Halloween

Distracto Boy! (Look, a squirrel!)
















Quite the creepy display.









The three musketeers--er, Distracto Boy and Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.













Molly had fun--she's pretending to be the Queen.

















Mitten break. The kids' hands were cold so Jeni and I went back to get mittens, but they only wore them for a short time.

Halloween sneak peek (2)

Movies

Molly ballerina




Leo "jams"

Molly turns 7 months!

Dear Molly, we're a little late with this, but this week you turned 7 months old!

You are rolling like a pro, soon to be crawling, we think.

You can sit up by yourself, although can't get yourself into a sitting position.










You can pick up small objects like cheerios and your paci and successfully get them into your mouth--sometimes on the first try.

You are experimenting with consonants, and often have a rolling patter of Bs, Ds, Gs, Ms, and Ls. Ah-da da da da da is a favorite.

You are starting to take longer naps, and have two or three naps a day.









You recognize your name and usually turn when someone calls to you. You are happy to see anyone in your family, and will bounce and smile when we come to pick you up. You aren't quite to the stage of lifting your arms to be picked up, but probably will be soon.

You like music and being sung to--The Grand Old Duke of York is a favorite of yours (as it was of your brother's). You love your bouncer from GramGram and you and your brother are still enamored of one another.



You are generally a happy smiley girl, and everyone who meets you comments on how cheerful you seem.

We love you so much! Mama, Papa, and Leo

Leo is five years old!

It is so hard to believe that Leo is five years old already. He's reading pretty fluently (although he really dislikes doing so "on command"), and has gone through several longer chapter books with me, some of which might really have been over his head. Even though he's not in school, he's got some simple math skills. Pretty much, he's got a good jump on all the kindergarten skills except for doing what he's told the first time.

We had a pretty bad thunderstorm this morning which woke him up early, so he got to open is birthday presents early this morning. In addition to the things he got to open on Sunday (car, train, Halloween-themed spoof of A Visit from Saint Nicholas, world map floor puzzle), he got some clothes from his aunt & uncle, a book just because, the Klutz Book of Yo-Yo from his sister, and a toy guitar from us. The guitar was attached to him practically all day, and one of us will post some pictures from it sometime soon.

His swimming teacher has been regularly commenting about how much he's improving from week to week, and it has really been amazing to watch him go from somebody who almost refused to put even his nose into the water to bobbing his entire head underwater, and even wanting to try to bob in the bathtub.

I'm sure there's more to say, but I can't think of anything else, other than

Happy Birthday, Leo. We love you.

Mama & Papa.

Leo BD party II

Since Leo wanted a race car theme for his birthday we went with the race car cake--they did a pretty good job, but unfortunately the didn't have Kenseth decorations. Jeff chose the 48 car as the least offensive option. It did taste really good though--chocolate with whipped cream frosting. For some reason he did not want us to sing happy birthday to him--so the bringing out of the cake was a bit anti-climactic.

Leo's BD party I

The apple bobbing was a huge hit and the kids all wanted more than one turn. They figured out pretty quickly that the trick is to catch a stem in between your teeth. I don't know that I would have thought of that!























We also had three-legged races, but most of the kids preferred just to do regular races with two legs.









The kids also got to decorate their own racing tshirt--just like race cars have decals and numbers--they were supposed to color on the shirts we had prepared for them. It worked well-enough, but they weren't all that into it.











Leo doesn't get to open most of his presents until Tuesday, but he got to open the presents from his granddad since he was here visiting with a friend--they brought some good stuff, but the hit by far was the train engine.

Milestones for Molly

Sitting up unassisted and (therefore) switching to using the baby bath without the infant sling.

things that belong in your mouth but didn't make it there

Molly tried avocado today. Besides rice and oatmeal cereals she's had apple, banana, sweet potato, and now avocado. Mmmmmm.

Things that don't belong in your mouth

Halloween sneak peek

I'll start work on Distracto Boy's cape tonight.

Handyman

Guess who needs a tool belt for Christmas?

A weekend

Not too much exciting to mention around here. I think it took us most of the week to recover from our trip last weekend. Molly had her 6mo checkup Friday--14lbs 8 oz (16%); 24 1/2" (10%).

Tonight Leo is at his friend Daniel's BD party--by himself. It's strange that now some of the playdates and parties aren't for kids and parents. It's nice to have a few hours with just one of the kids--but also hard to get used to the fact that eventually it'll be them on their own for all social outings!

Also, all of the Madison pics are up on Flickr.

Madison trip

For my birthday we went to Madison for a quick trip. We first stopped at Penzeys to stock up and then checked out the new additions to Hilldale Shopping Center--wow it's fancy! Of course we went to Quivey's Grove for fish fry Friday night-just as good as I remembered.











Saturday it was chilly and quite breezy. We went to the Union and Leo loved watching the water and the boats (he even said he wants to go to school at the UW), but it was too cold to stay for long, so we headed next door to College Library where we ran into two of my former coworkers.








Then we headed over to State Street to wander a bit before meeting up with my folks who came down to see us for the afternoon. Leo liked the badger fountain outside of Varsity Bar.










We went to lunch at the original Ian's. Mom bought lunch (thanks Mom!) Later we discovered that they've also got a big location up near the top of State Street.











Then we headed to the Children's Museum--Mom treated us again by paying everyone's admission--thanks Mom! I loved the cow that could be raised and lowered.










Leo loved the car at the bottom of the climbing contraption. Even though he's a good climber he wasn't feeling brave enough to try it out.















Mom and Erv (and I) mostly sat and talked and played with Molly while Jeff chased after Leo. It was very very loud and crazy--not surprising on a Saturday afternoon I guess!

My folks left to head back to Wausau a little after 3:30p and we headed over to the main branch of the Madison Public Library to decompress for a bit before heading to dinner.






We had dinner at The Old Fashioned, on the Square. It's new since we lived there and we really liked it--it's meant to be somewhat like a traditional WI supper club and a lot of the food is local. The food, service, and decor were fabulous. It was crowded and loud though--big surprise.








Then we headed back down State Street to get back to the car. The sun was starting to sink (but it was still pretty early) and the capitol looked especially nice.















We stopped at the Chocolate Shoppe and Leo and I shared a dish of blue moon. Mmmmm. We left to come home mid-Sunday morning. We had a great time and Leo didn't want to leave (neither did we).Hopefully we can visit more often as Molly gets older.