trick or treat!!!

[caption id="attachment_1376" align="aligncenter" width="717" caption="She kept saying she was eating apple pie."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1380" align="aligncenter" width="717" caption="This poor little pumpkin ended up with about 20 layers of paint on it."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1379" align="aligncenter" width="492" caption="She started out walking, but once she figured out that she was getting candy from each house, she started running."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1377" align="aligncenter" width="717" caption="Scoring her first piece of loot."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1378" align="aligncenter" width="717" caption="Proud of their pumpkin carving skillz."][/caption]

We had such a great time this year.  It was so fun to watch how excited Poppy was to go from house to house.  Oh, and then she loved handing out candy to all of the trick-or-treaters that came to our house.  Except if they had a scary mask on, then she would hold onto their candy and say "Poppy no like that!" while she pointed to their mask.

And apparently she didn't get the memo that she was supposed to sleep in an hour this morning for daylight savings time.  She actually decided to get up an hour earlier than usual, which technically made it 4:30am!!!  Every couple of minutes I kept hearing her say, "mommy, daddy, where are you?  Open door mommy, daddy!".  But she didn't sound upset, so I just tried to go back to sleep, hoping that she would do the same.  After an hour of hearing her call out for me, I finally decided to get up.  I opened her door to see that she had turned her light on, taken off her pull-up diaper, put her pajama pants back on, and was attempting to put her wet diaper on her baby dolls, while saying "Poppy no want that - it wet."  Nice.

sneak peek

We went to a halloween event at the zoo today, so you guys get a sneak peek of Poppy's costume...

She gets so excited every time she sees her costume, "I Lola!  Poppy Lola!" is all we hear.  And then when we ask her if she is dressed up like Lola, she will correct us and tell us that she is a puppy.  And it's halloween parties galore all this week, so I'm glad she loves wearing her costume.

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Today was our first day back in a normal routine after the flu kicked.my.butt.  Marc has been super Mr. Mom lately, taking Poppy to "mommy and me" dance class, daycare drop-offs and pick-ups, and mommy and me music class by himself.  And Poppy has been touch and go all week with the flu as well.  One minute she's been running a slight fever, the next she's running around like a lunatic.  But as of today, I think we're all back to our normal healthy selves.  And we've paid our sick dues for the entire winter.  No more sickies in our house!

more choo-choo's!

This girl is all about trucks, buses and CHOO-CHOO'S!  She could play with her thomas train set for hours, and Marc showed her a train video on his computer once, so now she asks for that video everytime she sees his computer.  On Sunday, daddy took Poppy for another train ride (this time to see the fall foliage).

Can you tell, she takes her trains very seriously.

..................

I have felt like garbage all weekend.  Actually, I felt like I got hit by a truck.  All the typical flu symptoms, and the flu has been running rampant through my school all week.  Marc was out of town Friday/Saturday, so when I woke up Saturday morning with a fever, I had my parents come and pick up Poppy so that I didn't get her sick.  I've been trying to stay away from her all weekend, which is sooooo hard!  I swear, I think she got even cuter during the 24 hours that she was at my parents.  When she came home, she could tell that I didn't feel good, so she came up to me and put her arm around my shoulder, rested her head on my shoulder and patted my back.  Could she be any sweeter?  Anyways, I just got back from the doctor, and they said I have the dreaded H1*N1.  But I'm feeling better and my fever is going down, and they said that family members that are exposed to it would typically show symptoms within 48 hours of my first symptom, so I'm really hoping we're in the clear over here.  Marc has quarantined me to my bedroom (he moved himself out and set up camp in the spare bedroom) and is the official germ nazi.  The only thing that's worse than how I feel is having to stay away from Poppy, and the fact that I have been stuck in bed for 3 days and I am bored out of my mind!!!!

"mommy & me"

Yay for having off on Columbus Day!  Poppy kept singing our "mommy and me" song from dance class all day today.  We did a little shopping for some finishing touches for Poppy's halloween costume and then took a stroll down Elmwood Ave, stopping at Starbucks for lattes.

Us girls were having so much fun together that I think she thought I was going to forget about naptime.  So when I announced that it was indeed time for a nap, she lost it.  Starting sobbing "No night night!" over and over as she walked to her room and got herself in bed.  It was quite a sight.  But once she got settled in and stopped crying, we read some books and sang our songs and I told her I would see her when she woke up.  About a minute after I left the room I heard her start crying and then she was wailing "BUT THE SUN IS SHININ'!!!  THE SUN IS UP, NO SLEEPING!!!".  Oh, it was so pathetic that I had to laugh.  Luckily her wailing only lasted a few seconds before she drifted off to sleep.  Nice try.

fun at the farm

Yesterday morning, we headed to the pumpkin farm bright and early...





And after much inspection, Miss Poppy finally found her perfect pumpkin...

Apparently the pony ride wasn't a big hit this year.  She kept saying she wanted to ride the goats and was not happy to find out she couldn't.

Then last night we went to the Enchanted Forest at Beaver Meadows Nature Preserve.  It started at 7ish, so it was pretty dark.  We were with a group of family and friends, and basically we took a guided walk through the nature preserve.  Our tourguide was carrying a lantern (no flashlights were allowed) and our pathway was lit by hundreds of carved jack-o-lanterns.  And then every couple of minutes we would stop at an "exhibit" that included an adult dressed up as a nocturnal animal.  We saw a beaver, opposum, firefly, flying squirrel and a few more.  The animals would tell us a little bit about their habitat and what they ate, etc. and then we would continue walking until we came to the next animal.  Poppy was a trooper, at first.  And then she started saying "No, no more." to the animals.  Luckily we brought our backpack carrier and Marc carried her in it for most of the way.  She just burrowed her little head into his back.  When we got to the next animal and I asked her if she wanted to look at it, she put her hand over her eyes and said "No mama!  I'm sleeping!  Poppy sleeping!".   She didn't actually fall asleep and she managed a full recovery by the time our trail was over and we stopped by the tent that was offering donuts and cider.  Needless to say, Poppy was up way past her bedtime, but we had such a great time that it was definitely worth it (even if she woke up hysterical at midnight convinced that it was time to wake up for the day).

While we were waiting for the tour to begin, one of the volunteers brought out a snake for the kids to see...

Luckily, her daddy was there to protect her!

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Today we were supposed to go to the farm where we get our weekly CSA vegetables from for their annual fall harvest festival.  This is our 5th year participating in this CSA and we've never been able to make it the picnic before, so we were excited to go this year.  But, like I said, someone didn't make it to bed on time last night and someone is very sensitive to sleep deprivation, and we knew that someone wouldn't be able to take a nap today if we went to the picnic, so we decided to skip it again this year.  And I'm not gonna lie - I'm getting a little farmed out lately.  Maybe next year...

So instead, we spent our morning sleeping in, making yummy french toast for breakfast, making crafts and then heading to the park for a bit...

(she may look terrified in this pic, but she LOVES this slide)

As you can see, we didn't quite finish our stained glass leaves from last weekend, but we did make trees with thumbprint leaves today (the other crafts are from storytime @ the library).  We always hang her artwork on the wall in our dining room ('cause we're fancy like that) and she is always so proud of it - so cute!

sleeping-in update

{blowing soapy bubble kisses}

So, Monday morning, she woke up at 5:30.  Monday night we discussed the situation and agreed that we would not go into her room to get her until 6am at the VERY earliest from now on.  Tuesday morning, she woke up at 5:10!!!  I thought Marc was going to cry.  And she was calling out for daddy.  And threatening pee-pee!  But we put our pillows over our head and tried to ignore her.  Then the calling out for us escalated to crying.  We haven't had to do this for a long time, but we just ignored it and miraculously, after 15 minutes of crying, she fell back asleep.  And slept until 7:30 and then woke up happy as a clam. :) After re-reading a sleeping book yesterday, it said the number one reason for children to wake up too early is from going to bed too late.  So last night we put her to bed a half hour earlier than normal (which is usually 8:00 at the very latest), and this morning she woke up at 6:30 (which is her "normal" wake up time and is fine by us).  So hopefully between getting her to bed a little earlier, and not going to get her before 6am, we can get back on track.

Oh, and last night we also talked a lot about how the sun comes out in the morning, but if the sun isn't out, we should still be sleeping.  So this morning when she called out for me and I went into her room, the first thing she said was "The sun shinin' yet mama?".  Unfortunately it was still pitch black out, but she did such a good job of not waking up tooo early, that I switched on a light real quick and made a big deal of the "sunshine" shining and letting us know to get up.  I'm telling you, just a week ago, she would not even have attempted to say the word "sun", but now it's full blown sentences!!!  So proud of my little talker!

Stay tuned for some fun Halloweeny adventures this weekend...

crafty, busy, tired.

Since I've gone back to work, I feel like we have been so busy.  Every night after work and every weekend, it's constantly go, go, go.  And Poppy has decided that every Saturday and Sunday (mommy's only days to sleep in past 6am) she is going to wake up at 5:30am. Every weekend since I've gone back to work.  It's like she's punishing me (or torturing is more like it).  5:30am is just too freakin' early and in the past we would just let her keep calling out for us with the hopes that she would fall back to sleep.  But she's got a new trick up her sleeve - threatening to wet the bed if we don't come get her.  Any suggestions for how to deal with that?  Because like I said, 5:30 is just too early.

We had a family reunion today, but it got rained out (which I was so relieved to have an unexpected afternoon to stay home) so I busted a nice fall craft.  We attempted to make stained glass leaves...

I put newspaper down to protect the table from becoming a stained glass leaf, and half way through the project, Poppy noticed a picture of a laptop computer in the paper...

And can you guess what she is doing in this next picture?



"I type like mommy do!"  She had to keep taking little breaks from the craft so that she could email her friends.

Oh, and she is talking sooooo much lately!  I feel like it literally happened over night.  One day she would barely say a word, and then the next morning she woke up and said "Mommy, it raining outside.  Go away rain!"  And she hasn't stopped talking since.  And it cracks us up.

I am so disappointed because yesterday we had another apple picking adventure, but when I pulled my camera out for the first picture, the battery was dead.  I seriously thought I was going to cry.  We drove out to Rochester to meet up with a couple of families that have adopted through our agency, as well as a few couples that have referrals, but are still waiting for their babies to come home.  We had so much fun, and I seriously can't believe I don't have any pics from it.

Oh, and the funniest thing happened on the way to the farm.  Earlier in the week we told Poppy we were going apple picking again, and she was soooo excited.  Every day she kept saying "Apple picking yet?  Poppy pull apple off tree?".  We were planning on leaving right after lunch and we needed her to take a nap on the way there, but I was worried that she was so excited that she wouldn't nap.  So I told her that if she wanted to go apple picking, she would have to take a nice long nap in the car.  And she said she would.  So we get in the car and she's babbling away about apple picking, so after about 5 minutes I turned around and said that it's time to close her eyes and take her nap.  She closed her eyes real tight and literally, within 30 seconds, she was dead asleep.  Like drooling asleep.  And she slept the entire drive there.  I still can't believe it.  And then she had a ball picking apples and of course she ate just about as many as she picked.