What do the cats say?

 One of the moms from our co-op organized a book fair last night. There was music by Caspar Babypants, books for sale, author signings, free face painting, etc and the proceeds benefited Page Ahead.  

Our girls thoroughly enjoyed the face paint for about 2 hours and then requested to have it removed. 

It was cute while it lasted!

Pictures of the birthday girl

 (enjoying the swing that replaced the wooden-board swing that they had trouble balancing on)

 (not taken on her birthday but cute enough to post!)

(from a couple weeks ago when we babysat cousin Coen)

Etta's 2 year stats

Height: 33 1/2 (50%)
Weight: 25 (45%)
Head: 18 1/4 (25%)

They actually re-measured her head because they were not sure of the accuracy of their measurement - when they compared it to the measurement from the time before it seemed like her head had shrunk. But they think the time before was not accurate due to a ponytail or something. Since her stats are still doing the right thing on the growth curve they are not concerned.

Her stats did not surprise me. I knew compared to Addie at this age she is shorter for sure. But I guess it is more that Addie has always been tall, because Etta is right in the middle. Her size is average/normal/typical but it still surprises me a bit when I pull out clothes & remember Addie shooting through them & Etta is still growing into them. That may be a good thing when they are older, Etta won't be able to borrow Addie's jeans because they will be too long :)

Etta did amazing at the appointment! She did not want to sit on the exam table so she just sat on a chair and let them do their stuff. When they asked her to stand up & turn around, she did, when they asked her to take deep breaths, she did. She was acting like a big girl :)   She was not happy about the vaccine she got and the bandaid did not have much appeal to her. With Addie even if she was fussing from the shot she would fixate on the bandaid and want to keep it on as long as possible and would be sad when it eventually fell off. Etta wanted hers off next time she saw it (diaper change) so did it herself. However, the princess stickers they gave her stayed on her outfit all day!

Both girls got the flumist nasal spray at the appointment. They did amazingly well with a liquid being snorted up their nose. I want one for me now, I don't like the sore spot from the flu shot!

dressing up for Haloween

The dressing up started on Thursday for Etta's class. Then on saturday Etta the ballerina & Matt went to the zoo for the "pumpkin bash" then walked along Greenwood Ave for trick-or-treating with some of the local businesses. Addie could not go since she was recovering from being sick, but Etta collected treats for both of them (we divided the candy during their nap time that day). By then the ballet outfit was dingy and needed to be washed & air-dried.

This afternoon was the co-op fall social, so another opportunity to dress up. Addie wore her princess dress-up dress (that she has owned for about a year now but never worn out of the house to my knowledge) she even wore the fancy "high-heel" shoes and tiara to go with it (that we have owned since Halloween last year). Etta wore a dress that was originally given to Addie by her Uncle Myron when he returned from living in China.

Tomorrow is Halloween itself and I think both girls are going to wear their pink ballerina tutu's in the morning when they are in childcare in the gym. If the weather is decent after dinner, we might have them walk in costumes to a few houses around us so we can re-introduce ourselves.

Then the day after is dress-up day for Addie's class. You can wear a costume or your pj's. Addie says she wants to wear her princess pj's with a small ruffly skirt over top. She also has matching pink princess slippers she might change into once she gets inside.

That will be the end of Halloween I hope! Then Thanksgiving in just a few short weeks and Christmas a month after. Hurray! I love those two holidays! And I am enjoying the slightly windy, yet clear weather we often have. And I am enjoying that coffee shops are starting to carry egg nogg lattes!

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As an aside: those of you who know me may realize that I do not normally embrace the princess-themed apparel. But when it is given to us for free I usually choose to allow it since I know they will be exposed to it at some point any way. They do not know the names of the princesses, they do not know the stories, they do not know the characters from the popular kid movies, they own one Barbie and she just sits up high looking pretty. On the other side of things, I do not intentionally tell them about witches and ghosts and skeletons and "scary" things. When we walk through the neighborhood and they see these things in yards I try to give brief, practical answers while down-playing any scary or gruesome aspects. I know I can not protect and shelter them forever, but I can sure try!

Etta is 2 !!

We are now entering the terrific two's!
Please don't remind me of some of the other "t" words that are used to describe this age :)

Etta's birthday was on Thursday which meant a couple good things: Matt working from home so she got extra daddy-time, and it is her school day so she got to have fun doing art and playing with all the toys.

We started off Etta's birthday with pumpkin-buttermilk pancakes which she devoured! She got to open her first present even before breakfast because we knew she would want to watch her new Elmo video right away. We only own 2 kid videos, the rest we borrow from the library or record little segments off tv. So we figured maybe it was time for another.

After breakfast we got ready for school. It was dress-up day for Etta's class & my day to bring snack so that made things pretty special. Etta wore a tutu to class and she was not very fond of the extra attention the boys gave her due to it. After class Matt picked her up with the bike since it was nice weather. Then she got lunch at home with daddy and nap time.

After nap Addie & I got home from her class and Etta got to open another present. She got new undies, a potty book and some other fun things from her Aunt Cheryl. The potty book has buttons she can push to make noise & Etta is quite a fan of it!

Then we had snack time and some play time then it was time for dinner. We decided to go to a local Chinese restaurant that we like because we remembered that Etta liked the food. Specifically, she loves their green beans. She ate some other things too, but  those were by far her favorite.

Then home and another present - an airplane! We have cars and trucks but decided that she needed something that flies.

Next we skyped with Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Tom & cousins Aubree & Lauren (who both have their birthdays this week!).

Her last present was a new swing for the tree outside. Both girls love the ropes that are hanging, but they do not love trying to balance on the wood board swing. So we bought a traditional swing to replace it. When they get a little older I would like to do a less traditional one that feels a little more unique or adventurous, but for their current ages a traditional swing will get a lot more use.

I had toyed with the idea of making a fruit pie for Etta's birthday dessert, and next year I will for sure. I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I thought since they were not chocolate she might like them, and I thought she had liked cream cheese frosting in the past. I guessed wrong. She barely touched it. She ended up quite happily eating some chocolate covered pretzels. Oh well, she is not old enough to be disappointed when she does not love her birthday cake. And Matt & I thoroughly enjoyed the frosting & cupcakes :)

If you ask Etta how old she is, she might tell you "two" but she also might say "three" or "five". She wants to grow up fast!

And if you call her "Etta" it is possible that she will correct you by saying "Etta Rose". That is what I often call her and what I sing to her each night in her lullaby, and she has started picking up on it.

What else? She loves to thank God for apples when she prays. She likes to run and to practice her jumping. She loves to be naked. She loves to snuggle and be held. She makes her opinion quite clear (and loud). She loves to wear dresses & be admired & look pretty. She hates having her hair washed during bath. She knows a ton of words and string words together and sounds pretty dang cute when learning new words : her new Abby Cadabby potty book ends with the words "twinkle out" which in etta-speak sounds like "tinkle out" - which is pretty funny and appropriate :)

It is just the hiccups, mommy

"No sweet Adeline, these are called dry heaves. It is when your body is still trying to throw-up but your stomach has nothing left in it. I know it does not feel good."

That was our day Friday. Addie was throwing up all day. Nothing stayed down. There was no fever and no diarrhea thankfully. Etta seemed unfazed by it all and annoyed when I told her to give her sister space. She also decided that Friday morning would be a great time to wear her new underwear she got from her Aunt Cheryl for her birthday. She had numerous pee accidents in undies, plus a poo accident (which happens less than once a week in diapers but has happened twice in undies in the past week). So we had a lot of dirty laundry, a lot of messes to clean up, and a LOT of hand-washing on my part.

Las Vegas

Were you worried for a second there that I would not share any pictures? 

Here are a "few" favorites, check out my mom's online albums for more. 

 Isn't her dress amazing?!

 No bridesmaids for this wedding. 

But us sisters did a pretty good job of coordinating so the dresses were similar yet unique :)

 Mother of the bride, mother of the groom

Our cousins, Jill & Claire

 Baby boy coming in late January!

Surprise! I did not mention that it was a double-wedding. 

Diane married Jason, and Jason's brother Jeremiah married Amy. Pretty cool :)

 At the Marriage can be Murder show

The End. 

Happily Every After.