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Saturday, November 25, 2017

Month in Review


Nearly a month and I still haven't talked about how Halloween went?! Goodness. Well, Halloween was a success at the Kelly household. Nicole got to wear her Elsa costume to dance that day, and 2 of her classmates were Elsa as well. The 3rd classmate was Anna, and the 4th one didn't dress up, but I like to think that if she did, she would have been Anna or Elsa as well. A Frozen dance class!

Trick-or-treating was Nicole's jam. She was so proud of all the candy she collected--and she scored a LOT of it for such a little girl. She strode up to just about every door all by herself, and I only joined her if she was having trouble knocking loud enough. Whenever anybody asked, "Ooooh, are you Elsa?!" she would ignore the question and respond with, "I getting a LOT of candies tonight!" and then give a cheerful wave and a loud, "Thank you for my candies!" as she walked off to the next house. She had us smiling the whole night.

More than one kid thought that I was the real Anna, straight out of Disneyland. My neighbor's daughter (Nicole's age) ran right up to me, gave me a huge hug, and looked positively star-struck. So cute! Austin looked chubbier than ever as Olaf, and Doug was Kristoff, minus the constant companionship of Sven. Haha! Oh man, family costumes are so fun!

We managed to snag one picture on Halloween where we all looked decent, even though the picture is crooked and blurry. We were very "GO GO GO" that evening, that's for sure.


I may or may not have started putting up Christmas decorations more than a week prior to Thanksgiving... a new record for me! I used to be firmly in the "no décor until the day after Thanksgiving!" camp, but my prerogative has shifted over the past couple years. Kids change you in ways you don't expect!

Now we get to take a big breath before we dive into all the Christmas craziness. I mean, we've already been to an event or two (most notably, the Lighting of Riverwoods--Nicole loved counting down for the Christmas lights to turn on, dancing around with a glow stick in each fist, and catching a glimpse of Santa). There will be plenty more festivities over the next month, though, now that Thanksgiving is officially behind us. Nicole is already singing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" on the daily though, so maybe I should calm down with my festive spirit next year. Maybe. Haha!

All that's missing is snow! But the weather has been fantastic the past few days. Perfect for park outings and walks. I really can't complain about that.



^^^The kiddos at their favorite park.

ANYWAYS. This was supposed to be a "month in review" post and now I've been rambling, so let's just list a couple things from the past few weeks:

+ Austin is finally walking! One day he wasn't... then the next day he took a few steps... and the next day he was toddling everywhere. He went from zero to GO in 24 hours flat, it was crazy! I was correct in my prediction that he would be walking before Nicole's birthday.

+ My kids have a ritualistic game they play half a dozen times per day where they push little plastic play chairs around and around and around the kitchen table. Yes, at least half a dozen times per day. I'm not even exaggerating. They both love it, and some of their earliest sessions of the game lasted a good 10 minutes.

+ Nicole, inspired by a particular episode of Daniel Tiger, has taken to wearing a plastic firefighter hat around the house and proclaiming that she's "Super Firefighter Ballerina Nicole'. Photo evidence:


+ Austin loves cats and dogs. He gets obsessively excited when he sees one and starts making little "woof woof" noises, or saying "kittykittykittykitty!!!!" in a fast, high-pitched squeal. Last week he was looking out the window and I heard him VERY clearly say, "A dog!" I turned to look, and sure enough... there was a dog! Now he pronounces dog like "dog-gah" and it kills me.

+ Nicole often asks Doug to play "Dinosaur" with her. This game primarily consists of them growling at each other, and him chasing her around, catching her, and tickling her.

+ I forgot how dangerous pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are for me. I made some two weeks ago and could NOT stop eating them for the life of me. When I ate the first cookie, I said to Doug, "Why don't I make these more often?!?!" 12 cookies later... Oh yeah. That's why. I may or may not have made more today. Can't stop, won't stop. But really, I can't stop. Send help.

+ Austin figured out how to say, "Ticki ticki ticki ticki" since that's what I say when I tickle him, and it's precious. The first time he said it, he reached over to Nicole, rubbed her head, and said "Ticki ticki ticki!" in a high-pitched rasp, and I just about died from the cuteness.

+ On the downside, both kids and I came down with colds within a week of coming home from Disneyland. Nicole and I were basically better by Halloween, but Austin had a rough cough that lasted him another week or so. The poor baby.

+ Nicole randomly sings "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" at the top of her lungs a lot these days.

+ She has also progressed from asking for Disney songs on Spotify to requesting that I play Disney songs on the piano. "Part of Your World" is always the first piano arrangement she asks for.



That about wraps it up for now! We've had my brother here for the past several days for Thanksgiving break, which both kids have enjoyed immensely. We made one last evening fire in our backyard fire pit last night before the colder temperatures kick in. Happy cousins running all over the backyard, and a final round of s'mores to send out the fall season. Yes, I know winter technically doesn't officially start for a couple more weeks, but for me fall ends after Thanksgiving! Just ask the Michael Buble Christmas album that was playing at full blast yesterday, and the mini decorative pumpkins that I threw in the trashcan.


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