Halloween and Preschool Pictures

The kids had a great time this year trick or treating! Grant was a Transformer (Heatwave - the firetruck) and Sloan was Dorothy. We went to our old neighborhood since we are still renting and met up with some friends there. Grant wanted to go to our old house and start there. The family that bought our house was on the porch taking pictures and Grant ran right up there and got in the middle of their picture! (can anyone say "photo bomber"!) It was pretty funny and they understood thank goodness. Grant then was on a mission to get to as many houses as fast as possible. I actually broke a sweat trying to keep up with him while carrying Sloan! Sloan had fun saying "trick or treat" and then wanted to eat what she got immediately, especially the suckers. Grant's favorite candy was Gum. I have never let him have it before and he begged to try it. So, I gave in and explained that he could not swallow it. He chewed it up and then spit it out when he was done. He now says his favorite candy is gum! I still don't have gum in the house just in case Sloan got her hands on it.

Grant had a Halloween party at school and I was one of the parent helpers. There were three other moms and we all dressed up like Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and and Thing 2. It was cute and the kids loved it. We got to play games with them, decorate little pumpkins and give out awards to each of the kids for their costumes. One little girl, Sylvi, was Annie and she got up and sang the entire song "Tomorrow" and at the end, the whole class started to sing. It was so adorable! It turned out that she had done it 2 other times that morning before the parents arrived, lol.

Grant with our pumpkin! 

Dorothy and Heatwave ready to get some candy! 

At our old neighbors house getting ready to trick or treat. Sloan was screaming, for fun, at the top of her lungs! And Grant was telling her to stop. My loud little girl could break glass with her scream. 

We put up our small blow up cat this year. We couldn't do the rest since we don't have a yard.....next year will be more festive. Sloan had to hug and kiss the cat every time we went in and out of the front door. 

Out to eat, Sloan demanded to get a booster seat when Grant asked for one. So, she got one! She did really well with it since the particular booth seat was pretty high up. She is still in a high chair most places since she is so little.  

Heatwave and Thing 1 at preschool! 

Grant's 4 year preschool pictures! We got a couple of really cute ones this year. 

New Hats, Pumpkin Carving, Boo at the Zoo and Pudding!

Another busy week in our house! It suddenly decided to turn really cold for a few days. I got new hats for the kids that are really cute. And I had to get Sloan a heavy coat for the soccer games. She is already cold natured so we had to put her in layers. Now she says "put jacket on" when she is cold.

We also carved our pumpkin this week. Grant loved pulling the guts out and then we cooked some of the seeds too. Sloan was not too interested in this activity. She doesn't really like getting messy so she saw the guts and said "no thank you". She just watched Grant the whole time.

We went to Boo at the Zoo. There are several people dressed up at the zoo and the kids get to trick or treat at different areas. Grant loved the Star Wars characters the most and got his picture taken with them. Sloan was not about to get near them though. I tried to get close to them to get her in the picture but she kept saying "no thank you, no thank you". We went with the Mello's and Grant had a lot of fun with Sadie.

Sloan continues to ask to go to the potty. She pees numerous times each day and tries to poop but often just "toots" lol! She will squeeze out some pee no matter what and loves to go every time Grant says he has to go. She thinks that she has to have a piece of toilet paper each time and then she flushes it all on her own.....and says "don't touch potty". I tell her not to touch the potty so I guess it stuck! Her favorite words recently are "mine", "sit over there" (when she doesn't want you to help her), "I want one", "give it to me". Do we see a trend.....ha ha ha

Grant is learning about "Rhyming" at school. So he is constantly going around the house saying rhyming words, "hat and bat rhymes mommy". It is never ending lately and he will make up words if he can't think of one. He has 2 more soccer games and 2 more swim lessons before we take a break for the holidays. He is still in speech once a week and doing great. They expect him to be done by the end of the year. It was mild but I wanted to take care of it before he started Kindergarten.

Cute new hats! 

Grant made beds in the living room floor using blankets! 

New jacket for this suddenly cold weather! 

Unlike her brother, Sloan loves some chocolate pudding! 

At the zoo! Refusing to smile as usual! 

This was the first thing Grant saw when we walked in the zoo! He yelled "Star Wars!" 

Grant, Sloan and Sadie at the zoo! 

Finally got a smile! 

Sloan is 2!

Sloan is now 2 years old! I took her to her 2 year check up and she is 33 3/8 inches (30%) and 20lb 7oz (5%). She finally reached 20 pounds, woo hoo! She also got one shot, MMR, and did great with no reactions afterwards. She still needs Hep A and Chicken Pox but Grant got those at 3 years old so I will probably do the same for her.

Sloan loves to sing "Happy Birthday" now and blow out candles. We just celebrated Luke's birthday too. Sloan sang it and got really confused when we said "Happy birthday to DADDY" instead of to "Sloan". She looked at us like we were crazy, lol! And then both kids blew out his candles of course.

Sloan is working on potty training herself these days. My plan was to potty train her cold turkey the week I am home for Christmas. I did a similar thing with Grant at the same age and it was very successful. However, Sloan is now telling us exactly when she needs to pee and poop and asking to go to the potty. She has peed multiple times everyday now in the potty and pooped a few times too. I am still not going to put her in underwear until Christmas so I think it will be even easier by then.

Grant has been busy with soccer and swim lessons every weekend. He has scored 2 goals in each of the last two games. He is really starting to understand the competitive part. He is now swimming really good too. He is actually learning the back stroke and swimming with his face under water. He can also retrieve rings from the bottom of the pool which he thinks is so much fun. We are going to take a couple of months off over the holidays and then start back. By next summer, he should be a great little swimmer!

Grant is also quite witty these days. It can be quiet for 10 minutes and then when I try to talk to Luke, Grant will immediately start saying "mommy, mommy". He did this in the car the other day and I was ignoring him while I finished my sentence to Luke. He then says "mommy, you are wasting my time!", lol. We have no idea where that came from but we explained that it wasn't nice. He said "but you weren't listening to me". He had a point I guess.

Grant at his Soccer game. He scored 2 goals! 

Sloan on her birthday! 

Sloan with her new tent! 

Sloan in her Gamecock gear cheering on Grant at his soccer game! 

Carrots, Zoo Preschool Trip, Jon Walter's Birthday Party, and an Early Birthday for Sloan

Carrots! Both of our kids love eating raw carrots now. Grant has always liked them and Sloan wants everything he has of course. She has choked on them before but now she is pretty good at chewing them up. She loves to dip them in ranch dressing too.

Busy times lately! Grant's class got to visit the zoo and they had a great time. His favorite animal was the komodo dragon. He talked about it all day until we finally got to see it. He and his classmate Toby spent a lot of the day together seeing all of the animals.

We also just changed our nanny. We got Penni back who was our nanny when Grant was a baby and we are so excited. Both kids absolutely love her and so do we.

We all went to Easley this past weekend for Jon Walter's birthday party. It was themed a "Big Dig" and we all had a great time. Grant and Sloan got to ride on a bull dozer and in a dump truck. They loved playing in the sand and seeing the family. We also had an early celebration for Sloan's birthday. She got all kinds of new toys that she loves.....a precious tee pee tent, a ride on toy with music, a my little pony that talks, a princess set and some new baby dolls....one even has its own potty and goes pee pee and poo poo, lol! We will celebrate her birthday again on her actual birthday.