Trick or Tr.....BLAH!

So, I probably started out with my expectations set too high. But I was pretty excited about this whole trick-or-treating thing. Lilli was actually old enough to catch on this year.

Elizabeth was excited enough for both girls:

Unfortunately Lilli had other ideas:

Poor baby. Her lunch didn't agree with her. Several times.

So, needless to say, she stayed behind with Grandpa and Grandma while the other three of us gamely went off to the Mall-O-Ween.

Things started off well enough:

But this should have reminded us that the girls had the same lunch:

Still, she perked up enough to enjoy the brand new (opened that day) playground:

She even made a little friend:

Shortly thereafter though, she tossed her cookies all over herself, her daddy (his sandals may never be the same) and the (did I mention it was brand new?) playground. Strangely, both she and I were most concerned about the damage done to her costume, but it cleaned up just fine.

To the poor woman who had to clean it up, sorry about that! To our friends C and N, who witnessed the whole thing, REALLY sorry about that.

I guess that was the trick part. In all it's technicolor glory.

Spin Cycle: Halloween

Ok, Jen (at www.spriteskeeper.typepad.com, for Heaven's sake, someone PLEASE tell me how to link things the pretty way!) said that this week's topic to spin on is the ghoulish, creepy, freaky, scary, hairy (why not? Werewolves are hairy) holiday known as Halloween.

My Halloweens, which have never been too scary to begin with, have gotten even tamer. See?

Admittedly, Lilli's eyes are a nice vampiric shade of crimson, but we have to blame that on my camera ( I have a love/hate relationship with that thing) and on my lack of Photoshop (either the product or the skill), rather than on some sort of clever Halloween contacts for babies.

Last weekend we had a Halloween party to go to, so the girls had a trial run in their costumes.

I must say, they were very pleased to be wearing them. Although I have to point out that Lilli's costume has the cutest little headband hat, and of course she refuses to wear it. So it's kind of hard to see that she's supposed to be a flower fairy. Of some sort.

Anyway, here's my spin on the topic: Halloween used to be about what candy I was going to get and how adorable I would look in my costume. Now it's all about what candy THEY will get and how adorable THEY will look in their costumes. And I don't mind at all. It's reassurance that I'm doing better in the war between selfishness and motherhood than I thought, and I like that.

I'm still going to eat all their Reese's cups though.

Well, I did it.

I voted. For better or worse. And definitely for the worse, I don't feel that great about my choice. But I didn't feel great about the other choice either. I've already gotten comfortable with the probability that the world is going to end no matter which guy ends up as president. So here I sit, on the fence, listing a little bit to one side. And I'm not happy about it.

What I am happy about though, is what's keeping me company while I sit here on my uncomfortable fence. It's my bowl of warm, salty, fresh-roasted pumpkin seeds from yesterday's jack-o-lantern. And oh boy, are they tasty.

They may not last the night.

It's c-c-c-c-cold!

Maybe not to you Northeners, but let me tell you it was pretty chilly today. THE MID 60's!

Which meant that the girls needed to wear JACKETS when they went out to play today. Well, if you look close Lilli is actually wearing a beach cover up, but Grandpa was in charge, so what can you do?

We enjoyed the crisp fall weather today though. hee hee hee

Oh! And we figured out why Lilli has been cranky lately, so that's helpful for our sanity. Teeth! I should have known there were more teeth in the works. She's got at least one more on her top right, so that makes at least 9, plus at least one molar. I really wish she'd let me in her mouth. She's sure all for exploring my teeth thoroughly, she just doesn't like to return the favor.

We're also getting ready for Halloween around here:





Elizabeth's not really a fan of pumpkin goop, but she's been watching Barney and Max & Ruby fall themed videos lately so she was all for giving it a shot. Pretty soon I got put back in charge of the pumpkin though. She really doesn't like gooey stuff. So we ended up with this:


Yes, I know, it looks completely horrified. And in defense of the poor thing, I did NOT choose this face. I made Elizabeth a page of clip art pictures from Word to pick a face from and this is the one she wanted. So yeah. That's just the way it is. We don't have fancy pumpkins in these parts.

Happy Fall everybody!

Yesterday

Yesterday evening we hosted our first play date in a very long time. We usually enjoy a certain level of clutter that prevents me from wanting anyone to see the disarray that I generally live in. We recently got tidy though, so we had Lilli's best bud S over to play and it was a total blast.

Lilli seems to think that S is in need of some extra loving or something because she's always trying to hug her and kiss her and, for better or worse, feed her. Last night she was stalking S with her sippy cup (picture altered so S's mommy will let me put her on here. Not everybody likes to splash their babies all over the internet. Or so she tells me):

Not pictured are all the times Lilli helped herself to poor little S's cup. Although with all the kissing that was going on, I guess the spit had already been swapped. So.

I have to say that Elizabeth did a good job being the big girl of the group and S escaped the melee relatively unscathed and appeared to thoroughly enjoy herself also.

Of course my Ham was up to her usual tricks. It's hard to get a decent picture of that girl.

Oh well. We had fun, and that's all that matters!

Wierdo

She's laughing because she's tickling herself with the meat from her sandwich.

Yep.

Good thing she's cute.

Spin Cycle: Tricks and Treats

This week's Spin Cycle, as hosted by the Keeper of Sprite over at http://www.spriteskeeper.typepad.com/ is about tricks. Either tricks we've played or tricks we've had played on us. Well, I don't play tricks on people because I am way too good at imagining how I would feel if someone was doing whatever it was to me. Hmmm. I suspect that's part of my problem with uncomfortable moments in sitcoms. Anyway, I just can't can't play tricks. And I feel the need to get all preachy for a minute and say: Don't be mean, people! It's just not nice and nothing good comes with it!

So, I don't play tricks, but I'm fully aware that other people do, and the biggest trick that was ever played on me was played by Mother Nature.

Oh- err...due to the...open nature...of this post, if you don't want to know anything about my biological history (this means you dad!) or nobody has told you how babies are made, this might be a good post to skip. Consider yourself warned. I'll give you a moment to decide...

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OK! If you're still with me, let me give you some history. I'm married to a delightful guy who happens to not believe in birth control. We'd been married for almost three years with no sign of babies, and while we weren't trying to make one, we certainly weren't preventing it from occurring if you get my drift. I was getting a little antsy to start mothering something but just figured that I couldn't get pregnant for whatever reason, and since I'm adopted and super pro spreading the practice I just figured we'd go that direction. But I wanted to give things an official try first. So we decided to go for it. For months I swore off my favorite beverage- Pepsi- since I'd heard that too much caffeine can prevent pregnancy. We ate healthy, we got ovulation predictor kits, we did some crazy things we'd heard about that I'll spare you the details of. Eventually I started taking a baby aspirin every day because that seemed to be the thing that had worked for one of my friends.

Nothing worked.

If you've ever struggled or thought you were struggling with infertility, you know how upsetting it is to see a negative pregnancy test every month. So I wasn't happy about that, but we had decided to try for a full year before pursuing adoption and we were only 5 or 6 months into it.

So while all this was going on, we figured we were done with apartment living and that it was time to start looking into buying a house. One of my friends told me about the place she worked and how much she liked it and that she wasn't sure they were hiring, but I should put in my resume. Well, I was working as an aesthetician at the time (skin care therapist? facialist? whatever, I worked at a spa), which can bring in the big bucks, but not on any regular schedule. Your income can fluctuate majorly, which is really not so good for home buying. So I put in a resume and then proceeded to hear nothing for a while.

Eventually they called me to come in for an interview and it went very well. So well, that when I left I pretty certain I had the position. I got home and told the hubby how well things went and for the first time we considered things like maternity leave. And how you don't qualify for it until you been someplace for a year. So in the midst of feeling pretty confident I would be working there, we decided to stop trying for a baby until I had been at the new place for 6 months or so and I chucked the ovulation predictor kits.

The next week my in laws came to visit. When they visit we pretty much eat out at every meal. And since I was no longer trying for a baby I re-united with my true love- cola products. I must have drank gallons of the stuff. Many months of abstinence hadn't cured me of my addiction. I treasured every drop of each unlimited refill. I practically cleaned the glasses out with my finger. And I really, and truly must have drank gallons of the stuff.

Later that week I got the call saying I had the job and was able to tell David that we were going to be able to qualify for a mortgage. In the frenzy of celebrating that followed, one well-caffeinated ovum must have come out of hiding...

The day before I was due to start my new job I took a pregnancy test. I'd been miserably crampy the day before and since I was about to start my "time" I figured I'd take the test because that had always seemed to magically start things going all the other times. So I took it (a handy Clear Blue Easy digital test that I'd recommend to anyone for ease of use) and left it on the counter to cook while I got dressed. Eventually I turned around to pick it up and throw it away, expecting it to say "Not Pregnant" like always. And when it didn't, I literally did a double take. And I may have burst into tears out of pure shock.

So. After months of living healthy, avoiding caffeine and spending way to much time peeing on sticks, all it took was some happiness and a whole lot of cola. And I started a brand new job with a brand new pregnancy.

The biggest and best trick that I have ever been a part of was played on me by Mother Nature.

Thank you Mother Nature, she's lovely.