Nursery School Portrait

I am so pleased with how Eleanor's school portrait came out. Apparently, the photographers were amazing with the kids -- and it really shows. So, here is our big girl and her class:

Quote of the Day

From a couple of days ago, while driving in our blue mini van with Eleanor and Henry...

Eleanor: I don't want a car.
Me: Which car don't you want?
Eleanor: This blue one. I want a yellow one instead.
Me: You'll have to talk to your dad about that one.
Eleanor: This is a stinky diaper truck. Full of GARBAGE!
[Me: laughing. A couple of moments pass.]
Eleanor: Who eats garbage?
Me: I don't know, who eats garbage?
Eleanor: The GARBAGE truck! And, Henry!

Halloween -- Two Weeks Later

I know this is late, but the saying goes "better late than never", right?

Halloween was an exhausting and fun time. It was bigger than just the day of Halloween itself -- we had the pumpkin patch with Nonna and Granddaddy two weeks before Halloween,





Boo at the Zoo a week before, a trip to the pumpkin patch with Eleanor's school the Monday before, a Halloween parade the Wednesday before,



carved pumpkins on Thursday,



Halloween itself on Friday (including a photo shoot in last years costume and trick-or-treating in this years costume),





and then Sarah and Karl's Halloween party the day after.







My grand intentions to make costumes for the kids didn't pan out, despite buying the pattern and fabric for Eleanor's blue dinosaur costume. Luckily, World Market had a blue dinosaur hoodie towel-cape thing that was perfect -- easy on, easy off, went over clothes/coats, and most importantly, Eleanor liked it. Henry ended up being Yoda. A costume that I had bought for him at a consignment sale a year ago. It almost didn't fit but I made a few minor adjustments to the hood and we squeezed him in.

Halloween itself was somewhat anticlimactic, but luckily the weather was warm and perfect for being out in the evening. After about a half a block of trick-or-treating with Anna and Karl, Eleanor declared that she was done. So we went home, ate a bit of candy and that was that. She did enjoy seeing a few other kids come to our door though before she went to bed. Henry enjoyed it all, especially the chocolate.

Tubes

So much has been going on the past couple of weeks, I have hardly had time to sit down. Henry had tubes put into his ears about a week and a half ago. We are hoping this will reduce the incidence of ear infections, which have been plaguing him month after month. He was really sick with a terrible cold and croupy cough the day they did the surgery but I think he may finally be getting better. I hope!

There are also lots of other Halloween updates that I am far behind on, those will go up later (hopefully), now that the pictures are on the computer.

Potty Training

I don't know exactly what happened but something clicked this week for Eleanor in the potty department. Not to be too graphic but I haven't had to change a dirty diaper (at least from her) all week. Hooray. We are still working with pull-ups but we are on the brink of a huge transition.

VOTE!

Don't forget to get to the voting booth today.

Quote of the Day

Eleanor:
Pat a cake
Pat a cake
Bakers man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
You roooooollllllll it
And pat it
And mark it with a B
And you put it in the oven for....
THAT GUY [pointing at illustration of a little boy in a book] and me.