Halloween Eve

Reese's preschool had a Pumpkin Patch Party yesterday. No costumes (question for our Baptist readership: is HW acknowledged or frowned upon? I ask out of curiosity and a little bit of ignorance--I know some groups don't really acknowledge it and her teach acted a little odd when I enthusiastically asked if R could wear her costume. Enlighten me, please), so R wore HW duds. Here she is in her cute outfit, pre-preschool. Also, "cheeeese," complete with crouching position.

Didn't catch a great one, but you get the idea.

Last night, we went over to the Mehtas so David could meet Nico. Here's Neal, David and sweet Miss Nico.

David and the top of Nico's head. We didn't want to rotate her too much and disrupt her.

We're looking forward to trick-or-treating tonight (many more pics to follow, promise), possibly squeezing in an opening day hunt for D, and hopefully seeing/meeting baby Simone. Lots to do! Happy Halloween.

Ready or not!

I've mentioned that Reese loves her some hide-and-seek. So David got back yesterday and in her hyperventilating state of excitement (which lasted all evening), she demanded lots of hiding. And since I was not the one inducing hyperventilation, so I took it upon myself to be "it." Here I come....
Hmm, where could they be hiding?

I just cannot find them for the life of me. Huh!

Oh, there they are!

Happy Daddy and daughter.

David was the sole object of R's attention all evening. So I kept hearing things like, "Daddy, GET! UP!" or "Daddy, c'mhere!" I think this was, "I want Daddy stand up and play with me!" No rest for the weary, David, sorry.

Okay, I better scoot and get R's lunch ready. Today is their "Pumpkin Patch Party" at school, and we are all super excited for her to have a really fun day. I went above and beyond and offered to prepare and bring...the napkins. For serious. I passed right over anything that might require turning the oven on and opted for paper goods. So, probably another post today, if for no other reason than to illustrate her HW outfit cuteness.

I Heart Rollingwood

I probably don't say it enough, but I love my neighborhood. I really do.
Some of my girlfriends decided to meet up for an afternoon playdate at RW park. How could we say no to such fun, practically in our backyard?
Here's Reese, "at the helm," as Shannon put it. I thought it was more "slightly disgruntled," but Shannon has a better way with words, obv.

Hi cute girls! Also, watch out parents, in 13 years! Ainsley, Lulu, and Reese in a rare moment of seated togetherness.

I love meeting up with these gals. I so fondly remember the Gymboree days. We had the most fun group of moms and kids (mainly girls!), and we had so much fun catching up and chatting during class. Also, Mr. Aaron, because he's pretty fun and cute himself. I guess I am a little sad that I have been so focused on getting R into her preschool class and making sure she's behaving properly that I haven't really had a chance to meet other parents. I need to work on that, because really, at this point, it's so lucky we can still pick the kids (aka, their parents, too) we want our kids to hang out with. That will all change soon enough!
The other part of I heart RW is the fun RWC (Rollingwood Women's Club) meetings we have. Laila and I went to the October one at my friend Karen's house tonight, and we learned a few tips on holiday entertaining, ate some yummy apps and just had a generally nice time chatting with our cool neighbors.
So, off to bed, and preparing for David to return tomorrow. It's a great week and will only get better!
Can't wait!
xoxoxo

Gigi and Poppy's visit

Gigi and Poppy paid us a visit today! We had a great time. While Poppy was at his meeting, the three girls had a lot of fun. Gigi arrived wearing a spider on her head, which immediately delighted Reese. Also immediately, it was on her head.

Modeling the Fall 2008 line of spider headwear.

Gigi and Reese, pretending to be spiders.

Gigi, you're funny!

Gigi came prepared with all sorts of Halloween goodies for Reese. Reese did not mind that a bit. Here are some more stylish Halloween headwear options. These light up, too!

Not the best pic, but I'm including so you can see how very cute R's "pirate shirt" (as she calls it) looks. Um, where can I get one in my size?

We had a fun afternoon with Gigi, eating lunch at Central Market, playing on the playground there, and grocery shopping. Then we picked up Poppy, and he came over and danced with R for awhile and visited with us as well. Here they are, seeing exactly who had the loudest shoes. I think it went to Reese.

We had a great time today with the Bains and can't wait to see them again soon!


Here are a few pics from a couple of days ago. I never got around to blogging about them but want to include them here. Reese and I were playing hide and seek in my room, and she was being especially funny and cute. This is the "up to trouble" look....

Mommy and Reese taking an arm-extended pic. Not sure why R's pointing to her teeth (unfortunately, that's probably the "cheeeese" thing happening again). Also not sure why I am experiencing extreme T-zone oiliness and frizz-o-matic hair....

Oh yes, you will be seeing this shirt at least one more time before the week's end.

What gets me is that my 2-year-old understands and remembers the function of each of our approximately 85 remotes. I can't figure out which ones go in which room, let alone which appliances they control. Here she is, operating the fan. Okay, I do know this one but only because it is white and stands out.

Watch out, here comes Frankenstein! Mmmwaaaah!

And so kicks off our Halloween week. I love this holiday, so hopefully there will be some fun stuff to post about in the next several days. Happy haunting!

Dress up and pretend

I'm soooo glad it's nighttime, Reese is sleeping, and I am about go crawl into bed. It's been a tough day. R misbehaved quite a bit at school today, about which I don't feel like going into great detail, at least at the moment. But anyway, lots of parenting reading lies in my future. So instead of dwelling on all that depressing stuff, here are some pics from dress up earlier tonight. I should preface: we did a trial run on R's Halloween costume, Tinkerbell. It looked fabulous, she adored wearing it, and in order to get her out of it without extreme tears, I whipped out some other dress up stuff. She filled in the rest.


Why, hello, Miss Reese! Don't you look smashing?

What do you mean this doesn't match??

Initial reaction upon seeing herself in the mirror in this particular ensemble.

Upon further reflection upon seeing herself in the mirror....

This is the face we get when R says "cheeeese" these days. It will make for a difficult holiday photo session, I'm afraid.

She really seemed proud of this outfit. Maybe it was the pink feather explosion in her hair. Very Kenley from Project Runway.

Finding my lip gloss.

Applying (eating?) lip gloss.
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"Don't I look pretty?"


After an overly eventful bath (par for the course today), R got into my shoes. When she slipped on these heels, she said, "Don't I look like Sleeping Beauty?" Huh?



Well, maybe because the heels were paired with jammies? Speaking of, I'm officially going to bed. Ready for tomorrow to come!

Back, by popular demand

...more pics of Nico Mehta! Mom, Reese and I paid the newly expanded fam a visit tonight and had a wonderful time visiting with them. They are all doing well, Nico is a dream baby at a week old--not crying much, on a fairly regular schedule (!!) and of course capturing everyone's heart that meets her.
Neal and Monique are doing amazingly well, too. I don't think I could form a sentence when R was a week old. At least I really don't remember all that much those first few weeks....
Sweet daddy Neal and his baby girl

Beautiful mama Monique and her sweetie

CUTIE alert

Oh my goodness, can she be any more precious? And also, "alert" is a good word--she was awake, alert and content the whole hour we were there--amazing!

Mom, aka "Baby Whisperer"

Okay, a little sadness when the paci falls

Oh hey, Reese was there too, although she clearly understood she was not the center of attention. As soon as I held Nico, it was, "Mommy, I want you to hoooooold me." Then with Ma Pam, "Ma Pam, please hoooold me." But when we got down to it, R really wanted to hold Nico. She's too little yet, but she got a kick out of looking at her in the pack and play.

And keeping herself occupied with the pumpkin. I heard her tell it, "You go to school; I'm the teacher. I'm so glad you're at my school. Your mommy will come back right after lunch." Thank you, pumpkin, for insight into my child's experience at school.

"Hey, I hear around town you're known as 'Ma Pam'...cool if I call you that?"

"Whew, that's a relief"

Lastly, my "artsy fartsy" pic that captured all three Mehtas....what a great fam! :) Love you guys.

"Isn't she a cutie-cutie?"

That's what Reese says about both of her newest little friends, Baby Simone and now, Baby Nico. Welcome to the world, precious Nicola Monique! And the answer on both counts is, "Absolutely!" These little girls are darlings. I didn't do a very good job at being photographer today at the hospital. Here are a few shots of newbie "cutie-cutie" Nico:

Cindy holds the tiny sweetie.

What a sweet face!

Monique and Neal are adjusting to parenthood very well, and both look great. They even got some sleep last night--yea! I can't wait to see Nico again soon, and will work on getting some much better pics on here.

I forgot to post this last week--we went to dinner with the Ohls and I captured this "chat" Reese and RJ were having on the playground at Austin Pizza. Ryan said it perfectly--"What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during that conversation!"


I can only imagine R was telling RJ waaaaaay more than he ever wanted to know about Peter Pan, since that's a main topic of discussion around here these days. :)