1st Annual Adults Only Dyers' Halloween Bash!

On Friday, Oct. 30th Lois and Clark (pictured below) hosted the the first annual adults only Dyers' Halloween bash. The theme for costumes this year was movie couples (though there were some slight deviations). We had so much fun and a great time of fellowship with friends!

Some others in attendance were:

a tooth and the tooth fairy mrs. duggar and her 18th child johnny cash and june carter pauly bleeker and juno (with real baby) pauly bleeker and juno (with fake baby inside) olive oil and popeye edward (oh, he sparkles!) and bella jack and kate (from Lost) - with Dharma beer! mr. incredible and elasti-girl king kong and jessica lange What a fun time! Looking forward to next year!

pumpkin carving...

Last Wednesday evening we carved the pumpkins that we picked. It brought back so many memories from when I was little of sitting around our kitchen table with my dad and brother, newspaper spread out everywhere where... We carved them on the porch and it was a little dark! Caleigh really enjoyed scooping out the seeds with a spoon. She did try it once with her hand and then spent about 10 minutes trying to shake off the goo that was sticking to her arm.

Daddy and daughter, hard at work.

The finished product! (a little ghetto and a little 'scarier' than we had hoped for, but not bad for the first time in probably 15 years).

pump and accidently dump

So today at work was one of the worst days - not because of the work I was doing or because it was busy, but because of my pumping mishap. So here is the story. I went to pump at work at like 9:15. When I sat down and started to pump I realized that one side of the pump wasn't working. So I tried to fix it. The first thing I did was to switch out pumps. This didn't work, it was still broken. The I tried switching around parts and figured that my tubing must have a leak in it somewhere. So I went up to 8 tower (the post-partum floor) and harassed a nurse into giving me spare tubing that is not supposed to be given out - because naturally I am somewhat freaking out - I have limited time, I have to pump, and everyone is watching the clock waiting for me to get back... So I run back down to the employee lactation room on the 7th floor and try the new parts. They do not work. At this point I am SO frustrated. So... I go and rummage through the drawers and find some more spare parts. I try changing out various valves and what not and finally it starts working!

I am overjoyed that it is working and so I am praying and thanking God that it is finally working after 30 minutes (more than half the time I am allotted to pump). And then I feel something warm and wet on my leg. And I look down and realize that in my haste to diagnose the problem with the pump I have forgotten the most basic thing of all - to screw on the bottle to collect the milk! (as in the picture above - see how the bottles are so nicely screwed in). And so I realize that I have been pumping for the last 3 minutes not in to a bottle but all over my scrub pants. Great. So now it looks like I have peed 3 ounces of urine all over my pants... and not only that but it is going to reek in about 2 hours of rotted breastmilk. So... I call my friend Pamela who is working downstairs in the pharmacy and she brings me a pair of OR scrub pants. So after I get done pumping I am stuck in this tiny room with 6 other girls and I have to change out of my navy scrubs into some ill-fitting, 3 sizes too large bright green OR scrub pants (with my mismatched navy blue scrub top). After all that - which I actually had to laugh at because it was very comical (and I told several other people who all had a good laugh) - the redeeming factor was that we got some free navy scrubs (also at least 3 sizes too large) for pharmacy week. So I was eventually able to change into my free CMC navy scrubs and head home, 1 hour late, with a large bag of laundry.

milestones

We had a great weekend and a really fun time at our first annual adult's only Halloween Bash on Friday night, along with trick-or-treating with family and friends on Saturday. I will post about those events later, but I wanted to share some major milestones that Caleigh has been accomplishing...

• On Saturday we got her a big girl bed (a toddler bed from craigslist). We weren't planning to move her into it so soon but as soon as she saw it she was absolutely obsessed with it and I think it would have been harder to keep her out of it. We have joked that some parents have to figure out how to keep their kid in the bed - with Caleigh we have to try to keep her out of the bed. Anyways - we were worried because Saturday night was the time change ('fall back'), Halloween (hello sugar high), and the first night in her big girl bed. Once we put her in bed for nighttime (specifically not telling her 'do not get out of bed' as to not plant the idea in her head) she cried out once or twice like usual (queen of stalling already!) and then we didn't hear from her until she fell out of bed at 7:15 in the morning. We think she was already awake but playing when she fell out. She did perfect on Sunday night sleeping from 7:45ish until 7:45 am Monday morning. She is in there napping now and really is doing so well. The crib is still in her room as we are hoping to move Andrew in there around Christmas time and she always talks about it being 'Andrew's crib.'
• Then on Sunday night we took off her diaper to change her before bed and she said 'mama, tt (what we call urine), potty' and so we told her to run to the potty - so she ran in to the bathroom and sat on her potty for a little while looking at a book. After a couple of minutes she actually tt'ed in the potty! We were SO proud and made a big deal about it and gave her some candy corn (her new favorite treat) as a prize. Then again today when I was changing her before her nap she said she had to tt on the potty and she ran in there and did it again. So... I can't decide what to do. I really don't want to potty train her yet just because of hearing how much easier it is in the spring than in the winter but she really does seem pretty ready. I think we will hope to wait until after Christmas and then we will try training her in January-ish. But SO proud.

So many big accomplishments for my little 23 month old!

pics at the pumpkin patch

These are the pictures we took after the wagon ride at the pumpkin farm we went to last weekend. Note to self: next year dress Andrew in a fall-ish looking outfit.At least one of them is smiling for the camera. Slight chaos... Can't get them to both look at the camera and smile -

pumpkin picking!

Last Friday we had such a fun family outing! We headed down to south Charlotte and went to Hunter Farms - they had an awesome (45 minute!) wagon ride that stopped at a little barn with a petting zoo. They handed out food for the kids to feed the animals. Caleigh was SO brave, she actually stuck out her hand and fed the goats and the sheep (a huge change from our trip to the zoo in July) - we were so proud of her. After the hay ride we went and picked out pumpkins (each of the kids got a free pumpkin - 5 pounds or less) and took some pictures. We had a blast and hope to make it a yearly tradition. Enjoy the plethora of pictures!

a little more lovin'

Just the day to day sibling love...

andrew is 4 months!

Here is a video of our little man laughing it up right around when he turned 4 months old (2 weeks ago!).

Andrew's 4 month stats:

• 15 lb 1 oz (55th%)
• 26 inches (86th%)
• head circumference: 16 1/4 inch (26th%)

We were on a good schedule until the week that he turned 4 months old. Since then we have been in the midst of an intense growth spurt - sometimes eating every 2 hours (up to 7 times a day), which is completely exhausting and frustrating because he is so unpredictable. Thankfully his nights have still been great and after waking him for a dreamfeed at 9ish he will sleep through the night until 8 am. We tried solids because of his frequent desire to eat but he really isn't ready - he doesn't open his mouth and when he does and we manage to get some cereal in there he spits it right back out with a disgusted look on his face. I am still nursing him and am still dairy-free due to his milk protein allergy. I have tried being a little less strict about my diet and sometimes he will do totally fine with it and sometimes he will have a really fussy day. The hard thing is that now that I know a potential cause to his fussiness I will always feel guilty whenever he has a bad day - with Caleigh she would have bad or off days too just like any baby would - with Andrew I feel hyper-aware of them. He really is such a social baby - that is the best word I can think of to describe our adorable little guy at this stage. He will stare a hole into you until you look at him and then as soon as he sees your eyes he will give this huge open mouthed drooly grin - I love it. A funny thing about his 4 month check-up - our pediatrician, Dr. Ball (who we love!) was holding the light in front of his eyes to make sure he could track it from side to side... she tried it with the light on in the room and with the light off in the room but Andrew wouldn't look away from her eyes. Finally she resorted to moving her own head back and forth and he followed that with no problems. I really can't imagine life without our little guy - we love him so much and it feels like he has always been a part of our family.

is it already time for this?

The title of this post describes the general feeling I have about the stages that each of my kids are at - I can't believe I have pictures here of Caleigh on the potty and Andrew is already loving the Exersaucer. Caleigh has been talking all about the potty so one day last week we bought her a potty of her own. Here she is trying it out...

And here is her saying, "I did it." To be clear she didn't actually 'do' anything besides sit on the potty and talk about it a whole lot. To be honest I am so glad that she still hasn't done anything in it yet because I am totally not ready to potty train her yet - we are leaning towards waiting until the spring to attempt that fete. Somehow potty training a kid seems like the hardest thing I will have to tackle in my parenting years to date. And our little A is a big boy - already spending time in the Exersaucer and absolutely loving it. I just CAN'T believe he is 4 months old. Where has the time gone? Caleigh also thinks the Exersaucer is one of the best things she has seen in a while and she enjoys entertaining Andrew while he is in it. Wow time is flying by. And there are 34 degree lows in Charlotte this week. I think fall just totally passed me by.

2 girls, 2 dolls

caleigh loved her playtime last week with milla!

sweet boy

Love this picture of my little guy! I think I caught him mid-laugh. He has really been laughing a lot lately - especially when you gently tickle his chin - it is absolutely adorable.

And mid-roll... And talking... loudly... We really love this sweet little guy so much! We had a hard transition with him and a hard several months adjusting and sacrificing, but praise the Lord - things are SO much better now. I am really really enjoying both Caleigh and Andrew's ages right now and all the time I am able to spend with them. We are definitely now in the midst of the 'stuck at home phase' as Andrew is taking 3 naps a day and won't sleep in his carseat at all. In the midst of it I really am so thankful for my sweet little family!