Signs of Fall

How can you tell Fall has arrived? Pumpkins start showing up at local grocery stores.
Mums are readily available and Ava's clothes and hair ribbon have FAll colors.
Pumpkin shaped gummi candies are being consumed.

(Routine) Errand

Most every weekend when I drop off the dry cleaning and pick up the clean shirts, Ava or Sebastian (or both) are usually with me. The owners are always asking about the kids if one of them are not with me. So as you can tell, we are regulars there. Ava even knows what to do with the reciept and how to pay the bill. Who knows, maybe in ten years I can have the kids do the dry cleaning errand for me while I take a nap! ;-)

The school crew

Last week Michael was away on a business trip. I got to do the morning routine with Sebastian since Michael usually does it when he's home. Every morning Sebastian would give me a kiss and a hug BEFORE heading out the front door. Yup, he's at the age where it isn't "cool" to be showing PDA in front of his peers :-( Ava and I would just sit in the car across the street. It's not that I was spying on him but because we were packed up in the car and all ready to go to daycare and work. Sebastian even came over to talk to me for 10 seconds :-)

Night and Day

This is what Ava's hair looks like after a day in braids. Her hair is still frizzy when she wakes up in the morning as well. I call this the "before" and "after" pictures, or the difference betw. night and day..ha ha!

Another laundry moment

Just when I think my laundry baskets are safe from our cat Marley, I came back from putting clean folded laundry away and found Ava in the laundry basket watching t.v. No wonder she didn't answer me in the hallway. When I walked in the bedroom, I asked her what she was doing. Her response was, "mah watchin TB!"

For Kid's Sakes

Last weekend, the local police department had a table in the middle of our grocery store. They were taking pictures of children and creating personal profiles for their national database. It's called "ID Me Program". They will use this information primarily for the Code Amber Alert System.

I signed Ava for it because I'm an advocate of this community service. Ironically, I did the very same thing for Sebastian when he was three years old. His card was done by a company hired by the daycare. They came to the daycare, along with the police dept, and profiled the kids. Ava and Sebastian's ID cards were done about the same age. Ava will be three in January.

Sebastian's ID card came in a CD format. An instruction card and personalized labels came with the CD. You could fill out the labels and insert them inside your child's shoes so in case of emergency, the personal info would be on your child. It's ingenious but I never put the labels in the shoes because they grow out of them so fast.

I really liked Sebastian's ID CD because it includes his fingerprint. Ava's ID card came as a card only and she didn't have a fingerprint taken. She doesn't look happy in the picture, does she? She has that "Deer in headlight" stare. Looks like the typical "mug" shot you see on driver's licenses. ;-)

Laundry may be hazardous to my health

Last night I threw in a load of laundry. When I switched the clothes from washing machine to dryer, this was at the bottom of the washing machine...

I swear I almost had a heart attack. Sebastian must have acquired a plastic insect from school or daycare and fell out of his short pockets. I have to stop watching The Verminators on the Discovery Channel with him. It will give me nightmares for weeks I'm sure.

Boredom

This is what boredome looks like. The other day I was prepping dinner and Ava wandered into the computer room. It was too quiet in there so I peeked in to see what she was up to. She was just sitting there quietly on the couch with headphones on. It wasn't plugged into anything but she was trying to figure out how to adjust the volume on the dial.
Then she decided that the baby needed to listen to the music as well.

She even adjusted the volume lower for the naked baby. She keeps removing the baby's clothes but doesn't know how to put them back on. So we have naked babies laying all over the house. ;-)

Proof I'm not crazy

After you read this post, scroll down a few posts to read the "No Squeakers" post. Ava couldn't wait to try on her new shoes. She loves shoes so much in fact that she had to try all of them on. The squeaky shoes didn't bother her the day before. It was the next morning when she decided to go all ballistic on us. Go figure.

I found these pictures after I posted the "No Squeakers" post. Unfortunately, blogspot doesn't allow you to reorganize your posts in chronological order once you hit the submit button for new posts.

100 ways to use a laundry basket

This is suppose to be the roller coaster going up on a hill and then taken for a drag across the carpet. Ava has an advantate though...she's still wearing a diaper for padding.

99 ways to use a laundry basket

To keep a bunch of unruly eight year olds under control.
Hey, pipe down in there. Didn't I warn you about paybacks?

That goes the same for you too Missy!

Basket full of fun

After the family room was cleaned up of all the Fort remnants from the night before, the kids decided to create a makeshift roller coaster ride for Ava. While I was doing housework, they took one of my laundry baskets and made Ava get in it. I wasn't too crazy about the idea at first. It was an accident waiting to happen. But Ava showed no fear and in fact, begged for more.

and we have lift off!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Kids, don't try this at home without adult supervision (or at least with out a digital camera). ;-)

Another sleep over

I overheard two eight yr old's conversation, "this is my fourth sleep over, did you know that?" The reply was, "yeah, I know." Funny, I thought this was only the second sleep over. But who's counting?

The kids decided to stay in their pajamas all day on Sunday (even though it was a perfectly sunny day outside). They built their usual fort, ate the usual junk food, stayed up late to watch movies and kept themselves entertained with an airbrush tattoo kit. Ever since they got their henna tattoos on the boardwalk in Ocean City, they have been tattoo crazy. Of course I asked Elizabeth what her parents thought about her henna tatto. She said her Mom didn't care but her Dad did not like it. Uh oh, have I been black balled?

Of course Ava had to get in on the action. I wouldn't let her mess with the airbrush paints so I offered to apply her tattoos with a wet paper towel ;-)

Mommy, The Lurker

Most afternoons when I go to pick up Ava from daycare, the kids are outside playing on the playground. Before I open the doors, I watch her play through the window. I like seeing how she interacts with the other children and what makes her laugh or smile. Well the past two days I noticed that she has been shadowing these two blonde boys, Dillan and Liam. I'm not sure if it's just "coincidence" but it seems as though Dillan is the "apple of her eye". I observed for about 15 minutes (okay, I was lurking). I mean she is not more than three feet away from him on the playground. The teachers were laughing at me through the window! Don't tell me I'm the first Mommy to ever do this.

Anyway, while I was watching them play, it reminded me so much of when I was a little girl. I had a crush on this blonde boy. His name was Paul and he was the son of my parent's friends. His nickname was Paul-y. Don't ask me where they came up with that name because I don't really know. But we had our first kiss at the tender age of five. Well Dillan resembles a LOT like Paul-y. So don't get any ideas Ava. Your'e not even three yet!!

Maybe I should borrow Sebastian's Halloween mask the next time I want to spy on my daughter on the playground. Then again, maybe not. I don't want to be arrested!

No Squeakers!!

You are probably wondering why I am taking pictures of Ava's heels. It all started out with three pair of new shoes I had ordered online. They were the shoes that have cute little squeaky's at the bottom so you can hear the shoes squeak when they walk on them. Ava decided that she HATED the squeaky shoes!

We tried to put a hole at the bottom of the shoes to pierce the squeaky pocket built into the heel. But the shoes kept squeaking. Then we tried taping up the holes on the side with packing tape and masking tape but they kept popping up. So they squeaked again. We finally took a screwdriver and yanked the little plastic plugs that fit inside the holes.

Each time we would tell Ava the "squeaky's" were out and put the shoes back on, they'd start squeaking. Well she would get more and more upset and would start running around the kitchen, screaming and crying, "no squeakies, no squeakies!" She would run on her toes because she didn't want to hear the squeaky sound. Of course we're laughing our heads off (including Sebastian) because it was like the shoes that would never die. She's running around the kitchen island and I'm chasing her with the camera and Michael is trying to stop her to take the shoes off. You had to be there I guess. But we finally did manage to "kill" all three pairs of brand new shoes.

See the hole on the bottom of the heel? That's the squeaky mechanism. The plastic plugs (in my palm) made the squeaky sound when air was pushed through the holes. Well not anymore! In fact, the next morning I took out another pair of new shoes and Ava started screaming "no squeakies!" (not realizing we had already yanked out all the plugs since the previous incident).

Incidently, we thought it was cute at the time to order the squeaky shoes. But I didn't take it into consideration that we only hear the shoes squeaking for ten minutes in the morning and she gets to hear the squeaky shoes all day long. I could see how maddening it would be. The squeaks do seem to get louder and louder as the day goes on. Even the teachers had taped up her old squeaky sandals. Now I know why!