halloween videos

After publishing the post about halloween, I realized I forgot to include some videos.

The first two are from the halloween party at joy school.

For those who are interested

In case you were curious, Livia is doing awesome in her night time potty training. She still wets the bed about once a week, but that means that SIX nights a week she's able to hold it all night long!

I love not having to deal with that super-soggy pull-up every morning. And since she kept leaking out of her night-time pull-up, I think I'm actually changing sheets less often than I was before! Last week I didn't have to wash a single sheet from either child. Woo!

Halloween

I did not take nearly enough pictures of all our Halloween festivites. Considering the three parties Chase and I attended, trunk-or-treat, actual trick-or-treating, downtown los altos trick-or-treating, and two other parties that Livia attended....you'd think I'd have more than a handful of pictures. And at least one decent one of Jane. But alas! I do not. Let's just chalk it up to "living in the moment" and move on, shall we?

Me and Chase. We both went as paintings. He is a rough copy of Van Gogh's self-portrait, and I went as a Jackson Pollock painting. Chase made my costume, and did an awesome job.

 Liv put her costume together from things we already had in our dress-up box. About two months ago she came out, all dressed up and said, "Mom, I want to be a fairy princess for halloween." Done.

 Her Grandma Baldwin sent her the perfectly matching wand to complete the ensemble, and she loves to cast spells at me with it, turning me into a frog, or horse, or some other creature.

 Here's Jane in her tinkerbell costume. You may recognize it from when Livia was 6 months old. How could I not use it when they hit their first halloween at exactly the same age?

 This is the only picture I have of both girls. Sad, I know. I always meant to take another one...

 Likewise meant to get a better picture than this of Jane. Poor, neglected second child.

 I'm telling you, I have terrible pictures! Here's Livia with her joy school class. Notice that none of them are looking at the camera, and Cameron's not even in it!

 Regardless of my complete lack of photography skills, Livia had a fabulous halloween. She got lots of candy, which she has been most generous in sharing with us, and I think will have many happy memories of this holiday.

And a big thanks to everyone who threw the fabulous parties we attended!

Eating woes

Jane has been eating solid food for about a month now. And by eating I mean spitting food all over whoever is feeding her.

Really. You get that spoon close to her mouth, and she just starts to blow. It is amazing how far food can fly from the lips of a babe.

Chase took a video of this but...it's upside down. And I don't feel like figuring out how to flip it around. So instead I'll include a video of Jane "eating" her vitamins. There's no blowing, but the facial expressions when she does get a taste are a pretty good sample of what she does when we force some veggies in her mouth.

I should note, however, that in the past couple of days she has actually eaten a few spoonfuls of peaches and carrots. I know this because she spit them back up again.

Progress?



I had to include an obligatory messy eating picture. The awesome expression on her face is just a bonus.

One thing Jane does like is eating food through this little mesh-strainer-thing. I believe she was chomping on a banana here.

Happy halloween!

BAhahahahaha!

I can't get enough of Jane in this little witch's hat. Ü

One more. One more.

Note: She is not actually going to be a witch for halloween. She is tinkerbell. The official halloween pictures will come later. Probably, you know, after halloween. So I can take pictures of the grand event.

6 months old

It's hard to believe, but Jane is already 6 months old!

At six months, Jane:



-Has just learned how to sit up on her own, as of today. Yay! She still topples over after about a minute though.

-Despises baby food. I will have an entire post dedicated to this soon.

-Takes two solid naps a day. Typically from 9-11 and 2-4. That is, that's when she would nap if we were at home. Which we're usually not. But I digress...

-Sleeps decently at night. Goes to sleep around 7:30 pm, usually wakes up around 1 or 2 for her first feeding, then again around 4:00. Sometimes only wakes up once in the night, but almost always wakes up in the morning at 6:30 a.m. This early-riser business is not gonna fly.

-Loves her baths, her white blanket, and anything she can put in her mouth.

-Is 26.5 inches long and weighs 17 lbs. She's 70th percentile in everything. Liv has always been around the 30th percentile, so Jane's quite a bit bigger. Wouldn't it be funny if she stayed that way and Chase and I created a tall child? Ü

-Rolls and scoots like crazy.

And now lots of pictures. Because it's her half-birthday and I can.

 

Ahh! Don't you just want to eat her up?!

Reading in bed:

 Hanging out with the older girls (who had been playing dress-up):

 Enduring some lovin' from Livia:

 Sitting up!

 I found her this way one day. Apparently Livia wanted her to play dress-up, too. Ü

We just love our little Janie!

Visiting the fam

My mom drove up to Utah right after Laura had her baby, and I drove down with my girls to help take care of Emily and David for the week (since my dad works such long hours).

First of all, I need to brag about an amazing traveler I know named Livia. This girl did not ask for a show for the entire drive to and from southern california. She was perfectly content listening to music, chatting, looking out the window, and snacking. She also napped during both drives, which NEVER happens! AND we only had to stop to go to the bathroom once during each 7 hour drive, and those were the only times she got out of her car seat. Ah, she was marvelous.

Lest you get too jealous, Jane cried. A lot.

Moving on.

Emily and David were doing their homework after school one day, and Livia wanted to join in, so she did some pre-writing worksheets I'd printed up for her.



We attended a lot of soccer practices/games. Livia was a champ during these as well.

 We tried to take advantage of having a yard to play in while we were there:

This is how Livia and David play. I kept telling her to "stop hitting David" or "stop throwing things at David," but then he'd tell me he wanted her to do it. So I stopped intervening.



My dad was released as bishop the same weekend I happened to be there, and it was nice to hear him and my mom bear their testimonies. I never lived at home during the six years my dad was bishop, but based on the other testimonies given that day, my dad really, truly loved all the ward members, and they loved him too. I think his release is pretty bittersweet for him. My brother Perry drove over for the occasion, and Livia had a fabulous time rough-housing with him afterwards.

Jane is not terribly giggly. She hardly ever really laughs for us, so I was so happy to catch this clip of my dad and emily making her laugh!

 Once my mom returned, we all drove up to northern california together. AV has an October break that happened to fall right then, and everyone wanted to come visit my grandparents and Uncle David.

Me and Jane!

My mom and Jane

 Livia's first time bowling. The picture's pretty blurry, but you can still get a good feel for her technique. Notice the sparkly tiara she wore that entire day.

I'm so happy we live close enough to my grandparents that Livia and Jane can get to know them!

 It was a really fun two weeks, and I can't wait until the next time we get to see everyone! Livia asked me the other day if we could move to AV. And when I asked her why, she said, "because I love Emily and David SO much!"