Babies Love Babies

Paige and I recently met a few of the girls from work for lunch, and to meet Robin's new little boy, "SnuggleBug". We decided to meet at Founder's, a local brewery...now before you judge, this place has great food, and is smoke-free! We'd met here a year ago for them to meet Paige, and it had worked well. This time around, I learned that they don't have high chairs...so maybe the next Baby Meeting Lunch will have to relocate, since by then there will be 2 babies who need high chairs.

(Paige stealing Mom's lunch, sans high-chair)

But on to baby!

Robin and RJ's boy sure is cute! He gave Mom & Dad a scare by having to go back to the hospital due to jaundice, but now he is perfectly fine and growing gangbusters! At 6 weeks, they've already had to buy bigger socks...yowza!

Paige was fascinated by Mr. SnuggleBug...she talked to him, patted him on the head, and babbled to the girls about how great he was (I think). She does this at our Kindermusik class too...we are in with two other mom/baby duos, one is 4 months and the other 2 months. Paige tends to be a bull in a china shop...stampeding over to the babies and waving so close that she nearly swats their precious faces, throwing egg shakers, etc. But she LOVES those babies! She just looks back at me with fascination and giggles. Which makes me wonder...do even babies realize what miracles they are?

(Caitlin, Paige, & Regina admiring SnuggleBug)

(Paige telling Robin how much she loves the baby...or pickles)

Family Pictures

Good News! The pictures I was so afraid of being terrible...are not! Ashley is indeed a miracle worker. True, we did not get any big Paigey grins, but she captured some of her other trademark expressions. And I love the ones of our family! I don't have all the digital rights yet, but you can check a few of them out on Ashley's blog! Book her now before she's famous!

Other big news: PAIGE IS WALKING! Actually, she has been for almost a week, but I've failed to catch her on camera...the day she was really walking long distances, we were at my parents' house, so I used Mom's camera to get some video, but forgot to download and e-mail to myself. So Mom...hint hint...now is a great time to learn how to do that!

A New Species...

This diaper disaster story may not top Linnea's, but it's definitely one I won't be forgetting...this will go down in the record books as one of those we'll bring up to her boyfriends when she's dating. Which, by the way, is never.

So Paige had a poopy diaper tonight, no big deal. We've recently had difficulty with her wanting to spin like a torpedo and scream every time we try to change her, but this time she was just happy, chatty Paige, babbling on in some language native only to babies.

Just as I reached for the first wipe and lifted her bottom off of the "patty", Paige also reached for the left side of her diaper (I was on the right). I tried to stop her, but as she gave a good yank, I gave a good high-pitched "nonononononoOOOOO"and yank back. I thought the crisis was averted...until I noticed...the poo was gone!

I leaned over the changing table to see it wedged between the shelf just below the table and the wall. I hollered for Matt, but don't know why...mostly just to show him the yucky spectacle! By the time he reached Paige's bedroom door, I looked again--it was now on the floor...but not without leaving marks down the wall. Eew.

As Matt shook his head in disbelief, I knew I would be cleaning up this mess as well. I put Paige back together and traded Matt the baby for the economy-size tub of Clorox wipes and pulled the changing table away from the wall.

There were a number of other things that had happened to fall behind the table...one of which was a tub toy Paige had received on her birthday, a squirting sea turtle. The poo had landed right on top of him! He was a turtle no more...

He was a turdle.

A Happy Halloween Had By All

It seems to me that Halloween is already more fun as a parent...and exhausting, all at once! I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that Paige was a monkey...we actually saw the costume at The Children's Place when we stopped at the mall on her birthday, and knew it was THE costume! It's so plush and cute...definitely helped keep her warm on a cold day! It's still pretty big, and I had to do some quick safety pin work so it wouldn't drag...so maybe she'll be a monkey 2 years in a row...nothing like saving a little cash while she won't remember :)

On the 30th, there was a fantastic family/kids party at our church. Matt and the high school students put together a spook house with a zombie theme, so some of them headed down to the now-infamous Zombie Walk downtown. There were plenty of games, treats, and a jack-o-lantern contest...Matt won first place with his owl! Paige loved the cake walk, doing her little dance to the Monster Mash. Unfortunately, not too many pictures...my camera batteries died, of course.




Saturday was a frenzy of Halloween goodness...Paige and I went to a wonderful local bookstore, Literary Life, to their kids' party. Although it was a madhouse at first, we hung out in a less-crowded corner reading books until it emptied out a bit, when she was able to walk along the bookshelves...she made some new friends too!
The staff took pictures of everyone and printed out little "portraits"...there were free treats and goodie bags, coloring and games...I can't believe how much fun is packed in one little shop. The kids AND parents all got along, too! The owner is an infectious disease physician, which was obvious with the bowl of Purell handwipes stationed next to the cookies...

Then on to the Fulton Street Farmer's Market for squash and pears...the last time we went was on Paige's birthday, when she got a free zinnia...this time she scored not one, but two mini-pumpkins! Gotta love the farmer's market.


After all that activity, I had one tired monkey on my hands...she fell asleep in the car, and budged in the crib only to reach for her "sleeping" monkey....



The day ended with trick-or-treating to a few choice neighbors (including some who had lived there for a long time but we had not yet met, and were feeling guilty about). The cool thing about trick-or-treating with a little one is that even when you insist on no candy ("just stopping by to say hi!"), everyone insists on giving you a few candy bars...no arguments from me! Paige and Daddy were off to Holland to trick-or-treat to Grandma and Grandpa Parrott, while I studied...unfortunately, I'm finding that I have to say no to fun stuff sometimes in order to keep up.




How do you like our jack-o-lanterns? Matt's intricate wolves and prize-winning owl, along with his tribute to our crabby neighbor, and my tribute to Paige...with 2 little teeth, of course. I can't wait for her to join in on the gooey fun! Hope everyone is recovering well from the Halloween festivities!