Typical Trouble

With her black eye finally faded, Paige is determined to find more trouble to get into. She is daring and independent and takes advantage of a turned back quicker than you can say "Where'd that baby go?"

Here are three examples from her arsenal of "tricks." None of these were staged, and yes she's in the same outfit because they all happened within mere moments of each other...I'm not kidding.

Paige's biggest object of desire? Big sister's trampoline. We were keeping it in Mommy and Daddy's room to keep Paige away but after a couple of late night stubbed-toe-cursing episodes we relented and put it back in the hallway. On the rare occasions that Reese dismounts, Paige crawls over, climbs on top, stands up, and jumps. Yes, I said jump. She barely gets her toes off the trampoline, but she holds the handle and goes buck wild. I can't decide what the more likely injury will be--head injury from a fall, or cracked teeth from banging her chin on the handle bar.



Scoop her off the trampoline, redirect her, and odds are you end up with this:


While picking up the tissues (and trying to decide if they're still usable), she will find one of Reese's two chairs (in her bedroom or the small rocking chair we have in the living room), scale it, and try to dive over the back.

And this doesn't even chronicle the fun she has if the bathroom or pantry doors are left even slightly ajar.

Halloween Sneak Peek

With two little ones participating in the trick-or-treating this year, I had envisioned themed costumes from the get go. So, when (months ago) Reese announced she wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween, I jumped on the chance to transform my semi-willing children into the butterfly (Reese) and caterpillar (Paige) from Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

This led to an unhealthy and short lived obsession with finding the girls cute costumes to complete my vision. I soon found out that just this year, by coincidence, Pottery Barn Kids introduced just the costumes I was looking for....at a cost that made my jaw drop.
I know what you're thinking: "Why don't you just make your children their Halloween costumes? Isn't that what stay-at-home moms do?" Not this one. My sewing skills are rudimentary at best and I would undoubtedly spend more money constructing my children their costumes through my screwups and constant trips to the fabric store. Luckily, the butterfly idea was short lived for Reese. Only days later she decided that instead of a butterfly, she wanted to be a....LOBSTER.

We obviously don't live in Maine. I'm not sure where this idea came from. But, anything to get us away from the expensive butterfly debacle. Again, I searched high and low for a lobster costume and I found these:

Adorable, right?! The problem? My tiny tot is way too big for the baby costumes, but way too small for the toddler costumes. And sewing something like that? Let's be real. Eric Carle's butterfly and caterpillar are whimsical we might have been able to piece together something from Goodwill, but not when we're going for a passable imitation of a real crustacean. Nix that one.

Her idea #3? An elephant. Perfection. Easy, available in a wide range of styles, and good prices.

Our very excited pachyderm.

Paige was going to be the mouse to Reese's elephant, but when that idea went bust as well, we settled on a pea. We do call her "P" often, and spending any more time on costumes would have driven me mad.

Don't you just want to eat her up?

So, here are the girls trying on their outfits, getting warmed up for the BIG day.



You may be wondering what Kevin and I will be wearing for this excursion. We have no current plans, although the other night at dinner Reese did tell Kevin that she could be his peanut, "because, you know, elephants LOVE peanuts."