branch halloween party

Saturday was our branch (church congregation) Halloween celebration. Trying to explain it in retrospect with some semblance of order is too much for my brain, so I'll just cover the highlights:

Although our church has a no-mask policy, no one remembered to tell the kids, so some showed up with masks. These were in conjunction with fairly scary costumes, especially if you're almost three. I spent a lot of the beginning of the activity holding Kiddo because she was scared. When the mom figured out, she told the kids to get rid of the masks. They are good kids, so they came up to apologize to Kiddo. At this point, their clothes were associated with the masks though, so she wasn't up for that fun. One of them, attempting to make amends, said "Hit me." How do I explain to this good ten-year old that our family solves our problems differently than that? At the end of the party, the masks re-emerged, and sent our little girl over the edge. We went home without helping clean up.

I had basically one assignment, prepare the trick-or-treating venue. (Many congregations do a trunk-or-treat. As there are few cars in our branch, we chose to set it up in our one hallway.) And I tried to prepare for it. And then found that my planning was co-opted by the Primary President, who changed it to something a little less fun, and nothing like what I had envisioned. Oh well, the kids still enjoyed themselves.

We were supposed to have a pinata. Excellent. Except it was homemade, so it was actually just a cardboard box decorated with a Halloween theme. It was a tough cardboard box. The bat did not split the box, it was finally just opened.

Babs spent a lot of time with her friend Mac. Mac has a thing for crawling to Babs, then pulling at her, and chewing on whatever part of her he can locate - feet, hands, shoulder, face, whatever. They are about the same height, but she has about five pounds on him, which makes a difference.

Although we managed to get the bulk of the primary children to the party, the next day at church, as is typical right now, Kiddo was the only child there.

Despite all this, Kiddo has fond memories of her Halloween experience. "I was a fairy, Sami was a chicken, and Babs was a penguin." The highlight for her was surely musical chairs, which quickly morphed, for her, into dancing on the side with her Daddy. What more could my girl want?

civic duty aborted

I made sure to register to vote. I investigated the candidates and issues (briefly) so I was at least somewhat informed. I suited up myself and the girls for a walk in the crisp fall air. (Hats for everyone!)

I made it to the polling place, tried to check in at the wrong desk, but then they directed me correctly. At the new desk, they had a hard time finding my name (trying to look me up by my first name, not last), but eventually I could enter the booth and vote!

It took me a few moments to figure out how the voting worked (very simple, but not necessarily self-evident), and I properly indicated my first vote of four.

I moved to indicate my second vote when I heard "I did it!" from my 2 year old.

"Thank you for voting," I heard from one of the poll workers.

Kiddo had pushed the "cast my vote" button (exactly at her eye level, and bright red) for me.

my little bruiser

Babs checks in at 19 lbs, 9 oz., and 28 1/4 inches. Yes, that's off the charts. Yes, that means there is lots more of her to love, and we love all of her.

so, it's official

I read this in the Self magazine:

"Motherhood:
"Feel like an alien stole your brain? A woman's brain shrinks 8 percent during pregnancy. The whys aren't fully understood,... but the theory is that surges of the bonding hormone oxytocin may be restructuring brain circuits, rerouting energy and nutrients to the regions dedicated to attachment and baby tracking. And never fear: Brain size returns to normal six months post-baby, so if you're till feeling spacey, chalk it up to sleep deprivation and stress. Both have been shown to decrease brain function temporarily in numerous studies."

Explains a lot, doesn't it?

(The source of this information seems to be Louann Brizendine, M.D., a neuropsychiatrist.)

meet jack

This is Kiddo's jack-o-lantern. He lives in the pantry, which doubles as a root cellar in the cold weather*. She made him with her daddy at a church activity the other night. (I stayed home and put Secundus to bed.) She was excited to go see pumpkins, although slightly confused at our insistence that there would be no "pumpkin cars" (Cinderella's coach) for her to ride in. She, understandably, thought that's what pumpkins do, is become cars. But, once we remedied that misconception, the activity was a success.

Kiddo got to help take out the seeds and the "pumpkin goo." She was not allowed to touch "the really sharp knife." Then she "broke" out the eyes, nose, and mouth. She was thrilled to have such an adventure with her daddy.

"I made this pumpkin with my dad," she told me with pride and love.


*At the time of this picture, we'd had two warm days, and I noticed Jack was a little droopy. So we took a picture, fast. I gave Kiddo strict instructions not to touch Jack, just sit next to him. "He has hair in his mouth" she noted. Yes, DON'T TOUCH. After the picture, I dumped his moldy self out.

half-birthday

Babs is six-months old today. I love her so much.

A song we sing often around here is "A, you're adorable." The line for u is "U make my life complete." That line was true when I fell in love and married my husband. But then somehow we made room for Kiddo, and soon couldn't imagine life without her. The same goes for Babs. How were we a family without her? I'm glad we've had six months of completion with her.

Some (okay, a lot of) things she's up to:
*She sincerely wants mobility. She balances on her copious belly, reaches her arms out, kicks the air, and goes no where. But she really, really, really wants to. She can turn from her back to her front and pivot though, so I still have to do a floor check when I put her down.
*She is not impressed by the limitations I have for what she chews on. She would really like paper and (filmy) plastic to be part of her diet. Oh, how she covets the wipes bag. And she always wants to be chewing.

*She doesn't suck on her thumb, hand, or self, really. Except for a day or so after she sees Mac, her friend of the same age. He sucks on his middle two fingers, and she seems to always want to try this after seeing him.
*She can now sit on her own for short periods of time. The clunk of her head hitting the floor is my indication that she's done.
*When she is truly at the end of her rope, tired, hungry, or both, she makes the specific sound of "maah, maah, maah" that sounds heartbreakingly like mama.
*We sporadically feed her solids. She has no use for rice cereal, but is incredibly fond of rice. I cannot shovel it in her mouth fast enough for her. (Part of the problem may be that I will only put in a few grains at a time, because her chewing is still primitive at best.) She likes orange vegetables. When her daddy feeds her, she insists on helping the spoon to her mouth, then extracting it so he can put more food on it. Often, we think she's done, but really, she's just found her bib and needs to chew on it a while. If the bib is removed from her sight, she'll start eating again.
*I think I'm mentally ready to wean her, but like her sister, she is bottle challenged.
*She has the most beautiful smile.
*When tickled, she will eventually laugh, but it sounds like she can't quite get it all the way out. Her most spontaneous laughs are when she interacts with other babies (especially our friends' little boy, Mac, who is almost her age) and when she realizes that Kiddo's hair is in reach.
*She looks amazing in blue.
*She looks just like her daddy.
*She has a crazy reverse mullet, such that she had fuzzy hair in the back, and long straight bangs that fall into her eyes.
*She wakes up about the same time the household wakes up (when we can't convince Kiddo to be still any longer), stays up for no more than 45 minutes, then goes back to sleep for a few more hours. On more way she is like her daddy. She doesn't necessarily eat. Because of this, we have to wake her up every Sunday for church.
*She still wakes up two or three times a night. Once about when I go to bed, and then anywhere between 3 and 6 am.
*We've never seen her ribs through her skin (like her sister) because of her fabulous fat rolls all over her belly and her thick, thick thighs. I expect she weighs close to 20 lbs.

*She has a very good nature and, if she's getting enough sleep and attention, is super pleasant.
*She loves singing. Unless its time for a nap, then she cries about how long it is taking you to get in her in her bed. I give up, stop singing and put her down.
*People tell me constantly how alert she looks. It's true. She is taking in the whole world as fast as she can. We're also told often how beautiful she is. Also true.
*When put down to sleep, she cries out, turns over, and falls asleep. It is not uncommon to see her with her face in the mattress, head propped up on her hands for some air, completely face down.
*Her sister tells us all the time how tiny she is, because she's just a baby. There are many things she can't do, but when she grows up, and gets teeth, this will be remedied.

choices

I wanted Kiddo to fall asleep quickly tonight. So I was sort of hoping she wouldn't take a nap. But quiet time (although not terribly quiet) is sacrosanct at this house, and I was determined to get my time today, even if only for the sake of Babs, who needs a little personal mom time each day. I just wanted fifteen minutes to pretend to sleep while Babs sat on my belly chewing on cow and making noises.

It's always a tough choice. Do I want quiet time for me in the afternoon (thus more patience and enjoyment of the children, plus blogposts for you!) and a very pleasant child in the evening followed by hours of stay-in-bed fun, or no rest for me, and a tired and "delicate" child in the evening who at least falls asleep almost immediately? I never know.

Today Kiddo sacked out in those fifteen minutes I was determined to have apart, actually, in the last five. So I'm getting some quiet time to myself today (and thank goodness, the kitchen is already clean, so I don't have to feel guilt about that) but we'll be fighting that child about staying in bed for hours tonight. She'll go to bed easily enough. But she'll need to go the bathroom at least once. She'll want to read. She may leave bed. She may need some water. And eventually, she'll ask for covers.

That's when we'll know we've almost won. We'll go wrap her up, and she'll finally fall asleep. The question is, will this be before, or after, I wanted to go to bed myself?