Pictures That Make Me Smile

Holly had turned into the crazy girl who gives me the camera, turns her back when I turn it on, and says "Cheese!" while refusing to have her picture taken. As a result, there are very few good pictures to post anymore. I hope this is a phase and not a permanent thing!

Even from the back, she takes a cute picture, doesn't she?

I'm sure this was an accident on her part - to let me actually snap the picture, that is! As you will see, Holly is on the coffee table in about half of these pictures. What can you do?

Heading out the door for daycare.

We had a half day on Friday after completing parent/teacher conferences this week. I went up to my parents Friday afternoon, even though they are on a cruise through the Panama Canal right now (can envy be transmitted in a blog post?). I went to pick up some beef that we had ordered a while ago. I got my parents' beef put in their freezer and brought mine home Saturday morning. Here is a picture of Holly as we were leaving town of Friday. She was asleep before we even got to the freeway on ramp!

Holly likes to play a game where she stands on the coffee table, and I say "up" or "down" while she either squats down like a frog or stands up high. Fortunately, she doesn't jump on the coffee table! This is her new favorite game, so its a good time to take some pictures.

Not always great pictures, but at least you can tell how much fun she is having.

Shortly after this picture, Holly said "Hug, Mom," and then told me "You are my best friend." This is her new favorite thing to say, and it always puts a smile on my face! I hope she's still saying the same thing when she is a teenager. I love my big girl!

Trick or Treat Pictures

After I gave up on Holly ever taking a nap today, I got her ready for trick or treating. I took her outside to take a picture of her with the pumpkins, but it was tough to get a good one.

Actually, she would only let me take three of them, so there weren't any good ones!

Holly was so excited to go trick or treating! She kept telling me to "Come on! Let's go!" She also told me she was going to "spell" me with her wand. So cute!

The first thing we did was to go to the fire station, where they have a chili feed for the community. I had a chili dog. Holly would only eat saltine crackers and juice.

I wanted to get a few pictures or Holly with her friends, but first G said no to a picture. Her mom finally talked her into standing with Holly, then Holly didn't want to stand with G. Here are the two unhappy girls.

And just a smidge happier. Gotta take what you can get!

We went out front to take some pictures of the kids together. Holly was ready to go trick or treating, running in circles around people.

We finally got a few of the kids rounded up and standing in front of one of the fire trucks. This is such a great event that the fire department does. It gets people to the fire station, and its nice not to have to cook before going out trick or treating.

Mom, let's go, I said!

One of our friends asked Holly come inside so she could take her picture. She asked all of her favorite buddies for their pictures. So sweet!

Its a good thing Holly has such nice friends. Her candy bucket broke again; I've already glued the handle and gave it a band aid to keep it together. When we were at L's house, his mom & dad suggested we borrow his bucket to finish our trick or treating. That was a great suggestion! If I lived closer to the city, I would buy a new one on clearance for next year. Oh, well!

Holly had a fantastic time tonight! She was very good about saying thank you, and it was pretty warm for Halloween. Since I was pushing her in the stroller, I was able to just wear a t-shirt. Once we got home, she was starving - crackers don't last long in a small tummy like hers! She had some noodles, then got to eat some Skittles before going to bed. Hope she sleeps in since we fall back an hour tonight.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and had as much fun trick or treating as we did!

Getting Ready for Halloween

Last weekend we went up to my parents house. I knew we needed to go up because it would be the last weekend for a while that we would be able to see them. They left today for San Diego to get on a cruise ship tomorrow. They will be going though the Panama Canal, then spending a couple of days in Puerto Rico before coming home.

We all went to church together last Sunday. My dad does sound every other week, so we had to be there a little early. The rest of us headed for the nursery so that Holly could play. She loved the little house and spent some time playing peek-a-boo with us through the window.
She had lots of fun opening and closing the window shutters.

And doing all the puzzles, of course! I wish I had gotten a decent picture of her in her dress that I made. Its got some lace and lots of sparklies, both in the fabric and the buttons on it. So, so cute!

Holly also spent a little time yesterday in her fairy princess outfit that she is wearing for Halloween. I wanted to see how she would do with the head piece. She loved the whole thing and spent most of her time trying to keep Salem away from the long strings on the wand and her head piece. She is looking forward to wearing it tonight!

This is my favorite picture of her recently!

We also finally got the pumpkins carved. I couldn't decide if we should color them with markers, paint them, or carve them. I finally settled on the old traditional standby, carving. The thing that irritates me most about the carving kits you get is that every single year the pokey thingy breaks and you have to buy a new one. Hasn't anyone ever thought that if you make the pokey thingy out of metal instead of plastic, they would last longer?!

I have to say that I have never really been any good at decorating for holidays. Mostly only Christmas, even though I know I need to get better about all the holidays since I have a little kid who will think its important once she figures out that there are constantly holidays! I wish I could just pay someone to come out up and take down decorations...

Anyway, here is the extent of my Halloween decorating. I would like to point out that the witch I got as a gift a couple of years ago, and it doesn't ever move from that spot.

We went grocery & clothes shopping in Spokane this morning, then I was hoping that Holly would take a good long nap once we got home. No chance! Why is it that the days that we really need them to take a nap - exciting days like Halloween - that they decide not to take one at all? What's that all about? I am glad that we got Holly lots of new clothes today, almost all on sale!

I will be sure to get lots of pictures of Holly later tonight while we are trick or treating. We have been practicing what she is supposed to say and when, but it remains to be seen whether she will actually do it! She does have a mind of her own.

At the Pumpkin Patch

I've been planning to take Holly to the pumpkin patch again this year, and this weekend looked like the only time I was going to have to get it done. So this morning we hopped in the car and drove down there for a couple of hours. I didn't remember this measuring stick last year, but I hope they have it out every year so that we can see how much Holly grows each year.

I had to work really hard to get Holly to stick her face in here for a picture. Can you tell how excited she was about it? She was just staring at the merry-go-round because that's where she really wanted to be!

And that is where we went next! She was happy and smiley, but once it started up she wasn't nearly as thrilled. The Country Mercantile just bought this merry-go-round for $100,000, but apparently 100K doesn't buy much, because the motor was squeaky and loud, which Holly did NOT like! It was somewhat worrisome to me too, but we managed to survive the ride.

Then we went through the hay bale maze. It was fun to let Holly run and get stuck and have to turn around all by herself. I could see her over the top of the hay bales, no matter where she was, so she was able to go all by herself.

She loved it!

Then she saw all the big kids climbing up the hay bale pyramid, so she went up there next.

The view was great from the top, although I didn't let her go to the VERY top of the pyramid.

We went through the "petting zoo" that had some chickens, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows, and a llama. It wasn't very exciting and Holly wasn't all that interested in petting any of the animals this year, like she was last year. We also stopped and got a balloon animal made. It was supposed to be an elephant, but the girl messed up and wanted to start over again. I pointed out that Holly wouldn't know the difference and wouldn't care (this year!) what animal she got, as long as she got a balloon!

Then, we hopped on the hay wagon and went out to the pumpkin patch. There was a boy a year or two older than Holly on our wagon who was crying and screaming the entire way out to the patch. He was apparently hungry, and Holly was very concerned about him and that he was crying. I don't know what happened to him because they weren't on the wagon on our way back after finding pumpkins.

Holly had to check out almost every pumpkin - that's the fun! - to see which one would be the perfect one for her. Is it this one?

Or this one?
Or one of these?

Oh, wait, here it is!

And it is really heavy, too!

Holly was such a happy girl to have her pumpkins picked out! It didn't take us long, since 2 year olds aren't very particular about their pumpkins. I anticipate a change in that in the future, though!

For a minute, Holly thought she might carry her pumpkin out to the car by herself.

But then she thought better of that idea, and remembered that there were wagons that she could ride on! Silly girl! Who would walk when you could go for a ride?

When we got home, I washed the pumpkins up and they are ready to go! I haven't decided whether to carve them or let Holly paint one of them or do them with marker. I guess we will see.

Holly was just thrilled to play with her balloon when we were home.

And she's back to making tents again! Maybe its the fall weather.

But it was good entertainment while I made some noodles for lunch. Holly wanted to eat dumplings, but I was starving and wanted something quicker. She ended up perfectly happy with noodles, as usual!

But she did tell me while she was eating them that I make the best dumplings ever! Oh, she makes me laugh. I think she was just reminding me that she really had wanted dumplings, even though she settled for noodles!

Neat Freak

Holly and I made a cake today. She was irritated that I used the electric mixer because she really wanted to stir it herself. (I guess I need to remember this for next time!) After we were done, she pulled the stool up to the sink and spent a little time stirring water while I cleaned up.

Then she decided to empty the water out one spatula full at a time.

She found (and could reach!) a little brush I had sitting on the edge of the sink by the faucet. Holly grabbed the brush and started scrubbing the sink. When I asked her what she was doing she told me "You made a mess! I am cleaning up after you!" God, I love this kid! Truly, a match made in heaven! Although I do question why it is she won't pick up her toys when she is done playing with them... ;-)

Apparently, Holly wasn't in good humor about me snapping pictures while she worked because she told me "Quit taking my picture! I'm busy!" and then she continued scrubbing.

After dinner tonight, she went into the laundry room and said that Salem needed to be fed. Sure enough, I had forgotten to fill his food dish this morning. Holly opened the closet, then I helped her open the food bin, and she got the scoop to fill up Salem's food dish. It took her several trips, but when she was done she put the scoop back into the bin and shut the closet door. Then, she went over and got down on the floor by Salem's dish, started picking up all the food he spills while eating...

And put all the little pieces back into his food bowl!

I have to admit that I was both a.) relieved and b.) amazed at this. As you can probably imagine, I was very concerned that Holly would decide to eat Salem's food when she picked it up! Instead, she cleaned every little kibble up off the floor! This is especially great because Salem is particularly messy when he eats and I hate having to sweep the floor up every couple of days just because he can't chew with his mouth closed. I'll leave Holly's little broom out right there and she can sweep it up to her heart's content, if that's what she wants to do!

Yet Another Change!

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebration took place in Spokane over the weekend. We went for a little while and then went to a dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant afterward. While we were at the Moon Festival, I made a bookmark for Holly (I had to wake her up from a nap, so she wasn't interested in helping) and we also watched a lady make paper lotus flowers, which she gave to Holly. There is even a ponytail holder on the back, so she can wear it in her hair!
Holly didn't want to make a paper lantern, either, but she did have lots of fun playing with it. Here she is with her Nana looking at the "fire" inside and talking about how "hot" it is.

A friend commented on Facebook that it had snowed last week in Sandpoint. I saw it first hand. It was pretty from a distance, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for snow yet...a few more weeks (or more?) of fall are in order, I think!

I'm not sure Holly was feeling sure great on Saturday. While my dad and I went to get her new bed, she stayed with my mom. She was just vegging out in front of the TV when we left, and was laying quietly in her Nana's lap when we returned.

This picture makes me think that I need a new, big play structure next summer! Holly loves a tall slide and was trying to figure out how to scale the rock climbing wall on this play structure!

I unexpectedly had to look for a new bed for Holly. The other night, I pulled her toddler bed out from the wall so she could get all the junk out from underneath. As I was pushing it back in, I noticed that the toddler rail had come apart from the frame of the bed. The bolts holding it together are very long, which was a good thing, because otherwise it may have fallen apart at any moment!

Definitely an unsafe situation, so off on a bed hunting search I went. The debate was do I buy another toddler bed? Or just move on up to a twin? I looked on FreeCycle and Craigslist for a toddler bed with no luck. I checked prices of new toddler beds online. Then, I went back onto Craigslist and found a twin bed with a night stand and new mattress/box spring for the price of a new toddler bed. It was a great deal that I couldn't pass up!

My dad brought it over in the truck on Monday, set it up in Holly's room, took her old toddler bed apart, and put it out in the garage. What a great dad I have! Here it is all set up with her new Dora sheets on it. Now I have to figure out what to do about a quilt; I hadn't planned on needing a full sized twin quilt for another year or more!

Of course, the bed wasn't complete until all the stuffed animals were up on it, too!

Because the bed is so much longer than her other one, I had to move the bookcase to the other wall and put her toy bins in the play room.

Here's Holly when I went to get her up from her "nap." She did not sleep at all, but did spend the entire time playing with all of those neatly lined up stuffed animals in her bed!

I was worried that Holly's new bed would be a little bit too tall and she wouldn't be able to get up and down very easily. Fortunately, there is a handy little rail at the bottom that she can step on to climb up. She needs to hang on to the night stand to get down, though. At least for the time being. I'm sure she will be jumping off the bed on her own in no time!

Moving to a really big bed was not in the plan at all! I had hoped to keep Holly in her toddler bed for at least another year. I certainly see no need to rush kids out of their toddler beds for no reason.

Fortunately, this all seems to have worked out fine, though, and she appears happy with her new bed and sheets. Whew!

One Fine Day

One day not too long ago, we went out back to play, since it was a lovely fall afternoon. Holly wanted to play outside, but she was in rare form...as this stink-eye picture can attest to!
I got her a new Kai Lan painting book and she tested it out that day. Getting her to understand the concept of dipping the brush into the water and then the paint was a bit tough, but she had fun doing it her way!

In one of her "moments," Holly ran to the other end of the yard to the gate and yelled "Noooooo!" at me. Then she looked to see what was out there for a while. Nothing exciting out that way.

Holly enjoyed digging in the garden and has finally figured out that she does need to stay OUT of the garden, but that she can still dig from the other side of the fence!

Holly perked up substantially when I pulled out the push up popsicle that we had bought earlier that day. She loves her popsicles! They are such a special treat for her.

It was one fine fall day and could be one of the few good ones left for the season!