Pre-Halloween Checklist (according to Luke)

In order to prepare for a successful and fun Halloween, Luke would like to share his following list of must-dos.

-Wear adorable "Trick or Treat" shirt as many times as possible during the month of October:



-Smile at every available photo opportunity. Your mommy may reward you with extra treats for being so cooperative:





-Drive every tractor that you find during fall outings. This may be the last year that your little sister is too small to drive and willingly lets you to take the wheel:






-Take your sister as your date to your preschool's Fall Festival. You will look like the perfect gentleman escorting her in her stroller:



-When you arrive at the festival, try your hand at fun games. You'll win lots of prizes and have a ball cavorting with your school buddies:









-During Fall Festival, show off your classroom to your parents at the preschool's open house. They will love to see your artwork, favorite toys, and the place that you adore:





-Serve as the judge for Daddy and Grandpa's annual pumpkin carving contest:



-Supervise the scooping of pumpkin seeds:



-If your baby sister is too little to help carve pumpkins, dress her up as a jack o' lantern instead:


...and don't forget the coordinating socks!



-Create your own Daddy, Mommy, Luke, and Leah pumpkins:



-Remember to pay careful attention to artistic detail:



-Include your furry sister in your completed "family" photo:


-Begin the countdown to your costume debut and all of the fun that Halloween weekend is sure to contain... and most importantly, BRING ON THE CANDY!!

Doozy of a Day

Today was quite a doozy of a day:

-Leah woke up at 2 a.m. and was awake for a couple of hours last night, screaming her head off, mad at the world. (This in and of itself is pretty typical, but sets the scene for the rest of the day, including Mommy’s level of patience).

-Both children were up shortly after 6 a.m. Now that it’s cooler and still dark at that hour, I’m having a harder time waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and jumping out of my warm, cozy bed so early in the morning.

- I planned a fun stay-at-home-with-Mommy day of free play at the train table at Barnes and Noble, followed by story time. It should have been an easy, fun-filled morning.

-When we arrived, Luke decided that he didn’t want to share any trains with the other children at the train table. Setting clear boundaries, I gave him a choice to either share or we’d have to leave the train table. Luke tested me, and off we went, kicking and screaming.

-We made it through less than 10 minutes of story time. Leah was fussy due to no nap yet and her party animal behavior in the middle of the night. Luke was the only child who would not sit still, listen to the teacher, or pay attention to the story. There were at least 10-15 other kids there, ages ranging from 18 months to 5 years, and I had the only children who were the least bit disruptive/misbehaved/ill-mannered. I scooped up Luke (who had a full-blown tantrum), braced him against my hip like a potato sack, and pushed Leah in the stroller with my free hand, calmly stating how disappointed I was that we couldn’t have a fun time today. Exiting the store and buckling everyone into their car seats for the third time this morning was as fun as you can imagine.

-I pressed my luck and made a “quick” stop at Walmart to pick up a few things. Leah sat in the smaller, seated section of the shopping cart, while Luke rode in the back, surrounded by the ever-growing pile of groceries that we collected.

-Suddenly, Luke stood up in the back of cart, shouting, “Mommy, I have to go potty, NOW!” I was really not thrilled with the idea of him using the public bathroom at Walmart, but nonetheless raced in that general direction. Less than 5 seconds later, Luke said, “Mommy, I had an accident.” I looked down to see that his pants were soaked and that most of my groceries were now randomly “sprinkled” with wet drops.
(Footnote: I can count on one hand the number of accidents that Luke has had since he has been potty-trained. This is the kid who refuses to go to the bathroom before bedtime out of sheer strong will, but can hold it for 12 hours until the morning. It makes me wonder if today’s shenanigans were intentional).

-In disbelief, I proceeded to the cashier, wiped each item down with baby wipes from my diaper bag, and strictly told my son not to move or speak. I prayed that the cashier wouldn’t notice his wet pants/think we were absolutely vile/shrink away in disgust.

-I stripped Luke out of his wet clothes in the parking lot (yes, we lived up to every Walmart stereotype that you may have), very carefully buckled my naked child into his carseat, and placed my cart in the cart return that was right beside our parked car.

-Unfortunately, an elderly woman took this exact moment to return her cart, too, and looked into the backseat of my car (the car door was still open). The look on the lady’s face changed from one of polite, sweet admiration of my darling children to one of horror as she saw Luke, all of Luke, in his birthday suit. She quickly averted her gaze, squared her shoulders and raised her nose high up in the air, in righteous indignation.

-I sighed, got in the car, completely exhausted and defeated, and looked at the clock. It was only 11:25 a.m. I called Mark, relayed our morning to him, and he chuckled. I retorted that it was only funny because he was sitting in an office surrounded by fully-clothed, continent grown-ups.

-We came home, hosed down Luke in the tub, fed him lunch, and counted the seconds until Quiet Time. In the 5 minutes that I was putting Leah down, this is what Luke did to his room:



How a three year-old can so quickly and effortlessly overturn his mattress, remove every book from its basket, and destroy an entire bedroom is beyond me. What you can’t see is that the rest of Luke's bedding, his pillows, and every single stuffed animal that we own was hastily stuffed into the window seat/toy box. I officially gave up at this point and realized that it was just a dud of a day.

And then the miraculous happened. My son, who no longer naps, completely redeemed himself by sleeping for 4 hours this afternoon. It was beautiful, necessary, and gave me that ability to regroup and be thankful. The best part is how and where I found him:



And in that one, adorable instant, all was forgiven.

Leah's 9 Month Pictures

Here are some of my favorite poses of Leah's 9-month photo shoot. Enjoy!

Confessions of a Preschool Mom

I forgot about Show and Tell yesterday. I didn’t even realize it until I glanced at Luke’s monthly preschool calendar on our fridge this morning. There it was, in cheerfully bold printed letters, in the block for Friday, October 21: “Show and Tell!”

I had a brief moment of denial- Surely I must be looking at the wrong month. My former self (the Carrie who was organized, orderly, and who was a stickler for schedules, appointments, and list-writing) NEVER would have let her son go to preschool empty-handed for his monthly Show and Tell day. I felt absolutely awful. I quickly fired off an apology e-mail to Luke’s teacher (yes, it was before 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning), stating how sorry I was that I forgot about Show and Tell, that hopefully it didn’t cause a problem that Luke had nothing to share/show his classmates…

Next I sent an e-mail to my friend who also has a child in Luke’s class, which said something like, “What an incompetent preschool Mom I am! I didn’t realize yesterday was Show and Tell… What did you send in with Emma?”

When Luke woke up an hour later, I gave him a good morning hug, snuggled with him on the couch, and gently asked, “Was it Show and Tell Day at school yesterday?”

“Yes, Mommy,” he nodded solemnly.

“Did all of your friends bring in their things to show the class?” I inquired.

“Yes, everyone brought something,” he replied.

“Did anyone else forget about Show and Tell, honey?” I prodded.

“No Mommy, only I”, he earnestly replied, looking up at me with big brown eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Baby." I replied, heart breaking. "Were you sad?”

Luke paused, pondering this for a minute. “No,” he earnestly answered, and scampered away in search of Daddy, who was making pancakes in the kitchen.

Oh, the Mommy guilt! How could I have let my little guy down! We were so wrapped up in the anticipation of the preschool's Fall Festival last night that Luke didn’t mention Show and Tell at all yesterday (when he endured the usual 20 questions from Mommy about how his school day was). I should have been appeased by the fact that Luke didn’t seem to care today, but I wasn't.

Mark tried to make me feel better, and in vain, I tried to explain to him that it would be similar to him failing at a crucial task at work.

“Being a stay-at-home mom is my JOB,” I wailed. “HOW could I forget one simple task of putting an item in my preschooler’s bag?”

Mark nodded, hugged me, and searched for the right words to validate the apparent life-threatening seriousness that forgetting a Show and Tell item involved.

Then I glanced at my e-mail. The first item in my inbox was a reply from my friend, Kelly.

“Well, that makes two of us,” she wrote. “I had no idea that Show and Tell was yesterday. Emma didn’t take anything either…”

I breathed a little sigh of relief. Ok, I wasn't the only mom who forgot...

The second e-mail was from Luke’s preschool teacher (I guess we’re all up early on Saturdays):

“Please do not think twice about Show and Tell.” she wrote. “We had many that forgot to bring something. I usually send a reminder the day before, and I forgot, so really it’s my fault!”

Next followed a paragraph about how well Luke is doing at school, how happy he seems, and how he is adjusting beautifully to the daily routine and reaching out to the other children.

As if I didn’t adore Luke’s preschool teacher enough before this e-mail, her absolution of my faux pax made me fall completely in love with her. My spirit lifted immensely and my mood changed in an instant.

Completely guilt-free and happy once again, I had one remaining issue to tackle:

“LUKE, did EVERYONE bring things in yesterday for Show and Tell? What about Emma? Conner? Alex? Ava?” I rattled off several other classmates’ names…

Luke, unfazed, responded to each name with an fictional item that I now knew was completely fabricated.

LESSONS TO MOMMY:

1. Don’t believe everything that my 3 year-old tells me. Sometimes, he’s completely full of it… (or is a genius and was hoping to manipulate something from me in my weak moment of guilt).

2. Post the preschool calendar in a visible location and make sure to look at it every school day, to avoid future catastrophes caused by my forgetful "Mommy Brain".

3. Keep a random train/car/toy in the car, just in case the November Show and Tell date sneaks up on us, and we need to scramble in the carpool line and stick something in Luke's bag.

Back to the post-it-notes, checklists, and external memory aids it is. Oh, organization, how I love thee...

Mommy's Pumpkins

One of my favorite fall activities is our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I love the rows and rows of bright orange pumpkins, all sizes and shapes, the autumnal decorations and harvest-themed festivities. Hayrides, apple cider, bales of straw, farm animals- it all screams October fun! This is the time of year where my family endures my attempts at endless harvest recipes: soups and pasta made from butternut squash, pumpkin-flavored breads and muffins, and sweet apple crisp. I love the warm fall colors, the crisp cool mornings, and bright blue skies. And yesterday, my sweet little pumpkins cooperated and endured a photo shoot to appease their Mommy when we visited a new pumpkin patch. Luke carefully selected his own $1 pumpkin, paid for it with his own money (a ziploc bag full of nickels from Poppy's house), and counted out the change required (20 nickels is a lot when you're 3!). He proudly placed his treasure on the front porch beside our other pumpkins, and checked on it this morning, asking me: "Is it Halloween yet?" (He's been asking me that question every day for 3 weeks- I'm not sure what he thinks is going to happen to those pumpkins on Halloween). Here are some of my favorite pictures of my little pumpkins:


I always adore the "Baby-in-the pumpkin-patch" shots:





Luke must have walked around for at least 20 minutes in search of his perfect pumpkin, while Leah supervised:




Finally, he found it! These pictures make me laugh, of Old Man Winterhoff posing with his pumpkin:





My sweet angels:

Mimi's Visit

Mimi came to visit us over Columbus Day weekend, and we loved having her here. We kept her busy with a picnic at the park, GE Family Day carnival, trip to the pumpkin patch, and playing with lots of toys at home. Luke especially revelled in his Mimi's attention, and chatted with her non-stop, asked her lots of questions, and earnestly told her all about his trains, construction vehicles, and books. Leah showed off her tricks like "So Big", Peek-a-Boo, and waving, and gave her grandmother many hugs, kisses, and sweet cuddles. Mimi even baby-sat for us so Mark and I could go out to breakfast with friends. What a treat a child-free meal at a restaurant was! It was our first venture out to eat by ourselves since Leah has been born, and we loved it! Mimi was able to see Luke's preschool classroom on Monday and meet his teachers, and then the girls enjoyed a morning of shopping while Luke was at school. We went out to lunch with Daddy on Tuesday before dropping off Mimi at the airport, and it was tough adjusting to our empty house without her. Come back soon, Mimi! We miss you!



Leah and Mimi at the park.


Luke shows Mimi the "portable crusher plant" on his dump truck (I have no idea what this means, but I'm learning that many construction terms are above my head).



Reading one of our favorite baby books...



Watching fireworks together.

Crawling!

As of the past 24 hours, we officially have a crawler! Leah first crawled last night, straight to Daddy, shortly after Mark came home from work. Today we enticed her by placing my cell phone on the floor, and captured her newfound mobility on video. (We have a very similar video of Luke when he first learned to crawl, as he motored toward our remote control. What is it about my children and electronics?) Our little girl is on the move, and I know that the next season of her babyhood is going to be very busy!

Click HERE for the video of our newly crawling baby!

I received an e-mail recently, entitled, "Your 39-week old"... and it absolutely blew my mind. 39 weeks is the precise amount of time that Leah spent gestating inside my body before she was born, and this marker of her turning 39 weeks old means that she has now spent an equal time outside in the world. In some ways, I feel like she has been a part of our family forever. It seems ages ago that we were parents of only one child (plus dog), and often when Leah is asleep and Mark and I are playing with Luke, we feel a noticeable absence without our Nutty in the room. Along the same lines, it seems like years since I have slept through the night (ok, it's been years when you add up Luke and Leah's amazingly terrible infant sleeping habits), and I can't really remember a time that I wasn't the mother of small children.

However, when I think about all that has already occurred in Leah's infanthood, I am amazed that 9 months have passed already. The milestones are flying by faster than we can blink, and many sweet moments and phases are fleeting. I am so grateful for the joy that Leah brings to our lives with each of her precious smiles. There is sense of familiarity in parenting a second child, and we are much more comfortable trusting our instincts this time, sitting back and enjoying each stage, and not rushing too quickly toward the next.


Our happy girl!



Never enough baby-in-the-bathtub pictures!



Look at that mischeivious smile (as she discovered how to open the "baby-proofed" drawer)!

Leah is growing and thriving. At her 9-month well check last week, she was 21 pounds (84th percentile) and 30 inches long (99th percentile). She is pulling up on everything, is curious and sweet, and is our happy little angel. Luke makes Leah smile and laugh more than anyone else. The following video illustrates how funny Leah thinks her big brother is. Luke was trying on fire hats, and Lee Lee found it incredibly funny. Hope this video brings a smile to your day, too!

Click HERE for contagious giggles!