Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Baimas! This year the holiday lasted 3 days with all of the events that we attended. Olivia really seemed to grasp the concept of Halloween (candy!) this year, so it was all a lot of fun for us. Ethan of course was a bit oblivious to the holiday, but did enjoy all of the attention he received while in his costume.

Kate and Ethan/Yoda at the Medical Partner's Halloween party. Medical Partners is a group for spouses of medical residents and fellows who host playdates and nights out and such - basically a big group of people who understand what you are going through (all of the nights on call, the endless years of education, etc.). Ethan's costume was a BIG hit everywehre we went, although once someone called him Shrek (the nerve!).

Olivia/Sleeping Beauty discovered Pixie Stix while hunting through the pot of witches' brew.

Olivia and Ethan at the Medical Partner's party.

Olivia and her friend Grace. This is probably her very first true girl friend, as in Springfield all of her friends were boys. They have a great time together and Olivia loves to talk about "Gracie". Both are enjoying their first suckers at the party.

On to the next event... This is a Halloween "parade" that leads to a carnival. The kids met on the PedMall and paraded over to an indoor carnival with games, candy, crafts, a haunted room, etc. Olivia both loved and was grossed out by the "operation room" - sticking your hands into various bowls of yucky stuff.

When you are a princess for Halloween, you need a really tall princess hat!

And yet another event that we attended. Yes, I know I am still in the same outfit - but I have to wear this sweater a lot in the days before Halloween. This is at the Children's Museum for their Monster Mash party. It was great fun - probably the best of the 3 events we attended. Each room of the museum had at least 3 different activities to participate in for a prize. This is a picture of cookie decorating.

Joe and Olivia at the bean bag toss. She is starting to get pretty good at these little games.

Joe and Olivia in the museum's art room. Olivia made a bracelet with UV beads, made her own bag of slime, and she could have made her own bouncing ball. When you live in a college town, the University chemistry club has some pretty cool activities for the kids!

Pumpkin carving time! Olivia loved scooping out the "guts".

Don't worry, her knife is plastic.

The finished product!

Olivia and Ethan playing in the leaves before Halloween. The weather has been so gorgeous here that we had to take advantage of it!

Finally the big night has arrived! Olivia prepares to go trick or treating with Joe, while Ethan spent the night with me answering the door. We ran out of candy at 7:30 and had to turn off our light - the first time that has ever happened to us.

Ethan knows how to pose for the camera!

Olivia enjoying her loot. This is a great neighborhood to trick or treat in! Full size candy bars, little toys, and all of the candy was the good stuff! None of that yucky peanut butter stuff in the black and orange wrappers! Olivia was out for about 45 minutes and did great, yelling out trick or treat at every door.

While Ethan did not get any candy, he didn't seem to mind. The flashlight was just as exciting!

First Foods for Ethan

We began Ethan on solid foods this past weekend. He is 5 months, 1 week, so we figured it was time to start (Olivia was 3 weeks younger when we started her). Yummy rice cereal! At least, we are attempting to convince him of that. We are battling 3 things right now with solid foods - it is yucky rice cereal, he has a cold so he probably isn't tasting anything, and it is yucky rice cereal. He takes a few bites and then will turn his head away or scream, but it usually goes a bit better if we use 2 spoons - one for him and one for us. My prediction is that he will not be as good of an eater as Olivia is, but Ethan may surprise me.

The first bite - he's not too sure about what is happening.


Ethan's had a few bites and is still happy. He just looks so little in the highchair!

Feeding has ended yet he continues with his favorite thing in the world - chewing on things. He has been doing that since birth. I don't think we'll ever know when he is truly teething!

The next morning Olivia wanted to feed Ethan as well. She is a very helpful big sister!

A Visit from Aunt Rachel and Uncle Thomas

We received a visit from Aunt Rachel and Uncle Thomas this past weekend. They had never been to Iowa City and wanted to experience the fun side of the town - well, as much as you can experience with 2 kids in tow! We had a great time showing them some local parks, the PedMall (my favorite, can you tell by now?), the University of Iowa campus, the Natural History Museum, local restaurants, and just hanging out at home.

Uncle Thomas learns that there is no sleeping in with 2 kids. Olivia, Ethan, and Yoda give him a wake up call.


Rachel and Olivia playing in the park.

This was taken at the Natural History Museum. It seemed comparable to the Illinois State Museum - full of stuffed animals, skeletons of various creatures, birds, etc. If you look in the background of this picture you'll notice an Iowa (boo!) flag. This museum is located in a university building, so I believe it was placed there by a student long ago. It will be a great retreat come winter.

Rachel, Thomas, Olivia, and Ethan with a view of the Pentacrest and beyond.

Is this wrong? Why isn't this kid sleeping???

Baking Bread with Grandma

My mom is a fantastic bread and pie baker, so it just shocking to her that I don't bake either of those for my family - yet! Give me time and I'll master them. However, mom decided to start young with Olivia so when my mom and dad arrived for a weekend visit, she and Olivia got right to work.

Olivia and Grandma preparing the surface for the bread. Olivia said that she was finger painting with flour. Of course she had to wear her chef's hat!

Kneading the dough with Grandma. Olivia did very well at following directions and staying attentive through the entire process (which is about 4 hours total). Plus, she only sneezed in the dough once! We are sure that the germs baked off.

The dough has risen and Olivia is ready to roll it out. She insisted on using the regular sized rolling pin, so poor Grandma had to use Olivia's toy size one. And, as you can obviously see, Olivia has undergone a transformation into a princess. She does that almost everyday.

Ready for the oven! The bread was delicious.

OK, the REAL reason for my parent's trip was so Joe and dad could go the Illinois vs. Iowa football game. The Illini lost :( but they still had fun. Here is a picture of "the boys from Illinois" before leaving for the game (Ethan stayed home).

Silliness on the bed. Olivia is still obsessed with pirates - I thought that that phase would have passed a long time ago.

We have broken out the exersaucer for Ethan. He thinks it is great. I hope he still thinks it is great for many months to come ;)

Ethan at a pumpkin festival we attended last weekend. With temperatures in the mid 90's. Crazy weather everywhere.

Family photo op at the festival.

Fall Festivals in Iowa

Iowans really seem to enjoy fall festivals. In addition to all of the Hawkeyes Homecoming festivities, we attended 2 fairs this past weekend and had great fun. By "we" I mean me, Olivia, Ethan, grandma, and grandpa. Joe was in Seattle for a radiology conference. He presented a poster and placed 3rd (and yes, there were more than 4 posters there. I already asked him that). Thank goodness for all of the help from my parents, as being a single mom for 5 days did not sound like fun to me.

Olivia and Ethan sitting pretty. Olivia is back in a phase of wanting to hold Ethan a lot. Luckily she never attempts this without an adult (so far!). It is good that she is nothing but loving towards Ethan, but sometimes too much so! For instance, Olivia was diagnosed with her VERY FIRST ear infection (it broke our 38 month streak) and now I just know that Ethan will come down with something as well. I've heard that ear infections are not contagious, but I have a hard time believing that he'll not get something! Oh, well, I prefer her being a great big sister rather than the alternative!

Olivia, Ethan, and I at Wilson's Apple Orchard, getting ready for the tractor ride. This was great fun as the tractor toured the entire orchard and traveled through 2 streams which Olivia thought was great. However, there were no apples on the trees! In April, Iowa had a bad freeze that killed 80% of the apple blossoms, so it was rare to see any apples in the trees. Olivia didn't seem to mind, though.

Grandma and Olivia enjoying the BEST homemade apple turnover after the tractor ride.

Grandpa and Ethan. It seems to be a rite of passage for every child to have a ride on shoulders.

Grandpa and Olivia making works of art in the basement. If you look closely you can see the pink flower sticker on grandpa's head. You just never know what he'll do for a laugh!

The first fair we went to was the Kalona Fall Festival. Kalona is about 20 miles away, and it is an Amish community. We toured the Amish buildings, went to the quilt and textile museum, and had some fantastic food. The apple fritters and homemade pretzels made the entire trip worthwhile. Olivia had a great time riding on the little train that toured the town, riding a pony for the first time, eating lots of cotton candy, and playing in a tub of corn.

Olivia on her pony, Daphne. I honestly didn't think that she would sit on the pony, but she loved the ride.

Ethan, Olivia, and I enjoying the fair food.

Olivia playing in the tub of corn. She had a great time, spending about 30 minutes in there. It was not easy to convince her to leave!

While the background may look about the same, this is at the Amana Colonies Oktoberfest fair. The Amana Colonies is actually 7 towns that used to be a German commune from the 1800s to 1932. German influence is everywhere in the area - especially with the food. Homemade brats, kraut, weiner schnitzel, strudel, you name it. It is not very kid friendly, but I had a great time looking through the shops. We spent about 2 hours here, and maybe saw half of the town, so I am looking forward to making another trip there.

Grandma, Olivia, grandpa, and Ethan enjoying a funnel cake before leaving.

Olivia and Ethan outside of an antique shop. Olivia actually did very well not touching anything.