Fall is here!

It's my favorite time of year!   I love the colors, I love the fallen leaves, I love the chill in the air!    It's also my favorite time of year for photography!     Enjoy!

Twenty One Months Old

It's hard to believe that my little girl is speeding towards two at such a rapid pace!   She's gaining such a vocabulary, expressions, beauty and amusement as her personality develops and every day is fun.     She has her first doosy of a cold of the season but she weathered it well.  

 

Firsts this past month:  jumping, first midnight snack, yes she woke up in our bed and her father was eating fritos and so M enjoyed a few and eventually returned to sleep after her request for more was sadly denied because they were all gone, finally letting us leave her bedroom after saying good night.

 

Yes, the sleep department for Mae is trending very similarly as it did for Ace.  For months we've had to sit for close to an hour sometimes until she finally falls asleep and we can creep on out of the room.   Still waking at the end of one sleep cycle 3-4 hours later.   Finally in this past month she's been willing to let us leave the room and sing her a song at the door.    She still gets up 3-4 times to request another song but rarely protests our telling her to return to her bed.   The freedom of my evening is a sigh of relief and a sign that there is light at the end of the tunnel for this conundrum our children call sleeping through the night!   This past month she once returned to wanting Piglet around all the time at bedtime - the month prior she wanted nothing to do with him.  She also attached herself to 'Bear Bear' a teddy bear and both have been required at night.  'Piggy' also occasionally accompanies us during the day places as well.  

Mae loves to play 'wee wees' (This little piggy went to market) and 'cake' (patty cake) and very recently asked me to do 'knuckles' and she showed me her fist.  hehe silly girl.   She asks to have her picture taken and LOVES to give hugs.   It's so sweet.  She's gotten really good at them too with the bear hug around your neck.    She LOVES her dada and spending time with him, but mama still reigns supreme.  She loves to hug her brother and spend time with him as well.

Mae loves to color and 'ride bikes' even if riding the bike involves someone pushing her, as she cannot yet pedal.   She loves to do anything her brother does and loves to watch shows.    She learned to jump this month and is full of energy.   She loves her baths and finally is feeling comfortable enough to even lay on her tummy with her brother in the tub too (which often is like a simulated wave pool with the him in there as well.)    She is pretty fearless!

Just before her 20th month we cut out mama-milk at nighttime and she's been doing pretty well with that.   She still wakes every 4ish hours asking for it but most nights is content to have a sip of water and return to sleep (usually in our bed after that first stint every night.)       She has entered the "broken record" phase which we are praying is short lived - you know the phase where she just says one word over and over and over again - yah it's super not fun for those that have to hear it ;)  but there are worse things and we assume she'll out grow it and we won't be left too scarred by it.

She loves to read, brush her teeth, and color.  She is growing up so fast and it's so much fun to watch her change and advance.   She loves to have her hair brushed and loves to have bows put in her hair - but they never stay there long.     She is a joy and we love her.

It's coming...

 

Fall is on its way... as are more posts:

The Monsterous 4th Birthday Party

Ace's 4th year in video

First Day of Pre-K!

Mae turning 20 months old!

Stay tuned!

Halloween Festivities

This was Mae's first Halloween and Ace's fourth (gasp!) with the move looming we were a bit at a loss as to how best to handle the whole event.   Do we carve a pumpkin?  Here or there?   Do we have costumes?   Simple or elaborate?   Pack them or ship them?    There was a lot of uncertainty on our arrival home - but in the end everything worked out well.     We went to the Pumpkin Patch in Biloxi and decided that we would carve our pumpkin there too.   

Ace once again helped decide what kind of face the pumpkin should have and helped dad cut open the top.  Ace agreed this year that the pumpkin could have a scarier face, but not too scary. Dad did most of the dirty work scraping out the innards of the pumpkin while Mae watched quite curiously as to what he was doing.

 
We had a few nights left in Biloxi where we were able to light up our jack-o-lantern before we donated him to the neighbor and headed on our journey across the country home.    Ace was very excited to see the pumpkin lit on the nights we remembered to do so. 

Their costumes were proving to be tricky - we didn't want to carry anything large or bulky in the already overstuffed vehicle, and not knowing if we'd be home in time for Halloween also precluded us from mailing costumes directly to the house at our arrival destination.    So I found a solution of some matching skeleton fun for the kids.   Basically glow in the dark pjs.  :)    Which they wore on Saturday to a party.

However, after that afternoon party it was clear that neither of those costumes would cut it on the crisp night in the NW.   They would have been completely bundled and nothing would have been seen!   I had already broke down found a cute monkey costume that did make the cross country trip with us for Mae.  I just couldn't resist!  The baby costumes are just so darling!   So I knew I needed to find something for Ace.  So on Halloween we headed to Target to hunt for something festive and there it was a size medium (way too big) Incredibles costume.    He wanted nothing more - so we made it work with a few tucks, rolls, and binder clips. :)   The sun began to set and the kids got ready!  Ace was very excited for trick or treating!

"Protecting my identity is the most important part, mom"  Well ok then!

I added a festive Halloween bow to Mae's monkey costume for a girlie touch!

We kept telling him he could yell 'Trick or Treat!' and he said "I like to say it really quietly..."

Ace did great with the scary stuff  and loved going up to the door by himself. Afterwards we came home and Ace enjoyed eating candy before bed! 

Mae only got to enjoy the outside wrapper of the candy this year... but enjoy it she did!



Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we ventured as a family to the pumpkin patch nearby.   It was a fun experience to see Mae see so many pumpkins at once.  She was instantly excited by all the fun orange things that she could climb up on.  Ace had a great time jumping off the hay bales and picking up and carrying the pumpkins around.  

It certainly was a first for Ace to experience a pumpkin patch 'hot' - even when we visited a pumpkin patch in Cali a couple of years ago he was still in long sleeves.  :)   Here he was complaining he was hot in his black tshirt. 

The kids had a lot of fun playing with the hay and putting it onto each other.  It's really cute to see Mae start to mimic playing.  She and her brother spent a few minutes putting hay on each other, before we moved onto other activities.

We left with a little pumpkin awaiting carving.  Ace was "really excited!!!"   :)   Mae had a good time and loved to pick up pumpkins - which she was in fact able to lift up that little one that she's got in the above picture.     Overall a very fun outing as a family!

Our little pumpkin weighing in at...

Mae weighs 15lbs 13oz (10%)

She is 26.25" tall (10%)

Her little pumpkin head is 44.2cm big (25%)

School - Fall Themed

Ace is loving this latest installment of school: fall!  We're learning about pumpkins, leaves, skip counting, and a smattering of other fun filled things along the way.    He's really enjoying all the colors!  

One of Ace's trays is sorting.  He has leaves and pumpkins and he puts them into their respective bin using the tweezers.   It takes him a few tries to really be able to do it properly with the tweezers but he's working on that fine motor skill with great determination.   Always has his tongue sticking out while he works.  *All these supplies can be found at Hobby Lobby*

Ace really enjoyed the matching game last month and so I wanted to reincorporate that into this month's trays as well and along with the simple matching game I wanted to pair it with some science and teach him why the leaves change color, so I ordered Why Do Leaves Change Color?.  It is a bit too detailed for him, but he can grow into the book and understanding - which I prefer to an over simplistic version.     I then found some free leaf printables from PreKinders (along with a lot of other great resources!)  They were a bit more detailed and Ace had to pay a bit closer attention to really match up the different ones.

We took a walk that day and also gathered leaves to look at the various color (which here in Mississippi isn't a terrible color variation since it doesn't get very cold around here.)   We collected them and brought them home and decided to see if we could match them to the ones in the book.   On another day we did some leaf rubbings and that was met with minimal excitement.  Well I enjoyed it.  ;-)

We are also learning about how pumpkins grow and in general how things grow from seeds and into plants/flowers/etc..   I located some nomenclature cards for the life cycle of a pumpkin via The Wonder Years  and the cards are free from Montessori for Everyone.   I coupled that with the book From Seed to Pumpkin - which was more at Ace's level of understanding and he really enjoys that story.    I wish that we were staying here longer so that we could plant a seed and watch it grow.  Perhaps we'll do this next year!

Our focus on 'math' this month was on skip counting - getting Ace one step closer to counting to 100.   He can do 1-10 pretty easily and 11-19 are a bit touch and go.  So this month I introduced to him to counting by tens - he figured out pretty easily how it works which is why he after saying 'forty'  says 'fivety' and 'one-y' (100)   He's not got them memorized but he's doing well.   He's not quite got that once he's got those down that counting to 100 will be a breeze, but he will.  :)

There are other fun items still to come including an introduction to the mayflower and the first Thanksgiving!  Looking forward to being back in the NW for a more colorful backdrop to our fall themed school!

Fall Themed Sensory Box

My favorite time of year is fall.  I love all the rich colors of leaves and decor - the new crisp days (at least in the NW) and the falling of the leaves.   Which is why I was so excited to make Ace's latest sensory box.    It also works out perfectly, as it will last us for the entire fall season - since with a move in the middle of our school time - I won't be making a new box until December.  

Inside this box is: hay (I bought a small size bale of hay, but the 'craft' size would have been more than sufficient,) a fake pumpkin, felt squash and felt leaves, silk leaves, foam turkeys and chipmunks, and foil confetti leaves.    A lot of similar items, yes - but in different shapes and textiles.  Provides plenty of opportunity to sort, sift, count, identify, etc..   Overall this box cost about $12 - although the felt leaves and squash (which were also coupled with felt pumpkins) were used in one of his trays so I suppose that I could not factor those into his box cost in which case this sensory box would be under $10 :)

Ace is enjoying this box - as is his sister.   We knew that it was only a matter of time before we'd have to rethink the best way to play with the sensory box now that sister is standing up and very proficient at mobility.   Yes Mae WANTS that box.  She wants whatever is it.  :)

Ace is of course a very patient and loving brother and doesn't care if sister is touching it as long as mom is nearby.   He's a smart kid to know that mom will keep track of her and that he doesn't need to worry.  He also knows if she tips it over it isn't his fault.  hehe.   

First Snow of 2010

in November! Quite bizarre that is for sure - Thanksgiving hasn't even occurred yet and still this past Sunday we were greeted with our first dusting of snow ... fancy that the weather man got it right for once! The snow that fell on Sunday was relatively wet and didn't stick at all. If you recall, Loving Husband even mowed the lawn during some of it's falling.

After Ace watched his dad out there for so long, he just couldn't hold off any longer - and so we suited up and headed out to play in the snow. Which really wasn't a lot. Ace really wants to make a snowman with a carrot nose (a very specific request. Alas this first snow was not enough to accomplish that task.) He instead for fun he ran around, helped dad rake some leaves, and sampled the snow. :)





We had a nice time watching him run around for a little while, before we went back inside to get warm. Although not without a little protest from my boy whom loves the outdoors - regardless of temperature. It was a fun afternoon - and just a taste of what was to come on Monday morning!