of parties & viruses

*birthday party pictures!*

jump! jump! jump! these girls had an amazing amount of fun in this jump house (thanks to some friends who lent it to us).

painting pumpkins. 'tis the season.

adeline with her look of ultimate concentration on the decoration of her 2nd pumpkin. she was *dying* all day just spotting these paints up on the counter for her party. & here she finally gets to use them.

blowing candles out. check out the party hats, eh?!

adeline had a wonderful birthday party. we could tell she felt very special & had joy written all over her *body* the entire time (except when she said her belly hurt...which started her round of illness). she had a splendid time with tyler & melaina & then later chloe & zoe arrived just in time for a dora-video-fest & smores.

the funny thing is that saturday morning adeline told me that she decided she didn't want a curious george party, she wanted a dora party. i had asked her nearly 20 times that week prior to buying all the plates & hats 'are you SURE you don't want a dora party?!' & she's like 'no not, ah ah' (which translated is a monkey noise which means curious george). anyway, that was just, well, just like a 3 year old, eh?

i think she loved her party so much that we *may* just convince her to poop in the potty by dangling a 'POOP PARTY' as bait. seriously, i told her that if she pooped in the potty for 5 days straight, we'd throw her a poop party & she talks about this party all the time now. still no poop in the toilet BUT the idea is planted. SO if you get a strange turd looking invite in the mail, well, it's a poop party invite. (all potty humor & jokes welcome)

***
the early season blues

we are blasted with the early season virus going around. nearly every family we hang out with (who have kids) has at least 1 person sick! seriously, that's a lot of illness. i'm have a very manageable case of it, adeline was the worst off (she has a killer cough right now), & amelia's cold is dragging on (but i spy a tooth poking through her gums, so i think part of her symptoms may be teething related). anyway, it just seems early into the cold temperatures for something this wide spread. i don't think we have h1n1 but it does make one think how quickly it goes around, or rather how quickly h1n1 could go around. our flu vaccines (just the normal year ones) are scheduled for mid november. it has been mentioned that i may be in need of the h1n1 due to the recent surgery; we'll see if there's any available for me at my doc's. at any rate... *enough already* virus! stop running the mama's & the papas ragged & making little ones cry & cough & not sleep.

here is amelia with her rash.

thankfully i've kept the rash from spreading any further than down her neck & a bit on her belly one day. (i'm smothering her with aquaphor in case you are wondering). but she is still a fairly happy baby, going around climbing into rocking chairs & figuring out how her stacking blocks & rings work. i do think she's a bit bored without adeline around to wrestle. i mean, adeline tickles amelia non stop or they are spatting a bit. either way, amelia is being entertained! so we are bound to be seen at the mall or westerville rec center circa 9 a.m. b/c amelia at home alone just means a big mess (i still maintain that new curious george stories are being written by a (literal) ghost writer following us around with monkey amelia). over all, her favorite thing to do is play with a kid-sized kitchen pot & wooden spoon. she will sit & stir random things for up to half an hour. then bring it over for me to taste test (the lotion cap was the worst tasting of all, btw). amelia also gives very wonderful kisses on my back: she lifts my shirt up a bit & then gently kisses my back, giggles & squeals & then puts my shirt back down. how can you not love that?

& here is adeline on monday, sick as a dog. she survived only on cereal & apple juice. after her fever was gone & she no longer said her belly hurt we introduced her to chocolate milk...which has been her nightly request since then. "choco-tate milt pease?!"

& it has been brought to our attention that adeline seems to excel in art at school & her teacher mentioned that we may want to give her more time to play with different artistic mediums at home. her teacher had also just given addy a *stellar* 2 week review so i didn't want to explain to her just how many times adeline had written all over the walls, floor, etc with marker & giving her free reign to scissors & glue is very dangerous. but, her teacher is right. when addy is playing with crayons/markers/pens/paints her eyes light up & she is uber-focused & joyful. i'm thinking of ways to entertain this love for art. any suggestions?

& does anyone else love this weather? autumn is my favorite season, so this early fall weather is blissful to me. fleece! who doesn't love fleece!?