Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Trick-or-Treating at the Zoo

Saturday afternoon Paul, the girls and I met our friends Jen, Glenn and Lauren at the zoo for some trick-or-treating. Grace was dressed as an angel, Lydia was Piglet, and Lauren was Eeyore.

I wasn't sure how Grace would react from getting candy from strangers. She tends to be very cautious with new people and new experiences, but she did fine. She didn't like when people put the candy directly in her bag; she preferred people hand her the treat so she could put it in her own bag.

We compared our babies to the size of a baby gorilla.

Fingerpainting

Since the weather is getting cooler we spend more time inside. I bought lots of fingerpaint assuming that it would keep Grace entertained for hours this fall and winter. I couldn't have been more wrong. Lydia, on the other hand, would spend the entire day getting messy. The picture in front of Grace is not her own artwork. Lydia painted it before Grace passed it off as her ow. Lydia was quit happy to start over.
What a mess!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Around our House

The pictures that I posted are in the reverse order that I tried to post them so I will give you the updates a little bit backward.

Grace thinks Lydia should do what Grace does all the time. Whether it is eating a snack, reading books, walking, or playing with toys. Lydia loves the attention and goes with the flow. Lydia is standing as long as she is holding onto a toy or furniture. She is also crawling everywhere. One would think that our house is already baby proofed, but I seemed to forget how much our babies enjoy playing in the dog's dish and trying to chew on cords.
Earlier this year we had converted Grace's crib into a toddler bed by removing one side and lowering the mattress as low as it went. We have since moved Grace into a big bed since she was seeming a little bit crowded. I think her favorite part is that there is more room for her stuffed animals.

Catching Up

So we are a little bit behind with the posting. A few weeks ago we met some friends from college in Madison. It was a beautiful October day. I am already missing not having to bundle the girls in jackets every day. Grace was easily entertained by Becky as they checked out dogs and Lake Mendota. We also have Becky to thank for Grace's new goofy struts.








Sunday, October 5, 2008

Four Wheel Drive in Development

Lydia is very close to crawling. She's can pull herself up holding on to some one's hands. Even as she is right now, she's capable of moving about a room to get what she wants. But the surest indicator or what we call the sign of the Apocalypse is her rocking:


She's quite proud of herself:

PETA




Paul has been on vacation since 25 Sept. We started the vacation with a long weekend at the Schuh's in Athelstane. Grace (with some minor help from Grandpa Charlie) caught a Bluegill dinner on Friday after Grandpa (with some help from Paul) split nearly 3 cords of firewood. Charlie and Paul couldn't figure out which one of us was the one whipped like a rented mule.






After getting home and taking an easy Sunday, Paul started work on rebuilding the retaining wall between our lot and our southwest-bound neighbors. It looks good now but we'll see if it lasts. The Spring freeze-thaw cycle could push the wall around.

Then we finished vacation with a trip to the Gtown Fireman Safety Fair and a trip to Jim's Pumpkin Patch. The girls watched a home fire demonstration, Grace jumped in giant inflatable, and they checked out all the displays.




At the pumpkin patch, Grace and Lydia stuck their heads through many silhouette cut-outs of witches, ghouls and ghosts. We also found a couple of great pumpkins for our festivity display.