Halloween Carnival and other fun festivities

 We enjoyed a Halloween Carnival, especially Maxwell.  He had a blast playing all the games and getting candy, of course.

Maxwell and I enjoying the Hayride.  He thought it was pretty cool.

So we were about done but we had bought some tickets to use and hadn't used them.  Maxwell had ZERO interest in riding rides (maybe he remembered when we made him do a ride last year?).   He had zero interest in doing a bounce house...the cotton candy machine was down...so the only thing we were left with was the cake walk.  

I had no idea what a cake walk was until we moved to Texas.  I think it's pretty silly but oh well.  For anyone who doesn't know, it's basically musical chairs but instead of taking a chair away, when the music stops the seats are all numbered and they pick a number.  The person sitting in that seat wins a cake or some type of dessert like brownies or a pie.

At first Maxwell wouldn't do it alone and I had to walk with him but after a couple times (and he wanted to keep going until we won) his confidence was up and he started doing it all alone.

Intently listening for who the winner was

Video - Maxwell doing the cake walk.  He's so little!!

He wasn't disturbed by the other costumes, he was so intent on winning.  Unfortunately we went through all 10 tickets and never won.  :(

At home the baby wasn't too happy that I was trying to give her avocados.  She does NOT like them.  She is so tiny in the high chair!

The 3 boys decorated their pumpkins.

Dad, Maxwell, and his pumpkin - - - a pirate for my little pirate.

Speaking of dressing up, can you find my cute husband in this pic?  

(from when he plays paintball)

Maxwell likes to pull my hair over my shoulder on one side and then say "you look like Elsa, Momma". :)  I sort of love it.

Maxwell has been struggling with staying dry during nap time at school the past 2 weeks and has had two accidents each week.  It's frustrating that they won't put a pull up on him and instead have to deal with completely changing his clothes and bagging up his wet clothes and nap mat (and then I have to wash everything so that it's clean for the next day).  Why not just let him use a pull up!?  ugh

At least he seems to be learning at school.  He is now writing some of his letters and as I've talked about, can write "MAX".  I think his experiences at school helped him do great at the carnival when we were standing in so many lines and he was so patient and well behaved each time.


Emmalyn is struggling with her naps during the day.  It's so frustrating and can take so much effort to keep trying to get her down.  The good news though is that she has no issues at night.  She is still up 2 - 3 times between 11 pm and 7 am to nurse.

She's solid in her ability to sit.  I'll let her just sit there and play for quite a long time.  She will move to her belly if she's done.  She also has the army crawl down.

Finally, some food!

Emmalyn turned 6 months old on October 13, 2014.  I can't believe it's been 6 months!  (I'm writing this blog on her first birthday.  Sheesh, I'm behind.  It's crazy and a little empowering to see how far we've come.)

She is such a happy baby

Max made this painting at school.  I was super proud of him because it's finger painting so he must have gotten his hands at least a little dirty.

Mr. Maxwell loves vanilla ice cream cones

The most exciting part of turning 6 months old is she finally gets to eat solid foods!!!  We decided to start out with some rice cereal.

She's so excited that she can't be patient while Momma's stirring

"Ooh!  Give it to me!"

"Not as good as I imagined..."

She grabbed that spoon and shoved it right into her mouth

"Okay, never mind.  This will work."

Same experience, different camera:

Everyone was excited to watch

It's like I wasn't going fast enough and she felt like she had to help me.

Peter walked into the bathroom and caught Max like this.  Glad it was him and not me.  :)

Update on the kids:

EMMALYN

• I swear she says "hi".  There is SO MUCH spit up and drool and not so much talking.  It's still hard to get her to laugh.  She is sitting up longer.  Everything goes in her mouth including her toes.  You can see a tooth coming but it's not broken through,.  She's quite mobile and gets around by rolling and scooting.  She's pushing up on her hands and toes so I figure crawling isn't far away.  She reaches out to touch your face when she wants to love on you - Max lets her do it to him and I find it so sweet.  She will reach for who she wants.  She goes to sleep fastest when there is something touching her head (like a blanket or burp cloth).  She is hard to get down for a nap but is easy to get down at night.  She normally goes to sleep around 8:30 and gets up between 12:39 and 1:39 to nurse and then again somewhere between 4-5:30 am. 

MAXWELL

• We are in the car and Maxwell says, "Mom, do you see that?"  "What?"  "I put it in my nose"  "What, the napkin?!"  "Yes."         Ugh.         "Max you shouldn't put things in your nose."   "It was fun."          Oh boy.
• He is certainly learning new things at school - he has started drawing and coloring objects just not in the lines yet.  He is writing more letters each day and reading more.  He is such a polite boy.  We've had less tantrums lately.  He's also incredibly sweet.  
• He's a pro at our routines and one night told me, "I don't want to go potty, put my pajamas on, brush my teeth, and play on the iPad"
• He loves to dance and also do Peter's or Brit's work out moves. 
• He talks about his skills... His basketball skills, his soccer skills, his running skills... 
• One day he actually wanted to play in Chick-Fil-A's a play place!  I was shocked.  He didn't end up climbing into the playground but still played with the toys on the walls.  That's a big deal.
• He is very concerned about us leaving him lately and if we are getting ready to go out the door he starts getting anxious and saying "don't leave me".  I tell him I'm not going to leave him, he's my partner.  Or if I'm putting on my shoes he will say, "Don't leave without me Momma. "
• He's been giving verbal praise to Peter and I and will say things like, "very excellent" or "incredible"    :)  Makes me smile.

End of September 2014

Look at those cheeks!!

Video - Emmalyn working on her sitting up skills

Reading books with daddy at bedtime

She was so entertained

I had my first trip for work.  I needed to go to Minneapolis to meet with General Mills and was able to work it that I just had to be there for a meeting and could take the first flight in the morning and the last flight out.  I was incredibly grateful that I didn't need to spend the night.

I did have to deal with pumping and flying with breast milk (went smoothly).  I pumped in the rental car a few times and then also at General Mills HQ.  They had great individual rooms for nursing moms all over the building.  It was a great set up.  So grateful for organizations that support nursing moms!  It sure was a hassle to travel with an extra bag for all my pump stuff but it was worth it.  

So glad to be back at home with my baby.  I felt like I was gone for much longer than 17 hours.

My adorable baby girl

Big Brother and his Little Sister

Sometimes I will catch these two actually engaging with each other.  THIS is why it was so important to me for Maxwell to have a sibling.  I love this stuff!

Letting her touch his face

Big girl!!!  Look!  She's sitting up without leaning forward and putting weight on her hands!

Maxwell wanted to help give his sister a bottle.  (I must have been out of the house for some reason.)