halloween 2010

Thank goodness I made it to my goal of getting through Halloween! I was so concerned early on that by this point either I’d be on bedrest or that something would have prevented Emilia from having a great Halloween experience.  Fortunately Emilia was able to enjoy a GREAT Halloween, full of carved pumpkins, treats, costumes and friends.

First up – our neighborhood Pumpkinfest – a chance for the little ones to paint a pumpkin (much safer than letting them wield a knife!) Pictures taken 2 weeks ago.

 

kyrie’s pumpkin on the right.

While Papa took care of the painting, Mama was in charge of Halloween-cookie-making…

recipe courtesy Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking” cookbook.  Sprinkles brought to you by Emi Puchis Poo.  They were far yummier than they look – black sprinkles are a bit disconcerting looking.

Halloween Day started off with carving the pumpkin in her PJs in freezing cold October morning weather.  Bbbrrrrr.  But nothing could wipe the smile off my girlie.

There was even some singing-while-carving.

halloween singing from Denise Glaser on Vimeo.

Finally, it was costume time.  Despite not napping (presumably because she was so darn excited) Emilia was in fine form and SO excited!

doesn’t it look like she’s doing the pledge of allegiance?

Emilia was so excited about trick-or-treating she kept telling us how the process was supposed to work.

Untitled from Denise Glaser on Vimeo.

Finally it was time to get the party started.  Emilia always starts off at our neighbor’s house, the Hickmans.  She was pretty tentative at first, but pretty soon was knocking on doors like a door-to-door saleswoman.  Also, note all the people out in our street.  We estimate at least 100 trick-or-treaters.  Of course my mom ran out of candy because I bought less this year than last, so we had to shut off the light early.

Emi and her buddy Graham (aka Woody from Toy Story) – they walked hand-in-hand most of the night.

Ky and Ms. Claitlin made their way to our side of the ‘hood – don’t you love Ky’s monkey costume (and the look on Emi’s face).  They didn’t recognize each other at first!  Kyrie ended up trick-or-treating with Emilia and the gang for a couple of houses before going home.

Strawberry Shortcake and Huckleberry Pie – Marcus was so worried when he learned he had to be a character from Strawberry Shortcake.  Luckily for him, Huck wears jeans, a blue shirt and a ball cap.  It wasn’t much of a stretch for him costume-wise.

Our neighbors do an annual hayride through the neighborhood where we throw candy at trick-or-treaters and the kids get to see all the lights and such.  There must have been 30 of us crammed onto the back of Brian’s truck.  Such fun.

Happy Halloween!

halloween parade and, drumroll please…

I still have a ton of pics/videos to upload from Emilia’s ballet open house last week, but first, today was the Halloween Parade/Fall Festival at her school.  It’s a great event.  The kids get to parade around the parking lot in their costumes then go to the playground where they get goodies and pumpkins and have a chance to run around like wild.  This year Emilia insisted that she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake.  Her only frame of reference for the character are the couple of Strawberry Shortcake books she has as well as the Bug’s original Strawberry Shortcake doll from 30 years ago.  Apparently, she’s making a comeback.  Who knew.  Turns out, Emilia and her schoolmate Betsy have ‘shared’ a mutual love of S.S. and decided to dress up together.

 Ms. Jenny, the school director, in her ‘fancy witch’ costume leading the parade.

 

Ms. Paige leading Emi’s class with Betsy and Charlie.

Emi and Jackson J. (aka Spider Man).  They have been classmates/friends since last year. 

 

parade waving. 

dueling Strawberry Shortcakes.

Today we had our 36 week appointment.  The boys are just fine and growing by leaps and bounds.  The drumroll is that we finally have a ‘date.’  Dr. Taylor has scheduled an induction for the 11th, which would make them only 2 weeks early – pretty awesome for twins. 

Yikes… that means d-day is only two weeks away!!!  The end is in sight and a cocktail is finally near! :)

big sister

This past Sunday we took Emilia to CMC for the “sibling tour.”  Basically it’s an opportunity for the sibs to see where Mama is going to be and where the babes are going to be – supposedly to make it all less scary and intimidating.  Emilia was fine.  I, on the other hand, nearly cried the entire time we were there.  It was such an emotional trip back and I constantly was thinking about the last time we were at the hospital, 3 years ago, when our Puchis was born.  In perfect banker form, Marcus was silent, but I could tell… he was thinking the same things I was.

 

checking out the nursery with Papa.  you can’t tell but she’s wearing her ‘big sister’ t-shirt and her new halloween bows from tia marga.

there was only one other little girl taking the tour with us – apparently the saturday class was packed, but this worked out better for us.  i think emilia would have been overwhelmed with a big crowd.

the baby dolls getting weighed/measured/temp checked.  good to know that baby Jesus weighs 14 oz.

demonstrating the proper way to hold a baby.

 

learning how to swaddle/put on a diaper (she’s a pro at the diaper part).

My mom and I are just back from my 35 week appt. and everything looks great.  We had an ultrasound (I’m not going to bother scanning the pics because they’re so smushed in there that you can hardly distinguish anything), but both hermanitos are weighing at about 6 pounds each! HOLY CATS! No wonder I can’t breathe!!!  They both have a tiny bit of fluid on their kidneys still (nothing to worry about), but both have great levels of amniotic fluid surrounding them.  A is still head down while B’s head is lodged under my left ribs (OUCH!)  The longest they’ll let me go at this point is another 3 weeks (until 38 weeks gestation), then they’d put me out of my misery, but until then I’ll keep going for weekly appointments for fetal monitoring.

Also, details on the “wordless Wednesday” post.  I wish I could take credit for the ‘monitos’ or outfits pictured, but I can’t.  Those are completely A’s doing.  In Ecuador babies always ALWAYS come home in green.  It’s a very auspicious color – meaning hope and good luck and all that kind of stuff.  We didn’t want them to be too matchy-matchy, so they’re in coordinating outfits.  (Note: Emilia also had a green dress but she was such a midge that it didn’t fit her.  Poor baby ended up coming home in a hospital t-shirt, diaper, socks and green cap.  Pitiful.

wordless wednesday (something new)

ssshhhh…

It’s very quiet.

My girl is over at Ms. Claitlin’s house – playing with her ‘yrie (and possibly washing Mr. Brad’s car).

A has gone to one of her favorite places (church).

And Marcus has gone for a jog in the hopes of recovering from a MONSTER hangover (never send a Latino to a Nascar race).

And I’ve finally managed to dump upwards of 200 pictures/video clips from the camera into the computer and am going to try valiantly to muddle through them. 

Ready?  Here goes

She wore it!

The dress I made for her birthday – she FINALLY wore it!! Hurrah!!

 

if only those leggings could talk.  they are size 1-5 Zutano brand leggings.  She’s literally been wearing them since she was about a year old.  They stretch like crazy, don’t fade at all and as they get taller, become capri length.  Best. Leggings. Ever.

On October 2nd we celebrated Baby Brooks’ 1st birthday.  Emilia had a blast playing on the new trampoline, eating a ‘dirt’ cupcake, and playing in the sandbox.  Happy Birthday sweet baby B!

 the dessert table (sans desserts obviously). 

enjoying a cupcake (and looking a bit disheveled after jumping on the trampoline for about 2 hours straight).

It’s back :(

The asthma and the ick.

The cough and the persistent runny nose.

And the wheezing.  Oh the wheezing.

Emilia had barely started school when Marcus noticed that she was sounding kinda congested.  Sure enough, after her usual Fall check-up with the pulmonologist, it’s ‘asthma season’.  According to Dr. Ashe all his patients starting getting really ‘icky’ about 2 weeks ago (Emilia definitely falls in to that camp, as does her neighbor buddy Graham)

how dr. ashe recommends we spend the morning for the next two months.  since i’m clearly about to ‘give light’ he really wants to keep her healthy, so we’re skipping the fast-acting inhaler and going for daily nebulizer treatments.  fortunately she’s gotten much better at sitting and taking the medicine (a little morning show doesn’t hurt much either).  sidenote: dr. ashe has twins and a daughter 3 years older than the twins.  when I asked him what the ‘trick’ was to surviving, he suggested this by the case.

And with that, “quiet time” has ended.

hermanitos update – 33 weeks +

Yikes. 

That’s how I felt leaving this appointment.  All of a sudden reality REALLY kicked in.

My weight and blood pressure at this appointment were both great – whew.

My iron level is still low, but better than it was last week, so the doctor just advised I continue with my vitamins and try to eat as much iron-rich foods as possible.

Today was the first fetal stress-test.  I had to sit there for almost an hour hooked to the monitor because of course the boys were not cooperating.  They had woken me up at 4 a.m. because of their kicking so I knew they were fine.  The nurse recommended I drink some juice on the way in for my appointment next week to wake them up a bit.

I’m at 33 + weeks but when Dr. Lucas measured me today I measured right at 40 weeks. 

That’s right – 40.

Yikes.

He said that in an ideal world they’d like them to stay where they are for another month, but that realistically, they’d be happy with another 2-3 weeks.

Double yikes.

And of course he suggested that I rest whenever Emilia is resting – stay really well hydrated – stay off my feet – the usual.

Triple yikes.

So I went in to complete ‘panic mode’ and picked up the last few items I felt like we needed to have on hand (basically a second bassinet stand was the main thing I felt like I needed to have) and I’ve continued washing newborn stuff.  Thanks to the shower Ozlem and Tracy hosted for me last weekend I at least have diapers to get us through the first week (maybe?).  Marcus’ work colleagues are hosting a shower for us next week, as are our neighborhood friends (we are overwhelmed by everyone’s incredible generosity) so I feel like after all that we’ll be totally set.    I’m going to have Marcus start assembling the swings/bouncy seats tonight (sorpresa corazon! :).  Monday Marcus is off work for Columbus Day holiday so we’ll hit IKEA then since Emilia will be at school.

because i couldn’t end a post without any pictures – this one of emilia and kyrie was taken a few weeks ago at the greek festival.  like how emi looks so brave and ‘in charge’ – about two seconds later she burst in to tears and wanted off.  i ‘forced’ her to stay on for the ride because i’m just that mean.

school pics

As I mentioned in the post below, Emilia had picture day at her school last week.  The proofs from St. John Photography are now available.  To see them, go here.  You’ll then be asked to enter the school’s code – SJPC and finally the code for Emilia’s pictures – 104557.  Happy viewing!