Pumpkins and such

So it is the end of October which means it is time for pumpkin carving and of course Halloween. We posted last week about our trip to Greenfield Village, and now the fun just continues.

Jayda had a fun pre-school class on Thurs where they decorated cookies, learned about Halloween, learned songs, etc.... at the end they all put on their costumes and had a little parade around the house. Their favorite part was singing/screaming their new Halloween songs so all could hear them.


Today we decided to finally go out and get some pumpkins of our own from a real pumpkin patch. Last year we went and Jayda loved it, so we figured this year would be even better. Problem is we waited until 3 days before Halloween so most of the pumpkins were gone. Jayda still had a lot of fun running around looking at each one and trying to decide which one was just the right size for her- "no Dad, that's too small" or an occasional "no Dad, that one's yucky" until we found just the right one for her, for Addison, and for each of us.




We learned something new this week about squirrels- they like to eat pumpkins. We had a few small pumpkins on our porch steps earlier this week. One of them, about the size of grapefruit, just disappeared one day. We assumed it was just some child that took it and didn't think much else of it. Then one day, we found the guilty party, caught him red handed and even have the photo to prove it. A squirrel! He took our small one, then came back and ate half of a larger one. He made a huge mess all over the porch and sidewalk, and when we moved the pumpkin to the grass, he just kept eating it. Here is the photo to prove it. And yes, it is a squirrel and not a small cat, they are huge here and have very long tails!

Halloween in Greenfield Village

So we have started the Halloween season out already with a little trip to Greenfield Village last night. For those of you who don't know what Greenfield Village is, it is a historic town that is part of the Henry Ford Museum near Detroit. They have old style homes and neighborhoods (from Thomas Edison and such), old Model-T car's driving around, etc... During halloween they set up a trick or treat path that winds through the village and lets you see everything they have decorated. All along the way the path is light by Jack O' Lanterns with candles in them, and there are people dressed up in famous costumes, and also scary ones too. They give out candy to the kids and adults as you pass them on the road and make it all quite a fun adventure. Most of the people that attend are also dressed up and it was fun to see so many costumes. The weather was perfect and not too cold even when the sun went down.
Here are a few photos....

Special thanks to Anna's mom who helped make the poodle skirts. Jayda has been soooooo excited this week to finally get to wear her special poodle skirt!



All the kids that we went with- Jillian holding Kara, Jayda, Hayden, and Addison in front



A few of the dressed up people along the way for you to see:
Marie Antoinette with the kids.

Headless Horseman

Help! Where are my hands?

So Addison had her 9 month check up this week. We have noticed lately that she has started to suck her thumb at night. We have been tempted to sew on some closed sleeves onto her sleep sac, but felt like it was child abuse so we didn't. Anna asked the Dr. this week if she had any suggestions, and the Dr. said that sewing sleeves on her sleep sac so she can't suck her thumbs was a great idea. Here is a photo of what Anna made for her. She seemed so confused at first, but slept just great with the sleeves on. Her sleep sac was soaked this morning where her hands are from her trying to suck on them, but she didn't suck her thumb last night!


Other then that Addison is a healthy 9 month old child. She is around 50th percentile in height and weight, she is right on track with all of her growth development, and all is well for her. She and Jayda both had flu shots. Jayda went first and took it like a champ, didn't even flinch. Addison on the other hand screamed and cried. We are next, I am betting that Anna will scream and cry too.

Running and Crawling

Jayda is not really a big fan of races we decided. She has run in little kid races before, and is always excited ahead of time, and afterwards, but when it is time to run- she seems to hate it. We have participated in the Red October Run for the last few years with Anna running a 5k last year and the year before. This year we decided to let Jayda run the kids 1 mile fun run and see what she thought of it. There were 5-6 other kids from our neighborhood running in it so we thought she would just have fun running down the street. We knew she wouldn't run the full mile of course, but we didn't know that she wouldn't want to run at all. When they yelled "on your mark, get set, go!"....she just started whining and wanted Anna to hold her. I think the crowd of people may have been overwhelming to her, so we let her wait for the end of the pack. She then wanted me to hold her, and I told her she had to catch me first. I then ran backwards and about 10 feet ahead of her while she tried to chase me and catch me. It is the only thing that worked to get her to run, but of course it didn't last very long. I then picked her up for a bit, and then she got to ride with Addison on the stroller. After the race she was very happy and excited to show off her red ribbon. She even asked Anna today if she wanted to run a race with her. Funny how kids are sometimes.






So it's official- Addison is now crawling. She has been pushing backwards for sometime now, but could never quite figure out how to move forward. Suddenly it clicked for her on Saturday and she crawled forward a few feet while we just happened to be watching. She seem to quickly catch on to it and now she can pretty much move where she wants. She crawled all the way across our apartment today to see the vacuum on the other side of the room. Exciting to have her crawl, but also it makes us have to "crawl proof" our house again. Jayda is a good helper and now watches to make sure Addison doesn't get into too much trouble. She ran all the way across the room when Addison was still 15 feet away and made sure that the door to the basement was closed even though Addison wasn't moving. It is fun to watch Addison's little hands and legs shuffle across the floor while she is exploring a new world.

Haircuts, Borders, & Boards

So it has been awhile since we last posted. We are just busy I guess, or nothing exciting has really happened. Fall is in the air and we are enjoying our September. The weather has been absolutely wonderful and we can't complain at all. If only it would stay like this for the next 6 months....
Speaking of 6 months.... in just over 6 months from now (mid-April) Todd will be done with dental school!!! Clinic ends the middle of April and graduation is May 2nd. We aren't really counting down the days, but as we look at the calendar we realize it is approaching rather quickly. Where will we go? we don't know.....

The girls are both doing very well. Addison is getting bigger everyday and is now pushing herself from laying to sitting. She crawls backwards, and gets very frustrated that she can't go forward. Her favorite thing to do now- take off her socks and eat them!


Both girls got haircuts from the Anna Salon of beauty. Addison can now see again, and Jayda doesn't look so raggedy!




Every year the Borders book store here in Ann Arbor has a huge tent sale. They put out all of their discounted, or returned items. They have thousands of books, and also thousands of kids toys. We went this weekend and scored big time on deals! We were there at the start of the sale and it felt like the day after Thanksgiving! People running, diving, yelling, fighting, etc.... Very protective of the items that they grabbed first, and one lady even tried to accuse us of stealing one of our books after we had already paid for it! Overall it was actually fun to go and we got tons of things for very cheap (most are about $1 or $2, when they were originally $20). It works out great because now we are done with our Christmas shopping for the girls (or at least close to being done). Best deal of the day: 4 packages of finger puppets (16 puppets total) and a puppet theatre that normally sell all together for $100- we got it all for $8. Many other deals too, you can see in the picture just some of what we got.



Todd took the first part of his regional dental board exam yesterday. The whole exam is broken up into three parts.
1) a clinical part that he does on a manikin head on plastic teeth- (what he did yesterday)
2) a 6 hour written exam that can be taken anytime between Sept and March.
3) a 3 part patient exam with fillings and deep cleanings that takes place in March.
Yesterday he did the manikin portion at school. There was a fake head that was mounted to the dental chair with teeth in it that he had to to 2 root canals on, and then also prepare 3 other teeth for crowns. All went well, and he feels pretty good about it. He doesn't get the results for a few weeks so we won't know until then what happened. We hope he passed because it costs $850 to retake it!