The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers...

Halloween. My least favorite holiday of the year. In fact, usually, I mostly ignore it all together. Now that we have a child, Andre and I have been discussing what we will and will not allow him to do on Halloween. Should we allow dressing up, trick or treating, parties? Or is this acknowledging a holiday that represents a whole lot of nasty stuff?

Apparently, the talks are ongoing as you can see from these delightful photos of our child all dressed up in a Halloween costume. Oh well, hopefully by next year, we will know our own minds on this subject! (Really, this was me unable to resist the oh so appropriate costume for our bouncy boy and an invitation to a party at my sister's. Geesh, where is my strength of character?!!)

Tigger

Tigger and Pooh

The cousins were Tigger, Pooh and Piglet

Jack and Nana

Us with our little Tigger

Traditions

I'm an "Occasion" kind of girl. There is no occasion too small to celebrate and make special, in my books. Perhaps it's because I'm sentimental.

The Dear Husbie, on the other hand, is not. At ALL. Case in point, he doesn't see the need to keep my wedding dress, he gave away his Russian Special Forces beret and pins, and he really doesn't mind if he gets no presents on his birthday. (I will say, however, that he is very good about making my special occasions special and has been known to spoil me dreadfully!) But, I digress.

My point is, that I have worked very hard to get him to come around to my way of thinking (!) and realize that there ARE certain things worth keeping and certain occasions worth making important. In the spirit of "Occasions" we have agreed to try and establish some traditions for our family. One of these is going to the pumpkin patch each year. Neither of us grew up with Fall Festivals/Pumpkin Patching/Halloween, so it's something new for us too.

And today was the day. Unfortunately, Jack developed a cold last night and had a pretty miserable time of it. But he woke up fever free and seemed more himself today, so we bundled him up and took him out anyway. It was a gorgeous day and we had great fun at the farm with Mum who is in town at the moment and Ness, Sean and the girls and our friend Pip.

Us, Mum, Ness & Sean and the kiddos

Nana and the Grands

Mum and Pip on the hay-ride

Michaela was thrilled with her baby pumpkins

Family photo (I think Jack needs some baby sunglasses!)

The Cousin Twins

Jack did lots of new things today, like sitting among the pumpkins...

Visiting the goats, turkeys and piglets at the petting zoo...

And riding the tractor

Poor little guy was all tired out on the ride home

Happy pumpkin patching, Jack Boy and thanks for "occasion-ing and tradition-ing" with me, Husbie!

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

Today, I and a bunch of friends had such a fun morning celebrating Megan, who is about to have her third baby, a girl (after two boys). We ate lots of goodies, enjoyed oohing and aahing over all the gorgeous girly presents and spent time chatting. So happy for you Meg and can't wait to meet Little Girl!

Pip, Megan and me

Baby bumps are good "tables"!!

An excuse to decorate with flowers is always fun

The three baby bumps present:
Katie (due early Jan.), Pip (due late November), and Megan (due early December)

Newsworthy

Jack discovered newspaper for the first time today. He seemed particularly taken with the sports section (a portent of things to come?!) and ended up getting a good scrub down in the bath after being covered in newsprint. Here's to many more enjoyable evenings reading the newspaper Jack Boy!

Bestest Buds

Best friends are wonderful things. Treasured and comfortable and good for the soul. If you know me, you know I have a best friend, who lives far far away in Aussie land and who is all these things for me.



We were both born in October 1979, "met" that Christmas and have been fast friends ever since.



And today is HER BIRTHDAY!!



Kirsty, here's to you girlfriend...



...to your thoughtfulness, faithful heart, and teachable, strong spirit.



You are one of the most beautiful people I know.



I love and admire you always and hope you've had a WONDERFUL birthday!

School Lunch

This week the posts have been a bit thin on the ground due to general busyness. Since I have photos from today, I'll document our picnic :)

Jack and I headed out to enjoy the beautiful weather and visit Aunty Rachel at the school where she works. We met up with Vanessa and her girls too and we all had great fun eating lunch together and then showing off the babies at school :). It's amazing how proud (and terribly old) one feels to have high-schoolers oohing and aahing over one's child!

The Cousin Twins

Ness and Rach with the kiddos

Jack getting cuddles from his aunty

Visiting Aunty Rachel in her classroom

Hard to get all of them looking at the same time!

It's such a lovely day and I'm tempted to go and read outside while Jack naps. I think I'll be lazy instead and have a little shut-eye on the couch. Going to school wore me out!

Church Picnic

So, Hannah, you guessed it...I'm posting tonight :)

Today was the Fall Picnic at church and we had a really fun and relaxing time. The weather was gorgeous and Jack did so well, despite being well past his nap time by the time we got home! He loved all the dogs there, as well as all the kids. And he got to try out the swings for the first time. He also had some lovely play time with his Aunty Rachel and Uncle Steve but I didn't get my camera out in time to capture them together.

Jack with a new friend

Lots of people at the park

Me and Hannah

Hannah's husband, Steven, and Jack

He LOVED his first swing experience!

So, that's what we were up to on this beautiful Fall day!

Ha!

"Formula Powered"

Couldn't resist. Old Navy on clearance. CUTENESS!

Charlie Brown and the Lost Keys

So today started out favorably, with Jack sleeping until 8:30 am (although he was up twice in the night as he's teething, poor thing), which meant we got a little bit of a sleep-in. Our friends, Myriam and Conrad, came down from Chattanooga for a visit and took us to lunch at Alons, one of our favorite spots (the lamb sandwich with caramelized onions is fabulous!!).

Thanks for a lovely time together Conrad and Myriam!

We then headed home for Jack's nap before attending the musical theater performance of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, that our church was putting on this weekend. Andre has been helping with the lighting for it, so he left early and I waited for nap time to be over. Jack slept well, woke up happy and we were out the door. Only to realize, as I was ABOUT to close the locked front door, that I hadn't grabbed my keys. Good thing I looked, because they weren't in my bag or hanging behind the door as usual. I then remembered that Andre had had them when we went out to lunch, decided that I probably didn't need them and locked them in the glove compartment of the car. And never took them out again. It seemed as if Charlie Brown was not to be.

Thankfully, my sweet Husbie phoned during intermission, wondering where we were and told me where the spare was kept (I now realize, with some dismay, that perhaps we need to communicate more. I found the passports hidden where the spare key was...who knew?!). And so Jack and I rushed off to the play, and were able to enjoy the last 40 minutes or so. The cast did an amazing job, so I'm glad I was able to see some of it. Note to self: keep keys on self AT ALL TIMES.

Jack seemed to enjoy himself as well and was able to get in a cuddle with Miss Penny, who dotes on him and asks after him whenever I see her. He was fascinated with her riding wheel-chair and cried when I took him off her lap!

Riding with Miss Penny and LOVING every minute!

Just to prove we were there!

A Humble Solution...

...to a messy problem. So our fridge has been a source of angst in our family for quite some time. The outside of the fridge, that is. It's always covered in magnets, photos, coupons and various scraps of paper that are somehow supposed to equal my grocery list (yeah, don't even get me started on how much angst grocery shopping gives me. Or preparing for grocery shopping. Or even thinking about grocery shopping. I try to avoid the whole process whenever possible. We don't eat much. Ok, just kidding, but it's the bane of my life).

Anyhoo, so back to the fridge. We have a really tiny kitchen space and it's open plan onto the living and dining areas, so when the kitchen's a mess, the whole house looks like a train smash. Or at least it makes me feel crazy! Having an untidy fridge front only adds to the feeling of clutter (not to mention that Andre mutters under his breath every time something falls off the fridge door as he opens it...poor man!) so I decided that things needed to be contained. And the only way to do that was a cork board. But the beautiful ones at my favoritist craft store EVER, were slightly too pricey, as well as far too heavy for the fridge door. So I made one.

And yes, it's a humble little creation. Pretty amateurish and all that. However, I did come up with it all by myself (although I'm sure these have been made many times over, many times more cleverly and tidily). Actually this post is just to prove that I am not completely obsessed with my child and CAN write about and show photos of other things...ha ha :)

Ingredients for my bulletin board
(I used an art canvas instead of cork)

Stretch fabric and pin
(I didn't use glue on my fabric in case I wanted to switch it out sometime)

Hot glue magnets

The finished product

I had fun finally doing something crafty again, during Jack's nap, and now my fridge is orderly and my Husbie is happy.

On to conquer the ever-looming grocery list. Ugh!

7 Months Old

Hi, peeps. It's Jack here. Mummy let me crash the blog and write my own post, since I turned 7 months old on Saturday and she thinks I'm big enough to write what I want. I think I am and know I can, so here goes. Oh, and BTW, I'm also old enough to sit on my own (Mummy likes to say "Finally!" with a huge sigh, whenever she tells people that). Yea, I would much prefer to be RUUUNNNIINNNGGG, Mummy... but I've resigned myself to sitting first (sitting's for babies though...)

In other news, she and Dad FINALLY *huge sigh* took me for my 6 month photo shoot last week. I kept trying to tell them it was a month late, but nobody listened. They did mention something about the whole sitting thing, so maybe it had to do with me figuring that out. Well, sit I did and CUTE. I. WAS.



It's much more interesting being upright all the time. I can reach my toys better. And hit things. And throw them too. And I burp more which kind of helps my tummy. Daddy and I can both do REALLY LOUD burps. Daddy and I also speak Russian to each other. And Baba Nataliya and Deada too, but Mummy can't. She likes it when we do though, 'cause she says it's a gift for me. Whatever that means. I just think it's funny and I like the way the words sound. Like "Pushkin". That's what I named my new BlaBla soft toy 'cause I think he looks like a poet.




Yeah, I know, I really need to do something about all that drool...my fingers are just so YUMMY though! I really do love my fingers....and solid food and cold cucumber chunks. Rice crackers were pretty cool at first, but now they're just so last month. I'm moving onto teething cookies. (Mummy doesn't like the mess they make but it's SO FUN to moosh it all between my fingers. Then I love my fingers even more!) Of all the drippy food Mummy gives me, I like sweet potatoes best, and pears. But I really wish I could get my hands on all those yummy looking things she and Dad eat all the time. Mum always says I need more that just my two front teeth for that stuff. Oh and I'd much rather have real food than my milk...it's so boring drinking from a bottle!



Mummy says to tell you that I still love my bath, my paci, and my binky blankie, called Pickles. I want to to tell you that I sleep through the night and am taking MUCH better naps (I finally caved and decided that sleep makes me feel better and makes Mummy and Daddy smile). Daddy is still my favorite person in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD and I don't want my Mummy to be away from me for very long either. I like them to be right where I can see them. They keep leaving me in this strange room with all these strange babies, who stare at me and I don't like it very much. Seems to happen every Sunday and they call it nursery. I am NOT a fan! ('cept for I do love Alexis, my cousin twin. She smiles at me). Speaking of cousins, I have the coolest one ever. Her name is Michaela and she's a big kid. I could watch her play ALL day long.

Ok, gotta go. I'm pooped. Off to my night-time routine: bath, bottle and bed. Works for me!

Double Birthday Fun

Yesterday we went for dinner at Steve and Rachel's house to celebrate birthdays. Mine was on Friday and Rachel's is next Thursday, so we had a fun sibling supper complete with presents and cake!

Getting in an early snack for Alexis

Rachel serving us all dinner

Yummy food...thanks for cooking Rach!

The Gang

The Cousin Twins playing in Jack's pac n play

And eating napkin rings :)

Me and Rach with our delicious birthday cake made by Nessa

Thanks Siblings for a fun time together!