What a busy couple weeks we've had, all capped off with Halloween! First, a couple pictures from our recent trip to the apple orchard in early October.

And then to the pumpkin patch and petting zoo...

and last but not least Halloween...

Franny's not getting the shaft...

As I posted last night, and reviewed the blog quickly this morning, it looks like Franny is getting the shaft. Obviously this is not intentional... it just seems easier to tell 3 year old stories. So... what are the latest happenings with Franny on her 14 month birthday!

• we had our 2nd flu shot yesterday. fun stuff, i know
• she's still little... but we've now graduated into the 12 month clothes! FINALLY, I was getting so bored with her other stuff
• within the last couple days, I've noticed that her 7th tooth has popped through (and it was one of the eye teeth, hello crabbiness)
• she is cruising around EVERYWHERE; this kid doesn't just toddle around, she runs
• she is into EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. It's like a little tornado has gone through... we move from the kitchen to the living room, to Nece's room with the toys to the bathroom. Funny thing though, she doesn't really rip her room apart. And the basement, I should just take a picture after she's been in the play kitchen and has everything completely ripped apart.
• she feels the need to be a climber. This kid can get herself onto the bed, couch, chairs, and my personal favorite... is when I find her standing in the middle of the kitchen table with a little grin on her face like "I know I'm not supposed to do this, but here I am... what are you gonna do!"
• she is STILL a mama's girl and loves to be with me. She still is my little snuggler and I love that
• she isn't talking much... that we can understand, just the chinese babble. She does say mama, dad, and done consistently
• she loves to get right in the middle and wrestle with her sister and dad
• Marc makes this weird voice and she can imatate it like no other... it cracks us up every time
• recently, she's started to help with little 'chores' around the house. She puts the dog bowls where they belong after Nece's fed them, she gives Reggie treats every morning (while Nece does Hazel), she closes the dishwasher when I'm putting stuff away, she puts Nece's pull-up in the garbage every morning, she gets her shoes and jacket

And that is a quick snapshot of what Franny is currently up to!

Holy Buckets... Where did October go?

WOW! It's been 21 days since I last updated... where have I been and what have I been doing this month? I DON'T know, but obviously the computer hasn't been a priority. Let's see if I can go through the last 3 weeks in my head and see what we've been up to! Maybe moving backwards will get me to the first of the month!

Daddy has been working ALOT. That is the nature of the beast this time of year. Weather cooperates, dad works. The month of October and November are crazy for dad, so it's lots of time 'just us girls'. And what does that mean... mommy finds stuff to do because being home too much causes stir-crazy mommys and kiddos and then nobody is happy.

This past weekend... we started on Friday night visiting with our friends Keith and Nance, Todd and Carrie. It was great to see all them and let the girls play/visit. Once the candy was discovered... Nece was in heaven! She takes after me and LOVES her candy! I had part 3 of her photography class on Saturday morning. The girls got to spend some much overdue time with Emmie. My workshop was good, but a fairly decent time commitment over the last four weeks, so now its putting all the learning into practice. Saturday afternoon, we were lazy bums... cleaned and worked on ripping the final stuff out of the garden. Big task completed! YEAH! Sunday... what a FUN day! I headed off to the apple orchard with the girls (and the rest of MN residents) for a beautiful Sunday filled with a wagon ride, walking through the apple orchard, having an apple right from the trees, and then finally off for a special treat! A great way to spend one of the only beautiful fall days we've had all season!

The previous weekend there wasn't much planned... until grandma called and let us know that she was going to be at the waterpark overnight with Jon, David and a couple of their friends! We had a great night and holy buckets... I don't have ANY idea where Nece gets all her energy. She was rip, roarin and ready to go, while the rest of us were dead dog tired! Daddy had a rare Saturday morning off and had the opportunity to go to the Gophers game and said the new stadium was incredible!

And the weekend before that... let's see how good my memory is. Honestly, it's not that great, and looking at our calendar it looks like we didn't do much. And if I'm remembering clearly, I think we did have a fairly quiet weekend at the beginning of October. We probably enjoyed decent weather outside, played and made sure we caught up on everything!

And Tuesday nights... we go to swimming lessons! They've been going well. Of course one week a kid pooped in the pool and we had lessons in the big pool and let me tell you that water was freezing and it was miserable! Nece is doing well with the lessons and gets excited every Tuesday night. A funny from this week, as this was our conversation in the pool in the middle of the class:

Mommies have big boobies and daddys have little boobies, right?

Yes, Nece.

Mommy, why?

Nece, that's the way God made us.

Mommy... I have little boobies, but when I get to be big like you, I'm going to have big boobies too.

Next topic. Done and quick... except this conversation had to happen in front of the only dad in the class! Fabulous!!!

And the locker room talk. Use your imagination... lets just say the ladies that are regulars just giggle to themselves as they listen to our conversations. Most notably last night when I was informed (very loudly) that Nece wasn't going potty... just poopy! And as she flushed, she proclaimed her famous line:
BYE Poopies! Don't come back!!!

I'm sure there are more highlights... but that's all that is on the top of my head at the moment! It took alot to pull the computer out, but I know with Halloween coming up... I will have more to post in a week!

Til sooner rather than later... lets hope!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Halloween is approaching and I'm stressing out! I know that Nece has definite opinions and if I don't include her in the costume decision she's going to buck the system and it's not going to be good.

I know in the back of my head, she wants to be a princess. This isn't too hard to figure out, considering we come home every day, she walks into her room and puts on the following: a crown, Cinderella or Tinkerbell skirt, red winter scarf, high heels (yes, high heels) and finally carries the wand around.

I wanted to use a nice warm, cozy Ladybug costume for Franny, but then thought it would be cute to coordinate the girls. So... I started on a quest to come up with something and chatted with friends. The BEST one I've gotten thus far is Dora and Boots. How cute would Franny be dressed up as a little monkey?!?!

So, I had the costume discussion with Nece this morning:
Mom, I want to be a princess and Franny too.
Do you think Franny should be Boots and you can be Dora?
No, mom… I be Cinarella and Franny wants to be Ariel.

Fast forward 5 minutes.
Mom… boots is a monkey.
I know Nece, should Franny be a monkey for Halloween and you can be Dora?
No mom, I told you. I be Cinarella and Franny be Ariel.

So... what to do? That is the question! I'm going to have a repeat of this conversation this evening. If I get the same answers, I know she's pretty serious, and will oblige! If we get different answers, I may do what I want to do and bring princess dress up clothes as a back-up on Halloween!

Swimming Lessons

Monday evening at dinner we broke the news to Nece that we were going to take swimming lessons. I fully anticipated her to be excited, and for that reason we chose to keep it under wraps until the last minute.

As expected, she was VERY excited. It's the last thing she talked about before bed, the first thing she talked about Tuesday morning, and proudly announced to Sue that we were taking swimming lessons. I wasn't worried about doing this with her AT ALL.

Tuesday, I pulled into the driveway about 5PM. Nece was obviously very excited to see me, as I wasn't out of the van and she was at the side...
"Mommy, I have my bathing suit on. I ready to go."
"Okay, Nece. Mommy needs to change and we'll go pretty soon."

That had to be the LONGEST 35 minutes of this kids life. Asking every 2 minutes "is it time to go?"

Finally, all packed up and ready to go. We drive over... talking about how we aren't here to 'just swim', we have to listen to the teacher, and no crying when it's time to leave. OK mom... we're in total agreement.

I pulled into the parking lot and went to Nece's side. Oh my gosh, if I could have captured the grin on this kids face and the pure joy as she clapped her hands.

Into the community center we go. Into the locker room. Put our stuff away and out to the pool area. We're about 5 minutes early, so we play in the water.

Then... I started to notice, we were the only ones without bright pink wristbands and I looked at the clock. It was about 6PM (start time) and I didn't really see any instructor like person.

6:05- nothing.
6:10- seriously, I'm starting to get mad. How can the instructor be late. Granted, it's probably a high school or college kid, but how rude.

Finally, I go over to the lifeguard and ask... are we in the right place for swimming lessons tonight?

I'm sorry, there are no lessons tonight. They start next week.

Oh, no. How am I going to explain this to a 3 year old that cannot contain her excitement?

Simply put, "Nece, mommy screwed up. There are no swimming lessons tonight. We have to wait one more week."

Definitely only partially registering. But no meltdown. My next thing, how in the heck am I going to get this kid out of the pool?

After about 10 minutes of playing in the water together, I get the words I was hoping to hear, "mommy, I have to go potty."

SWEET! Easy exit on this one. No tears and fully satisfied with her 25 minutes of playing in the water.

We arrived home, and daddy excitedly asked, "Nece, how were swimming lessons?"
"We didn't get to have swimming lessons. Mommy screwed up."
Daddy looked at me all confused and I had to admit, next week. I was wrong on my dates.

Shoot! We'll try again next week. I've already double checked start date and start time. Let's hope next Tuesday is as simple as this past Tuesday was for 'fake swimming lessons'.

A Summerlike Weekend

Well... summer is officially over, but this past weekend was anything but. It was in the mid-80's and sunny ALL weekend. A perfect weekend to spend some time outdoors.

On Saturday, we knew Auntie Molly was coming back to spend her final night with us in MN. What we weren't anticipating was Grandma and Jon bringing Molly back and spending Saturday with us. What a great surprise!

While Molly was off with a friend of hers, grandma and Jon spent the day with us. I was on a cleaning spree and grandmas extra hands helped me get some extra stuff done... like all of Nece's fall clothes out and washed! Daddy was getting caught up on outdoor work! Thanks grandma.

Saturday night we did one of Nece's favorite things... went to the Mall and went on rides for a couple hours! As expected, she had a blast. Franny did okay, but was a tad crabby... those darn teeth! It's amazing how long it takes for those suckers to actually pop through the gums... one of these days!

On Sunday, Molly and I took the girls to a park that I'd been wanting to visit for quite some time... I'd heard that it was geared towards kids 6 and under! What a great surprise when we showed up and it was more than I could have ever expected! Heres a view of the park from the top of a play structure for the 'older kids'.

Every day as Franny gets better at walking (or should I say running and trying to keep up with her sister), she becomes more adventurous. This kid has NO fear and wants to do everything the big kids are doing. So, it was no surprise as she hopped right in and got onto the play structures. We did keep her to the more 1 year old friendly structures and she had a ball.

And Nece... she absolutely loves all parks. This one was no exception. The unique thing about this place is that it's completely fenced in and built into the bluffs. There are places for kids to climb the rocks, play in the sand, hang out at the pavilion area or play on the structures. Definitely a place for one adult per child.

And before heading to lunch at our (ummm, Nece's favorite) McDonalds... we walked down to the river!

A great weekend, once again. Let's hope we continue to have beautiful weekends that allow us to spend lots of time outdoors, before the winter weather takes hold!

Doctors Appointments

Yesterday we had Nece's three year and Franny's one year doctor appointment. It sure was convenient getting both of them taken care of at one time.

Updates:
Nece is 31 pounds and 38 inches tall. She falls into the 50th percentile for everything. She also had her first hearing test- perfect and eye exam- perfect for a three year old. Her vision is 10/20 which is equivilant to an adults 20/40... Perfect. Not shots this time around. We did talk a little bit about the typical three year old behavior with regards to sharing, fighting and bossiness. One little trick we're going to try is 'putting toys in a timeout' when they are causing an issue. We'll see how well this goes over.

Franny is 17 lbs 13oz and 28 inches tall (I think). She falls into the 5th percentile for everything. Her exam went perfectly, and she was the lucky recipient of 3 shots yesterday. There are new guidelines that strongly recommend children stay rear-facing until they are 2. This is something we talked in length about... we'll continue to leave her rear-facing for awhile, but it's highly unlikely we'll make it all the way til 2 years old. Doctor said this was fine, but try as long as we can because she is so little. As expected, I got a mini-lecture about giving her the bottle at bedtime. BUT this is THE only way I can get her down. My goal is to start weaning her down from the 8 ounces slowly and have her off the bottle by the time her 15 month check-up rolls around. That's the plan... we'll see.

Flu Shots and H1N1- yes both girls are in the high risk group and are recommended to get the shots. I have no problem having them get the flu shot, as its something I have been doing for years and Nece's gotten it every year also (Franny was too young last year). So, we'll be heading in for the annual flu shot next week. The H1N1 vaccine... this one I'm a tad more concerned about, need to do a bit of research on, but I will ultimately probably do what the CDC and doctor recommend.