2 months

Scarlett is 2 months old already! Just a month ago she was like this...
...still a fragile little newborn, with her reddish skin and plump little arms and legs.

Then a few weeks later, around Halloween, she began to hold her head up:She's learned to take the "rough love" of her older sisters, who always want to cuddle with her. And now, at 2 months old, this little girl is at 12 pounds already! Thats about the 75th percentile for girls, which I am very proud of because I've worried about finding the time to feed her while keeping up with the other two!
And....though I know this comment may come back to haunt me....Scarlett is an easy baby. She sleeps through the night, and she's easily entertained during the day. I'm looking forward to every month ahead with this little angel!

She makes me laugh every day

"There is NO way in this whole wide world I will ever ever ever, no NEVER kiss a frog - yuck!" - Tiana, from Princess and the Frog

Beautiful

Last night we went out to dinner as a family to one of our favorite Mexican restaraunts. Toward the end of our meal, an older couple came up to us and said "Your little girls sure are beautiful." It made my day. For some reason a comment like that means a lot when coming from a complete stranger.

Of course I know my girls are beautiful. But I am biased :)

November so far...

Wow the days are flying by. Has it really been two weeks since Halloween? Here's whats up with us:

The house is coming together. It seems like all we do is work on the house. Cleaning, organizing, rearranging, and throwing out. My goal is to have a tolerable amount of order to my house before the Christmas chaos.

Christmas is coming up fast. I have neighbors who put on their Christmas lights last week! Really! And oh my goodness the retailers are already advertizing mega-sales, and I feel so much pressure to get out there and shop for Christmas now before everything flies off the shelves!

I went back to the gym. Turns out I'm not losing my baby weight as quick as I used to. Lydia said to me "Mommy why is your tummy still big?" I'm also supposed to run a 10K before I turn 30, so I gotta get my act together. Now. It was a painful first week.

Scarlett is a great baby. She sleeps 7 to 8 hours through the night, but she doesn't nap very long during the day, which is a tolerable trade-off.

The weather is awesome. So far November has given us temperatures in the 60s and 70s, and every day is sunny. I never appreciated it when I lived here before, but after being in Scotland for nearly 4 years, this is bliss. The girls play outside every day. Unfortunately just a few days ago Claire discovered fire ants. I forgot they didn't have those in Scotland and I should've warned her. I also need to warn the girls about scorpions and tarantulas and rattlesnakes! Yikes!

Lydia and Claire make me laugh every day. I need to do a whole post on Claire because she is quite the character. And Lydia is so grown up and smart - I can talk to her about anything, but she's also learned to talk back. I just have to learn new ways to outsmart her.

And because I can't have a post without pics or video, here's a couple clips of Lydia.

Halloween back in America

In Scotland, and most other European countries, there is only one holiday - Christmas. They claim that "all those other holidays are just created by Americans to make money".

Okay so maybe we spend a lot of money on silly holidays like Halloween - but its so much fun! I had forgotten that so many people decorate their houses for Halloween - on the inside and out - with lights and inflatables and scenes like this one here. And there are so many parties to go to! Luckily Lydia has no shortage of costumes, so she was Rapunzel for her school party, then Snow White for a church party, then Bo Peep for the Trunk or Treat.
Here we are at the church's Halloween carnival. Lydia worked on the pumpkin for about 5 minutes then left the rest for daddy. He did a great job :)
Then Claire... oh Claire... she hates dressing up. She just couldn't be bothered with it. We tried and tried to at least get a fairy skirt on her, but she'd take it off. So she went around the party like this - no shoes, not playing any games, just looking for food to eat. But Lydia was a great sport and played all the games...even though she cheated on some of them. This year we went with the Toy Story theme for Halloween (like many others I'm sure). Here's the cast:




And how did we get that Mrs Potato Head costume on Claire?? Josh held her tight, I shoved it on her, then grabbed her up in my arms and Josh stuck some candy in her mouth. Done. Then as the trunk-or-treating started she forgot she had it on. We only have 3 girls ...the pink batgirl is Addie, one of Lydia's friends, who wanted to be in the picture too! And you can see that we forced poor Scarlett into a sheep costume. Lydia loved having Scarlett as her sheep.She was the CUTEST Little Bo Peep ever! And many thanks to my mom for her adorable costume.