Pumpkins

I LOVE Halloween. This year, Halloween seems even more fun to me than it has the past few years; not because I didn't have fun before, but because of the anticipation. I know I mentioned this in a previous post, but the change of the seasons seriously gets me excited for the holidays!!

One of my favorite parts of Halloween (aside from all the great scary movies on TV) is carving pumpkins! I am obsessed. Seriously. We spent a couple of days this weekend carving pumpkins, and even though it took quite a while (it takes a bit longer when you have a little monkey to chase around!), I am seriously having to stop myself from running out and buying more pumpkins to carve!

N and A came over one day and we had a play date/pumpkin carving afternoon. I made pumpkin patterns for us of Audia and A's faces. I had read somewhere online that you can use wood carving tools (which thankfully I still have from my printmaking days at ASU!) to carve away the skin of the pumpkin so that you can have multiple shades rather than just the black-and-white style of pumpkin pattern, so I used photoshop to turn this:

into this: The carving part took quite a bit longer than I had estimated. N and I were laughing pretty much the whole time we were carving together because of how silly it seemed that we had decided to try to tackle such a project, especially while simultaneously watching our toddlers. But, a day and probably about 4 or 5 hours worth of carving later, I had this:

It turned out much better than I thought it would, and now that I've done one, I certainly have a lot better of an idea of how to make it work even better next year! Yes, that's right; I fully intend to carve a pumpkin with Audia's face on it every year until she tells me to stop. :-) Unfortunately, the squirrels ate her eyes even though we sprayed the pumpkins with red pepper spray before putting them outside. They'll stay in the garage until Halloween. Boy, am I ever glad I photographed them when I did!
We carved a couple of other pumpkins as well. What do you think?


Chris' pumpkin, side 1

Chris' pumpkin, side 2

Owl Pumpkin

Kitty Pumpkin

Our Pumpkin Family!

Lucky Ladies

If you know me pretty well, you'll know either by hearing about it, or by experience, that my dad is an amazing chef. He has always done all the cooking and baking in the house (unless you count mac and cheese or scrambled eggs, which my mom used to make when he was away on business), and he has always done it incredibly well. And it's not just me and my mom who think so; there is no bias here just because he's my daddy. Friends and family always rave about his cooking. He knows his way around the kitchen like no one else I've ever met in my life, and has always been a stickler for using fresh ingredients (a third of the time, grown by himself), and making things from scratch. I grew up incredibly spoiled in the food department (as well as a few other departments, admitedly).

When Chris and I started dating, we went out to eat a lot. I made dinner a few times; things I had mastered over the years after trying to replicate my dad's recipe's when I moved away. And Chris cooked once or twice, but for the most part we had pizza or take out or ate out. But when we moved in together, Chris started trying his hand at cooking more frequently, and me less frequently, and over time he became 'the cook' of our household. I do breakfasts and baking from time to time, but he is our dinner chef. And over the years, he's gotten really good at it.

Because of how gradually it kind of happened, and how I am used to having the man of the house cook, I frequently take for granted how lucky I really am that Chris not only is willing to, and enjoys, cooking, but that he has become such a good chef.

Since we are living with my folks for a while, Chris and my dad trade off dinner duty, and it has been such a treat! Now that Audia is eating solid foods, I am so happy that we are able to introduce her to such a wide range of good, healthy, unprocessed food. They say the key to getting kids to eat well is to lead by example and start young, and I can't think of a better situation for her to be in. Add to that the fact that she's going to also grow up with a father who loves to, and is great at cooking. We are two seriously lucky ladies!

Get a load of the Chicken Bacon Roulades that Chris tried making for the first time last night (and were DELICIOUS!!!):

Fun Weekend

Well, the weather has warmed up a bit, and we took advantage by having a delightful weekend with some great friends!

On Friday, we had a play date with N and A. A and Audia are so funny together. They were stealing eachothers snacks, and sharing toys. They are not quite to the stage where they actually play together but they are still a bit young for that, I think, and the social interaction is good for them. I have high hopes that they will be the best of friends one day!

On Saturday evening, we went with N, D, and A to Zoo Boo at the Como Zoo.

There were close to 200 Como volunteers in costumes ranging from wild animals to pirates to Star Wars characters. The girls seemed a little confused by all the people in strange outfits, but I think they had fun regardless, and of course we adults enjoyed seeing our little ones dressed up! It was especially fun to see the guy in the Darth Vader costume. When we were deciding on a costume for Audia, my mom thought it would be most appropriate to dress Audia as Darth Vader, but I think we'll let her decide whether or not she wants to be Vader when she's old enough to understand the silly story behind her baby shower cake. For now, this photo of us with Vader will suffice :-)

(I love how she's looking up at him as if to say "are you my daddy?")


On Sunday, we went with friends J and A to the Walker. I was shocked (and delighted) at how not busy the place was, but a bit disappointed in their exhibitions. It was fun regardless of the lack of neat-o exhibitions, though. Audia's favorite part was the sculpture garden. Now that she's walking, she's less fond of being carted around in her stroller, so when we finally set her down in the grass, she started running all over the place! Parenting a fully mobile child certainly is a different beast than parenting a partially mobile one, let me tell you! Especially when that fully mobile child is as willfull as our little monkey. :-)

Let it snow?

We had our first snow on Saturday morning. It was only a little, but enough to cover the ground. It was melted by noonish. Last night and this morning, however, we've had our second snow. And it's a lot. And it's 11 am and it is still snowing. It's the thick, wet kind of snow that makes it look like it's a lot deeper than it actually is. The sticky kind that clings to everything and makes you want to run outside and make a snow man right now!

On Saturday morning, I was in a bit of a shock at the sight of it. It's early for snow. By at least 2 or 3 weeks, based on my memory. But this morning, waking up to this:

And seeing how excited and curious Audia is when she looks outside (she keeps pointing and saying "Ess! Ess!" which is pretty much her word for anything that starts with the letter 'S' {shoes, socks...and now, snow}), I am less shocked and more excited. Seeing the fluffy stuff has awaken in me a type of excitement I haven't felt in 9 years. An excitement that I had thought had died with age and maturity (but apparently had simply gone into hibernation due to the warm climate I was living in). The early, bouncing, magical, wonderous excitement for the holidays!

Is it a little early, being only mid-October? Sure. I'll give you that. But I am simply excited that I have my excitement back! Growing up in a place that has seasons, I learned to anticipate things based on the weather, on the changing of the seasons. When I moved to AZ, I lost that anticipation. Every day pretty much felt the same. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all came too quickly and were over before I knew it. They didn't feel like the holidays I remembered from when I was younger.

Don't get me wrong, I love AZ. I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, so the 330-340 days of sun a year were fantastic. But I haven't had this deep-down, tingly, buzzing excitement about the holidays in almost a decade. And I think it's a decent trade off for the 6 months of winter we might end up having this year.

In other news, Chris got back from IL last night and boy, are Audia and I ever glad to have him back!! Audia's walking has improved so much in the last week, her daddy was amazed to see how well she's walking even on uneven ground. We had some fun playtime in the leaves last night in anticipation of this morning's snow. She loved having Chris set her in the middle of the big pile, and then throwing herself back so that she sank into the leaves. She kept doing it over and over again. When we finally went inside, she continued to point outside and sign 'more'. :-) She truly is an outdoor girl.

Fall has fallen....or something......

They say "spring has sprung" but what do you say when fall has arrived? "Beware of winter!" perhaps....

It's finally fall here in the Minne. It arrived later than usual, mercifully. Don't get me wrong. I like fall. I love the smell of fallen leaves and fireplace smoke and seeing all the glorious colors,and drinking apple cider, and hearing the strong winds that howl and rattle the windows from time to time (but not so much lately, because my parents got new windows a few years ago), and of course, I love having the excuse to knit like a madwoman! I haven't experienced a real fall for years....about a decade, actually....and I am happy to experience the change of the seasons. But I would like to prolong my re-introduction to winter as long as possible, so fall's late arrival is fine by me. In fact, it can hang around for as long as it would like. Heck, why not stay until spring??

Audia is still sleeping in her crib at night, and without too much hassle. The first couple of nights she went down pretty easily but woke up a couple times a night, crying and saying "up! up! up! up! up!" which made me laugh and cry simultaneously. But now she is pretty much sleeping through the night, straight for 12 hours. Though now she starts crying when we get to the end of her bedtime routine.....storytime has gone from 10 minutes to about 2 minutes (luckily she still loves being read to during the day) because she anticipates my leaving. Some nights she wants nothing to do with Chris as soon as the sun goes down. She's hoping, I suppose, that if she ignores him, he won't put her to bed. But she still is falling asleep in 10 to 20 minutes, so that's good. I don't suppose many kids look forward to bedtime.

We went apple picking this weekend with N, D, and A. Well, I lie. We were going to pick apples. That was the plan, and the entire idea behind going to the orchard in the first place. But at $30 bucks a bag (a bag holds 20-25 apples), we decided to take a walk through part of the orchard, have lunch, and just look at the apples instead. We can buy locally grown apples much cheaper at the grocery store, thank you very much!! We had a great time, regardless. I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it a million times more, but I am so happy that they've moved back to MN! We had such a good time with them, as always. And it is so fun to see the girls get to know one-another...they seem to recognize eachother more and more each time we get together.

Unfortunately, Chris will be going to IL again next week to work for his dad. We figure that until he gets a job here, he can't turn down work. He'll work there one week a month until he finds a full-time job up here. The hunt continues.

In her CRIB!

So, this past week we spent Monday through Thursday up at the cottage. After a week and a half of crazy running around and birthday celebrations left and right, we decided it would be a good idea to just relax for a few days. Add to that the fact that our friends, B and S, and their daughter E, were in town visiting (S's grandmother lives literally about 15 minutes from the cottage) and we had to go!

The weather up there was BEAUTIFUL! It was the most perfect trip we've had up there so far, in my opinion (other than the fact that it was only 4 days).....the combination of beautiful weather, warm and calm lake water, and how QUIET the lake was (we only saw two other boats the ENTIRE week...) made it an absolutely ideal time to be up there. I am hoping we can go back in a couple of weeks, when all the trees are changing color.

It was really nice to see B, S, and E also, and to see E and Audia play together. I wish we had had a bit more time to spend with them, but there's always next summer.

But on to the big news! We decided before we left that upon our return, we would try to sleep train Audia again. We tried back when she was 6 months old, and she cried so hard for so long that she threw up 3 times, and I said 'never again.' But the differences between a 6 month old and a 12 month old are huge, so we decided to give it another go.

This time we did things a little differently. Mainly, I was not in the room at all. Chris stayed with her, in a chair beside her crib, until she fell asleep. And literally 30 minutes after I left the room, I got a text from him saying that she's asleep. THIRTY MINUTES! She woke up a few times during the night, but only fed once (and I'm not sure it was even necessary....in fact, we found that if I didn't take any part in trying to get her back to sleep, she fell back to sleep much faster). We'll see how subsequent nights go....I am still sort of waiting to find out that last night was a fluke......but needless to say I am completely beside-myself-thrilled not only that it only took a half hour, but that there was no vomiting. LOL.

Who knows why some things work for some kids and other things work for others; I certainly don't! But, I am really glad that through it all, we've listened to our gut instincts and followed Audia's cue on so many things. I will never regret co-sleeping.....I think that our co-sleeping is part of the reason that she is so secure and smart and happy, and am confident that it was what she needed. But, I am also so glad that we decided to try sleep training again, because if we had never tried it, we would never know what the possibilities were.

One Year Old!

It's official! Audia's a toddler. Well, she pretty much was before, what with all her toddling around, but now her age says so too. :-)

The past week has been pretty busy, but here's the basic rundown:

Saturday we went to the MN State Fair with our dear friends, N and D, and their daughter, A, who is one week older than Audia. We had a great time! Going to the fair with other people can sometimes be like going to Las Vegas with other people....there is SO much to see, and everyone wants to see something different so it can end up being a bit of a headache. Not with N and D, though :-) I am so happy that they have moved back to MN! Not only to have friends who are at the same point in lives and a child the same age as ours, but to have friends who are as laid back as we are, who enjoy doing the same things that we do. It truly is a blessing having them here.

We had a nice party for Audia with some of my parents friends (aka my surrogate aunts and uncles) on Sunday. It was a very nice day; laid back, with beautiful weather.

Monday we went to Audia's BFF's first birthday party. It is so much fun to watch them interact with one-another!

Tuesday was Audia's actual birthday. We went to Como Zoo and Conservatory with N, D, and A during the day, and it was so much fun! It was kind of a last minute decision to go there (we decided on Monday), but it was a great choice. The Zoo is one of only 4 free zoos in the country (but we donated. it's hard to justify not donating when you go!), and it's the perfect size for younger children, in my opinion. Plus the conservatory is beautiful. I think the girls really enjoyed themselves. I know I did! The extra cool thing about our going is that Audia received a gift in the mail yesterday from her Aunt A and Uncle J, and it is a tree planted at Como Park in her name! Talk about kismet! Going to Como Zoo for her birthday will have to be a tradition from now on :-)

That night, we did presents from us and my parents, and let her try her first piece of cake. Boy did she love that cake! Not for eating so much as for making a mess with! It is so funny, too, because A barely touched her cake at her party on Monday. Must be nice to have a child who doesn't like making a mess.....I can only imagine! LOL.

Yesterday Audia had her 1 year check up. I still really like Dr. S. She is patient and thorough, and not once did we feel at all like she was rushed or in a hurry to get onto the next patient. Audia seems to like her too; as soon as she walked into the room and sat down, Audia crawled over, sat by her feet, and said "Hi!" about 7 times. hehe!

Audia is doing really well; she's 21 lbs, 7 oz and 31 inches long. That puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and the 97th percentile for height.

In between all this, we're trying to get my photo website up and running, and I've been editing photos like crazy both for the site and for us. Plus, Audia's taking more and more steps on her own, without holding onto anything. Yesterday she hit her current record of about 8 steps. So, I'm having mini heart attacks almost daily! I certainly am feeling like I'm running on empty this past week, but I've been trying to knit when I get a chance.....it helps me to keep my "zen", if you can even call it that.

Tomorrow we are having her official birthday party, and I'm really hoping the weather holds out! Then, next week we will be heading to the cottage one last time this summer, to meet up with our friends B and S and their daughter E. After that maybe I'll get a chance to relax ;-)