I actually have pumpkin carving pictures, but I haven’t edited them yet, and looking at my recent history for posting, I figured I would just skip them and post the pictures from Halloween instead. Desmond was Buzz Lightyear and Eloise was a Bumble Bee. They both had a fun time, Eloise made it about 5 houses before she was done, but since she got some lollipops from one of the houses she was happy. Desmond was out for an hour and a half and according to Dan they went down 3 or 4 streets and he filled his pumpkin. He had a great time. So here is Buzz and Bumble Bee!

Getting ready to head out, you can sort of see Eloise’s pumpkin at least in these pictures.

Here is Eloise after we came back.

And here is Desmond after he and Dan got back.

And here he is out of his costume looking at his loot.

As I mentioned in the previous post there was also a straw maze at the farm. They had a toddler maze, where Eloise spent most of her time and a bigger maze. Desmond quickly decided the toddler maze was boring and moved on to the big maze with Dan. Which made sense because the toddler maze was very low key and not really mazelike. Desmond had a ton of fun wandering the big maze though I think he went through 5 times or so. Eloise went through once, she was not impressed and liked the toddler maze a lot better.

Here the two of them are in the big maze

And here are some pictures from the toddler maze.

Desmond found it fun to jump off the bales of hay onto the ground in the toddler maze.

So the weekend before Halloween we went to the pumpkin patch. We were also planning on going apple picking, but apparently the harvest was rather picked over so the orchid was closed that Sunday. We did visit the straw maze though which Desmond loved. We all had a good time, and both Desmond and Eloise picked their own pumpkins which was fun.

I’ll do the straw maze pictures in another post.

So Desmond hasn’t nursed for over a week now! So I am thinking he might be officially weaned, at 3 and 1/2 years old, okay technically he isn’t 3 1/2 till tomorrow, but I am counting it at 3 1/2. He hasn’t been nursing much since I learned I was pregnant, well actually he has been restricted to twice a day since May, but once I found out I was pregnant he was restricted even more, because my breasts have hurt and nursing 2 children while pregnant really wasn’t helping that. In the past month or so he’s been down to nursing for 10 seconds in the morning a couple of times a week. Which hasn’t been to bad, but since I did want to wean him by the time the new baby came, I’ll admit I can tandem, but I don’t think I can tandem with 3, this really is a good time for him to stop.

It is a bit bittersweet though because he is my first baby, and now he isn’t nursing anymore and soon he’ll be potty trained (please soon, pretty please soon!), and he already seemed so grown up going to preschool this fall.

I am thrilled to have made it 3.5 year though, my original thought was I’d make it to 1 hopefully. I think it made it a bit past that. I did start with small steps when we started nursing, once he was born and in my arms, 5 hours after my c-section, we tried nursing and he had a bit of trouble, but he finally latched within the 24 hours that the hospital gives you before they start supplementing. Once I got 2 of the lactation consultants in to help me with his latch, my goal was to hit 6 weeks, I figured if I made it to 6 weeks then I could probably make it to 3 months. Once I made it to 3 months then my goal to hit was 6 months and then 1 year. Once I hit a year I decided to just go with the flow, he loved nursing and seemed to need it, and I had no reason to stop. So we kept nursing, through my pregnancy with Eloise and now through Eloise’s first 18 months. I am really happy about how easy nursing him ended up being and that I didn’t need to stop before he was ready to.

So I now only have one nursling, well at least for another 6 months when I’ll have 2 again! Him weaning just makes him seem so grown up, now if only he would potty train! Changing his diaper is one thing I am so not going to miss once he finally is potty trained!

And here are the only 2 nursing pictures I think I have of him. It is really weird to think we have hit this milestone and that he is fully weaned.

Yep still tiny. Eloise had her 18 month appointment today. She weighted in somewhere between 19 pounds 6 ounces and 19 pounds 8 ounces. I’m going with the 6 ounces because that is the one the nurse went with. It keeps her under the 5th percentile for weight still. She didn’t really grow taller in the last 3 months either, she is now 30 1/8 inches tall, which puts her in the 12th percentile. Her head stayed steady in the 50th percentile.

She gained 1 pound 2 ounces in 3 months which isn’t bad, and 3/8th of an inch which is a bit low. The doctor didn’t seem overly concerned though she did want us to watch her weight. We are probably going to bring her back for a weight check in 3 months or so, since she needs another shot anyways, which she will just love!

She is ahead developmentally and doing fine as far as all her milestones go, she is just tiny. Which isn’t a huge surprise considering I was tiny as a toddler too. All in all it was a good appointment though she is not happy with us having her get two shots. She has been clingy and upset all evening.

At birth 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19 3/4th inches
At 1 month 8 pounds 8 ounces and 20 3/4 inches
At 2 months 10 pounds 4 ounces and 22 1/2 inches
At 4 months 12 pounds 14.5 ounces and 24 inches
At 6 months 15 pounds 4 ounces and 25 1/2 inches
At 9 months 16 pounds 12 ounces and 26 3/4 inches
At 12 months 17 pound 15.5 ounces and 28 inches
At 15 months 18 pounds 4 ounces and 29 3/4 inches
At 18 months 19 pounds 6 ounces and 30 1/8 inches

So my kids are little gamers. I know TV bad, computer games bad for young children. Moving past that now. Both my kids love computer games which isn’t surprising considering their parents. Desmond adores our XBOX360 and is quite good with the controller now, he is actually better at playing Toy Story 3 then I am now. He also finally figured out how to use the mouse on the kid computer so he will open up Starfall, Reading Eggs, Playhouse Disney or PBS Kid website and play games there by himself or to entertain Eloise. Which is kind of nice. I should probably go ahead and find the controllers for the Wii to see how he does with it, since there are some games on it we have that I think he would quite like.

Anyways back to Lego Rockband. Desmond has always been a fan of the Rockband game, and we got the lego version which is nice since it has a no fail super easy mode. So here are the two small ones a few weeks ago both playing along and watching as DH played. I had a picture of Eloise rocking on the drums too, but it didn’t come out right. Anyways here are the cute ones.

So on Saturday, rather then being a good Jew and going to temple to celebrate Yom Kipper, I should really find a temple, maybe by next year, we went apple picking. 35 pounds of apples and hour or so later we were done apple picking. Now of course we need to figure out what we are doing with 35 pounds of apples, we’ve been eating them, which works, but it is a lot of apples. I do have a recipe for freezable apple pie filling that we might try this weekend.

Anyways both Desmond and Eloise had fun apple picking, Eloise mainly just ate an apple and wandered around, Desmond was big on helping us pick the apples, he was actually fairly helpful since he could get in areas that larger people couldn’t so her got some nice apples. Here are the two of them having fun apple picking.

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Desmond started preschool last Tuesday. He had class Tuesday and Wednesday and then off on Thursday for Rosh Hashana. He starts back tomorrow and actually goes all three days this week, the only time this month, due to various Jewish holidays that happen this month. Anyways Dan takes him in the morning and he starts at 7am in the before preschool care program, and then I pick him up at 12:15, it works out nicely since it means I only need to put Eloise in the car once a day for a pickup and it also means she can sleep in and doesn’t have to get up to take Desmond to preschool. She is not a morning toddler!

Anyways Desmond had a lot of fun at his preschool the first two days. He knew the set up somewhat from summer camp, which I think helped some. He has really enjoyed himself so far though. Dan did comment that he was not overly happy with him in the mornings dropping him off, but since he takes his Buzz Lightyear with him he is okay after a minute or two. Which is nice.

Anyways here is his picture in the parking lot on his first day of preschool. He looks thrilled doesn’t he?

So on Saturday we went to RenFest. We wanted to get a couple more of the dolls (plaids) that Eloise and Desmond loved from last year and the vendor was only there this past weekend and the weekend before. We got both small ones 2 more dolls, which they both love. Desmond takes one with him everywhere.

We arrived after Desmond was finished with his gymnastics class and we brought the carrier for Eloise since it is not a great ground for a stroller and let Desmond walk. We probably should have brought a carrier for him too since he was quite done by the time we left. We got there and got their dolls first off, Desmond happily carrier his blue doll and red doll around for the rest of the trip, Eloise had one of her’s in the carrier and the other in my bag. We then wandered a bit and found the ponies! We let Desmond get in line for the ponies while Eloise stayed on Dan’s back and took pictures. Apparently the entire time Desmond was on the pony Eloise chanted “horse, horse, horse, horse!” So Dan checked how big they had to be to ride on the ponies and was told Eloise was big enough. We actually left the ponies and figured we would come back and let her ride and Desmond have his second ride. We did a couple of other things at the fare and then headed back to the ponies, where Eloise got her ride. She chanted “horse, horse, horse, horse!” the entire time she was on the pony and was happy to go a second time on the pony, if she had had her way we would have never left and she would now own a pony to ride.

Desmond really enjoyed his two rides as well. Dan got a couple of good pictures of Desmond on the pony and a couple of okay pictures of Eloise, so here they are on the ponies.

Here you can sort of see Eloise doing her “cheese” face, whenever she sees a camera she says “cheese” grins and squeezes her eyes shut, it makes it hard to get a good pictures of her. Though she is adorable when she does it.

So we’ve been to Sesame Place three weekends so far this summer and will go back at least 2 more times, maybe 3 this season. We are getting our money out of our season passes! Anyways, Desmond and Eloise don’t really know any of the Sesame Street Characters since we don’t watch the show. Which means that Desmond has decided the park is called the “Parking Lot”. As in “We go to Parking Lot and I ride roller coaster and water slides.” or “Daddy come home and drive to Parking Lot, ride roller coaster.”

Apparently we have not been taking my child to a fun amusement park called Sesame Place, we’ve been taking him to an amusement park called Parking Lot! Dan and I crack up now whenever he says he, but he won’t be corrected. So Desmond loves going to the parking lot!

Here are a couple of pictures from the parking lot of our first two visits. I haven’t downloaded the pictures yet from our most recent visit, which was tons of fun since we met up with friend’s from a message board I am on that have children his age.

Desmond on blast off, it is a ride that goes up and then free falls down and goes back up and down. He loves it!

Desmond enjoying the small 2 foot deep at the highest wave pool. Both Desmond and Eloise love this.

Desmond trying to get his hands to fit in the hand prints of Ernie. Not that he has a clue who Ernie is, but he loves trying to get his hands to fit.

Eloise enjoying the water in the wave pool. Eloise is not a big thrill ride child. In fact she is not a huge ride child. She will do the carousel if she can sit on the bench, but she isn’t overly happy about it. She likes the tiny kids area with big bird’s nest and she loves the wave pool and the other water attractions that don’t include water slides. She also likes the sand. Other then that though, she would rather not go on anything, she didn’t even like flying fish which is basically dumbo, but with Elmo as the ride cars, and she hated the tea cups! She spends a lot of time watching Desmond, since he is a little dare devil and loves all the rides!

Desmond and me on the roller coaster. This is the best picture I have gotten and I try every time. Well best picture Dan has gotten, but the ones I have of Dan and Desmond on it aren’t any better.

On the baby waterslide.

Eloise on the carousel the first time. She tried a horse, but halfway through the ride she wanted down and has refused anything but the bench since.

How Eloise spends a lot of her time at the park

Desmond looking for fun rides to do

Eloise moving a block in Big Bird’s Nest one of the few things she likes.

We have had a ton of fun at Sesame Place so far, it is a great place for Desmond. Eloise is not as thrilled with it, but she does have fun, even if she does have to wait awhile when we get there as Desmond goes on the roller coaster 3 or 4 times in a row. We normally split up fairly quickly so that Desmond can do a bunch of rides he likes and to let Eloise do something other then sit in the stroller. They both have fun though. The season passes were definitely worth it.