trick or treat!

Rachel came up with the idea for her costume all on her own this year.  She decided she wanted to be an artist, we looked online for ideas, and together we pieced ours together.  My mom made her hat, she painted the shirt, I made the palatte, and she painted it.  She was so thrilled with the result.  It's perfect for her--she wants to be an artist when she grows up and draws and colors non-stop.  So here's my little artist.

It was a rainy, COLD night for trick or treating, but they had a great time.

I asked Rebecca if she liked trick or treating.  "Yes!  It's my favwit!" she answered.

Rachel also had a great time at her class parade and party today.

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin carving with Daddy

legos and doctors

Rachel didn't have school yesterday or today (parent-teacher conferences) and I promised to take her to our science museum while she was off of school because there's a visiting Lego Castle exhibit that she's been waiting and waiting for, so today was the day.

They both loved it and could've spent hours here at this Lego table.  I think we were here at least 30 minutes.

A few other scenes from the Lego exhibit:

We went up to the little kid area next, but now that Rachel's in first grade, she's no longer allowed to play there.  They have a special area inside for bigger kids, and she was thrilled to get to try it out for the first time.  She colored and painted most of the time she was in there, and said she had a great time.

Meanwhile, Rebecca and I were playing in the little kid area.  It didn't take long for her to find the pretend doctor's office.  I haven't mentioned that her new favorite show is Doc McStuffins, and she's obsessed with playing doctor at home with her Fisher Price doctor kit.  So to get to put on a doctor's coat, real stethescope, and carry a doctor's bag was like heaven to her. 

We must've spent another 30 minutes just in the play doctor's office, where she pretended to give me shots, listen to my heart, wrapped me in bandages, and turned the x ray machine on and off over and over.

Even when she decided she'd had enough in the doctor's area, she wouldn't give up the costume, and lugged the doctor's bag all around the rest of the little kids space.  It was hilarious.

I finally got her to put it back, and she had fun doing a few other things before we left the little kids space.

We spent a little bit of time in a few other exhibits and then came home for naptime.  It was a fun morning, and I was happy to have survived--it was my first time taking them all by myself without my husband or a friend there with me.  Everyone had fun, there were no tears, and Rebecca didn't fall asleep on the way home, which is always a bonus (so she'd take a good nap at home).  It was a good morning.

down memory lane

The girls and I spent a long weekend at my parents' house this past weekend.  While we were there, Rachel wanted to see where her great-grandma was buried (she's asked about it several times in the last few months--I'm not sure why).  So my mom and I took her out to the cemetery.  The cemetery is just down the road from my old house where I grew up (the house is no longer there because it burned down, but the lot is still there, you can see where the house and pool were, and the garage is still standing), so we took her there, too.  I've told her lots of stories about that pool--we lived in that pool in the summers--and about playing back in the woods behind our house (which look much, much closer to the house than they ever were when I was a little girl!), so it was fun to actually show her. 

After that we went to my old elementary school, which isn't far from there.  We got the girls out and let them play on the playground.  Several pieces of the playground equipment are still there from when I was a kid--and a couple of them were even there when my mom went to school there!

So here are my girls playing on the same playground where their mom and grandma played as girls.

I have lots of memories on these monkey bars!

And this slide....

And also this thing (whatever it's called!).

This piece is newer.

After I took these pictures Rachel fell down and cut her chin.  We talked about the possibility of taking her to get stitches, beacuse it was pretty deep and wouldn't stop bleeding, but in the end we decided not to.  It was a not so happy ending to my trip down memory lane.  :(

like mother, like daughter

Most of you probably saw this already on facebook, but for those of you who didn't....

Weed--first grade (left), Rachel--first grade (right)

If her mouth wasn't open you could see the resemblance a little better, but still....

deja vu

I think we've been down this road before.

It started Monday morning, when Rebecca woke up with the runniest of noses.  Then Rachel got up and was coughing and stuffy. 

Tuesday night I was up with a crying, stuffed up Rebecca every 20-40 minutes from 9 PM until about 2:30, when she finally seemed to sleep deeply enough to get a few hours of sleep.  So I slept from 2:30 until 5:30, when I heard her again. 

Last night Rachel complained of a headache before bed, so I took her temp, and sure enough, 101.2. 

I braced myself for another long night last night, and although it took me a LONG time to go to sleep (because my ears were cocked, listening for one of them), we all slept all night!  I couldn't believe it.

Rachel got up fever-free, but in the almost 2 hours since she got up, it's gone back up.  Hopefully the advil I just gave her will kick in soon and she'll be feeling better.  Since she has to miss school (she's really sad about missing it), at least she should be able to play and enjoy being at home. 

And so begins the fall.  Last October it was the same way--the two of them passing germs back and forth over and over.  October and November were awful last year, since one of them was sick almost every week (and I was sick too during that time--hopefully we'll skip that part this year!).

Such is life with little ones, I suppose.  But knowing that doesn't make it any more fun to go through.

a milestone

This morning was the Walkathon at Rachel's school.  They do a Walkathon as a fundraiser each year and parents are invited to come walk with their children, so Rebecca and I went to join her this morning.  They walk around a path at a park behind their school, and then on the second time around they go to different stations.  One of the stations today was a hula hoop station.  Rachel's always wanted to be able to hula hoop and gets really frustrated that she can't do it. 

But today, after a few tries, she finally got it!  You should've seen the look on her face when she realized that she was actually keeping it going.  She looked at me with wide eyes and exclaimed, "Mommy!  I'm doing it!" 

She did it several more times after that.....so thrilled with herself! (With her friend, Taylor, looking on, counting for her--they took turns)

 

 

Waiting for the directions with Taylor

Here are some other pictures from the morning.

Jumping over the cones

Jumping Rope

Rebecca watching her sister jump rope (I love these pictures but didn't like the colors or the stroller in the background, which is why I made it black and white)

 

 

Doing the "Cha Cha Slide" when the Walkathon was done

weekend pictures

Fooled you....there are actually no pictures here today.  But there were so many times this weekend that I WISHED I had had my camera.  So I thought I'd tell you what you would've seen, had I remembered the camera....

1) You would've seen me and a bunch of other first grade moms on Friday night having a box top cutting party.  Yeah, we're just wild and crazy, aren't we?  See, my friend Emily, who is in PTA with me, volunteered to be in charge of the Box Tops for Education and Campbell Soup Labels for Education this year.  So she asked a bunch of us who are already friends and all just happen to have first grade girls at the same school (and one with a kindergartener, but we're friends with her, too!), to help her cut and sort--so she got us all together for a party.  In about 2 1/2 hours we cut and sorted over 10,000 box tops!  And I don't remember how many soup labels, but a lot of those, too.  And it was fun to do it together and talk, rather than any one person having to do it all alone at home.  Emily actually did take pictures of this, but I didn't.

2)  You would've seen my husband and girls having a dance party at home while I was gone.  As I was getting ready to go, they were doing the hokey pokey, macarena, and limbo.  The girls LOVED it.

3) You would've seen our family on a two mile hike on Saturday morning.  It was a beautiful, chilly fall morning, and my husband asked if I wanted to go hiking instead of him taking his regular Saturday morning trip to the gym.  Rebecca rode in the backpack on his back and Rachel walked the whole two miles with only a tiny bit of complaining at the end about being tired.  Afterward the girls played on the playground and then had a picnic.  It was fun.

4) You would've seen Rachel at her first children's choir practice.  She was really nervous beforehand, and I was worried that she would change her mind about wanting to be in it.  I was really happy to hear after it was over that she loved it.  She's listening to her practice CD over and over, so I'm already hearing Christmas songs daily, but I'm glad she's excited.

5) You would've seen Rachel and the rest of our Girl Scout troop singing songs at our council's annual "Songfest."  It was another beautiful day yesterday and we were camped out on blankets and situpons in the grass in front of the woods (with the just-changing-colors-trees) at the same park where we had Day Camp this summer.  It did go a little long, and was a little unorganized, but for the most part the girls seemed to enjoy it, and it was nice to be outside on such a pretty day.

It was a nice weekend, and I really wish I had some pictures to prove it....

little artists

There's not a lot of news to write about.  Things have calmed down at school.  Rachel's doing fine and enjoying it.  She especially likes art and music class, and on the days she has those classes, I hear all kinds of details about what they did.

She's really into her art these days.  She's always liked to draw and color, but lately she's drawing more and more.  She told me yesterday she wants to be an artist when she grows up.  And she's decided she wants to be an artist for Halloween. 

Yesterday she opened an "Art Stoodeo" in her bedroom (that's how she spelled it).  She spent all afternoon up in her room cleaning it, and when she came down she invited me to come up to her art studio (sometimes she calls it a museum, but she also calls it her studio).  She had taped all kinds of drawings all around her room.

Today she decided she wants to sing in the children's choir at our church for their Christmas performance.  I'm thrilled, though really surprised, because she's never had any interest in it in the past.  She's always said she's too scared to sing on stage.  So I'm excited that she brought it up all on her own and wants to do it.  Yay!

Rebecca has a new "Handy Dandy Notebook," (a different little notebook that used to belong to Rachel, and now Rebecca has claimed it).  But today she brought it to me and said, "See my iPad, Mommy?"  How she knows what an iPad is, I'm not sure, since I don't have one.  My mom just got one, and had it here the last time she came to visit, so maybe that's why she knows, but still....a two year old talking about an iPad?   She keeps telling me that she's drawing a zig zag line in her handy dandy notebook.  That was one of the clues once on Blue's Clues, so I guess that's where she got that, but she really doesn't know what a zig zag line is. 

caterpillars and such

Today I went outside with Rebecca, and while inspecting my tomato plants for any new ripe tomatoes, I came across these obnoxious, ugly things attached to my plants:

Later I came inside and looked them up.  They're called Hornworms, and they eat tomato plants.  They also attract a certain kind of wasps, who lay their eggs inside them.  Yuck.  The white things on the outside are the larve of the wasps.  Gross.

Yesterday was our church picnic.  It was a fun time, but right at the end, the kids were thrilled to see this rising above the trees. 

It wasn't a part of our picnic.  It just happened to be nearby, and it's the closest I've ever been to a hot air balloon.  Rachel was thrilled because she had never seen one before.

And while I was taking picture of the ugly caterpillars, Rebecca wanted me to take her picture. 

There's my sweet little stinker!

Dandy Dandy

Rebecca's really started loving Blue's Clues in the last few weeks.  She asks for it now almost as much as she asks for the Wiggles, though I think she still likes the Wiggles better.  The problem is, finding Blue's Clues stuff is pretty much just as hard as it is to find Wiggles stuff, since Blue's Clue's isn't made anymore, so they don't make anymore Blue's Clues books, clothes, toys, coloring books, etc.  The only way to find them is used.

I was excited to find a $1 Blue's Clues DVD at the baby sale this past weekend where I sold my stuff, but that was all I found.  I have a couple of Blue's Clues puzzles from when Rachel was little, but they're too hard for Rebecca (and she's not really into puzzles, while Rachel really was).  I did find a pair of Blue's Clues PJs in my stash of clothes (someone gave them to me as hand-me-downs for Rachel, but they were too small for her when we got them, so she never got to wear them), so Rebecca got to wear them the other night for the first time when it got chilly (since they're long sleeved).  She was thrilled!! 

She carries around her "Dandy Dandy Notebook" (it's actually Rachel's princess coloring pad, but she took it over as her own and calls it her dandy dandy notebook (instead of a "Handy Dandy Notebook," which is what it's called in the show, for those of you who aren't familiar with Blue's Clues!) and a crayon for much of the day, and periodically sits down and says to me, "Wet's Fink."  (Let's Think)  Sometimes she'll bring the notebook up to me and say, "Mommy, we have all free cwoos!"  (all three clues)

She greets me by saying, "Oh, hi!"  (Because that's what Steve says on the show.) 

Whenever she sees a picture of a paw print she yells, "A Cwoo!  A Cwoo!" (A clue, A clue!)  Every week Rachel brings home a class newsletter, and since her school's mascot is the Cougars, there's always a cougar paw print on the newsletter.  Rebecca always wants it because it's, "A cwoo!  A cwoo!" but I need it because it has Rachel's spelling words for the week on it.  So I've started saving the old one and letting Rebecca have it after the spelling test is done rather than giving her the new one.

That girl cracks me up.

toothless

The other one came out!

Daddy wanted to wiggle it, just to see how loose it was, and it came out!  No tears, no drama this time.  Yay!

It'll be a toothless school picture in a couple of weeks....

School seems to be going better.  I hesitate to say that, because as soon as I do, something else will happen, but she's had several good days in a row, so we're all happier. 

road trip

Since my husband didn't have to work on labor day, and it was supposed to rain most of the weekend, he suggested we go somewhere new and fun for the day.  We decided on the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland (mostly because we get in free with our membership to our science museum).  It was a little bit of a drive, but we left early in the morning in order to get there by the time they opened, and drove back during Rebecca's nap time, so she still caught a decent nap in the car.  It worked out great and we all had fun.

The Great Lakes Science Center is on the lake, and is right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Cleveland Air Show, which was going on this weekend, too.  The weather was beautiful (not at all rainy, like was predicted at home this weekend) so we ate our lunch outside, walked over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just to look around outside, and watched the planes in the air show (the highlight for my husband--he LOVED it). 

Both girls loved all of the hands on exhibits.  It's a lot like our science museum in town, which they both enjoy.  Rebecca spend her time running from place to place, touching as many buttons as possible. 

It was a fun family day.

drama queen

I don't know how I'm going to handle these next 12 years of Rachel's life.  The drama in these first few weeks of first grade is enough to last me the rest of my life.  I don't want to go into too many details, but it seems like every day Rachel comes home with another story of something that happened at school that makes me want to pull my hair out in frustration.  Either I'm completely aghast at something she's said or done, or in tears because she's hurt, which hurts me, or ready to email the teacher for more clarification about something she's told me.  I'm not one of those "helicopter moms," and before this year I'd never contacted the teacher about something that happened at school or preschool, but this year has already been full of it!  And this is only the beginning.  My mom said it's like I have to whack another mole every day after school, just like playing that game at Chuck-e-Cheese, and that's exactly what I feel like! 

In addition to school drama, there's been tooth drama.  Rachel's two front teeth have been loose for months.  I've written before about her aversion to the dentist, doctor, and any sort of touching when there's the tiniest bit of pain involved.  Even brushing snarls out of her hair elicits tears and yelling.  So when it came to these teeth, she wouldn't let us touch them.  We've wanted to pull them out for months, but she wouldn't let us, and unless we held her down, which would result in tears and a huge fit, they weren't going to come out, so we just let it go.  For the last week or two, one of them has been hanging by a thread.  You could tell that the permanent tooth was pushing down on it because her teeth started to look crooked.  She wiggled it every morning and evening, but wouldn't pull hard enough to get it out.  All it would've taken was a little twist, and it would've come out, but she was too afraid to do it. 

Yesterday she finally decided to do it. 

There were tears (happy tears, she told us), but it's finally out.  The other one is pretty loose, too, but I'm sure it will be a number of weeks before she works up the courage to get it out. 

But wait, there's more drama.  Last night she woke me up around 11:30 because she said her sheet was wet because she had been crying in her bed.  She woke up and had to go potty, but was afraid to get up because she didn't want to see the tooth fairy, because she's not supposed to see her (I never told her that, by the way--she came up with that all on her own--I say as little as possible about the tooth fairy...and Santa...I don't want to lie to her, but I also don't want to crush her imagination, so I just listen whenever she has something to say about either of them).  Anyway, she laid there and cried because she was afraid to get up, so her sheet was all wet with tears.  I assured her it was okay to go potty.  So she did, and we went to go take care of the wet sheet--she covered her eyes all the way back to her room because she didn't want to see the tooth fairy if she was in the house (little did she know that the tooth fairy came around 10:00 pm and there was a dollar bill on her bedside table already). 

I honestly did not create this drama queen.  I don't give in to her drama, thus perpetuating it, I do everything I can to ignore it, and to my knowledge I do nothing to encourage it.  I don't coddle her in the least.  I guess this is just Rachel.  And I somehow have to learn to deal with it for the next however many years.  Oh my.

a rocky start

Rachel is enjoying school, but there have been some bumps along the way these first few weeks.  I've requested my first conference with her teacher because of some behavior issues she's having--I've never had to request a conference before, and it's a little daunting.  It's tomorrow morning before school, so we'll see how it goes.  In addition to that, the girl drama I was afraid of has already started, and she's in the middle of it.  I'm doing my best to help her to navigate it and trying to help her choose better friends to play with instead of the ones causing the drama, but it's hard because she wants to play with them, but she's getting hurt in the process.  And I know this is only the beginning, and nothing compared with what is probably to come.  My natural instincts are to tell her not to play with them, but I know this is a lesson she needs to figure out for herself.  Sadly, that means she's going to continue getting hurt before she learns.  The last thing in the world I want is to watch my child get hurt.

Rebecca's having a rocky start, too.  Fussy, fussy, fussy.  She misses her sister and doesn't know what to do with herself, so she either fusses or asks for food (what she does if she's bored).  If we go somewhere in the mornings she's usually happier, and I'm usually happier, too, because she's contained in her car seat, a stroller, or a grocery cart, and busy looking at the things around her, but we don't really need to go somewhere every day.  I find myself thinking up errands I need to run just so we have somewhere to go in the morning. 

My husband's had a rocky few days, too.  Yesterday he locked his keys in his car at work, and realized it right before it was time to come home.  The police came and got him in, so I didn't have to go rescue him (it's a 50 minute drive one-way, so I was really glad I didn't have to drive there in rush hour traffic!).  But then he had another interaction with the police this morning when he got a speeding ticket on his way to work.  Ugh. 

Watching the rest of my family struggle is a struggle for me, too, so I'm having my own rocky start as I try to figure out how to make life better for all of us.  Here's hoping things get easier.

Today's errand is to go get a key made for my husband to keep at work, just in case he locks himself out again.  Solves two problems in one....his and Rebecca's fussiness!  :)  If only Rachel's problems could be solved so easily....

water fun

Yesterday we used our free water park tickets.  It was a perfect day for it--90 degrees and bright and sunny.  We knew we had to use them this weekend, because next weekend is the last chance before it closes for the summer, and the tickets expire, and we didn't know if the weather would cooperate next weekend, so it was now or never. 

We took everything we needed with us to church (because the water park is lots closer to church than our house) and I got the girls ready in their suits before we left the church.  While I was getting them ready, my husband was talking to Rachel's best friend, Taylor's mom (they go to our church), and it turned out that they had free tickets to the water park, too, which also expired next weekend!  On the spur of the moment they decided to go too, so they met us there later and we hung out with them much of the time.  What a happy surprise!

It was a really fun day, and I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was after 2:00 and Rebecca was having trouble keeping her eyes open (she usually takes her nap at 1:00).  Rachel really didn't want to leave.  She was so happy that Taylor was there, and was just really enjoying the water, which I was both surprised and happy to see.  The last time we were in a big pool was at Disney World, when she was not quite five, and she was terrified of the water.  She wouldn't even go in for more than a few minutes with my husband or me holding her.  I purposely haven't put her in swimming lessons, because I was convinced that she'd cry and carry on and it would be a complete waste of money.  But yesterday gave me hope that maybe she's not as scared anymore, and maybe next spring we can do swimming lessons in anticipation of next summer.   She loved the wave pool, lazy river, and kids' areas.  She even agreed to try a water slide with me, even though she was scared.  She doesn't have a good track record of trying things when she's scared, so I was sure we'd get up there and she'd chicken out, but she didn't!  We went down and she LOVED it!  I was so proud of her.  She went down it again later with Taylor, and wanted to do it some more, but we didn't have time. 

While the steep price of admission means that we likely won't go again for quite awhile (we thought there wasn't enough there to justify the cost, until the kids are older and can enjoy more of the park for a longer period of time), for free, it was a super day of family fun!  I wish we could have taken two cars and Rachel and I could have stayed longer (my husband isn't the water-lover that I am, so he would've been perfectly happy taking Rebecca home to nap while I stayed with Rachel). 

We didn't take a camera (because trying to keep track of it and keeping it dry would've been very difficult!), so I don't have any pictures to share, unfortunately.  You'll just have to imagine lots of wet, happy smiles.