FALL into Halloween

I'm cramming a lot in this post.

A few weeks ago Craig and Becky's neighborhood had their Fall Festival complete with a full petting zoo that had a baby cow, llama, donkey, sheep, goat and chickens. Caiden was in heaven. They also had a ferris wheel, carousel, a small roller coaster and a ton of carnival games...all FREE! They also had a beer garden and bands all night long. It was such a good time. We are so happy they invited us to join them -We can't wait until next year! ;)

Last weekend we carved pumpkins, unfortunately they rotted after two days of being left outside which was a total bummer. But you live and learn, next year we'll wait until a few days before or maybe bring them inside and take the top off so they don't get so moist???  

I've taken Caiden and Grace to the pumpkin patch three times in the past few weeks. It was such an easy activity to do with both of them. It was just 10 minutes from our house so we could go in the morning for a couple hours while Grace napped in the stroller and Caiden burned a ton of energy on the slides, bounce houses and all the rides.

This was hilarious -one of the goats from the petting zoo got loose and was on the run. Once the worker got a hold of it all the kids, including Caiden, wanted to get in on the action.

Marc and I went out to dinner for our 5 year anniversary last weekend! Sara and Dustin came down to babysit. We put Caiden to bed so they only had to deal with Miss Grace and went to dinner at The Grand Del Mar. We also had the same person who made our wedding cake make a replica of our topper for us. Don't we both look a wee bit tired? We each had a fun drink and glass of wine and were not feeling so hot the next day. Especially since Grace had us up at 3am and Caiden had us up at 7am.

And finally Halloween arrived. Marc and Caiden both dressed up as pirates. It took a lot of bribing with candy to get Caiden to wear the bandanna all night. Any time I'd see him go to rip it off his head I'd bring out another piece -and it worked! Our neighbors had a party and some others had their annual haunted house. Even more spectacular was we had Caiden in bed -on time!

"Arrrrrrgh"

Grace's 2-month check-up

We were about a week and a half late on her 2 month check-up because they couldn't get us in any sooner -which always annoys me because I like her appointments to be right on the date...but that's just me being anal because it's really not a big deal. She weighed 10 lbs. 12 oz. (23rd percentile), 22.5 inches long (35th percentile) and her head is in the 61st percentile. She received two shot vaccines and one oral vaccine. She HATED the oral vaccine, which they gave her first, so by the time the shots came she was already screaming her little face off. Poor thing took a good few minutes to calm down. We have decided to space out the shots (instead of her getting 5 vaccines today, four of them being shots) we decided to do two of the shots and go back in a few weeks to do the other two. Makes way more work for me but for some reason we like the idea better. 

Dr. Roberts also made sure to tell us to feed her as often as she'll take it since she's only in the 23rd percentile, but at the same time said she's perfect and that there is no cause for concern -I mean, someone's got to be in that percentile, right?

Caiden came to the appointment to get his flu shot. I asked him to smile if he loves his sucker.

Then I asked him to tone down the smile just a bit and this is what I got!

This little lady loves her fingers in her mouth. 

Grace 2-months

Grace Rylee is changing constantly. Last week I was just staring at her thinking about how much bigger her little face and head have gotten...then I really looked at her legs and noticed a couple of rolls! She's putting on some weight and not just a teeny, tiny newborn anymore.

She found her hands a few days ago and spends a lot of her awake time staring at them. She's also smiling like crazy when you talk to her, it just melts your heart when she gives you a big gummy smile. In the past few days she started making little noises as you talk to her. Only a few squeaks and squawks but I can tell she's going to take off any day now. She's finally starting to fit into the 0-3 month clothes and I've had to pack away the few newborn outfits we had.

She's sleeping pretty well at night. She typically gives us from about 10pm-2 or 3am. I'll be up with her for about an hour and then we'll get another 2-3 hours out of her. Both her and Caiden wake up about the same time, between 7 and 8am. I'm not near as delirious during the day as I was with Caiden, he was up way more in the middle of the night and it was harder to get him back to sleep. She pretty much falls asleep at the end of eating and I can just slide her off of me and onto the bed. She's sleeping in the bassinet for the first sleeping session between 10-3am but for the second sleeping session she sleeps between Marc and I. It's just easier in the middle of the night and she seems to sleep a little bit longer than when we've put her back in the bassinet. During the day she's eating every three hours and napping in between.

I've ventured out just once with the two of them. A few days ago I took them both to the pumpkin patch in the morning for a couple of hours. Caiden was able go on some rides and burn some energy going up and down the big inflatable slide and she slept in the car seat. She woke up a couple of times but I just stuck the pacifier in her mouth and she was quiet. It's such a production getting them ready and both in the car, that is half the battle. Then making sure I have enough snacks for Caiden, diapers for both of them, sunscreen, hats, shoes on....so exhausting. But once we're out the door and at our destination Caiden has so much more fun than just sitting in the house doing the same ol' thing. And it makes the morning go by so much faster. Here's to more outings!!!

Here are some more pictures from our mini 2-month photo session...enjoy!

Visitors

Marc's parents were here for two weeks. We ate a ton of food, froze a ton of food that Fery cooked and had so much help with the kids and the yard! I cried when they left because it is the last visitors we'll have until my parents come out for Christmas. It's going to be a long two and a half months with just the three of us at home during the day. I guess I'm going to have to start venturing out...but it still gives me a little anxiety so we'll take baby steps. I took a good amount of photos while they were here I'll just walk you through them. 

I was able to take Caiden to Seaworld one morning. It was kind of a bummer because the first Dolphin Show of the day (Caiden's favorite and the thing he always talks about) wasn't until 1pm and we usually leave Seaworld no later than noon to catch his nap so we weren't able to see it. But we did other stuff that we usually don't do and one of those things is play in the gift shop. He carried around these Elmos with a smile on his face for a good 10 minutes before I convinced him we had to go see some other attraction and we'd come back later -later as in next month.

Caiden finally got a "real" haircut. I trim his hair up every few weeks -and usually do a mediocre job. Most of the time one side is longer than the other but there is so much hair that after a few days it all kind of blends together anyway. Marc's mom actually did a professional hair cut and it looks great! Of course I was hovering over the entire time making sure she didn't cut it too short. For The Record -for all that ask- NO, I will not be cutting off his hair to a short hair cut anytime soon. Every Mom I talk to that has done it immediately regrets it -and frankly, he will more than likely live the majority of his life with short boring hair so while he's young he gets beautiful, long, flowing locks! 

We took Caiden to the allergist. They did the skin test on him and a blood test on him to test his allergies again -Yep, still allergic to egg, dairy, shellfish and nuts :(

He gets SOOOOO excited for popsicles and lollipops. He sings the Lollipop song, "Lollipop, lollipop, ooh, lolli, lolli, lolli, lollipop!" all the time hoping today is the day he'll get one.

I couldn't resist putting them in matching pj's. These are from Hanna Andersson and are my absolute favorite pajamas. It is the one clothing item I can't resist buying for Caiden. They are all organic cotton so with Caiden's eczema when he was a baby it just made sense, now I just love the feel, colors and quality.

Fery left her sunglasses laying around quite a few times in the first few days she was here and Caiden always found them. Thankfully none of them broke and eventually ended up out of reach.

Livin' the life!

Poor girl has the same eczema issues that Caiden had when he was just a month or so old. I can tell it itches her so we are already using the DermaSmooth that was prescribed to Caiden when he was a few months old and it seems to be helping. In other news...she's starting to smile when she is awake and looking at you!

I took Caiden to the pumpkin patch on the second day it opened. There was only one other family there so they let him ride the rides as many times as he wanted. He didn't want to leave and is still talking about wanting to go back. Everyday he asks about it, "Go to pumpkin patch today?"

He was terrified to go up this slide at first. He made me go first and as I was going up I turned around and he was just staring at me saying, "No". Then I told him it's just like the rock wall at the park and he jumped quick. He was up it in no time.

He wasn't nearly as impressed with the petting zoo as I thought he would be. It was goats, two chickens and two rabbits and I thought he would love the goats. He went around, quickly touched each one (very matter of factly) and was ready to be done and go on more rides.

We'll end with this gem. Taken at 7 weeks, 3 days.