Halloween

I had thought that we'd be able to re-use our unicorn costume from last Halloween for Amita... but it was too tight!  My little bird outgrew it... which is a shame, since she was really excited about it this year.  I was all set to head to the thrift store the week of Halloween to pick up a 75% off costume... but a package arrived in the mail, containing all my old costumes from when I was kid!  The clown costume fit Amita perfectly and she was very excited to get dressed up for Halloween.  She even got to sample some of her candy this year: peanut butter cups were her favorite.

These sunglasses arrived at our house the day Ansel was born (his gift for Amita)... but it was highly entertaining to watch him wear them now!  He also tried to beat them on the bench.  Good thing they are sturdy!

Here's Amita with Grandpa and Grandma helping to pass out candy to the trick or treaters!

My little superman.  Good thing the costume I got him was toddler sized - it could fit a lot of layers underneath for warmth.

Here's both the kids before we braved the chilly afternoon weather.  We had to add a winter hat underneath Amita's clown hat along with all her other layers!

All wrapped up in blankets in the wagon.  Amita was a bit concerned that Ansel was going to get her pumpkin, but he laid back and enjoyed the ride!

Special Trip

On Sunday while the boys stayed home, Amita and I took a special trip to the theater to see a children's singer.  It took Amita a little while to warm up to the setting, but once she did, she was out of her seat and singing and dancing with all the other kids.  By the time the show was over, she was worn out from all the excitement and I was worn out from smiling and laughing just watching her.  I am very much looking forward to another girls day out sometime soon!

Here's Amita waiting patiently in her seat for the show to start.  She was proud to hold her ticket (that the usher tore off for her!) as well as her pretend mug of milk.

Dancing and singing to the music.  Amita was thrilled to make sounds and motions to go with the songs!

Orange Acres

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin farm, which is down the road from our house.  Ansel was technically there last year in my very big belly, but this was his first real trip to the farm.  Amita had had a lot of fun there last year, so we thought we'd give it a go again this year.  The kids enjoyed themselves, despite the cold weather.  I love everything about fall!!

Amita really enjoyed the corn silo last year and we thought it would be fun for Ansel too.  You can see from the look on his face that he didn't agree!  We left the silo quickly and noisily after this photo was taken!

Swinging on a tire swing.

And hanging like a monkey!  She had a really good grip on the bar... maybe we need to get her into a gymnastics class??

Here's Daddy and the kids riding the train.  It was a bit of a squeeze to get all 4 of us in one car.

The train coming over the hill.  This was hands down Amita's favorite part of the farm (besides picking out her pumpkin).

Riding the train with Mama!

My two men on the train.

Amita asked me to go on this rat race tube with her.  They were really heavy and we both had to work hard to get the tube rolling!

These bouncy horses were new this year.  I didn't mind sitting on them... but getting them to move wasn't nearly as fun (or easy!).

Daddy's horse had a lot more bounce than mine!

Checking out the pedal bikes.  Amita and Daddy did several laps around the track before we finally had to call it a day and head home for nap time.

Ansel Update

In contrast to his sister at this same age, Ansel has been growing like a weed.  Or something that grows faster than a weed!  He loves to sit all by himself and play with toys and Amita loves to help bring him toys she thinks he might need.  He spends much of his day watching her race around and loves the extra entertainment that Amita is always doing for him.

Ansel is a very sweet baby and loves to laugh.  He giggles over almost anything and we love playing the game of who can make him laugh more!  He is starting to say some words like bye-bye, uh-oh, all done and he can do the sounds for mamamamama and dadadadadadada... he just hasn't connected them yet to mama and dada.

He is healthy and strong (very strong!) and we are so blessed with two healthy kids!!

Here's Ansel trying out the music table.  It wasn't long before he started grabbing it by the legs, lifting it up, and tossing it like the hulk!  The legs have since been removed for the safety of all involved!!

One of Ansel's favorite games is dumping toys out of buckets or bins or barns and then tossing the containers.

But this day, he decided to try the bucket on as a hat instead!

Ansel can get some sick air when he jumps in this!!

Making a mess like usual.  Good thing Amita loves to help clean up!!  (Note the legless music table in the background!)

Here's my tough little man hanging out.  Mama can't resist his cute little face!

Amita Update

Amita spent her summer working on her language skills, practicing doing things by herself, and just growing and being happy.  She loves to talk about her day and is constantly telling stories and making Mama, Daddy, and Ansel laugh.  She has a huge imagination and loves to play pretend and dress up.  She is constantly inventing new games and we are having a blast watching her learn new things.

I just had to include the above picture of her in one of her summer dresses.  She really is the cutest little girl in the whole wide world!!  :)

And we can't talk about summer without also planning for the winter that is coming!  She is very excited about her new snow pants and winter coat for this year!

Bundling up has never been so fun and stylish!!

Amita loves to be silly... and here's a picture capturing it!

Amita is also a great helper!  Here she is washing and drying dishes with Daddy.

Here's a picture of Amita before she dug out the dress up bin.

And here she is after a game of dress up.  I'm not completely sure why she wanted her cape in the front (I think it was so she could see the star!), but either way, she was having fun!!

We're Back!

We have been battling with technical difficulties in addition to the normal challenges that a busy everyday life brings with it... but I think we're back up and running now and I'll be going back through and updating the blog with more of our exciting summer and early fall as time allows.

The short version (if you pressed fast forward until now) would be that Ansel has gone from two to 8 teeth and he's now working on molars!  He might have all his teeth before his first birthday, which is coming up surprisingly fast.  And don't even get me started on the new words he's starting to say!  For now, I'll leave you with the above photo, which is one of his favorite things to do.  He wrinkles up his nose and then breathes in and out really hard.  It makes him (and the rest of us) laugh every time!

And in Amita's world, the big news is that she's getting to be more of a big girl every day.  She has been working at potty training for a few weeks now and she is really starting to get the hang of it.  Mama and Daddy are both eagerly looking forward to the day when she is completely done with diapers (naps and bedtime only right now), but we're thankful even for the reduced volume of diapers for now!

Am-bee-yance

Amita and Daddy got to spend time together at the Richfield fire safety festivities while Mama stayed home with Ansel, since it didn't start until after he went to bed.  It was an extravaganza of emergency vehicles and first responders and both Amita and Daddy had a lot of fun there.  It was a little noisy and overwhelming at first, but Amita warmed up to it and was brave enough to climb inside the back of an ambulance (am-bee-yance, as she calls it!).

Here's Amita with a fire truck.  She can recognize all of the vehicles from her favorite books about trucks.

Let's hope this is the closest she ever gets to the back of a cop car!

Amita's favorite part of fire safety was her new firewoman's hat!  This has been a big hit for playing dress up.

Photography

As the kids get older, they continue to challenge my photography skills.  I have found that with two kids, the odds of one of them being blurry in a photo have more than doubled.  I'm not sure exactly how that math works...

And just because they're not blurry doesn't mean they are both looking at the camera!  I took roughly 20 pictures when the kids were sitting together recently and at no point were both of them looking at me.  Oh well!  We'll make do with one of each them looking - at least they are in focus!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like... Halloween

Ansel is helping to get our money's worth by wearing some of Amita's hand me downs for Halloween. He makes a very good frankenstein!  I was worried he would have outgrown a few of these before the holiday, but we're into October, so now I'm dressing him in them as often as they are washed, since we only have a month to celebrate.  The pumpkin onesie is getting a little tight... but I'm going to try to stretch it as long as possible.  One thing is certain... he won't be fitting into Amita's chili pepper costume from her first Halloween.

Here's my little pumpkin with a monster face!

This shirt has always cracked me up.  Who makes a skull shirt for babies?!?!?!?!