11 months and still no teeth

Are You Thankful?

A conversation in the bathroom:

Tatum, going potty: "You know momma, one day I am going to have to go bye-bye."

Me: "What?"

Tatum: "Soon...Hazel and I will have to go, but you and daddy will have to stay here.  You and daddy will be crying.  And you'll say 'noooo', but we have to.  Hazel and I have to go."

Me: speechless - stunned

Tatum: "Are you thankful?

Me: "Am I thankful?"

Tatum: "Yes, are you thankful?"

Me: "Yes, I am.  I am very thankful."

Goodness! My three-year-old daughter is already prepping me for the day she'll leave the house.  I assume this realization came from her watching and understanding the plot of Toy Story 3.  Andy had to go to college, and one day Tatum and Hazel will too.  We have 15 years before any of that happens, and I am thankful.

Happy 7th Birthday Drew & Ethan

Nice Hair Haze!

LaLa and A Visit LA for a Day!

Recently my mom and step dad had a layover in LA for a night.  So, to make the most of their 20 hour visit, I picked them up at LAX, took them to work for a few hours, picked up the girls, and spent the evening trying on new dresses and receiving other great gifts including this homemade blanket before I took them back to a LAX hotel for the night.  Yep, that's right, LaLa and A sewed this greatly loved and appreciated Rapunzel blanket.  So they flew in and flew out but it was an awesome evening together.

Tatum the Teacher

A new night-time ritual has come into our lives, Tatum now chooses friends to read to each night before turning out the lights.  Check her out:

This ritual came from Tatum's desire to reach a story to Andrew and I each night.  While we greatly enjoy listening to her read, the event could sometimes go on for a very, very long time.  So, when asked to sit down for a story, I asked Tatum to read to her friends instead.  I chose mother-daughter combo animals (the big and little turtle, horse, and bear) and tucked them into the foot of her bed.  She was super excited by this new adventure and immediately assumed the role of teacher, "okay students, are you ready for a story?  here's the book, here's the title..."

Halloween Festivities in Pictures

Month started out by making our own scare crows.  One bail of hay will make several scarecrows, no need to buy two.

Our finished scarecrow, no head...until Halloween

Our Pumpkin among the pumpkins. 

carving pumpkins

the scarecrow gets a head

off to a halloween party - turns out we were the only ones dressed up.  no worries, we had fun!

Tatum's preschool gets ready for the Halloween parade, and I left work to join them.

The Parade!

The Witch, The Black Cat, The Pumpkin, and The Scarecrow - we went very traditional this year!

Tatum's best friend Lorelei comes over to join in our neighborhood Halloween fun.

Treat or Treating in Montrose Business Park

And look who we run into - Mika! Tatum's other BFF at school.  Jet is Mika's older sister and she likes to refer to these three as Small, Medium, and Large.