Happy Halloween (almost)

Ahh, pumpkins.  I honestly love them.  I love carving them, roasting the seeds, and putting them on the front porch.  Every year, I manage to forget what a pain it is to separate the seeds from the pulp for salting and roasting.  It turns out that it's especially hard with little pumpkins that probably never ripened all the way.  The seeds are paper thin!  But they get especially crispy and yummy in the oven, so at least there's an up-side.  Freddy is really into his pumpkin (and "Liza's") this year - but we still have one huge one left to carve.

An Eventful Day

Yesterday marked our first snow of the year, and we woke up to a few inches of very heavy wet white stuff on the ground.  Freddy was THRILLED and excited to make a snowman and throw snowballs...starting at 5:15, right after he threw up in his bed.  I assume it's this bug going around that Liza had last Friday night, but it could also have been a) a result of his recent nighttime coughing or b) a bad reaction to some veggie juice he had last night as a special treat.  Always nice when the throw up is bright red.  Lovely way to start the day!  I set Freddy up on the couch with some towels and a big pot "just in case", but luckily he didn't need it, since Liza had a better time playing in it.

So Freddy stayed home today, and ended up feeling fine the rest of the day, as far as I can tell.  We played outside this morning after I dressed Liza in her marshmallow snow outfit and monster snow boots (no, she could not move), and we did build a tiny little snowman with a carrot nose.

While Freddy took an epic 4-hour nap, and since Liza only took a pathetic 1/2 hour nap, Liza and I made chocolate chip cookies.  Actually, she worked on destroying the kitchen and den while I baked.  I made the mistake of giving Liza a tiny fingernail-sized piece of cookie.  She has been pointing a lot lately, and you can figure out from this picture that she knew right where those cookies were and was not going to rest until she got more.  When he woke up, I offered Freddy a beater from the mixer with cookie dough, and he turned it down.  What?!? Liza is going to be my spoon-licking kid.

Happy Birthday Freddy!

As I watched Liza draw (for the first time) on a closet door with a blue crayon, I was prompted to write a blog post because it illustrates (ha) the difference between my two kids.  Freddy just turned 3 and has NEVER drawn on a wall, door, etc.  Maybe on a table, if the crayon went off the paper by accident, but never on a wall.  And not because I told him not to - he just didn't.  Hmmm. What are we in for with this one? :)

Freddy turned 3 last Thursday!  We had a nice pizza and cupcake evening at home with a few nice gifts (thank you, friends and family!) and then had a big, 5-kid party Saturday night at a friend's house for Freddy and his friends Hayden and Maddox (twins, 3), Charlie (4), and Tripp (5).  Bless Tripps' mom Robin for hosting the party.  We had two big bouncy slides ready to go in her backyard, and it thunderstormed ALL DAY.  Robin, of course, probably has the cleanest house AND had just re-painted the entire inside.  And we had 70 people confirmed to come (including about 40 kids).  Needless to say, she was a little nervous.

But the kids had fun inside, and eventually the weather cleared for a little while and the kids basically played slip 'n slide on the big slides.  Lots of cold wet feet, but everyone had a good time - including Freddy!  He is not a fan of bouncy houses or, usually, bouncy slides, but as you can see - he got over his slide fears that night.  :)  How fortunate are we to have this handsome, witty, funny, smart little guy as part of our lives???

Everyday Objects

Turns out all we need are empty boxes and toilet paper to have a good time out here in Utah.  Come on over!

You'll notice Freddy's sweet undies!  We went pretty much cold turkey with the potty training a few months ago (no pull-ups), and now he's all underwear, all the time (naps and nights, hooray)!  Now we might need a big-boy bed, though, since Mom and Dad are getting a little tired of the 1 or 2 a.m. "Help! I need to pee-pee!" calls.  The question is, will he figure out how to go by himself if he can get out of bed alone?  Hmmm.

Liza is getting some big ole' teeth!  She has a giant gap between the top two, so I'm hoping the others come in quickly so they get pushed together.  She's enjoying chomping on anything crunchy these days...and some things not so crunchy (like me).  Ten months a few days ago - man, she is growing fast.

Both kids are excited to meet their new cousin Susannah (assuming that's still her name after she's born), who is already five days past due!  Good luck to Billy and Megan (Geier) and big sisters Victoria and Helen - we can't wait to meet the new addition when we go home to VA in November.

It's finally feeling like fall here in Utah.  Billy is being a hero dad these days, having been in charge for 3 days last week while I was at a board meeting in Montana (which was supposed to be 2 days but changed when my flight out got canceled!), and being on deck for this coming weekend as I travel to Chicago for Christine's baby shower there.  I can't wait to see that little baby Gowski belly!