Some Catching Up... Or Catching Things...

This past week I've been sick.  Arg.  I feel like I've been sick more this year than I have been in ages.  I wasn't even sick this much when I was teaching elementary art.  I'm talking kids wiping their noses then touching you, or putting something in their mouth and handing it to you, or worse, sneezing right in your face when you're talking to them.  It must be another fantastic perk of being a mom.  Awesome.

Anyway, it was struggle enough to pretend I was having a blast pulling MiniM.E. around in the laundry basket for hours on end while I was really ready to curl up in a ball and die.  Luckily, I pushed through it and am still alive.  I don't think MiniM.E. suffered too much.  Except for maybe the few hours that I totally curled up on the couch in a blanket and watched her watch the "tee" (TV).  Don't judge, it was Baby Songs, a totally ghetto DVD made from a 30 year old VHS tape that actually teaches things and is so slow moving that I don't have to worry about it affecting her attention span.  AND for the record, I can now take a shower without piercing screams echoing in the background.

Fortunately, aside from a hacking cough (which I am praying is not waking up my napping baby), I am better.

UNfortunately, while sick I not only neglected writing blog posts, I also neglected everything else I usually do around the house AND the baby shower I am co-planning and putting on THIS WEEKEND.  So this post will have to be short and sweet.  Starting now.  The beginning was totally procrastination.  But now, I really have to go do stuff.  Unless MiniM.E. wakes up.  Which she might.  If I sit here and keep writing and checking e-mail and shopping for Christmas presents long enough.  Then I won't have to do any of those things.  I'll have to play with a baby...

So, to recap the last week or so, MiniM.E. is super cute, as always

Walking everywhere

Loves to swing

especially the big kid swing

Is learning to help out and clean up

Is finding more and more things we need to baby proof

Is mastering new skills like jumping (almost)

And the magna doodle

Went in her first bounce house

Sat at the park at the grown up table

Likes to play in the dirt

Is having a blast in the big tub

Loves pretending to take naps

And still isn't a very good napper.  Though she definitely is cute when she's sleeping.

Aaannndd... She's up!  Mission avoid housework and baby shower planning: Accomplished.

So Many Changes!

I can't believe how grown up MiniM.E. seems some times.  She's so much more independent (aside from those days when she won't let go of my leg) and she's learning so much so fast.

Two really big transitions we made in the past few weeks were the big-kid carseat and the tub.

We went from this:

To this:

And this:

To this:

Overall, she seems a lot happier with both changes (expressions in the previous photos are not necessarily reflective of this...).  She loves looking out the window in the car and having so much room to play in the tub.  It all makes me a little sad though... *sigh*

But then she does something like this:

And I'm reminded that she's still my little baby.  :)

Happy November!

...and hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween.  If your Halloween was cancelled by Sandy, I'm sorry.  BUT, lucky for us here in Saratoga Springs, we barely got a rain shower and Halloween was ON.  Full force.

Seriously, we were so lucky for the weather for all our Halloween activities since the forecast for both Sunday (when we had our neighborhood Halloween Parade) and Wednesday looked pretty grim.

We started out our Halloween preparation by visiting Sunnyside Gardens one more time.  Mostly because it was awesome.  It helped that the weather was nice.  And who couldn't use one last kid-friendly "Haunted" Hayride?  We met up with our playgroup friends for some added fun.

Hanging in the Pumpkin Patch

Cleaning up the Hayride

The best part.  This.  Cutest. Thing. Ever.

3 Babies in a Wagon

Saturday was the Saratoga Springs Fall Festival.  We dressed MiniM.E. up in her owl costume (complete with "whoo-ing") for the first time.  This is how she felt about it to start.

Fortunately, she got over it, and we had a good time Trick-or-Treating at the stores on Broadway.  Unfortunately, MiniM.E. took a record nap (of course, the one time we want to get up and go somewhere) and we missed the petting zoo and some other kid-friendly activities.  We did get to play in the park and take TWO last rides on the carousel for the season.

"Get. It. Off"

Hanging out at one of the stores

We also stopped in at Starbucks where we had an informal photo shoot.  This year's best Halloween pictures are definitely at Starbucks.

Sunday afternoon we had our neighborhood Halloween Parade.  We'll call it a "First Annual."  It was really successful and a lot of people came out to march down the street behind Bob on his unicycle.  (No, I don't have a picture of that :( Hopefully someone will send me one).  I was able to get everyone together for the parade using Nextdoor.com, an awesome website that allows you to make a FREE website for your neighborhood.  (Interested?  Let me know and we can both get $50 Starbucks gift cards!)

Ready to go!

A. and her parents.  A chicken, a rooster and an egg.  Too cute.

With Daddy the (smeary) tiger.

I guess the actual marching in a parade was a little too much for MiniM.E. (she cried the whole time), but she sure liked playing in the leaves at the beginning and end of the parade!

We enjoyed the leaves on Monday while we waited for Hurricane Sandy and Halloween.

I have to admit, while I'm glad that we didn't get hit hard by Sandy, I was a little disappointed that we didn't even lose power.  How Halloweeny would that have been!?!

BUT, we did have nice weather for Halloween, which was fantastic, because I'm pretty sure a raincoat-wearing owl probably wouldn't have cut it for me and we just would have stayed in.

On Halloween we had plans to visit the Riggi Mansion for their annual Halloween Party, complete with trick-or-treating for full-sized candy bars and the chance to win $100, ponies, cider and donuts.  And of course, security guards.  Last year we went when MiniM.E. was only two weeks old.  It was so cool, it became the start of a yearly tradition. Our friends from Germany were visiting and it seemed like the perfect Saratoga on Halloween activity.  We met at M.'s house (just like last year) with our Germans and our playgroup friends.

MiniM.E. just wanted to watch TV

The three babies (this might rival the wagon photo)

Ready to walk to the mansion!

This year we planned on getting their earlier to avoid the huge line, but we had to wait almost an hour anyway.

Waiting patiently.

Fortunately, there were ponies to pet.

Last year, MiniM.E. was too little to sit on the princess's lap (it wasn't even Michele Riggi last year, it was her daughter, so it wouldn't have been the same anyway), but this year I plopped her right down next to the princess (and by plopped, please read: shoved my screaming baby at the princess, who had to struggle to get my "scarecrow-ing" baby to bend her legs enough to sit down on her lap).   I was attempting to make faces and dance around in hopes of elliciting a smile (so I didn't get a picture, but I will update as soon as the photographer's website is updated), but I failed miserably and MiniM.E. cried the whole time.  (I CANNOT wait for her to sit on Santa's lap.  Seriously.)  Poor Cinderella.  We didn't even get the golden ticket.

MiniM.E. forgot all about it as soon as I let her taste a donut.

Here is MiniM.E. playing on the steps in front of M.'s house.

She's so good at going up and down stairs now, she thinks its a game.  Sadly, she only napped for 20 minutes yesterday and was really tired... so this ended up in a faceplant on the sidewalk.

Can you see that egg? 

Poor MiniM.E.

She seemed exhausted but fine from the fall, so we skipped trick-or-treating and just had a bath and went to bed (well, Bob and I stayed up and ate pizza with our German friends and handed out candy).

And now it's November already.  I can't believe it!  Bring on Thanksgiving!!

What A Daredevil!

MiniM.E. is learning so much so fast.  Like how to use a slide.  Which is super cute.  We bought her a little slide for the yard and after just a few days, she figured out how to climb up and slide down all by herself!

So of course, using baby logic, it would probably make sense that if you could climb one slide and slide down, you could probably climb any slide and slide down, right?

MiniM.E. the Daredevil totally climbed this

NOT the red web thing, the stairs under the blue umbrella

all by herself and was ready to slide down without help.

Don't worry, I want her to be independent, but not that independent.  I was right behind her the whole time and we slid down together.

I guess this means no more unsupervised playground time.  (just kidding, I know you have to watch your child on a playground...)

I Don't Want to Brag, But...

My kid is pretty darn smart.  For a one-year-old.  At least, I think she's pretty darn smart.  Not that I know many one-year-olds.

She knows the name of pretty much anything we've talked about at least a few times and can point to items, find them where they should be located, and bring them on command.  Which is super cute.  And could be pretty helpful.  Soon.  Like once she actually just brings one washcloth for dinner without dumping the rest of them on the floor.

She knows some sign language, which is definitely a mixed blessing.  It's really nice to know she's fussy because she's hungry, but when I've read Push and Pop Jungle 80 times and I don't want to read it again, it's really hard to say no when she signs "please."

AND, she's a huge animal noise fan.  Or maybe we just think it's cute to hear her make them, so we've turned her into an animal noise fan.

Anyhow, here's a video... too cute.