Happy Birthday Emma!

....and to celebrate let's go to the doctor's office, put 4 holes in your legs and break your heart :(

On the upside we do get to measure and collect the important "baby data", so here it is:

Emma 12 month height 30.5", weight 24lb3oz, head 47.25cm

Compare with:-

Anna 12 month height 29.5", weight 18lb, head 48cm

Jakob 12 month height 31", weight 22lb10oz, head don't know but I'm guessing it was about the same as the girls.

Last night we had some pumpkin birthday cake with the family...

I think she approved.

Somehow she managed to skip her regular nap so by evening time she was getting tired

...really, really tired!

Emma's Walker

Well, Emma has decided she's ready to try walking on her own terms: a stable rocking chair and a slow steady pace.

Fast forward 80 or 90 years and she'll probably be walking in exactly the same way again!

Preschool buddies

Anna's preschool class had a little Halloween party last week and even got to go "Trick or Treating" at the school nurse's door and the receptionist's desk. Can anyone figure out (as I did that day) why Anna wanted to be a Unicorn???

Anna's best buddy at school is Spencer (below), who is like the boy version of Anna. I swear those guys are like twins!!!! They made ghosts from white footprints. The highlight of the year so far though, was when Teacher Pam came to our house for the Parent Teacher Conference. Anna was so excited and now of course her question every day is "When is teacher Pam going to come to my house again?"

TRICK OR TREAT

We love to go over to Grandma's house and gather with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins and then Trick or Treat around our neighborhood together. Halloween this year was quite warm, but at least I wasn't heavily pregnant this time!

With cousin Kailin, a Lazy Town butterfly (above), and Tigger Zac is all sacked out (below).

Evolution, part 3: The Chigger

I'm so glad babies don't care what they are going to be for Halloween, as long as it's comfortable!

Emma was a cute, fat baby chick (which I bought to match Anna's chicken rider costume) for the carnival, and then for Trick or Treating she was Tigger (which I bought to match Anna's Winnie the Pooh option). I'm NEVER going to match the kids' costumes AGAIN!

The one consolation was that Emma's Tigger matched her little cousin Zac's Tigger. CUTE!

Evolution, part 2: The Unicorn

Anna loves asking somebody what they want to be for Halloween. However, when we asked her, she came up with a different answer every time. It went like this: Kangaroo, Elephant, Octopus (at this point I stopped researching costumes on ebay!), Ghost, Duck, Robot (that was on the day we made Robot1.0). I soon realised that since Anna kept changing her mind, it didn't matter what she was going to be and so I decided she could wear Jakob's old Winnie the Pooh costume, or Grandma's chicken riding costume. Jakob thought I was a terrible mother not letting her be (I think it was a Ghost at this point) what she wanted to be. I tried to explain my wisdom. Anyways, on the Sunday before Halloween we asked our sunbeam class what they were going to be for Halloween and when it was Anna's turn she announced "Unicorn". Just one more to add to the list, I thought. Then later at dinner time Anna said Unicorn again. And on Monday she said Unicorn, and on Tuesday she said Unicorn. Uh-Oh!

Well, since Anna had now apparantly made a selection, I relented and checked Craigslist and found a unicorn costume, the right size, for $2, and only 10 minutes away. But just to prove my point that I was right all along, as soon as Jarod left to go buy the unicorn costume, Anna said "But I don't want to be a unicorn, I want to be an Elephant". My simple response was "YOU ARE GOING TO BE A UNICORN... OR WINNIE THE POOH OR RIDING A CHICKEN!!!"

She was a unicorn. In fact she was a white unicorn for the carnival and Preschool party and then for Trick or Treat she was a much cuter pink and white unicorn that we borrowed from another preschool mom.

Oh, and if you are wondering why Anna suddenly settled upon the choice of Unicorn, check out the Preschool Buddies post!

Evolution, part 1: The Robot

A few years ago, Jakob wanted to be a robot for Halloween. He even drew his own design. This is how it ended up.

Yes, a last minute heavy dose of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat put the robot on hold.

This year Jakob saw a picture in a magazine of a robot "mean candy-eating machine" and so we made Robot1.0 in time for a class Halloween party last week. (He took the box off for the whole party) Then for the church Halloween Carnival we added silver shoes, shiney knees and a silver pumpkin bucket for Robot2.0. (He took the box off after about 10 minutes).

He finally agreed the box was not a good idea (the magazine robot had been a box, you see) so we added a slinky on his hat and shiney stuff on his shirt and christmas lights on his shirt too, for Robot3.0 (see Trick or Treat post.)

remodelification

For the last couple of weeks we have been (finally!) working on remodelling the master bedroom.

First we had to pack up the entire contents of the room (you can imagine that after almost 6 years untouched, there was quite a lot). Then we removed the built-in cabinets put in by the previous homeowners. Also removed the waterbed base that our mattress has been on for the last 9 years! Next painting the walls (no pictures...what were we thinking?!!). Next we removed the old carpet and installed a birch colored laminate floor from our good friend Ikea.

After new baseboards, we put together our Ikea Magiker cabinets that we bought a couple of years ago when we discovered they were being discontinued! Aaaargh! We're sure glad to have them out of the garage at last. Jakob was a good helper at this stage, whereas Anna prefered to just jump on our mattress which was out in the front room.

And the final "Ikea showroom" look.

Now we just need to move our stuff back in...