Pumpkin Time

 Back in October, before all the Fall/Halloween events began, Esperanza kept asking when it was going to be 'pumpkin time'. She associated the entire season with pumpkins, which seemed appropriate. Beginning right at the equinox, we began baking with pumpkins/squash, doing some fall crafts with leaves, and we decorated with lots of Fall stuff inside of the house. But Esperanza was still constantly asking 'MOM, when is it going to be pumpkin time?' By the middle of October it finally began - pumpkin patch, costumes, pumpkin carving/decorating, trick or treating, Boo Bash and even a little harvest event one afternoon at the local New Seasons where we made tutus.

First up, Pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island with Esperanza's school. We made it a family event.

Our two carving pumpkins. 

 We went to the annual downtown Camas Boo Bash one afternoon

My bumble bee and my princess got lollipops. Ezra's first one. Can you tell how excited Esperanza was

My mom met the kids and I at New Seasons for a tutu making event. They had back to back Fall/Halloween kid friendly events one afternoon. So thankful my mom came, because tutu making turned out to be not very easy. My mom made Esperanza's and I made Ezra's.

Esperanza got to dress up for school on Halloween. She decided she was Sleeping Beauty. It was one of the first rainy days we'd had in awhile so I like to call her my Rain Princess. 

They dressed as a Cheetah and a Monkey on All Hallows' Eve

Esperanza asked me what Cheetah's eat. I told her they ate Princesses. All night, she was crawling around on all fours roaring, saying she was hunting for princesses.

 Kiko, Rafa, Celeste, Eva and Sergio came over

 My sister Mary came over wearing some wicked witch makeup. She somehow convinced me to dress up too (minus the wicked make-up)

 The 9 of us all went out on the town in my little neighborhood trick or treating

 Esperanza and Rafa holding hands

Fall Park Day

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Some Home Video

So it seems, from what Google tells me, that I've run out of space for uploading pictures onto my blog. So, while I look into this, here are some recent videos of the kids. I haven't abandoned my blog, please check back again soon. 

Body parts

Animal sounds

Hula-hoopin' Esperanza

Ezra Night Time Chattering

At night, after our bedtime routine and all that is involved with winding the kids down, the lights finally go out and Esperanza and Ezra drift off into dream land. For many months now, this has been how the kids fall asleep: Esperanza falls asleep on one side of me, snuggled closely to my back while I nurse Ezra to sleep on the other side of me. Ezra always makes lots of noise while he nurses, even as he falls asleep. Esperanza will usually fall asleep before him, and after a few minutes, the noise Ezra makes begins to soften and he allows himself to fall asleep. Until recently. 

Like clockwork, Ezra still acts like he's ready to go to sleep a little after 7, but the noises he makes while nursing just get louder and louder and he also tries to do various forms of acrobatics while keeping a firm suckle on my body. As you can imagine, this also disrupts Esperanza's ability to fall asleep as well. Then Ezra lets go, sits up and starts 'talking' loudly! Esperanza on the other hand, is more than ready to fall asleep and gets frustrated with the noise her little brother makes. She'll say in her soft sleepy voice, 'mama, make his stop talking. When he talks, it wakes me up and I'm sleepy'. The other night, after Ezra let go of me, I turned my back on him, and snuggled with Esperanza who was tired but couldn't sleep because of Ezra 'talking'. I grabbed my phone and recorded a few moments. 

On this particular night, Armando just happened to be home so I brought Ezra out to him and went back in to get Esperanza to sleep. Other times, our evenings don't go so smoothly. We may be close to cutting nap time out for this little fella so we can get him to fall alseep at night.

There's nothing to see here, just Ezra chit-chattin' away when he should be sleeping...