Pumpkin Carving

Throughout our many years of infertility, there are things I dreamed of doing with my children if we should ever be blessed with them.  Pumpkin carving is just one of them.  Since Emma has come into our lives, I have learned that things don’t always play out as I had dreamed.  Some things that I had hoped for end up just plain disappointing.  This, however, was not one of those times.  Emma had a blast!  We are so very thankful for the opportunity to experience things like this with her.

I’m not at all into the scary aspects of Halloween.  But I’m all for dressing {my kid} up in a fun, cute costume.  And there are so many things to care in a pumpkin aside from the standard jack-o-lantern. I searched the net for some fun things to carve.  I printed them and transferred them to the pumpkins earlier in the day.

Now it’s time to get down to business!!

Tip: If you plan to put candles in your pumpkins, cut the bottom out instead of the top to make it easier to light the candles.  Keeps the top of the pumpkin looking nicer too :)

Emma’s Cousin Alayna is staying the night.  She carved with us too.

Emma scooped seeds out {and put them back} with various utensils.  She kept at this far longer than I thought she would.

I wonder if she liked it?

What could be more fun than making a mess playing in pumpkin guts?

Mark had no interest in carving a pumpkin.  He said he didn’t have the patience for it.  So I carved the Minnie Mouse, the Pac-Man, and the Dora.  Mark took some video of us and then unloaded the dishwasher and put away laundry.  I guess I can’t complain.

All in all a very good night!  We ran out of time for making sugar cookies.  Oh well, that’s what tomorrow is for, right?

How funny, while posting these pictures, I just realized I somehow missed carving Dora’s nose.  How funny.  Ah, she looks ok without one, right?

Oh, and a side note for anyone wanting to carve this kind of fun stuff.  They look way better with a candle in them, then they do just carved.  However ones like the Minnie Mouse and Dora didn’t have enough holes to let oxygen in and the candle kept burning itself out.  I had to cut air holes in the back of the pumpkins to keep the candles lit.

Another installment of “backseat conversations”

We have chosen to practice extended rear facing with Emma.  This means that we chose not to turn Emma’s car seat to forward facing at one year old and 20 pounds.  She is now two years old and 30 pounds and still rear facing (and still perfectly content with it too I might add).   We made this decision in large part because of this youtube video.  For more information about extended rear facing, read this.  One year and 20 pounds is not recommended, it’s the minimum allowed.  {off my soap box now}

So because Emma’s car seat is rear facing, she only sees us in her mirror.  She’s almost always alone in the back seat.  She has some of the funniest conversations with herself. 

Today’s installment of backseat conversations – Emma’s in her car seat snacking on a bowl of dry cheerios.  I can only guess that she dropped some, and that is what lead to this dialogue. “Oh nuts. Oh nuts!  OH SNAP!” 

I nearly ran off the road.  It was hilarious.  I love that kid!

Pumpkin Patch

(Warning- if you have a slow internet connection, this post will probably be annoying.  It’s pic-heavy.  I couldn’t decide which pictures to post.)

I rarely watch the news anymore.  The other night, I did catch a few minutes of the local news. They mentioned a pumpkins available at Tubbs Berry Farm.  We were very disappointed with our attempts to find a pumpkin patch last year, so I decided I wanted to give this place a try.  And bonus!! It’s very close to our house.

When we went to get a pumpkin last year, we didn’t find an actual patch.  We found grassy areas with pumpkins laid out.  Tubbs Berry Farm had a little of that.

But they also had a REAL pumpkin patch!  Pumpkins still growing on their vines.  How cool is that!?  Maybe not everyone thinks that’s so fun, but I do!

Emma called them “balls.” And kicked every one she walked passed. 

They also had yummy raspberries!  Any berries we could fit in our bellies were free.  If we wanted to pick some to take home, they were $3 a pound.  I should have picked some to bring home, but we just filled our bellies :)  Emma shoved them in her mouth as quick as we could pick them.  (Yes she’s eating with filthy hands.  I didn’t notice it at the time.)

There was a little mountain of straw bales.  I told my friend that I wanted to put Emma on them and take a picture.  I was waiting for some bigger kids to get down.  I turned around for a second, and she started climbing the straw bales herself.  She barely hesitated for a second.

Then there was the straw bale maze.

Playing with old friends.

And making new ones!  I have no idea who these little boys are, but They chased Emma and she chased them.  It was sweet to watch.

If pumpkins, raspberries and straw bale fun wasn’t enough, there were animals.  Adorable and friendly animals.

Mark was on-call and had to leave while we were there.  We were sad that he had to go in to work.  But at least we were close enough to home that we could stay and play.

All in all a great time down at the farm.  We will certainly go back next year.  They have strawberries in the spring.  Going to have to keep that one in mind.  Fresh picked fruit is so yummy!!

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” ~Dr. Seuss

One in four women will experience the loss of a baby at some point in their life.  How many do you know?  Chances are you know many more women than you think, who have experienced loss, and grieve in silence. Some choose the silence – they prefer to keep the baby and their grief private.  Others don’t talk about it, because no one seems to understand.  It seems to be a taboo subject in our society.  I’ve been amazed when I open up to others about our own losses, how many others have had similar experiences.

I am one in four.

A miscarriage isn’t simply a pregnancy that doesn’t work out.  It’s a heart that stops beating.  It’s  a loss of life.   It’s crushed dreams.

It’s the death of a baby.  A beautiful baby.

Look at that perfectly formed baby.  A real person, with arms and legs, and just three weeks earlier at another ultrasound, she had a beautiful beating heart flickering on the screen.

Our babies are safe in the hands of Jesus.  I am thankful that they will never know the other side of grace.  But I still grieve them.  The grief isn’t as fresh as it once was.  But it still stings.

It’s true.  My arms are no longer empty, but my love of one child can not replace the love I have for another.  This mama’s heart has love for each of her babies—here on earth, and in heaven.

We miss you Gabriel Allen, and Bella Hope.

(Oh, and for the record, we named Bella before we had ever heard of Twilight.  I have still never seen any of the movies or read any of the books.  Bella means beautiful.  I could not get over how beautiful and perfectly formed she was on the ultrasound images, even after her heart stopped beating, she was perfect.  She was beautiful, and she gave us a beautiful hope.)

Backseat Conversation

Emma can use a lot of words.  But when she really wants something, she’s been throwing two year old fits, with what we call caveman grunts.  So we’ve been encouraging her to use her words.  As I was putting Emma in her car seat this afternoon we had quite the conversation.

Emma: (unhappy caveman grunts)
Me: Use your words Emma.  Tell mommy what you want.
Emma: (more caveman grunts)
Me: Do you want your snack?
Emma: Uh-huh
Me: Tell me with your words--Snack Please
Emma: Uh-huh (signs her version of please)
Me: Tell me with your words--Snack Please! (because she uses both words, just never together)
Emma: Alright!! Great!

I gave her her snack.  At least she wasn't grunting anymore :)

You make me happy…

My friend Kristy has an online shop called The Vintage Clothespin.  She’s SO talented!!  She recently designed and patterned a quilt!  She has the pattern for sale.  It’s ADORABLE!  Go check it out!  She also sells things she makes in on Etsy (like super cute diaper bags and head bands and, and, and…).

Pretzel Baby

I really have no idea how that can be even remotely comfortable.  I moved her legs down, she put them back up.  Silly girl!

‘Mommy’s Little Piggy’

Remember this scene from “A Christmas Story?”

It’s even more fun with a see-through plate :)

Have you ever…

Have you ever cleaned out your dryer vent?  Yeah, me either.

Pepsi can added for reference purposes only, it wasn’t in my dryer vent :)

According to FlyLady, the lint trap on your dryer traps about 75% of the lint.  The rest collects in the dryer and vent.  This reduces the efficiency of the dryer and poses a fire hazard!  We have lived in our home for 7 years, and have never cleaned out the venting.  I have cleaned out the dryer though.  Usually when the lint screen won’t go in all the way.  I will be doing this more often.  I purchased a vent brush from Walmart.  FlyLady has a kit on her site (The FlyLady link above).  She recommends cleaning the vents out twice a year.

Sleep troubles…

We had a terrible time with Emma and sleep for the first 9 months of her life.  Then things leveled out and she got to be a pretty good sleeper with occasional troubles here and there.  The last month or so she’s gotten worse again.  Twice this week she didn’t nap at all. 

Tonight she didn’t go to sleep until after 10 pm.  It’s craziness.  I refuse to entertain the thought that she might be ready to give up her nap. For now I’m going to say it’s a phase.

It’s seriously frustrating though!  She gets mad and throws everything out of her crib.  Then she can’t go to sleep because she doesn’t have the things that comfort her to sleep.  If I go in there she expects me to get her up, so it makes her mad all over again. It’s just a phase. It’s just a phase.  It’s just a phase.

Gary

Emma jabbers away all the time.  I don’t always know what she’s saying, but there are more and more things I understand each day.  For the last week or so she’s been saying what really sounds like “Gary.”  Mark has at least a couple of uncles named Gary.  But we rarely see them, and don’t talk about them enough for her to overhear and learn their names.  I know she’s seen a couple of minutes of SpongeBob, and he has a pet snail named Gary.  But we don’t watch SpongeBob on a regular basis, and we haven’t had cable since May. So I certainly know she hasn’t seen it recently. She watches Veggie Tales more than anything.  But when she says Larry it’s clearly Larry. So, I have no idea where she might have learned Gary, or if it’s another word entirely.

I’ve been wanting to get Emma a pet fish for awhile.  I’ve always liked fish, but got rid of our big aquarium several years ago.  Emma always likes to stop and look at the fish at Wal-Mart.  So I got her a little 1 gallon aquarium and a beta.  I also got 2 little neon tetras.  She doesn’t really notice the tetras.  But the beta is her new friend. 

So what do you think she named her new friend?  You guessed it.  Gary.  She has to say good morning to Gary first thing in the morning.  And she says goodnight to him before bed every night.  It’s so sweet (and a great reminder to me to feed the fish…)