Pumpkin carving

Monday night was our second annual pumpkin carving family night with the Madsen's, which Marci and I declared to now be a tradition.  Last year was at our house and this year we went to theirs and carved away.  We had a good time with them, as always.

 

This is where the babies hung out the whole time.  They had their own party. :)  Baby Ally is exactly three months older than baby Claire.  They will be bff someday, I'm sure.

 Ha- the picture below is our attempt to show that Lucy helped with the process.  Clearly we have an artist since she drew a great outline while not looking at the pumpkin at all. ;)

I promised Adam that I wouldn't facebook this picture (I rarely use FB anyway) but I didn't make any promises about the blog.

I had to include this one even though it was blurry because I didn't realize when we were taking the picture that Lucy was actually kissing the pumpkin. ha!

Don't my girls look thrilled?  I promise they did have a good time.  Lucy always loves that she gets lots of treats there and this night was no exception.  She knows right where their fruit snacks are. :)

 This was the best group kid shot we got because....

 ....the rest involved Lucy bawling her eyes out because she was scared of being outside in the dark.

A sunny fall Sunday

This last Sunday was beautiful outside and the leaves were definitely at their peak!  We assumed it was probably going to be one of our last pretty fall days before all of the leaves are fallen and it's too cold, so we ventured outside and enjoyed all of the pretty changing trees in our neighborhood.  It was also good to let Lucy run around and use up some energy. And I didn't end up in a single picture, but the rest of the fam looks good! :)

 When we got home, we realized we had been "booed" by a neighbor and let me tell you- it totally made Lucy's night!  She was so excited to see that pumpkin on our doorstep, ran right to it as fast as she could, and dug into it all as soon as she got inside.  She kept playing with all the fun goodies inside of it and calling everything "mine" over and over again to make sure we knew it was hers. ha!  It was really cute! (Please excuse the super blurry picture).

Stuck in a stroller

Lucy decided to sit in her baby stroller one day and buckle herself in.  Unfortunately, she couldn't get it unbuckled and just decided to stand up and walk, stuck to the stroller and all.  The funniest part is that she walked around like it was no big deal- nothing was out of the ordinary.  Ha! Silly girl keeps us laughing!

Daddy's helper

Ryan is definitely outnumbered, so it's a good thing these girls sure love their dad!  Ryan is in charge of bath time but since he was out of town for a whole week after Claire was born (for work, and thankfully while my mom was still here) this was his first time giving Claire a bath.  Lucy of course wanted to help as well.

 Ryan always gets the itch to make apple pie in the fall but this time it seemed a little too daunting with a newborn around, so he made apple crisp, which is a little easier.  Lucy helped with this process as well and loved the daddy/daughter time.

Grammy's visit

My mom came and helped us for almost 3 weeks and was SO incredibly helpful.  We definitely miss her around here but are learning to survive on our own now.  One morning my mom was holding both girls and so we snapped a quick pic of all of us girls.

The Pumpkin Show

On Saturday October 19th, we went to the Circleville pumpkin show and it was a great fall outing yet again.  The weather was great and all of the pretty changing trees were a perfect fall accent to the quaint buildings in this old-fashioned town.  Lucy was pretty happy to have both dad and grandma along on the trip as well.

 Check out all the crazy pumpkins behind my mom.

 Apparently they have contests for the best groups of pumpkins and this was the winner.  They look pretty good to me!  I wish I could transfer all of these just like this to my front porch for decorations!

 This nice guy gave Claire one of his small pumpkins so she could have her first-ever pumpkin. 

 Of course Lucy got one as well and she has loved that thing!  She plays with it all the time and even requests to have it by her at breakfast.

They have every kind of pumpkin food you could imagine here, but my favorite are the donuts.

There was a parade shortly after we got there and we accidentally ended up in the best spot for it.  Right in front of the pumpkin pyramid and right by where they were doing the announcing and judging.

Reflux and change

I feel like little babies change so much so fast, and I want to document it all!  I stayed pretty on top of it when Lucy was little but I can already tell this is going to be different.  Life with two kids is way more chaotic than I imagined... yet still more relaxed in certain ways because I am not stressing over every crazy little thing, such as if my baby is still breathing constantly.  Anyway, I'm feeling very behind already yet I want to keep documenting everything for our own family records.

Our little Claire went from being super content and pretty easy to the opposite of that in a matter of nights.  Just like Lucy, it's not really her fault.  Reflux has arrived (I was SOOO hoping we would miss this train) and we haven't slept in nights and haven't been able to put her down without screaming for a few days.  We have a doctor's appointment first thing Monday morning (somehow I'll have to be dressed and out the door before noon. ha!) to get some meds (hopefully).  I guess this reflux stuff is genetic, which just means that this might be our last child.  People have tried to reassure me that if we have to go through reflux stuff again, at least I know what to expect.  But that is part of the problem... I know what is coming and I don't like it at all.  Oh well.  But tender mercy of the weekend is that Claire has been sleeping for about an hour and a half straight now without being held, which is the longest she's done in days because of reflux.  Not only that, but it's been at the same time as Lucy's nap!  Hallelujiah!  The kitchen is cleaned and the living room picked up!

Also, now that my mom has left and it's just me and the girls all day everyday, Lucy has lost it.  Like, gone completely bonkers!  She screams and cries for me to hold her pretty much all day everyday.  When I do hold her, she's still screaming and crying uncontrollably for no reason, and when I can't hold her, well, let's just say I'd be surprised if the whole neighborhood didn't wonder what was going on in our house.  A few nights ago, she even screamed for me ALL night until 5am when she finally fell asleep for a few hours.  She just cried for "mama" all night.  When I would go hold her and rock her, she was calm and sleepy, but as soon as I put her back in her crib, it was all screaming and tears again.  Even Ryan couldn't get her to calm down, she only wanted me.  I took her to a nieghbor's house the other day, one that she loves to go to and is very familiar with, and our neighbor commented about how stressed Lucy seemed.  She wouldn't even eat the oreos they gave her like she always does! :)  She's just not my happy little girl like she has been the last few months- won't cuddle or give me hugs and kisses freely, and won't laugh at things that used to make her laugh... she just cries or stares blankly at me or hits and bites (which is unlike her). Please tell me this is normal and doesn't last very long?!  I feel so bad for her because I can tell her whole world is just turned upside down and she is confused and sad about it all.

So maybe once we have this reflux under control again and Lucy has adjusted a little better I will be able to catch up.  But that's what's going on right now.

And some more...

We have been taking some walks here and there around the neighborhood to get out and enjoy the fresh fall air.  Now it's getting way cold and I can feel our outside time is going to be cut much shorter soon. Sad.  But the good news in that our double stroller works well.  Lucy likes to sit underneath.

 Resting with the baby.  Even though she's not the world's worst sleeper like another child I am thinking of, newborns still make you exhausted.  We're all very tired!

 Now that the umbilical cord fell off, she can have real baths!  This was the first one and Lucy loved helping wash her hair.  And sticking her whole arm in the water with her sweater sleeve down. Oh well.

5 days old

Newborns change so fast that it's hard to keep up with documenting everything I want to!  Anyway, here are a few pictures from when Claire was 5 days old.

 She literally slept her life away the first few days.  She had her days and nights quite mixed up and would just zonk out no matter what antics we tried.  At least she was pretty cute just hanging out on the couch.

 She loves this floor mat!  She will lay on it for a while and stare at the toys above her head.

My new normal

Last week Claire woke up screaming for food at the same time Lucy was begging for lunch, and then Lucy wanted to be held by me and me only because I was holding Claire.  Thankfully my mom has been here to help because I have constantly been handing over one child or the other for changing a diaper, feeding, entertaining, holding, etc.  It always seems like the two girls need something desperately at the same time.  This transition to two kids has been way easier than it was the first time, but there's definitely still a new normal that we are trying to get used to and that I will have to figure out the hard way when my mom is gone!  But, I love being a mom to these two girlies! (Also, I did not intentionally dress me and Lucy to match.  It just happened).

My girls