November Moments

November was a pretty routine month. I think things were fairly tame to give us a break before the upcoming Christmas rush. However, one thing we decided to do a bit early this year was get our Christmas photos done. Really, this year, it was an opportunity get an updated family portrait, with Baby Ryan.





The kids handled the photos well this year. Considering their ages and different personalities, we managed to get a decent family photo, and some good photos of each of them individually.

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Andrea went to her first birthday party at a friend's house on the 20th. It was her best friend Emily's 5th birthday, and the party had a princess theme. It was Andrea's dream come true. They even had a Princess there to entertain the girls at the party. She was so excited to go!

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Andrea has developed a passion for putting on puppet shows. The puppets are usually paper bag puppets she makes, or she uses some of her small dolls. However, she kept complaining because she didn't have a good puppet theatre to present her shows. Mommy, who is not at all talented in the craft area but was tired of the whining, finally found some big cardboard packaging and voila--puppet theatre! Andrea added on the poster she won at school to give it some visual interest.

Her first puppet show in the new theatre was a great success. It was about Andrea and Emily having a party (big surprise there).

We brought the puppet theatre down to show Kevin and Daddy. Kevin wanted his turn to put on a show, too.

In typical Kevin fashion, a minor disaster ensued. Conveniently, I was snapping a photo of his puppet show just as he knocked over the theatre. I love the genuine reaction of shock and mischievous laughter on his face.

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A day or two later, Andrea lost her third tooth. This one was a big front tooth, so the gap is quite noticeable. Daddy loves it. He calls it her "hockey player" smile. It's too cute.

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Ryan loves remote controls, just like his Daddy. Whenever Ryan sees one in my hand or within reach, he grabs for it . . . typical little man. I told Santa about this, so I'm pretty sure Ryan will be getting a toy TV remote this year.

In other Ryan news, he is making some progress. He rolls all over the place now, so the safety gate has officially gone up at the stairs. He also sits unsupported more steadily now. He's really building strength in his arms, and pushes his upper body up well. In fact, he's started to scoot/crawl backwards a bit. Now he just needs to figure out how to lift his bum and get his back legs going, to go forward. I think he'll be crawling soon. He still puts good weight on his legs, but is not making any attempt to take steps yet. He isn't pulling himself up yet, but he's getting stronger when I hold him by the arms/fingers.

In terms of communication, be says "Dada," "Mum/Mumma," "Baba" and makes a lot of other word-like sounds. I think he's said "all done" a few times ("ah dunnn") and we've even caught him saying something like "Aya" for Andrea once or twice. He loves to hum, especially when he's falling asleep (probably because I hum to him when I rock him).

His eating and sleeping habits are still fairly infant-ish, which is frustrating. He does not tolerate lumpy foods well; he always gags and/or spits them out. This concerns me because he's starting daycare in 3 weeks, and it's much easier for everyone if he's on regular solids by then. At this point, he won't even eat lumpy baby food, though. We're working on it. As for sleeping, his naps are still irregular, and he's still up once or twice a night. This was also something I had hoped would be settled before I go back to work. My other two kids started sleeping through the night around 5 months old, when they started on solids (baby cereal). I'm not sure why Ryan isn't doing this yet.

Generally, though, Ryan is a happy baby and I just love cuddling him. His eyes are beautiful, his smile sweet, and I love his giggles. I am not looking forward to returning to work in January!

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween this year. First, it was on a weekend, so the pace was a bit more leisurely; second, we also celebrated Gram Gagnon's birthday (which is Nov. 1) on Halloween morning; and finally, it was Ryan's first Halloween (yay!).


We carved our pumpkins the morning before Halloween. My "Little Pumpkin" was happy to sit in his high chair and watch. He also tried to use some of the mini-pumpkins for shot-put! One landed on Mommy's toe (ouch!), but I guess it was my fault for letting him play with them.

Andrea was asking if we could make pumpkin cookies and pumpkin pie. I suppose that's why Kevin got hungry!

I was trying to get them to say "Cheese," and Kevin was squinting his eyes shut every time!

Andrea wasn't all that impressed with the pumpkin guts. It took a lot of persuading to get her to participate in this part, but Daddy can make her laugh anytime.

Kevin dove right in to the pumpkin guts. He thought they were kind of weird, but he didn't mind holding them for a bit.

Here is Andrea posing with her finished pumpkin. She wanted it to be a girl (thus the drawn-on hair bow), and she named it Andrea Pumpkinhead.

Daddy was having fun grossing out the kids with his pumpkin-guts antics.

They're all done! Here's my gang, posing with their finished products.

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On Halloween morning, we went out for brunch with the Gagnons and then back to Gram and Papa's house to celebrate Gram's birthday (which would be the next day).

Hannah and Izzy wore their costumes in the morning for Gram and Papa to see, since they couldn't stop by at trick-or-treat time. Our little gang dressed in orange-and-black theme for the morning: Kevin and Andrea had Halloween shirts, and Ryan had Halloween socks.

The bigger kids got Halloween treat bags from Gram and Papa, but Ryan got a special soft vampire toy. He was quite interested in checking it out. It was too cute to be scary!

Meanwhile, the others were getting into their Halloween treats. As you can see by the look on everyone's faces, choosing which candy to eat first is serious business!

This is what little faces look like after an injection of candy: happy!

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Later, at trick-or-treat time, we started out from Gram and Papa's like we usually do. Here, the kids collected even more candy, and we got some pictures of them in their costumes:

Kevin as Thomas the Train

Andrea as The "Pretty" Witch

Ryan as a Cute and Cuddly Lion

Ryan's enthusiasm didn't last too long. He's getting over a cold, teething, and hasn't slept well in 2 weeks. He was already sleepy by the time we left Gram and Papa's--and we hadn't even started trick-or-treating yet!

Anyways, we left Gram and Papa's and trick-or-treated our way toward home. Papa came along with us. Ryan and I settled in to hand out candy at home, but the others continued on down the street. About 45 minutes later, they dropped off Andrea (she was ready to eat some candy!), but Kevin went back out for more with Daddy and Papa. He was loving it this year! When they finally got back, Daddy and the kids took over candy distribution. We had a good turnout: probably 120-150 kids this year.