First Haircut, Fall Fun, Trip to Disney

After a grueling couple of weeks of heat (unfortunately coinciding with the timing of a visit with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dan -- we still had a wonderful time but were a bit limited in what we could do by the heat -- I have to get pictures from them to post here), it finally feels like fall. To celebrate, we went to the Kidspace Pumpkin Festival with Baby Beatrice -- and made a bee-line for the petting zoo. The greedy cow was a big hit, although Rosemary wouldn't offer it her whole cup, just one alfalfa pellet at a time (so it went on to bigger and better things). We tried her on the pony rides, but she was, predicably too scared. After the festival we went to Summer's friend Veronika's Russian Orthodox church, for their fall festival. This was a HUGE hit with Rosemary -- she loved the music and dancing so much she couldn't stop grinning and dancing on James's lap. And we enjoyed the food!





One big highlight was Katie and Henry's visit. James had to go to Illinois and UVA for a few talks so he was gone all week. Seeing as I am 37 weeks pregnant, I didn't want to be alone for the week so Katie was sweet enough to come down with Henry and keep me company. We had a wonderful wonderful four day sleepover, and took the kids to Disneyland! It was kind of mixed reviews -- on the one hand, Rosemary loved the teacups, Small World, and playing with Henry. On the other hand, she was INCREDIBLY terrified (to the point that I really felt like a sadistic mother) by the Pinocchio and Snow White rides. The best part was letting the two kids play on the pirate island, never mind the rides. They were cute together -- Rosemary has trouble with other kids sometimes, but she seemed to look up to Henry and think he was cool and funny. James came back and said she is talking so much more clearly, probably from hanging out with Henry. In fact, the two of them slept in the same room one night -- successfully -- and woke up in the morning ecstatic to jump in their cribs together and laugh. Of course, the next night didn't go so well, after an hour and half we had to separate them as they couldn't stop jumping up and down from the excitement of being in the same room (and every time we opened the door they would hit the crib hard and pretend to be lying down). The best part for me was that Katie and I had some great time together (thanks to babysitters) getting pedicures and going to the Huntington gardens.


Rosemary had her first haircut this weekend -- a little pageboy cut. Incredibly, she didn't cry -- she was distracted by a Sesame Street popup toy (amazing how they engineeered Elmo to be incredibly compelling to kids and irritating to adults!) The haircut is so cute I can't stand it. They gave us a certificate of "graduation from babyhood" with her first haircut and a few locks, and I almost lost it. I don't know why the two would be correlated necessarily but it seemed momentous.
Rosemary is now the little artiste with her new easel and chalkboard. For a while, she'd wake up demanding "colors". And Xiaolum really likes eating crayons, so we try to put them back.