Halloween!

Halloween has lasted all week in the Lott Family this year. Starting last weekend, we attended the Issaquah Highlands Green Halloween Festival. Hayden enjoyed the pony rides, carnival games and good food. He was excited about his costume, Super Why, which is a character in a PBS kid's program of the same name. It came with a green eye mask, but he would not wear it so I painted his face. Surprisingly, he sat relatively still for that.



Later in the week, we decorated the pumpkins that we picked out at Remlinger Farms. Hayden was slightly fascinated by the pumpkin goop but wouldn't dare touch it. I guess my fond childhood memories of getting elbow deep in pumpkin guts will have to wait to be passed on in the future.


I carved both pumpkins - one is a Happy Hayden face, and the other is a Crying Baby Brooklyn face. When Hayden saw the baby face he mimicked Brooklyn's cry. Just the reaction I expected! Unfortunately, she's been crying a lot lately, and I thought this might be a way to make light of a stressful situation we've been experiencing in our family.


Then we had our Stroller Strides Halloween party. All the kids dressed up and there was a fun craft (decorating a fabric orange Trick or Treat bag with foamy Halloween stickers) and TONS of treats. Guess we totally un-did the workout we did that morning with the cupcakes and cookies! At least I did ;) Hayden still has a tough time interacting with kids his own age and the loud, chaotic party room made Hayden anxious to leave.



Brooklyn sure looked adorable in her Pink Butterfly costume, though (and as it turns out, this was the only time she wore it!). She wore it for about 5 minutes because the wings made it hard to hold her or put her in the Moby and the zipper/hood part was ill-fitting. Should have thought her costume through better. She couldn't even go in the stroller or car seat with it on. What was I thinking?! Oh yeah: Cute. Pink. Butterfly.


On Halloween Night, my Mom and Step-Dad who are visiting this weekend stayed home with Brooklyn and to hand out candy to our Trick-or-Treaters while we took Hayden around the block. He seemed to enjoy it a lot and did a good job of saying "thank you" to each person. It rained heavily for a few minutes and then luckily let up and then was just cold.


He definitely enjoyed coming home and getting to eat a sucker! And of course Mommy & Daddy get to eat some of his candy too! Plus, we didn't have enough Trick-or-Treaters so we have TONS of candy!


You can see more photos from our Halloween week HERE:

Halloween

The Kids' Bedroom

We finally got Hayden and Brooklyn's newly designed shared room finished. Not that it really matters, since Brooklyn is going to be in our room (and bed!) for the foreseeable future, but eventually, the plan is that they'll share this little 10x10 room. (Note: You should be able to click on the photos for an enlarged view.)



It's quite a challenge to coordinate boy and girl decor, but I am actually very pleased with how it all worked out. Hayden's construction trucks bedding from Pottery Barn Kids almost perfectly matches the greens and browns in Brooklyn's flowers bedding from Target. His also has light and dark blue and hers has light and dark pink.



To tie them both together, we painted the accent wall and the IKEA shelves the common green (which used to be blue) and got some Pottery Barn panel curtains (off Craigslist) and discontinued PBK fabric for the window valance, which my sister graciously hemmed and sewed for us!



I searched for a while for art to go on the wall above the crib, but it was SO HARD to find anything with the right colors that was gender-neutral, so I got this idea from an Etsy site to do their birth stats in big type using the colors of their room.


Now, who knows when Brooklyn will actually sleep in here, but at least it looks cute! And I also have proof that at one point, their room was clean and organized! :)

Remlinger Farms

I've been posting more pictures and updates on Facebook, so if you want to see more photos, please send me a friend request on Facebook.

Here are a few from our trip to Remlinger Farms:






Hayden had a GREAT time even though he had to skip his afternoon nap, and Brooklyn slept the whole time in the Moby. What an easy baby!

Already 2 months

Hard to believe Brooklyn was born already 2 months ago. Here are her official 2-month stats:

Weight: 14 lbs, 4 oz - Above 97th percentile
Length: 25" - Above 97th percentile
Head Circumference: 16 1/4" - 95th percentile

That's right. Still my Big Girl! :) I don't think she'll appreciate me calling her Big Girl as she gets older, so I've been also calling her Sweetie, Baby Girl, and Beauty. Then it hit me. This is the perfect nickname: Squirt! You know, like the adorable little turtle in Finding Nemo (one of my VERY FAVORITE movies)! Check out the resemblance:
Plus, with the amount of poops she does every day, "Squirt" is appropriate on that level too! ;) (Our term of endearment for Hayden is "Bud" or

We are still definitely adjusting to life with 2 kids. She is sleeping in our room and I'm not sure how we'll transition her into the crib in Hayden's room. He is such a light sleeper and still gets upset when she cries. She is a pretty light sleeper, too. And just like her big brother, rarely sleeps in the car! At night, we try to put her to sleep in the bassinet in our room, but inevitably, between about 1am and 3am I have her in bed with me. I'm trying to put her down 'drowsy but awake' so she learns to get herself to sleep unassisted, but it's not going so well and rather than let her get sleep-deprived, I usually put her in the Moby wrap or lay down with her and she falls asleep instantly!

When she is awake, she's full of smiles and adorable coos! She has the most beautiful deep blue eyes I've ever seen! Her hair is almost all fallen out on the top, replaced by a pretty bad case of Cradle Cap :( but her baby acne has cleared up now. We've been trying to treat it with Olive Oil. Seems to be working.

Last week she went all day without a poopy diaper (very unlike my 6 poops a day little girl!) and at the end of the day, did a GIANT, green poop that wreaked like vinegar. When I Googled "Baby poo vinegar smell" I was amazed to see it was a fairly common issue. The results indicated that it may be caused by a dairy allergy, or dehydration, or not enough hindmilk, or a Gluten intolerance, or completely normal. Gee, thanks, Google. Well, I'm going to start with the dairy allergy idea, since that's also what Hayden had. Although with Hayden, he never had vinegar-smelling poo, he had streaks of blood, which is another symptom of a food allergy. Since Hayden was exclusively breast-fed, I cut dairy out of my diet completely for almost a year (and no more bloody diapers). It was pretty rough, but I knew it was best. And the non-dairy based formula is SUPER expensive, so that was a no-brainer. Luckily, we were able to reintroduce dairy to Hayden when he was about 14 months old and didn't have any issues. He now eats anything and everything without a problem. So for Brooklyn I'm going to cut out dairy completely for a month, see how she does, and then go back to eating dairy and if the problem comes back, I'll probably have to stay away from dairy again until she's at least a year old. Fun. At least I'll lose weight even faster if I can't eat cheese and ice cream!

I started back at Stroller Strides a couple weeks ago and it is kicking my butt! For those of you who think Stroller Strides is a bunch of ladies pushing their buggies around, chatting while sipping latte's, think again! Stroller Strides is 1 hour of fast-pace, intense, full body workout. I go Monday-Wednesday-Friday and I am always sore the next day. The times they have had couples workout days, Phil has joined me and says the workouts are even tough for him! My goal is to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by Christmas. Unfortunately, with nursing and exercise, my appetite is voracious and I find myself snacking ALL DAY (and sometimes not the healthiest choices, since those seem to be the easiest and fastest).

I'm getting lazier about Hayden's healthy eating, too. Sometimes it's just easier to give him some Cheerios. And he LOVES M&Ms, Jelly Beans, and cookies. As we've been working a little bit on potty training, his reward is 1 jelly bean for pee-pee, and 2 jelly beans for poopy. Last week he went pee-pee in the potty TWICE!! He likes to do it standing up - like Daddy! :) He doesn't want to poopy on the potty, yet, though. He almost always goes in my closet or the pantry closet to poop. I've put the potty seat in the closet to see if he'd go if it was in there, but then he won't go in the closet, or takes the potty seat out and then goes back in the closet to poop.

Hayden's speech has improved dramatically over the last few months. He speaks in sentences and attempts to repeat any word we say. We are definitely needing to be careful what we and others around him say. Hard to believe I was ever worried. What a relief! Now the next thing I'm concerned about (there always has to be something, right!?) is that Hayden is still very anxious around other kids and gets upset when they are close to him. He does not want to have anything to do with kids his age. If a kid at the park even looks at him or gets within a foot of his 'personal bubble' he starts to cry and wants Mommy. I hope he outgrows this phase soon, too.

We're thinking of enrolling Hayden into some kind of sports program. I know 2 seems awfully young to get him involved in sports, but we're looking at things like Little Kickers, Playball, Little Gym, or Gymboree. I just feel like he has so much energy and we have such a small house, that with the weather about to be 6 months straight of rain, we are both going to go crazy if he doesn't have an outlet for this energy. They are all kind of expensive programs, so we're just trying to figure out which one is best and works for our budget. They all offer 1 free trial class, so we're going to start checking them all out. Stay tuned for our evaluation!

Also stay tuned for a post from our visit to Remlinger Farms & Pumpkin Patch yesterday. I am so behind on all my pictures, videos, birth announcement, art project for their room, and the blog. Sorry!!

Doin' the Puyallup

We had a great time last weekend at the Puyallup Fair (pronounced "Pyoo-al-Up" for those out-of-towners). The Fair is an annual tradition not to be missed! Last year, the weather was rainy and Hayden was too young to enjoy it, but this year we had beautiful weather and he was captivated by the people, food, animals, and rides. It was fun to experience this with him.


Brooklyn slept in the Moby the entire time. My mom said I experienced the Puyallup Fair in 1980 when I was 2 weeks old. So here we are, carrying a family tradition!


Given Hayden's tendency to be afraid of motorized ride-on toys, I wasn't sure if he'd go on a ride, but he gave and enthusiastic "Yes! Yes!" when we asked him if he wanted to ride on the cars that go around a grassy track. I thought for sure once it became his turn to get in the car, he'd have a change of heart, especially once he realized Mommy can't go on it with him, and he has to go with some other strange kid, but I was very proud when he got in, sat down, followed the operators instructions, and held onto the steering wheel. For the duration of each ride, he had the most serious expression and didn't smile or say anything, and Phil and I were cracking up at his intensity. When he got off the ride, he wouldn't stop talking about it and saying "Vvvvroom" and "Go Ba-pow" (Ba-Pow is his word for "fast"). He especially liked the ATV ride. Check out the video:



Hayden was also in heaven at the John Deere Tractor booth. I've never seen so many John Deer products! They even had salt & pepper shakers!




It's purely coincidence that Hayden's outfit perfectly matches the John Deere brand colors! :)

Lott Family Retreat at the Oregon Coast

Over Labor Day weekend, we went down to a beautiful rental house on the Oregon Coast with Phil's side of the family. It was South of Cannon Beach in Netarts, just West of Tillamook, so about a 6 hour drive. I wasn't sure how Hayden would do in the car with Brooklyn if she got fussy or if we needed to stop several times for feeding and diaper changing so he went with Phil's parents in their car. Turns out Brooklyn slept almost the entire way, but I think it was still a good way to do it. Hayden enjoyed the time with his grandparents. His cousin Jude, who turns 7 next month, went with them, too.

The rental house was amazing! Each family had their own room and there was a big living room, dining room, kitchen and game room. I'll let the pictures do the talking:


(See more at http://www.oregon-beachhouse-rental.com)

We arrived on Thursday evening, so after stocking up on the groceries at the local Safeway and having dinner, we mostly just relaxed. On Friday, the weather was decent and the forecast said Friday was going to be the nicest of all the days, so we headed out to the beach to get some portraits done. It was quite the challenge getting all the little ones (AND ADAM!!) to cooperate with all the photos, so I had to do some Photoshop magic on some to get one shot that is good of everyone. Betcha can't even tell!






The kids all had a great time playing in a little stream that fed into the ocean. It was much too cold to really swim in the water, but throwing rocks and sand, building a sand castle and climbing on the rocks and driftwood was sure fun. The big boys (and Jude) also had fun throwing the football around.





The rest of the weekend was supposed to be crummy weather. It was stormy on Saturday morning, but actually cleared up for a little bit for us to get back on the beach for about an hour before lunchtime. Sunday was really windy and raining. Phil wanted to go to some Sand Dunes nearby that had rental ATVs, but he couldn't convince his brothers and dad to brave the weather. Jude and Ethan brought their box of toy trucks, which they nicely shared with Hayden, so he was in heaven with all the Monster Trucks! He probably didn't even care that the weather was too bad to go outside!

On Saturday night, we all went out for dessert at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Their ice cream is the best! I had a 2-scoop dish of chocolate-peanut butter and caramel toffee crunch. YUM! And even Hayden (who normally turns away ice cream) ate quite a few bites.

Phil's mom, Doris, seemed to really enjoy getting to relax and be Grandma. We wouldn't let her do any work in the kitchen (something she's stuck doing every 'vacation' since the boys were born) so she could really enjoy herself. I think Doris got to hold Brooklyn and Madison more than their parents!


Katie, Rachel, and I enjoyed putting together some puzzles during the downtime we weren't in the kitchen or taking care of our kids, while the guys enjoyed watching whatever sports program they could find on the big screen TV and playing pool in the Game Room (yes, they helped with some of the cooking and cleaning too). In the evenings after the kids went to bed, we played games, watched movies, drank some 'adult beverages', and pigged out on junk food (OK, I admit I did most of the pigging out!).

On Sunday, we drove a little further South down the coast to Pacific Beach to meet up with our sister-in-law Katie's family (mom, brother, cousins). We all had lunch at The Pelican Brew Pub, which was right on the beach. It was very windy and the waves were huge, so we were glad to enjoy the view from inside. To make things even more memorable, Brooklyn had a HUGE blowout up her back so we spent a little time in the bathroom getting her all cleaned up, using every last one of our diaper wipes!

The weekend went by way too quickly and I was disappointed the weather didn't allow us more beach time. On the way home, Hayden came with us, and we stopped in Cannon Beach. The weather was gorgeous (of course!) so we had lunch there, went in some shops, and let Hayden play in the sand a lot more.


The drive home was a little more challenging than getting there. I forgot to charge the portable DVD player before we left and the batteries died just a half hour into Hayden's favorite Elmo show. Dang! Of all things to forget! We stopped at Denny's for dinner where BOTH kids required TWO diaper changes! Bathrooms at Denny's in Chehalis are not the greatest. Hayden was pretty cranky, since he only slept for maybe 45 minutes in the car, and Brooklyn was fussy several times but I was able to reach back and pop in her pacifier to keep her quiet. I think my arm is a couple inches longer from reaching to the back seat so many times! ;)

But it was all worth it.

We're already talking about 'next time' so I hope these Lott Family Retreats become a family tradition... at least every couple years or so. I think it will be so good for the kids, too. Lots of memories, and even though we all live so close together, it is not the same as spending all weekend together. Next time, the kids will be older too and maybe we can do more activities with them.

You can view all 227 (edited down from the 500 that were taken!) images here:

LottOregonRetreat

P.S. The blog entries are unfortunately going to be fewer and farther between now that I'm a mom of 2. Brooklyn likes to be held and I don't have much patience for one-handed typing! Friend me on Facebook if you want a better way to keep in the loop. :)

Brooklyn's 2-Week Stats

We had Brooklyn's 2-week Well Baby doctor visit yesterday and the doctor couldn't have been more pleased with her health. Here are the official 2-week stats:

Weight: 10 lbs, 3 oz. (97th percentile)
Length: 22 3/4" (97th percentile)
Head Circumference: 14 3/4" (90th percentile)

So she's all proportional! :)
The doctor said it's unusual for a big baby not to loose a lot of weight in the beginning so he was really surprised that she was already back above her birth weight. We also think her birth length must have been a little inaccurate. Growing 2 1/4" in 2 weeks seems impossible!

She is spitting up a lot, so I was very happy to learn she is gaining weight. Unfortunately, it looks like the burp cloth is my new best friend.

Sleeping is going ok. She is co-sleeping with us right now. When I put her in the bassinet in our room, her little noises, gurgles, and gags make me too nervous and I keep getting up to check on her, eventually giving in and bringing her into bed with me. She seems to sleep so much better all snuggled up next to Mommy. But I know we need to transition her out of our bed before she becomes dependent on it. I love the cuddles now, but we're going to want our bed to ourselves at some point. And since Phil is such a sound sleeper, it's hard for me not to worry about him rolling over or pulling blankets up too high. I guess I worry no matter what. That's a Mom's job, right?

We had a great visit with Grandma Judi and Grandpa Mark. I hope they come back again soon. My little sister Ali visits on Friday for a few days, before she heads off to start college (!).