Catching Up

Trip to the Farm 

 Grace and Andrew are lucky that their Great-Aunt Betty has her own little farm and lets the kids come and visit.  She has an ox, geese, chickens, sheep, llamas, dogs....and I am sure other animals I am forgetting. 

 Here is Andrew and Howard the ox having a little face off.  I think Howard is saying, "I am bigger than you, so watch it."  And I think Andrew was saying, "Whoa there Howard, settle down.  My understanding is that you will soon be Christmas dinner."

Halloween
Halloween was the never ending holiday this year.  It was a Monday this year, but the festivities began on Friday with a costume parade at school.  Here is Grace walking in with her class. 

Here she is worried because she doesn't see us.   

And now she sees us (and throws out a pageant-worthy wave). The best part of the parade was that K4 went first, so that meant that we all got to leave right after Grace's class was done!

Here the kids are about to head out trick or treating on Halloween night.  It was cold and we only made it around 1 block but the kids had a ball and got a ton of candy.  Our neighborhood really gets into the holiday with decorations and costumes!

Pookie on the Potty

A few weeks ago Andrew said, "I go pookie on the potty."  He headed up to his potty chair, told me to take his pants and diaper off, sat down, and did his business.  I was sooo proud of him!  Since then we have had a handful of successful potty visits, but he still likes his diaper. 

Tooth Removal 
Poor Gracie had to have a tooth pulled.  Luckily the dentist said it came out very easily.  We have learned the hard way that cavities in baby teeth are to be treated as a priority, NOT to be ignored for a few months (whoops).  We have also learned that it takes FOREVER to get appointments at pediatric dentists (and really they should be seeing one of the specialist from the start and not seeing general dentists that can't really treat any pediatric dental issues).  Then even when  you do get in to see them, it takes FOREVER to get another appointment to actually get work done.  So by the time we got in, the tooth was going bad on us.  Sweet girl was not in any pain at all (I believe she would have let me know!) but this whole experience has been traumatic (for me and Grace) and guilt inducing (for me).  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  Bright side is that the tooth fairy paid an early visit to Grace and she got a cool new barbie out of the situation!