Happy Halloween!

Halloween! We had a little drama at the trunk or treat last week, so we had to acquire a new costume (E needed to wear the princess dress). I give you Supergirl! V was much happier with this costume, anyway.

M's been a Star Wars person for several years running, and doesn't seem at all bothered by this. Maybe next year I'll get it together and come up with some new costumes, but maybe not.

So, this is E's princess pose. More like a zombie pose, right? She was so happy to be wearing our one and only princess dress (obviously she would like more, but luckily has a birthday and Christmas coming up).

A note on the pumpkin buckets: we always used grocery sacks for our candy-gathering bags as kids. We often decorated them, which was fun, but only ever managed to get enough candy to fill the very bottom, which wasn't fun. I always thought that those kids with pumpkin buckets were the rich kids. Yeah, they cost $1. Of course, grocery sacks are free. Another note -- I thought that the stash from last week's Trunk or Treat activity at church was excessive, but surely the real trick or treating wouldn't be quite as bad. You can hit a lot more cars in an evening than houses, right? They're further apart. So wrong! The houses give more candy to each kid, so we ended up with an even bigger stash last night! Candy, candy, candy.

And here's a gratuitous pic of M2. He's doing great, and we finally had a normal night last night. As in, he woke up a lot but went back to sleep right away each time after I fed him. Miraculous.

Crayola reviews

Random, I know, but as E's on the floor coloring, I thought I'd throw out some hits and misses from Crayola. This 64 pack of markers is definitely a hit at our house. The same size as crayons and with the same variety of colors, what's not to love? Of course they're tiny and the ink runs out faster than larger markers, but they're still awesome.

Color wonder books with markers. Ideal for my 2-year-old. No mess and she likes to see hidden pictures appear on the pages. Downside is the price.

I have mixed feelings about model magic. It's lightweight, so easy for small hands to manipulate. It's fun to make your own colors (starting from a white base, you can mix in colors from markers or color a finished model. Downside is that if you actually leave these out to dry, they will harden as promised, but they fall apart easily.

We've tried color wonder sets with paint pens as well as regular paint pens from crayola. Supposedly it's water colors in the paint brush. Really they're just nasty markers. Total fail.


Bath tub crayons! Love these. They color on the tub - even under water -- and wipe off easily. Only disadvantage is that they don't wipe off grout as easily.

I know that most of you who read my blog have already seen pictures, but here are a few extra. Baby M2 was born quickly, once things actually started (as usual, I was on the sloooow road to baby). A couple of hours of painful contractions, a couple of pushes and he was here! The nurses and doctor all commented on how pink he was. A very healthy infant. I'll try to get some detailed shots later -- he has the longest fingers (and toes) ever, as well as just big hands in general, which makes me think Rachmaninoff. Or basketball, I guess, if we were at all sports-inclined. He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, which is just barely bigger than my last baby. 21 inches.

And now a whole series of proud siblings. M1 is very good about telling me that he wants to make the baby dance, or something equally cute but not appropriate, instead of actually doing it. Just like with his littlest sister, he finds M2 quite adorable.

V is serious about the baby. The day we came home, all the grown ups were elsewhere and M2 started to cry. She ran in to help -- and will definitely be our little momma with this baby.

E seriously grew two inches when she was holding M2. She is very tickled by him when she notices him. Luckily, she mostly ignores. I was a bit worried about smothering him with love, but it looks like we've got a bit of a respite before that happens.

Smiles! He's eating and sleeping and doing all the things infants are supposed to. So glad to have you, buddy!

pictures

visitor

New furniture!



This one is V's favorite, because it's just her size.






The nursery class at church has gone posh, and E had her nails painted for the first time. She was very excited about this. I just realized I have no nail polish remover in the house, to take care of it once half of it falls off.



A nice young lady came to pick up our old couch, and V got to the door first. "We have a rodent in our kitchen." Remarkably, said young lady thought V was cute and still took our stuff. Of course, it wasn't really a rodent. It was a young possum, caught in my bathtub UPSTAIRS at 2:30 in the morning. By Nathan, thank goodness he was home. I did not get close enough to get this picture. That was Nathan, realizing that M would be disappointed that he didn't get a peek at it.

winning

Win: Homemade Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream (4 oz unsweetened chocolate!) + Walmart brand peanut butter cups

Fail: Accusing frequent culprit V of removing the laces from Nathan's shoes, only to have E explain, "I did it!"

*I 100,046% do not need another mischievous sprite in the house. (100,046 % in honor of V who writes lots of love notes, saying "I love you [ridiculously huge number] %")

Win: M and V die laughing over a clearance joke book from Half Price Books.

Fail: Money flashcards bought on the same trip have the wrong answers printed on the backs of the cards.

Win: My kitchen is clean, thanks to my husband and kids.

Fail: No more library trips until we find the NINE books I couldn't locate today.

Win: E's crazy wink face showing up often.

Win: M made his own mother's day coupons at church yesterday, offering items like "a new house", or "a new sewing machine".

Win: V learning to add in her head and count to 100.

Win: Nathan worked from home today, so we got to have lunch together.

charades

My kids played charades last night with our fabulous babysitter, and we got reports on the game from her and the kids. Here are some of the more memorable items:

M -- white blood cell, sneezing nose, a tooth chomping, the solar system, the water cycle

V -- a light blinking, a piece of glass (hint: it has to do with fire), a computer mouse

Apparently the babysitter understands our kids and acted out photosynthesis for M's sake. So awesome.