2 months old

We are having some technical difficulties at our house, so I have not been able to post the pictures I took of Madeline on her 2 month birthday. At this rate, I may be posting them along with her 3 month pictures! She is still doing great, and while she still doesn't have good control over her hands or feet, she's got a strong neck and very strong set of lungs that she's happy to use when she deems necessary!

At her checkup, she weighed in at 12 lbs, 6 oz, and has grown to 23 inches! No wonder she's busting out of her 0-3 month clothes. I thought it was because of her fluffy cloth diaper bottom, but she's just getting long too. I actually made the clothing swap, albeit reluctantly, to 3-6 month clothes today.

Today I also decided to see if Madeline could handle being strapped into the high chair. I need to make some adjustments on the straps and bring up the newborn insert to help support her head, but she did great and seemed to enjoy being up high and a part of the action. Joseph was a big fan of it too, and kept her happy for quite a while. Sorry for the wrong orientation on the video, but it's a pretty cute couple of minutes on what our lives are like around here!

Happy Halloween!

Joseph was really excited to finally go trick or treating on Halloween night, especially after all of the practice he'd gotten this year. Madeline was fairly ambivalent about the whole thing, but definitely wasn't happy about being worn facing out... but how else were we going to get pictures of her in her costume??

 

It didn't take Joseph long to figure out how to master the house to house process... he was super eager to run up to each door and ring the doorbell.

Mr. Fearless had no issues going up to each door by himself, but Joe and I took turns going up with him to make sure he was being polite. At one neighbor's house, the kids who lived there were on their way back inside as we were walking up. Joseph just kept on going right after them, and ended up in their living room before I could convince him to turn around and come outside!

He did great telling people "Happy Halloween!" or "trick or treat" when they came to the door, and didn't need too much prompting to tell them thank you after getting his candy.

We had gotten a bit of a late start, for taking a toddler out, that is, so I went with him and Joe for about half of the street before turning back with Madeline. It was starting to get chilly out, and I wanted to get back before we started getting lots of older kids hitting up the tray of candy we had left on our doorstep.

She's definitely been following in Mason's footsteps, sleeping through just about everything exciting! Of course, as soon as we got home, she stayed awake for a good chunk of the evening. Once she knows she's missing out, she becomes little miss nosey and doesn't want to fall asleep for fear of missing something.

Joe and Joseph made it to the end of the street and back before his candy bucket was completely full and it was way past dinner time. Joseph had just as much fun watching all of the kids come to the door and trying to help us hand out candy. By the end of the night, he'd run to the door when he'd hear or see someone, try to pick up the tray himself, and through the door would tell the kids to "just take one"... I think he was trying to ration as much for himself as possible!

It was definitely fun to take him, as this year there's no doubt he'd figured out Halloween. Thursday evening he found his costume on the floor, brought it over to me and said, "Mommy, Jojo wear cowboy outfit, get candies from houses again?" He was not happy to hear that trick or treating for the year was over, but we've got a whole bowl of candy for him to enjoy (and share with us) to make it less painful!

Mom's Group Trunk or Treat

This year I've taken on an organizer role in my mom's group. When all of the old organizers decided it was time to retire, I had to step up and take on more responsibility, taking over the job of planning and organizing special events for the group. My first event was a Fall Family Night, held at the end of September when Madeline was just 3 weeks old. It went off well, so I was looking forward to the annual trunk-or-treat, especially since I'd attended the last two years and had a better idea of what to expect.

 

The trunk-or-treat was scheduled for the Thursday before Halloween, but Mother Nature didn't cooperate. We had rain and lots of wind, and half of the members cancelled the morning of the event. After a big debate, I opted to go ahead and reschedule it for Monday, October 29th. Luckily we had a good turn out, and the weather was much nicer!

 

The group has been holding a lot of our bigger events at this park, because it has a decent shelter, great playgrounds and open fields, so planning it wasn't a big deal. We had Papa John's deliver pizzas, and I brought drinks, some apples and caramel dip, and made cupcakes (the 6 dozen cookies I had made for the original date didn't last through the weekend...)

I had fun decorating the cupcakes, although since I was pressed for time, I didn't get to put as much attention to detail as I would have liked.I made the ones on the cupcake stand (thanks Ashley!) - spider webs, ghosts, mummies, spiders and ones that looked like dirt with worms coming out the top. The other organizers also contributed desserts and sides.

 

The kids had lots of fun running around and playing while the parents socialized.

 

Although it was 60 degrees that day, a decent breeze picked up as the sun started to set, and the temps really started to drop off quickly. I'm glad we opted to wait for a better day!

 

Madeline spent the entire time sleeping in her car seat, as long as we kept rocking her. So I bounced her on my arm while everyone ate, and then Joe rocked her while handing out candy.

This year Joseph definitely got into the whole Halloween thing. He ran from car to car, and got over his issues with saying "trick or treat."

And although he's a big fan of getting candies, he decided he wasn't interested in some of the offerings at a couple of cars - he took a look at the candy in the bowl, thought for a minute, and then said no thanks and ran over to the next one.

Joseph and the rest of the kids had a great time. Although it's definitely more work to plan and put on the events, it's definitely fun to be helping to coordinate all the big family events. Next up is a hayride, scheduled for this week, and then it's time to start working on the holiday party!