Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We're going to pick up Gammie (Mimi) from the airport in a few hours! She's coming for a visit and is probably leaving on Friday.

Here are a few random Lou photos. The first is from this morning, drinking straight from the jug. It was pretty much empty so she didn't spill anything. :)


Coloring with her new chalk a few days ago. Holy mess!

My Goal

I'm proud to announce that I'm taking up the NaNoWriMo challenge this year - to write a 50,000-word novel in the space of a month. While I've written more "novellas" than I can count, none of them have been quite that long. Nor have I written them in one month!

I've had this novel bouncing around in my head since we lived in Chicago. In fact, I've got about 5 drafts of the first half of the book under my belt. However, I never finished and soon lost those copies within months of moving back to Maryland.

So, I've been sitting here for the past month or so writing out a pretty extensive outline to help me along and it looks like I might actually meat the goal! And, in all fairness to the contest, the novel is COMPLETELY reworked from the orginial - the only thing that's staying the same is the end, and I never even got around to writing that before. :)

Anyway, that's what's going on in MY life, or will be. November looks like it's going to shake up to be pretty packed for us. I'll be getting up early in the mornings to write and staying up in the evenings. This is something that I have to do... I've been wanting to do it for so many years, but I've always chickened out last minute.

Plus, with my photography being put on hold til the new year, possibly later, I'll need some creative outlet. Wallowing in depression hasn't helped! :(

So, anyway if you talk to me or catch me online, poke me and tell me to keep writing. I'll need the motivation!

xoxox,
Kim

Fall Paintings

Her playdoh "snake" on her head... and paint on her lips, lol


I spelled pumpkin wrong... Whoops!
Admiring her work:

5-Minute Cat Mask

I threw this thing together in 5 minutes after a brief stint of inspiration. We've been looking for cat stuff for Lore but haven't been able to find a decent set of ears anywhere! (We even went back to the costume outlet!

I'm going to get some black felt and actually sew her a nice one with an elastic band... like I said, I just threw this one together for kicks. =) She loves it!

She Drives Me Absolutely Nuts

... but I still love her. It was so incredibly stressful trying to get her pictures this morning. Ten million times worse than any other child I've taken pictures of. I guess because she's mine. Grrrrrrrr! I don't care for these too much but they're the best of the bunch, which isn't saying much.

Dear Mimi

Please come visit! I want you to see my costume in person and watch me ride a pony (and hopefully an elephant) at the Renaissance Festival! I also want to show you all of my new toys and ride my bike with you!

Love xoxox,
Lorelai

Before I forget.. 2 Year Checkup!

Lorelai had her 2-year check-up with her pediatrician last week. It was a bit late because Mayo really wanted to attend this one and the only opening they for the late afternoon was in October.

We found this pediatrician by accident during her rash incident, and I'm glad we did! He's an AWESOME doctor - best yet! He's so sweet with Lorelai and very thorough. He listened to our concerns and didn't treat us like two stupid, young parents, which is definitely a plus!

Okay enough of the doctor crush (ew, lol)...

27 lbs, 34 inches... 50%ile for weight, 75%ile for height. She just hit a spurt and she's starting to chunk up again as you can see in the pics below!

Speech - was really impressed. She didn't talk much for him but from what he did hear and what phrases we told him that she was saying, he said she's ahead! Whoop!

Her Feet- Mom this is for you. Lore's right foot has a tendency of turning inward while she walks/runs.. He said that she'll most likely grow out of it and that we don't have to put her shoes on opposite feet, hahahaha.

Her Head - She has a big head, apparently. I never noticed, but then again I have Mommy Goggles. It's at the high-end of the growth chart but since she's learning fine he wasn't too concerned. He measured our heads and concluded that she has my head. Gee, thanks doc! LOL... He made up for it with, "big head, big brain." Ha ha ha. =P

Potty-Training - "She's smart enough, go ahead!" That just made me smile.

Oh and my favorite... 2% milk! YAY!

She also got some shots which she hated! We had to hold her down and Mayo said he could barely hold her legs. :( She was crying, "No mommy, no daddy! No doctor, Let go!" Poor babe. She was bombarded with stickers on the way out, which helped.

Playing Mommy

Lore's really into "mommy-ing" her dolls and stuffed animal. Everthing is a "baby"... baby sheep, baby bear, baby el-fant, baby baby. You get the picture. Putting the babies to bed:

Snuggling and tucking them in!
Playing with daddy and the horse...
Cuddling with the horse and the hair werewolf...
Diaper shot. Really... I'm going to potty train her.. I'm just waiting for Gammie (Mimi) to come visit so she can help! =P

Jolie Bebe

Posing in her witch dress... she won't wear the hat! We were going to go to the zoo today but it was absolutely packed. We drove around for 20 minutes but nobody was leaving (shortly after opening). Oh well! I'd rather go on a weekday when it's not that busy!


She looks so chunky in these!

Going Shopping

New shoes! Old dress - she had to wear it... she half-dressed herself and when I tried to take it off she threw a fit. Notice the orange connector ring (toy) that she wears as a bracelet. Oh and let's not forget the $1 sunglasses from target that she has a hard time keeping on her face. :)

She's really a total girly-girl. Mayo and I bought her some megablocks for her birthday and she likes to build stuff, but more importantly she likes to flip them over and use the holes in the bottom as "bowls" or "pots"... She gets a crayon, stirs it, and then tastes. Hahahaha

Mimi and Pop, Eat Your Hearts Out

A ton of random photos... the ones below are with her dorky bear clips that she loves.

She grabbed her quilt and hopped into her ducky. Don't mind the bedskirt that needs to be fixed. We change her sheets too much.


UGH. Me void of any make-up or hair brushing, but I don't have anything recent of just the two of us.
WEEEE!

At the playground and with dorky shades. The top pics were from going down the slide

Random

part of her two year pics... i'm redoing them soon with a dfferent shirt - this one wrinkled really badly in the car! Wah!

Her looooong hair! It's not really that black but it was just a snapshot and my fancy camera can't deal with snapshots very well lol

New Friend

Lore met another little friend at the playground a few days ago... A BOY! haha. They were chasing each other around and giggling/squealing. At one point Lorelai caught up with the little boy and smacked him on the arm (Mayo burst out laughing) because he ran away from her. It didn't even phase him but she got reprimanded for it.

I got a quick video of it as they were starting to wind down.

She blew him a kiss goodbye.

Nothin' But a Hound-Dog!

A little video clip of Lorelai dancing to Elvis's "Hound Dog"... You can't really hear the music because it was coming from a stuffed animal. I guess it didn't help that it was being recorded on a crappy camera phone either! =)

My pretty little girl

I'm aware that I have pretty thick Mommy Goggles, but she's so stinking cute! These were from a few days ago on the patio. It's been getting cooler (mid 80's) but still not cool enough!

Sleeping Beautiy

I went into Lorelai's room to cover her up last week and saw her cuddled with her new favorite toy - the stuffed panda that my mom bought her last spring. She forgot about it but made a reapparance after we cleaned the toy bins. It squeaks and "wakes up" and then lays back down and snores... too cute! She woke up in the middle of the night the other day and I heard the little panda wake up and start squeaking. She was talking to it, "Night night baby, go night night." I told Mayo the next morning and we were laughing about how she was trying to get a newborn back to sleep... payback! Haha!

His face is covered in chocolate milk. Most of the stuffed animals are because she thinks they are thirsty. We had a big face-cleaning party the other day and can report that yes, the panda's face is white again. =)





The next night with her one of her billion elephants: