Nap time

Probably my biggest side effect from the chemo treatments I am undergoing is that I am definitely more tired throughout the day. So I try and get at least a little bit of a nap in while MJ is sleeping. A little over a week ago I put MJ down for a nap and then laid down in my bed to try and rest. The next thing I know, Kay is climbing into bed with me and then not too long after that, I hear MJ wake up crying. So I went to get her and thought, "I wonder if she would go back to sleep in my bed." I brought her back to my bed and curled up with her and she went back to sleep. Here is a picture of the two girls asleep in my bed:
The next day I was doing some work around the house after lunchtime and MJ came up to me with one of the remotes to the T.V. and she said something that sounded like "movie" to me. So I went up with her to the family room and turned on an episode of Super Why for her. When the show was over, I went to turn the T.V. off and this is what I found in front of it:

Halloween 2011

Monday, October 31

MJ wore our pumpkin costume. I made this costume for Luke when he was not quite a year old and all the kids since him have worn it when they were one. This is one of my favorite costumes that I have made because it is easy on/off and warm and the kids can move around fine in it. MJ wasn't crazy about the hat, but she was fine walking around as a pumpkin.
Kay had a hard time deciding what she wanted to wear. I pulled out our Halloween costumes the Saturday before Halloween and the kids all had a ton of fun trying the costumes on. Kay went back and forth between Piglet and a Unicorn costume. (I love being able to reuse costumes!!) Finally on Halloween she decided to wear the Piglet costume. This is one that I made for M&M when she was 4 years old.
Kitty & Blondie also had a hard time deciding what to wear. At first they were both going to be Pioneers and wear the costumes they had worn for Faith the Musical, but then when I pulled out the costume box, the both changed their minds. Then they were both fighting over the Witch costume until I found the Poodle skirt that M&M had worn and it fit Blondie so she decided to wear that and Kitty wore the Witch costume. The witch costume is one that I bought for M&M when she was in 2nd grade. The poodle skirt I made for M&M when she was in 6th grade.

Luke wanted to be a Ring Wraith from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I couldn't find the type of cloak that he wanted and frankly I didn't have a lot of time and energy to do much looking. Luckily we were able to find and piece together a costume from a couple of years ago and it still looked fine on him - a Jedi.
M&M decided a couple of days before Halloween that she wanted to dress up for school. She came up with the idea of Robin Hood and made this hat the Saturday before Halloween. She wore a green shirt and her green soccer socks and tied a brown scrap of fabric around her waist. She went with the kids Trick-or-Treating for the first street or so but then decided to come back home and help give out candy instead.

Kay only stayed out about half of the time and then DH brought her back home and just took Kitty and Blondie. Luke went with a couple of friends around the neighborhood - thankfully we have a safe neighborhood and there are lots of kids and adults around that we trust. It was perfect weather this year!

Earlier in the day my dad came over to watch MJ for me so I could take Kay to the school to see the kids in the school parade. My mom also met us there. Then when the kids came home from school, Kitty wasn't with them. Luke and Blondie both assumed that I had picked her up after the parade. As soon as I heard that she wasn't on the bus, I quickly ran out to the car and drove over to the school - after leaving Luke with instructions to answer the phone in case the school called and tell them I was on my way. When I pulled up to the school I saw Kitty in her witch costume running at full speed for the front door of the school. I started honking my horn and pulled into the pick-up area and got to the door just after she had run inside. The school door was still open so I rolled down the window and yelled her name and she heard me and came out. After taking a few minutes to settle down I figured out that she had gotten out late from her class and the bus had already left. So she went over to the pick-up area and just sat there waiting for me to come pick her up. Finally when the last person other than her was leaving, the parent in the car told her to go into the school and call home and that is when I was driving up and saw her take off running for the school. I was a little disturbed that she is only a first grader and was left out there by herself with no adults/staff around. Thankfully this time turned out just fine... And she now has instructions that if she ever misses the bus again, she needs to go to the front office to ask to call home or go find her teacher to help her out.

Kay talk

Kay just came up to me as I am sitting at the computer working, gave me a hug and said, "Mom, I love you! And thank you for the dinner!"

Six little pumpkins sitting in a row...

Monday, October 31We had perfect weather for Halloween this year! MJ and I sat out on the porch for a while waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to come by.

MJ growing up

MJ has had to do a lot of growing up, very quickly lately. She has adapted much better to everything than we ever thought she would. She still whines quite a bit, but she is learning to talk more and that helps everyone all the way around as she learns to communicate better. Since I had to quickly wean her, she has switched over to solids very well and loves to eat a lot of different foods now. She usually gets the most whiny when she is hungry, which especially seems to happen right around 5:30 every evening. Usually while I am getting dinner ready she is at my feet in the kitchen whining for something to eat. She has loved a lot of the meals that have been brought to us over the last several weeks and quite often will eat more than the older kids. (For some reason she doesn't like jello though!) Unfortunately she has been a little more whiny than usual the last week or so because she is cutting her first set of molars and you can tell that her mouth just hurts...

She's also turned over a sweet side which shows itself more often. She used to not ever hug at all and now she can give good hugs when she is in the mood. Usually when her dad comes home she'll say his name and say hi to him. Sometimes she'll go up to him and throw her arms around his legs, wanting to be picked up. She also has a really cute smile where she scrunches up her nose and grins.

MJ is getting better at taking naps and being put down to sleep for the night. Sometimes after lunch I will try and sit down with the two girls and turn a movie or kids' show on and see if I can get MJ to fall asleep in my arms. Usually if it doesn't work by about 2:00 I'll just go put her in bed and she's usually okay with it. She definitely does not last the day if she doesn't get in a nap though. She does have a mean side about her though and will hit and head butt because she thinks it is funny...

MJ is also a total gadget girl. She throws a fit if she sees my ipad and I don't let her play with it. She also throws a fit if I don't let her sit on my lap and bang on the computer while I am trying to work on it or one of the kids is trying to play a video game and she wants to push the buttons. It makes things quite difficult at times...

MJ has also learned how to climb in the last month or two. She can now climb up on the kitchen chairs and occasionally will try and get from the chair onto the table (and thinks it is funny).

Here are some of the words that she will say now:

pease - for please
pitty - for pretty (she will say this when she puts a necklace on herself or when she brushes her hair)
bup - for up
down
more
hi
ba-bye
buckle - when she gets buckled into her car seat
cheese
fishy - fish crackers
bop - for stop
daddy
mama
shoes
baby - she says it with a really high pitched voice
ank you - thank you
hat
nice
socks
nigh nigh - for good night
nose
eyes
mouth
poopy - she has started saying this lately when I am changing her diaper
beep beep - what she says when she sees someone's belly

She also knows animal sounds for kitty, dog, bunny (she says hop, hop), frog (she sticks out her tongue), sheep, cow.

Dirty or clean?

Today I was sorting the laundry from the hamper in my room and was kind of puzzled by some of the clothes that I found in there - things from some of the girls that normally aren't put in the hamper in my room because they use the hamper in the hallway. After looking at some things a little bit more closely I realized that half of the clothes in the hamper were clean! I think that MJ has been busy mixing some of the clean clothes with the dirty clothes while I have been taking showers this week! Hopefully I was able to sort out everything correctly, although it took a little more time than usual!

Kay talk

So when DH came home from work yesterday he asked Kay, "Kay, who's your best friend?" (this is the same day that I wrote about her telling me I was her best friend)

Kay looked puzzled for a minute and then she said, "Oh, Susie and Lucy." (the neighbor kids that live behind our house)

Kay talk

DH was in the storage room replacing the filter for the furnace. Kay came in to see what he was doing.

Kay: "What are you doing Dad?"

DH: "Replacing the air filter for the furnace."

Kay: "Oh, that should be fun!"

Kay talk

Kay and I were sitting downstairs watching a movie together today and she says to me, "Mommy, you're my best friend!"

Jack-O-Lanterns 2011

We carved our pumpkins on Sunday evening this year. The only pumpkin from our garden this year was the little tiny one. That was Kay's pumpkin and she had fun trying to gut it and then drawing all over it with markers. I asked her what kind of a face she wanted on it and she decided on a sad face. So I attempted to carve a sad face for her.

The other pumpkins we bought at the store this year. We were driving by a grocery store a couple of weeks ago and they were 10 cents a pound! So on our way home we stopped and picked out 4 large pumpkins and paid less than $5 for them! The pumpkin on the far left was Blondie's - she used a pattern we printed out and she did most of the carving herself. Kitty's is the next and her design was from a booklet that came with some of our pumpkin carving tools. It really looked like a ghost peeking his head out from behind the door. She did a lot of it herself and only needed help with some of the more detailed carving. Luke's is next and then M&M's. They both did all of the carving themselves and found the designs online. It is really nice that the kids can do a lot of it on their own as they get older.


When we first started doing the carving, MJ thought it was fun playing with the guts from the pumpkins. She also tried tasting it, although I don't think she liked it too much!I was surprised that Kay enjoyed the gutting as much as she did. Most of our older kids were grossed out by it at her age.Apparently I didn't get any pictures of Luke carving his pumpkin, but he was there too.