Halloween - Fun, Fun, Fun!

We kicked of Halloween by getting Boo'd! I received a call from Auntie Elisa the morning of Halloween letting us know that she had heard on the news that a little gnome delivered goodies to girls and boys in the area. Sure enough, Maria was one of the lucky ones and had a bag of treats waiting on our porch (Auntie Elisa also reported that the news story mentioned that the Nadsady home has several motion-sensored lights that frightened the little gnome when he was making the delivery!).

This was Maria's 2nd Halloween and it is so much more fun now that she understands it more! This year she was Snow White :)

Maria was pretty fearless while trick-or-treating, grabbing candy out of our next door neighbor's candy basket (the first house we hit) and enjoying everyone's decorations. Cousin Bella joined us, but she was not as big a fan of the decorations or scary music, as demonstrated by her "NO TRICK OR TREATING!" chant as we left our home to start the evening's festivities! Luckily she warmed up after about our 6th house. The rest of the night Maria and Bella spent laughing, jumping, and chasing one another from home to home. It was a lot of fun to see them enjoying each other and the trick or treating. They lasted about an hour. This was our first time trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, so it was cool to see so many kids and families out and about all night. Back at home, Maria surveyed her candy and dug into some m&ms and hershey kisses (obviously her daddy's girl!)The night before, Maria helped Daddy make the jack-o-latern and Mommy make pumpkin spice cookies. She didn't let herself get too dirty with pumpkin carving. When we'd try to put her hand in the pumpkin, she would stick it in about 3-4 inches and say "Nothing" to mean that she felt nothing (no seeds or pumpkin guts) and then take her hand out. She did enjoy mixing the seeds and guts in the bowl that Daddy filled as he cleaned the pumpkin.

A few days before, she got some training on this whole trick or treating thing at a little event at the local Y. At first she wasn't too sure of the whole concept (the first picture is her first trick-or-treating, checking out the bag), but within minutes she had it down - sticking her bag out, saying trick-or-treat. It was good training for the actual event.

We also made a couple of visits to a pumpkin patch.She had a lot of love for the red teletubby. Kid has no fear of these strange creatures.

She also loved the farm animals. I love the stare down with the calf.

We rounded up the Halloween festivities with a gathering with Cousins Aidan and Bella - Snow White, the Cowboy, and Abby Cadabby.

Here the two fairies/princesses mix something up with their wands while the handsome cowboy keeps watch.Later in the day they decorated cookies. Maria went straight in to eating the cookie without decorating it; Aidan piled on the frosting, and Bella decorated her hair with it! :)...and finally some quiet time with Stellaluna - a current fave of Maria.

M&M Moments

Here are some funny and some random moments with Maria (since this blog is now becoming her "baby book"). We'll start with the funniest that happened today....

- We were at church and there was a little boy sitting behind us. Maria kept saying (as she's been doing the past few weeks when she sees a boy), "Mommy, Boy!, Mommy Boy!" repeatedly in a loud enough voice that wasn't too distracting but enough for everyone around us to hear. Then she got face to face with the boy and says in what seemed like an even louder voice "Kiss me!". Most people in the pews around us busted up. Hilarious.

- She sometimes breaks into song about her cousins, "Cousin Aidan, Cousin Bella, Fun, Fun, Fun!"

- She'll be talking up a storm in her crib in the morning and sometimes when I walk in with her milk cup she lays down really quickly and pretends to be asleep. When I ask if Maria is sleeping she'll respond "Yes!".

- Her Spanglish consists of, "Aqui" when asked where something is and it's right there in front of her; "agua" for water, but at least if you ask her what agua is in English she'll respond "water"; and saying "Ese no fun" if something is not fun.

- She had a little bit of a diaper rash a few weeks ago so I put desitin on her and she started crying because it stung and kept saying "pow, pow". I had no idea what she was saying and she was trying to get up so I let her and she leaned over to the cabinet next her changing table and reached for the gold's bond powder for me to put it on. I've used the powder just a few times on her legs and arms when she gets itchy from playing in the grass so I was shocked that she rememberd and associated it with relieving itchiness/stinging.

- She's still my little alarm clock. I love waking up to her "Mommy, milk pleeeease!" or "Mommy, come in please!"

- She can count to 15, but often skips 7 and 8 - I have no idea why!

- She's going potty in the potty before her bath now and at least once during the day (usually before her nap). We've bought some pull-ups to start using soon.

- She loves berries, but will not eat any mushed up ones. If she sees a mushed up blueberry she'll offer it to us to eat.

- Does a lot of imaginary play with her dolls and "little people" friends. Sometimes we'll hear her say, "where are you baby?" then "I don't know, I can't see you!" until she finds them. When we play little people with her she'll hand us one of them and say "talk" to start a discussion with the little people. Don't even try to get away with changing the subject, because she will keep asking you to "talk".

- Favorite phrases right now:
...."What happened?" for any noise she hears or any reaction you may make to something going on...or when she throws one of her "Little People" off the table.
.... "I don't know" when you ask her what happened - even if she does know what happened (like she threw her little people person on purpose).
.... "See you later!" when she leaves.
.... "How are you?" when see sees you.

- She's tattled on her cousin even though her cousin did nothing wrong - last week she was eating dinner and gagged herself with her spoon. I asked her why she did it and she said "Bella does it" with a total straight face. I told her I didn't think Bella did that (and confirmed with her mommy that she doesn't). Then she did it again and I told her not to do it, and she said even louder, "Bella does it too!". I'm hoping she's not turning into a liar and is just associating Bella putting her hands in her mouth with that meaning she also puts the spoon down her throat!

- Favorite books right now include: Curious George (as she says, George is funny!), Very Hungry Caterpillar, Dr. Seuss/Cat in the Hat book on Butterflies, the Abuela Book which is a book that sings nursery rhymes in Spanish.

Boo the Phillies!

Greg and I got to go to the first NLCS game on Thursday and what a game it was! We have never been to a game with so much energy - the fans were pumped! Even with the Dodgers losing (but thankfully winning the second game today), we had a blast. It felt like we were at a concert, pretty much standing (and waving our towels) through the whole thing.

Go Dodgers!

Here's a video of when Manny was up to bat, right before he hit his homerun! Seriously this is how the fans were for most of the game. As Maria would say, "fun, fun, fun!"

Summer Leftovers

Here are some pics that fell through the cracks this summer and never made the blog! With the chilly fall weather having arrived and summer officially over, I figure I should get these final summer '09 pics up already.

So this next picture goes with the last set of pics in this post, but I added them at the end and blogger isn't letting me move it down with the others so it'll just have to stay at the beginning! The first pic is how Maria saw most of the zoo. I knew that once we took her out of her stroller there would be no getting her back in, so for the first hour or so Greg and I would lift her up to see the animals! It worked...good arm workout for us and a fun little lift for Maria! I think it's funny that in this pic it looks like Greg is using both arms and I am just using one!

Aidan brought over his fun inflatable pool; he and Maria had a blast with it, taking turns going down the slide.

Aunt Evie had a lot of fun watching the kiddies play!

These two are very mischievious with each other! We finally planted our plumerias and birds of paradise. Our little gardener enjoyed getting dirty from head to toe (literally) and did a great job helping us dig the holes.

Her first pinata at Kayla's birthday party. At first she didn't quite get the concept of hitting the pinata, but after a bit the kids started cheering her on after each hit. Each time she would take a look at the crowd, smile at them cheering her on and go back to hit it again to get more cheers. She loved being the center of attention for that brief moment! After the candy fell down she kept looking up at where it had been, trying to figure out what just happened...it's like candy falling from the sky! She was one of the last ones left collecting her stash (which then became Greg and my stash!) This summer we enjoyed many park visits and these are some of my favorites shots.

and Maria had her first visit to the lobster festival!

More birthday parties! This one was for Camryn - a pizza making party with chef hat and all! Maria created a pepperoni & pineapple pizza - a creation that was sure to keep Daddy away!

Another outing with Aidan - this time to the zoo. Maria was more into the snake than Aidan, but they both of course enjoyed the kiddy playground. Aidan showing off his jumping skills...