Jack O' Lanterns

Lesson learned: If you go pick out your pumpkins two days before Halloween you may have to try several different stores to find some decent, non-moldy pumpkins. We did finally arrive back home and went straight to the backyard to carve. We set up our carving station with blankets, treats, cameras and pumpkins for the perfect party.

 Everyone lets their 2 year old daughters play with knives, right?

 Hazel got bored after 4 seconds of sitting and crawled off to play with her toys.

 Bails and Daddy hard at work cutting all the 'yucky' stuff out of the pumpkin. She must be my daughter because 90% of the time she is complaining that something is yucky.

  

Hazel is still in baby mode so anything yucky is actually fun food.

 

 Especially when Daddy drops it all over the ground and doesn't want to pick it back up because it is sticky. 

 

 She was using all of her strength to shove the knife through that pumpkin and I am terrified to announce that she was quite successful. Luckily everyone did finish the activity with all their fingers and toes still intact.

 

 Hazel went back to not caring for awhile and she made her way through all the toys in the backyard...

 

And then she decided that raiding the candy corn bowl was much more rewarding.

 

 Typical Hazel getting her mouth cleared out after shoving something naughty in there.

 Thanks to her sister (and a little bit me to stop her from screaming in public) she has developed quite the sweet tooth.

 Candy corn, a pumpkin muffin...

 

or two...If it is sweet, she will actually eat it.

 

At this point Bailey had grown bored with stabbing her pumpkin over and over and ventured off to play.

 Which left Sam to carve all by himself. 

 With a few visitors popping in every now and again...

 

 And we eventually got our pumpkins all carved out and ready for our trick or treaters.

 Good work little girlies and Sam! 

Wheeler Farm

Since we found the little girl's elephant costumes yesterday we decided to dress them up and go check out the infamous Wheeler Farm that we have heard so much about. 

 Right when we arrived we headed over to the hay bale maze and pumpkin patch. We had fun watching some kids run around and then decided to explore the farm a bit before we committed to the Halloween extravaganza.

 The first stop was two floppy-eared rabbits sleeping in their cage. Bails was giggling and pointing and very content on watching them lay still. We finally lured her away with the promise of stinky cows. 

 We then managed to escape the cow pen by pointing out the horses further down. And so it continued for the next few hours. The only way to keep her moving was pointing out the next animal a few steps ahead.

 Hazel was along for the ride, soaking it all in quietly until we came to this guy. We watched him charge the fence at some kid from afar which, of course, made Sam and I start laughing hysterically. He chose not to charge us, thank goodness, because I'm not sure if poor Hazel could have handled the trauma.

 When we moved on and discovered a pen of white turkeys a nice lady asked if we wanted her to pull one out so we could pet it. Bails got really excited and ran over only to get pushed to the very back of the line by a ton of other kids that swarmed in like hornets. She patiently waited her turn and then cautiously gave it a gentle rub.

 As did Hazel without even crying or shaking in fear!

 The no crying spell ended when we came upon this goat. He let out a big baaaa out of nowhere and it sent Hazel into a crying panic.

 These pigs just scooted around snorting the entire time. My girls were quite enthralled. In retrospect all of the animals did a pretty spectacular job at making their respective animal sounds.

 If you tell Bails anything is a little baby she instantly coos and falls in love. It wasn't any different with the little cows.

 It is probably partly that she got to climb up the fence for a little bit and partly because they were babies, but we stayed here forever. She watched and played until...

 

 

 ...one of the calfs let out a loud moo and then she freaked and hightailed it behind the safety of Dad's legs; where she could still safely peer around.

 A shoulder ride for our cute dumbo!

 The girls running/being carried around the farm was quite the site to see. Everyone was constantly oohhing and aaahhing over their costumes and how cute they looked.

 Debating on whether she wanted to go for a little swim with the ducks. 

 After our walk around the farm we headed back over to the pumpkin patch to see if Bails wanted to brave the maze or pick out a pumpkin. We sat them up on the bales of hay to snap a quick picture but then Bails wouldn't let us get her down.

 Hazel on the other hand wanted nothing to do with being up there.

 She straightened her legs and let herself slip off every time we tried to set her up.

 Perfectly content watching some older kids run around and chase each other.

But also making time for her good friend Hazel.

 

 

As it turned out the kids running around the pumpkin patch was somewhat entertaining, so I joined in the people watching for a bit.

 A short appearance from the tickle monster...

 And finally, a little proof that some elephants really can fly!

Wheelers Farms is the place to be!

Musical Baby

If you sing the ABC's while she plays the xylophone for you

chances are you will get her to make this face!

Bed Time Battle

That stage when you are attemtp to get them ready for bed and they escape...

 

and you are just too tired to fight back.

Nine Months

Hazel-roo is just our cute, little bundle of joy.

Height: 27.36 inches - 17.75 %

Weight: 18 pounds 3.5 ounces - 40.01 %

Head Circumference: 45.4 cm - 76.52 %

For the past few months she has still just been a monster sleeper. She would wake up 2-3 times a night and I was just exhausted. Then, the past week she started getting so clingy so anytime you tried to lay her down she would wake up and scream bloody murder, then be back asleep within minutes of picking her up and rocking her. We finally decided on a little bit of tough love and just made her cry it out in her crib. She fell asleep after a few minutes and didn't wake up until morning. Here's to hoping it wasn't a fluke.

 

Hazel has four teeth; two up and two down. She has recently taken on the defense (and a little bit of offense) of biting when she doesn't get her way. I thought Bailey was being a baby the other day when she came running to me crying saying she got an owie from the baby. I thought that until I tried to take my phone out of  Hazel's hand and received a quick little bite for my actions. Such a little stink.

 

She loves to play with toys. The hardest part about Bailey napping when Hazel isn't is that she constantly crawls into Bailey's room where all the good toys are.

She is starting to eat much better. She will try almost anything now as long as she gets to be the one in control and putting it in her mouth like a big girl. 

She crawls fast, can climb up and scale almost anything and is starting to get adventurous and attempt standing all on her own. The time out chair is her favorite thing to climb up and play in which may pose a problem when she gets old enough for time out. Her favorite game as of late is to be chased. She lets out a high pitched squeal and starts to crawl away (or sometimes charges you) all the while laughing and squealing.   Now all we need to do is find a magic pill that can keep her this age forever.

Faker

Sometimes when you tell this child it is bed time she will run into my bed and tuck herself in...

and when you try to tell her she needs to go to her bed...

she will roll over and pretend she is asleep. But in the words of Sam "No one falls asleep that fast!"

Diaper Change

Sam and I have finally realized that we aren't crazy (at least in thinking we go through diapers and wipes way too quickly). We don't just have two bums to diaper and wipe; more likely twenty. Baby Doll, stuffed bears, Minnie & Mickey Mouse, Dora, and all those blasted hand sized figurines all need diaper changes way too often then their packaging led us to believe.

 

 

At this point she takes her "dirty" wipe and runs it to the trash can. I've tried to get her to put it back into the wipe package and she just looks at me weird and says "No, Mom....Yucky" and then runs it to the kitchen trash. Part of me is so relieved that I never have to worry about her putting anything dirty back into the packaging, but the other half wishes it wouldn't cost me (and the planet) an arm and a leg.

 

Then we proceed to putting on the diapers, which she actually does quite well considering she is putting a size 3 on a preemie or miniature sized doll/figurine/stuffed object. Sometimes its just one baby that needs a diaper change and sometimes its an entire assembly line of poopy diapered toys. If I try to sneak the stack of diapers away while she isn't looking she just looks around, says "Uh-Oh" and then runs off to go get more.

 

 

We can usually manage to recycle these diapers, but who knows what actually gets thrown away all day long. Sippy cups, remote controls, and toys can often wind up lost forever, even after the house gets turned upside down in a missing object search. On the bright side...at least I know she knows how to change a diaper. Hazel may end up in that assembly line one of these days.