Family poses by pumpkins

Happy Halloween! Can you believe December is only a month away!? Where has the year gone. These last few months have just blown by.

We’ve been working on getting Maren to self soothe and sleep on her own. She moved into her own crib the night after our last post at 6 weeks. It took quite a few weeks of rocking and shushing to get her to sleep. Hours of going up and down the stairs to soothe her over and over. It became our new hobby and past time. Luckily, she’s starting to get it and she is settling much quicker now. I’m really glad we stuck with it because it’s paying off. Recently we can put her down to sleep around 8:30/9:00 and she may wake once during the night for feeding, then she goes right back down. She sometimes wakes up a bit earlier than we like her too, so I’ll feed her again and put her back down. She’s doing super well. She’s also getting much more independent and will hang out by herself for a bit as well. She’s not a fan of tummy time, so we don’t do that much, but I suppose we should…

Maisy has been an excellent help and continues to mature. She is now consistently waking up from naps dry! We are very proud of her. She also has a new invisible pal named Katie. Katie is a boy. He comes over to play but Maisy often has problems finding him. Katie is also a bit ill tempered often hitting people and running away. Maisy is kind to Katie anyway and will pack up her toys so she can give them to him, because he doesn’t have any toys.

Halloween was sure a lot of fun! Halloween started with good ol’ fashioned pumpkin carving.

Maisy loves Maren, Maren looks worried

Maren charms Mommy

Maisy poses by pumpkin

We had Maren and Maisy’s friends and their parents over. Satya, Mila and Jada accompanied us on our Trick or Treating. The girls were so adorable together walking up to all of the houses and then checking their bags for treats. The dads were all happy to watch the World Series game at our place after the Treating was done. A great time was had by all. This year we went by Maisy’s lead. She wanted to be Snow White, I was the Mean Queen, Todd was the Huntsman and Maren was a Dwarf. It was very fun! I got all welled up a couple of times just not believing that Maisy is old enough to be a big girl with friends and going Trick or Treating and all….. time goes by so fast!

Uncle Steven passes out candy

The Huntsman, Snow White, The Mean Queen and the Dwarf

Maisy and Satya Trick or Treating at Debra and Anne’s

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The Huntsman and the Dwarf

Today Maren had her 2 month well baby check up. She’s doing very well weighing in at 10 pounds 10 ounces. She got all of her baby shots today. It’s so hard to watch! She was very very sad. Maisy was strong for both Maren and I cheering us on, saying, “It’s okay, You’ll be alright, Be brave.” She’s the best big sister! Maren’s been sleeping ever since we got home. I hope she feels better soon. Maisy and I both got our flu vaccinations. We were both very happy to get Flumist rather than a shot! Now we just need to get Todd vaccinated.

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Maren naps it off

It’s been a non-napathon around here. We are having some siding replaced on the house as well as having it re-painted, so there is lots of pounding and banging going on. Needless to say, Maisy doesn’t sleep too well through it.

We are getting along okay and of course some days are better than others. Typically Todd gets Maisy up in the morning and puts her to sleep at night and I have Maren duty.

Dada and Maisy snuggle

It’s really kind of challenging when Todd works late and I have to put both girls down. I also agreed to do a small project for work and I’m finding it difficult with all the non napping to get to it, but I’ll make it work.

More next time!

Much love, Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren

Trick or Treating

U nfortunately Maisy came down with her first cold EVER the day before Halloween and being the responsible parents we are, we decided to not infect other children, so our big plans of Trick or Treating with all of Maisy’s friend’s had to be cancelled. Boo!

Carving pumpkins

We went ahead with carving pumpkins anyway and Maisy just looked miserable with a cold. Her poor eyes and nose would not stop running. After carving, she settled in on the couch to watch some Mickey Mouse, better known to Maisy as, “Mousssss”.

Watching the Mouse with Baby Polly

“Puntkinsss”

We were happy that Erik and Ari were brave enough to join us for a night of Trick or Treaters and yummy food and too much candy!

Maisy returning home from Trick or Treating to try to get more candy

Maisy actually kind of “got” Trick or Treating this year. She said, “knock, knock, knock”, while knocking on doors and then would say, “Tic,toe, tee”, for the goods and of course, being the polite girl she is, she’d follow up with, “Tanks. Bye-bye”. She loved it and had a huge smile on her face the whole time.

Us in front of our very scary house!

Hope everyone enjoyed their fun day of costumes and candy!

Much love, Todd, Becky and Maisy

Family photo at the pumpkin patch

W e took advantage of the warm sunny day and visited the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins. Maisy was more concerned with the hay on the ground than she was with the pumpkins, but did take a special liking to rides in the wagon. She’s also not a scaredy cat. She just laughed at all the spooky Halloween goodies around the patch.

What’s this guy’s problem?

Wow, hay!

All of the pumpkin hunting got us in the mood to do some scary decorating to the new front backyard, so we will be nice and spooky for all the kiddies. We are having some of Maisy’s friends over on Halloween for dinner and neighborhood trick-or-treating. Maisy took a spin around the block in her lion costume last week and she makes the most perfect and sweet lion roar. She’s all ready for the big day!

Much love, Todd, Becky and Maisy

M aisy enjoyed her first Halloween with a few friends and a bit of Trick or Treating. Halloween kicked off with pumpkin carving on Wednesday when Uncle Steven came over. Maisy was unfortunately in bed by then, so Todd and I helped her carve her pumpkin on Thursday. Maisy liked to play with the squishy inside of the pumpkin.

Maisy was a bunny for Halloween. Here we all are dressed up for the tour of the neighborhood on Friday. Maisy was joined by two pals, Evan and Satya. I’ll post those pictures when I get them (those pictures are on our friend’s camera). Maisy likes walks so she enjoyed the tour of the neighborhood in the dark. She didn’t quite like having to stop to chat on neighbors’ doorsteps though. We didn’t have too many Trick or Treaters at our house as the weather was rainy.

This is a picture of our very spooky front yard. It was really fun to put together. Tomorrow will be graveyard demolition day.

We had a wonderful first Halloween and cannot wait for next year!

Much love to all- Todd, Becky and Maisy

A s Halloween is approaching, we decided to take Maisy to the pumpkin patch today. Uncle Steven joined us on our adventure! Here are some pictures from our day.

We went to a little cute pumpkin patch in Oakland/Piedmont just down the street from the old and beautiful Mountain View Cemetary- which we took a tour of before the pumpkin patch, just to get in the mood!

Maisy really seemed to enjoy pumpkin hunting and picked a very cute little pumpkin all for herself.

We were so inspired that when we got home we got to work on our very own graveyard and body guard “Jake” to sit on our porch.

Maisy is going to be a bunny this year for Halloween. We are going to go trick or treating with friends Rowan and Evan (both monkeys). We’ll be sure to post pictures of the big night!

Have a happy Halloween season!

Much love to all- Todd, Becky and Maisy