Our crazy October!

October has been really busy for us the last 3 years. Year one, we were getting ready to have and did have Isaac (who is peeking around the corner from his room, even though I've put him to bed like 4 times. He says "I don't sweep!"). Year two, I just started going back to work, had a first birthday party to plan, and now family Halloween costumes to boot. Year three (this year), I started back to work again (after having Mia in January), had a second year birthday party to plan, and family Halloween costumes for 4.

Less than two months later we hit Christmas. Less than one month after that we arrive at Mia's birthday. I feel like I'm running a mental marathon from Oct-Jan, but it forces me to simplify a lot of things and not go too overboard with parties and holiday stuff like I would tend to do otherwise, so it's probably a good thing.

For Isaac's bday it was really a no brainer to have a Toy Story themed birthday party-complete with pizza planet pizza, potato head chips, space ranger snacks and alien punch. The kids had colouring pages and tons of balloons to play with. My awesome mother in-law even found toy story balloons and birthday banner to hang on our door. My parents have had every birthday party at their house, in Calgary, so I have to thank them for that.

Isaac was much more interested in the goings on this year. He loved all the Toy Story paraphernalia and was even into opening presents. Last year he could have cared less about presents. He kept asking for presents for a few weeks after that haha.

Since his party was 10 days before his real birthday, we saved most of his presents from us for then. We had pizza-again, since it's his favourite, and I made chocolate lava cakes, which are so much better than cupcakes. And Isaac loves anything chocolate.

That weekend we went back down to Calgary and trick or treated in my old neighbourhood. Because we didn't get enough Toy Story on a daily basis, we decided to go as Toy Story characters for Halloween as well! Isaac was Woody, Mia was Hamm, Gordon was Sid and yours truly as Mr Potato Head. I'm not really big into Halloween so I don't like spending a lot of money on costumes. Apart from Isaac's costume (which his grandma and grandpa bought him), I put the rest together myself.

We had Isaac practice knocking on our door and saying "trick or treat!" all week, because he tends to be shy when he's put on the spot. Candy is a pretty powerful motivator though, and after the first  few houses Isaac would run up to the door, knock until they answered and yell "TWICK OR TWEEEEEET!!!!!".  They got a pretty big haul, and we may or may not still be helping them eat it...

We also went to went to a Halloween party hosted by our friends and had a lot of fun visiting and stuffing our faces!

Isaac getting a smooch from Nells!

We may have many busy Octobers yet to come, but at least I know they'll be full of good memories!

Funnies

At this age, Isaac does and says so many funny things that they outnumber the "new" things he can do.
If I could follow Isaac around with a video camera all day, or a voice recorder, I would. Gordon and I laugh daily...hourly sometimes at the things he comes up with. Unfortunately I can't immortalize everything he says, but this post is dedicated to those things that I did manage to write down!

He loves to play pretend
-he pretends to drive everywhere. He always remembers to brush the fake snow off the car, unlock it, put his seatbelt on. Then he gets out, always locks the door, gets gas, his orangina (the treat him and my dad go get together when he's here), and sometimes groceries.
-in (I hope) true boy fashion, he pretends that everything is a weapon to be fought with
-he pretends to cook, so I always have to check the oven before I turn it on, otherwise there may be a pot or pan in there. At least he knows to put oven mitts on haha.

He's need an implanted GPS
In nursery they call him the "escape artist"

We have really high tech anti escape methods at home

-at our ward Christmas party Isaac was playing with the other kids in the hallways, and Gordon had just come from checking on him. Not two minutes later, the bishop's wife came over to me carrying Isaac and saying that he was found outside. In -30 weather. We don't know how he got out, I found out he wasn't the only kid, but we were SO grateful-once he was in bed and we processed the worst case scenarios. Ugh.

-during choir, he ran out of the chapel, so I went to go check on him (with Mia in tow). Fortunately I had the wherewithal to remove my heels, in case a chase followed. He was pushing open a door, that I thought would be too heavy for him to open, so I stayed at the end of the hallway telling him to come back. The door led to a narrow section of parking lot, before hitting a very busy street. He somehow managed to open the door just enough to squeeze and bolted outside. I put (probably none too gently) Mia down, tore out the door and across the snowy frozen parking lot in bare feet screaming Isaac's name. He screeched when he hear me coming and looped around a van so I couldn't catch him. Then he biffed it. Thank you ice.

He's a mischief magnet
-he was refusing to go for a nap, so I told him when I came back from doing laundry (the laundry room is right outside our suite), he was going for one. When I came back, to my not-surprise, he had locked me out. Luckily I have a key hidden so mama won on that one.

-he pressed the panic alarm for ADT security on my parents' key fob while they were out, and we got a call from the security company requesting the secret password my parents had given them. I had no clue what it was, and the guy with sympathy in his voice told me he had to proceed as though it was a break in. I kept talking to him trying to stall him, while Gordon finally got my mum on her cell. Crisis averted.

-that next morning we were leaving from my parents for BC. In all the commotion of trying to get ready, I noticed Isaac was missing. Gordon and I immediately thought he had escaped outside again since all the doors to the rooms were closed and he wasn't answering. But when we opened the doors to check the rooms, we found him in my sister's bedroom scarfing down chocolate he had pilfered from his stocking as fast as he could. This happened several more times over the following week at grandma and grandpa's.

-one day I was going into the kitchen for something, and Isaac stopped me and said "No go in kitchen mama". I noticed a candy hidden in his hand and asked why I couldn't go in. He didn't answer me, so I obliged to see what he would do. I watched him from around the corner, hide behind the high chair and try to open the candy wrapper. Finally I said Isaac you're not eating candy and he says "I'm just looking mama!".

Isaac-isms
Gordon was growing his mustache for Mo-vember.
Isaac points to his mustache and says "I want that mustache".

I picked Mia up from her crib one morning and Isaac yells "NO MIA THAT'S MY MUMMY!"

Mia started crying when we were skyping my parents, so Isaac explains "Mia no like granny grampy anymore".

Sometimes when Mia cries Isaac will try and comfort her by saying "Stop crying Mia, mummy feed you".

He wanted to bring his bear to church, but right after we put his coat and boots on and before we walked out the door Isaac says "Oh no mama! Bobo be cold! No coat on!"  

Gordon wouldn't let Isaac have some of his pop so Isaac persuades him by saying "Daddy, show kindness."

When he's taking a shower "No go poo poo in tub. Mummy be sad".

Sometimes if I ask him if he's poopy "No, I just tooted".

I explained his name was "Isaac Nish". He says "No, just Isaac".

He always feigns deafness if he doesn't want to do something. I'll ask him to do something, he'll wait 10 seconds and then yell "WHAAAAAAAAT?" or "WHAT'S THAAAAAAAAT?" or this week "Huh? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Sometimes when he plays with Mia "Miaaaaaa! Come on. Take my hand!"

He was scared of our New Year's fireworks so for the rest of the week he would tell us the following story "Isaac no like fireworks. Too loud. Isaac cried."

Still a baby to me!

This is likely my last post about Mia before she turns one in 3 short weeks! She really still seems like such a baby to me, whereas Isaac seemed so much older.

Part of it, I'm sure, is how perfectly tiny and petite she is. Only 15lbs8oz at 10.5 months (3rd percentile) and 27.5 inches (25th percentile). I love how small she is.

She has 5 teeth, 4 of which were between 9 and 10 months, and 6,7 & 8 are on their way. Unfortunately the cluster teething has left me with a very miserable, clingy girl sometimes. I brought our outdoor carrier in just to be able to get stuff done without her hanging onto my legs, or crying hysterically if I put her down. Not every day is like that, but when you have a girl who was perfectly happy and content all day for the first 7-8 months of her life, it's a rough adjustment.

She loves dolls and stuffed toys, and will give them kisses and hugs.

Her temper is starting to resemble her big brother's, and can probably burst your ear drums with the force of her screeching.

She puts everything in her mouth. Plastic, paper, bugs, lint, random bits of nothing that you wouldn't even notice if they weren't in her mouth. I sweep at least 3 times a day just to save me from fishing stuff out of her mouth all day.

She shakes her head no when she doesn't want something. If she wants something she'll just smile and stare at you.

She eats almost anything you put in front of her as long as she can feed it to herself. Sometimes I just put food on a fork and then leave the fork on her tray.

She's been weaned from bottles since she was 9 months. She was so much easier to wean than her brother.

She takes one to two naps a day, and sleeps 10-12 hours through the night. Once she was only waking up once a night (which was the difficult part), it was so easy to get her to go straight through the night. No cry it out needed.

She adores Finding Nemo, so if ever there is a cranky-miserable-no-good-rotten day, I know I can get a little peace and quiet by wrapping her in a blanket and putting it on. It guarantees me a shower at the very least.

She will take steps on her own, and she can walk around the whole house just holding onto your one finger, she just hasn't found the nerve to take more than three steps at a time. She's been able to stand on her own for months, so I'm sure she'll pick it up really quickly.

I still can't believe she is going to be one soon!