Happy Halloween

Here's Rachel modeling her halloween outfit from Grandma. She won't leave the headband in, even though it looks really cute.

Also notice her big girl bed. It's finally popped up in the "up" position. She loves it and feels like such a big girl with it like this.

One of these days we'll finally get her in her big girl room (a much bigger room with room for toys in it, now that she's old enough to play in her room). But there are many steps to that process (one that involves stripping wallpaper--probably our very least favorite thing to do!). We'll get there sometime. In the meantime, she doesn't know the difference, loves her room, and loves her big girl bed.

And here are some pictures from yesterday, playing outside in the SEVENTY SEVEN degree weather! Now it's 48 degrees. Crazy. At any rate, she loved jumping in the leaves.

trick or treat

Around here we have "Beggar's Night," which is often on a different day than Halloween. If Halloween is on a weekend, as it is this year, then Beggar's Night, when the kids go trick or treating, is the Thursday before Halloween. Strange, I know, but it has to do with trying to keep kids off the street on the weekends, apparently.

So trick or treating was last night. Rachel couldn't wait.

Here she is with our neighbor, Batman (and his little brother in the background, Robin, of course--and their mom was Batgirl and their dad was the Joker--even Batman was scared of his own dad's costume and wouldn't go near him if he had his mask on!).

She was more excited about seeing everyone else's costume, though, than she was about actually getting candy. She would've been perfectly happy to just sit and watch everyone and talk about what they were wearing. Her favorites were Spiderman, Thomas the Tank Engine, Woody (actually just a cowboy but she thought it looked like Woody from Toy Story), and all of the princesses (especially Belle). She and Daddy started off the night together and went around our cul de sac. When they came back he asked if I wanted to switch places, so then I took her and we walked around the neighborhood for awhile, going to some other houses. We made it further than we made it last year, but still not all that far. She said she wanted to go home and "west" because her "wings were tired!!!!"

When we got back to our house she sat out with us and ate some m&ms, but didn't want to stay out very long because the house across the street from us was playing "loud, scary music," and she didn't like it. It was a CD of haunted house type music, and it was fairly loud, but it wasn't bad. She didn't like it one bit, though, so she and I only stayed out a little while and then Daddy finished up passing out our candy.

She said she had a great time (except for the scary music).

jack-o-lantern

Last night Daddy and Rachel carved a pumpkin.

I guess I should say Daddy carved a pumpkin. Rachel "helped."

After putting her hands in to get the gunk out, she declared it "isgusting" and wanted her hands washed and nothing else to do with it. So there was lots of watching and question-asking instead.

I took pictures (thankful to have gotten out of the carving process this year! It's not my favorite thing to do, and I'm not very good at it).

Rachel loved it, and couldn't wait to put the candle inside and see it in the dark.

Chuck-e-Cheese

Here are some pictures from yesterday's adventure. A little blurry, but you get the idea.

good news, bad news

Haven't done one of these in awhile...

Good news: We had a fun adventure today--our first visit with Rachel to Chuck-e-cheese. My brother was taking his kids with my mom as a special treat, and asked us to join them there, so we did. It was a little crazy, loud, and overwhelming, but Rachel LOVED it, and it was fun watching her have so much fun--she rode the same rides over and over, and didn't quite understand most of the games, but had a great time. She loved collecting tickets, though she didn't get many, and choosing her prizes at the end. Her favorites were her pink plastic butterfly ring and her grape tootsie roll sucker. My mom took quite a few pictures, and as soon as I get them from her, I'll post them.

Bad news: I'm sure the place was saturated in germs. I used half my bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse on myself and her.

Good news: We had our fireplace fixed this week! After six years of living in this house, we can finally have a cozy fire!

Bad news: We don't have a screen or fireplace doors, and until we do, we can't actually have a fire. We went shopping for them today, but didn't make a decision, so it'll still be awhile before we actually enjoy it.

Good news: We had nice, warm weather most of the week this week. The winter-like weather disappeared for awhile.

Bad news: Rachel was sick AGAIN all week, and we didn't get to enjoy it much. She got better for a few days and then came down a few days later with a terrible cough and stuffy nose. The nose is better. The cough just won't go away. Thankfully, no fever this time. I'm not excited about this winter, and all the germs she's encountering at preschool. Hopefully I can avoid them. (Better use the other half of the bottle of hand sanitizer.)

the power of choice

Rachel generally eats like a bird, especially at dinner time. Breakfast she does okay. Lunch is almost always a peanut butter sandwich (her choice), which she usually eats just fine.

But dinner is Mommy's choice, and it's not usually one she likes, so she doesn't eat much. Almost every dinner has the potential for being a battle.

Unless she gets to choose.

If we go to a restaurant, and she gets to choose off the menu, she eats a ton.

If we're having a free for all/leftover night at home, and she gets to choose, she eats a ton.

Recent examples:

-Tonight my husband and I had Subway for dinner. She doesn't like anything from there, so I asked her what she wanted to eat. She said pizza. I had a frozen pizza in the freezer, so I made it for her. She ate nearly three pieces! Usually, when we order pizza (which she likes!) she only eats one! THREE PIECES!?

-A few nights ago we went out to dinner and used a gift card a neighbor had given us (thanking my husband for his help with some things--isn't that so nice??). She chose mac and cheese off of the children's menu. She ate nearly half of it. And those portions are HUGE, by her standards. The next day she finished the rest of it for lunch. She always likes mac and cheese, but she usually only eats a small dish of it. We couldn't believe how much she ate.

-Sometime recently we had a leftover night, and there wasn't anything I knew she would like to eat leftover. So my husband asked her what she'd like. She thought about it awhile and finally said, "A waffle." We had some Kashi frozen waffles, and she ate the whole thing. She rarely eats the whole thing of ANYTHING.

-Last night I didn't know what to make for dinner. I asked her what she thought I should make. "Pasta," she said. So I did. And what do you know, she ate an entire bowl of it (With sauce! She almost always eats it plain, but decided last night that she wanted sauce, after I put it in front of her plain! Go figure!). Now, if I had made pasta on my own some night, without her getting to choose it, she would've eaten a few bites, but never a whole bowl.

I realize that I can't ask her opinion for dinner every night, but it sure seems to be successful when she gets the chance. I guess she's a girl who knows what she wants!

fall?

Fall, where are you? Where did you go? All of a sudden it feels like winter! They're even talking snow. I'm not ready for that.

Despite the cold weather, Rachel asked to play outside today. Since we've been cooped up a lot lately, I agreed for a little while, until I was freezing and insisted we go back inside.

She was excited to wear her "new" coat (a hand me down from her cousin, Emma), hat, and gloves (the hat and gloves are new) and wanted me to take her picture. Since she is usually rather camera shy, I was excited to hear her say, "Mommy, take another picture of me doing this!"

So here's a sample of our fall (or is it winter!?) playtime outside.

sick

It's been a very long week. Last Saturday night while Rachel was taking a bath she asked me for medicine. She hadn't been sick, so I didn't see any need to give her medicine, but she must've felt the sickness coming on, because she woke up in the middle of the night, sick. This started several days of fever, a hacking cough, and fear of the flu (it wasn't, according to the doctor). Her fever went away and I thought she was better, but then her cough got even worse. She missed school (and school picture day!) and several other activities last week. The nights were long, as she was up coughing an awful lot. A very long week.

Thursday night we went to Grandma's house. Slowly over the course of the weekend her cough got better. And Daddy got up with her so I could sleep. It was heaven.

Friday my husband and I spent the day out while Rachel stayed at Grandma's house, also in heaven. It was a fun day, browsing around IKEA and helping my husband shop for a new sleeping bag at REI. My favorite part of the day was a stop at Starbucks--I hadn't been in months and months, and it was fantastic.

Now we're back home and last night Rachel slept almost the whole night without coughing. She only woke up once, at 5:30, which was so much better than she's been doing. I'll gladly take that over last week's sleep.

Hopefully this week will be better, and hopefully I'll have something more exciting to write about sometime later in the week.

a busy week

It's been a full week and I haven't had a chance to update this blog. My husband was out of town for work for the week and Grandma was here. Sorry to those of you who check often, hoping to hear something. There's not a lot to share, but here's a run down of our week for anyone interested....

Monday's playdate was fine, though I was exhausted. I tried to nap in the afternoon, but didn't have much success. I slept better the rest of the week. Rachel's napping has improved, and has been from about 1:45-3:30 or 4:00 this week.

Tuesday Rachel had school and Grandma surprised her by coming with me to pick her up. I hadn't told her Grandma was coming to visit, and she was THRILLED to see her at the door. Poor Grandma had a cold, though, which kept getting worse and worse as the visit went on. I also found out that day that Rachel is the youngest in her class at school (I wondered because at her field trip last week I noticed that she was the shortest, so I asked her teacher). In fact, the day after her birthday, when she'll turn four, there is another student turning five! A whole year older! I'm hoping the other students' maturity is rubbing off on Rachel!

Wednesday Rachel and I went to Rachel's music class she's been taking at the library while Grandma stayed home, not feeling good. It's a four week class and this was the third week. She enjoys it, but the first couple of weeks she was rather shy and had trouble participating in the activities. This time I reminded her several times beforehand that she needed to do what the teacher did and for whatever reason she did a much better job of participating. Grandma went to urgent care after we got home and they said she had some sort of infection (sinus?) and gave her an antibiotic. Rachel was sad not to get to play with Grandma as much as usual, but I was still happy for the company, though I felt bad that she had to be sick at my house--it's no fun being sick, especially away from home.

Thursday morning Grandma was feeling a little better, and left for home when Rachel went to school. When I picked Rachel up she told me she didn't have a great day at school because Miss Jessie told her she had to walk. I couldn't figure out the whole story from what Rachel told me, but she was obviously very upset about getting scolded and she told me over and over. Hopefully on Tuesday I can talk to her teacher and find out more to the story, though it's probably no big deal. Thursday night Daddy came home. We were happy to see him.

Friday was our only day of the week with no plans. And it was pouring down rain all morning. We went grocery shopping. Play doh and painting were also on the agenda for the day. Sounds dull, but it was really nice to have a relaxing day. Friday night we started The Bathroom Project. My birthday present (back in March!) was to have our downstairs bathroom redone because we don't have any sort of cabinet in there, and I've been wanting one forever. So we finally got our act together and got started. More on that in another post, when it's finished.