Leaves and Leaves

We have had a full and great Saturday!! It seems like this time of year is full of photoshoots and this afternoon we headed over to Edwin & Percy Warner to do a photoshoot for a family of 4. They have a 3 year old boy and a 5 month old, so Brent got some great pics of them playing in the leaves and just being themselves. I think we picked out 65 or so that we really, really liked out of the 700+ he took. I'll share some of them when he's gotten through them all!

And since this is really peak leaves week here Brent took more of Lilli in the leaves at the school across from our house. They have huge trees that have been beautiful and red, and now the ground is covered in red leaves. I have seen SO many pics people have taken of their kids in piles of ugly dead leaves lately, why?!?!?!? There are so many pretty leaves all over the place!

First, here's a shot of Lilli's top teeth coming in. OW! It just looks painful. (Sorry for all the junk in her nose, it was first thing this morning!) And, she slept until 8:30 this morning! We love our sleeping in girl, take that time change and early rising sun!!! I couldn't believe it, but it doesn't seem like the time change has affected her sleeping in. WOO HOO! 8-8:30 just seems to be the time she likes to wake up on the weekends, which is a-ok with us.
A couple of sneak peek leaves ones. We'll sort through and find our faves.
I like that she has leaves clenched in her non-dominant hand. She ALWAYS has something hidden in her fists - usually food. Puffs fall off of her at ALL TIMES and from the strangest of places. This afternoon I had a slight mini-emergency at the photoshoot when she snuck a rock in her mouth and I couldn't get it swept out right away.
Love this fun angle. It's all about the perspective.
The rash. Lilli still has her rash from either her soy allergy or the exit of the virus she had last weekend/earlier this week. Sun or leaves or heat made it a lot worse today. See how red her face was by the end of her photo shoot???
We spent a lot of time in the yard this morning mowing, taking down Halloween decs, etc and then had a picnic in the front yard with dogs from I Dream of Weenie. The more she was outside the worse it got, and when she woke up from her afternoon nap her face was just in absolute welts almost. I'm pretty sure she slept in the direct sunlight from where her skylights shine straight into her crib. It faded fairly quickly as we kept her more shaded at the afternoon photoshoot for the Halls, but it's still there. We're going to pick up some Benadryl tomorrow and take her into the doc on Monday if it's still there. It doesn't bother her or itch at all and the doctor wasn't concerned about it on Friday so I don't want to rush her in tomorrow for their limited hours when that will be full of truly sick children. So hopefully tomorrow it will clear up and we won't have to go on Monday!

Tomorrow is going to be another busy one! We're having some people over for dinner, and since it was supposed to be last week we had already dusted and done a lot of the cleaning already which makes it easier for this week! Hopefully we'll all stay well and not have to postpone again!

More Random Pics

Lilli is feeling pretty much back to 100% tonight, but still with a rash leftover from her virus. I talked to her doctor today and she thinks it's more a sign the virus is leaving than a soy allergy. Either way, Lilli had a great day today and was back to being full of herself and silly as usual tonight.

Some recent pics from the past couple of weeks:

A wet, drooly mess of cuteness! (And of course this shirt is available at your neighborhood Lifeway Christian Stores!!! BTW, the catalog Lilli is in goes out this upcoming week - look for her on PAGE 3! Hopefully you're a regular customer and will get Lilli in the mail!)
She loves to swing at the park!!!!

Eyes like her Daddy!
Daddy's Little Helpers. Nothing beats the excitement of changing out some light bulbs on the front porch!

The Life of Pippin

Lilli's feeling a lot better from her stomach bug. She's still not back to 100% yet as far as her eating habits and demeanor go, but she hasn't had any issues keeping her food down. I think a lot of that is teething related, when she's teething she also doesn't eat as much as normal. Her doctor suggested trying a soy formula for a few days since that's easier on the stomach. I gave her soy yesterday and while it stayed down she ended up with a rash on her legs! I guess she's allergic to soy! So we're back to her regular milk and that's gone fine and she's been in a pretty good mood today and did fine at school. (Not so much wanting to go to sleep tonight though.....it stinks how something like being sick can really throw her off going to sleep on her own!)

For years everyone talked about how spoiled Pippin was, and how he'd get no attention when Lilli came along. I really can't say that's true. He has someone's undivided attention no matter WHAT he's doing:

Pippin, happily asleep in the sun, his favorite place to be. But there's a baby on the prowl....

The baby moves in.....Nap Over......

Pippin's outta there....with baby hot on his heels
Have we mentioned lately that she's into everything??? Including seat cushions....

Sickling

So it seems Lilli hasn't beaten this bug yet. Last night she was running a mild fever, right around 100 or so, but we really felt that it was the teething temp that a lot of kids run because teeth #3 & #4 are really bothering her and currently erupting. Between when she went to bed and this morning I think she got up about 7-8 times, with only 2 of them after we went to bed (I think, we sort of alternate getting up and sometimes I sleep right through it). This morning her temp was back to normal and we thought she was fine - until her breakfast all came back up again. Ugh. So, I have a call in to the pediatrician this morning to chat and see if we need to bring her in. Two of my friends with little ones have swine flu right now (which I know Lilli doesn't have) and several more friends have kids with the regular flu right, so there's a lot of bugs in the air right now and I guess Lilli's gotten one of them. Hopefully some more rest will get her back to her normal, rambunctious self soon!

Playing with Pippin Sunday morning. In the midst of this bug she is always glad to see him! She looooves her books. Books are about the only thing that get us through quiet activities like church! She especially likes her books that have little cut-outs (like a squeaky nose) or pictures or real animals. And thankfully her cousins passed down a LOT of books like that! She also thinks her Cookie Monster book is funny, and is also drawn to pics of Elmo. Her other favorite book is her "It's Potty Time" book hand-me-down with the flushing toilet sound. We look a little odd toting that book around with our 9-month old but it's a big fave of hers!
Pippin, always one to have good posture. The two of them are INSEPARABLE.
She loves to stand and clap for herself. Although she hasn't figured out it's a lot easier to do if you're not standing on your toys at the same time!
She stands all the time now, everywhere. She doesn't have to have anything to pull up on either, she can go from sitting to standing with no assistance. I bet we're only about 2 weeks or less away from walking!!!!

Random Pics

It's been so rainy lately that Lilli's had to drive her car indoors. Here she is last Friday night, tearing through the kitchen. Driving is serious business...

HOOOONK. Pippin's life has certainly changed in the last 9.5 months. He now has toys thrown at him, his ears tugged and eyes poked constantly and can't take a nap in peace. And he gets run over. (But he also gets to lick her high chair table clean every night and that's a pretty fair trade in his book.)
Speedy McSpeed.She's found a new hangout in the kitchen. (And a new favorite toy in my cell phone. Not any of her numerous fake cell phones, only the real deal. I saw an ad for a $5.99 toy phone at Walmart that looks almost identical to my phone, next time we're near a Walmart (which is NEVER) I'm going to see if they have it!)


Pippin is not a fan of her discovery.And lastly, Marshmallow Girl in her car seat! Some of the cold mornings call for her big winter coat! It was a steal at a consignment sale this fall - it's Janie and Jack and I only paid TEN dollars for it!!!! (It retails for $70!)

She felt much better by the end of Monday. She was able to keep down both her afternoon and bedtime milk bottles as well as her regular baby food and table food. She had a somewhat fussy day at school today, and her top teeth coming in seem to currently really be bothering her. The poor little gal fell asleep in her high chair tonight while we were eating dinner and didn't even get to try any tilapia! (but we saved some for her because it was delicious and SO quick and easy!) This week I actually planned out our meals ahead of time to try to make the evenings run a little smoother and not make take-out such an easy option, especially as we're trying to include Lilli in with whatever we have each night. Last night was shrimp pasta, we didn't give her any shrimp but she had a few noodles and some steamed zucchini and carrots we had along with it as well as some banana.

Good night! I think it's going to be a long one - she's woken up 3 times since she went to bed an hour and a half ago. Teething is awful!

Halloween in Pictures

Here's our house this year:


Brent got a nice action shot of it the night we put them all up. It's kind of hard to see the lights on all the shrubs in this, but basically our house was all a-glow in orange and purple lights.

The spider house down the street:They cover their house in spiders every year and it looks GREAT! This year they had a web in one of their windows where it looked like a spider had wrapped up a body.

The neighborhood scrooge:

That jerk lives a few houses down. I'm not sure why he can't just turn out his lights like anyone else not giving out candy. Hopefully he got egged. (He also has a "no poop" sign in his front yard, so I bet he also gets more dogs pooping in his yard than if he had no signs at all.)

Pippin's annual greeting of the mannequins outside Lipstick. His 4th Halloween in this neighborhood and he still hasn't figured out they can't pet him. The first year we lived here his reaction surprised me and he almost toppled one over, now I am much better prepared!


Halloween breakfast of banana pancakes and scrambled eggs. Her fists are CLENCHED with pancake. Anyone want to go out to dinner with us soon????
She's a mess, literally. Pippin is really enjoying this stage because she usually has random bits of food falling off her at all times. Once she figures out that he would LOVE for her to feed him directly we'll have a whole new series of issues.
My baking assistant:
Sprinkles, EVERYWHERE!
Our family costume this year was for Pippin and Lilli to be bees, and we were their beekeepers. She and Pippin had matching costumes, literally. As in she wore a dog costume. It was adorable. We literally didn't get a single family picture because we were going to do that at the end of the night, and a vomit covered baby doesn't make for a good picture. So, we have no family picture, no Pippin and Lilli picture, no picture of Brent and I. Pretty much this is IT. And she ruined Brent's hat and her outfit didn't come out of the washer all that great either. But she was cute.

I really looked like more of a country western bride than anything.
Lilli checking out Brent. He just can't handle Halloween without this mask and his Harry Potter wig for the trick r treaters, so I have no normal pics of him and Lilli.
Pippin Bee. Once again he was the belle of the ball and had his pic taken NUMEROUS times and got so much love from some of the kids that they forgot to ask for candy. People literally come back to our house year after year just to see what he's dressed as and they REMEMBER from year to year what he was! It's hilarious! I guess it's just that he doesn't mind costumes at all, and thankfully neither does Lilli!
So that's it! Halloween Day in (limited) pics.

Lilli's doing ok today, the poor thing is SO tired. She slept great last night, I think I got up once to give her a pacifier around 1 am and she woke up a little after 8 this morning. (I love that she loves to sleep in and hasn't been affected by the time change!) She had 3 ounces of pedilyte and 3 ounces of applesauce and has kept that down fine. She's just wanted to cuddle and nap on and off and has pretty much been asleep most of the morning. I'm going to try milk again at lunch bottle and see what happens.....she hasn't had any trouble with other foods, just her milk. It's such a pretty day maybe we can go for a walk later or something if she's feeling a little more lively!

Halloween 2009: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Well, it's been an interesting weekend around here!

Friday night was just a miserable weather night, so Brent picked up some burritos and we just stayed home. We showed Lilli the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin cartoon. I think it may have been the first time I've really ever watched it, too. I know I've seen it before but the ending totally surprised me so it's been a while! She watched about the first 10-15 minutes and then couldn't have cared less, which is fine.

Saturday we all slept in, it was nice not having swim class to go to! Actually, I shouldn't say we ALL slept in - Pippin woke me up at 8. Figures! I had planned to make banana pancakes and scrambled eggs for all of us, so we went ahead and started cooking and then woke Lilli up at 8:30 when it was ready. She primarily just made a mess with her food, but after she got used to the pancakes she seemed to like them. I'm trying to expose her to a lot more of our foods as we eat, so we made our scrambled eggs as usual with paprika and other seasonings, we just made sure to cook them slightly longer to be sure they were done. Saturday afternoon we went for a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy all the decorations and Lilli helped me bake some Halloween cookies. She wasn't very interested in cutting the cookies out, but she loved shaking the sprinkle jars EVERYWHERE. We ended up with orange sprinkles all over the kitchen floor!

Then it was trick or treat time - Lilli went down for a nap just as it was getting to be dusk, so while she slept we got everything set up outside and in our costumes. Since Pippin participates in the festivities and we didn't have an extra pair of hands we ended up chaining Pippin on one of the columns on the front porch. Once it was dark the trick or treaters came pouring through and Lilli woke up and we brought her outside, too. Everyone loved Pippin (as always) but I doubt many people even really got all our outfits.

We got our usual number of trick or treaters, somewhere between 200-250 before we ran out of candy around 7:45 and they were still POURING down our street so we quickly turned everything off and ran inside. We had planned to visit a few of our neighbors, so we headed next door with both bees in tow. Mark's mom wanted us to come inside and show Mark our outfits - I'm pretty sure he was probably ready to explode inside when he saw us traipsing into his over-the-top Victorian house with our dog and baby. I ended up carrying Pippin because I would DIED if he marked one of his Victorian rugs or couches. We were visiting with Mark when his mom broke out a bag of animal crackers they had bought just for Lilli. She gave one to Lilli and two to Pippin (who they ALWAYS call Pepper) and then - it happened. Everyone is staring at Lilli (oh the baby she's so cute give her a cracker look at the baby) and then BOOM. Puke. Everywhere. And then repeat. And repeat. And Repeat. I didn't really know how bad it was, but Brent headed for the door and made it out before a big group came up to their door. I was saying my goodbyes but was stuck inside with Pippin while about 20-30 kids were getting candy. Brent was stuck outside in our yard since I had the key. When we got inside it was a MESS. She had had prunes for dinner and they had come back up everywhere. She threw up several more times, and we could tell she just didn't feel good. Since she was gagging we rocked her for a while to make sure she'd be ok in her bed. She slept fine all night, so we really thought it was a reaction to the prunes or animal cracker, until her breakfast came back up as we were getting ready to leave this morning for church. She got sick a few more times this morning, but after we gave her Pedialyte she seemed fine, and she did fine with applesauce for lunch and dinner and also juice and Puffs. She took some really long naps today but has otherwise played fine and been in a great mood this afternoon and evening - but at bedtime her bottle came right back up. So, whatever she has she still just can't tolerate her milk. And I REALLY hope Brent and I don't catch it because the stomach virus we all had in August was MISERABLE. We were supposed to have some people over for dinner tonight from our Sunday school class, but I guess Lilli decided otherwise!

And then our TV died tonight because we needed a few more things going on! It's hopefully just the lamp and Brent already ordered one on Ebay that should be here in a day or two.

Pictures tomorrow of all the activities, I'm on the computer without pics tonight! Hopefully Lilli will wake up feeling great and she and I will have a nice day off instead of a pukey sick day at home!