I am glad for many things

...especially this crew. Happy Thanksgiving!

Binky update

Two days in and not a word. Not a peep. Not a temper tantrum, a crying spell, a whine or a whimper. It's as if there never was a binky. It was so effortless, I'm slightly concerned I caused her some mental trauma. The only thing she said yesterday over and over was, "I'm a BIG girl" as if she were trying to convince herself of the fact.

If I had known it would be this easy, I would have done it a long time ago. Although, I confess, it is very strange to see her all the time without it or to not be chasing a binky down for bedtime. She also seems to have transferred whatever she needed the binky for into extra snuggles with me.

Life is not so bad post Binky. Not so bad at all.

Bye Bye Binky...I hope

In the 1,029 days Ellie has been on the Earth, she has NEVER gone to sleep without her Binky. Until tonight.

Because today, the Evil Mommy character decided the Binky was not going to go by will or by gentle means.

Cold turkey is our only hope. I hope.

After ignoring suggestions of the Binky fairy and snipping the end (her solution to those problems is to ask to go to the grocery store to buy a new one. She isn't stupid...), I managed to wean her down to just nap time, bed time and the occasional "you're stressed so go sit in your bed and use your Binky" time. However, in our recent trip to Utah, she became a screaming, crying Binky addict again. Rather than wean again, I just decided to take it away.

Holy. Crap. What. A. Day.

Toddler detox is no fun. There were tears involved....both of us. Jack asked me to give her her Binky after listening to her scream for 10 minutes before bed. After 30 minutes, though, she gave up and passed out, whimpering. I cried for the poor thing. It wasn't like it was fun watching her beg, plead, scream, demand, whine and sob. Hopefully, this two to three day and forget about it thingy will really work.

So, above is what I hope is the LAST picture of her (with my mother, Sissie, and step-dad, Ruben) with a Binky in her mouth.

Fingers crossed.

Autumn, thus far

Picking out pumpkins out at the Elliott's, the church trunk-or-treat, Stokee Farms. In other words, we've been having serious fun trying to enjoy the outdoors before Winter hits in full.


Making applesauce and apple cider. Sorry, forgot to take pictures on cider day and of the days and days we spent picking out, but it was fun. I'm a bit worn out on applesauce. The children, however, are not. I have two more five gallon buckets of apples to do and then I'll be done. 40+ quarts on the shelf for winter. Who knows how many quarts were consumed before I could get them in jars.

And of course, leaves. Naturally at the Bacon's because they have a better tree.

Halloween

I'm behind. I still have stuff from summer I'd like to get up here. However, I present with limited interruptions from myself Halloween.



Sophie had her second soccer sectionals game on Halloween (what were those Section 5 people thinking...) so Bob was MIA for Halloween, which he was sorely upset over. However, he called in reinforcements in the form of Hannah the Clown (can you tell she's taking a stage make-up class?) and her boyfriend, Michael, to help me take the munchkins out. I like the one-to-one ratio when wrestling kids down the street. They pretty much made the evening for us! Jack wanted to be a ghost, thus Robbie became a junior ghost. My mother sent Ellie a Sleeping Beauty dress-up gown a few months ago and there was never a doubt of who she would be on the big day. I was actually cool with our absolute lack of creativity this year.

Typical evening, freshly carved pumpkins, walking in the cold, cider and donuts at the fire hall, haunted house at the Allegiance Inn...





...and candy, candy, candy, candy...


...which except for M&M's and homemade white chocolate pops, Ellie seems to not like. Interesting.