Sick Kids + No Halloween Party = Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

There was considerable disappointment about not being able to go to the party we'd been planning for, so we splurged on a few more pumpkins than usual and partied at home.  Avery helped choose the jack-o-lantern designs and got to help Dad do the carving, and Elena helped herself to anything anyone else was doing.

Brains!

 

Novelty of the Week: The Potty

Poop, Pee, Potties, Dead Moose, and Throw Up

Colds are going around, and our elder seems to have contracted one from the younger, because last night she started coughing before bed - that dry, continuous, post-nasal drip kind of cough.  We set up a humidifier, and since I know how she rolls when it comes to sleeping with an on-coming cold (and by "sleeping" I mean "not sleeping at all and keeping the rest of the house awake with her") I made her take a belt of cough medicine.  She typically complains on the rare occasions she's required to take something, but tonight's complaining was pretty creative, I thought.  While alternating between microscopic sips of the medicine and huge swallows of water, she declared that the medicine tasted like pee and poop together.  Next sip. "Ewww, now it tastes like pee and poop AND potties!"  Another sip.  "And dead moose!" Last chug.  "Make that pee and poop and potties and dead moose and THROW UP!"

How she knows what any of that stuff tastes like, I don't want to know.

Colbert on Immigrants

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/alabama-immigration-law-colbert-i-told-you-so_n_1035165.html

"No!" and "Go Away!"

Okay, so it wasn't quite that emphatic.  But tonight I had to hear it from both kids, and that's a first.  Elena has finally started to speak the word "no," and she says it repeatedly and with great enthusiasm.  As in:
"Let's change your diaper."
"No!"

"Time to get dressed, honey."
"No, no!"

"Get down from there, that's dangerous-"
"NO!"

"Please stop drinking your bath water!"
"NO NO NO!!!"

And then there's Avery.  Tonight I read stories with her, as I always do, then turned out the light and put on her bedtime music, which is Enya's first solo album.  Normally I lie down and snuggle with her for at least a few minutes, then tell her I need to go downstairs and clean up and I will check on her in five minutes.  And when I go back up to check on her after a generous five minutes, she's normally fast asleep.  I enjoy and look forward to this ritual.  It's a bright spot in my day.  There's that few minutes where we're done with stories and she's just talking and telling me about her day or about something she's thinking about, and I feel completely peaceful, like everything in the world is just fine.  I like my few minutes of delusion, okay?  Tonight, for the first time ever, she turned to me when track #3 (her favorite) started playing, and told me she'd like to be alone.  Well.

I dutifully kissed her cheek, said my I love you's and bid her goodnight, promising to check on her in a few minutes but knowing she wouldn't need me to.

It's too soon.  I'm not ready, dammit.

Language Explosion

The toddler is saying so many new words these days, I don't know if I can remember them all right now.  I'd probably have to post about every ten minutes to keep up with her.  But here's a partial list:

Juice
Water (sounds like "whaaat?")
Nana (banana)
Cheese
Apple
Cookie

Tea (whenever she sees someone holding a mug)
Eat
Done
"Oh, my!"
Pen (sounds like "bun")
Swing
Bath
Piggy
Poop
Potty
Phone
Walk
Down
Ouch

Also, she says "peeeeesh?" when she's begging for something, so we're assuming that's "pleeeeease?"  Which she totally got from listening to big sis.  Interesting that she doesn't say the word "no" yet.

Hurricane Camping Homework Farm

.....A summary of last month's events with the kids, since I haven't blogged much.  So I'll lump all the pictures together and let them speak for themselves. 

Taking a walk before the storm really hit

Rain + drain = equilibrium

Not everyone was excited to come back in the house.

Morning-after fun in the dwindling pool

Power's out?  Let's play dress-up!

Backyard camping! Avery helped Mom put up the tent.

..Hey, princess fairies go camping too, right?

Building up the fire with Dad

Elena: "They have homework in Kindergarten now.  Yeesh."

Elena assigns herself some homework, makes big sis feel better.

On the way out the door to go to Ashton Farm

Elena at the farm in her Daisy Dukes.

Avery catches her third chicken of the day.  Poor bird.

Avery hops on horseback like an old pro.