Halloween prep

toddlers on parade

daycare had their halloween parade today. well, it started off as a parade at least. it then morphed into a swarm of parents and grandparents armed with cameras surrounding the kids. but it was full of cuteness no matter what you call it. caroline's class rode in the mega strollers. her teacher told me she was doing the miss america wave the whole time. my beauty queen in training. i know i am biased, but she was the cutest duckie there.

quentin actually wore his costume, including the head part, which is impressive given how much he resisted costuming last year. and he too was wicked cute as nemo.

Q and his class. batgirl is one of the two girls in his class.

the after-party. quack.

face wound is looking lots better!

*bleep* my kid ruined

so if you're going to let your toddler watch youtube monster truck videos on your phone while he sits on the potty, you should probably make sure he doesn't drop it in the potty.  jeremy learned.  the hard way.  oops.

Sent from my iPhone

And with daddy's help

Learning to ride

Lilly teaches pickle to "ride" the tricycle

Ready to party

At ginny's 1st birthday party!

So much that...

... This happens when you take it away!

Baby loves rice

A lot.

Dog crate

Or fort. Either way.

Chocolate-covered pretzels

Make for a chocolate-covered baby

At the farm

Seeing if I can post photos from my phone. That would be pretty cool.

we are still here

we are still here.  it's just hard to blog with no regular access to a computer.  i try to do it from my phone but it's really hard to do.

 

we still don't have a move-in date.  it was supposed to be yesterday, but we received a text from the landlord last night that the current tenant is "almost moved out."  we've been playing this game for 6 weeks now so we don't have high expectations for any movement.  if there were any other options we would have abandoned this place by now, but unfortunately there just aren't that many houses big enough for all of us, that are pet-friendly, located where we need it to be, and within our budget.

Sent from my iPhone

Sing. Sing a song.

Q loves to sing.

Overheard on the baby monitor just now... A medley of "rain, rain, go away", "row, row, row your boat", and the alphabet.

I didn't even know he knew the alphabet. Must have sunk in the bazillion times I have sung it to him in the car.

Oh. He also sings George thorogood's "bad to the bone" and baha men's "who let the dogs out?" because they serve as the soundtrack to a few of his favorite YouTube monster truck videos. And u2's "beautiful day" because it is featured in the monster jam world finals DVD that we watch in the car every day.

Sent from my iPhone

Quotable Quentin

At naptime:

"I don't want to sleep. I'm scared. Of the monster. The monster kitty."

Sent from my iPhone

Do you like my hat?

fall festivities

yesterday we went to a farm to do the usual autumn festivities - maize maze, hay ride, and pumpkins. it was a beautiful day after a pretty gloomy, rainy week. the kids were not cooperative for any nice posed photos amongst the fall decor. oh well. someday.

pickle did like "driving" the tractor

baby girl is too big for the bjorn. but it was the only way to really take her through the maize maze, as the paths were not stroller-friendly.

but Q had a great time running

he did find a piece of corn on the ground and insisted on "opening" it

and then he ate it

after successfully making it out of the maze, quentin enjoys his "super donut" (i.e. funnel cake)

this farm also had a hay maze which was a little smaller and more pickle's speed. she was fascinated by the walls of hay.

quentin also liked the hay maze, especially the dead ends

cuteness

it's raining hay!

Q took right off into the pumpkin patch, despite the obscenely large pricker thingies dotting the patch. he seemed intent on finding his pumpkin as far away from everyone else as possible.

notice that there's no one else anywhere near him.

what a cute punkin.

attack of the goop

it only took three days for us to receive our first "sick" call from daycare. caroline had a green, goopy eye. fortunately (though somewhat sketchily) our new pediatrician's office was able to diagnose her with the pink eye over the phone and since she's now on the meds she's got the all clear to come back tomorrow.

run, quentin, run!

i just walked by daycare on my way back from a meeting in the building across the street. the windows are tinted so you can't really see in to the classrooms, but you can see into the gym. Q's class was in there, and he and a couple of other little boys were running laps around the gym as fast as they could. he saw me and waved, but did not stop running. he didn't even slow down. i think he likes it. Sent from my iPhone

no need to worry

today, as i went in to fetch Q from school, he ran up to me, gave me a great big hug, and said, "mommy, i love schoooooooooool."

first day of school

yesterday, quentin and caroline went to their new school for the first time. Q wasn't too excited about it until i kept stressing that there would be kids to play with. pickle jumped right in. there were some classmates eating breakfast at the table, so being the chow hound that she is, she climbed right up and beckoned for her meal. she was so busy stuffing banana and yogurt in her face that she didn't even notice i left. Q didn't transition in quite as well, but did fine nonetheless. he was not amused with the new sippy cups i got him and didn't want to drink his yogurt thing. but when i walked over to check on them around 11, he was outside with his class, running and shrieking up a storm. the director said they both did very well, so that's good. the whole car ride home last night quentin just kept talking about circle time and his new friend andrew. his teacher told me that andrew is polish and doesn't really speak english well yet. i laughed and said, "neither does quentin."

get into the groove

i will again apologize for our lack of blog updates. we are getting back into the groove but we are still homeless. thank goodness for some of the bestest friends in the world. seriously. our daily schedule right now is something like this:

-

4:30 am: wake up, shower, and get dressed

5:15 am: get the kids up, dressed, and fed

6:00 am: depart

7:15 am: get the kids settled in their classrooms

7:45 am: work

5:30 pm: pick up the kids and all their stuff

6:00 pm: head home

7:30 pm: arrive home, unload car, prepare dinner, eat, get the kids ready for bed, put them down for the night

8:30 pm: clean up from dinner, pack lunches, prep as much as possible for the next day (lay out clothes, pack daycare bags, etc.)

10:00 pm: sit down, watch some TV while multitasking email, paying bills, etc.

11:00 pm: crash hard.

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what's that saying? i'll sleep when i'm dead? sigh. all in the name of progress.