A haircut for Alison

My friend Rheannan is in cosmetology school and came home for Thanksgiving. So, I hit her up for a haircut for me and Alison. She did a great job on both of us! I don't have any pictures of mine however. Alison is cuter to look at anyway.

Before. . .

During. . . and she did such a great job holding still!

After. . . and are you kidding me with that hair!? Where did she get those curls?

Rheannan was nice and shared a new pink comb with her.

and here, Alison wanted to return the favor.

Thanks Rheannan!!!

We made cookies that morning too. . .

A real taste of childhood - licking the beater!

Andrew loves the little car as much as Alison has. Here he is looking at Alison saying, "Look here, PRINCESS, I am not your chauffeur!"

Okay, maybe I am....

We went to Terri's a couple of weeks ago to see the cousins and it's really hard to get kids to all look at the camera at the same time! At least they were having a good time together!

Terri is due tomorrow and we are all excited to meet the new little girl! I would post her belly pic here, but I'm not sure she would be too happy - so you can go to HER blog and look at it!

all about andrew - 9 months

9 months old on Halloween. My how the time flies. . . Or does it?

Andrew is almost 10 months old now. But he had his 9th month check-up accompanied by his first ear infection! Lucky him! I think it had something to do with the 4 teeth that were coming through - the last one appearing today. Poor kid. That's 4 teeth in 2 weeks.

I had to take him back for a follow-up and his shots and that's when we got his stats. 18 lbs 14 oz, 28 1/4 inch long.

The kid will Not Stop EATING. He easily out eats Alison at dinner every night. For example, Monday night we had barbecued chicken thighs - he ate almost 2 of them. Last night we had lasagne. He ate a bunch and then had 3 small bowls of it for lunch today. Not to mention he wants to nurse all the time.

I made some soup last week and tried to give him some of the kidney beans straight from the can and he was not interested at all. When we actually sat down and had the soup, he was loving them. Because they were warm. And seasoned. The other night, the chicken night, I made an apple crisp after dinner. Andrew was somewhere down the hall and he heard the oven timer go off. He headed over to me (by the oven) and I picked him up and started to walk out of the kitchen. He kept looking around me to see what I had taken out of the oven! He didn't see me make it, he didn't see me pulling it out, but he knows what the timer sounds like and he knows what food smells like! He had a big bowl of that for breakfast the next morning. I think I have a foodie-in-training. And if we can afford to keep him fed, I really think I'm going to like it!

He is a growing boy, for sure. I'm pretty certain he's the same size Alison was at a year. I'm already having to cook for 4 grown people, it's crazy.

okay, so it's not ALL about Andrew, here's a little about Alison:

she is my best apple peeler. She's done all the apples for the last 4-5 pies/crisps I've made.

Thanks Auntie Willow and Ashleigh (and grandma for bringing it)! She loves her new doll bed. Her donkey and panda get to sleep in there a lot - especially since they make sleeping noises.

just some leafy fall pictures

because the sun was too bright - this is what their faces looked like when they looked at me.

We went to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Saturday night. It was really nice and MUCH better than last year's. We actually ate at 7, instead of 10:30. Thanks to Karen for lending me her dress!

I took this picture of Alison the day after Halloween. I think this is the post-sugar coma look. We were 'sweeping' leaves off the deck. That or playing in them. One of the two.

These two really have a good time playing together. This makes me very happy. I think it makes Alison happy too.

It's really funny how they light up when the other one comes in the room. If Alison is in her room 'napping' or in the morning before she's up, Andrew will crawl to her bedroom door and push it open. I have to be careful he doesn't wake her up! She's always asking where he is too. "Did you put Andrew to bed?" "Where's Andrew?" I took her grocery shopping with me this morning and we left him home with Nick and she was confused she was not going to have her back seat buddy by her side.

These next two pictures crack me up. I got a new storage bin that isn't as tall as the other one. Andrew was going after something at the bottom and was pulling off quite the balancing act.

And yes, he did end up falling in.

How to enjoy yourself on Halloween

Order up some perfect blue skies and warm weather. And throw in some autumnal colors.

Go to the pumpkin patch and play in the cornbox.

Slide out of the bouncy house on the big slide with a friend on either side to make it less scary.

Unknowingly wear a matching shirt with you neighbor friend - and look doubly cute.

Swing on the swing with your mom.

Feed some animals.

Pick out a pumpkin.

Climb on some straw.

Swing tandem.

And dress up for some trick or treating!

Tagged, I'm it!

Okay, this is like the 4th time I've been tagged in the last few weeks, but this one I don't really have to think about - so sorry to the list girls, I'll get to them eventually.

Here is the 4th picture, from the 4th file in my pictures on the computer. This was taken June 1, 2006 in Oceanside. I believe this was baby Alison's first experience with green beans. She liked them then, I wish she wasn't so picky now!

I tag Robyn, Abi, Allyn, Debbie, and anyone else who feels so inclined. Don't worry, my feelings won't be hurt if you don't do it.

only the cool boys wear pink

I was getting ready in a rush the other day and kept hearing Alison say, "Andrew's a princess, Andrew's a princess!" I didn't pay much attention to her because everything is princess related lately. As much as I've tried, you really can't escape this 2-year old girl princess thing. Anyway, when I looked over to check on them to see how they were doing (playing quite well together, actually) , this is what I saw.

Oh, the horror. This will be good blackmail for down the road.

Yeah, Andrew. I kind of feel the same way about you in pink.

from Alison's perspective

I'm not really sure why, but she knows how to use a camera. She got a hold of Uncle David's camera while he was down here one day and took this picture. From her vantage point, he does look tall and scary. Just like an orthodontist should look.

Andrew stealing, Alison singing

Andrew loves to eat. Everything. I have to be careful because not everything agrees with him just yet. I keep forgetting that - he's only 8 months old after all. The other day Alison was eating her leftover pizza and he kept coming up behind her, pulling himself up and then trying to reach it. She was in the way so he came around to the other side. He was on a mission!! So here he is and I got Alison singing a song too - just because she loves to sing and I wanted to get it on video. More of her singing to come, I'm sure. Oh, and don't mind her taking a snack break mid-song. She just couldn't wait.

grandma speed vs. kid speed

I have so many pictures to post from our last couple of weeks with Grandma and our trip to Busch Gardens yesterday. But I thought this picture was interesting. It was a mistake - I've been learning how to use my aperture settings so I don't have to use a flash inside. The downside is the shutter is open longer and busy kids don't always come out in focus. That is certainly true in this picture. But I thought it was a funny representation of the different speeds at which kids and adults move.

Maybe this is why I feel so tired all the time?

We're so glad when daddy comes home!

Nick is finally home from his month-long business trip! Alison really is happy to have him back. She's just going through her "contrary" phase. If I want her to do something I have to tell her NOT to do it. Like, "Don't you even think about going to take a nap!!!"

And this is how Andrew looks every time he sees daddy. Permagrin.

The bummer is that now I have to take Grandma to the airport to go home today. We sure have had fun with her!

isometric exercise with weights

My brother, David, took Alison for a run the other morning. Then he was doing some post-workout stretching and stuff. Alison decided she needed to help him out. Or something.

When we went to the park last week Alison wanted to help push Andrew. She almost got knocked over a couple of times. When he started grabbing his toes like this I decided the title "monkey-boy" was going to fit.