Trick or Treating

The girls were so excited to trick-or-treat we could hardly get them to sit for this picture Our next door neighbors were our first stop and it was successful but then we had about 5 houses before the girls got another treat. The next successful stop was a kind old woman who wasn’t prepared for trick-or-treaters but managed to scrounge up a half eaten bag of chocolate which they gladly accepted and ate immediately. We had so many houses where no one answered that Alice started going up to houses, knocking once and then turning around saying “Awwww” and making this face I think we just started too early and we seem to live one block above where all the action is. Once we crossed Mercer the girls started getting candy. One house had the grim reaper handing out candy and Alice declined to go near the candy bowl. When the Grim Reaper held out a pack of M&Ms she just said “uh uh” from a safe distance. Smart girl. Norah stayed in character throughout the night and told this inflated cat “Pooh pooh, I’m not scared of you!”

Alice in October

I asked Bryan what I should write about Alice this month on the blog and he said “that she was horrible.” She did bite Norah several times, was quite whiny, prone to tantrums and (or because) she decided napping was optional, but even sohow can you look at this face and say that? 

Alice can now climb out of her crib so easily that it is jeopardizing her naps. I think she has had as many days without naps as she has had with naps the last two weeks. Her bedroom has two doors (one to the bathroom) and neither of them shut very well so that makes it tricky to even keep her in her room. We might try a baby gate or childproofing the door knobs . . . Alice has also sleep-climbed out of her crib and sleepwalked around the house twice.

Alice still isn’t talking as much as I feel like she should be but she’s slowly adding to her repertoire. She said a lot of new words on our vacation and the other day she said her first two word combo: Daddy ho” for daddy home. She says NO and “uh uh” all the time to me. She sings a lot – especially in her car seat – and its so adorable. She moves her head from side to side and closes her eyes when she’s really getting into it.

Alice loves horses and she always points out when she sees a “Nay.” We took her for a short horse ride last Saturday at the zoo and she was very eager to get on. I was impressed considering she’s often too chicken to pet dogs.             

This is Alice wearing her costume at story time

Norah in October

Norah has been such a good girl this month. She is still not watching TV and I’m just amazed at how good she is at entertaining herself. She does sometimes tell me that I’m not giving her enough attention but she’s really been fantastic about coloring independently for a good chunk of time when Alice naps. She’s learning new words all time, in English and Spanish, and she often amazes me with her thoughtful questions like “Why don’t the planets fall down?”

Norah is such a good friend. She is so genuinely happy for her friends on their birthdays and she’s quick to compliment them with gusto about everything from their new shoes to their artwork. She’s always been extremely friendly – even when she was just a toddler she’d go up to kids on the playground and say “oh Hi friend!” like she knew them. A week ago we were in the new children’s garden and she was playing in the sandbox and telling all the kids how nice their castles were and encouraging them and offering her help when their sand structures crumbled. She has also been so kind and helpful with Alice at home. When Alice demands whatever Norah has (which is all the time, Alice has to do or have exactly what Norah does/has) she often gives Alice a turn or shares before I even prompt her. Of course she can still throw fits and get jealous and she has her moments when she doesn’t share but these instances seem to be decreasing and her moments of generosity, kindness, and empathy are increasing. She loves to help me and she actually is helpful now – even with not so fun tasks like picking up all the crayons. She is particularly helpful with Alice and Alice loves it when Norah helps her. Sometimes Alice squirms so much for me when I try to change her diaper that I ask Norah to do it because Alice will cooperate for Norah. Norah can’t quite fasten the diaper right but she gets a good start so I can quickly finish the job. She also helps Alice wash her hands and put on her shoes. It’s been a joy watching her develop emotionally.

Fall Fiestas

Last Saturday was the Fall Fiesta at Dallas Spanish House. My favorite part about Norah’s Preschool Fiestas is that they always hire this amazing mariachi band. It’s truly the best mariachi band I’ve ever heard. Their name is Mariachi Asi Es Mexico – . I’m pretty sure half of them are brothers. Norah with her wonderful teachers Eileen and IvonneWe opted not to have the girls wear costumes at the fiesta because we were concerned they would hinder their fun in the bouncy houses. It was the right decision. We went straight from the Fall Fiesta to our Ward Halloween party and Norah wore her Madeline Costume there And Alice wore her Elmo costume (handed down from Norah) for the first 20 minutes or so

San Antonio

We started our day in San Antonio with a visit to the Alamo and this is what we saw: There was an “Open Carry” demonstration for long arms. It was upsetting for me to see all the semi automatic weapons around and we saw them throughout the day. Once inside the Alamo we felt a little better and enjoyed giving our liberal opinions to a reporter for Texas Public Radio. We were hoping one of us would make the cut to be on NPR but I don’t think the story even aired. Still it will be a fun memory. We bought Norah a coonskin hat and I loved listening to all the tourists comment on how cute she was – totally worth the $13! I was blown away by how beautiful the river walk was. I felt like I had been transported to Europe. It was so much fun walking along the river and eating lunch at Rita’s on the patio. My camera battery unfortunately died so I had to rely on my cell phone:( Then we toured, or at least tried to tour the missions. The kids were less than cooperative and there were weddings at two of the missions so we missed out on seeing the chapels. Still it was such a beautiful day and the missions were a lovely backdrop.  This is a picture I took from our evening boat tour on the River Walk. That was definitely my favorite thing we did. Before we left, we took a ride on the San Antonio Zoo Eagle which was a lot of fun. Alice has been fascinated with trains lately (I don’t remember Norah ever going through a train phase) and loved saying “choo choo” while we enjoyed our 3 mile ride After our train ride we walked through the nearby Japanese Tea Gardens which were beautiful. It was so peaceful there – it felt like a serene escape from the world. At the enthusiastic recommendation of my Aunt Diane, we stopped for lunch in Gruene on our way home for lunch and ate at the Gristmill Restaurant and enjoyed the live music. Bryan and my dad shared a huge rack of ribs that were reportedly the best they’d ever had. Gruene was such a cute town – someday I want to stay over night there at a B&B.

Sea World

Norah and Alice loved Sea World. They loved the shows (this is baby Shamu), loved the rides, and Norah (not Alice) loved hugging the people in dolphin and star fish costumes Norah and Alice couldn’t help but pretend to be trainers during the shows. It was hard keeping them from tumbling off the bleachers Since it wasn’t crowded at all we got to meet one of the trainers. He was very nice and told me he studied Psychology because it helped with behavior modification and he assured me that it worked on kids too Alice loved being able to go on unlimited rides on the “Nay” on the carousel. I think each adult took her at least once

Our day in Austin

My parents came out for a visit Oct 15th and we had a great time. On Wednesday the 16th they accompanied me on my usual routine of taking Norah to preschool, grocery shopping and taking Alice to story time. It was really nice to have all the extra help and show them our day to day life. It was fun for Norah to show them her new preschool building and she was so proud to introduce everyone to her grandparents. In the afternoon they took the girls to Monster yogurt and Norah was telling anyone who would listen that she had her grandparents with her and what their names were and how they were going to San Antonio.

On Thursday we packed up the Sienna my parents rented and headed for Austin. We made a special stop at Zilker Park to ride on the Zilker Zepher which we all enjoyed – even Alice despite this picture. Then we toured the capitol building while Norah napped in the van. The highlight of the tour for me was when we went through the metal detector and the Texas state trooper handed us a bin for our '”coins, keys, jewelry, knives” I said “knives?!” and he said “yeah, just to walk through the metal detector – you'll get them back.” He caught on that I was surprised and not protesting so just to tease me he added “you could take a gun in if you had a permit.” and then asked if we were Texans. I’m not really sure why they bother having a metal detector . . . Then we walked up and down Austin’s hip 6th street – and I carried Alice pretty much the whole time because she was being clingy. This is what it looked like when Bryan held her and what it looked like when I held her It made for a very long walk. After some pizza we went for another very long walk to Congress bridge to see the bats. Bryan and my dad went for yet another long walk to move the car closer so we wouldn’t have a long walk after seeing the bats. All in all they walked 7 miles!The girls were very excited to see them when they got back.The pretty view from the bridge You can see the pretty capitol building behind Alice’s head Watching the Austin bats below the bridge They did not disappoint – it was amazing

Norah the Activist

Today I saw this video on Facebook today and since my kids are TV deprived they rushed over to watch it with me.

Norah of course had a lot of questions. When Bryan came home she gave him a brief synopsis of the video and then this conversation happened:

N: Palm oil is destroying the rainforest and that’s the orange gorilla's habitat! B: Oh no N: We can change our opinion in our family. Let’s find a solution. B: Okay what’s your solution? N: We need to stop eating palm oil and save the rainforest. L: We can’t eat anymore Oreos and we need to buy different peanut butter then. N; That’s right. (2 minutes later) B: Okay who wants Oreos??? N: I do I do B(laughing): The Oreos have palm oil N(hanging her head): I don’t want any

I’m not sure how I feel about this video. It has a good message and it was obviously effectively conveyed but it felt manipulative. I showed it to Bryan and he was actually predicting the lines. I felt sorry for Norah after Bryan teased her with the Oreos so I offered her an ice cream cone instead and when Bryan pulled out the ice cream he pretended it had palm oil in it too. He’s so cruel! I told Norah he was just joking and assured her it was palm oil free and she was like “Why was daddy joking about palm oil in the ice cream?” Oh the burden of an environmental conscience!

The Life and Times of Big Tex

Bryan took last Tuesday (Oct 8th) off work today so we could go to the State Fair as a family. It brought back a lot of emotion I felt last year when we went to the fair the day after my mom told me she had stage 4 colon cancer. I found out late at night and we had already gotten Norah excited about going to the fair so we went anyway. I was very sad and it was kind of surreal to walk around carnival rides and cotton candy. I think I cried while we were there but I was also really glad we went because it felt good to do something so fun and memorable with my family. Life is precious and I want to have as many good memories with my family as I can. Since my parents came home from Cyprus I’ve seen my mom 10 times. I’m grateful she’s been able to travel so much and I’m looking forward to seeing her again this week.

Norah was very excited to go to the fair and she frequently reminded us by saying “I’m so excited I’m so excited I’m so excited. We get to see Big Tex!!! He’s going to be even bigger than before!” She was so excited she posed for a picture with the height chart by the rides just because he was on it.You can see Henry in this picture – Henry and his Mom Erin went with us for a few hours in the morning Norah telling me she needed sunglasses Seeing the new Big Tex I love the architecture at Fair Park. It’s Art Deco at it’s best. Isn’t this beautiful? Each of the buildings is this beautiful with statues and murals. We saw three shows: The African Acrobats, a dog trick show and the “World On A String” puppet show. Norah was chosen as a volunteer to interact with some of the marionettes. Thankfully, these Wizard of Oz marionettes were the least creepy in the show. Afterwards we walked around the Arts and Crafts building and saw all the awards – it was amazing how many different categories there were – there was a crocheted afghan category! I loved seeing all the jams and all the quilts. Way to go Betty! We had a great time and it took only three minutes for Alice to fall asleep in the car on the way home