Meeting the great-grandparents!
The butterflies on the deck were fun to watch this summer! I took this prior to the first frost, which was the end of the flowers on the deck :-)
Again prior to the frost. The roses looked great this fall! Yesterday we got them 'winterized' and covered up.
I love this picture! Will is smiling at Gabbie while she is playing and showing him all of her toys. These two are getting along great. Sometimes Gabbie loves him too much...her hugs are so tight we think Will might need a helmet!
A blurry picture, but a great hug :-)
All smiles after a walk to the mailbox! He loves hanging out in his front carrier while we go outside.
Race for the Cure! Gabbie was in the kids run after we did the adult walk. It didn't go very well. It was soo crowded, and she said she was "scared". She tripped on my foot when they blew the whistle to start. That was the end of that :-) Great day otherwise though!
Will in his Bumbo. I did not have one of these with baby Gabbie, but thought it would be fun to try this time. Most of the time it is occupied by one of Gabbie's dolls!
Time for pumpkin painting! Grandma found some glow in the dark paints.
Licking frosting off the mixer beaters :-)
The Lightning McQueen cake (from Cars). I tried to use the picture of him from Gabbie's coloring books. It turned out alright...taste is all that matters anyway, right? I asked Gabbie if it looked like Lightning McQueen and she said yes, so I assume she is being honest even though it was a leading question.
The birthday girl! 3 years old, geez! She has changed so much the past few months...talking in more sentences with lots of stories, some that make sense and some that don't. She's so responsible for her little brother-any little peep and she is looking for me, telling me he needs a diaper or fed. She has been so helpful with getting the garden cleaned up before the snow flies. She helps me match the socks from the laundry. She has started to dress and undress herself. I have kept her home more than I thought I would while I'm home and its been fun. Its been good to sit and do puzzles and brush up on my kickball and frisbee skills! Today we tackled a puzzle with the states and their capitals-didn't realize how much I had forgotten myself. I love her imagination...yesterday she had to take her horse outside so it could eat the grass, then it had shots at the vet, then it stuck its bottom off the edge of the deck to pee. And with all these advances...she still uses a pacifier and still has diapers ;-) Oh well.
Irma and Will having a conversation.
He is so fascinated since his hands found each other! He had his 2 month check up and weighed 13 pounds (80th percentile) and was 24.75 inches long (95th percentile). We started his immunizations then as well. We spread them out, so he'll have one every Monday for the next several weeks instead of having them all at one visit. He hardly cried at the time of the shot, but was fussy the day after with runny diapers and some vomiting.
Tow Mater out trick-or-treating with her friend Kennedy! Kennedy took her on the Spook Trail in Lake View for some treats until I got home from work, then we went to a few houses in Wall Lake. She was more than tired by the time we got home...
The day after trick or treating, coming down from the sugar high :-)
Sometime I'll have to post a picture of the progress with painting the house. My initial goal was to paint the garden shed and the house before I went back to work. Then it changed to painting the house. Then it changed to painting 2 sides of the house before winter :-) My Mom has been helping and 1 more days work and the north and east sides will be done. It looks nice and I'm happy with the colors.
I have just over 2 more weeks of maternity leave before we go back to normal. I can tell we are ready! I am ready for more of a routine, though I have definetly enjoyed the freedom of having my own schedule. Part of me just feels this energy that I need to expend somewhere, but its not the kind of energy I seem to be able to get rid of by running after Gabbie and rocking the baby. The crazy part is that I don't think a day has gone by that we haven't had something to do and somewhere to go, so it isn't like we haven't been busy! People tell me how lucky I am to have gotten 12 weeks off, and I can't dispute that. I'm also lucky to have had the chance to work 1-2 days a week throughout to keep us in a little bit of a routine. I am feeling more organized after tackling all the piles and boxes that accumlated while we worked on the house this year. Next week I will hopefully get caught up on our bookwork in preparation for taxes; after that I will certainly be ready to get back to work!
