Is it Halloween Yet?

(From the pumpkin farm.)

Pumpkin carving yesterday, swimming this morning, ballet this afternoon and mom's night out tonight. Can't wait until 7:00pm gets here!

I wish I had someone to follow my girls & me around to take daily pics. Most of our pics are just the girls or Chay & the girls. I'd like to have more photos of the me & my girls. I'm lucky that I get to see and experience them "all day, all night" but I'd love pics of it all.

Halloween will finally be here as my girls ask every day if its Halloween yet? They are so excited for trick-or-treating they can't hide their excitement. They sing an adorable trick-or-treat song and are ready to catch any candy thrown their way! Olivia is Cinderella and Madeleine is Ro Barbie Island Princess.

Here's pics from this past weekend in Chicago w/ May, Dan and Daniel:





We're set for Halloween and every day dress-up play.

How sad am I?

What's my problem lately? Snapping at my girls, getting frustrated when they get frustrated, not having patience; I don't know what it is.

Olivia showed me her nails --- she's been biting them like crazy! I looked at them and simply reminded her that biting nails gives her BIG boo, boos and she shouldn't do it. Then she said, "Mommy, are you gonna yell at me?" I was totally taken aback. Whether it is to reprimand her or to vent my frustration, it's terrible. For biting her nails, I don't want to reprimand her because half the time she doesn't realize she's doing it. But if I don't remind her, I'm afraid it will only continue and get worse. It pains me to look at her poor little fingernails. OUCH!

As I'm venting about venting, I'm feeling more bogged down. Funny, when I didn't work out (and I mean not an ounce!) I was just as stressed if not more but can't figure out how I got rid of it all. Maybe I didn't??? Who knows but the more I exercise, the more I realize I need to keep at it.

24 Hours

2 children's museums, 2 pasta & button artworks, 2 puppet shows, 1 library, 10 books, 4 DVDs ...paid for with "I love you Mommy" and hand-blown kisses.

Any day girls, any day.

Chay Travels

Chay hasn't traveled for work in a long time so these few days are an adjustment, once again. Of course as luck has it, our fridge is on the fritz and isn't cooling. Customer service can't guarantee a maintance check on Friday. (Yesterday when I called, I thought "Wait! It's only Tuesday. What am I supposed to do for 3+ days w/ 2 little kids and nothing to keep milk cold?" Guess that's my problem.) Fortunately, a preschool mom offered her mini fridge from her nursing days that is now plugged in a keeping our eggs & milk cold. Everything else, garbage.

Random tidbits, I barely got in 30 mins on the treadmill this morning. Olivia was not willing to let me go this morning at preschool. when I dropped her off at 9:00am. I have enough problems being late on my own but add-in Olivia's pleading and teary eyes and I was set back 20 mins. I had hoped complete 45 mins run, shower and have Madeleine to open gymnastics by 10:20am. Instead, she did 30 minutes of running, jumping, and balance beam walking. Not bad.

Since I'm feeling lazy and no fridge has minimized my cooking, we stopped at McD's for lunch & playland. I would have thought that'd knock them out this afternoon but no, they're still awake and ready for more play. Did I mention I could have used a nap about 2 hours ago? And yes, no Daddy relief tonight.

October

Halloween will be here before I know it. My girls have been asking every day for 2 weeks now if it's time to go trick-or-treating yet. How do they even remember from last year? They were 1 & 2 then? They're set with costumes. Madeleine wants to be Ro, Barbie Princess and Olivia wants to be Cinderella. Princesses, of course. They want to dress up every day and prance around in shoes and dance! The joy of being little girls!

Olivia's preschool had its pumpkin patch field trip last week. It was rainy and muddy. All the more enjoyable in searching for that perfect pumpkin! Madeleine came along that day and loved the mud puddles. The pumpkin finding was okay for her but she cried before we left because I wouldn't let her jump in a huge mud puddle she saw. They were wearing new rain boots (bought especially for this trip) and I had told her beforehand that they were only for rain and jumping in puddles. My mistake. Of course, I had to re-route and find puddles that weren't all mud before going home.

We just got home from a weekend in LaCrosse for the Hmong New Year. Unseasonable warm weather, I mean 75+. That just doesn't happen early Oct and the New Year there has never been warm. I've only ever been when it's rainy and frigid! I'm not complaining about warm weather; I just didn't have warm clothes packed for the trip so we were all roasting!

Here's hoping Halloween is just as warm!