Happy Halloween!

Nannies had a very busy first Halloween. We had lots of places to go and lots of people to see! First we stopped by Brynnie's to show off our adorable little stinker.

Then we went to see Aunt Joan.

Then we headed back home, and after lunch and a nap, we were off again, this time to my parents house. E was very excited about her first Halloween treats- yogurt melts!!!

And our final stop of the night was Matt's mom's house. She got more yummy Halloween treats there.

Scary ghostie floatie things.
Plus a new toy! Wheeee!

We didn't go to Matt's dad's house since he was out of town, and they had already seen her in her costume at the pumpkin patch, but when we got home we found a surprise from Grandma Jenny on the porch- monster jammies!
Elliot hopes that everyone had a Happy Halloween too!

Story Time!

Today I took Elliot to her very first story time at the library. I expected her to be all over the place and hard to control, but no! My wiggly, squirmy, crazy baby sat quietly on my lap for 20 minutes and listened intently. It was amazing! I think she was too interested in the older kids (baby story time is for 0-2 year olds) to realize that she wasn't able to go explore. I'm so excited that she liked it. When I was little, my mom would take me to the library 2-3 times a week, and I had so much fun there. To this day, I still love books, and it's very important to me to pass that on to E.

Speaking of books, it looks like I'm going to have to give in to Twilight-mania. I had absolutely no interest in these books until all the teenage hysteria started, and at that point it increased only to mild curiosity. However, I have an online mama friend who needs a girl date to the New Moon premiere, so I'm taking one for the team and jumping on the bandwagon. I have 23 days to read both Twilight and New Moon and to watch the first movie. I am now on a mission to find the first book at the library, but it's looking grim. According to the online catalogue, there is only one copy currently available in the entire metro area! I'm going to attempt to get it tomorrow, but only if I don't have to fight a 12 year old for it.

The Secret Life of Me!

Matt took the day off today to hang out with us, so he got to accompany E and I on our exciting Monday adventure...grocery shopping! While it may sound mundane, it's actually quite an ordeal. We buy formula and diapers at Target, bulk items at Sam's, produce for E at Whole Foods, and everything else from WalMart. Since I'd rather not spend every daily outing doing grocery shopping, we try to knock them all out on Mondays.

"It's like you have a secret life that I don't know about!" Those were Matt's words as we were leaving Sam's, our second stop of the day. He thought that E grinning at the man checking receipts was just a fluke. Oh, no. She and Arnett are old friends. They go way back. Back to the days where she was too little to sit up in the grocery cart. That's right- we are in such a routine now that we know the names of the employees on our daily outings.

Another amusing conversation, this time as we were entering Walmart. Matt put E's cart cover on, popped her into the seat, and fished a toy out of my purse to give to her.

Me: No, no. She doesn't get a toy yet.

Matt: Oh. Why?

Me: Because it's a progressive thing. First she's fine just sitting in the cart. If she gets fussy, I hand her the end of the cart strap (we have our own, people- I'm not letting her lick the skanky Walmart cart strap) and let her chew on that for a while. When she gets tired of that, she gets a toy. And if we're bordering on a full on meltdown, I hand her my wallet, which always works.

Matt: Wow. You are really good at this.



Lest you think that we spent the whole day running errands, I'll share our art project that we did today. E is making Halloween cards to send to her grandparents, and her aunts and uncles. I think ghostie feet might be my favorite baby art project of all time. It's a toss-up between that and baby foot flowers, but you'll have to wait until spring for those! Anyway, here's the result.


I'll share my strategies just in case anyone else wants to try these. If you have a newborn, I'd recommend swaddling with one foot out. Those little legs move fast, and it's hard to aim one foot for the paper while trying to avoid the other one. If you have an older baby, put them in the high chair and put the paper against a clipboard or hardcover book to stamp their foot. Oh, and use a paintbrush on their foot. Dunking the whole foot in paint results in an unrecognizable blob. I just used a black sharpie for the eyes, but if your kids are older and can be trusted not to swallow the art supplies, you could let them use googly eyes, buttons, sequins, etc. Lastly, remember that you want the foot upside down, so position the folded paper accordingly.

"I loooooove being annointed!"

Those were our priest's words (speaking for Elliot) at her baptism today. I have been stressed all week, hoping that she would make it through the ceremony without freaking out. She does not like to be in one place for long periods of time, so sitting on Mommy's lap for half an hour is pretty much torture for her. But wow, this kid was seriously delighted by all of it. She made a brief attempt to escape after the second pouring of water, but she was quickly wrangled back into submission for the third. She was so, so good! Since Matt and I were occupied during most of the ceremony, our family has most of the pictures. They haven't sent them to me yet, but Matt's stepdad did steal my camera out of my bag at some point, and got a few pictures. I'm hoping someone else got a better shot of her dress. My grandma bought it 47 years ago for my oldest sister and the three of us all wore it. I was so, so excited that E got to wear it as well.

Our family

You get an idea of how many cameras there were when you realize that we are all looking in different directions.

Obligatory Daily Post

I am here to report that I have absolutely nothing to report today. I spent most of the day napping on the living room floor while Elliot crawled around and on top of me.

Uggggggggghhhhhhhhhh.

E is being baptized tomorrow though, so I should have lots of pictures in the next post.

Girls Night!

Matt went out tonight to do "man things" with his friends, so E and I had a girls night. We watched a "Say Yes to the Dress" marathon, and then E had her bottle and bath and went down for the night. This was the first time in months that I've gotten to give her her bedtime bottle, but luckily she didn't seem to mind that it was me instead of her dad. She went on a bit of a hunger strike today, so maybe that was why she didn't protest. She took her bottle at 6:45 am with no problem, but she refused to eat again until 4:00! So she's had three bottles today instead of her usual five. I would be worried about her waking at night, except A.) Matt didn't get to put her to bed with me, so he really, really wants her to wake up, and B.)Matt does all of the night feedings anyway, so I get to sleep no matter what!

Speaking of waking up at night, guess who hasn't been? That's right, the Nans appears to be sleeping through the night! It's been a whole week now. I'm sure I'm jinxing it by making this announcement, so we shall see what happens tonight. Fingers crossed!

Cutest outfit ever

We bought this dress for E over a year ago, just after we found out she was a girl. She wore it for the first time today, and it is so, so cute! She got lots of compliments in it when we went to the store today. She got compliments unrelated to the dress too. The man stocking yogurt at WalMart says she's very healthy, so I know you're all relieved to hear that. The women in the bakery at HyVee have concluded that she is crazy smart, but I'm not sure what their reasoning is for that. From what I could make out, I think it's because she can sit up in the shopping cart without tipping over. If only it were that easy for all of us to be geniuses.

Best. Quote. Ever.

I just heard the greatest quote on a commercial for Dr. Phil:

"Did she put Viagra in your mashed potatoes?"

For Katie

I've never posted pictures of just myself here, but my friend Katie requested a picture of the new jeans, so here you go. Sorry for the awful quality, but it's hard to take a good picture in the mirror.

They are from Gap, the Real Straight style.




An amusing anecdote from today: I was on my way to do some errands with E and stopped for gas. I stuck my keys in the pocket of my jacket while I got out to pump. When I got back in the car, I reached for my keys and felt something strange by the pocket of my new fleece. I looked down and discovered that it was a plastic security tag.

The worst part of this is not that I have to go back to the store- without a reciept, I might add- and get the tag taken off. It's that for the past three days, I've been walking around looking like a shoplifter.

Lately I have been thinking of a lot of things that I am really excited for. This always happens to me when the seasons change, but fall brings about an especially bad case of it. If I wrote a separate post about every single thing I've been getting worked up over lately my computer would probably crash, so I'll just list them here (in no particular order).

1. CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! Yes, I am yelling. I'm that excited. It's going to be Elliot's first Christmas! She's going to have an adorable Christmas dress, and she'll go sit on Santa's lap, and she'll open her first Christmas presents wearing her Christmas pajamas. And she'll "help" decorate her first Christmas tree (read: She will attempt to eat ornaments and generally do everything in her power to make the process take 3 times longer than it should), and we'll hang up her Christmas stocking, and she'll get her very first Christmas ornament. If I don't explode before December 25th, that is.

2. Uggs- Yes, I know they are ugly. I agree wholeheartedly. But if you've ever worn them, you realize that they are so effing comfy that you simply won't care what they look like. When Matt was laughing at mine, I made him try them on (well, stick his giant foot in as far as it would go). His reaction? "Oh, Sweet Jesus!"

3. Coats, Jackets, and Outerwear of any kind- Much to Matt's disappointment/worry/gripping fear of bankruptcy, my love of coat shopping continues.

4. Hot Chocolate- Do I really need to explain this one? Hot chocolate is delicious!

5. Pumpkin bread- See explanation for #4.

6. Art Projects- Being a former preschool teacher, I have a huge catalogue of holiday art projects stored in my brain. I hope you all like reindeer footprints, because they will be made, photographed, and posted.

7. Heated Seats- I always thought heated seats in a car were a giant waste of money. Then, the car I bought just happened to have them. "Whatever," I thought. "I will probably never use them." Oh, how wrong I was. They are a delight.

8. Elliot's 1st Thanksgiving- As far as the actual Thanksgiving dinner goes, she'll probably eat mostly boring regular food, with maybe a few bites of mashed potatoes and possibly a tiny bit of pumpkin pie. I'm mostly excited for myself. Too bad I gave away all my maternity clothes, because those jeans would have made great Thanksgiving pants.

9. Elliot's 1st birthday party- Yes, it is still 4.5 months away, but I've been planning it for about a year now. I've already planned the cake, her outfit, and the invitations. I've also started trying to convince Matt that she needs to have a pony party for a later birthday celebration. I figure it I start working on him now, he'll be totally talked into it by the time she's 5.

Never Say Never

Yesterday I did something that I swore I would never do. We all have certain ideals that we'd like to live up to, and things usually don't go as planned. This one particular issue, though, was one I was determined to stay strong on. But I failed. I am weak. I gave in. I did it.





I bought skinny jeans.



And I love them.



A lot.



A whole, whole lot.



They're just so cute! And contrary to what I expected, they do not make my hips look 39309438 miles wide! And I can wear my favorite boots with them! And the sizing runs weird, so I got to buy them in a smaller size than usual! And in 5 years, when they are totally out of style, I can wear them to pick my kid up from school and embarrass the crap out of her!



Speaking of the kid, I found another cute picture from the pumpkin patch to share. We don't have that many pictures of all three of us together, so I really, really love this one.

Pumpkins and Ponies!!!

Today we took our sweet little stinker to the pumpkin patch at the lake. It's at the stables, so not only did she pick out her first Halloween pumpkin, she saw horses for the first time! I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and they are all too cute not to share, so this is going to be a long one.

First reaction to the horses

Giddyup!

I've had a reader request.

It has come to my attention that certain readers of this blog desire daily posts to bring joy and cheer to the dreariness of the workday/school day. I was unaware that I had such die-hard fans, but I am prepared to make you a deal, ladies. I will try my hardest to update daily this week, but you will have to pick things up on your end as well. Comments are like candy, my friends. Bloggers love them. How else am I to know that you are reading and enjoying?


Again, no pictures b/c I suck. I know, I know. To keep you occupied until the next picture post, please amuse yourselves by pondering this question: What the eff happened to Carrot Top?!?!!? He didn't always look like this:

Over halfway there!

I just moved the latest 100 oz. of milk to the deep freeze, which makes a grand total of 500 ounces! There are currently 23 oz in the upstairs freezer which means I only have 477 oz. to go to meet my 1000 oz goal by New Years.

I am sooooo ready to quit pumping, but I really want E to get breastmilk until she's one, especially with the piggy flu floating around out there. She is currently taking 5 bottles a day, 3 of which are breastmilk. If I can keep going until the end of the year, I'll have enough in my freezer stash to keep that up until her birthday.

Also, E is a genius. Our pediatricians office gives each child a book at every appointment, and E's 6 month book is in Spanish. I am by no means fluent, but I know enough to get through a children's book without a problem. After I was done reading, I turned her around to face me and said "Dame un beso." She immediately leaned forward and planted a huge slobbery kiss right on my mouth. (Yes, I know this was actually just a coincidence, but it was perfect timing!)

I don't really have any new pictures to post, but I recently rediscovered this gem from the "Vintage Elliot" collection. Enjoy, and feel free to squish those little cheeks through your monitor!

7 months old!

Happy 7 monthday, baby girl! These monthly pictures are getting increasingly hard to take. Now that she's mobile, she wants nothing to do with sitting still. This is the best we could do.

I bought this bear snowsuit in January of 2008, 6 months before I got pregnant. It was so cute that I couldn't pass it up. We were trying to get pregnant at the time, but obviously I didn't know when it would happen, so I just had to hope that our baby would be born at the appropriate time to fit into a 3-6 month snowsuit during winter. E being so little works well for us in this situation, since she can actually fit into it now. I don't think it will fit for much longer because of her height, but we're going to enjoy it while we can. Poor E is like the kid from A Christmas Story when she wears it. She seriously cannot move at all.

Le Chapeau Nouveau

Elliot and I found this adorable hat when we went shopping on Friday. Ear flaps, fleece lined, super-warm, and super-cute. So cute, in fact, that I didn't want to take it off of her, and made her wear it in her high chair while she ate her snack.

E will be 7 months old tomorrow, which makes me both sad and proud. I miss my sweet, tiny little baby who would curl up and fall asleep on my chest, but I love the adorable little girl I have now, who is active and curious and into everything. Seven months ago, she was a little lump who really didn't do much of anything. Now she is crawling, pulling up, and shoveling food into her mouth like there is no tomorrow. She is getting far too big for my liking, but her incredible cuteness makes up for it.

Blind Date: Mommy-Style

This morning E and I went to Lawrence to see a mommy and baby that I met on the interwebz. We had so much fun today with Nici and Noah. Elliot was on her best behavior, and even had her first restaurant experience since she was a newborn. Since she doesn't sleep through anything and everything anymore (aaah, those were the days) we usually get a sitter if we're going out. But today I decided to be brave and we went to Mad Greek for lunch. She was so good! She sat in her highchair and ate her puffs happily. It may have helped that she had a cute boy sitting next to her though.

She looks a little nervous here, but hey, it was the first date.

I also got a video today of yet another failed attempt to catch a kitty. She doesn't really do her kitty squeal in it, but you can see the effort she puts into the hunt.

I think I'm raising a crazy cat lady.

I'll have to try to get a video of this sometime. E is OBSESSED with our cats. Loves them. Can't get enough. Well actually, she can't get any because she gets so excited when she sees one that she lets out a scream so high pitched that it sends them fleeing in terror. I can't blame them.

The days when they could safely lay next to her are over. Poor kitties.