Halloween 2007

We headed up to family housing for the Halloween carnival. Not what we were used to in GF, but just the right size for the girls. Both girls enjoyed the train ride, Laurelei about jumped out of Eric's arms when it came by, so they were off for another and another. CJ dressed as a ladybug and Laurelei was Piglet.


The rest of our week was busy. CJ's thumb continued to bleed until Thursday, but now seems to have closed up completely. The dermabond didn't hold for long, however, no sign of infection and she has calmed down a bit. She was pretty anxious about everything for a couple of days.

Laurelei has taken to walking everywhere. She has also discovered taking books off the shelves.


CJ has decided that ALL of her friends must go with us wherever we go. Here is the basic list,

• Abby (who likes to sit in her car seat and must be told to move back each time we get in the car) and her sister Morgan.
• Parker (who tries to squeeze into Laurelei's car seat each trip) and his big brother Ethan. As we left the mall today, a hysterical CJ from the back says, "ETHAN, we forgot Ethan!!!" So Dad stopped, I opened my door to let him in, and we continued home. Trying to not laugh out loud the whole way. --Ethan was helpful on the way home and helped CJ take her old band aid off her thumb, something she wouldn't let mom and dad do. Thanks.
  
• Grandma and Grandpa...which she never says specifically which ones, but it appears that it would be all 6 grandparents, plus the ones she has adopted, such as Jean and Bob from across the street.
• Zoey, Allie, Emma, Tyson
• And let us not forget that Josh and Tim are usually along too --this is ironic since she won't talk to either in person, but they always are on the list.

Eric wasn't able to shut the door, until all had gotten out, and when he took CJ to the bathroom, he didn't realize that EVERYONE had come, and he had to once again hold the door open until everyone was in, or out, or done. If your name isn't on the list, it probably is because I forgot to put it on. But I need to thank you for sitting in the back of the van --yes all of you together, squished, because that gives CJ a reason to sit in her car seat...there is no room in the back. Yes, these are real, imaginary friends. None that live in FL. Actually, only friends and family that DON'T live in FL, do I get to cart around, establish taking turn rules, and feed snack to. We miss you all.

Oh Monday Monday

It began raining yesterday afternoon and continues all day today.
This morning, as I was trying to get green beans made for lunch, for the girls and sitter, CJ stuck her thumb into the can. As she tried to get it out, and I turned around and tried to help, she sliced her thumb pretty good.
Due to rain, Eric was already on his way home, and the sitter was already here, so I just wrapped her hand up in a towel, applied pressure, and took the screaming and kicking girl to the ER. I was so happy that they were able to use Dermabond and not try and do real stitches. Here is my brave little girl showing her "Heyyyy" Thumbs up.
The shirt, the towel and the WHITE shirt I had put on for the day have all been tossed. Eric wanted to take a picture of the kitchen, as she kept swinging her arm back and forth sending blood spatters EVERYWHERE, but I didn't.

PUMPKINS!

Pumpkin time! Yesterday we went to a local church and picked out pumpkins. The girls had fun, took a hay ride, picked out lots of pumpkins and took a ride with the pumpkins in a wagon.

Today we cleaned out the big ones and carved them. We'll make yummy pumpkin seeds tomorrow. We let CJ draw and carve her own. She thinks that it is so scary that it will scare Daddy. I'm not sure if this is her cheesy smile or her scary face.

Eric is attempting to carve a sunset pirate scene on his pumpkin. He has erased and started over a couple of times, so I took a quick picture of the before...and after...he's got talent!

?!CRAZY??!! No just tired.

We just returned from a cross country trip. When I say we, I mean the girls and myself. Eric has been busy sitting in the spin chair. It was a fun trip. Apparently, from my mom, to my friends, to perfectly good strangers, this is NOT a normal thing to do--meaning packing the car with an eight month old and 2.5 yr old and driving for 14hrs. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Don't try and play the entering a new state game with a toddler...As you say "YEA we're in Alabama" her reply is "What? What Mommy, what?" and you repeat, "We're in Alabama!" Waving your hands above your head trying to create more excitement, but only get..."What? What, Mommy? what? What?" I foolishly tried one more time, to get the same reply from her. Same thing happened in Mississippi...only two states and I learned, she's not ready for that game.
• We drove through, across, or spent time in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. 6 states in 9 days...not bad! We didn't get the DVD player out until late in the day on the really long days of drive and most days no DVD play --This is what tipped the scales to certifiably crazy, according to friends.
• We had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our friends the Edmisters'. The first friends we met in Grand Forks and dear ones! The girls played and played and played and it was refreshing to catch up with Skye and Hannah. We miss you and will miss you more when you return to Ohio. As CJ kept telling me, "Zoey lives too far!" Agreed! Here are a couple of shots of all our girls. They are all 6 months apart from each other. Zoey is 3 CJ is 2.5 Allie is 14 months and Laurelei is 8 months.


• We continued to Altus, OK and saw beautiful fields of cotton...really it looked like popped popcorn fields, never realized what a sight cotton fields are. There we spent the weekend with our dear friends the Machs'. CJ and Emma picked up were they left off in March and we got to meet baby Tyson. What a cutie! We celebrated Emma's birthday, went to a parade, the girls went to Mom's day out, music and gymnastics together. Fun filled days!


• We left Altus on Tuesday, with the intent to go half way home, Shreveport, LA. However, an hour on the road and we blew a tire. Really, it was the best place it could have happened. It gave us a reason to stop in Wichita Falls, TX and spend one more night with the Edmisters'. Sure I know how to change a tire, but I also have road side assistance, so I used it. It seemed I could just concentrate on the girls that way. It took an hour and a half for the truck to come and only a few minutes to put the spare on...and then Skye was a blessing and helped me get a new tire and even put it on for me. Thank you!
  
• A later than planned start on Wednesday, actually worked out well. We watched dark clouds ahead of us and then behind us, but for most of the drive it was dry. We didn't really get heavy rain until after Shreveport. We also missed all the tornadoes, even though at some point we had been in the areas of concern. This morning we got up early and headed out and again, we were blessed with cloudy but good weather for most of the trip. We encountered rain near Hattisburg, MS , and when it was raining it was buckets! After some slow going and just making it to speech, we got home at 3:15 today.

Odds and ends....

• Brown play dough, will give you a moment of...WHAT??? before you realize that IS play dough and not poop.
  
• Silly putty, is fun to make into tiny strings, making it easy to mash into clothing and car seats...Comes out of hair, not clothing.

• Laurelei is clearly and purposely saying Momma, claps her hands and decided to start taking independent steps on Monday (8months 3 days...for those who remember that CJ did this at 8 months 2 days.) She is also a HUGE flirt...she just got louder and louder until we finally told Tim to pay attention to her. Then she just smiled and giggled.

• Altus, OK is the same distance as Miami, FL is from us. We don't have friends that live in Miami.

I'm sure I am not remembering fun things...those brain cells are currently napping. All in all, we all had a great time and miss all of our friends. CJ keeps telling me how her friends live too far...along with grandmas and grandpas. We plan on staying put for awhile...but we are always up for visitors...we love a reason to go to the beach!

To solo or not to solo....

All week, Eric got up early for his check ride. All week the mornings were cloudy and misty. Each day, if he had gotten his check ride done, he would have soloed in the afternoon of perfect flying weather. Typically you can set your watch to the rain at about 2:30 every afternoon. Not this week! Monday is a government holiday. Making Tuesday's flight 7 days since the last time he flew. Here is the positive, if he messes up his check ride on Tuesday, instead of failing it, it becomes an optional warm up flight and the check ride will then happen on Wed. If everything goes well on Tuesday, he passes his check ride and will solo in the afternoon, weather permitting. The check ride is very important, very stressful and nerve racking. To have this buffer doesn't remove any of the importance or stress, but if he does mess up, it ends up not being a big deal like failing a check ride is.

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls. Laurelei fell asleep after a snack the other day and her pose reminded me of the stories I have heard of Eric falling asleep while eating.

And this is a shot of how big the girls are! Laurelei is crawling everywhere and fast! But she is cruisin' and stands up without assistance too! She likes to hold your finger and takes steps. This morning she has had fun trying to get at CJ's snack, toys or whatever she has at the moment.