Free range chicken and the off-duty cow.

It might not be fair to Lily, in a way, to include something like this. But I think it will prove important for her to eventually see what we went through to raise her and occasionally try and put her into a chicken suit.

Today marked the girls' first official halloween. Last year doesn't count, since they were too little. Though I might be tempted to throw this one out, too, since I will be stealing all the candy they worked so hard to earn tonight.

We headed up to Lino Lakes (or "Leeno Lakes" as they're known by some people...cough Neil..cough) this morning to visit Jon, Suze and Kyla. Good visit. Lots of playtime, which went smoothly until Lily decided to be a psychopath. She's a little touchy these days, I have to admit.

Tonight, we stole off into the night with Chris and Emily and Ella to relieve our neighbors of their hard-earned candystuffs. The cow (Abby) and two chickens (Lily and Ella) made it three houses. We probably could have done more, but I had decided to drag the girls and everyone else to the park's rec center because they had an event there that I wanted to shoot for Poho365, so that kinda took a lot of time. They did have some awesome, full size candy bars up for grabs at the rec center, in addition to pre-packaged bags of cotton candy that looked disgusting. The girls got one pick though, and they picked the cotton candy...good call, girls! I'll have to talk to them about that later.

The houses we did visit, I think they enjoyed it. I think they got it. They did strain people's generosity by taking many pieces of candy from their bowls, but nobody seemed to mind.

Some of the walking around Powderhorn was a bit of a trial, since Lily tended to just walk off in random directions and not follow us. At times, she flat out refused to go where we needed her to go. This led Chris to point out that she must be a free range chicken.

Day two hundred and sixty seven.

The cow. Kyla in the background as Dorothy.

I like this, because it looks like Abby works as a cow that just got done with her shift.

Lily in awe of Esther, our next door neighbor, and her candy-related generosity and good spirit.

Trick or treat - Aerosim style.

So bad is my slacking on photos, I don't even have any to put up today.

Today at Aerosim Technologies (purveyors of quality aviation contraptions) we had a halloween party. It's a fun affair: people bring their kids, candy is placed at strategic places, food is shared, anarchy ensues.

Jenny graciously came down with the kids. Abby was dressed as a cow, which was pretty fantastically cute. Lily was dressed as a chicken, which would have been cute if she'd allowed it to happen for more than 2 minutes and not mourned the entire process for the duration. Thus, cuteness was averted for her. We settled for her in some chicken leg pants and a white onesie. Meh.

Once they got settled in and understood the concept of walking to all the cubicles and the taking of candy, they started to enjoy the grand spectacle of halloween - office-style. They had very little trouble walking up to people at their cubes and plying them for some tasty treats. Even better, the simple act of taking candy and putting it in their pumpkins was a joy for them, and they're still too young to know how awesome the actual candy is when eaten. So we only had to take it from them, without trying to steal it secretly. Everyone wins!

Woulda been great if I'd gotten some pictures today. Didn't.

Day two hundred and sixty six.

Lilysaurus.

This photo is of Jen and her dad from yesterday night. Had I been thinking, I would have gotten a picture of my dad, who was over tonight. Then we could have had a grandpa theme.

Yeah, so...Lily was crazy tonight. It all started pretty easily enough, some snacks were had, the mood was light and conversation was babbly. She asked to colour (I have to spell it the British way, or my boss will fire me for poor grammar), and that went well for a little bit, as we and my dad looked on.

Then Lily started drawing on the table. It's a plastic kid's table, and it comes right off, but we're still trying to set some boundaries, so we told her, "no". She lost it. Inconsolable, for like an hour.

Then we gave them a bath, and afterwards she was pretty much okay again. Better than okay. She actually gave my dad a big good night kiss for bedtime. Abby did too, but that means a little less as she's pretty fast and loose with those lips of hers.

That's about the whole night. Misery-victory-repeat. It's a roller coaster.

Sorry I didn' t have more pictures tonight.

Day two hundred and sixty five.

I and Love and You.

Mama bird feeds baby bird.

Jen's official report on the girls' time with Abby's teacher is that they had pulled out the stops: both of them sharing, babbling, interacting, the whole shabang. They were still cranking out the good times when I found myself home after work.

One of these Jen reports included a moment where she saw Lily randomly patting Abby on the head and giving her a kiss. This is one of those visions that isn't necessarily a novel thing anymore, and yet there is no tiring of it.

Abby was a little chatterbox tonight. She also tried to charm the socks off Jen's dad when he came in this afternoon, giving him the laugh, the deep knee bend, and (her secret weapon) the kiss where she grabs your head with two hands and pulls you into it.

Both of them are starting to pick up on short phrases. Most notably, we've coaxed a couple, "I love you"s out of Lily. The fact that she's being coached to say it doesn't mean I don't believe her totally.

Day two hundred and sixty four.

Paaast-aaaah.

Nyuumm nyum nyum nyum.

Happy dinnertime.

Dang illness

I'm still feeling blah. Sorry. Here are two kid facts:

-Lily knows how to say "color" now, as well as about 30 other words.

-Abby can stand up with ease. She is getting really good at leaning down to get things without sitting.

I had no idea how alike Jen and Lily looked in yesterday's post photos. Right down to the swoop in the hair.

I'll get better soon and the quality will come back, I swear.

Day two hundred and sixty three.

My daughter the Brit.

Mum.

I fear I may sound like a broken record here, but I once again am not feeling uber healthy right now. I have these recollections from my youth of finishing illnesses with a crystal clear clarity and definition, when I would leap from the couch and shrug off the comforter, ready to rejoin the 4th grade. The older I get, the blurrier the line becomes between able-bodiedness and sickliness. Now when I get ill, it draaaaags on.

This, plus my watching the girls solo for most of the night, means I'm beat.

We were lucky enough to be looking out the front door tonight when Jen pulled up, home at last from a long day of school, interviewing, studying, and final-taking. I asked the girls, "Who's that?!? Who's home??" And Lily answered: "Mum" It wasn't a fluke, I heard her say it again after Jen came in.

Mum? What the hell is that? Has she been secretly whooshing off to England while I think she's at day care?

I'm sure Andy, my boss, will be thrilled to hear that I've spawned an Anglophile.

Day two hundred and sixty two.

Love that swoop in the hair.

Leaf-stomper.

Our Groundbreaking Constitutional

I'm torn right now: do I go get a blanket while I write the blog, or do I sweat through my shirt? Tough call. I feel like I'm on the mend, yet rampant temperature swings beset me still.

This afternoon we went on a walk around the block. It wasn't until we'd returned home that Jen pointed out that it was our first ever family walk, without the use of a stroller or other such kid-toting contraption. So it was. It started out well enough to make us wonder why we shouldn't make it a daily habit. It ended with a sharp reminder that that might be a bad idea. They kinda came apart at the end. All in all, though, very positive.

Abby was dead-set on holding the leash a couple times. This was a cute image, though I had this nagging thought buzzing around in my head that told me something about it was vaguely dangerous. I figured it out when Olly had exhausted the length of his leash and Abby, either not smart enough to let go or utterly dedicated to her job at hand (you decide!), was yanked forward and fell on her face. Kinda. It was an awkward fall, but not too bad. She cried. Later on it happened again, and she cried again. The second time, it took me a minute to figure out that she was crying not because she'd fallen, but because I hadn't given her the damn leash back already.

See how dedicated she is!?

Two hundred and sixty one.