The Tortoise and the Hare

For Halloween this year, Mabel and Emmeline were the Tortoise and the Hare. Well really the Turtle and the Bunny. I don't think I have ever seen such a cute bunny or turtle in my whole life!!   Happy Halloween 2007

Boo at the Zoo

The Birmingham Zoo does a lot of different things for the community throughout the year. In October they go all out with Halloween decorations and they host Boo at the Zoo on the weekends. This year we took Emmeline and Mabel when Grandma J. was here. It was so fun. Emmeline loved it. I think that this is her favorite Halloween activity we've taken her to this season. There were lots of little carnival games to play and booths scattered throughout the park where kids could trick or treat. Emmeline walked right up to the booths and held up her pumpkin bag. Even though she can't say trick or treat yet, she was very good about saying "thank you". She also loved riding the carasel (of course) and it was fun because they had it running backwards for Halloween. We love the zoo!! BOO!!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

This year we went to the Great Pumpkin Patch in Hayden Alabama to let Emmeline choose her pumpkin. It was so much fun. They had a lot of great activities for kids. They had a blowup park and craftstore and lots of food. We walked through the petting zoo and let Emmeline take a pony ride. I have to say, the pony ride seemed to be her favorite part of the whole experience. lol. Then we took a hay ride up to the pumpkin patch. Emmeline ran around from pumpkin to pumpkin. She had a hard time settling on one so Brett helped her pick one. She choose the littlest pumpkin, just like in one of her favorite books. I think that we will head on up to the farm every year (as long as we live here in Alabama) to choose our pumpkins. I certainly recommend it to anyone who lives in the area!!!

Its always fun when Grandma Comes

Grandma Jorgensen (Laura's mom) came to visit us October 19-21. It was her birthday present to come and meet her new little granddaughter Mabel.  We had so much fun. We went to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin and we went trick or treating at the zoo.  (I'll write about both of these events in separate blogs.) We took her out for a special birthday dinner at Wendys. . .thats right we spoil people here in Birmingham. :)  We were really happy that she could come visit and we had a wonderful time.

Potty Progress

Today Emmeline went all morning without having an accident in her big girl panties. This is really only her third day trying them on. I am so proud of her progress. We'll keep working on it. The goal is to be potty proficient by her 2nd birthday in December. Keep your fingers crossed. :)There's nothing like a little Yatzee to pass the time sittin on the potty. Brett currently holds the high score. 

When Nana Came to Visit

Nana (Bretts mom) came to Birmingham to visit us this month. She arrived on October 10 and flew back to Utah on the 15th.  We had such a great visit. Nana brought all sorts of halloween goodies for Emmeline, including a beautiful halloween princess dress. Emmeline had a lot of fun dancing around in her new dress. On Thursday Nana and Emmeline went to the park to play while Brett was at work and while I ran some errands. On Friday Dave, Erin, Elise and Carson drove up from Florida to play with us too. It was so fun to have everyone here. We all went to the Cheesecake Factory (where else??) for lunch and then went and played at the Pottery Barn for Kids. Emmeline loves to play with the pink kitchens there. It is awesome that they have demo toys out for the kids to play with. They have several kitchens plus all the trimmings: pots, teasets, plates, bowls, even toy food to play with. Em could play there for hours. Anyways, after the Pottery Barn we went to the park again. The kids got pretty wiped out. 

On Saturday Nana stayed home with all the kids while Dave, Erin, Brett and I all went and had lunch. Guess where we went. Thats right, Cheesecake Factory. I dont think Brett or I could ever get enough of that place. mmmmm.  When we got back we had a nice relaxing afternoon. We hung out and visited in the backyard. The weather has finally started cooling off and it was so pleasant just to sit outside and not die from the heat or humidity.

Dave, Erin and Fam left after church on Sunday and we enjoyed having another quiet day with Nana. Emmeline had Nana read her lots of stories!!! Monday morning while Brett was off working, Nana, Emmeline, Mabel and I all went to the zoo. We had a great time riding the carasel and looking at all of Emmelines favorite animals. It was a fun thing do do before we had to take Nana to the airport and say good bye.

It was great to have so much of Bretts family here for the weekend! It was so fun to see the cousins actually be old enough to interact and play with each other. I know that Emmeline loved having Elise to follow around and Carson to play with. And of course she loved being spoiled by Nana:)!!

Note (for those who don't know): Dave is Bretts brother and Erin is Daves wife. Elise is 4 and Carson is almost 2.

Good Job Brett

Brett will be attending a bioinformatics conference in November 2007 on Long Island. He recently found out that they want him to present an oral presentation on his computer program at the conference. Brett was thinking he might get to show a poster or something but wasn't expecting to give an oral.  

I'm not surprised though. My husband is one smart cookie. 

Sound Sleeper

Saturday October 6th marked Mabels official 1 month old birthday. For all of last week she has been sleeping 8-9 hours through the night. At the end of this month, we'll move her into the crib in Emmelines room and see how that goes. We'll post an update when the time comes. For now, I'm enjoying my full nights sleep and hope that everyone with babies is as lucky as me.

Painting with Pudding--Good, Painting with Pooh--Bad!

Last week we had quite an episode. On Tuesday I decided to let Emmeline paint with pudding. I found this idea online with several people saying it was a great activity for 2 year olds. It's safe if they eat it, it's easy to clean up and it dries like paint. I thought to myself, sounds good.  So I made up some yummy chocolate pudding and we gave it a try. Emmeline and I both had a lot of fun. We got our fingers in the pudding and made some pretty pictures.  As soon as Emmeline gave it a little taste however, she began painting less and less and eating more and more. It was pretty funny. We finished and cleaned up and I thought to myself, "this was a great activity. We'll have to do it again sometime."

The week continued along and Thursday rolled around.  We had a really fun morning. I took Emmeline to the zoo and we enjoyed seeing the monkeys and the birds. Emmeline loves any kind of bird and we spent a significant amount of time in front of the flamingos. We started to get tired and decided to go home for some lunch and a nap. After I put Emmeline down, I decided that Mabel and I could also use naps, so we fell asleep. When I woke up I went to let Emmeline out of her room. She usually plays for awhile by herself in her room after she wakes up. There is usually no problem with this arrangement. This particular Thursday was the exception. I went to get her and could smell a stinky diaper. Oh by, if only that was the extent of the stink. Well I opened the door to her room and much to my chagrin, there was pooh plastered all over her door and trampled all across her floor. The smell was horrible. First off she had to go into the tub and be showered down. A bath wouldnt work because of all the pooh that would be floating in the water. . .and since she loves to splash, there would be dirty water  spread all over the bathroom. So Emmeline got her first shower.  Then I went to work cleaning the mess. Brett got home and was nice enough to help me work. I actually thought that we would have to rent a machine to shampoo the carpet but luckily the Resolve worked really well. (We did have to go through about 2 and a half bottles). Emmeline has never been in so much trouble in all her 22 months on earth. I really don't think that she was trying to be naughty though. I think that she took off her diaper (something shes been learning with potty training) and saw the mess and thought something like, "hmmm this looks an aweful lot like that "paint" I used the other day. Maybe I'll give it a try". . .and then she proceeded to "paint" her door and her room.

The moral of the story, if you are going to paint with pudding, use vanilla or banana cream (perhaps with a drop of coloring) and not chocolate. Especially if your child is potty training. 

Although this was a disgusting experience, now its something we can all laugh about and when I get together with friends and talk about crazy things our kids have done. . .I will have a story that will be tough to beat. lol

For pictures of the various events described above, click on the link to our family picture site.