It started off a bit rough tonight, but ended on a high note. Poor Ken was once again late (after leaving early AGAIN) due to crappy traffic. Argh. Its really annoying, but what can you do. I had to vent, and then I was good to go. We got started over at Dad and Rita's place. Ariel of course was more into riding the horse than getting the candy.
We went down the street and got a full bag... when did giving full size candy bars become the norm? Dad came with us for several houses, and got to see Ariel run to the doors. We even got her knocking on a few herself. She was in awe of the decorations, people really go all out these days.
We then got in the car and headed over to my old stomping grounds. We ended up running into our friends the Breuls, and joined them covering the whole neighbourhood. It was a lot more than we originally planned, but Ariel was so into it with the older kids there, that we kept going. Finally Ariel's little legs were dragging and Ken had to put her on his shoulders. It was really cute.
It was funny, people were saying, 'hey, were you the peacock from the pumpkin festival?' Apparently we are famous, whee! Speaking of which, we got a call last night after we got home saying Ariel had won a prize in the draw! Woot! She got a gift certificate to the Sara's Ice Cream shop. I am sure Daddy will help her use it. Haha.
We headed home at around 830pm as Ariel was ready to crash. Needless to say, the girl collected enough candy to keep us full of sugar for several days. Look at this loot pile!
Ken is leaving tomorrow morning for a work trip and will return on Sunday, so I am gonna go help him finish packing and spend some time with my guy. We are gonna miss him. Sniff.
We got to practice the whole trick or treat thing tonight at the annual Pumpkin Festival here in town tonight. Daddy was to meet us (he even left work early) but his bus broke down and he got there late. Oh well. Ariel and I still made it down to collect some goodies from the businesses, yum.
Let me tell you, this girl was in CONTROL! She was going to walk AND hold her own bag. She was too funny toddling along and making everyone one crack up at her costume.
Yes, we did well this year, no other peacocks. Hee. Everywhere we turned it was 'Look at the peacock', 'where did you get that cute costume' and 'thats so original.' My favorite though was the little girl who said, 'look mommy, a turkey!'
We saw Carter, but the kids were making it hard to get a good picture. I miss that baby phase of them sitting still. Hehehe. This was the only one I managed to grab.
We were glad when Daddy finally arrived... maybe more so me. It was getting kinda crazy at that point.
We got to watch Marke Driesschen from CTV News film the weather live from the festival. Had Ariel not been getting tired, we may have tried to get her on tv. Hee. We did get a picture with him, but he was too busy joking with Ariel. He asked if she was the NBC peacock. Haha.
The happy family! (Notice the tired mommy!)
When we got home, Ariel checked out her loot. Daddy thought he would have some, but Ariel made she he knew it was hers. Too bad daddy, I guess you won't have as much this year. Looking forward to more fun tomorrow night, so this was a good warm up indeed.
...she bounces back! Yes, Ariel took a nap today! Can I get an AMEN? Woot! Yes, it was a full and beautiful nap from 1pm till 4pm. Pure heaven. Thank you Ariel, mommy needed that.
Last night we joined some friends for dinner and a celebration of a wedding anniversary. 61 years, amazing eh? Ariel was all excited about the little dog that was at the party and it kept her quite amused the whole time we were there.
She also decided that she ate too much at dinner and had to work off it off.
Today was pretty much low key, as I was trying to get Ariel back on track with her regular routine. We went by the store for some groceries and on our way out we got our poppies. The lady had safety pins so Ariel could have one too, a really good idea! Ariel really liked it and pointed to it all the way home.
We got our sink fixed this morning. This gave me good reason to clean up underneath though, blah. Its all really nice now, so I guess it was worth the hassle. All the storage containers now have matching lids.
Ariel was having a good time playing with the pillow Uncle Dan made for her birthday in the summer. She found it in her tent today, and it was the main attraction all morning. She was actually finding lots of toys she hasn't played with in a while, including some of her dolls and stuffies, so it was a fun discovery play time!
Ken got home a bit later since he was showing Halloween cartoons for the students. Tomorrow he will be home early so we can take Ariel to the street fair. Should be fun, and we get to break in the costume!
Ariel is also on a huge shoe kick at the moment. Either she carries them around the living room or puts them on. She LOVES daddy's shoes and had to wear them for us. Too cute. I have a similar picture of me in my dad's work boots, I should try and find it. Hee.
I guess its bedtime... cute pictures tomorrow from the fair! Whee.
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention I won a book for Ariel! I enter all the contests on Celebrity Baby Blog, and I got an email saying I won one of the draws! Yay, gotta love free stuff. Should get our cute spider book soon!
At the moment my dear Ariel is downstairs playing with her Daddy. Ask me if she had her nap today? Ask me if she had one yesterday? Nooooooooooooooooo, on both counts. Am I pleased at this turn of events, no. She has done this before on weekends because the schedule is somewhat out of whack, but I am prepared for the worse.... NO MORE NAPS. Argh.
After church this morning, we went to have lunch at Nana and Papa's house. Ariel fell in love with the dishcloth. She played with it until it was time to go. There were tears shed for having to leave the cloth behind, maybe she will get one in her stocking. Hehe.
The real reason behind this weekend post was to share a weird video of Ariel with you all. You see, there is a Dairy Queen commercial on tv right now that Ariel loves. The other night when I taped ER for Ken who was out, the commercial was on, and so we were able to capture this strange yet funny moment of our little Ariel. Remember, its not strange, its just original. Hee.
Yay! Tis Friday and I am happy to be alive and standing. Its been a fun week but filled with accidents that have left me shaking my head and wondering if I am ready for all Ariel has in store for me. Last night Ariel again showed her chops for drama when she took off up the stairs like she knows how to do, but some how lost her balance when she decided to stand up from her crawling position (something she has never done at this point) and took a spill down the bottom five steps. Argh. Of course she was fine as usual and after a brief cry and a quick hug, was off and running. Stairs and couch have now become a 'no Ariel' zone until I wipe the image of my child flying through the air out of mind. I am sure she will replace it with something even more creative... I have faith. Haha.
Ariel has also showed a love for the up coming holiday of Halloween. She got decked out in a toilet paper mummy outfit, all by herself... and I am glad it wasn't a full roll in the bathroom at the time.
She has been also sneaking away at bath time when I am preparing the tub... I find her always at the computer, mouse in hand. A little tech savvy girl indeed.
The bruise is getting better slowly. The eyelid is still green, but hard to notice since the eye isn't as swollen anymore.
Ariel has also discovered its fun to carry around the musical barn (the one from the fridge) as a personal boom box. Music on demand and dancing in any room. May have to find a little cd player for her... I think Fisher Price makes one, hmmm.
In Jay news, I have been sewing up a storm. I am just finishing another cross stitch birth announcement for a lady who is paying me, whee. Always nice to get a paying gig with that sort of thing. I also finished up all my little monthly cats I was making. I want to make it into a quilted wall hanging.
I have also been hard at work sanding the little crib when ever I get a moment. I picked out some paint today and hope to start this weekend. Its coming along so well, and its such a neat little project. The bedding is also coming together. I got some lace this week and now I am just making some final decisions on sizes of things.
I will leave you with a happy girl and her pumpkin cookie.
Yes, its the little things that make us cheer. Have a good weekend!
It finally happened, after weeks of Ariel being a monkey on the couch, she finally went flying and most likely gave me a few new gray hairs. She was looking over the arm of the couch and as I went to grab her she suddenly FLIPPED and went flying to the floor... not until she clipped her head coming down on her rocking horse. It happened so fast and as I ran over trying to keep my own tears inside so not to scare her further, there she lay... some what shocked and freaked over what had just occurred. I picked her up and she cried clinging to my shoulder. Looking her over I saw the damage, a big bump and it was pretty black looking. You can see in the picture, the little black mark above her eyebrow. My poor baby.
I was proud that I didn't cry and I think she calmed down fast because of it. She was running around within minutes of falling. The girl is tiny, but pure steal. I called Stella to get a quick, should I go to the emergency to get it checked, and she told me what to look for if she had in fact given herself concussion. Well, I am happy to say she isn't showing any signs of one. I got to break out our little 'Mr Bump' gel pack for its first time use.
Ariel loved it and I showed her how to hold it on her boo boo. She was quite into that, until throwing Mr Bump became more fun. I then called Ken to tell him what happened (actually he called when she has just fallen and got to hear her scream, blah). That's when I finally broke down and cried over the whole thing. Ariel came over and hugged me. Poor mommy.
Well we lived through our first bump... it was OK... but I don't want to do it again anytime soon. One bright moment, at least we had our family pictures already.
Ariel's play date with Chloe today went sooooooooo well. The girls had a great time reading books, playing on the toy car and eating cookies. They played for 2 hours straight with only one little intermission of Ariel having a poopy diaper. Chloe didn't much care for her friend stinking up the place, I don't blame her.
When Sue came to pick Chloe up, Ariel was quite sad and was crying. We went to the window to wave goodbye, and Ariel was waving so hard you thought her little arm was going to come off. Awe. Its nice to have friends!
After dinner we were watching Dancing with the Stars...
When I was upstairs, Ken shouted that Marie Osmond had just fainted. Whoa, what happened. Then there was an extra long commercial break, that makes you worry a bit if she was in fact ok. She was, and frankly, it was just one of those moments that catch you off guard. If you missed it, here is the faint. (Edit, I found a shorter video) I also forgot to mention, that apprently, her first words when she woke up was 'oh crap', yeah, I would feel that way too.
This was Ariel's second time pumpkin carving with us. Of course last time, she was only a few months old and really had no clue what we were doing. This time around, she was slightly interested, but wasn't too keen on the whole procedure. She would watch, leave to play, then come back to see if we were still at it.
This year we carved 3 pumpkins, one for each of us. Ariel poses with the pumpkins before we kill... er, I mean transform them into cute jack o' lanterns.
Helping Mommy scoop pumpkin guts. Ariel touched them and was grossed out I think, since she took off pretty fast.
Looking inside the empty pumpkins. We kept taking her toys and sticking them inside the hollowed out pumpkins. She won't stick her hand inside to rescue them, haha.
Helping Daddy carve. This was the cutest moment by far. She went to her plastic fruit toys and found the toy knife and came over and stabbed the pumpkin. Just like Daddy, awe.
All finished! Aren't they cute? I like that forth pumpkin in the back. Hee.
Then out to the deck where they will wait to be lit on Halloween. Whee.
Yesterday I mentioned I had a story to tell. Well, I was at the grocery store in the line up and this elderly lady was in front of us and started talking to Ariel. Of course she didn't respond since this was a stranger and she gets all shy. This lady keeps prodding Ariel to talk to her. I just smiled, but then she started saying things like, you mother dresses you rather funny doesn't she. Ariel was wearing a purple hoodie. Whats wrong with that? In fact, Nana bought it for her since it matched her purple hoodie. Ariel was wearing it when we met Nana for coffee earlier. I told the lady this, and she was like 'well I would never do such a thing.' Well, you aren't her Great Grandmother, so no worries. She said several other somewhat rude things and I just smiled. Oh well. I told Nana later and we had a good laugh about it.
Last night we attended a late 'Thanksgiving' potluck at church. We were to bring a dessert, so I made up a fancy chocolate cake. Yummy.
Ariel was all dressed cute in her dress from Easter. Still fits, actually, it fits really well at the moment. This was the only picture she would let me take since she had ants in her pants. She got them out by running around with the other kids once were at church. Ah, a vision of things to come.
Dinner was really good, and Ariel ate every bite on her plate. Yummy! We had to leave during the speaker since we could hear Ariel crying in the nursery. She was over tired and needed to go to bed.
Tomorrow Ariel is having her first play date with a friend from church. Chloe, who is 9 years old. It was really cute, her mom called and asked if it was ok because she asked her daughter who she wanted to go play with after school and she said Ariel. Awe. So it will be fun to have her over for a bit and entertain Ariel, who will be pumped as she loves Chloe. Should be interesting, hee.
This is just a quick post before I head off to bed, but I wanted to post the proofs from our photo shoot. Here are my favs of some of the ones we ordered. What do you think? Personally, I think Maria rocks! Go check out her website, Frozen Reflections if you want to see more of her stuff. Also, the rest of the pictures from our shoot are here.
Other quick note, we started the Ariel's World blog again. Slightly different than before, as we aren't doing a pictures a day but a few each month. So you can check in now and again to see what is new... thank you for those who pushed for its return.
Will post more soon, as I have some interesting stories to tell... people can be so weird sometimes... I will leave you with that. Hehehe.
...but we want to start off by saying... WE WON! Yes, thank you everyone for voting, we got the email today from the radio station that Ariel's video had the most votes and came in first! So we got to go the Crave 95 radio station to pick up a prize basket worth $500!!!
It was really big... and poor Ariel was a little overwhelmed with how much room her prize took in the back seat. I think had we known how big it was, we would have taken the stroller out of the trunk and left it at home. Oh well, we made it work and the promo people were laughing at the sight of Ariel and the big boxes. They wanted us to send some pictures they were laughing so hard.
Some of the things she won: a plasma car (the big ride on toy), some Fisher Price toys, Baby Einstein book and CD, a cute puppy pillow and blanket set, a DVD, cool booties, grooming set, swim diapers, travel wipes, a Johnson and Johnson's set of bath gels and creams, bath toys, a few fleece blankets, a big package of socks, bibs and some Ikea toy nets. Also included for Ken and I were 4 tickets to the baby fair this weekend (anyone wanna go?) 2 mugs from Starbucks, filled with coffee (Ken is excited about that one, a mommy calendar, a marble tile magnet set, candle and $50 gift certificate to the Keg. Whee, a date... maybe when we see Bon Jovi we can get dinner too. Hee. It all came in a laundry basket, so we have an extra one, which is cool too.
However, before all of this excitement, I had to manage to be the biggest dork yesterday. I was told the winners were to be announced on the air on Thursday morning and was listening the WHOLE time ... except the 5 minutes I took for a shower... I MISSED IT!!!!!!! I felt terrible, more so because I didn't know if we had won. There was nothing on the website and all I heard was that if we did win, we would get contacted soon. Lets face it, I am a terrible when waiting for news like this. I rather know good or bad and go from there. I didn't feel as bad when another one of the mom's posted on the facebook group that she missed the announcement too.
Either way, it was a great contest and we are glad we entered. Here it is again, the winning video, thank you everyone!
So this morning we had our photo shoot with Maria. Figured that we would come home and hopefully would have a message from the radio station. I was soon distracted with posing with our angel, who was doing pretty good overall... but wasn't really 100 percent. The cold seems to be gone, but the teeth are still sore, and trying to get a picture without her fingers in her mouth was tricky. Also was getting a good shot of me and Ariel. She was all about Daddy this morning, more so because she was in shock he was home! In the end we got a great family shot, some cute ones of Ariel alone and with Daddy. The ones with me and Ariel are still good, but they could have been better, poor Maria tried everything and we give her props, Ariel had pretty much had it by the end of it all. She wanted to play, and that's OK. I am impressed she did as well as she did with everything involved... so did Maria. I will post the proofs as soon as the website is up.
In other news, I got fabric for the little crib's bedding. I talked to my dad and he was thinking it would be easier to repaint it rather than stain it. I am now thinking it be fun to do some decorative painting on it. So more things to think about. Either way. I am pleased with the fabric, and can't wait to sew little sheets. pillows and blankets.
I hear my girl, so I better get her up so we can make spaghetti for dinner. Yum
