Guess who moved into a toddler bed?

Tonight we moved Holden to a toddler bed...but not just any toddler bed. A fire truck toddler bed.

We didn't really need to buy this for him; we have Scarlett's old toddler bed ready to go in the basement. But we saw it (thank you, Craigslist) and knew he'd love it and decided he should have it.

He was a little shocked at first. And then he was very, very excited.

 Holden and Scarlett played in the bed for a good 30 minutes before bedtime.

 And, unfortunately, Holden cried when it was time to go to bed. Not because it was a rough transition from crib to bed, but because he didn't want to stop playing and go to sleep. So that's it...my baby is in a toddler bed and there are no more cribs in the house.

Face Painting at the Harvest Fair

Scarlett's school held their annual Harvest Fair this Saturday. The kids very enthusiastically got their faces painted. Scarlett picked a butterfly:

 And Holden picked a "pirate ship" - and he chased everyone around yelling "I a pirate ship. I a pirate SHIP. Argh!"

It's potty time!

Holden used the potty three times last night. What's even better is he told us that he had to go. "Pee now, pee noooow" he'd say. We'd bring him to the potty and he'd pee. We're pretty psyched. We've had very good success losing the diaper at home and letting the kid go bare-bottom while training. This worked well for Scarlett, and appears to be working for Holden as well. Holden is actually skipping the little potty and going right to the adult one. I think it's a combo of wanting to do what Scarlett does and, really, his butt is just too big for the little potty. We'll keep you posted!

Thursday night dance party

New haircuts

Before:

After:

 Before:

After:

We brought the kids to get haircuts this afternoon. Some might say the haircuts were long overdue. Particularly for Holden. We were trying to grow Holden's hair out a bit to see what it would look like long-er-ish. Turns out, the more hair he has, the bigger his head looks. And, unfortunately for him, he doesn't need any help in that department. So farewell, fun, surfer boy hair and hello, hair that makes Holden look like he's 12 years old. (Sigh.)

 Oh. And Scarlett has layers. I don't even have layers.

The Pumpkin Patch - 2011

Presents from Sweden!!

It's not everyday that your doorbell rings and standing there is the mailman holding presents that were completely and totally unexpected (umm...yeah. Does that EVER happen?!), but that was the case tonight for Scarlett and Holden. They received presents from Mormor, Grandad, Aunt Katrina and Uncle Jonathan. And these were presents from Sweden which makes them extra cool. Here are the kids fresh outta the bath enthusiastically saying "CHEESE" (while simultaneously thinking "hurry UP WOMAN so I can open this!")  

 Smarties in a Cinderella dispenser!!

 And Pippi Longstocking and a Pippi book and Mr. Nilsson, Pippi's monkey (not pictured).

 And Holden got Smarties in a Cars dispenser!

 (Geez...think he likes it?)

 And Bamse (the world's strongest bear) and Lille Skutt (one of Bamse's trusty sidekicks)

 And "Who Will Comfort Toffle"

We're saving the Smarties for this weekend though. If we gave the kids Smarties before bed it might have the same effect that dunderhonung has on Bamse (that's a little Swedish humor for you).
Thanks so much for the presents guys! The books were read at bedtime and the dolls/animals are being cuddled with as I type! Love you!

Open House - Norwalk Fire Station

Yesterday we went to an open house at the Norwalk Fire Station. It was awesome. The kids had a blast and the weather was perfect (and for the first time in almost 9 months I wasn't stressed about my graduate thesis - which was awesome) and it was just a really nice day. The kids got to try out the fire hose:

 And they got to go on-board fire trucks:

And drive fire trucks:

And there was only one mildly traumatic moment involving this fire truck below. See that front bumper? You know, the one that would make the Perfect Picture with 2 little kids seated on it? Well...I know from experience that the second you strategically place your kiddos on this particular bumper and back up 5 feet to take a picture, the kid who happens to be pretending to drive that same fire truck at that given moment will find the siren switch and scare the royal crap out of your sweet babies, who just so happen to be sitting next to the siren's speaker. And you will watch those sweet babies throw themselves off the bumper with no one there to catch them and they will fall hard on the ground and drop the cookies they are holding and the youngest one will sadly say "but, I dropped my cookie" for the next 4 hours because he's obviously traumatized. For life.  

Yep...this fire truck right here. So, next time, we'll avoid this fire truck. But the rest were awesome and we had a ton of fun. Even though poor Holden is still upset about his cookie.