Stamford Parade

On Sunday we went to the best parade I've ever been to. It rocked. We got there early. Maybe too early. But it meant that we had prime seating. Goose was ready to see some action! So was Holden. We waited. We waited. We waited. We went to Target for fruit snacks. We waited. And then...And then...Wait...what's that up in the sky?Is it a bird? NO! Is it a plane? NO!It's SUPER GROVER!! And he's super crazy! And Scarlett was super impressed!

Holden....not so much. (He fell alseep 5 minutes into the parade.)
We saw Clifford.We saw Curious George.We saw Thomas.And Oscar...And Cookie Monster! We saw Big Bird...or as the little boy in front of us kept saying "Huge Bird...get it? Cause he's not just big now. He's huge." Get it? Yeah. He was quite proud of himself.
We saw Underdog.And Bob the Builder.And Elmo.And Mr. Potato Head wrapped it up.

It really was an awesome day. It was beautiful outside and the air was full of giant cartoon character balloons. Yay parades!

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• looks like this:
• she sometimes looks like this:
• or this:
• but usually looks like this:

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• loves fruit snacks
• loves "princess girls"
• hates when I don't let her pick out what shoes she wants to wear

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• drinks out of a cup during meals:
• and loves to read us stories:

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• is not a morning person
• loves "circle time" at school and raises her hand to answer questions about the weather, the month, and the day of the week
• will occasionally look at herself in the mirror and decide she has "crazy hair" and cry hysterically until we fix it...while we try very, very hard not to laugh
  

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• knows her shapes:

• and colors:

• names all her babies/stuffed animals "Faddio"...and we're not quite sure why
• loves Disney movies, especially Snow White and the Seven Grumpies
• always wants her hair in a "ponyhair" (ponytail) even though it doesn't quite fit
• loves the song "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas - only she calls it "Boom Boom Kow"
  

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• says "please," "thank you," and "excuse me" without being asked...most of the time
• loves dress-up
• pretends that her Barbie and Ken are "gettin' mawwied!"
• has gotten over her fear of potato heads:
  
  

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• has a wild imagination

A 2 1/2 year old Scarlett...

• looks like this:
  

Just because...

I can't get over how much these two kids look alike. Here is Holden's 6 month photo next to Scarlett's 6 month photo. Crazy huh?

Holden turns 6 months

Holden is already 6 months old. I'm in shock. He's definitely turned into a regular baby now...as opposed to the delicate new baby he was a few months ago. He rolls over from both tummy to back and back to tummy - but he doesn't appear to want to do it often. He can sit by himself for a short while, but always manages to topple over. He's a little top heavy with that big 'ol noggin of his. He still loves his bouncer.
We just started feeding him in a high chair too, which he also loves. We had been feeding him in a Bumbo seat and then he would hang out in the living room by himself while Joe, Bubs and I ate our dinner. Now he gets to hang out with us while we eat...and who wouldn't like that?! (We are pretty awesome.) He also loves to bang. And talk. You'll see what I mean by watching this...

"Holden SMASH!!"

He also loves to eat. He eats way more food than Scarlett use to eat at this age. On a daily basis, Holden eats 4 containers of baby food, 2 big servings of cereal, 4 big bottles, and a ton of stuff in between. Like teething cookies (no teeth yet though)...And puffs and MumMums.He is still getting use to real food bits (as opposed to baby food mush) and he makes the funniest faces while he gums the food down.

He has officially acknowledged Link's existence.Here are his 6 month photos. He was smiling up a storm before he got behind the camara. All the photographers were laughing and smiling at him and he was laughing and smiling right back. He gets behind the camera, and does this...We're calling this look "blue steel." Still pretty darn cute though, if I do say so myself. And I just did. We did manage to get this smile out of him.And listen to this kid laugh. Ah, I love it. I could watch this video 100 times in a row and never get tired of it.

So that's it. Happy 1/2 year birthday, Holden. I couldn't imagine spending these last 6 months without you. We love you Munch!

The Laurie Berkner Pajama Party Concert

Scarlett and I had a blast yesterday! I brought her to see Laurie Berkner, one of her favorite musicians. She's been listening to Laurie for close to 2 years now. You may remember this clip
from last summer. I've also used Laurie Berkner songs in slide shows like this one and this one. In short, we love her. We love her a lot. After Bubs had been so sick, it was great to get the little goose out of the house for some fun. And fun we had! Check it out.

I caught myself listening to one of our Laurie Berkner cd's in the car on the way to work this morning...and there weren't any kids in the car. Yeah...she rocks.

Halloween - I know...finally.

These pictures are at least a week and a half late. You'll have to forgive me. We had the bug from hell make it's way throughout our entire house - it somehow missed me and while that might seem like a good thing I am utterly exhausted from taking care of 2, no...3 sick babies. I almost wish I had gotten sick so I'd have gotten a break from it all and had an excuse to lounge in bed.
The whole thing actually started right here... Yep. The annual Boo at the Zoo. This time it was Scarlett and Carson's 2 year anniversary! Can you believe it? It breaks my heart that she was sick. Here are the previous years - first play date with Carson, 1 year anniversary. We started off strong. Scarlett was so excited to get the zoo and see Carson. And then once she saw him she started fading. She wanted me to carry her everywhere and she wasn't being her typical spunky self.

She perked up long enough to run around in the haunted maze which she LOVED.
Did I say LOVED?!
But she must have spent all of her energy running because it was all downhill from there.

We went on the princess girl horses and, well, just look at her.
Poor goose.Val bought her a special cupcake and she didn't even touch it. If that's not a sign that a 2 year old is under the weather, what is? Then things got a little scary. She fell off the bench she was sitting on (and she rarely falls). I couldn't get her to stop crying. She got really hot and by the time I rushed her home her fever was 103.7! But the "fun" doesn't end there. I got her home from the zoo and Joe was holding a screaming Holden. Now Holden never cries - and he was inconsolable. I had been with Bubs all morning, so I was incredibly worried about her. Joe had been with Holden all morning, so he was incredibly worried about him. Scarlett was lethargic and Holden wouldn't stop screaming. It was so bad that we packed everyone in the car for a trip to the emergency room.

On our way there we ironically heard a radio commercial saying to avoid the emergency room because of H1N1. Of course I panicked after that and we started calling friends while we were driving to see if they could recommend a walk-in clinic somewhere that was open on Sundays. We finally found one. We took our sick little guys out of the car relieved to have found a place that would see them. Only, and here's the clincher, they wouldn't see Holden because he's too young. I have never felt so helpless in my entire life.

Scarlett was still barely moving and Holden's entire face was swollen and red from crying so hard and we're just holding them in the waiting room in disbelief that we would actually have to bring them home without being able to make them feel better! And then, of course, emotional mom over here starts crying too because I didn't know what else to do. We got back in the car and drove home. We gave them both baby Tylenol. Scarlett's fever went down to a tolerable 101. She got sick in the middle of the night and seemed to be quite a bit better the next day. Holden was up all night, but he was okay as long as I was holding him. So I did. All night.
At the pediatrician's the next morning, we discovered that Holden had a double ear infection and pink eye in both eyes. Scarlett appeared to have had a 24 hour bug.

Halloween fell almost a week later. Holden had been on antibiotics for at least 5 days, so we knew he was fine to go out. Scarlett was better from the initial bug she had and Joe wasn't sick yet either. We had no idea the best was yet to come. We got everyone dressed up and ready to go. We met up with Carson, or course.

Goose was super excited to trick-or-treat.
Here she is leaving the first house in complete and total shock that getting candy was that easy.
Scarlett went from house to house until she had decided that she had had enough after about an hour. I asked her if she wanted to get some more candy and her response was, "no mom. I have candies already." But Scarlett...don't you want more? "No mom. I have candies already."

Holden was awesome. He just sat in his stroller looking adorable and fully absorbing all of the compliments he got on his bat costume.

Until he did this. Huh. And I thought bats were nocturnal.We went back to Carson's house for pizza. It was about an hour after we got there that I looked at Joe and decided that he had caught Holden's pink eye. We gracefully left in an attempt to avoid giving it to anyone else (we succeeded, luckily). Flas forward 2 days. Both Joe and Scarlett have wicked viral infections and pink eye. Scarlett was out of daycare all of last week. Joe was out of work for 2 days (and a giant pain in my butt for 5 days). Holden probaly still had the antibiotics in his system, so he was unscathed. But we're good now. Finally...admittedly, it was an absolute week from hell. It was a lot of sick to handle in less than 2 weeks. I was so exhausted from it all that I didn't even have the energy to get these pictures up here! But now they are. And we're caught up. We're back at work/daycare/life. And we're all going to be just...fine.