Mermaids and Batgirls and Goldfish, Oh My!

I love Halloween. Our celebration this year included:

--Making pumpkin brownie. LBD spent most of that time crying because we wouldn't let her eat all the decorations.

--Picking pumpkins. Really late this year because we had a crazy month (including my Stanford reunion, which reminded me how freaking amazing that school is). It was a little soggy but we enjoyed a long hayride.

--Our first Halloween school party. So cute and full of songs.

--Having the Roystons visit for the weekend. Always fun to see them and wish it wasn't so short and crazy.

--Trick or treating on Chestnut street. LBD wanted nothing to do with her costume until she saw the first piece of candy go in C's bag. Then she looked at me like "All I have to do is wear the suit to get the candy? Put that thing on NOW!" And she held out her arms, got the costume on, and off she went. We couldn't get her 'Ruh ruh' treat bag out of her hands for a week afterward.

MUST EAT CANDY NOW.

EATING ON THE JOB

MORE! MORE! MORE!

--Trick or treating on Halloween night. SF does a great Halloween. First we hit the Marina street and the kids went to town. It felt a little crazier this year but maybe we just got there a bit later. The kids still seemed to have a great time. C and D hit one more block near our house on the way home while LBD and I handed out some candy. All in a great night.

--And the costumes? C was "Ariel" and we even died her hair orange on the big night. I actually sprung for a more expensive costume from Pottery Barn Kids because every other one I found looked like it came complete with a tramp stamp. She was thrilled to have orange hair the last night. D was bat girl, and she decided bat girl was, in fact, a big Giants fan too. So she had a baseball, a spider (just for fun), and Go Giants painted on her hand. For LBD we borrowed two costumes. First she was just going to be a goldfish, but then D said "I'll be the only one on land!" so we had her go as a spider to their party.

Poor LBD was a sucker for face paint

Before the school party

I was not responsible for picture taking here (If I were, I would have gotten ALL the kids together)

Go Giants!!!

"Do the Giants get ice cream at every game too?!"
Ready to shag balls
Off to find Lou Seal
Is this where Timmy and "Fear the Beard" sit??

Contemplating how Buster got his name

I grew up an A's fan. Going to A's games was a big part of my childhood (and I am pretty psyched to see Moneyball). But I have lived in the city long enough (and the A's stadium sucks just enough) that I have allowed myself to become a Giants fan too. (I have tried to explain to C and D that you can kind of be an A's fan and a Giants fan, but that you can NEVER be a 49er fan and a Raiders fan).

Never mind me though---C and D are San Francisco girls. And it didn't hurt that this year we got to hang out at Giants stadium one evening for an office event. Everyone had an awesome time, C and D loved hitting and running the bases, they loved having Lou Seal chauffeur them around the stadium in a golf cart (by the end of the night D was ordering Lou Seal to pick her up in various parts of the stadium. btw for some reason I hardly have any pics of C from this night, but she did it all too). So we are officially Giants fans.

Anyway, its kind of hard not to like 'em this year. So Go Giants!

Nuts

Lila is allergic to nuts. Somewhat severely. We will check her again in 3 years but apparently only 40% of kids grow out of the allergy. So we are all stocked up on epi pins and benadryl and soynut butter. And she has her very own "nut guards" --her sisters now ask EVERYONE who offers us ANYTHING "Does it have nuts in it? Because our baby is allergic."

BULLY

My name is Molly, and my 21 month old daughter is a bully.

I love her to death, but Lila ATTACKS kids. She walks up and grabs their faces. She pinches cheeks. She fish hooks mouths. She sometimes pulls hair. It isn't done with an angry face. It is almost like she thinks that is what she is supposed to do. I think it might be that her sisters kill her with kindness, getting in her face a lot. When she pushes them away or whacks at their faces it doesn't bother them (they just give her a little space). And I am starting to think that when I remind her not to grab faces, it makes her do it even more.

Worst part? That she seems to seek out the small, timid ones (which I'd like to think means at least she knows not to pick on people bigger than her :))

But it is mortifying and it really upsets some mothers. I have to admit, sometimes these mothers annoy me because they glare at Lila and me afterward. As if she A) is the first kid to ever do it, and B) is really the devil and not just a toddler who is going through a phase. Wrong as it is, I am tempted to tell some of these women that "I'm really sorry, but she can smell weakness." But then we'll definitely get kicked out of gymnastics class.

A Love Story

My city beat your city this weekend. If every city has its time, ours is Fleet Week.

On Friday morning we met our cousins at the beach and played. In the water. In October.

On Friday night Andrew and I went to the Giants playoff game. They didn't win but you can't have a bad time at AT&T Park.

On Saturday morning I let Andrew sleep in and took the girls to breakfast and then down to the Marina. We were the first to get to the activities and the girls got to bungee jump, hamster roll, and slide and bounce around.

Saturday afternoon we came back down and watched the Blue Angels, and this year they didn't disappoint.

Saturday night Andrew and I went to dinner for our anniversary and enjoyed the warm, Indian Summer night.

Sunday morning I took the girls over to see their cousins in the am. Then Andrew and the girls went back down to see the Angels again, and I ended up walking up to a different viewpoint with Lila after she woke up. It was cool in a totally different way. LBD LOVED the airplanes and shrieked with excitement when they came near.

The Jig is Up

(The girls at an imaginary worlds summer camp--as a fairy and a mermaid)

I don't like princesses. (And if I might add --obnoxiously--I don't understand why I seem to be so alone in this endeavor.) My battle against the princesses has actually been pretty easy to date. We don't have much disney stuff, and since the girls have never seen any movies or read any books about them they can kind of make the princesses whatever they want to when they inevitably show up in some Target purchase. Until recently they called them all mermaids (at least mermaids swim!)

But yesterday they went to a birthday party for a little girl from their new school (which we LOVE). She is a really nice girl and her party was really sweet (and it was our first drop off party--big fan of that!) When I picked the girls up "Princess Aurora" was there. The girls were fascinated. And ever since they have been educating me on princesses.

C: (Incredulous) "Mom, did you know, princesses don't just do nothing!?!

Me: "Oh really, what do they do?"

C: "They face paint!"

D: "And they kill bad fairies!"

C: "And they make tea."

D: "And they walk through the forest."

Me: "What do they do in the forest?"

D: "Talk to squirrels and things."

Me: "Do they study the animals?"

D: (Scrunching up her nose) "Mmmm, not really. They mostly just look at things."

D: "But we can't play with squirrels like she can. Because her world is different."

Me: "And where is her world?"

C: "Disneyland!"

At least they have determined that they cannot be princesses because I am not a Queen. And C got wind of the notion of a boy needing to be involved for someone to be a princess which I find particularly annoying about the princess thing. (Well that and The entitlement part, the focus on beauty, the servants....)

I don't think we are going to be completely princessized anytime soon, but I still resent you Disney.