More Halloween Hype

Samantha (with Sophia supervising, as usual) helped me with a little project the other afternoon. Sam had just woken up from her nap, and I suggested that we could make ghosts to line our sidewalk in front of the house. Samantha was all for it -- like her momma, she loves a good project. (And, we need to thank Aunt Beth for the supplies).

Wadding up the newspaper to "stuff" the ghosts:

It turns out that Samantha has a real "knack" for stuffing ghost heads:

And here is the finished project (well. 2 out of the 12 ghosts):

(Please ignore the "bed-head" -- as I mentioned, this was immediately after her nap)!

Fingernail Polish

We had a "first" in our household today ... Samantha got to have her fingernails painted for the first time -- ever.

Now this may surprise you because it is a known fact that I have been painting her toenails for a long time now. In fact, this picture was taken the very first time that I did that. She was 8 months old at the time.

But, there has been a long delay in the fingernail painting ... for one reason only; Sam is a thumb-sucker. She only does it when she is falling asleep with her special blanket and she knows that we don't approve. We have talked to her about it at great length and she understands that she can't do that anymore. In fact, she shows everyone her thumb and tells them that it is "damaged." (That is my fault because one day I told her that I couldn't trim her thumbnail when I was I was trimming her other 9 nails because it is damaged and the nail isn't growing like the others. Apparently she remembers me using that word, and now she tells everyone that. Probably not one of my best "mom moments.")

Well, today was the day that she decided that she was ready to have her fingernails painted -- all of them, even the damaged thumbnail (which really isn't all that damaged, by the way). She chose green nail polish in honor of the Michigan State game today.

Hopefully this will do the trick and she will remember the importance of not sucking her thumb!

Sophia is Eight Months Old

As you can see, this little cutie is smiling and laughing a lot these days! She is truly a joy to be around, and I am treasuring every moment that I can with her because she is growing up way too fast for me!

** I don't know exactly how much she weighs or how long she is because we don't go back to the doctor until the end of November. That appointment will be for her nine month check-up, and also for Samantha's three year check-up (yes, I was able to schedule BOTH of them on the same day, back-to-back ... perfect!).

** She still has only her bottom two teeth (which you can see perfectly in the picture, above). No more teeth have come through yet, and the drooling has finally slowed down. In fact, I think that we only go through about 3 bibs a day now, compared to about 10.

** This weekend, Sophia hit a big milestone -- she is offically sitting up on her own now! I knew that the time was coming for that, and I was able to snap a few pictures:

She still topples over, every once in a while, but she can go for long periods of time (as long as she doesn't get too distracted), without leaning over to one side. This makes it even more fun to play and interact with her.

** We're still waiting for her hair to grow some more! It's definitely lighter in color than Sam's was, but it is not blonde -- it's dark at the top of her head. Of course, the limited amount of hair doesn't stop me from putting headbands on her!

** She consistently sleeps from 8 pm to 8 am now, and takes one morning nap and one afternoon nap. She might also have a little "snooze" after dinner for about 30 minutes; this seems to make her evening go a little smoother.

** There is not a single food that she won't eat right now. I make all of her baby food myself and she eats with us, three meals a day. In between, she still nurses about four times a day. In the next month or so, I am going to eliminate the nursing session right before bedtime. She goes down for bed so easily, that she almost doesn't need it. And this will make it a little easier for Steve on the three nights that I teach -- I leave a bottle with him to give to her, but it will be nice to eliminate that.

** We continue to work with her on a sippy cup. She isn't completely ready for it, but she understands the concept, and will drink a few sips of water out of it during mealtime. She loves her "puffs" and self-feeds with them. The other day, I let her (with close supervision) chew on an apple slice:

Sam started crawling shortly after she learned to sit up on her own, so I predict that before the holidays, Sophia will be crawling. This means that we will need to begin child-proofing the house soon, and I don't know if I am ready for that! Sophia rolls over and over again whenever she wants to move somewhere ... and she's FAST! Luckily, I do have a Big Sister Helper, and she is so great with her sister and helps to keep a close eye on her!

The other morning, we woke up to this on our window screen:

Sam was SO excited to see a REAL caterpillar (after all, her previous experience with them had been limited to this):

(You may remember that "Chester the Caterpillar" was constructed earlier this year and she loved him so much, that we eventually ended up with a full family of four of these little creations -- each one was complete with its own name too) ...

Steve showed her exactly how to hold caterpillars and also explained that they like to roll up into balls so that they feel safe.

We eventually found a safe place for him outside, and Sam seems content with the explanation that real caterpillars just like to be outdoors. Thank goodness, because I wasn't quite ready to take on another pet here in the house right now ...

Sisterly Love

I've mentioned this before, but I can't seem to say it enough: I am reminded on a daily basis around here just how much my two girls love one another.

I'm pretty sure that the unspoken bond between them formed the second that Samantha laid her eyes on her sister at the hospital. She still talks about that day in clear detail -- how Daddy took her to the hospital to see Mommy and Sophia. And how little Sophia was. She remembers getting to hold her in Mommy's bed, and how there was a pink frog in the room (that was from Grandma and Grandpa). That day was my birthday, and it was the best birthday present EVER ... watching my girls meet each other for the first time.

I get to see a lot of this now:

They play together on the floor. Sophia always wants to be in the middle of all of the action, and Sam is pretty good about including her, while making sure that Sophia (a.k.a. "Swiper") doesn't get her hands on anything that is too small and/or dangerous.


Sam also helps give her sister snacks. Sophia lets you know that she wants to have "snack time" too, so in between bites of Sam's snack, she feeds her sister some little puffs.

Posing for Momma:

And isn't Samantha looking so grown up lately? She wanted to have her hair pulled back in a ponytail that day. The truth is that it is a challenge right now to get all of her curls pulled back, but we made an attempt because she asked so nicely ... And it made her so happy!

Halloween is Happening ...

Halloween is in full-swing around here now.

Samantha's costume is "in the works," and Sophia's, because it requires less prepartion than Sam's, is almost complete. Sam is going to be a peacock for Halloween (one day, she declared that that was what she wanted to be, and far be it for this Momma to tell her that it isn't possible). It's a very unique idea, and I am proud of her for coming up with that all on her own. It will be something very special.

Sophia is going to be a spider. I found the costume on clearance last year, before I even knew if my little one was going to be a boy or a girl. Sam is excited about her sister's costume and proudly tells everyone what they are each going to be for Halloween.

We started this holiday season last weekend with some baking. We made regular-sized cupcakes and some mini-cupcakes, where the best part for Sam was the frosting and Halloween sprinkles.

Sophia just prefers to supervise (nevermind her obvious flexibility in the background; she loves her feet):

Taking a moment to admire her work:

And then what baking project would be complete without a little taste-testing?

Then today, I brought up a box out of the basement so that the girls and I could start putting some of our Halloween decorations up around the house. It was so much fun for Sam to dig into the box, gasp with excitement, and pull something out.

Just look at that cute face!

Even Sophia was excited with some of the goodies:

Sam helped set up some of the decorations ...

... but her most favorite thing was lining up (and playing with) all of the creepy critters:

In fact, this is what I found a few minutes later:

And then she told me, "Hush, Momma. The critters are sleeping."

It's going to be a fun Halloween ...

A Girl and Her Tricycle

Remember when Steve surprised Sam and bought her her first tricycle?

That was six months ago (hard to believe), and Sam fell in love with it immediately. It only took her a couple of weeks to fully master the whole pedaling thing. And now, it is her absolute favorite thing to do outside. The second we step out into the garage, she is running for her bike. The moment that the car is in park in our driveway, she is begging to ride her tricycle.

We are going to try and get as much use out of it as we can before winter comes. I suspect that by late Spring next year, our little bike rider is going to be ready to upgrade to something a little more advanced; and her Red Rider will be saved for her sister :)

Go Tigers!

In addition to being big Michigan State fans in this house, we are huge Detroit Tigers fans. The Tigers are now competing in post-season baseball games, and we try to watch every single one of them. Sam understands our love for baseball, and often snuggles in to watch a few innings with us before she goes to bed.

I couldn't resist taking a quick picture of my three favorite people the other day, sporting some Tigers hats:

Pre-Party Preparations

Samantha's birthday party will be here in less than 6 weeks. That means that I have already started the preparations, and the plans are coming together nicely. It brings me such joy to plan these events, right down to the last detail with decorations. I want my kids to always remember that Momma went "all out" with their birthdays ... for I can't think of a better way to celebrate the day of their births -- the happiest days of my life.

The theme of Samantha's birthday party this year is fish. She tells EVERYONE that she is turning 3 on November 19 and is having a "fish party." Her excitement is contagious and I wanted to be sure to keep her involved in a lot of the plans and decisions -- afterall, it is HER day!

So last week, we sat down together to make one of the decorations for the party. She LOVED it!

Working hard to get all of the stickers in place on the angel fish:

Ta-da! The semi-finished product. It will now go in a frame and be on display at her party ...

Go Spartans!

We are big Michigan State fans in this household! In fact, we just taught Sam to say, "Go Spartans!" and she sounds so cute when she says it.

In honor of the big Michigan State/Ohio State game on Saturday, we all wore our Michigan State shirts:

And, it must have brought the team some good luck, because they won! Go Spartans!

Daddy's Home!

On Friday night, Steve came from Mexico (for the millionth time in the last four months). The good news is that he is wrapping up his project there and should only have to travel back to Mexico one more time ... we are keeping our fingers crossed, anyways.

Sam was "over the moon" with excitement to see her daddy, especially because she knew that he was bringing her a special surprise -- a cowgirl hat all of her own. This would be a follow-up to the cowgirl boots that he brought home for her the last time.

Checking out the other "goodies" that Daddy brought home:

"What's up, Daddy?"

All in all, I think that everyone is glad to have Daddy home ...