A Day With Thomas

In November we took the kiddos to "A Day with Thomas". We didn't tell Austin where we were going. I wanted to see him be surprised when we got there! I didn't even have to explain where we were. While getting out of the car, Austin caught a glimpse of Thomas from about 1/2 mile away. I have never seen him so excited - I honestly thought he might pass out! He just started shouting "Daddy! Daddy! It's Thomas, Daddy! Daddy, it's Thomas!! It's Thomas!!" McKenna started joining in too, in support, "Tommy! Tommy!"

We went to the exhibit that was held at the Orange Empire Railway Museum. It's a really big museum. We didn't see all of it because we ran out of time, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed everything we did see. Austin, apparently, has a strong fondness for cabooses. (cabeese?) He insisted on going into all of the mini ones scattered about the museum. And each visit could not be complete without ringing the bell.







And he was even more enthralled with the full sized ones...




I thought this electric railcar was neat - it ran where I used to work in Torrance.


They had lots of switches and lights for the kids to mess with


And random equipment and vehicles to explore






They had Sir Topham Hatt there too!


Finally it was time for us to ride Thomas. Austin was so excited! I was able to time a fairly decent shot as the engine went by before we boarded!

Whip It!

Three Bugs in a Bed

My Little Mickey & Minnie!

I figured I have only so many years to pick my kids' halloween costumes, so having them coordinate while I can is fun! When I threw out a few possible combos to Austin, he thought Mickey and Minnie was the best so we went with it. Of course, McKenna loved everything about her Minnie costume and I was surprised how happy Austin was with his. He insisted on wearing the giant Mickey hands the entire time, despite not being able to use his hands at all!

First we went to Daddy's work to do some trick or treating!








Some of Daddy's coworkers had cute little munchkins too!




On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with our church buddies





Austin has some wardrobe malfunctions...


Our buddies we so cute too!












After trick-or-treating, we stopped to see Katelyn's adorable costume. Such a cute cupcake!

Painting Pumpkins

(Yes, I'm still working on October! Trying to dig my way back to current days!)

My kids are still a little ways from actually getting to carve their own pumpkins, so for the time being we are sticking to painting them!




McKenna was very seriously about painting hers....


And she just got a little paint a few places other than the pumpkin...




I let/made Austin help me clean out the pumpkins I was going to carve. He did about one scoop and declared it was too messy!



So I set him to painting a little pumpkin for the baby.






And Austin dictated what faces he wanted on the carved ones. One happy and one sad!

22 & 23

Okay, it finally happened. I got so far behind and so out of blogging, that I skipped a month of McKenna's updates. The month got away from me and before I knew it, we were closer to 23 months than 22 and it seemed silly to attempt it. 'Course, now I'm a good week late on month 23! I have fairly good excuses but really I just need to buckle down and get caught up cuz it's not like life is about to get any simpler!






New these months...

We started potty training and we've more or less stopped. I started PTing Austin at the beginning of the year and since the potty was in the living room, she insisted on going too. She definitely gets the concept but it was totally stressing her out, so I decided to stop. She would ask to go every 2 minutes but would kinda freak out when she actually got on the potty. Especially if she was nearing needing to poop. So I would get her down, and then 2 minutes later she'd insist on going again. She cried if I didn't take her and she cried if I did. It wasn't good. Thankfully she's calmed down some and doesn't ask to go as often. More of less back to telling me when she's currently going. If I put her down on the potty at random times, she'll usually go. So I'm keeping it familiar without stressing. She's pretty cute when she goes though - she insists that I flush the toilet but she stands there and says "Bye Bye Pee Pee! See you later!!" She gets so proud when she does go. I think when we go back to officially training when she's a little older, it will go smoother.

Her vocabulary amazes me! She talks all the time and is very understandable the majority of the time. She's also picking up funny things Austin says too. A new favorite is "My bad!" She's very interested in possessive nouns - Momma's shoes, Kenna's shirt, etc. She's a little confused though about how to describe her own things and frequently calls them "My Yours". One new phrase that cracks me up is "I working, momma! I working!" Totally tmi, but this is what she's announcing now when she poops, cuz I'd ask her "Are you done pooping or still working on it?" and it progressed to that!

My favorite is when you say "I love you!", she responds me "Too!"

She got some babies for Christmas that have become beloved companions. She's such a little momma! She's constantly feeding her baby with a fork (hot dogs, of course!) and giving it a bottle. She could push it around in her toy stroller for hours too.

McKenna's level of whiney-ness is getting a little old. Her clinginess for me is decreasing, but her clinginess for her blanket, her Minnie Mouse & her sippy cups is increasing. If she's sad and her blankie is not in her hand, I'm treated to a very high pitch, pitiful "Blankie!! blankie!!" Even if it's within 5 feet of her. I made the mistake of washing said blankie the other day, not anticipating a mini issue about something little would turn into a full on meltdown because she couldn't be comforted by her blankie.

Her absolute state of joy at the sight of anything Minnie Mouse, Little Einsteins, Pooh, or Special Agent Oso coming on the TV or computer cracks me up. It's complete with high pitch squeals and happy feet.

She's already entering the I-do-it-by-myself phase. ("Polfe!" A lot of her s sounds are p's for some reason) Thankfully only on a few things, but it does cause some problems. The biggest problem is her shoes - she absolutely insists on putting on her shoes by herself but she absolutely can't figure it out! There have been lots of tears! It's becoming a power struggle too as she's starting to test me - she'll go back and forth between "self" and "momma do it!" with nothing I choose being satisfactory. It's very frustrating!

She finally got all her eye teeth in. Poor girl has been chewing on her fingers for weeks now!

She's finally getting into puzzles now! Which makes her puzzle-loving momma so very happy. She really likes her letter puzzle and is getting fairly good on which letters is which.

She so definitely my kid - she lives for back scratches! She just snuggles down and lets you scratch her back and neck and arms forever. She even calls out which she wants scratched next. And she loves to snuggle with daddy for scratches too, which of course melts him. Love it!