The Hines Family Blog

Another great week with a great kiddo.  Eric took Lorelei bowling for charity while I was out of town and she got really hepped up on soda pop.  Apparently she saw a pool table and started taking off her clothes to go for a swim.  Get it, pool table?  I was sorry to miss the cuteness.  No pictures, unfortunately.

I do have pictures of her playing with her baby swing, which was just returned to us by a coworker of mine whose baby has outgrown it. 

pushing baby

We had a fun time this week at Lorelei's daycare's harvest dinner on Thursday but she seemed really run down.  The next day she had a low fever and the sniffles so she had a nice relaxing day with Dad again and has been kicking it old school the rest of the week. 

The only other news is I finally finished making her a winter hat, which she hates and is almost too big for.  I didn't want to pay $10 for a hat so I spent about 20 hours crocheting this monstrosity.  Next time I'll hit up Goodwill instead :-)

new hat

This weekend we are going to go get a H1N1 booster for the kidlet (none available for adults in Missoula) and prepare for going to Grandma and Grandpa S's for Thanksgiving!!!!

Sorry for the delay, I am off in Seattle helping to chart the future of the Pacific Northwest Library Association.  But none of you care about that; you're here for this:

Rescuing Dumbo

Truth be told, I'd rather be there for that too.  That's Lorelei acting out the part of Dumbo when he's rescued from the burning tower.  She and Eric watched Dumbo the last time she was home sick and she loved it.  And Eric found his stuffed Dumbo the other day.  Fun times, fun times.  I just love how excited she looks in this picture :-)

Eric also gave kiddo his old Cabbage Patch doll, so now she has two babies.  The Cabbage Patch is slightly more exciting because he has clothes she can take off and ask me to put back on about a thousand times in a row.  Sometime soon I hope she gets down the putting back on part but it's fun to watch her play.

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  She has been in a super good mood lately.  She has a friend that she likes to play with at day care named Kallan, and the two of them are lately getting in some trouble by playing at naptime and hiding from the teacher.  On Thursday night she told me that she and Kallan had been fighting bad guys with dinosaurs.  Eric asked her if they were pretend dinosaurs and she said they were toy dinosaurs.  She is a constant ball of energy (not that that's new at all) but has been so talkative and imaginative lately.  It's a lot of fun for sure and much better than the weeping and moaning of earlier weeks.  Although when I told her I was going to be gone this weekend she wept for about five minutes inconsolably, saying, "I'll miss you mommy!  I'll miss you!"  I miss you too, kiddo. 

Better get back to work!  More next week. 

Trick or treat!  Happy Halloween!

cute little elephant

Lorelei had a great time trick or treating at the mall.  We made it all the way around this year and she got a TON of candy.  She also went trick or treating at school and got some graham crackers and a pencil and a bat shaped straw that she just loves. 

I had to alter her costume a bit.  Even though it was a size 2-4 T she was way too tall for it.  So I separated the head from the body to give her a few more inches.  The downside was that the hood part would kind of slide around on her head and eventually we took it off.  It was about the same time that all the other kids were taking off their masks and hats and getting tired and demanding piggyback rides and to be carried. 

We only had three trick or treaters at the house.  We were giving out full size candy bars too.  I bet next year we get swamped.  Lou helped me a very tiny bit with the jack o lantern and other decorations.

lit up pumpkin

In other news, probably due to Halloween she is really into superheroes and bad guys lately.  This morning she was wearing a cape so she could be super too:

Next weekend we get Wednesday off to spend together!  Then I have to go away for work all weekend, bleah. 

More later!

Kiddo had a very eventful week.  On Saturday she got to meet her favorite big red dog, Clifford:

She also got to meet Snow White and Grumpy but she didn't care about them so much and neither did most of the kids.  They loooooooooved Clifford.  Who knew he was so popular?

She also listened to stories fairly attentively.  By the way we forgot the camera so these are all from my phone.  There were a lot of old pictures of her on there which are now up on Flickr, by the way.

She has been happy for the last two mornings in a row and has slept pretty well at night which is a change from a few weeks ago.  So we are all doing better.  Don't mention potty training though.

Coming up: Halloween! But first let's revisit summer with this picture of Lorelei riding the little merry go round at Kmart.

small merry go round

Some fall photos:

Getting some more

Making dinner

Here you go!

Lorelei in the leaves

Kidlet had a great week.  She is enjoying her big girl bed, making some (very very small) steps toward potty training, and had a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Schmehl.  We forgot to bring the camera anywhere but we went to the Children's Museum here in town and to the playground and even out to breakfast.  She is so much better behaved at restaurants in the morning!

Here are some pictures of the big girl bed:

I'm Mr. Rogers

Kidlet has made it through 134 weeks, yay!  And after about two weeks of waking up every morning at 5, she has slept until nearly 7 the past two mornings.  Double yay!  Another busy week but here are some quick updates:

We toughed it out at the parade for about half an hour.  Kiddo was ready to go after she saw Monte, but then she realized that the people in the parade were handing out candy and so we had to stay a bit longer!  It was only about 20 degrees out with a wicked wind so we are impressed she made it that long.

We are progressing on potty training.  She is insisting on wearing underwear, and she actually did okay at day care all morning yesterday.  In the afternoon her teacher put a pull up on her so we don't know how that would have went.  We'll see how today goes.

The crabbiness is a bit improved.  She is still very tantrum and tear-prone lately but not quite as bad.  Her teachers think it was just because she was sick.  I'm not so sure.  I think she is processing something and it will resolve when she has it all figured out.  I really hope it's potty training. 

She is in a big girl bed now as of last weekend!  We have photos but they are at home on the camera, which is not doing anyone any good.  She has not fallen out of it yet so that's a triumph for her and Eric, who told me I was 'dumb' to worry about her falling out of bed.

Well, here is a photo of our lovely snow from last week, which is thankfully all melted now.  Grandma and Grandpa S are visiting tomorrow and Lou is very excited to show off her new bed!

First Snow of the Season!

Lorelei is now officially closer to three than two having had her half birthday on Tuesday. Her totally rocking half birthday was preceded by a visit from her Grandma and Grandpa Mohn on Saturday. Lou enjoyed playing with her Little People with Grandma and visiting the Pumpkin Patch to pick out a pumpkin for Halloween. I think she enjoyed her brownie the most of all.

Pumpkins and a Brownie

Since the week wrapup was kind of terse I thought I'd give you a bonus picture:

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She loves this diving mask.  We are having a good week--I love taking the bus home with her on Mondays because she just talks the whole time we're waiting for the bus about her day and what she did and all the various cars going by.  It's a lot of fun.  Here's another pic, taken during one of her elaborate stories, and more to come on Friday!

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This time I was in Burley, Idaho for the end of the week.   Only a 6 hour drive!   Sorry for the delay.  No pictures this week either.  This week's big discovery was whining.  Wow, can this kid whine.  She is also very tired today--went down for her nap at noon, just when Grandma Mohn got to town to visit her.  Hopefully she'll be less grumpy when she wakes up--on the way home I had to carry her out of the grocery store since she was having a tantrum.  Oh, the delights of the two year old...I hear three year olds are worse!

More later!