Trick or Treat!

We had a great Halloween this year. It was such a big celebration, we stretched it out over a couple of days. On Tuesday, Meredith went trick-or-treating at Augsburg College with her friends Cate and Frank, Jr. A bunch of the students were handing out candy from their rooms and their were other features, including a haunted house that was too much for the four year-olds. Elaine got a lot of attention in her Tigger costume.

On Halloween, Meredith had a Halloween party at school They made and ate spider cookies. In the late afternoon we went to see a Halloween parade and party at the nearby park. In the evening, Meredith was part of a big group of kids that did the rounds in the immediate blocks with parental escorts. It was so exciting, she was often running from house to house. She ended the evening with an impressive amount of loot. It was a bit chilly, but not too cold for a little warm layer over the costume.

PICTURES

Tigger and the witch


The wonderful thing about Tiggers is that Tiggers are wonderful things.


Meredith and Cate at Augsburg


Trick or treating in the dorm at Augsburg


Elaine and her dad accompanied the trick-or-treating kids. Strangely enough, Elaine didn't seem all that concerned with the spooky mask.

Bona fide

Last Friday Jen was admitted to the Minnesota bar. In what has seemed like a long, convoluted process, she's finally a bona fide attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Minnesota. Her folks came up to see her swearing in/admission ceremony and related festivities, as well as spend lots of fun time with the rest of the family.

We got to take a tour of Meredith's school, played Candyland and Uno, enjoyed fall weather, and went to the Augsburg football game.

PICTURES










After the bar admission at the RiverCentre in St. Paul.











Meredith took the opportunity to go on the field after the Augsburg win to see the players up close.

Yogurt baby

Elaine is a growing girl. It seems like she just had several sleepy days. We wonder if she just went through a growth spurt. She certainly seems stronger and able to move around much better. She's on the verge of crawling. Most of the time Elaine can scoot a couple inches, or pivot, to reach the toy of the moment.

Today, Elaine had yogurt for the first time. She loved it! In the last couple of months she's had rice and oatmeal cereal, pureed veggies, and pureed pears and bananas. With a new food, usually the first day features more grimaces than actual eating. By day 3 on a food, she's eating well. Today, she took right to the yogurt, like it was the best food in the whole wide world.

Fierce creatures

UPDATED! More pictures added below.

This week Grandpa Dave and Grandma Cathy visited. On Thursday, we went to the Underwater Adventures aquarium at the Mall of America. Meredith seemed to particularly enjoy seeing the giant octopus get fed, the sharks, and petting the rays. But best of all was a 2 minute clip from Finding Nemo that we couldn't drag her from.


FIERCE PICTURES

On a pirate ship


A hungry octapus


Petting the rays


"Who me?"



Meredith as a scary monster


The sharks swim above you at Underwater Adventures



Meredith and Grandma Cathy in the shark cage


Pretending to be on a pirate ship


Petting sting rays with Grandpa Dave






Not so fierce. Meredith in her Laura Ingalls Wilder dress; made 30 some years ago by her Great Grandma Carr.

Warding off sickness

Last Saturday, I brought Meredith and Elaine in for flu vaccines. Meredith got the nasal spray version, which she pronounced a worse experience than the shot. Elaine cried loud for about 5 seconds after her shot (literally); and then calmed down in a half-doze.

I explained how everyone in the family was getting flu shots to prevent us from getting that type of illness this year. Meredith remained unconvinced that the vaccine experience was worth the prevention afforded. It probably didn't bolster my case when Meredith up and got sick on Monday. It looks like a 24-hour cold virus thingy. She's staying home today. Thank goodness for the new Madeline videos that arrived in yesterday's mail. She spent a greater part of her morning viewing those treasured cartoons.

Cute pic of the day

This is from last Saturday when we went for a walk along Minnehaha Creek.

Apple pickin' and more

Last Sunday we went to an apple orchard with friends Steve and Ginger and their two girls Sidney and Ceci. We had a great time picking some perfect apples. It was a beautiful day; 80 degrees in October! Meredith also got to ride on a pony for the first time!

This week, Elaine continues with her noises. Most common is now "diht, diht" or "duh, duh." This morning she started making smacking sounds with her lips, suspiciously right after she watched me eat some soup. Elaine spends much of her time on her stomach. She can rotate well and lift herself up. Occasionally, she pushes herself back in a pre-crawl scoot move.

Last night around bedtime, I went downstairs to change the wash. I came up to find no trace of Meredith. I called out to her and searched every room in the house. No luck. I find that the back door is slightly opened. Did she go next door to play with her friends? I check next door, no Meredith there. Returning to the house, I call out Meredith's name with some irritation. A literal "peep" comes from upstairs. It turns out that Meredith was hiding all this time under her bed (which is quite cramped). She was playing hide and seek. We then have a discussion about playing hide and seek only when the other person knows that is what you're doing.

PICTURES

Me wearing a dorky hat (trying to match with Elaine).


Meredith's first pony ride.

bar news

Good news, loyal readers: I passed the bar exam!

The letter finally arrived yesterday. I took the bar 2 1/2 months ago, and had managed to not be too anxious about it until about two weeks ago. But since then it's just been interminable. Derek was even having anxiety dreams that I didn't pass it, or that he didn't pass it. (He did not, of course, take it, but I appreciate the implicit solidarity.) But I did pass, and will be sworn as a Minnesota lawyer at the end of the month. This has been a long journey, and it's pretty exciting to have only a formality left.

Mer was a little confused, but I told her that I "won" the bar - she's very into winning and losing right now - and then she was really excited. I'm glad it's not in fact a winning thing, though. I hope all my friends and classmates did what they had to do and passed.

Long days

It's fall. We're inching towards winter. Daylight is decreasing. Days are getting shorter. Except that they are not. In many ways, today was a typical weekday for us. Elaine awakes a little after 5:30. She needs to eat and have a diaper change. Despite my best efforts, she is up for the day. I'm exhausted because my sleep cycle was messed up by some violent thunderstorms during the night. Jen generously takes over and I get another 45 minutes of sleep.

We rush through the morning routine of getting everyone dressed, fed, caffeinated, and round up the stuff. All four of us pile into the car through pouring rain. We actually get off sort of on time, about 7:40. I drop Jen off at work downtown, then battle some moderate rush-hour traffic to Meredith's school and bring her to her classroom at about 8:20. Today is swimming class at her school. The other Friday highlight is chocolate milk at lunch. I return home with a sleepy Elaine who is no longer asleep once we walk in the house. I proceed to play with and humor the sleep-deprived, cranky six month-old. She finally falls asleep for an early nap after some crying.

Then it's off to pick up Meredith. She gets done at 12:45. But after she plays with her friends outside the school and does a potty break, it's about 1:20 as we drive off. I try to keep Meredith awake in the car with some lively songs, because she often nods off about five minutes from home. I'm successful today, but also miss my window because Meredith does not have any downtime for the rest of the afternoon. Elaine awakes as we get home and is still behind on her sleep. She refuses to eat, but wants to play. Like her older sister (and perhaps her mom and dad), she gets easily frustrated with her toys when she's tired. The girls try to entertain each other, but Meredith is being a bit reckless and needs to be given a timeout from Elaine.

After spending much of the rest of the afternoon trying to have a low-key, quiet time with the girls to head-off disaster, Elaine falls asleep. Meredith takes this an opportunity to be upset about her art project. I then have a victory. Meredith agrees to help me make some homemade pizza for dinner. She is a very good consultant and helper as we make the pizza dough and tomato sauce and plan out the topping options. Elaine awakes after just 20 minutes, but miraculously falls back asleep. Meredith and I finish the construction of the pizza just as Elaine wakes up for good. Hooray! Elaine is in good spirits and finally eats something, including peaches for the second day. We have delicious pizza and Meredith updates me on the social situation at school (who she likes to sit next to at lunch, who isn't nice at lunch, who is having a birthday party). Jen arrives home in time to see Elaine and put her down. And Meredith gets to play with Cate a little bit. I am able to sit in silence for several minutes and clean the kitchen.

It turns out that Meredith did go over to Cate's house without either parent's permission or knowledge. Her disappearance is discovered and resolved very quickly; but we realized we need to work harder on Meredith knowing that she can't just disappear from the house like that--a lesson we thought we had drilled into her skull.

Meredith's pizza-making skills are pretty good. I would recommend her skills to anyone. She patiently helped me spread out the dough (a difficult task for an adult) and dissuaded me from putting on too much cheese. Meredith chose mushrooms and zucchini for her side of the pizza.

Ada adga

We're just cruising along in Minneapolis these days. Fall is making itself present, but we've had some wonderful days. Today was about 80 degrees and I took the girls to the Como Zoo in St. Paul.

Elaine is becoming an active and happy six month-old. She loves to sit and play with her toys. She can't really move from a sitting position down to reach things. When she is on her stomach, she does some pre-crawling motions. She rotates quite well and even did a tinge of backwards scooting yesterday. Another recent development with Elaine is on the verbal side. The diversity of sounds increases and now includes some consonant sounds. Her favorite sound today was something like "ada adga." It's some combination of 'D' or 'G' or 'T' sound. We look forward to the first words in the coming months.