Dreams do come true

Danielle is full of passion. We often hear "This is the BEST day of my life!" or "It's my DREAM come true!" Saturday was one of those days. She got to be in a parade!
She was with the dance studio that she takes ballet with. They'll be performing Cinderella in a few weeks, and they asked the little girls to dress up as princesses and hand out flyers advertising the performance. Not my idea of fun, but Danielle was thrilled. I think the only parade she's seen is the Disneyland parade, and this little hometown parade (as are most) was a far cry from that, but she thought it was sooooo wonderful. We saw one of the floats parked today, and she just couldn't contain her excitement that it was a float from her parade.

A little bit about Liesl

Liesl is so fiercely independent and stubborn--her favorite thing to say (screech) is "I do it!" And most of the time I don't mind that she wants to do things on her own, but sometimes her judgment is lacking. We love that she's potty trained fairly easily, but we've had to take away her potties (it's okay since she can go on a toilet) because she would go on her own, and then empty them herself, ending up on the floor more often than in the toilet. And on the same subject, we've caught her a few times cleaning her own poopy diapers (she still wears one at nap and bed time), and you can imagine how that goes. I think she's learned not to do that now.

The other morning we heard her crawl out of her crib, close our bedroom door, go downstairs, and head out the front door. We couldn't believe it, and by the time Robert got outside, she was halfway down the driveway, "looking for mommy," she said. What the ?!? Not sure where that came from. Needless to say we're installing a childproof lock now.

I love that she tries to dress herself and will get her own snacks and fills her own water bottle (now that she doesn't spill it every time). She loves to help me cook, but once again, the lack of judgment is often scary. As is the park--she has no fear.

One more tidbit: I finally figured out that whenever Liesl gets a cold, her MO is to throw up within the first 24 hours. I don't know why I didn't figure it out until this last cold, but from now on I will be prepared. This last time she was acting okay, just a runny nose, so I went to the hardware store with her and Jarrett and stopped at Starbucks to get some hot chocolate for them as a reward for being good. As I walked up to the cashier, Liesl started coughing and then, out of nowhere, threw up all over me. The poor cashier just turned away and I made a beeline for the exit. I've decided greater love hath no mom than to catch her child's throw up so it doesn't go on the floor . . .

Jarrett's Joy

Jarrett's preschool teacher told me that if she's ever having a bad day at preschool, all she needs to do to feel better is watch Jarrett play. She said there's just something about him that makes her happy. I couldn't agree more, and after I thought about it a little bit, I decided that it's because he's a joyful kid. He has the best smile and laugh and is so easy going. We're very grateful he's a part of our family.

One thing that has made Jarrett sad, though, is that Grandma and Grandpa aren't coming back. The last few months they went on so many trips, I think he thought when we were saying goodbye to them for the last time that they would be back in a week, just like they always were. A week ago, he was asking "Where's Grandma and Grandpa?" We replied that they're on their mission. It didn't really hit him until after we took their car to be sold. He was pretty mad that their car wasn't here anymore. He misses them. We all do.

Child labor

At least we give them gloves!

Halloween

Halloween was easy this year, except for the fact that we had five parties in as many days the week leading up to it. But other than that, Jarrett wanted to wear the same costume as last year:
Poor Jarrett had a little cold on the day of his preschool party, so we gave him some medicine, which actually makes him excitable instead of tired. When they performed their songs, he was loud and made the motions very animated. Other parents probably didn't notice, but he's such a quiet guy . . . I really wish we had video of it!

Liesl was happy with being a ladybug (I had suggested it since we already had the costume for Danielle when she was the same age). She thought it was lots of fun:
Danielle wears costumes throughout the year, so the only difference is she gets to wear them out of the house. For her school party she wanted to be Ariel with red hair, so the red wig is the only costume I had to buy this year:
We tried the wig on after I bought it, and it kind of freaked her out, but I couldn't return it, so I told her since I paid for it, she had to wear it at least a little bit. (Geez, that makes me sound evil. It didn't sound so bad at the time.) She wore it for her school's parade, but before I got back to her classroom to help her take it off, she had already ripped it off, leaving the bobby pins in her hair.

For trick or treating, she decided to go for a more demure Cinderella costume:
Trick or treating was, as it was last year, a big hit for Jarrett and not so much for Danielle. Liesl loved it too this year, so Danielle was outnumbered and had to "suffer" through getting more candy.