Halloween

Making Cupcakes for Brother's Birthday Party

You really enjoyed helping me make blueberry muffins a couple of weeks ago, so I thought you would like helping make the cupcakes for brother's brithday party tomorrow. You started by putting the liners in the cupcake pan.




You got really frustrated when you couldn't open the box of cake mix.




We got the box and bag open and you poured the mix into the bowl.




Followed by the water.




And the oil.




And the eggs.




Meanwhile, brother tried to play in the trash.




You got to watch while the mixer did its magic.




And Palmer rearranged the cabinets.




After a morning of cooking you decided to make your brother some coffee by grinding up chocolate teddy grahams.

Adorable Photo Swiped from Baby Caroline's Blog

Heading down the slide with baby Caroline.

Adorable Photo Swiped from Big Girl Caroline's Blog

You look like such a little country boy here chewing on a piece of hay at our playgroup outing to the pumpkin patch.

You're A Climber

Pumpkin Patch

Last week our playgroup visited a local pumpkin patch. It was your first out-of-utero trip to the pumpkin patch, and you were amazed by the quantity of pumpkins for you to climb all over.




Sister tried picking up about a dozen pumpkins before finally finding one she could manage.




You, apparently, have a massive crush on baby Caroline. She's not sure what to think of you.




You climbed up on this pumpkin and were so proud of yourself! I thought for sure you would fall over, but you perched there for quite a while and fussed when I tried to get you down.




It's always a good day when I can get a good picture of you and your sister together.

Sucker!

Georgia These Days

It appears that one miserable afternoon is all it took to get your abusive behavior toward your brother in check. You’ve been acting your normal self since. ‘Nuff said.

It also appears we’ve turned a corner on the potty front. You first showed interest in the potty when you were 18 months old. We didn’t start encouraging you to actually potty in the potty until you started your new class at school at the end of the summer. They hit the potty hard core in your new class. You’ve been going pee-pee in your potty regularly for a few weeks, but it wasn’t until last week that you started going poop-poop regularly. It was a pretty interesting process. You just decided one day that you were going to poop-poop in the potty. Now you do every time. Now you want to use the potty when we’re at stores, restaurants, doctor’s offices, etc. A little challenging when I have to hold your brother and help you onto the potty, but no complaints.

You are such a little mommy. You like to take your baby dolls on walks in your little stroller throughout the house. You’re constantly holding one or two or more of them, and sometimes you sway back and forth as though you’re rocking them to sleep. You’ve even starting putting them in your shirt after seeing Levi’s mommy hold him in a Baby Bjorn at Parker’s birthday party.

You request that we put candles in your food and sing “happy birthday.” We do this several times daily.

You’re starting to figure out how to be manipulative. Tonight you and I were upstairs in my bedroom and I told you that you couldn’t have any more candy. You walked straight downstairs and told your daddy “mommy said my need more candy.”

You still like to put yourself to bed at night. Lately you’ve been playing in your room for an hour or more after “going to bed.” Do you seriously think I don’t hear you in there closing your closet door and rifling through your toy boxes?

Sunday Morning Arts & Crafts

Somewhat Effective

My New Favorite Invention: Scissors That Only Cut Paper

Who Are You?

You are the sweetest little girl. You help us clean up, get diapers for brother’s diaper changes, and we have some of the neatest conversations. But lately there has been a new side to you that I never expected.

You’ve always been very affectionate with your brother; sometimes you’re a little too affectionate. But lately you have been down right mean to him. Monday night you slapped him across the face as daddy put him in the bathtub, Tuesday morning you yanked two handfuls of hair out of his head, and yesterday you kicked him in the face and pushed him down the stairs.

I am at an absolute loss as to how to handle this. We’ve tried time-outs, but those don’t seem to work. You find spanking uncomfortable, but it’s no deterrent. Shutting you in your room only makes you dread bedtime. So we’re now trying the Pack ‘n Play. You really hate Pack ‘n Play time-outs, so hopefully this will work.

You spent large stretches of yesterday afternoon in your new time out crib. The screaming and yelling and crying and fit throwing was uncomfortable for both of us, but it seems to have helped because you were much better last night and today. This morning you asked what the Pack ‘n Play was for. When I told you it was where you go for time out, you said “when I hurt my brother?” At least the idea seems to be sinking in.

The absolute worst part of all of this (for me, at least) is that I feel like a horrible parent. I can’t protect my sweet son. From his big sister. I’ve always figured you guys would wrestle and hit and pinch, etc. when you two were older. I never thought I would have to protect him so much from his big sister. Especially because you’re so caring most of the time.

I think the reason for all of this is that you’re testing your boundaries. Your daddy and I have been very busy the past week, so you’ve had several caregivers. The rules have been stretched, so now that things are a little more normal you need a reminder of what is acceptable behavior.

Consider yourself reminded.

Conversations With Georgia

Mommy: Georgia, can you please go pee-pee on the potty?
Georgia: Yeah. My stand up go pee-pee.
M: What?
G: My stand up go pee-pee.
M: No, sweetie. Girls don't go pee-pee standing up. You need to sit down.
G: No, my stand up.
M: No, honey. Girls are special. We get to sit down to go pee-pee.
G: NO. My Stand UP.
M: Seriously, Georgia. You can't stand up to go pee-pee. Boys stand up and girls sit down.
G: NO. MY CAN.
M: Okay. (Under breath: "Fine. Stand up to go pee-pee. Piss all over yourself.")

Luckily the "pee-pee wouldn't come out" that time and you haven't mentioned standing up since. I originally thought your daddy was being a little liberal with the bathroom door, and that is how you figured you could stand up to pee. Turns out you learned it by watching the little boys at school.

Now I'm trying to figure out at what point it becomes disturbing that you pee-pee with the little boys in your class.

Fun With Photoshop

Zach's daddy thought this was a more appropriate backdrop for this racecart photo.

If I Hadn't Seen It With My Own Two Eyes I Wouldn't Have Believed It

Tonight you enjoyed two M&Ms after your bedtime potty break because YOU POOPED IN THE POTTY!!! Your daddy and I danced around like fools kissing you and telling you how proud we are of you. Never in my life have I been so excited about poop.

Wakin' Up Is Hard To Do

This Actually Happened

Tonight I ran errands while your daddy put you and your baby brother to bed. Following is the conversation about bed time that was relayed to me by your daddy:

Daddy: Okay, Georgia, it’s time to go night-night.
Georgia: No, my no want to go night-night (followed by several stalling techniques)
D: Okay, now it’s really time to go night-night.
G: No, no, my do it. My go night-night by myself.
D: Come on, I’ll help you.
G: No, no. My go upstairs and go night-night by myself. You stay down here and watch TV DVDV (translation: watch TV)
D: Okay.
G: (closes safety gate at bottom of stairs, goes upstairs, turns on night light, turns on music, hollers over banister) My go night-night by myself.

After ten minutes of quiet, your daddy checked on you and found you sleeping in your bed under a blanket and cuddling your bear.

11m

Things have been so busy lately that we forgot your 11-month birthday. But don’t feel bad because the day before was our 8th wedding anniversary and we forgot about it, too.

The older you get the more I realize how different you are from your sister. You are so much more active, which is saying a lot because Georgia was quite a busy baby. Wherever we go you seem to gravitate to the most dangerous, non babyproofed area. At our house that area has always been the stairs. So after I caught you falling down the stairs last week, your daddy gladly put up a gate at the bottom of our steps. You now perch longingly at the bottom of the steps awaiting someone to open the gate and let you climb the stairs again.

You’re not as verbal as your sister, but that may be because it is difficult to get a word in edgewise when she’s around. We’ve noticed to talk a lot more when your sister is at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You say “mama,” “dada,” “ROAR”, but the coolest thing you do is say “gogo” when you push your little cars around.

Speaking of cars, you love all things boy: cars, balls, wheels. It absolutely amazes me that you hone in on more stereotypical boy toys. We have an awful lot of girl toys around here, but you prefer dude stuff. You also spend much of your time these days taking things in and out of containers. The fun never ends around here!

You like to do big kid things like your sister does; especially coloring. You’ll grab a crayon from the pencil box, crawl over to the easel and color away. You usually get a couple of scribbles in before I have to rescue the crayon from your mouth.

Your top two teeth finally popped through! They had been hiding just under your gums for a couple of weeks, but finally made their big entrance last Monday (Sept. 29 for the records). We’re pretty glad to have four teeth behind us because you are an exceptionally grumpy teether.

Your hair is really growing in. And it’s still red! You appear to have your daddy’s insanely thick hair, and his numerous crazy cowlicks (including the one in front) and his distinctive angled hairline. I love it all!

Other milestones and hobbies: you slept through the night four nights in a row once this month; you pull yourself up to stand, but you don’t stand independently; you can walk behind your push toys and get frustrated when you hit a wall or piece of furniture because you haven’t figured out how to turn yet; you can walk on your knees unassisted; you enjoy pulling hair, especially sister’s hair.

The fact that you are going to be a big one-year-old in three short weeks is slowly sinking in. I had a sentimental moment at Costco Saturday because I realized it would probably be the last time I bought formula. You’ll start drinking whole milk when you’re one. Sigh.

Guilty!

of feeding my 10-month-old a donut hole for breakfast.

And then realizing that you're actually 11 months old.

From The Top

The Girl Loves Her Daddy

Boy You Turn Me Inside Out And Round And Round