Halloweekend Part II

Halloween Day 1:

Thursday- I took Reagan to the Halloween Carnival (it's a fundraiser for our local elementary school). I didn't want to put her in her actual Halloween costume (I wanted to keep it clean), so I threw a ballerina costume together at the last minute. At the door of the carnival I bought $10 in tickets. We used .66 cents worth of the tickets. Reagan went on one ride and then started throwing a temper tantrum. I was in no mood to deal with toddler hysterics so I carted Reagan out of the building. I gave one of my neighbor the remainder of our tickets.

I made it home in time to catch Nick as he was leaving to get dinner at In N' Out Burger. I have been thrilled that they opened an In N' Out Burger 5 miles from our house! Dinner was yummy!

Halloween Day 2:

Friday- A gal in my neighborhood hosted the 2nd annual "Breakfast with a Witch". It is just a fun morning of breakfast and all of the neighborhood kids playing. Reagan had a great time. Elsa's morning consisted of "the usual" routine (ie- sleeping). If you can't tell from the pictures, Reagan's shirt says: "I'm a little Monster".

Halloween Day 3:

Saturday- I dressed the girls up in their actual costumes. Back at the beginning of the year, I told Nick that if Duke ended up being the basketball national champions, I'd let both of the girls be Duke Cheerleaders. True to my word... Reagan and Elsa dressed up as the prettiest Duke Cheerleaders- EVER!

Reagan kept thwarting my attempt to get a cute picture of the girls together. She kept wanting to "play" Elsa's head like a drum:

Elsa's hands have fascinated her lately! Other people's hands are also really interesting to her, as you can see:

I stayed home with Elsa to pass out Candy, and Nick took Reagan out to amass candy.

While Elsa was awake I attempted to get a picture of her smiling. I kept clicking away with the camera and eventually got what I wanted:

After a few hours Nick and Reagan came home, soaking wet. While other kids were running for home because of the rain; my "water baby" insisted on running through the overflowing gutters from house to house. She never grasped the concept of saying "Trick-or-Treat" to get candy. She would just say, "More Candy Please".

Reagan promptly went in to the tub upon her return.

Lance and Grant came to our house as Nick was putting Reagan in to her jammies. We tried to get a picture with all of the kids, but Reagan was "pictured out".

Halloween Day 4:

Sunday- I dressed the girls up again and we went to Nick's parents house for dinner. Emree was there so we put all of the cute girls on the couch in an attempt to get some pictures. The ones of Elsa and Emree turned out well. But Reagan (always the busy girl) was more interested in playing with toys, than sitting on the couch posing for pictures.

On Saturday, I did manage to get one picture of my girls together that I absolutely love. I feel like this picture shows my girls actually looking like sisters.

Football Game in the Rain.

Let me just preface this by saying that Reagan is not a stupid child. She knows exactly how much of a "soft touch" her Daddy is and she often uses it to her advantage.

In fact, when I woke up this morning and went in to Reagan's room. She asked me for some milk, so I put some in a sippy and went back to her bedroom. When she saw that it was in a green cup she started throwing a tantrum and told me that she wanted it from the yellow cup. Whatever. I set the green cup down next to her and walked out of the room.

Regan proceeded to kick and scream and eventually hurled the milk against the wall.

Reagan got out of bed and went to Nick. Reagan asked Nick for some Yellow Milk. Nick took her in to the kitchen and started to get the yellow sippy. While he was doing that Reagan caught a glimpse of the blue sippy and decided she wanted that instead. Of course, Daddy obliged.

This is how things generally work at our house. So the next part of my post should come as no surprise.

On Saturday we were planning on going to the BYU football game, with Elsa but not Reagan. I had made plans to use the regular babysitter. Well, as we were getting ready for the game Nick made the mistake of telling Reagan, "Brittany is coming over to play". Reagan knows that this is code for "Mommy and Daddy are leaving, and you will be having a babysitter".

Reagan promptly climbed in to Nick lap, put her arms around his neck, and started to cry. This went on for several minutes, and the sitter hadn't even arrived yet.

When Brittany did get to the house Reagans antics just got worse.

Nick and I kept giving each other "the look" ie- how can we leave this child who is in hysterics with the poor babysitter?

Finally, Nick just asked me, "should we take her with us?". Translation: "Let's take her with us."

So, I sent the babysitter home, and we put Reagan in the car to come with us.

This should cement our places as "parents of the year". Reagan has now learned that if she throws a big enough fit she gets her way.

Reagan got her first "taste" of a live BYU Football game. She was fine with the first few "bites", but definitely was not ready for a "full-meal".

Reagan has a pink BYU hat. On the back it says: "I kick and scream for the BYU Cougars". So appropriate.

Brian and Jenny spent most of the game watching Elsa. I think it was a pretty easy job because Elsa slept, ate, and sat quietly throughout the game.

Like I said before, Reagan liked the first five minutes of the game; and lost interest from there.

I'd like to say that Mommy and Daddy learned their lesson and that Reagan will not be going to any more football games until she is mature enough to sit still. But Reagan has an entire arsenal of tactics that she uses to get her way, so she very well could end up at the BYU vs. UNLV game that is coming up. Let's hope not.

The Smiling Machine!

It's a wonder that I haven't captured more pictures than these, of Elsa smiling??? Whenever she's awake (and a lot of the time when she is asleep too) she grins from ear to ear. I guess I just need to make more of an effort to have the camera handy. This little baby's smile lights up my life.

How Do I Love Thee?

Let me count the ways... Or some days, it's just: Let me count. To Ten. Slowly. In My Head. Before I Flip.

Ten things I've needed to count to ten about in the past week (in no particular order):

#1- I thought I'd rid the entire house of accessible (to Reagan, anyway) writing utensils. And I was right. Sort of. One day while I was feeding Elsa, Reagan got my Antiperspirant out of my bathroom drawer, took the lid off and used it to "paint" all over my nice leather couches. I don't even want to go in to how much work it took to get that cleaned up.

#2- The next day, again while I was feeding Elsa, Reagan got in to Nick's desk (the drawer where he keeps all of his snack food), and got out a bag of Keebler Rainbow Chip cookies. She used the chocolate from the cookies to draw a mural on my wall.

#3- When Reagan wandered off somehwere in the house one afternoon, and I found her sitting on the toilet ledge in my bathroom with her feet in the toilet water. When I walked in to the room she excitedly told me "I swimming, Mama!". Gross.

#4-When the Fed Ex guy rings my doorbell while both Reagan and Elsa are napping. How does he not see the green sign on my door that says, "Shhhhh.... Please Knock. Baby Sleeping!" ? And again when a carpet cleaning salesman rings my doorbell. How did me manage to miss BOTH the "Please Knock" sign, AND the "No Soliciting" sign on my front door?! This is somewhat acceptable when my little neighbor kids (who don't have the sign on their eye-level, and may not be able to read that well) knock on my door to sell school fundraiser stuff. But a grown man? Come on.

#5- When Nick and I buy bulk packages of Ivar's Clam Chowder, & Panda Pot Stickers from Costco and then forget that we put them in the back of my car. Only to remember that they are there two days later when I go to load the stroller. That's $25 in the garbage.

#6- When Reagan puts my iPhone in her mouth, even after being asked not to, numerous times. Reagan is more adept at using my phone than I am. I have a whole page of apps just for her. However, it gets pretty annoying when she manages to delete some of my apps, and throws a fit when I need her to share MY phone. I really want to get her an iTouch for Christmas, so that I can reclaim my phone. But Nick says you don't buy a two-year-old an iTouch.

#7- Sometimes I need to count to ten, before I beat myself up. #7 on the list comes because I was dumb enough to give in to Reagan's request. See Below:

It started out as a cute "photo op".

But Reagan had other ideas. I didn't have my camera set to "action photos", because I never expected Reagan to start running around. I was snapping pictures while I tried to catch Reagan.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. Mommy learned her lesson, and I am grateful (as always) that Elsa is so mellow. You can tell by the look on her little face that she is merely tolerating the crazy ride.

#8- When the employees in charge of the pony ride at Thanksgiving Point told my little brother that Reagan could ride by herself. I was on the sidelines taking pictures.

It started off OK. But then Reagan decided she was done and tried to get out of the saddle while the pony was still walking. I started yelling at her "to stay sitting down", and at my brother, to; "go catch my little girl". Reagan started crying, and didn't want to ride the ponies again after that. Which was fine with me.

The last item was so big and took so much counting time that it gets:

#9 AND #10- When Reagan started her usual "I only last 30 minutes sitting in a chair during worship service on Sunday". Nick will usually take her out to the foyer to run around. But somehow, this past Sunday I drew the "short straw". Reagan and I did a lap around the building, and when we came to the end she threw herself on the floor. I picked her up and started walking. After about 10 steps she started crying. I stopped and asked her what was wrong. Her answer was: to throw-up all over me. Several times.

Literally, my brain stopped working. I was in complete shock. Standing there, soaked in vomit.

One of the ladies that I adore, from our church congregation was sitting in the foyer with her husband. They got to witness the whole thing (lucky them!). While I was temporarily incapacitated by shock, Sue jumped up to help me. Her husband went to get cleaning supplies for the carpet and Sue went to alert Nick. Seriously, Sue is so great. It's one of those relationships where I will never be able to repay her for all of her kindness, because she is always doing nice things for me.

Anyway, I booked it out the nearest door. We only live three houses away from the church, and I wanted to make it home to clean both of us up. Nick came running out behind me and kept calling to me. I wasn't responding to him, because I was bent on making it to our house. When he finally caught up to me, he asked. "why are you mad at me?". Then he caught a glimpse of the front of me, and all he could say ways. "oh.". Yeah. That's all there really is to say to that. It isn't the first time Reagan has barfed on me. But it was the first time she has done it in public, and it was BY FAR the most she has ever puked on me. Reagan went down for a long nap, and woke up just fine. Thank goodness.

Yes. There are a lot of times when I need to count. But there are also times when I get to revel in happiness! I don't want to people to get the wrong idea about Reagan. She isn't a devil-child. She is very active, and intelligent. Sometimes her mishaps are my own fault. When I am lazy and leave her to her own devices, what can I expect? Generally, Reagan is a very happy, curious kid. She makes Nick and me laugh. All. The. Time.

For instance, a while ago Reagan was sitting at the table coloring, and she took a bite out of her yellow crayon. This lead me to confiscate the crayon. A few moments later Reagan looked at me and asked, "where yellow crayon go?". I told her, "it's in your tummy.". Reagan lifted up her shirt and looked at her tummy. Then she looked at me and said, "nope.". Gotta love that kid.

I couldn't imagine my life without her, or Elsa.

After this week, however, I do feel like I have earned a trip to the spa, or something to relax. :)

Barnyard Boo!

It was Nick's week to work six days in a row. Saturday was day 5 of the workweek. I try to find things to do that get Me, Reagan, and Elsa out of the house. It helps us to avoid going stir-crazy, and lets Reagan burn off energy so that she sleeps better.

This week I wanted to take Reagan to Thanksgiving Point for their Barnyard Boo activities. I talked my little brother in to going with us (you know, the brother who doesn't read my blog). Moving On...

Surprisingly, the barnyard wasn't overcrowded (most people were at Cornbelly's, next door).

I love that activities at Thanksgiving Point aren't overpriced! Kids get free ice cream at in the soda shoppe in the restaurant at Thanksgiving point. It doesn't get much better than that.

I wish that it weren't an hour drive from our house. We always have such a good time when we go.

My little Elsa spent most of the time sleeping in the baby carrier. I think she had a good time too.

I made sure to tell Brian, "thanks for going with us" in person, since he'd never know that I appreciated it if I only mentioned it on the blog.