Halloween fun

As much as I claim to go crazy having a toddler, I really do love this age with Lisa. She is so perceptive and is learning so much and makes me smile every day. It has been a fun week of Halloween.  Lisa really got into the idea of "Trick-or-Treats" and loved wearing her Nemo costume. We checked out lots of books from the library about Halloween, so she was very excited to be doing all the things they did in the books, like carving pumpkins, wearing a costume and going trick-or-treating. 

Carving the pumpkin

This is how Lisa "helps" us a lot of the time, whether it's baking, sewing, or carving a pumpkin. Sometimes it's a little cumbersome, but she loves helping so we make it work. And sometimes she does do it her self. She can hold the cups while I pour the ingredients in for baking. 

She didn't hesitate to get in there and get sticky pumpkin on her hands. Which is kind of uncharacteristic of her, actually. She always has to have a napkin nearby when she is eating sticky foods cause it drives her crazy to get it on her. 

 Halloween Party

Lisa and Shad, pulling some pretty priceless faces.

If there's music, you better believe Lisa will be bustin' a move

Lisa and Daddy playing a "Go fish" game.  She didn't want to stop at one turn. We'll have to do this for family night some time. 

How many dads do you know that will attempt to braid their daughter's hair? It didn't look too bad either! That night after the party, Lisa and Ryan had a slumber party and stayed up until 1am and ate ALL her candy!!!

Boo at the Zoo

Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls has a Halloween night every year, where they have Trick-or Treat booths, kids crafts, and games. Not to mention you get to see some of the animals at night.  

They had thousands of colored lights at the zoo, which was both confusing and exciting to Lisa. She was so cute she kept saying, "They have Christmas at Halloween!"
We told her she had to say "Trick or Treat!" really loud and after some practice, she got it down. 

This is the song that never ends...

Lisa is ALWAYS singing and I love it. Mostly it is her own renditions of whatever new song she heard or a musical adaption to whatever she happens to be doing. Like...she lives in a musical or something. She is actually starting to match my pitches though. At bedtime we sing together and she will match the notes I am singing. With gusto. 

Monster bites?? Debra's teacher and Taylor's teacher and....all together? I'm not really sure what this is. I think at church they sing a song called The more we get together. I know that song, but this is something new. Where did the monster part come from? 

 

Ryan is taking a guitar class at school due to the fact that he had some credits he needed to fill this semester. Lisa is helping him practice I guess. 

p.s. Notice in both these videos she is missing at least one item of clothing...that is the norm for her around the house. Most kids just want to take their shoes off when they come in from outside, but she insists on stripping down to the bare minimum. 

Passy.

With our visit to the dentist came the life altering news for Lisa that she would soon have to give up the pacifier, a.k.a "passy".  I know most of you are probably thinking, "What?! She still uses a pacifier?!" Yes, she does. The dentist said that it probably is not doing much harm considering over the past year she mostly only has used it for sleeping, but that it would be wise to start weaning her from it. The first day I thought I would do it cold turkey, but that didn't last more than one day. I admit I rely heavily on nap times to give us a couple of hours away from eachother each day, so when she wouldn't take a nap without one I decided we would start by letting her have one at nap, but not at bedtime. The first night she woke up at 1am and 5 am and I layed with her in her bed each time until she fell back asleep. That definitely wasn't going to work for more than one night. The next night I told her I would not be coming in when she woke up and that if it was still dark she needed to try to go back to sleep. She did awesome. She did wake up once and Ryan offered to lay with her, but she said, No! In the morning Ryan woke me to say she'd been playing by herself in her bedroom for an hour! (I had earplugs in so didn't hear any of it) The next night however, she did not go to bed until almost midnight. Our policy has always been that as long as she is in her room at bedtime, we don't care what she does (within reason) because we figure she'll go to sleep when she gets tired enough.  A lot of times she reads and sings songs on the floor by her night light for awhile before she falls asleep. Last night that just went on for about 3 hours more than usual! Sure, there was a little crying and screaming when she would try to come out and we'd tell her to go back, but mostly she was just amusing herself trying to sing her ABCs and peeking out the door. I think she was just waiting for us to go to bed because once we did she settled down a little. Ryan told her to get in her bed when she got tired because that would be more comfy than the floor and she had gotten in her bed by the morning. Hopefully she'll start learning to fall asleep earlier within the next week. Then we'll work on getting rid of the passy for naps too and altogether. Who knows what I will do when the next kid comes. I think the passy has been great to us...I can't count all the hours of strife it has saved us. Road trips, family gatherings, naps, bedtime, you name it. To my knowledge, she never contracted any horrible sicknesses from that nasty dirty thing (face it, kids are going to put gross dirty things in their mouths all day no matter how hard you try. If anything, that pacifier kept her from putting some grosser things in there a lot of the time!) I almost wonder if waiting this long has been easier for us because I have been able to reason with her about why she needs to stop using it and she understands that the dentist told her it can hurt her teeth. Anyway...enough of this novel on the relationship of Lisa and her passy. We will cherish its memory.

Ryan loved it when her smile would show out the sides of the passy. He thought that was so cute.

Ready for the big girl bed? As long as I have my passy!

Easter, 18 months old. I did regret that she was particularly grumpy that day as I knew it would mean that in every picture she would have the passy in her mouth. But I realize now I would much rather have that than screaming and crying and whining the whole time. The moment she climbed up into Grandad's lap is an especially sweet memory. 

Well... the passy used to work when I wanted to do her hair fancy. Not any more. Now she wants treats to let me do her hair. Oh well. Maybe someday she'll let me play again. 

Of course, I don't see how she possibly would have taken a nap at Disneyland without that blessed passy. Thanks for everything, passy.

Summer fun

So...now that we are having 30 degree weather here in Rexburg, I've decided to catch up on all of our summer outings. I've included my favorite pictures from our trip to California and the beach, camping at Cave Falls in Idaho, and our visit to Provo to see Natalie.

Visit to Provo

Jackson is such a cutie. He was still so young when I went to visit, but I did catch a few smiles while I was there. 

Natalie is such a good mom. I snapped this picture just to show how she is always making time for each of her kids, as hectic as that gets for her.

Lisa and Olivia played together so well. If you notice, Lisa had to have her hair done just like Livvy's each day we were there. Natalie was nice enough  to do it for her because we all know she won't tolerate me doing her hair for more than 2 seconds. 

Cave Falls Camping

Aunt Aimee and Lisa are becoming good friends. I am so happy Lisa has had a chance to spend a lot of time with each of Ryan's sisters.

Camping at New Brighton Beach State Park, near Santa Cruz

Fun in the ocean with Cade and Cameron

Our awesome sandcastle. Cade makes a good architect.

Me and my hotty

Wright's Beach, near Bodega Bay

Around the campfire with gramommy and Grandpa Lee

Ryan flying the stunt kite. It was really windy.

Lisa was so fun to watch as she played creatively at the beach. The actual shoreline was a little rocky so we carried a bucket of dirt from the campsite over to where we were laying on our blanket on the beach. She cracked me up when she started "cleaning" the dirt.  

Dentist day

Today was Lisa's first visit to the dentist. She did such a good job! I could not believe how she stayed so still in the dentist chair while they cleaned her teeth. She was even laughing at their corny jokes and smiling a lot. I must be really emotional because she was making me so happy I wanted to cry. Just one of those mother moments where you feel so lucky to be a mom and to have such a sweet kid. Of course, I may have been feeling that way partly also because we had just had a little temper tantrum struggle before getting in the car to go to the dentist and I was just so glad she got over it fast. It's such a roller coaster with the two of us. I just can't WAIT until we add the teenage factor of PMS into the equation!!! But anyway...the dentist. Everything looks healthy. The dentist commented on the gaps in her teeth being a good thing because it will be easier to keep them clean. We don't have to worry about flossing yet he said. Thank goodness she got Ryan's teeth and not mine! Maybe she'll be able to avoid braces. We went and got some frozen yogurt together, even though it's like 30 degrees outside. She was happy to come home and examine everything in her goody bag from the dentist.