Happy Halloween!!

Libby dressed up as rainbow. Super pregnant mommy didn’t get it together in time for a family costume this year, but Libby had a couple little Halloween parties to attend, so with Mimi’s help, we at least made sure she had an outfit.

It has been quite an eventful October overall. We kicked it off by attending Bryson’s birthday party at Monkey Joe’s. Libby had refused to go in the last couple of bouncy houses I’d taken her to, so I was curious to see how this would go. She loved it! She ran around with Daddy while pregnant mommy sat in the party room & chatted.

Then the next day, we had a visit from our friend Jess for breakfast…

…followed by her pre-school’s Hoorah Festival.

There were more bouncy houses, face painting, balloons, pony rides, a little train ride, pizza… She had the best time ever!

THEN that Monday, she got to meet a real Nashville Ballet ballerina at the Richland Park Library storytime!

So with that kick-off weekend, October began.

Libby is liking school so much now, she asks if she gets to go to school even on days she doesn’t. Her teachers are great & she’s already learning – she’s gotten really good at “please, thank you, your welcome, may I.” This is a big relief to me, because I was so pregnant this month, I was not much fun. I tried. But I couldn’t get on the floor and play, I couldn’t pick her up, I couldn’t run after her, I could barely push a grocery cart for very long to even make errands fun. So we tended to keep close to home & save fun, energy-needing things for the weekend, when daddy could help, or when mommy is at least guaranteed a nap that day. Grandparents were a lot of help this month with the entertaining as well.

Plus she is in full pushing boundaries mode. Her new favorite phrase is “It’s okay, I can…” – insert any number of things it is not okay for her to do: draw on the wall, jump on the couch, eat a hackberry, throw her toy, stick stickers to the car door… Close runners up are “No, I don’t want to do that” after being told the plan for the day, and “I want to do it anyway,” after being told why she cannot do something she wants.

Last weekend, we also finally set up the “big girl bed.” We bought a new full mattress & box spring set only to find that it is too big for my heirloom antique bed which will require special ordering a set (guess they didn’t have standard mattress sizes in the 1800’s, whatever – the old mattress HAD to go, it was older than me) so for now we’ve just got it on a basic metal frame. We figure we can get a headboard another time, maybe Libby can help pick it out & that would be fun.

Now getting her to voluntarily sleep in this bed is another thing. I can’t remember if I’ve talked in this blog about the co-sleeping rabbit hole we’d fallen down, but that was the situation. We had given up on the crib and Libby was sleeping in our bed every night. It was just easier because in our bed she slept all night no problem, in the crib it was a fight to get to bed, then she’d wake up at least one or two times in the middle of the night calling out “Mommy!” But with a new baby on the way, obviously we needed to get her out of our room. We’ve been warning her the big girl bed was coming, that very soon she’d need to sleep all by herself, that being a new big sister meant she would do big girl things like sleep in her own room. So in that sense she knew it was coming, but she still doesn’t like it. She still asks every night if she can sleep in mommy & daddy’s bed and we tell her no every night. However, one of us does lay down in her bed with her to read stories and sing until she falls asleep. And she is totally back to waking up a couple times a night to yell “Mommy!” and I come in and lay with her a bit until she falls back asleep. But this week I’ve already been up anyway, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Because this week, her new baby sister was born. Not to bury the lead or anything.

Libby’s little sister Margaret Elise Reynolds (“Maggie”) was born on Tuesday, October 25th, at 11:56a.

I’m going to put together a whole other post for Maggie’s birth story though, so not going to go into it much here. Libby is handling it like a champ. What an emotional roller coaster for her little toddler self, but it’s clearly important to her to be a good big sister, which is super cute. I’m so excited to see their relationship develop.