Spooky!

What a fun day! Michael had a costume contest at work today. He decided to go as the Cat in the Hat since Ruby and Eliza Claire had Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes. This morning I asked if I needed to bring them by for the costume judging and he decided that was a good idea. Thanks to his ringers he won the overall best costume prize! Ruby and Eliza Claire were a under impressed by this though. I had to laugh the entire time we were there Eliza Claire made mean faces at anyone who spoke to her. I don't think she understood just how cute she was!


For trick or treating tonight Rehm was a ghost, Charlotte a monkey, Ruby - Thing 1, Eliza Claire Thing 2, Michael the Cat in the Hat and me, well nothing. You see in the frenzy of finding costumes for all the kids it never occurred to me to be anything. At one house we went to a neighbor asked what I was supposed to be. Charlotte piped up with, "she's Big Mama. She is very Mommy-fied tonight!" OK so how am I supposed to take that one? Cici - you don't need to answer that question and you can quit laughing now!


At bedtime Charlotte told me I was just Mommy again, I was no longer Big Mama - I'm not sure what changed but I'm very happy to just be Mommy. Please, please don't let her start calling me Big Mama on a regular basis! And if I catch any of you encouraging that idea it will spell big trouble for you! Cici and Papa, that means you!

Everyone had a great time trick or treating and I am thrilled to say all of the blue really did wash out of the girls hair! I was afraid it wouldn't but not enough so to forgo the idea!

For more pictures click here!

Happy Halloween!
Jenn

Authority

A few weeks ago at What-A-Wednesday (Wednesday night programming at our church)Rehm was making noise with his water cup during story time. Miss Stacey had already told the kids that if they kept making noises with their cups they would lose cup privileges.

Of course that meant Rehm was the next one to squeeze his plastic cup and interrupt the story. Miss Stacey promptly removed Rehm's cup from his squeeze little hand. He looked over at me in the "are you really going to let her take my cup" way. I nodded in the "you bet I'm gonna let her take your cup!" way.

About 45 minutes later, after What-A-Wednesday was over, while I was cleaning up I told Rehm he could go get some water. He looked at me horrified and said "No I can't! I lost that privilege!" I told him it was OK he really could have water now but he insisted he couldn't and would not go get a drink.

I guess the good news is that even though he doesn't listen to his parents, he apparently listens to other authority figures.

Jenn

Finally Almost an Austinite

I've lived in Austin for 10 years. And for several of those years I've complained that I have never seen most of the tourist attractions in the city.

Michael and I had a date Saturday afternoon. He asked me to confirm the sitter and said he would take care of the actual plans. Of course I was thrilled with this arrangement. So when we left the house on Saturday all I knew was that I was supposed to wear comfortable clothes and shoes and that I was not supposed to eat lunch.

We started out at Flip Happy, a crepe place, for lunch. It is a little silver airstream parked in a lot downtown. It has been featured on Throw Down with Bobby Flay on Food network. It was so good. I had a roasted chicken, goat cheese, caramelized onion and garlic aoli crepe. Dh had a ham, Gruyere, and scallion crepe and we split a cinnamon sugar, pecan, cream cheese frosting dessert crepe. It was so good.

Then we went to the Texas Capital and walked around. We didn't do a tour because I knew I would have at least 4 opportunities to do the tour over the next 10 years. I have never been inside before. It was very cool.


Next we went to the O. Henry museum (his house for about 2 years). Cool thing was O. Henry spent the first 20 years of his life in Greensboro NC (about 20 miles from where I grew up and I've been to his birthplace museum). DH didn't know that is where he was born. I joked with Michael that O. Henry and I seemed to be following the same migration pattern. Unfortunately that means I'll end up in federal prison before I become famous for my short stories! I'm not sure I like this plan so much.


Then we went to Mt. Bonnell - the tallest point in Austin - overlooks the river - really pretty - "the" Austin tourist place you must go. There Dh had packed a cooler and we had wine, fresh bread and two fab cheeses. We sat looked at the river and talked about the last 10 years and the next 10 years.

So now I can say I have done the tourist circuit of Austin - but he forgot the Oasis (restaurant with fabulous views of the lake but known for horrible food - most people just go for cocktails at sunset) and the LBJ Library, maybe by our 20th I'll have been to those :)

While we were having a wonderful date the kids were having a fun day with Miss Jenni. Here is the play they put on for us when we got home.



Jenn

Sixteen Already

Well, at least in months. Yep, Ruby and Eliza Claire are 16 months old. How did they get so big?



Ruby is walking. She has two teeth - one on the top and one on the bottom. She says dada, mama, uh-oh, all done, Eliza (Eeee), Grandma (ma), hi, bye-bye, please, cheese, shoes and thank you. Ruby is a very emotional girl and is very vocal in her opinions. She is either really happy, really mad or really sad. Those are her only three moods. She still doesn't have enough hair for a pony. She loves shoes and purses!


Eliza is walking on her knees - I told you she wasn't mine. She will take 6 or 7 steps this way and then start crawling or pull up on something. She cruises furniture but does not ever let go and just stand. She has 6.5 teeth (2 on the bottom, 4.5 on the top - the half tooth is part of one of her molars). Eliza loves food. And will eat pretty much anything. She is typically a very happy girl and very even tempered. She say dada, mama, hi, uh-oh, all done, bye-bye, Rehm (mmm) and I'm sure some other works I'm not remembering at the moment. She has lots of hair and thinks it is lots of fun to have her hair fixed.

The girls are really starting to enjoy each other and like to give each other hugs and kisses. They really look out for each other when they aren't fighting :)






October Pictures can be found here!
Happy Day,
Jenn

Echolocation

Apparently I didn't give birth to twins but to dolphins!

Monday night Ruby got cold during the night and had Eliza Claire and both of her parents up for the better part of three hours. During that time every few minutes one of the girls would make a little noise and a few seconds later the other girl would make the same noise back. They were making sure the other one was there! Michael was sitting in the recliner with Ruby and I was in bed with Eliza Claire so they couldn't see each other.

Let me just clarify, the girls were not in our room for the entire three hours. Ruby would scream and scream. Then we would go get her. Then Eliza Claire would get up too. So we would sit up with them for about 15 minutes, while they practiced their echolocation. Then they would get squirmy. At that point we would decide to put them back in their room. Then they would cry. Then maybe they would go back to sleep or maybe the screaming would go on enough that we knew they weren't going to sleep. If they went back to sleep they would be back up in 15-30 minutes. Every time we got them up we would adjust something - turn off the fan, turn on the heat, give motrin in case it was teeth, offer milk.

Now can someone please tell Ruby to quit being such a princess and sleep. She can't sleep if she is too hot, can't sleep if too cold, can't sleep if too much noise, can't sleep if too quiet...This is NOT OK! I like my sleep and I'm sure Eliza Claire is getting fed up with being awakened by her sister screeching. Of course it doesn't help that the girls' room is small had has 4 windows in it. Which means their room is always hotter or colder than the rest of the house. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

I guess this is just one of the many "twin things" we will discover.
Jenn

Three Little Pumkins

All four of the kids are thrilled to have Halloween shirts. Here are my three girls in theirs - Rehm didn't have his on yesterday and was already at school.

I promise a more detailed update soon and more regular updates thereafter!
Jenn