So. Halloween. As you may or may not know, I put my sewing talents (ha!) to the test and made Raina's costume this year: Foofa. What? You don't know who Foofa is? Then you obviously don't have kids...or smoke pot. This is Foofa, probably the least annoying of all the characters on Nick Jr.'s show "Yo Gabba Gabba:"
I used long pink pants and a long-sleeved pink shirt that Raina already had as the under part of the costume and then made the poofy body suit, white flower petal neck piece, and then glued a big flower to a hat she already owned. Wouldn't it just go freakin' figure that she refused to wear the whole costume?!? She wanted NOTHING to do with the flower petal neck piece. This is what our Foofa looked like:
Notice the less-than-happy expressions. Yah, she had a rough time with the whole Halloween experience. We spent it at Gramma's house in Erie. Whereas our neighborhood here in Pittsburgh doesn't get many kids, Gramma gets hundreds. She'd get super excited when the kids would come to the door, but the minute they left, it was nothing but tears and screams of "More again!" Needless to say, there was a lot of off and on crying, which eventually turned into just crying. Thank goodness for small towns and fire trucks on display right down the street, which cheered her up right away :)
Halloween weekend was also the weekend we celebrated her second birthday, also in Erie with Chris' side of the family. I spent the majority of the weekend baking and decorating Raina's cake. I did a 3-tier topsy-turvy style cake, Yo Gabba Gabba themed of course. I wasn't overly thrilled with the outcome 'cause it came out looking like exactly what it was: A canvas piece to practice many techniques, not all of which should ever be used at one time on one cake. I wish I had pics of it after I took the ribbons off...it looked a little calmer after I did that, but oh well. These pics show the gist of it...
As for the party, we had an excellent turnout of Chris' family...many generations represented. Raina did well, all things considered. She's such a shy and cautious little girl when it comes to social situations, especially ones that involve people interacting with her, but given some time to warm up to everyone, she did pretty well. We had been singing Happy Birthday to her for a couple weeks before her birthday, and she loved singing along...but when everyone started to sing for her at the party, you'd think she'd never heard the song before! (but several times while opening presents, she asked everyone to sing it again :)
After singing and cake came opening presents...
All in all, a great birthday with great company. Who could ask for more?!?
On to other things...
Turkey Day...Looks like we're spending way too much and getting an Amish turkey this year. Chris has this thing this time around of wanting a turkey that "tastes like turkey." Um, okay. Whatever. It all tastes the same to me. So long as he cooks it, I don't care! We're still not sure what kind of company we're having, but I hope it's at least someone. It's always more fun when you have people to share the food with...and pawn the leftovers off to!
Christmas...I am getting super excited about Christmas!!! It's been a long time since I've been hit with the Christmas spirit...I think 3 years now, maybe? Chris doesn't like hearing this, but I hate not having my own money to buy gifts with. Chris will tell me that "his" money IS "my" money, but I know it's not. He works hard for that money. I feel like such a leech to just take it and spend it. This year, however, things are different. Craigstlist is coming through for me!!! There is actually CASH in my wallet, cash for me to spend on gifts for my family. That means SOOOO much to me, to actually be able to participate the way everyone else will, to actually get to go to the stores and pick something personal out, etc. I'm so excited that I've had the urge to put up Christmas decorations, something I've NEVER done before Thanksgiving. As final proof of my newfound spirit, check out my homemade Christmas wrapping paper this year (I've already wrapped 3 gifts :)))) I decided to go for presents that could also double as decorations...
Now for some random stuff...
I've decided that, despite my love for Edward Cullen, I will not be seeing New Moon. The books are great (in that they are a great escape, not necessarily literary works of art), but sorry, the movies suck ass. Well, at least Twilight did. And yah, Robert does make for nice eye candy, but the Edward in my head is just soooo much better. Someone explain to me, too, why there's no such thing as a happy vampire in love? Would it hurt them so much to smile more? Anyone watch Vampire Diaries and know what I'm talking about?!? Yah, brooding is sexy but only to a certain degree. That's my rant on that.
I'm getting super fat, but I'm pleased to announce that I'm embracing it. I'll admit that I still get a little shocked when I catch a glimpse of my ass in reflection form, but I very calmly remind myself that, come May, that ass will be in bootcamp, and then I feel better and go about my way to the fridge. As for Phoebe-to-be, she's doing a lot of kicking, the peak of which is between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Usually I'm not sleeping then anyways, so it's not an issue...though I have had a couple nights where the kicking has gone on longer and I haven't been able to sleep through it. Nothing painful yet, like when I was pregnant with Raina...but I remind myself that I still have several more months to go! I had to go to the lab today for the glucose tolerance test and blood draw, but so long as I pass that, I think I might be done with the tests. I think. It's amazing how much you forget in 2-1/2 years. I can't even tell you how far along I am right now. Somewhere in the 6th month, maybe? Beats me.
As for Raina, she's 2. "No way" seems to be her most-used phrase as of late. Tantrums are many. However, I'm thoroughly enjoying being able to hold a "conversation" with her. It's amazing the words she's picking up and the stories she can tell. She loves to sing; however, to go along with her cautious nature, she's also very self-conscious and mostly whispers the songs to herself. I already put up one vid of her singing...here's another:
One thing I'll be doing differently when Phoebe comes around is forcing people to take more pics of me with my little girls. While looking through all our pics the other night, Chris made a comment about how there are so few of me with Raina. It's sad. On that note, I took a couple last night of the two of us. I'll end on that :)
