Day to day life in October

October was a big month for us with another big change.  We moved out of my parent's home on October 8th to a condo where we will be for at least three months.  The condo is in a great location within walking distance to a large shopping center, the library, lots of parks and trails.  Despite it being on the third floor (my legs should be nice and toned after doing the stairs numerous times a day carrying my 20+pound weight called Julia), having less than 1000 square feet with carpet in the eating area (I mean, come on, don't they know we have a very messy 13 month old!), having the tiniest garage ever (at least when you are parking a F150 in it!)  and constantly worrying if we are being too loud for the neighbors, we are making the most of it and the kids have transitioned wonderfully.  Joseph and Ella are sharing a room and seem to really enjoy it and Julia has a large master closet in our bedroom where she is back to sleeping through the night so we can't complain!  I wouldn't necessarily want to live in this size of a place forever, but it has taught me that we can definitely get by on less space and I hope to remember this as we househunt in the future.

Ella has had a big month, too, where she finally gave up the paci!!  We thought we'd go cold turkey when we moved into the condo so we talked about it for a few days and then she left her pacis at Nani's house and the paci fairy had a Doc McStuffins doll waiting for her on her bed at the condo.  She has done great with it being gone, only asking for it probably about 2 times and telling us that pacis are for babies and she is a big girl.  Naps aren't quite as consistent for her now, but that is probably a combination of not having the paci and being in the condo and she'll at least stay in her bedroom and play quietly for awhile so isn't too bad.  Another big milestone for her is that she is no longer calling Joseph, "Jojo/Juju" but has now started calling him, "Jofus."  Too cute!  She also wakes up dry most of the time from her nap and about 50% of the time from overnight.  It is hard to believe she'll be three in 2 months!

This is from one of the last few days while staying at Nani and Poppa's, Joseph was creating a city out of the wooden blocks.  The kids have done a great job with keeping themselves busy without a full playroom of toys and it really makes you think about what they really need to keep them happy, which I have to say, isn't much (another good thing to remember as we house hunt and get ready for the holidays.)

Everyone loved hanging out in Nani and Poppa's backyard after dinner while we stayed with them.  One night, Nani helped Joseph with a ninja turtle costume so I had to capture it.  

We met the Ozecks at the Safair Park on October 8th.  The annual pass to the zoo/safari park has definitely been money well spent as we are getting so much use out of it!  

Julia and Nani looking for the animals.

Close up of a giraffe on the tram!

I am amazed by the beauty and the open land here every time that we take the tram-it is pretty incredible that this is just 20 miles north of downtown-definitely feels like you are in the middle of nowhere!

Joseph, the lemur

We are lucky enough to still be enjoying beach days in October and met the Ozecks at Gator Beach in Coronado on the 10th for another great beach day.

On October 11th we made our way to the outlets in Carlsbad and couldn't leave without a trip on the train. 

On October 12th, all three kids received the flu shot.  Joseph was a champ and didn't cry at all, Julia had the typical baby cry after the shot but was fine a minute later with her pacifier, and then there was Ella...sweet, drama queen Ella!  She looked like this for at least a good thirty minutes after and at the doctor's office  you would have thought that her arm was cut off.  She did hold it together to get a toy though and then finally snapped out of it when I offered her a piece of gum.  She cried for Daddy and Nani and if you ask her if she cried a lot or a little, she'll tell you "a lot!"

Finally, a smile!

This is the playground out the door of our condo which comes in handy for the kids to play on while I am loading/unloading the things from the car.

Julia has to hang with me while I am unloading/loading up the car but once I let her loose she is ready to go and she loves trying to keep up with Joseph and Ella.  Her favorite thing on this playground is to try to climb UP the slide.

My parents were in northern California for five days in the middle of October so we went back to their house to housesit and watch Cali.  One morning we were outside for a long time and the girls had a great time getting dirty! 

Nani bought new kid dishes from Ikea and Ella had fun sorting them while I made dinner.

Julia is finally big enough where I am comfortable letting her sit on one of the kid chairs unassisted and she loves it.  These two are so sweet together and Julia sat like this for over 5 minutes "playing legos" with him.  

Made it to the top!!

While housesitting, we decided to give both kids haircuts and took advantage of having the backyard instead of doing it at the condo in the bathroom.  Rich has been wanting to cut Joseph's hair himself for a long time and after Joseph's last haircut I finally agreed to let him do it.  It is a little short for me but we bought a razor set with longer blades for next time so hopefully can go a little longer. Both Joseph and Rich were pretty excited about it!

I also gave Ella her very FIRST haircut!!  I love her long hair and the way that it parts so easily to the side so haven't wanted to touch it but the ends were looking a little scraggly so I gave her a little trim.  She talked about it for days and I think I did a pretty good job for my first haircut!

 Here is the longest piece I cut.  I'm not into saving things, such as their hair, but a picture will do!

Since being in the condo we have been at the 4S Ranch library at least once a week for a story time or activity.  It is fun to see Julia understand more and more of it and participate-she enjoys it!

Julia turned 13 months in October and is definitely no longer a baby!!  She still is really laid back but is getting pretty good at voicing her own opinion.  She gives the best open mouthed kisses, continues to love giving raspberries, will hit when she is upset or wants attention and is back to sleeping through the night!  One of the funniest/most frustatning things that she does is if you start singing a song to her and she doesn't want that song she will shake her head and move her arm "no".  I was putting her to bed one night and started singing "Hush a bye baby" and she started doing it and I didn't know if I should laugh or cry!  Definitely has a little personality! Here she is on October 14th watching Joseph and Ella play at the park.

It never fails that when Rich travels I have at least one of the kids in bed with me and this night, both snuck in with me.  Rich jokes around with me that I secretly like it and he's right...I do!  It makes him being gone not so bad when I have these sweet kiddos to snuggle with.  A few funny things about their sleeping habits from this month:
-Since we moved into the condo they are sharing a room and both have a twin bed.  Well, Ella is a crazy sleeper so I bought rails before we moved in to ensure that she didn't fall off.  Rich put one rail on the side of the bed, in the middle, and then the other side is pushed to the wall.  This didn't stop her though as she has fallen off the foot of the bed as well as off the head of the bed, in a tiny little space in between the wall and the top of the rail!!  After the first week of her falling off every other night or so, we added the second rail to the side of the bed so now we have both rails blocking off the entire side of the bed and a bunch of pillows at the foot. Thankfully she hasn't fallen off since then, although one night she started crying because she got stuck in between the railing and the bed (we now have a pillow protecting her from that!!)
-Joseph fell off the bed one night and I went in to get him and he said to me, "That hurt more than the flu shot."

I caught Ella watching the trash trucks one day instead of napping.

On October 16th, Joseph had a fall festival at his preschool which was a great time.  We saw a bunch of families from his class and the kids had a lot of fun playing the games and collecting prizes from the booths.

Ella was too small to go down by herself so it was so sweet watching Joseph help her and go down the slide with her.

On October 17th we went to Lake Miramar to run and Joseph rode his bike around the entire 5 mile lake!!  We were so impressed.  Rich ran with him since they were going too fast for me while pushing the double stroller and Rich said that the last 1/2 mile or so he complained of his bottom hurting but other than that he did great and he loved it!!  

Our three little musketeers hanging out in a Costco box, which is a favorite pastime these days!

On October 18th we went to a park about a mile from our house to show Rich the trails that are attached to it and so Joseph could ride his bike around it.  The girls enjoyed the swings while the boys were riding/running. 

Yes, Ella is in her pajamas and yes, it was 4:00 in the afternoon. She went through a few days were she only wanted to wear pajamas and we went with it.  

Trying to keep up with the big kids and doing a pretty good job of doing so!

 

It has been really fun watching Joseph's imagination and creativity develop, especially this past month in the condo.  Since we have limited toys/stuff here he has gotten extremely creative with boxes, paper, things he can find around the condo and tape...lots of tape!!  He can easily go through a roll of tape in an hour, so we have bought quite a few rolls of it, but thankfully tape isn't expensive and I have no problem spending money on something that has him being creative and could potentially guide him down the path of an engineer in the future!  

Here he is creating stilts with canned goods.  

Rich snapped this picture on October 19th-such a man!!  I was sure to wipe down the iPad after-gross!!

I had a little fairy help me unload the dishwasher one  morning.

On October 20th, Joseph's class took a field trip to Bates Nut Farm.  My mom watched the girls so I could go with him and it was fun to see him with his classmates and to have some alone time with him.  We had a great morning. 

You would think by the third child I would have learned my lesson not to give them a squeeze yogurt in the the car, but when she saw me give one to Joseph and Ella and then proceeded to moan/whine/grunt for one, I gave in.  Once we got home I remembered why it is a bad idea!!  Messy girl, but at least she was quiet on the drive! 

October means it is time for Rich's favorite, Costco pumpkin pies!!

On October 22nd, my mom and I took the 5 cousins to the Safari Park for the morning.  I don't think we saw any animals other than the bats, but we managed to play on every playground, ride the carousel and eat all of the snacks and they were as happy as can be.  The perks of having the annual pass!

These two are such sweet friends!

Building a tiki house

Hanging at a park by our condo on October 23rd.

We met up with the Ozecks on October 24th at La Jolla Shores, which is becoming one of my favorite beaches in San Diego.  It was a beautiful day in late October!  

This girl.  She got a small cut on her foot one day and couldn't look at it, cried whenever she thought of it and wouldn't take a bath.  I suggested putting a sock on it so she wouldn't see it and it totally worked.  It worked so well that she kept the sock on for 2 days straight, including nighttime and bath time (we, of course, had to have a clean sock waiting for her immediately following the bath!)  At La Jolla Shores on the 24th,  a seagull nipped some cheese out of her hand-she was really startled and surprised but didn't cry and didn't complain of it hurting her when it happened, which caught me by surprise that there was no drama with it.  Well, fast forward to 7 hours later at bedtime when she's in full on tears, crying that it hurts so much and wouldn't take a bath and there was the drama that I was missing from earlier in the day.  I suggested putting a sock on her hand (figured if it worked for the foot, it may work for the hand) and she absolutely LOVED it!  She wore one in the bath, then needed a dry one for bed and I about died when she woke me up Sunday morning and the sock was still on!  We had a minor meltdown when it got dirty from breakfast the next morning but was able to clean it off  and she proceeded to wear it to the park until midmorning.

Here she is at the park that morning with the sock still on.  She finally took it off around 11:00 a.m. that day when she couldn't get a good grip on the monkey bars.  The sock now acts as a bandaid in our house and she can be found wearing one at least a few days during the week (as I write this on November 14th she is currently sleeping with one on her hand and for two days this week had one on her foot).

These pictures are from October 25th when we went to Mission Bay park early in the morning so Rich could meet up with a running group.  The kids and I played on the playground while he ran with the group and then when he was done, he ran again with Joseph riding his bike and I ran with the girls.  It was a fun way to spend the morning and to go somewhere different to work out and play.  

Love these big smiles on the swing!! 

Julia was loving the pushes from Joseph.  

Not a bad view for a morning run!

Lots of fun on the playground and the sock is finally off!

Do all fathers have the special ability to nap in the middle of chaos in the middle of the day or is it just ours?!?  

Sweet girl looking so big

She's a funny one!

Katie and I were able to celebrate her birthday on October 27th at The Barrel Room-a fun night!

Just hanging out with Julia on October 28th while Joseph was at school and Ella was napping.  

Gosh, I just love this little girl!  She's getting so big so fast!

To finish out the month, Joseph brought this home on the 31st on the back of an art project and I had to take a picture of it because this is the best that I have seen him write his name yet!  It is bittersweet watching him grow up so fast.

I think that pretty much captures the day to day life during the month of October.  I love being able to hang with these kiddos day in and day out and am so thankful for them and our normal day to day life together.