"I love Halloween" "I love Halloween"

Addie really embraced trick or treating tonight. She was really into it. She declared after only 3 houses, "I love Halloween" and skipped down the sidewalk singing it. She said "trick or treat" to every house. She also said "fank you" to each house and by the end of the night had shortened "Happy Halloween" to just "Halloween."





Here's some pics from the parade at daycare as well as from tonight's festivities. The last one is called "What happens when a 2.5 year old is really quiet in the backseat of the car, after Mommy didn't realize said 2.5 year old grabbed the Hallowen make-up kit."

Walking with Daddy trick or treating

After trick or treating


With Savion, her boyfriend, at the parade

The steps continue...

Ben took 6 steps at lunchtime today. Slowly, but surely he'll get there :)

I finally decided on a theme for his birthday party. Nothing like waiting til the last minute right? Get this- the cake pan I was going to use has been discontinued! Even though every craft store's website shows them carrying it, they don't! I even went to Sheila's Party World and called Canon's! If Canon's doesn't have it, no one will. The woman there actually told me about it being discontinued. She said my best bet was to find it at a garage sale. WHAT? That was a weird suggestion, I thought.

I managed to buy just about all of the decoration thingies today. It'll be cute, once I get it all worked out, along with what food we'll serve and oh yeah, after I clean this house.

Excited tomorrow is Ben's first Halloween. I can so clearly remember last year's Halloween and being ready to have Ben. One week later I did. :) We have a busy day running around tomorrow, so everyone can see Addie and Ben in costume. We also have the "imagination parade" at daycare (since they can't celebrate 'Halloween'). I am really looking forward to that and to seeing all of the costumes there.

Steps!!

Yahoooo!!! Ben took 2 steps twice tonight! He was so thrilled with himself and the applause he received from Addie and me! Unfortunately when Brian got home (late) from work, he wasn't so interested in performing.

I just got off the phone with Addie's pediatrician. She agrees to keep Addie on the antibiotic. She ordered a bunch of bloodwork for her to get done. She also is giving us a prescription for a suppository emergency thing that we are to administer if she has another one that lasts 8 minutes long. Typically they are administered after 5 minutes, but since she came out of the 8 minute one on her own, we should wait 8 minutes. If we ever have to use it, we must call 911.
If Addie still has a 100 degree fever on Wednesday, after I stop giving her the preventative doses of Motrin, then I am supposed to call the doctor and we'll get a chest x-ray done to rule out pneumonia. Although the chance of her having pneumonia on the 19th, then having no fever up until the 27th is almost impossible, according to the doctor.

I'll keep you posted.

Pumpkin carving

From the left: Muddy's, my Elmo (baaaad), my Mickey Mouse, Guppy's, Aunt Gail's dragon (awesome!), my funny other one, Addie, Onkteb's

Surrounded by her new favorite things

Isn't this an adorable picture?

Addie enjoyed getting to blow out the candles in Muddy and Guppy's jack-o-lanterns before they left.

Here's cute video of Ben and Muddy.

Addie is on an antibiotic now. We'll see how she does. She is running a fever tonight, so we're on the Motrin and Tylenol. Wish us luck!

Seizure #3

Addie just had another febrile seizure tonight. Brian and I are becoming experts at this. She woke up from a nap burning up, Brian gave Motrin, I came down from putting Ben to bed, felt her head and gave her Tylenol too. Five minutes later she was seizing. This time she threw everything in her stomach up. Then instead of falling asleep for an hour, she was just really loopy and out of it. NOT FUN! We're taking her to the on-call ped tomorrow at 11:45, to figure out what the infection is. UGH, I HATE THIS PART OF BEING A PARENT. Nothing worse than seeing your child hurt and sick.

Other than those late developments, we had a nice day. It poured here until around 1pm. We went to Ilka's Halloween party with the kids in their costumes. Of course, they stole th show. Even after the costumes came off, Addie entertained in her usual way. Then we had dinner at Applebee's and had 4 different couples/groups come up during the course of our meal to say what beautiful, fun and well-behaved children we have. That felt great.

Pure delight

Notice the Dora pjs Ben is wearing? Addie thought it would be cool to switch pjs tonight. She was wearing his dinosaur pj top earlier, and he's wearing her Dora one.

The kids are hysterical. Ben is so funloving. Addie is a hoot. She walked up to Miss Xiafen at daycare and said, "Oh my goodness, I love your hair!" today. Miss Xiafen also informed me that Addie is the only one in her class who during circle time accurately names all of the colors, shapes and seasons.

Brian also called me to tell me that Addie and Ben are virtual twins. He was looking at his digital picture frame (best gift ever!) and saw a picture of Addie almost a year old. He said it was Ben looking back at him!

Addie and Ben get to spend a lonnnnnng day with Muddy and Guppy tomorrow. Luckily for me, it's the last time I have to be far away for a while.

Pure comedy

So Addie has come out with quite a few zingers today....enjoy!

1) We were walking up the stairs and she was carrying a foam Dora cutout that's for the bath tub. She dropped Dora on the landing and immediately said, "Oh no, Dora! Are you ok?" She asked again, "are you ok?" I told her Dora was fine. She picked her up and matter of factly said, "We need to go to the hopsible." Maybe Dora had a seizure?? :)

2) Muddy and Guppy were kind enough to watch them today while I ran into work to get some things together for my continuation of Hell week. I wasn't 5 minutes away when my cell phone rang. It was Muddy questioning if I had anything I wanted to tell them. Not off the top of my head at the moment, was my response. Apparently Addie had just had this dialog with them: "You made a mess." "Who did?" "You and Guppy." "Where?" "At my house." "No we didn't" "Yes you did. You made a mess with your soda cans." Let me for the 100th time reaffirm that neither Brian nor I have told Addie that Muddy and Guppy leave messes of soda cans when they come over. That was just pure Addie putting the world together. Come to think of it, maybe she is right.....

3) Muddy and Ben were playing the piano and Addie was in the other room. Addie stormed into the room with the piano and demanded, "What you are doing?" Muddy told her "we're playing the piano." Addie retorted, "Keep it down" and even gestured to bring the volume down!

Still no official walking from Ben. He's a dancing fool. He dancing standing completely on his own, bobbing up and down. He just needs to realize he can do it. I got video of it today, but probably won't have the time to upload it tonight.

"Don't worry"

I keep getting told "Don't worry" "It's ok"and "I've got it." Who does this 2.5 year old think she is?

I realized I didn't give any details about the Linvilla trip! Duh! We did the corn maze and the straw bale maze. Let me just say what a blast they were. Believe it or not, in all of the years we've gone to Linvilla, we had never done the mazes before. Totally worth the $5! Addie and Graham ran through the straw bale maze like they were in their element. Great giggles ensued. Then we did the corn maze, and holy hannah, what a trip! Muddy and I paired up, Aunt Kim and Brandy paired off, Onkteb and Aunt Gail with Ben, and Daddy pushed Addie in the stroller. Apparently Brian thought it was a timed event, because he ran with the stroller the whole way. It was really a lot of fun. Guppy, Mom Mom and Pop Pop were perched atop the area keeping an eye on us all.

Ben is DEFINITELY teething. He's not eating as much at daycare, and the ladies in his room are so worried! LOL. They know it's not like Ben not to eat much! He's also down to one nap at daycare, which happens to be the routine the kids are on in the toddler room. He's sooooo close to walking; it's just a matter of minutes it seems. Before I know it, he'll be one!! Two weeks from tomorrow in fact.

Sometimes Daddys don't think...

With our new bed, I bought a new comforter, et al. It came along with a neckroll pillow and a square pillow. Last night Brian decided it would be a good idea to pick up the pillows and knock the kids over with them. They LOVED it. Total giggles all around. I explained that it's going to get ugly at some point. Boy was I right. LOL.
This morning Brian had already left for work when the kids woke up. Addie picked up the pillow and said, "I'm going to hit you" and swung. I told her that was a game only she and Daddy could play together. Then out of Addie's mouth comes, "Daddy hit me yesterday." Of course she meant with the pillow, but I was thinking "oh my God, here come the phone calls." I tried to convince her to say, "Daddy knocked me over" but she wasn't have the word-change. So far so good though, no mention of it at daycare today.

Just before I got to daycare today, Addie tripped on the sidewalk and scraped her knee. When I walked into her classroom, she came running to me to say, "I got a boo boo!" I saw her knee and said, "Oh my goodness, we know how much you love boo boos." Her teacher Miss Agnes said, "Oh yes, and she's been showing every parent who has walked in this room!" LOL. My little drama girl!

Sunday at home

Well other than being wiped from our venture out to the pumpkin patch, we've just been hanging out at home today. Our new bed was delivered, late nonetheless, but delivered. BIG difference between a queen and king bed! It looks huge!

We moved our queen bed into Addie's room, figuring she loves to sleep in it so much, maybe that'll make her sleep in her room at night. We'll see. Naptime was a 3 hour success in her room! She was so proud of herself too when she woke up.

She's very literal right now. If I call her silly or anyother word, she'll say, "I'm not silly, I'm Addie." This holds true regarding Ben as well. Of course the exception is that he is still Applesauce in her eyes, and she remains Flounder.

These two have been nutso today. Very entertaining and loving, but nutso! Since both Brian and I were home on Friday because of her seizure, we both have work to make up. I've been trying for hours to get stuff done, and the chillins will have no such event take place. (Really, Miss Nay, I'm trying to get our presentation stuff together).

This week is as busy as they come for me. Monday and Tuesday I'll be in New Jersey training. Thursday I'm in Lewes training and Friday I'm in Milford training. That's four full days of training and long car rides. And no lunchtime nursing Ben :(

Ok, I'll be back later to upload billions of pictures from Linvilla.




More to come!! (The uploader is messed up again!)

14 strong!

Yes, you read that right, 14 of us went to Linvilla Orchards today. All of Addie's favorite people were there! Muddy, Guppy, Onkteb, Aunt Gail, Aunt Kim, Brandy, Uncle Scott, Mommom, Poppop, Graham, Addie, Ben, Daddy and me. Whew, what a group!

Here are some pictures.

Another seizure!!

Got back from AI's ER this morning. Addie had another febrile seizure at about 4:15am. Not fun to see, scary stuff. No diagnosis, other than her cold. If the fevers continue through the weekend, we're supposed to get her re-evaluated in case it's turned in to a sinus infection.

Today is Brian and my 5 year anniversary!

Thanks to Onkteb and Aunt Gail for flying over to rescue us at 4:30 to watch Ben while we went to the hospital. And Aunt Gail, we're very appreciative that you were stressed ;)

Nice day

Took both kids to the pediatrician this morning. They're both fine, just colds. I swear I'm on a first name basis there. The dr either thinks I'm neurotic or just have sick kids.





Had some quality alone time with Ben, while Addie napped. It was about 80 degrees out, so we ventured out back. Here's some shots of him being his usual adorable self.


He's all about eating the stems of pumpkins LOL.






Brian is at a work dinner tonight and won't be home til around 11pm probably. He hasn't seen the kids since he left for work this morning at 6:00. That stinks, doesn't it?

Tomorrow is a ridiculously long day for me. I have a training I'm teaching all day, then pick the kids up from daycare, drop them off to Brian's work so he can take them home, then head back to Newark for an event that won't get me home til 9pm. Talk about culture shock, Brian is going to have to have both kids alone at bedtime for the first time since May, maybe? They'll both probably be awake when I get home LOL

Not sure when I'll be able to post tomorrow, if at all.

Little updates!

Ben started blowing kisses!! He doesn't make the mmmwah sound, but puts his hand to his mouth and pulls it away.



Also, here's Addie's latest hair style:


About 30 minutes after getting her hair done, she said, "Mommy, what's this?" pulling her braid around to the front. I told her it's her braid and she said, "I don't like it. Take it out." Sigh, it was nice while it lasted!

So much to share!

Whew, what a past couple of days! We've had a bunch of funny things to share...so here goes. Then I promise to post some pictures!

The other night Addie was still awake when we went to bed (shocking, I know). She got in our bed with us, and sat up in the dark saying "I need my bay-be" kind of with a Southern draw. Knowing that baby was downstairs, I grabbed a stuffed toy from the side of the bed and said "Here you go." Addie said "this is baby?" I said "yes, it's baby." Addie put it close to her face, and said, "No, it's not. It's teddy bear." She was right! Brian said, "we can't fool her anymore about anything."

Today while I was nursing Ben at daycare, Miss Shobha from Addie's class was helping out in the infant room. She told me that Addie had her cracking up today. In her class, there are tons of crafts hanging from the ceiling. One fell down and Miss Shobha was putting it back up. Addie walked over to her, put her hands on her hips and said, "Good job Miss Shobha, you did it!"

Benjamin has really come into his own recently. This kid LOVES to laugh and just play around. He had everyone giggling away at daycare today, just by playing peek a boo with him.

Ok, here are the long awaited pictures from the Wilmington & Western Railroad. The rest and the videos are available on their Dropshots account.

A great one of Muddy and Ben!

FYI, don't encourage kids to wave out of the window. I was warned by the conductor's helper!

Stinking adorable!

Look how cutely she was dressed.

Ben spent most of the time looking out the window.

Look at that pout! Wasn't it nice of Muddy and Addie to color coordinate?

Both kids fell asleep on the ride back from Hockessin

Ben spent a lot of time with Onkteb, not all of the time on his head.

Update tomorrow.

Sorry dealing with a 2.5 year old temper tantrum right now.

Great birthday present

Addie had her birthday present from Muddy and Guppy fulfilled today. We rode on the Autumn Express of the Wilmington & Western Railroad. First off, the weather was PERFECT! Second off, the company was wonderful- almost all of her favorite people were there- Muddy, Guppy, Onkteb, Mommy, Daddy and Ben. She did mention at various points that she wanted to sit with Aunt Kim (which was difficult since Aunt Kim wasn't with us!). Third off, it was a picture perfect day and event. Not kidding, I took 91 pictures and videos! They are uploading now. I'll post them, ok, not all of them, later on.

In the meantime, some fun things about Addie. Tonight, while donning her fishy hat from Aunt Kim's cruise last year, she decided her name was "Flounder Addie Princess." She would only answer to that. She also decided that Ben was now "Applesauce." Her imagination and creativity never cease to amaze me.

She and Daddy are building towers right now. Luckily, Daddy's on to her- and he does a protective shield now when she says "I'm going to knock it over!"

Exciting to us, the house across the street sold!! It's been for sale since BEFORE our house was for sale. Probably close to two years, actually. The new owners have been there every night and all day today working on painting, etc. So far I know there's at least a young woman who lives there, not sure if she's alone or with someone. The Bree Hodges in me baked her some pumpkin muffins tonight, which we'll deliver tomorrow when we see them over there.

Debate team here we come.

Today Addie and I have a very intense conversation that lasted for about 30 minutes. It went something like this.
Addie: I have a penis.
Me: No, Addie you have a vagina.
Addie: No, I have a penis.
Me: Nope, you have a vagina.
Addie: I HAVE A PENNNNNNIS
Me: Addie, you're a girl. You have a vagina.
Addie: I'm a boy. I have a penis.
Me: Vagina.
Addie: Penis.
And so on and so forth.

She started a fever overnight, so that means we do three days of pumping her full of Motrin. I'm so anal about her with fevers now. Actually I'm that way with fevers with any child now.

Excited to be heading to ride the Wilmington and Western Railroad tomorrow with Muddy, Guppy and Onkteb. I think Addie's going to love it. Best of all, the weather is about as perfect a fall day as is possible, sunny and 64 degrees! There will be lots of pictures to share!

The way to Addie's heart

is through mail. If you ever screw up with her, just send her a piece of mail via US snail mail and you'll be all better.

Addie got a card in the mail yesterday and this is what was said.
Me: Addie, you have some mail.
Addie: (taking the envelope) Oh my Goodness, a flag for me!
Me: (She was looking at the stamp, it's a flag.)
She opened the card up, and said: Oh my Goodness, cats!
(It was a Halloween card from Muddy and Guppy.)

Sorry I didn't get to update yesterday, it's been a very busy 2 days. OMG, just had a scary interruption- Addie walked into the family room and said, "What's Addie have?" She was holding up my Santoku knife!!! How did she get it? After sucking all the blood back into my heart, and talking to her about not touching knives, I walked into the kitchen to find Ben's piano walker pushed up against the cabinets. She climbed up on top and reached onto the counter. Needless to say, the piano walker was removed. Really, how close a call was that? Someone was watching. Amen.

Ben is so funny today. While he's crawling around on everything, he'll just randomly stop, and bury his face into whatever he's in front of. It's really hysterical. No rhyme or reason to what he dives into, just when he wants.

Also he's quite the giggler now. He and Brian spent a good 10 minutes when Brian got home from work playing "surprise" peek a boo around the corner. Ahhh good times.

All better!

Ben had his follow up appointment with urology today. Happy to report everything has healed perfectly. No more appointments necessary! And when he's 14, he'll appreciate it! :)

I am taking an herbal supplement called Fenugreek to help support my breastmilk quantity. The side effect of it is smelling like maple syrup. There are worse odors right? Addie LOVES smelling me. She nuzzzles into my armpit (gross I know) and just inhales deeply. She'll tell me "you smell like syrup" and then I'll ask what she smells like and she says "I smell like Addie." LOL

Tomorrow I have a training in New Jersey, so the kids are heading to daycare for the first time on a Wednesday. Hopefully it doesn't mess with them too much, since they had off yesterday.

Watch out SYTYCD!

Ok, for people who don't know, SYTYCD is So You Think You Can Dance, the reality dance show that's popular nowadays. Before being a fan of the show, I can honestly say I didn't know to much about the types of dance that exist. One thing both Brian and I have learned is about this so-called Contemporary dance, where the dancers moreso "feel" the music and are very lyrical (not really a verb, but you know). Well, ladies and gentlemen, Addie Nourie is a contemporary dancer. What a freaking hoot!


For your viewing pleasure, sit back and enjoy. Notice the boots, very important to have one's rainboots on to dance properly!

Ok, so yes that is a bottle of children's Motrin that my kids are chewing on, but the lid is on! :) She seriously has that much energy anytime of day. If there's music playing, she's dancing like that. Talk about a fun time at our house!!

Oh yeah and if you didn't look at a calendar yesterday, Ben turned 11 months old! Sob, sob, sob, my baby is almost a year old! (and yes, Guppy that means you're almost 68 too!)

Here he is.....

Oh my dear Lord, he is so precious in this costume. The best part? He LOVES to wear it. I think the part that rocks the most is that Muddy made the whole thing from a hooded sweatshirt, so it doesn't feel different to them.

Here they are together. Notice this hug! And also note the loss of the gloves. Addie decided she wanted to wear Ben's gloves. Wonder how many times they'll get passed around Halloween and Disney!

You can see in this picture, how Muddy even made her shoes into Minnie's high heels. VERY cool!

Good intentions :)

What's the expression about good intentions? I got the brilliant idea tonight to do something fun as a family. I suggested we go to Chuck E Cheese. Yes, it is a Saturday night, I did realize that. Addie went a few months ago with Muddy and Guppy during the week and she had a good time.


Fast forward to tonight, when we get there to have the place overrun with unruly, unsupervised children. Seriously, parents just sat down at the filthy tables and let their kids do whatever they want. Not cool. We ate a pepperoni pizza, which much to our dismay was not the pizza of our childhood memories. Both Brian and I remember cheesy, gooey pizza from there. Not the case anymore. And the place has hardly any rides now! I thought they had tons before, but now it's mostly arcade games. Even with the disappointing visit, I managed to get some great pictures! As Brian told me, "I don't care if this is her favorite place in the whole world, we're never coming back." (We will, probably in a few years, on a weekday, after we've eaten elsewhere!)




Addie looks like she's 5 here.


Ben loved the carousel


Notice the seatbelt on her-she managed to get out. Hmmm, one guess who put her in it.

Too good to be true

Obviously her sleeping through the night was a fluke. By 3:30am, we had both kids in our bed with us. Ben, with his fever burning up, and Addie with her usual self. Fun, fun, fun. Maybe that's why I'm so freaking tired today.

I came to pick the kids up from Muddy and Guppy's house, to see Ben in his Halloween costume. It's not done totally yet, so I won't say what it is. But, man is he cute in it!

Addie's had a bit of a 'tude today. Muddy and Guppy had a rough time with her this morning being disrespectful and rude. She's into blowing her tongue at you, if she's not liking what she's hearing. Not cute. Also if you ask her to do something she isn't into, she'll say, "Sorry, I can't __"

Not sure if we're venturing to La Tolteca tonight. Onkteb is visiting his best friend in Indiana. Aunt Gail is in Providence. So if we go, it's just us. :(

Way to go Addie!

She must've had that sisterly sense last night. For the FIRST TIME EVER, I put her to bed in her room at 9:00ish and she woke up in her room at 6:00am!! Now that would seem like a much needed respite for me, except for the fact that poor little Benjamin woke up at 1:00am with a FEVER, like a steam-from-his-ears fever. Motrin hadn't broken it after an hour even, that's how bad it was. Eventually close to 2:45am he fell asleep in our bed with us. But I'm saying Addie had the sixth sense and knew Ben needed us last night more than she did.

Here's some pictures of them. Addie is doing her "picture taking" pose here:

Ben flying through the air on my legs:

Them together. Really, she looks like she's strangling him, but actually she's just trying to put her arm around him. Or at least that's what she says!

His birthday invitations are DONE! Woohoo! In just about a month, he'll be one! :(

Is this really my life?

Poor Ben went to the doctor this morning, to get checked out because his cold sounds really bad. Turns out, he has an ear infection. Yes, you read that correctly, an ear infection IN THE EARS THAT HAVE TUBES, which are invented to prevent ear infections from happening. Apparently one of his is clogged and now he needs medicine to make him better. Please, let this medicine work.

Addie continues to crack everyone up. She has such a good sense of humor and just says the funniest things, without even trying to be funny.

I've had two of the worst, calamity-filled days in a long time. Not even worth going into, but let's just say I've cleaned up more than my fair share of bodily fluids both literally and figuratively :)

Everyone seems to love the America's Funniest Video submission. I really will send it in!

Our America's Funniest Home Video submission

Just happened. Had to share. Don't mind the mess, Addie insisted on taking EVERY toy out of the toy box.

Get ready to laugh!

And she will be....

Isn't she adorable?!!! You can't hear it from the picture, but she giggles the whole time she wears this. So much fun, so cute! Yes, she has black tights to wear, so her legs'll be covered too. And Muddy has something in the works for her shoes too. Oh yeah and because Muddy rocks, she made it in a size 3T, so Addie'll have a chance to wear it for months to come! When she saw it for the first time, she said in typical Addie intonation "Oh my goodness!"
Here's some more:





Ben's costume isn't done yet, but from what Muddy said, he's not going to be Mickey.



We got to see Aunt Kim and Brandy yesterday too. Ben thought Aunt Kim was funny when she put on Minnie's nose. Aunt Kim was also nice enough to upload "Big Girls Don't Cry" for Addie onto her cell phone, so Addie could sing along.

To demonstrate how beautiful Addie doesn't always look so beautiful, take a look at this.

Totally a Ben face, playing with Muddy.


Up high with Aunt Kim


Here's Addie singing and dancing as Minnie. She's looking at her reflection in the windows on Muddy and Guppy's house, by the way.