Happy Halloween

As if this wasn't cute enough... And this actually isn't his costume, my sis had it at my mom's the other day and I couldn't resist trying it on him. My little pumpkin! We will actually have a pair of dragons at our house this year, so be sure to check back this coming week for some more pics. Thanks for stopping by, Happy All Hallow's Eve!!

Bibs

My husband's Uncle Tommy and Aunt Lorrie came to visit several weeks ago. They make the trek several times a year and we always look forward to the opportunity to see and visit with them. Aunt Lorrie is an incredibly crafty gal, and always brings some sort of project to show me or work on together. This time it was bibs...and not only did she bring enough oil cloth material for several bibs for Kolbe (yet to be assembled) she also brought some sweet little girl print for my two nieces. The bibs went together very quickly and easily (holler if you'd like the pattern), but I do think I'd like to find someone with a serger I could use next go-around (these are just zig-zagged). It would just give them a cleaner edge. They still turned out super-sweet though, and with some heavy-duty TouchTape for velcro we were even able to outsmart Ruby, who thus far had ripped off every bib she's met! Don't they look adorable?! And speaking of the cousins, here's the most recent pic of the three babies together...Anna @ 11 months, Kolbe @ 9.5 months and Ruby @ not quite 8 months. Aren't they cute?!!

Cutest pumpkin in the patch

Small successes XIV

1. Kolbe crawls (at 9.5 months)!!!!!!! Totally his success not mine, but deserves a spot here none-the-less! Watch out, world (and especially big sis)!

2. Regularly scheduled confession.

3. Finally got caught up (temporarily) in the baby-food department. He's eating lots of finger-foods now, but still some purees as well. I was a choppin', pureein' fool for several days, and now Kolbe has a relatively full shelf on the freezer. Little tank, it won't last long, of this I am sure!

How awesome are you? Share your successes over at Faith and Family Live!

Whiney Wednesday V

1. This is one of those dumb little things that is hardly worth complaining about, but I'm going to anyways because it annoys me: I am tired of getting mail addressed to "Dr. Aaron and Monica Ourlastname". If you're going to use his title, use mine as well and put "Dr. and Mrs." I realize he worked hard for his title (and I totally respect that and am not irritated that people use it, don't get me wrong), but by-golly I work hard to be a Mrs. as well. And anyways, you wouldn't address something "Mr. Aaron and Monica Ourlastname", you would naturally put "Mr. and Mrs." Why does this bother me so much? Am I really that nit-picky?

2. Gemma's new-found defiance is nothing short of unbearable. I'm told this comes with the threes, which are coming up for us. Oh dear Lord, grant me patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control and all those other good "fruits". Please. She is a very sweet girl, don't get me wrong, but does she ever have a streak!

3. Oh patience and sanity, why must you elude me when I need you most?

All right, keepin' it real here folks. But in all reality, life is good, I am blessed, and heaven knows I'm a work in progress. Help me Lord to offer these pebbles up for your greater glory and honor. If you want to take a day a week to vent a bit and keep things real on your blog, click here for Whiney Wednesday rules and info.

Recent weekly themes

Here are some of the weekly things Gemma has been up to lately.

ANIMALS
The first week in October we talked about animals and St. Francis (the patron saint of animals). The lacing cards are still a bit beyond her, but she is starting to have more patience for them. She had a particularly fun time "reading" the yellow picture-book with the butterfly on the front to Kolbe. It was very sweet hearing her tell him about the different animals and what they each said. She wanted so badly for him to repeat her. Soon...
NUMBERS
Last week we talked all about numbers. Gemma has taken a particular interest in counting lately, and has even learned how to find her favorite songs on her CD's by reading the numbers on the CD player, so I thought it would be a good time to do "number week". I first saw Teddy Bear Counting in a scholastic book order about a month ago. I was particularly intrigued as I thought it would go so well with our counting bears. I decided to check it out from the library first to see if it would be a good fit, and I think this may be one we'll buy. It was great! Gemma had fun with it, mainly matching her colored bears to the ones on the pages and doing a bit of counting. Plus the whole story was all rhyme-y and just cute. But it went into pretty good depth about adding, subtracting and grouping (I'd say up to Kdg/1st grade concepts) so I think this will definitely be one we'd get some use out of over the next several years.
Countdown to Fall (another library book) talked about the different kinds of leaves found in the fall. We did a painting project to go along with this book. I painted the trunk and branches and Gemma used red, yellow and orange to paint the leaves. It was fun. It's exciting that she is getting old enough to do projects like this. (And as an aside, I am totally excited about this little magnetic photo-sleeve I found to display fridge-art! Very handy, and keeps pictures from getting bent or wet!)
I made these counting cards for her with some old stickers I had sitting around the house, and then had them laminated at FedEx/Kinkos. I was SO excited with how they turned out, and she really caught on to pointing to the "buggies" and counting them. This has been something new she has started to do, and it's fun seeing her begin to conceptualize the idea of counting and numbers.
These foam numbers are actually from a bath toy set, but they work well in our "numbers" box.
PUMPKINS
This week we are talking about pumpkins and Halloween!
I found the little wooden pumpkins on sale for $.12 a piece at Joann's, and painted them, then put the letter stickers on to spell her name. I figure since she's getting so good at recognizing and recalling numbers, then maybe she can start identifying/spelling the letters in her name as well. As an added surprise, they also have some sparkles and glow-in-the-dark paint on them! All kinds of cool! (And I'll admit, I really had a fun time making these too. Like, pathetically fun. ;-D).
I think we will paint paper-plate pumpkins together this week, and daddy has a special pumpkin surprise planned for Gemma this weekend, so you'll have to be sure to check back!!

Apples

We're still working on going through all the apples we picked several weeks ago. The box has just been sitting on the kitchen counter, and I've been a-peelin' and choppin' my way through it as I'm able. Mainly making applesauce for the babe, but we (Aaron) did make an apple crisp this weekend as well. Yummy!

Anyways, I was working in the kitchen the other day and moved the box of apples to the floor so I could have more counter space. I went to another part of the house to get something, and came back to find this.
He was determined to get a bite. I took them away (mean 'ole mommy) before he was actually able to get a chunk off, but it was so cute seeing his little teeth marks in the apples. He managed to "try" about three of them before I redirected him to another activity. So cute.

Gemma's music

Gemma is starting to really enjoy music. She has a handful of children's CDs and can change them by herself (her CD player is on the floor in her room), and she has even memorized the numbers to her favorite songs and can find them and program them to repeat on loop all on her own. This still amazes me a bit, that she can memorize and recognize the numbers. Really? But she does it without help, which is actually kind of nice since she definitely has an opinion about which songs she likes. Here she is dancing in her room.
Yup, picked out her clothes all by herself. Actually, she had the dress on from Mass, and just added the pants when we got home. The dress has owls on it, so that ups the "coolness" factor for her immensely. Here she is sitting in front of her CD player.

Kolbe's winter hat

I knew we needed to find a hat for Kolbe this winter, what with his lack of hair and everything, but everything I found was way too huge on his tiny little head. ;-D I decided to have my friend Michelle knit a hat for him and it turned out sooooo precious!! Much nicer than anything I could have bought in a store. It fits great, stays on and covers his ears with the little ties, and should work for next year as well!! Here he is modeling his new hat with Michelle. So handsome.
If you're interested in buying any hand-knit items, check out Michelle's Etsy shop, Just Peachy Knits!

Kolbe - 9 months

Sweet Kolbe boy is nine months old! It has been a great month. He is painfully close to crawling. He can go from sitting to the crawling position and has even gone back to the sitting position on his own a few times. He rotates 360 degrees when he's on his stomach and rolls everywhere. He LOVES to eat, which is very foreign to me. Gemma has never been a huge fan of eating, so it is fun having a child who will scarf down anything put in front of him. We're staying away from gluten and the other usual suspects (peanut butter, egg, dairy, sugar) until at least a year, but he has tried lots of other things...grains, meats (beef, pork, chicken and some fish), beans, cheerios and lots of fruits and veggies. He still does well with the purees I make him, but really enjoys eating finger food all by himself, too. He has five teeth. A couple weeks ago he slept close to an eight hour stretch two nights in a row (GASP!), but hasn't done that since. But it was after a couple really rough nights, so I wonder if he was just catching up. He usually wakes up to nurse 2-3 times a night, and typically sleeps with us from around midnight or 1am until I put him back in his crib when I get up in the morning (sometimes he stays asleep, sometimes he wants to get up too, so I have an early-morning buddy ;-D) We kind of tried just two naps a day for a bit, but the poor little guy just can't quite make it through the long evenings. He typically grabs a small snooze in the evening before dinner, and is ready for bed around 8:00PM. He is getting much more interactive with us (with everyone) and especially big sis, and enjoys things like peek-a-boo and playing silly laughing games with Gemma at the dinner table. He loves to "talk" and babbles all kinds of sounds. He's a go-with-the-flow type of guy, and loves hanging out with mama in the sling on errands, at the library, etc. He is a sweet, happy, easy-going baby and fits right in with our family.

Nine month stats:
Weight: 19 lbs, 3 oz (25%ile)
Length: 28.5 inches (50%ile)
Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (25%ile)

Nine month professional picObligatory monthly couch pic. Happy guy in the swing at the park Monthly pic with big sis Snoozin' with mama Bundled up on a chilly autumn morning

So close to crawling!

WE LOVE YOU, KOLBE BOY!!!

Small successes XIII

1. Hosted family at our house for dinner two Friday evenings in a row (nine people one week, five the next - plus the four of us).

2. Found that Gap.com is carrying some of my favorite winter shirts again, and they're running a 25% off your entire purchase (with code GAPSAVE25) through tomorrow. I ordered two...here's hoping they fit as well as the ones in my closet from several years ago!

3. I am up and everyone else is still asleep! Lately I've had a nine-month-old buddy awaken with me every morning. I love him, but I cherish my quiet early mornings as well.

When you're a mom, every success - no matter how big or small - is worthy of recognition...and it's nice to take a day of the week to reflect and share these successes. Head on over to Faith and Family Live! to share yours and read about others'.

Whiney Wednesday IV

1. Got a new email address and am trying to consolidate everything to it. Why does this have to be so difficult? Why won't blogger let me use a Gmail as my primary for this account?? Will someone just come and do all this for me??? Bleh.

2. Why do I have to lose my patience at the end of a day that went really well? Fit throwing two-year-old, woken up baby. If I had just shut the laptop and focused on one thing instead of being lazy, none of it would have happened. Bleh. Bleh.

3. Can we please come to a happy medium between naps and bedtime, dear two-year-old? Three + hour naps are nice, but the late bedtime that proceeds these is, well, not nice. But then it just turns into a big, vicious, messy, off-balance sleep-cycle, and it's irritating. me. How did this happen? A one-and-a-half to two-hour nap and reasonable bedtime would be perfect. Why can't we seem to figure this out?? Bleh. Bleh. Bleh.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system I'm going to try to be a reasonably positive person. To participate in Whiney Wednesday click here for the rules. Happy middle-of-the-week, everyone!!

Night out

We go out to dinner as a family maybe 4-5 times a year. There is a local Mexican restaurant that we absolutely love. It is family friendly, reasonably priced, and they always get you seated and served super-quick. We went there this past weekend and it was Kolbe's first time to sit in a big-boy high chair at a restaurant (I think the last time we went he was less than six months). He had SO. MUCH. FUN. He couldn't stop squealing and laughing and looking all around. It was super sweet and we all had a wonderful time.
No, Kolbe, you may not share daddy's margarita.
Gemma's favorite part is the chips and salsa! But then, who's isn't?!
We were right under a vent, so her sweet daddy went to the car and got her a blanket.
Our evenings out to eat are few and far between, but we so enjoy them when we go.

Apple week

Last week was apple week at our house. We had some fun activities and started the week off by making applesauce on Monday morning with some apples from my sister's tree. First we read Applesauce Season together. It was a fun, educational story and worked well after modifying it a bit for Gemma's level of understanding/attention.
It turned out SUPER tasty. We just cooked the apples down in the crock pot and added some butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. Typical Gemma fashion, I think she tried about one bite. Silly girl. Bubby, on the other hand, LOVED it (sans sugar/cinnamon/butter) and I even made another batch later in the week to freeze specifically for him. WHEW! I've peeled a lot of apples lately. 'Tis the season. ;-D
Wednesday was the hilight of the week, when we took a trip to an apple orchard with my sister and her children. The day dawned just perfectly...sunny with a crisp chill in the air. The perfect fall kind of day for picking apples. We had a great time and my sis went all out with some really neat activities for the kids when we got back from the orchard.

Picking apples
Having fun together! Gemma and I ended up in matching hoodies...didn't even plan that!!
Cousins!!
I love this picture.
She dutifully toted her box all over.
Where's Gemma?
Tossing apples in the box is fun, just don't toss too hard!
God's beautiful creation.
Kolbe decided to grab a little snooze.
Our "catch" for the day, around 20 lbs (yea, more peeling for me!)
Time for apple crafts! Gemma got to use paints for the first time!!
Getting their feet painted for the footprint tree trunk.
Blowing the paint around to make the tree-top.
Sometimes fingers work better! ;-D
Adding some sparkly red apples to her tree.
Finished work of art.
Bobbing for apples (slices). "You want us to what?!!"
Taking turns and enjoying some tasty, fresh-picked apple slices!
Who knew bobbing for apples was a full-contact sport!
Sweet Gemma chewed up a bite of apple and crawled over and put it in her bubby-brother's mouth for him. I suppose she's seen me bite large pieces of food into smaller bits for him. It was really sweet.
We also enjoyed reading Apple Harvest a couple times throughout the week. I really like the series from which this book came. The books are geared toward young preschoolers with short concise sentences and wonderful photographs. As we were talking about this book, I was mentioning to Gemma all the tasty things we could do with apples: applesauce, apple pie, apple crisp. I said, "you like apple crisp, don't you Gemma?" To which she looked at me and very seriously replied, "No, I just like grandpa Chris" (who is my dad). Apparently she didn't hear the "p" on the end of "crisp". She cracks me up!!

The week was a success for sure, and we still have lots of apples with which to make yummy treats! Happy autumn, everyone!!