Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-treat? Here's a collection of our Halloween photos.

(Wish we were visiting our old neighbors at this house... but the new one's are very nice, too.)

We decided markers were safer than knives for the pumpkin decorating this year.

I think she was crashing from her first sugar high of the day in this one. Ellie and I picked up Brian a little early from work and went over to this bridge opening event in West Lafayette, where there was a costume parade. Ellie was the cutest ladybug there!

But this shot really captures her initial impression of Halloween...

Until she found out about the candy!It was a beautiful day and a great Halloween, even though it ended with a major meltdown from the little one. She didn't think it was fair when we took away her Tootsie Pop at bed time — and hunkered down for some serious tooth-brushing. But I know our froggie-ladybug had a great day overall.

Week 25: Rutabaga

Not too much to report this week on the baby front... I'm just getting bigger all the time, feeling some really strong kicks and starting to slow down. I've still got a couple weeks before I hit the third trimester, but the second trimester "honeymoon" energy is already wearing off. I'm glad to have a couple prenatal yoga workout dvds to help keep my hips and leg muscles loose. But the tiredness — and crankiness — I had early in the pregnancy is starting to creep in again. Getting up for work at 5 a.m. probably isn't helping...
Here's some happier news from the experts this week:

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

Leaf jumping

Brian built up a pile of leaves for Ellie in the back yard on Sunday afternoon and she was in heaven.

I had to work that day but I was happy to stop home for a few minutes and join in the leaf fun!

Boo at the Zoo

This year we finally got Ellie down to the annual Boo at the Zoo event, in the park a block away from our house. I was amazed at the scope of the shindig. The admission price included access to about 15 different activity areas, haunted train rides and kiddie rides... and you even got a free pumpkin to take home! Given the "late" start — close to Ellie's bedtime — we didn't make it to nearly half of the stuff involved, but Ellie had a great time. We let her choose between the frog and ladybug costumes we have in her size, and she chose "ribbit." The costume is a bit short on her so the head piece doesn't fit great. When she pulled it off mom insisted she wear a hat because it was pretty chilly that night.
Ellie did some bowling and was thrilled to get a candy treat afterward.
She rode the helicopters and the horse and buggy ride. You'll notice a very cute Elmo in the cart behind her. He was very upset to get off the ride when it was over and started crying, which prompted Ellie to worry all night that "Elmo's sad!" We had to keep reassuring her that he was happy now.
A cute shot of the walk to the park with daddy!
And a shot with mom as we tried to make it look like we were wearing the floating witches hats... not sure we succeeded...
And here's an action shot of our very adamant froggie girl:

Sugar Babies

That headline on today's Indy Star really caught my eye, and the story did not disappoint. The author looked into some of the causes behind a recent study showing that one in five children between the ages of 2 and 5 nationwide are overweight or obese (according to the Institute of Medicine). Here's a link to the story and I'd highly recommend the read. Some of the info in there about how much sugar is in drinks given to kids — fairly normal stuff like juice, too — is alarming and enlightening.

I've been thinking about Ellie's diet (meaning her food intake, not any special diet she's on...) a lot lately. She's clearly got a sweet tooth like her mommy, and as I've indulged my pregnancy food cravings in recent months there's been a lot more of the sugary stuff around the house that Ellie makes special requests for. One favorite of hers is "I want cereal with treats and milk. But no milk" ... and then she proceeds to eat all of the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms we give her and leave the rest. This is only a sometimes treat, mind you, but she also gets candy for going on the potty and desserts on the nights when we have them at home. At school, too, I've arrived to pick her up during afternoon snack and often find the toddlers all surrounding a table eating cookies. None of these things are the end of the world, but I know from my own weight struggles over the years that there has to be balance. That's why I'm happy we only give Ellie milk or water to drink at home. We also encourage a lot of healthy snacks and meals. Some of her favorites are hummus, peas, corn, apples, bananas, oranges, pretzels, Cheerios, raisins and even tofu! (Note to other parents: To get Ellie to like tofu our winning recipe is cutting it into sticks, breading it with panko or other breadcrumbs and lightly pan-frying it. We let her dip it in marinara sauce and Ellie is in heaven.)

I don't want to make it sound like all Ellie eats is super healthy stuff. Breakfasts on weekends are our house basically revolve around syrup... waffles, pancakes, or my creation this morning: french toast made from leftover homemade cinnamon raisin bread. And Ellie manages to dip each bite of her food about five times in the syrup before starting the process over again. But I think we strike a decent balance with offering a side of fruit at breakfast and then keeping lunch and dinner on the healthier side. That also helps me keep my own diet from going off the deep end! I'm proud of Ellie for trying new foods all the time and often choosing the healthiest option on the plate — and then requesting seconds. I hope we're helping her build a good foundation of smart eating choices... to balance out the times when we give in to her hard-to-resist requests for "treats."

Laundry

This is Ellie's version of "helping" fold laundry... usually the pieces that end up on her head or strewn around the room come directly from the already-folded pile. I have to admit, her way is a lot more fun...

Pumpkin patch

A church right near our house sets up a pretty cool pumpkin patch every year and we wandered over to it last weekend. Ellie had run moving the baby pumpkins from one bin to another... while a very cute older kid who helps out at the patch monitored Ellie's activities to make sure she didn't mix up the sizes of pumpkins in each basket. This sweet girl also kept offering Ellie nice-shaped pumpkins, as we encouraged our toddler to pick one out to take home. But Ellie just kept picking them up and dumping them back down again. I finally got her to settle on one by whisking her over to the checkout as soon as she had one firmly in her grasp. We also bought a small green and gold gourd that Brian found... Go Packers!
And here's one of Ellie and mom exercising our cheesy smiles for the camera. Ellie's forced grin is too funny :)