Hooray for my advent calendar!

So about a week before Thanksgiving I decided to bite the bullet and make an advent calendar. I finally finished it this week. Not by December 1st like I had hoped, but I'm really happy with how it turned out! I got the idea from this one in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, but it was $69. I decided that with a few dollars of felt and some blood, sweat, and tears, I could make my own. I'm relieved to see that the PBK advent calendar is simply "No Longer Available"--my big worry was that by the time I finished making my own, the real mccoy would be marked down to $9.99 or something. So anyway, here is the finished product!

I would like to embroider our last name on the bottom of the tree, but I'll probably wait until after Christmas to do that. Realistically, I'll probably do it on November 30th 2009 ;)
Now I just need to figure out what to put in the pockets. I popped a piece of candy in each pocket, but I had envisioned putting in something Christmas-y too. Any ideas?

Top 10 reasons I love Christmas with a toddler

10. She's willing to trek through the mud and cold to cut down a Christmas tree, as long as she gets to wear her beloved snow pants.


9. All of our ornaments are on the top 2/3 of our Christmas tree. And it's wedged between two couches for protection. All of the candy canes on our Christmas tree have been sucked on--through the plastic wrappers.

8. She still gets Santa and snowmen confused. I have to say I'm enjoying the lack of comprehension (or expectation) that tons of toys are coming her way.
7. The reindeer in the mall are the coolest thing ever! And all large, nondescript animals are hereby reindeer. The moose on our Yellowstone Christmas ornament? Definitely reindeer.
6. She doesn't care that I just finished the Advent calendar this week.
5. She's old enough to help us find the toys she'll like for Christmas, but young enough to forget about them once I hide them!
4. She doesn't realize my bedroom is full of poorly hidden, unwrapped Christmas presents.
3. Snow is popular in our house again. How can we help it when we hear, "Ooh, it's snowing!" (Whether it's snowing or not. Snow on the ground is close enough to "snowing"!)
2. I get to dress her up like Mrs. Claus! (Or is Miss Claus more appropriate? Or Ms. Claus? Elfette? You get the idea.)

1. We get to experience the joys of trying to wrestle Natalie down AND make her smile for the camera while wearing festive holiday attire so we can have a happy Christmas picture for posterity.

Snoozer

Dave took a great sleeping photo of Natalie...

and it reminded me of a photo of her wrapped up in the same blanket when she was just 2 months old.

How time flies. In some ways, it's hard to believe this is the same person! What a difference 18 months makes.

Double dipping

Natalie's new favorite food is ketchup! We gave her some with french fries recently and she didn't really eat the french fries; she just sucked the ketchup off them over and over. After awhile she realized she could get at the ketchup easier if she scooped it into her hands. When finished (with the ketchup, not the fries) requested "more kapsups." Hmmm. Ketchup is pretty much tomatoes and sugar, so this isn't the most nutritionally balanced choice, but I figure it's like giving her a piece of Halloween candy with a (tiny) dose of vitamin C! And does it really make sense to insist that she finish her french fries first?

We've discovered that ketchup isn't her only dip of choice. Barbeque sauce (the chicken fingers are an afterthought), gravy (minus the mashed potatoes), and jelly (licked off the bread) are also pretty highly ranked. The other night we were in a Mexican restaurant and Natalie requested more chips and salsa the whole time.

I've heard people suggest that kids are more likely to eat food if they can dip it in something. I just never expected Natalie to eat this dip by the handful.

Fall fun at the pumpkin patch

Last month we went to the pumpkin patch and we discovered a pumpkin patch where pumpkins are just the tip of the iceberg. I think Natalie could have been content to watch this train all day long.

When it came to riding the toddler train, Natalie was interested, but a little apprehensive, so the guy in charge of the ride let me get on with Natalie.

This was my favorite part--and as you can see from the look on Natalie's face, she was pretty excited about it too. Natalie got to pick an apple from a wooden tree. How funny is that? I snapped this pic right before she took a bite out of the apple. No need for washing when you get them directly from the great outdoors!

I couldn't resist posting this sequence of 3 photos taken during her time on the swingset.



How tall this fall? Not quite 3 feet.

And finally, bring on the pumpkins! In case you're wondering, we chose the pumpkin in the first photo.


As a note to any local people who read this blog, if you ever go to Wickham Farms in Penfield, go inside the store and check out the "mouse hole" by the cash register. It's decked out well enough to make Jack and Gus-Gus jealous!

To bee or not to bee

At long last, Halloween photos! And here's the story behind them. I made Natalie a bumblebee costume for Halloween. I decided on a bumblebee because she likes bees--she has a couple of books about bees and they are definite favorites. Also, this seemed like an easy costume to put on--she wouldn't likely freak out, because it's basically a dress with an optional hat, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, despite my best overanalysis, I didn't have a willing bumblebee on my hands.
Dave and I learned this the hard way on the night of our church Halloween party, one week before Halloween. Natalie flatly refused to wear the costume, even when she saw the other kiddos all dressed up. So then I tried a shameless bribe: "There's candy for all the bumblebees over there." She answered with a hysterical "Noooooo!"
So for the next week I tried to resign myself to the fact that Natalie might not dress up, and life would go on. She could just help us pass out candy, and that would be fine. But on Halloween afternoon, I wanted to go visit our old neighbors and I decided to give the bee costume one last attempt. And though she protested (a lot) as I put the costume on, once it was on she acted like it wasn't that big of a deal. I decided to consider this a success, and she stayed in the costume for car rides, nap time, and dinner time. She didn't protest, and I wasn't taking any more chances with that on and off business. Here she is, all ready to say "Trick or Treat!" Or simply, "Treat," which is how she preferred to say it.

And here she is after the fact, laden down with goodies. Her little pumpkin is so heavy it's dragging on the ground.

At our new apartment, we get so many trick-or-treaters (about 150-175) that we just sat on the porch with the candy bowl. No sense in closing the door and going back inside. And since most of them are quite young, we were done by 7:30! It was great fun. Natalie is loving her candy--she calls the Raisinets beans, and she enjoys rubbing the Dum-Dums up and down her arms. And Dave & I are trying unsuccessfully to avoid filching too much of her candy.

A cute pair

This was a fun photo I snapped of Natalie & Dave. She's bundled up in a cozy fleece from Grandma and Grandpa Duncan :)

...and she is done posing. Good thing I grabbed a photo while I could!

Ferris Bueller, you're my hero

Dave was having fun with Natalie in the tub. Bonus points for spotting the picture with the neck goobers :) Oh, yikes, I just realized she has armpit goobers too. I guess this is what bath time's for, right? Getting rid of the remnants of the day....

Vegetable harvest

So we've sold our condo and moved into graduate student housing. We were grateful to have a chance to harvest almost all of our tomatoes before moving. We left the still-growing grape tomatoes in the garden, so hopefully the new owners of our condo enjoyed them.

As the picture shows, Natalie is fascinated by tomatoes. But this does not extend to actually swallowing them. She probably took hundreds of bites out of tomatoes this summer (many of which were green grape tomatoes she'd plucked from the vine--yuck!), but I think she spit every bite out.

Fun on the farm

We took Natalie to Springdale Farm the first weekend in September. (Thank goodness for automatic date stamps on our photo filenames, otherwise I'd have no idea when these were taken!) She loved getting to know the animals in the petting zoo.


And then she found the tractor, and it was love at first sight.



Even after we took her over to another part of the petting zoo, she kept heading over to the tractor and trying to climb back up. Once she'd seen the tractor, her only thought was to get back onto it.

Niagara Falls birthday

We spent my birthday at Niagara Falls. It was great! We saw the falls up close and we got misted a lot!







Natalie pushing her stroller.



We got soaked, but it was sure fun!



Just had to get a shot in our matching ponchos :)



Natalie enjoys trying on my sunglasses. It's not so easy to keep them on, but she gives it a noble effort.

Summer fun

I've got tons of stories to catch up on from the past few weeks. This summer we sold our condo (it was on the market for 7 days--crazy!), visited our family in Seattle, attended my 10-year high school reunion, and the adventures continue.
We're madly picking all the tomatoes we can before we move. We've had lots of fun with our garden. The best part for me has been having too many grape tomatoes to eat! I never knew that was possible.
Here are some photos from our Seattle trip. Enjoy!

More about moving

I just realized I haven't really explained why/when we are moving. Here goes. Dave is expecting to finish school next year, possibly in May, so we're selling our condo and looking for a place to rent until he graduates and we find out where he gets a job. Rochester friends, if you know of any 2 bedroom rentals in the area, please let us know!

Our condo and veggies are on the market!

After about a month and a half of primping and painting, we're ready to sell. Now's the time to see if someone's ready to buy. And it's the time to clean, clean, clean like nobody's business so our house can be ready to show at a moment's notice. I am not exactly Martha Stewart, and she doesn't have an 18-month-old, so thankfully our realtor has promised to give us overnight notice whenever possible. Though it's a lot of pressure to keep our home super-clean and super-organized, it sure is nice living in such a tidy place!

So we're wondering how long it'll be on the market. Will we get to reap the harvest of our vegetable garden, or will somebody else? Speaking of which, I should post an update on the veggies. The last pics came just after we planted them. They are now huge!

Cucumber, zucchini, and squash, 1 of each. So we learned this year that we need to devote more space to these plants next time around!Actually, pretty much all our plants need more space next time.


We planted the big tomatoes in planter boxes that are similar to Earth Boxes. Our friend Kay Dodds found the instructions online, modified them to suit his needs, and helped us make them. We can't wait to use more of these planter boxes next year!


4 pepper plants--we can't remember all the varieties b/c Natalie loves pulling up the white markers. We're pretty sure we have one red pepper and 2 green peppers, and we're positive that there's one banana pepper. I transplanted the 2 peppers on the left--they used to be dwarfed by the tomato plants and they weren't thriving. Hopefully they will take hold. Our 6 grape tomato plants are on the right. I love grape tomatoes, and I can't wait for them to ripen!


Our basil, which we've already used once for pesto. Yummy! I was amazed how fast the new leaves grew in after I plucked the plants. In this pic, you can see my reflection in the window AND you can see a couple of our grape tomatoes ripening on the windowsill :)


I can't wait to see this tomato ripen and then EAT IT!!







Dave gets giddy every time he sees this plant. He loves pickled banana pepper slices on sandwiches. Anyone know how to pickle banana peppers? We found a recipe online, but if you've got a recipe that's tried and true, we'd prefer to use it!