The Queen's Rambles

Great picture, huh? Elsa wouldn’t stand still for a single second, so I didn’t get any cute Halloween pictures. I am seriously thinking about dressing her in her costume and taking her in for professional pictures. Nothing says Halloween like mid-November professional pictures of a little fairy in a dirty dress.

This is the only non-blurry pic I have of her. I sort of feel like crying. Pictures used to be so important to me, but these days I just don’t have the time or energy to do long photo shoots with uncooperative children. She’s going to hate me when she’s older, isn’t she? Plus, this costume was kind of weird on her. It was a size 3-4 year, but she could barely squeeze into it. I had to put some warm clothes on underneath it and I skipped the fairy wings and wand because it seemed to be a little much for her to handle. All in all, not conducive to super cute pics.

Despite the lack of pictures, we had a pretty fun Halloween. We went to a MOMS Club party at the park in the morning and did a big group trick-or-treating thing in our neighborhood in the evening. I swear Elsa was a woodland fairy. It was pretty cold outside (there were still remnants of snow on the ground) but that didn’t faze* her. She plopped herself in a mud puddle and refused to be moved from it. Every time I’d take her out, she’d find it again and stomp around, before sitting. Her poor little shoes are ruined. How do you clean leather shoes? And let’s not even talk about her costume. It said hand wash, so I guess I may try that tomorrow. Not that it matters much. It was a cheapy from Costco, but it would be nice to be able to keep it around for dress up.

Can’t leave Erik out, though I already posted pictures of him a few days ago.

Elsa was pretty hilarious, as toddlers tend to be. She couldn’t figure out the trick-or-treating thing at all. First, she wanted to go into all the houses. Then she didn’t want to put the candy in her bag–she just wanted to hold it. She would get her hands full at one house, then deposit the candy in the bowl at the next house. She hardly got any candy (not a bad thing!).

I was glad we were doing a big group trick or treat activity because I couldn’t keep up with Erik while dragging Elsa along. Other grownups were comfortable with keeping him in check, so he had fun being slightly independent and running from house to house. I have a really good friend who I never talk about on this blog who came over for the festivities. I knew that she or her husband would keep Erik from being devoured by rouge jack-o-lanterns.

This friend and I been friends since Erik was 6 months old and her son was 4 months old. Erik thinks her kids are his cousins. She’s moving to Virginia and I’m so sad about that, even though it is just a 40 minute drive. We’re on opposite ends of the spectrum in many regards, but she’s really easy to talk to and very relaxed and upbeat. Even when she was working full time we always made a point to get together every couple of weeks. She’s joining our Campfire club** so at least we’ll get to see them once a month.

So are we supposed to say what we are thankful for this month? Today I’ll say I’m grateful for good friends. I’m grateful for the friend I mentioned above and I’m grateful for another friend that I see at least once a week. She’s another lady who is totally upbeat, relaxed and down to earth. Her son and Erik are two little peas in a pod. I feel like she’s a kindred spirit and I’m so glad she seems to agree. I’ve always liked her, but assumed that someone as fun and happy and outgoing as she was would have plenty of other friends. It turns out that she’s more of an introvert and seems to really enjoy my company.

Usually she calls on Wednesday afternoon to see if we want to meet at a park, so I figured she would call today since we had gorgeous weather. I didn’t want to call her because she has a baby and car pool and I never know when to call. I had to run to a couple of stores to try to find wall pockets***, so I told my mom that if Nina called to tell her we’d meet her at a park of her choice at 4 pm.

Sure enough, Nina called.

I’m still laughing at her reaction. She thought I was a mind reader because she had no idea she was going to call me and didn’t know she had a routine, so how would I know she was going to call me? I’m just that good. Mwhahahahaha. But really, she does have a routine and I’m very thankful that I’m a part of that routine.

And that’s all she wrote for tonight. Erik’s early morning school schedule kicks my butt.

*is it faze or phase?
**I finally got Campfire paperwork mailed in, so hopefully we’ll do our training soon.
***I got clear ones with some pretty file folders; I know you were dying to hear the results of my organization quest