Girls night out

I don't particularly remember if as a young child I had yet caught the shopping bug.  I remember as a tween coveting Guess jeans and clothes made by Esprit.  I remember when penny loafers were all the rage and the little plastic jelly bracelets were a must have.  Did you know those bracelets are back in style?  Kate brought one home from school the other day.  But I suppose I don't recall wanting anything much as a five year old besides toys I'm sure.

As an adult I get a pure sense of joy out of shopping.  If I'm in the right mood and feel like searching for a bargain I'm over the moon when I find a good one.  I even enjoy grocery shopping just so I can see the fridge and pantry stocked with stuff.  My husband doesn't exactly feel the same way.  The faster he can get out of there the better.

Kate had a near melt down the other night at Dillards over her "need" to own a pair of Sketchers shoes.  Really?  Sketchers?  Not Uggs or something really ridiculously expensive?  Sketchers I can handle.  So since her jeans were getting too short, her shirts were getting too short, and she appeared at least somewhat interested in fashion I thought it might be fun to take her on a little girls only shopping trip.  You'll have to remember where I live.  I won't mention the specific city in case I'm being blog stalked by some weirdo but we have a mall and I wouldn't exactly call it the best in America.

We headed to Dillards and a few other stores and she would have been happier if I'd let her come home with discarded tags off clothes she found on the floor and a couple stuffed animals.  Whatever store we were in she managed to find the few non clothing items in her section and seemed to gravitate towards them.  She did express interest in a creepy furry jacket that would have made the Real housewives of New Jersey proud.  But she kept asking if we could go home or if she had to try the jeans on.

She did get excited to try on a pair of the precious Sketchers shoes which I will admit are cute but any shoe that requires me to help her get it on is not happening.  You practically would have to oil your foot up with some Crisco to get that thing on.  No zippers, no ties, just a "slip-on" and 1 child and 2 adults sweating it out later she had the blister-inducing thing on her foot.  Sorry kid- like I said not happening.

We did come home with a few pairs of jeans and a few shirts with plenty of pink, purple, glitter, and sequins to bulk up her fall and winter wardrobe.  She seemed happy but would have liked it better if I had acted as her personal shopper and she could have stayed home and watched iCarly.

So I suppose we're not quite at the marathon girls shopping trips stage yet.  I'll give it time.  I imagine before long she'll be begging me for those Uggs and declaring that Sketchers are so yesterday.  

Cat hotel

For over a year we've had this little visitor coming around our house.  We've spotted him all around the neighborhood but don't know who he belongs to.  He looks like he eats and I've never fed him but he keeps coming back.  Lately around 10:00 or so every night he checks in on our front porch and sleeps here for the night.  Sometimes he requests a late check-out to catch up on his zzz's.

Summer Fun (Oh wait it's November)

On Saturday we took advantage of the warm weather and headed over to a park.  Aidan enjoyed his 1st time in a dirty park swing and Kate got to expel some of her endless supply of energy.  

Saturday is good for blogging

I've been slacking on my blogging duties due to just being busy and tired and not having anything I wanted to talk about.  But I figured I'd share some random updates.

• Aidan had his 6 month check-up.  He's up to 28 inches and 19 pounds, 12 ounces.  He's doing good.  Have I mentioned he now has 4 teeth.  3 on bottom and the newest 1 on top.  Perfect for those times when his nose is stopped up and he gets frustrated while nursing.  I refuse to talk about anything related to his sleep. He's not crawling yet but I expect it to be soon.  He's over avocados but loves everything else he's had so far and did pretty good when he had to get 5 shots at his check-up.  So sad. :-(

• Kate is loving Kindergarten.  She tells us stories of chasing boys and "best-friend picking contests" and seems to be fully embracing the social butterfly roll.  She continues to amaze me at how fast she's picking up reading and what a sweet big sister she is to Aidan.

• I've been busy getting mountains of clothing washed and ready to iron and hang up for a children's consignment sale that's coming up in 2 weeks.  I put some of Kate's old clothes in the Spring sale before Aidan was born and made over $300.00.  So I figured I'd do the same with some fall/winter stuff.  Perfect way to make some extra Christmas shopping money!

• My husband continues to "amuse" me by instant messaging me from upstairs, dressing Aidan in socks that are pulled up to his knees and when asked why says, "because he's a playa" (whatever that means), and telling me my OCD over getting some stains out of Kate's old clothes is a good thing and means I could have done what he does.  (Again-whatever that means.)  Using a toothbrush to scrub out stains does not make someone OCD.  Does it?  Does it?

• The November weather here is starting to irritate me.  It was like 80 degrees outside yesterday.  I had dealt with the cold being here.  I had packed away summer clothes.  Now Kate had to dig out shorts today so we can go to the park and not be too hot.  What's up with that?  I'm ready for sweaters and boots.  Come back fall!

• I'm cooking chicken noodle soup in the crock-pot today and it smells yummy!  Too bad when I planned out my menu over a week ago it was 50 degrees and I stupidly assumed it would be similar weather by the time I made it.  Oh well.  Who says you can't have soup when it's hot outside?

• Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we're hosting for my Mom and Dad.  I'm ready for the holidays.  I told Daniel he should just go ahead and put up the Christmas lights today since it's nice outside.  He wasn't all that amused with me.  

• UPDATE: The chicken noodle soup tased even better than it smelled and Kate not only agreed to eat the carrots, celery, and onions in the soup but asked for some more orange and green things.  What is going on around here?  It must be the heat.

Can't help but make you smile

I shot this a couple weeks ago while Daniel was gone in between fevers, puking, coughing, and other good times.  Enjoy!

I'm pretty sure he's smart

We started doing baby signing with Aidan about a week ago.  We did it with Kate and it was wonderful.  If you have a baby I highly recommend it.  But we were a little surprised to find him already signing "more" while I was feeding him.  Clearly eating and letting us know he enjoys it is a priority.  You'd never know by looking at the poor skinny thing though. Watch and marvel at our little genius.

Halloween: √

Halloween was a success.  Trick or treating at the zoo: √  Trick or treating at the mall: √ Trick or treating in the neighborhood: √  Kate had a great time.  This was the first year she was really into it.  She fell only 3 times, filled her bag with far too much candy, and requested to go to bed at the end of the night.

Aidan wasn't as enthusiastic as she was.  He slept, stared at all the kids, and generally had the look of boredom combined with a why on earth am I wearing this dumb outfit look on his face all night.  Everyone kept calling him a bear and I'll admit if you didn't see the tail (he was sitting on it) or his feet (he kept trying to eat them) he actually did look like a bear.  He was cute but none of the pictures turned out that well.  There's always too much stress on holidays to try and capture the perfect pictures, that they always seem to end up looking forced, out of focus from the rush, and in general kind of blah.  I don't do well under pressure.

The weather was also a little un-Halloweenish.  Yes I made that word up and it totally freaked out the spell check.   Mid-seventies is not really the best weather for a baby wearing a big furry suit.  We also discovered we live 1 street off the highly desired trick or treating area and ended up not having all that many kids.  I think we missed a lot while we were gone though.  So here you go... Pics of the night!

Sittin' pretty

It's a mouse!  It's a bear!  It's a monkey!?

I'm a genie.

Lost his feet.

Sparkly eyes

B-O-R-I-N-G

Posing at the mall

Mad scientist guy

Rock Princess with not so rockish hair.  I should have used more hair spray.

Dr. Kill or Dr. Whoever?  He got called both.

Princess weirdo