Monday Musings

It's October!! I love the start of a new month, especially one that ushers in fall so well. Avery is super-excited about Halloween simply for the candy. I could skip over that day entirely, but I'm always excited to sew her a new costume and I don't mind the loot she brings home, either. 

You know it's Monday when your morning starts out by fishing trash out of the toilet because your 1-year-old dumped all of it in.

We spent last week at my mom's house while she was out of town, taking care of her dogs. Easiest dog-sitting gig ever, since my sister was there (someone to hang out with) and my brother-in-law had to be in town also for work, so he did all the heavy lifting regarding the dogs. Thanks, Nick!!! We made a point to visit as many people as we could. Tuesday was Aunt Ju-Ju and Cousin Sophie day, with some shopping at H&M and lunch out, Wednesday was with my friend Lauren from college and her 10-month-old Isaiah, and Thursday we went to Nana's for the day!

visiting my grandparents - Grandpa just had shoulder surgery , so we had a short visit

Avery loves finding Easter eggs, so my grandma had them hidden for her to find when we got there

Avery then hid them again and again so she could find them a few more times

sweet Isaiah - it was so fun to finally meet him!! And hanging out with his precious mommy was good for my soul

hangin' while I folded the stroller up

Eleanor was in love with Hannah the cat at Nana's house

she has a unique sense of style

Eleanor's sniffy face. This is the face that Avery also did, copying their daddy's face from when he was a baby. Genetics are so interesting. 

The girls are a mixed bag when it comes to traveling. Avery does okay for the most part, but she was a tad whiny and didn't understand why Nonnie wasn't home when we were there. Eleanor - that girl. Ugh. She cried anytime I put her down or left the room. It was fine for her to leave me, but not the other way around. We also had the worst nap schedule ever because we were out too much. We got home Friday and I handed them off to Luke.

We had the first cousin bath. No pics of the full group because I think Avery is too old to have bath pics posted online. But here's a modest shot of the cute babies! Right after this, Grayson decided to tackle Eleanor. And then he melted down into absolute anger-tears. He was DONE with this bath.

Eleanor finally cut that fourth tooth, so we have a happy girl again.

I introduced Avery to the Fancy Nancy books, and she is loving them. We took home about a dozen assorted books from the library, and the Fancy Nancy books are the only ones we have repeated. She barely acknowledges me when I tell her goodnight because she's already absorbed in the books. She's going to be the kid that hides under the covers with a flashlight.

Avery loves her dance class still (phew!), and one of her favorite parts is when they get to dance around freely with scarves. Avery prefers to run laps around the other girls while waving her scarf around, but she was put out this morning after class because her teacher told her to quit, that she should sway gently with the scarf instead. Boring, right?

Her second favorite part of dance? The stamps on their hands.

I don't have a ton of caffeine these days because of nursing, but over the course of 2 hours today, I had a (half-caff) pumpkin spice latte AND a diet coke. I'm surging with energy over here. I hope Eleanor sleeps well tonight!

trying to climb onto the table, but got trapped

our climber getting in on a little Pinterest action

 Eleanor fell into Avery's bubble bath one night, shocked herself silly and then proceeded to eat as many bubbles as she could.

I have stacks of books to go through on my side of the bed. STACKS. I'm trying hard to get through them all, but I just keep adding to the pile. Religion/doctrine, grief, fiction, parenting, and birth education books abound. I think my currently-reading list on Goodreads is half-a-dozen books long?

Round Top on Wednesday and Thursday! This week is going to be a good one.