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Here it is! My Halloween post...finally!
Oh how I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday for many reasons. Yes, my birthday is the next day, November 1st. So, of course, that has always made it fun.
I have always loved dressing up, trick or treating, sorting my candy, and enjoying the same dinner we have now for 32 years...sausage, green peppers and onions. It's what my mom ate the night before she gave birth to me. Every year she made it for dinner on Halloween night. We now have the same tradition at my house. It's the best dinner to enjoy when you're all done trick or treating in the cool weather!
I couldn't be more excited to share this fun holiday with my two little loves!
GranMom, GP, Aunt Krissy, and Grandma & Grandpa Witkowski came over right after school to help get the kids ready for trick or treating and to take pictures of them in their costumes.
Check out Little Red Riding Hood...
and the Big Bad Wolf!
We went trick or treating with Aunt Krissy and GP. GranMom stayed back at our house to pass out candy. Grandma & Grandpa Witkowski headed back to pass out candy at their house.
We had a blast. I think McKenna is developing my love for this holiday...she could have trick or treated all night long! Benny loved all of the kids walking around and saying hi to all of our neighbors. We ended up going to all of the houses on our block!
trick or treat!
GP in his annual scary mask! I'm mad I didn't think about keeping the theme and dressing him up as the Granny!
Benny loves his Godmother
Kenna isn't scared! She knew it was GP the whole time!
She has yet to develop my Halloween sorting habit...instead she dug right into her candy! She loved the suckers.
McKenna loved the fact that our doorbell kept ringing and kids were at the door. She would run to the door with me and smile at all of the kids yelling "Trick or Treat!"
GP gave Kenna this dog as a Halloween gift. She has since named it, Pep!
I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! Until next year!
Dear McKenna,
18 months old. How can that be? You're 18 months old.
What an amazing last three months it's been for you. I can't believe how much growing you've done.
18 months old, October 9, 2011
Oh, how you love to brush your teeth! I couldn't even get your toothbrush and toothpaste out of your hands to take your 18 month pictures on your rocker! If we go upstairs, the first thing you say is "TEETH!" that means you want to go into mom & dad's bathroom to get your toothbrush. I could think of so many worse habits, but sometimes we just don't have time to sit up in the bathroom waiting for you to finish, especially when you want to brush your teeth 3, 4 times a day! We now make it part of your routine with Daddy when he gets home from work. As soon as he walks in the door, you run up to him, first yelling "DAD!" then asking "TEETH?"
We met with Dr. Kreiling for your 18 month well check. You weighed 20 lbs. 2 oz. (less than 5th percentile), you were 30 3/4" tall (25th percentile), and your head was 17 7/8" (20th percentile). We were very excited that you were 20 pounds! We know you're healthy and that you're just going to be little, but it was nice to see that we're closer to the chart now :) We were a little early on receiving one of your immunizations so the only one you had was the flu shot.
You're kind of in between sizes right now...12 months are starting to get bit small, but 18 months are still too big. You're wearing size 4 diapers and size 4 shoes.
Your vocabulary grows by the day. We are in awe of how many words you have all of a sudden...yes, no, more, car, water (hou), shoes, mom, dad, bye (die), cupcakes, cookies, dog, elephant (you flutter your tongue to say it), gorilla (ga-la-la), geese, horse, three, go, done, keys, egg, Pepper (Pep), bib, Danny (D), Mikey (Key), ball, hot, down, up, walk, hop, help, this, teeth, duck, cheese, socks, eyes, hi, hello (only when you're talking on the phone!)I'm sure I'm missing some...
The only word you're still relying on sign language with is, please. For some reason, you won't try to say it. You sign it every time.
You love to look at books. You don't always want to hear the words in the story, you just want to look at the pictures and point to the object we ask you to touch. Your favorite books are "Wild About Books" (you touch and we name just about every animal in that book!), "I Love Pets" (oh how you love pets!), "Pinkalicious" (you love to point at the cupcakes), "Brown Bear Brown Bear", "Quack, Quack" (a touch and feel book that we like to rub our cheeks on!), and "The Noisy, Noisy Farm" (the newest book to our collection - you touch a little sun in the book to make the animals say their sounds). If there is a dog in the book, or any other animal for that matter, you'll probably like it!
Aunt Lynn, Uncle Rick, Danny & Mikey got you this puppy costume for your first birthday - it finally fits you! You just may be the cutest little puppy :)
Your love for dogs, especially yours, has not diminished at all. If anything it has grown even stronger. You love to give Trippy kisses, you love to play with her, you love to chase her around the house, you love to put her in her cage, you love to get her out of her cage, you love to throw her ball for her, you love to tease her with your cookies, you love to throw your dinner (breakfast and lunch) on the floor for her, you love to give her treats, you love to laugh with her, you love to feed her...you love to do anything that has to do with Trippy. I think these pictures show your love for our sweet puppy, perfectly.
We can't forget your other two favorite puppies...Pepper and Louie! You love to visit Pepper, GranMom and GP's Black Lab. You love to give her Pup-peroni's. When you walk in their house, its the first thing you want to do, so you head right to their laudry room where the treats are kept. You also love Louie, Aunt Lynn & Uncle Rick's Golden Retreiver. You get to play with Louie every Wednesday when Aunt Lynn watches you guys. You love to give Louie food right from you plate and I'm pretty sure Louie loves it too! He gets so excited when we pull up into their driveway! (Aunt Lynn does too!)
Your favorite job around the house...feeding Trippy!
Thanks to our neighbors, we were happy to find out that our dishwasher is magnetic! Our stainless, non-magnetic, refridgerator doesn't work so well for your fridge farm! You are very good at matching the animals and of course hitting the button to play music.
The Baby Einstein DVD, Baby Noah, has become you & Benny's most favorite show. You won't watch any other movie or TV show except for Baby Noah. The two of you just stare at the TV while it is on. You love to look at the animals, dance at the music, and laugh at the silly puppets. You will now grab the remotes and ask us to put it on for you. It makes for a very quiet dinner time!
You still love to take baths. You love the playing and splashing and kicking. You'd stay in there all day if we let you. After Benny gets out we move the bath seats and you "swim" as I drain the water. Oh how you love water!
You still get your binkies for naps and at bed time, but that's the only time. Sometimes you have a hard time with that rule - even though it's been in affect for 6 months now! When we go upstairs, after you brush your teeth or after you take a bath, you sneakily run over to your crib and reach your hand in to grab one of your binkies. If we take it away from you, then you get very upset and throw a tantrum. We're thinking that the binkies won't be around much longer...which won't make for a very good couple of nights, I would imagine. :(
You are such a daredevil! You climb, jump, and run all over the family room couches, chairs, and ottoman. We always have to keep an eye on you. But you are one smart little girl. As soon as we look at you or say something to you then you sit down. Then as soon as we look away, you're right back up. You think it is hilarious. We don't. You have even figured out how to climb up onto your chair at the dinner table.
Temper tantrums have definitely begun. You know what you want and you're not happy when we don't let you have it.
Your eating habits are more of a snacking nature. You'd much rather snack all day than sit down and eat meals. We can't always guarantee we're going to get much in you. But when we serve...Oreos, pancakes, yogurt, cheese, jelly, peanut butter, mandarin oranges, peas, corn, cupcakes, yogurt bites, raisins, puffs, Kix, Cheerios...then we're pretty certain you'll eat. Meat is still out of the question, you immediately spit it out. We can't tell if it's taste or texture that's bugging you so much.
You love to spend time with all of your Grandparents. Grandma & Grandpa Witkowski watch you and Benny while we're at work on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. You love to take walks with them, play on their screened in deck, and play with all of Daddy's toys from when he was a kid at their house. GranMom & GP come over as much as possible too. They come over a lot for dinner during the week. We see them every Friday night for Dateline Friday. We also spend time with them on the weekends. They are our go-to babysitters. They watch you when Daddy and I go out. You love to feed GP. You'll take his fork, get some food on it, put it in his mouth, and then say "Mmmmm". It is so funny to watch. You're always cracking us up with the things you do.
You love talking on the phone. You will grab it and bring it right up to your ear and say "Hello!". We like to call Aunt Krissy, Aunt Beanie, and Aunt Mackie together, although you're not very good at keeping up the conversation. You just say Hello and then walk around with the phone. I usually have to prompt "Bye!" (Die!) and then take the phone from you. All three of your aunts have even called asking for you! They just love you so much!
What an amazing 18 months this has been. I just can't believe it. I'm just so happy to be your Mommy. I don't know what my life would be like without you -- it's something I don't want to think about.
Just know you are the most perfect little girl in the whole world.
I love you, my sweet sweet miracle.
Love,
Mommy
Dear Ben,
You are now 7 months old!
7 months old, October 14, 2011
It sure has been an awesome month for you. You've conquered some major milestones and you've done a lot of growing.
You're in between size 6 months and size 9 months clothes and you wear size 3 diapers.
You love your sister and your puppy very much. You're always trying to crawl after them. You try to pull yourself up on McKenna, but she doesn't like that very much!
I can't believe how old you have seem to become this month. Your gross motor development has skyrocketed! You've graduated from army crawling to crawling on all fours, you sit up on your own, and you're pulling yourself up on EVERYTHING! You've even started to let go of things you're pulling up on. Thank goodness you now know how to ease yourself back down to sitting from standing, so we're not as worried about you falling on your face. Needless to say, you're ALL over the place now!
You love to put my phone and the TV remote in your mouth too. You love to cuddle with your stuffed animals and your blankets. You usually bring your blanket right up to your face and snuggle it with your thumb in your mouth. You are just so stinkin' cute!
You're always sticking out your tongue!
You are such a good boy. You're always so happy and smiling. You only cry when we're not feeding you fast enough or if you're tired. You're just such a sweet boy, who loves everyone.
You're a really good eater. For breakfast you have cereal and a fruit or yogurt, for lunch a fruit and a vegetable and for dinner you have cereal (or oatmeal) a fruit and a vegetable. You always finish all of your food. You like to munch on puffs, cheerios, and yogurt bites. You've gotten really good at picking them up and putting them in your mouth using your pincher grasp. You're always trying to grab our food when we're eating, too. You just want to eat, eat, eat! We're still working on drinking out of a sippy cup. You can bring it up to your mouth, but you still don't understand that you're supposed to tip it up.
Your favorite toys are your activity table, Leap Frog Spin Spin a Letter, and anything Kenna is playing with! You also love Trippy's toys! You're always crawling and grabbing them out of her basket.
You love taking baths. You like to kick and splash and chew on the bath toys. You sit like a big boy in the bath seat. You don't care one bit that it is pink! I think that you love the fact that you get to play with Kenna too and she can't go anywhere!
This month we starting putting on videos for you and McKenna. Wow. We didn't know the affect they'd have! You love to watch the Baby Noah, Baby Einstein DVD... and that's it. If we put on any other movie or TV show and you both could care less, but as soon as Baby Noah is on, your eyes don't leave the screen. You're just like your Daddy when he's watching the Cardinals! You love the animals and you giggle and laugh at the funny things the puppets do. You're just so aware!
It was an awesome month for Daddy. His most favorite team in the whole world, the St. Louis Cardinals, won the World Series. He couldn't be more excited to share it with you and Kenna. Although you guys were asleep for most of the games, we made sure you showed your pride all day long. I'm pretty sure the Cards are now your favorite team too, Daddy won't have it any other way! Go Cards!
You're now able to sit up in the wagon and when it was still warm enough, you loved going for a walk to the park. We're lucky because we have a park right down the street from our house. You like swinging, going down the slide, and playing in the sand box.
Aunt Puggie likes swinging with you!
Oh my sweet boy, just know you are the most perfect little boy in the whole world.
I love you so much.
Love,
Mommy
I'm still working on catching up on our October... this fall has been super busy for us!
On October 15, we headed to Ohio to celebrate Hailey's 7th Birthday. It's been a couple of years since we've been able to make it to Hailey's party, so we made sure we could make the trip this year. It's always a great time getting together with my cousins. We definitely don't get a chance to see each other as much as we'd like!
Grandma Beauty was getting out of the hospital after recovering from a stroke so, we packed the kids up early so we could make a visit to see GG before heading to the party.
Maddie & McKenna eating apples together!
at GG's house the squirrels come right up to the door...McKenna loved watching them
We were very glad that we got a chance to see Grandma Beauty, even if it was only for a short visit.
Benny playing with the party balloons with my cousin Jen and her son, Noah
handsome boy
presents! Along with our annual gift of a new coat, we got her this Littlest Pet Shop toy...I'm pretty sure she preferred the toy! :)
McKenna & Benny made a friend. He was 18 months old too!
Benny getting some kisses from Kim
Aunt Carol, Kim, Aunt Malo, Meg, Jen
McKenna had a blast playing with the balloons with Joshie! He was twirling the balloons around really fast....
...and then this smart girl tried to do it too! soooo funny!
kisses Good-night after a fun-filled party
my Hailey Girl
Brian & Dino...a dog...not to be confused with a horse
perspective 
Hailey & McKenna playing with Hailey's brand new Barbie Dream Townhouse
Benny wanted to play too!
Giddy-up!
Meg, Mike, & Hailey, thank you so much for having us over to celebrate Hailey's big #7! We had a blast! We hope to see you guys soon. We love you!
