, and their guests (Ozzy Osborne???) were quite entertaining, to boot. If politics were always this fun, maybe Traci and Mike would better enjoy living inside the Beltway!

You're Going the Wrong Way!

He may be able to scale the highest mountains, but Michael has no clue how to get back down. Just as he does from the tops of slides, he tends to just fling himself down head-first from steps. Suppose that's not the best strategy. At least he usually emerges with a chuckle and a smile!

Who Wears Short Skirts?

Our friend Karen came over for lunch today and brought a special surprise for Katie: a Notre Dame cheerleading outfit!! Katie was ecstatic with her new dress-up outfit and ran like crazy around the house, shouting "Go, Team, Go!" We all had to laugh, however, at the fact that the Size 4 kids outfit basically comes to Katie's waist. Hmmmm, we're either going to have to make sure she has pants on underneath the skirt or just go ahead and hand it down to Michael now! Thanks, Karen, for some great company and a great Katie gift!

Our "Nightmare Before" Halloween (aka Pumpkin Carving 2010)

You want us to do WHAT with that pumpkin? Ewwww, gross!


Notice how super-neat Katie would only help scoop pumpkin goo with a spoon and apron.


Hmmmmm....maybe if I could stuff it in my mouth and pretend that it's playground dirt.


The design work begins....Daddy with the big pumpkin, Katie with the small.


The real artiste in action...carving his Jack Skellington from "Nightmare Before Christmas."


The finished product!!! And, yes, we are currently keeping Jack in the fridge until the outside temps drop below 70 degrees again!!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Great and Small

Today was "Wear Orange to School" Day for Katie, so we figured we would keep the theme going all day with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Alas, Daddy had to miss out this year as we could not squeeze it in during the weekend. And, between Katie insisting on pulling the wagon everywhere and Michael trying to escape every chance he could, it will be the last year that Daddy doesn't join us. I put Katie in charge of picking our official family pumpkin, and she found a perfectly plump specimen for tomorrow's carving.

As for Michael, he was enchanted by the Michael-sized pumpkins. These were the only things that could keep him still for a few minutes at a time. Unfortunately, by the end, he discovered that he could actually throw these down pretty hard so we had to bolt before he broke any. (Please, oh please, God - don't let this be a precursor to bad behavior and pumpkin smashing on future Halloweens....)

Got Milk?

Here we are on one of our countless grocery store milk runs. (Why does it seem that you always run out of milk when at least one kid is on whole milk?) Notice how Michael is already scheming how to get out of the grocery cart and into the greeting cards next to him? And, notice how gigantic Katie looks in the cart? No wonder people always think she's five.

Hitting the Pavement

Mike ran in (and finished!) the 26th annual Army 10 Miler race this morning. It's a pretty big deal around D.C. and is the third largest race in the world participant wise. The route was fantastic in and around the Potomac River and monuments. But the 30,000 registered runners made for a slow-go throughout, as the running lanes were pretty tight from start to finish. Bottom lines: may try it again next year...no interest in any longer distances...looking forward to returning to less crowded 5K and 10Ks. Best part: coming home to find a "congrats daddy" sign from Katie on the front door!

Halloween Scream!

Our entire family started the annual Halloween celebrations with a trip to a local fall festival today. It's one that we have been going to since Katie was a baby, and we wanted to introduce Michael to many of the fun things-to-do. He loved climbing, cruising, and sliding on his own, but it's hard to tell if he liked the BIIIIIIG slide as much as his mommy!

As for Katie, she had a bit of a rough day. She's currently in a Fear-of-All-Loud-Sounds phase, so she wasn't a big fan of the tractor pulling a hayride around the festival park every five minutes. No matter where she went (her beloved swings, the cool slides, the farm animals), that darn tractor was always nearby. After a bit of a tearful start, we finally calmed her down enough to have some fun. Here she is hamming it up for us...the tractor must have been on the other side of the park at the time!

One Step...And Down

Well, it's not for a lack of trying... Michael is getting comfortable enough with his balance that he is standing on his own, cruising with one hand, and transferring from object to object with a few steps. But, if you just stand him up in the middle of nowhere, he'll take one step and then he's down. He knows that he can get anywhere FAST by crawling, so we guess he'll take his time with the walking.

Mother's Helper

Ahhhhh...parents live for moments like this....Big Sis is taking care of Little Brud and mom or dad can just sit back, watch, and relax. I wish I could say that this lasted for more than 2 minutes or that Katie didn't eventually try to shove Michael out of the car, but let's just focus on the moment captured in the picture...

Climb, Michael, Climb!

OK. So the kid can't walk yet, but he sure as heck can climb! You drop Michael anywhere near a set of steps, stairs, even the slightest ledge, and he's already the whole way up before you blink an eye. He is constantly giving Traci heart attacks as he climbs to the top of playground equipment and then throws himself at the slides. (He is such a fast climber/crawler that she usually only saves him by grabbing on to his pant leg.) This probably does not bode well for the future of his crib...

Snow White, Tinkerbell, and....???

After many scheduling mishaps, we finally had our good friends Kelly, Rose, and Megan (2.5 years-old) over for dinner. Katie was soooo excited for their visit as she loves to share her princesses and dress-up clothes with Megan. (She was so excited, in fact, that she nearly jumped out of her skin when a Boy Scout rang our doorbell, selling popcorn.) Anyway, we all shared a great meal, the girls got to try on dresses and shoes, and Michael got to crawl along for the ride. Let's do it again soon!

Vroooooooooooom

Surprise, surprise. Can you guess what we ended up doing this afternoon?

Wheels, Wheels, Wheels

The theme in our house right now is definitely "Forward Motion!" Katie, ever the slight lagger in her physical feats, finally learned how to pedal a trike at the start of the school year. Now she begs and begs to go to playgrounds or play gyms with trikes available so that she can ride to her heart's content. This morning she probably rode for about an hour straight...talk about good exercise!! I even overheard her telling another mom that Santa will definitely bring her a new tricycle for Christmas. Ahem...we better get on top of that!

Michael is also fully engaged in forward motion right now. He is currently loving any push toy that he can get his hands on. Just look at how enthusiastic he was with this play gym car! But, in even BIGGER news, he took two sets of shuffle steps today! No, we won't count it as walking yet, but he shuffled forward a few inches twice today to grab at snacks. Perhaps we should just put a cookie dangling from a stick in front of him?

Party Girls

 Our friend Francie (J.D.'s mommy) sent us this cute picture from Sunday's zoo party. This was pre-VIP tour, when we were just coloring and hanging out. Just a couple of really happy gals, celebrating an awesome time!

Outtake!

Here is a taste of an outtake from Michael's 1-year photo shoot. The shoot went well and we got some cute shots of both of the kids. Unfortunately, Michael was a Crawly McCrawlerson that day, so we couldn't get a ton of good shots. Oh well, that is who he is!

Pandas and Cheetahs and Okapis, Oh My!

Katie attended a very cool birthday party today! Her friend J.D. turned four, and he held his party at the Smithsonian's National Zoo! Since Katie is currently obsessed with all animals, she has been super excited for awhile. We arrived a little early at the zoo so we could look around at some animals on our own. Katie got up pretty close and personal to some zebras, cheetahs, and gazelles. Once at the party, all the little ones and parents got a VIP tour of the zoo's Asian Trail (pandas, big cats, elephants). (Imagine the scene...corralling a bunch of preschoolers through the throngs of regular zoo-goers.) After finishing off with some yummy cupcakes and ice cream, we had one last stop: the zoo store!! Lately we have been looking for certain animal figurines that have appeared on Katie's favorite Diego episodes, and we found the most elusive one....the OKAPI! Take a look in the picture at Katie with her new okapi buddy, and you'll see that the day was a success!

Look Closely

See the crazy guy in the green shirt hiding behind our dining table? That's Mr. Jim (aka, Patrick and Colleen's daddy), who could also be renamed "Katie's Second Favorite Daddy." We invited some good buddies over this evening to watch Notre Dame actually hold on to a victory, and Mr. Jim turned out to be the kids' entertainment. Between making funny faces, giving the kids piggy-back rides, and somehow coaxing Katie to eat some of her dinner, Jim should have earned some kind of commission for his work tonight. The rest of us adults definitely enjoyed that the spotlight was on somebody else! Fun night, everybody...let's do it again!

Back to Nature

No, this isn't Katie's new Halloween costume. We were just having a great time visiting the Hidden Oaks Nature Center! The Center was fantastic for kids...it had live animals to look at, natural objects to touch, a fake treehouse to climb, and many other manipulatives to aid in learning. Traci prides her former employer, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, in its efforts to teach kids about nature, and she felt that this Center definitely compared. We will be returning a lot this winter.

As for Michael, here is our budding mini-scientist, fascinated by the light emitted from the kids' microscope. The Nature Center was great for a 1-year-old, too. We felt fine letting him crawl around and work with many of the learning materials. He gave the Nature Center two little thumbs up as well!

Mess on Aisle 5!

Reason #1,435,645 that working at a Barnes & Noble is probably not as rewarding as it seems: the damn stay-at-home parents who bring in their kids to ransack the place.

Never Mind That It Was Upside Down....

The pediatrician warned us that second children, especially boys, often do not take much interest in books and reading. Michael definitely fits into that pattern, too busy squirming away from or tearing the pages of books to get much from reading. Thankfully, now that Katie is at preschool twice a week, we have been able to fit more devoted "reading time" in with the little guy. When not distracted by big sis or her toys, we have found that he is more willing to spend a few minutes with mommy and book. Today I even found him "reading" one of his word books...never mind that it was upside down! Maybe we'll get a word out of him yet.

Going Greek

For something a little different, the whole family headed to the neighborhood Greek festival at St. Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church. Katie was very impressed with her namesake church and had a blast dancing to the live Greek music. We feasted on spanakopita, dolmedes, Greek salad, gyros, and some Greek desserts. Oh, and the Greek fries, which were a hit with the two kids. Both kids loved the fact that we were eating outdoors and used every opportunity to run/crawl to their heart's content. All of the Greek gaity was so exciting that the kids fell asleep as soon as they hit their beds. So, which ethnic festival next?