Thanksgiving Continues

We hosted Gigi, Papa and Aunt Jenny for Thanksgiving this year. It was the first time I have ever hosted a Thanksgiving dinner so I was a bit concerned about how the meal would come out and whether we could time it so all the food would be hot at the same time. With a lot of help from the Kline's, the meal turned out fabulously. Even my first foray into apple and pumpkin pies was a success! Lourdes and Sabine decided to make the meal interesting though. They had been little angels all day while we cooked, and then the second we sat down to eat they both started screaming their heads off. Needless to say, Dad and I consumed our meal in about 10 minutes so that we could pick them up. The twins continued screaming until everyone finished their food, then they stopped crying and were great the rest of the night. It was like they had decided that if they couldn't enjoy the meal, no one else would either.

Finny helping Aunt Jenny roll out pie dough.

We finally got pictures of Sabine with her grandparents.

Papa with all the grandkids.

Thanksgiving Week Begins

We had a lot of guests and a lot of fun the week of Thanksgiving. On Monday, Molly, Xavier and Isabelle came to visit. The kids had a blast playing together and we even managed to fit in a trip to the Children's Museum while Rosa watched the twins. The funniest part of the visit was Finn's obsession over Xavier's shirt, specifically whether it was on. Soon after arriving, Xavier said it was too hot in the house and took his shirt off. Finn was completely thrown for a loop by this decision. He kept asking me "where is Xavi's shirt?" "Is Xavier going to put his shirt on?" I tried to explain to him that Xavier took his shirt off because he was too hot, but Finn wasn't buying it. That night when the kids had a sleepover in Finny's room, it took over an hour to get them all quieted down. The Thomas' fell asleep first and when I went up to tell Finn he needed to go to sleep too, all he could say was "Is Xavier going to put his shirt on?" The next night on our way home from dinner, I told Finn that he was going to have another sleepover in his room and he immediately said "Is Xavier going to wear his shirt?" The last straw for Finn was right before they all left on Wednesday, Xavier spilled some hot chocolate on his shirt and Molly took it off to wash it. Finn came down the stairs a few minutes later and as soon as he saw Xavier he plaintively asked "Where is Xavier's shirt?" Not sure why it bothered him so much, but it was cracking Molly and I up. Here's a picture of Finn, Xavier and Iz taken right before they left on Wednesday. Finn looks like such a shrimp in comparison.

Cute Baby Girls!

I'll admit that the tweenies spend a lot of time in footie pajamas. They are just the easiest outfits for middle-of-the-night diaper changes and they keep them nice and warm. But I guess I should vary it up occasionally as Rosa came down the other day with the girls in these outfits and declared, "there, they finally look like little girls." Point taken!

Lou Lou And Bean Are Two Months Old And Everyone Goes To The Doctor

In November, the girls turned 2 months old and Finn turned 2 and a half. So that meant a trip to Dr. Rosenberg for a check up was in store for all three of them. I had to have Rosa come with me as there was no way I could hold Finn's hand and carry both car seats into the office. On top of that, Finn HATES doctor's visits for obvious reasons and so I knew I'd have my hands full with just him. Unlike usual, I didn't disclose in advance the upcoming doctor's appointment as I knew it would just upset Finn. So I waited until we had to leave to tell him where we were going. There was a lot of protesting and tears, but I assured Finn he had nothing to worry about. That the girls would be the ones getting the shots this time and he would only be weighed, measured, and looked over. When the nurse called the "Manning crew" back, I again assured Finn that it was just the girls getting shots today. The appointment went pretty well. Lourdes was up to 8 pounds 2 ounces and 20.5 inches. Sabine rang in at 7 pounds 2 ounces and 20.25 inches. And while Finnegan's weight, like all of the girls measurements, was under the 5th percentile at 23 pounds 14 ounces, he was between the 10th and 15th percentile for his 34.75 inch height. I know, my kids are crazy tiny! After the doctor declared that they all looked healthy, I prepared for the onslaught of shots for the girls. What I wasn't prepared for was Dr. Rosenberg telling me that one of Finn's two month shots had been recently improved and so all kids were getting that shot again. Finn immediately shot me a "you're a big liar" glare. He continued to voice his unhappiness before, during and after his shot in the thigh. But then as soon as the nurse announced it was Lourdes' turn, Finn stopped fussing and became Mr. Helpful. At one point, his head was right by the nurse's and he was holding Lourdes' little thigh down. I guess he saw this as payback for all the attention the girls have been stealing from him these last two months. Either that or I have a burgeoning sadist on my hands. I am hoping for the former.

Wheels On The Bus

Finn singing and riding his train.

Daddy and His Girls

Successfully balancing two sleeping babies.

Dad and Lourdes catching some much needed z's.

Halloween Week!

We had a week long Halloween celebration here in the Manning/Kline household. It all started the Sunday prior to the big event with pumpkin carving. Finn LOVED this! He had very specific requests for what designs he wanted on the pumpkins. See we got a pumpkin carving kit this year with a design book and Finn wanted ghosts and a spider on Dad and Mom's pumpkins respectively. Well the ghosts were fairly easy. However, the spider was the hardest design in the book. It asked us to cut out a very large very thin web with a spider in the middle of it. Joe and I worked at it for over 30 minutes only to have the whole thing break off on us leaving just a gaping whole where the design was supposed to be. So my pumpkin was subsequently dubbed the shot gun blast pumpkin.

Finn admiring his pumpkin.

Finn was a fireman for Halloween and was allowed to wear his costume to tots class on Monday for the Halloween party. This was a big hit. All the kids got to play in their super cute costumes. They also got to break a pumpkin pinata, decorate a cookie, and enjoy a sweet goodie bag.

Finn's good friend Matthew donned an awesome UPS uniform.

The tots class including the teacher, Miss Sheri.

Racing cars with Matthew at recess.

Finn taking his crack at the pinata. When he got home from school, he described this activity as "Mom there was candy and I hit it and hit it." It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about.

Holding up his prize!

To add to the fun Gigi and Papa arrived on Friday to spend Halloween weekend with us. On Saturday we got the kids dressed up for the Agassiz Halloween party and off we all went. There was to be a hayride, cupcake decorating, face painting and a sing-along. However, by the time we arrived Finn had spiked a fever and was too sick to participate. Poor kid spent the rest of the weekend miserable with a 101-102 degree temperature, which unfortunately meant no trick-or-treating either. Oh well at least it happened this year when he was still scared by a lot of the costumes and hadn't really grasped the concept of trick-or-treating. And thankfully he had his grandparents here to give him lots of tlc. I know next year he'll be tearing up the neighborhood bagging tons of candy and his sisters will be old enough to tag along.

My little pumpkins!

We got great shots of Gigi and Papa with Lourdes, but none with Sabine. Thankfully they will be back in three weeks for Thanksgiving and we can get some then.