Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Before Daddy left for Seton Hall we carved our big pumpkin! Lilly drew the face and Daddy cut it out. Here she is drawing the eyes.

Lilly carefully watched as Daddy cut out the face.

When Andy was done cutting and was ready to pull out the eyes, nose, and mouth Lilly got very upset. She didn't want her pumpkin cut or the eyes out and started crying.
We explained the process to her and then lit the Jack-O-Lantern and she was once again happy. Her favorite part was singing Happy Birthday to the Jack-O-Lantern and blowing out the candle over and over again.
Today I had a few of Lilly's little friends over for a little Halloween party. Will and his baby brother Colin, Caden and his new baby brother Jake, and Lindsay (our neighbor) came over in costume. Lilly was very excited. Here are Will, Lilly, and Lindsay.

Baby Colin, Will, laughing Lilly, and Lindsay. Caden came right after the picture was taken.

The kids painted pumpkins and colored little wooden pumpkins.

Here is Caden, his mom Jen, and his new baby brother Jake. After painting pumpkins they played pin the crow on the scarecrow (seen in the background). I covered their eyes and they stuck the crow on the scarecrow. It was cute.

Lilly listened intently as baby Jake's mommy told her about bouncing the bouncy seat gently. She did a very good job listening and was very gentle to Jake. A good sign of things to come? I hope so.
It was a nice little get-together with just a few kids, some crafts, pizza, grapes, salad, and good company. I think Lilly had a nice time. She's very excited about trick-or-treating after her nap!

Yay Phillies!

"Did you know the Phillie's won the World Series?"

Francesca Josephine Tola

Congrats!

This morning at 3:47 a.m. my girlfriend Christine and her husband Ryan welcomed baby girl #2 into this world... Francesca Josephine Tola, 7lbs 6oz, 20 in.

The depressing part of it all? At one point we shared the same due date!!! Now I'm totally jealous and eager. Not faiiiirrrrrrrrrrr! And to top it all off from the time her water broke until Chessa was here was only 2 hours. I am very happy for her despite the jealousy!

Can't wait to see a picture. It's a very exciting day.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and am 1 cm dilated and starting to thin... That really means nothing since I was actually further along with Lilly at this point and carried her full term. The baby will come when she's ready! That, we know!

"The fwirrel ate my punkin!"

This morning when we were at the top of the stairs ready to come down Lilly yelled, "The fwirrel ate my punkin!" I had no idea what she was talking about since we have curtains on our front door and we were at the top of the stairs but lo and behold a squirrel had been munching on one of Lilly's pumpkins over night. Though she was laughing at first she quickly got angry with the squirrel...
She decided she would hold the pumpkin up high so he couldn't eat it anymore. This worked until we had to leave for art class. So she ended up deciding that the squirrel could have this pumpkin but she was taking her pumpkin and her shisher's pumpkin inside for safe keeping.

When we got home from art the squirrel had really had a feast - stem and all...

Here he is in action...

Thursday - Sunday

We've had a busy weekend! On Thursday we babysat Jordan all morning. Usually Jordan likes to dress up as a doctor but I guess he's fallen under Lilly's spell and this time he chose to be the purple princess. While I felt a little funny helping him put on the dress I felt wrong telling him that dresses were for girls so I let it go. His mom thought it was very funny.
Thursday afternoon we babysat Elijah. They had fun playing at the park together.
Friday Lilly went to Gymboree for her gym class but wanted to leave early so we left and headed to the grocery store. Then we went for lunch at Panera bread (Mommy's blood sugar was crashing big time) and then finally home for a late nap. When Lilly woke up from her nap we went to Stephy's first USA swim meet for the Jersey Wahoos. I love swim meets! We were there about 2.5 hours and Lilly was a trooper. She loved cheering for Stephy during her 100 I.M.
Saturday morning we were supposed to have a yard sale on our block. We woke up to rain. Andy was determined to clean out the garage and basement so he persevered with the yard sale making a total of $12.75. He was very proud. He put the rest of the junk on the curb and within 5 minutes an old man stopped by and cleaned off our curb. Shoved it all in the back of his broken-down car. Here Andy is celebrating his earnings.
After the yard sale Lilly and I ran many many errands in the rain. It was not fun but they needed to be done and Daddy needed some time to study. He has a very big exam (Comprehensive Exam) this coming Friday (yes, on Halloween - ridiculous).

While Lilly was napping I headed out to Day 2 of Stephy's swim meet and Andy and Lilly met me there when she woke up. We were there about 3 hours and again, Lilly was a champ! Might as well get her used to the smell, heat, and noise of a swim meet.

Sunday we happened upon a Harvest Festival by chance. We had seen a sign for it hanging over the road but had no idea how great it would be! We were originally going to go to Boo at the Zoo at the Philadelphia Zoo but have recently cut all food dye from Lilly's diet and didn't think walking the zoo for candy was a great idea. We knew parking at the festival would be tough so we went an hour early and let Lilly play at the playground right by the festival so we could get a good parking spot. It worked out perfectly (and what a GORGEOUS day - 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky).
Lilly met a little friend, DJ, that followed her all around the playground. It was cute. He even walked over to the festival with us.

Everything was FREE at the festival (finally our tax dollars put to good use). There was so much to do and many many giveaways. We came home with bags of "stuff." Here is Lilly (and DJ) painting a pumpkin.

Lilly loves pony rides! She went all by herself like a big girl on this cute little pony. I think she needs her very own horse ;-).

Andy would know but I think this is the mascot for the high school that Andy attended...

There was a big obstacle course that Lilly of course loved.

We couldn't miss out on the "hockasize!" Lilly loves to exercise. This was a facility called My Gym that was advertising and had a balance beam, bar, and trampolene for the kids. Lilly did all 3 stations.
She even wanted to rock climb. They had a big rock wall and you had to be 36 inches to climb. Lilly is 36 inches so she qualified! The guy didn't believe me that she was tall enough and said it's his smallest climber ever. He said, "Are you fearless Lilly?" and she said, "Yes."

Before heading home Lilly checked out the fire trucks and got her very own Cherry Hill EMT hat and some goodies from a fire fighter/EMT.

I love having a great day together especially when it's unplanned. We had so much fun at the farm and it was nice to be together since our lives are so hectic right now.

Mommy appointments

This morning when Lilly woke up she complained of a stomach ache. She drank her whole milk cup but wouldn't eat anything. I had an orthodontist appointment 30 minutes away (in the town where Daddy works so we thought we could meet up with him but the state came into his building today so we couldn't) and had to take her with me. I thought maybe she was being dramatic but the more she complained and when she didn't eat I was worried. She also looked pasty and her eyes didn't look well.

She rode the whole way there with binky and lovey and looked like she'd fall asleep. Every now and then she'd moan that her belly hurt. I felt terrible dragging her to a long orthodontist appointment (they told me today was long - 1.5 hr appt) when she felt sick.

We got there and I took the stroller in reclined all the way back and told her she could sleep in the stroller and so she laid down. But once we got in she perked right up! She asked for her Cheerios and juice and started playing with the girls that work there. Here she was practicing in the chair (the doctor looks at her teeth at her request). This was taken with my cell phone so hard to catch a smile but you can see she looks a little pasty but she was very happy and having fun!
The appointment did indeed take the full hour and a half and left me in agony. We then headed to Toscana's restaurant for a girl's lunch. I have to cherish these few special one-on-one dates before baby comes. Lilly was happy and ate a whole bowl of fettuccine so I assume she's feeling better (again taken with cell so not clear).
Now we're home and Lilly wanted her pajamas back on and she's under a blanket watching Sesame Street. As stressful as yesterday was, today has been filled with hugs and kisses and many "I love you Mommy!" moments. Thank goodness for a new day.

Enjoying Fall

Today Lilly asked to go on another hayride to pick a pumpkin. We didn't have any other plans so we called Jordan and his mommy and decided to head over. We arrived at 10 a.m. thinking that's when the first hayride went out but it was really at 11 a.m. so we had some time to kill.

This is how the kids passed the time...

Finally it was time to get on the hayride. We had our very own wagon!

Since we had already been to pick out our pumpkins Lilly looked for a very little pumpkin. She found this baby pumpkin that is very adorable. She ran over to the tractor yelling, "Hey farmer! Look at my pumpkin!"
I have yet to mention that Lilly was in rare form today (all day). Yesterday we had a wonderful day together but today... I have no idea but we'd had a little issue back at the farm before the hayride and after picking her pumpkin she got a little loopy. Jordan on the other hand is very nervous and calm. I'm surprised Lilly doesn't totally stress him out but instead he adores her. His mom, Stephanie, just laughs. She thinks Lilly is a hoot.
Here is what Lilly did the entire hayride back to the farm. The laughing is not me (I didn't do a lot of laughing today) it is Stephanie. And it cuts off before I can finish saying how Jordan sat for the hayride but you can see for yourself.

Busy Sunday and Fun Monday

Our weekend was very eventful and fun! Sure beats the sitting around I usually do. Yesterday afternoon Lilly had a Halloween party at Gymboree (the gym where she takes classes). We were meeting Jordan and his mom there for a good time. The kids were to wear their costumes so when Lilly woke up from her nap she got all ready...
Fitting into the car seat with her poofy princess dress was interesting! She was very excited for her party.

Mailman Jordan and Princess Lilly.

There were so many fun things to do. Lilly took a seat in this green spider.

They played for a while and then they made a craft. It was a Halloween place mat. Both Daddy and I helped her glue Halloween decorations onto her mat.

Daddy got this shot of Lilly flipping over a bar. She has his gymnast abilities for sure. A little lady in a dress flipping upside down on a bar...

The children were also given a cookie or cupcake and juice. This was the day that I decided that we are going to take simple sugar out of Lilly's diet. She just cannot handle it at all. Within 5 minutes she loses all self-control and that's not fair to Lilly. It must not feel very good either so this was her last iced cookie and juice box for a while.
After a very long day (Diabetes walk and Halloween party) Lilly was very excited for her friend Savannah to come spend the night all the way from Minnesota! Krissy, Michael, and Savannah were ending a 4 day stay in NJ visiting family and chose to spend their final night with us. We were very excited since Krissy and I are so close (we talk daily but it's much better to spend time in person!). They arrived around 7:30p.m. so the girls had about an hour to play before heading to bed. They are so cute together!

Lilly woke up earlier than usual asking where Savannah was. The girls watched Barney and ate some cheerios in their pajamas.

Once everyone was dressed and ready Krissy, myself, and the girls headed up to Bret Harte (our old school) to visit teachers and the secretary. I was reluctant to go since I haven't seen anyone from school since cutting my hair, darkening it, and getting pregnant! I wasn't feeling so pretty but I went and am glad that I did. We saw so many friends and they were able to see the girls which was nice. We interrupted everyone teaching (Daddy - would you have allowed that in your school?) and had a good time. The girls were adorable together.

By the time we got home we only had a few minutes before heading to the airport. The girls enjoyed a sucker together.
Our visit came to an end so soon but I'm so very grateful to have had the time together.