Halloween

Landon wanted to be Oscar the Grouch

So Livia got to be Abby Cadabby
(We learned that none of the retirees in our neighborhood have the slightest clue who Abby is but all thought she was such a cute butterfly/fairy/ballerina...)

Our themed pumpkins that took entirely too long to carve

It took bribery to get Landon to stand this close to her. He started out on the wall across the room.

A girl on a mission

Trying to break into some candy at the trick-or-treat trail at our zoo

Bubble fun at the zoo

Squadron Halloween party... the bigger kids were a bit perturbed by Livia's dedication to climbing the corn hole game they were trying to play

With her pumpkin

Checking out his fellow grouch

I think this is Livia's answer to the removal of the rocking chair from her zone of play following the "rocking chair on the kitchen table" incident...

Andy and I aren't so great at coming up with names for our babies before we meet them. This is why both of our children spent at least the first night in the hospital without a first name. Landon doesn't suffer from this indecision. He already has names picked out for this baby. 

Oscar the Grouch for a boy 

and London for a girl

London is the name of a girl in his preschool class. He's a fascinated by the fact that their names differ by only 1 letter. London is his favorite word right now. He'll randomly sit at the computer, open Word, type "London", and then go back to whatever he was doing.  

Perhaps the Dorkiest Thing I'll Ever Post...

But I'm just so darn excited about it I wanted to share. 

For those of you who share my attachment to CamelBak's Better Bottle, and I know several of you do, I have great news. 

I have 8 bottles (2 per family member- my mom is a little obsessive about providing us with choices) and of those, 6 had broken lids that I had to toss. Not happy. 

I emailed the warranty department a 2 sentence email asking if the lids were covered. They replied asking for my address. Yesterday, the mailman delivered 6 new lids, with attached bite valves, free of charge- no hassle, no questions. It's pathetic how excited this made me. 

So just in case a new lid to complete a currently useless bottle in your cabinet would make your day too, here's their address:

 warranty@camelbak.com 

Little Liv

Here is a little snapshot of Livia's personality. She is a complete daredevil. She can be quite cuddly at times but all loving happens on her terms and is initiated by her. She often gives us a piece of her mind via babble rant complete with wagging finger; I'm not ever sure if she's telling me off or telling me "right on!", but she's very emphatic either way. She is the first to concede a toy in a dispute with Landon by graciously saying "thank-you" as she hands it off and moves on to the next big thing. She has a really great sense of humor- she'd have to to crack-up like she does at some of Landon's more ridiculous antics. She is, by far, the most outgoing of our bunch and gains the affection of everyone she meets with her friendly "hi" and easy smile.

But this post is mostly about her daring. She is undaunted by physical feats, and is definitely a leap-first-look-later kind of gal. I tried to start chronicling all of the precarious situations this attitude of hers gets her into. I never do end up getting pictures of her trickiest predicaments because I'm not too sure walking away to get the camera is the best idea. She doesn't seem to find her adventures nearly as alarming as I do. Here are some that I was able to capture.

She still had time to offer up her best Cheese Face for the camera

Don't remember what she was after but after hanging for a good 15 seconds, she figured out that pushing a kitchen chair over to stand on was much more effective and a lot less bruising to the face

She's gotten taller now, but she used to climb to the top of the chair and straddle it to reach these blinds

This picture doesn't quite capture what was going on, but it's the best I got before rescuing her. She is about the step onto the top of the chair back at which point the whole tower toppled. (Melissa- she's not wearing a shirt because we just had spaghetti and I didn't want it to get ruined, and that black spot on her back is a spider sticker Landon put there - because I know these are things you'd notice and wonder about)

She was headed for the stove where pots were simmering. After I got her off the counter and moved the chair, she resorted instead to climbing the oven. 

The other day I was sitting on the couch when a moment of panic struck me. What if this baby is another boy but he's one of those "wild" boys I hear so much about? Landon is an intellectual type. Sure, he can get rowdy with the right crowd, but mostly he's happier creating multiplication problems out of the number of windows pictured in the city buildings of his Harold and the Purple Crayon book than he is scaling the walls in my house or securing the cat to the kitchen chair with duct tape or whatever it is those banshee boys I keep hearing about do all day. How will I handle it if I get one of those hellions? I'm not cut out for that!!! 

Then I looked over at my one year old daughter as she very determinedly wrested her brother's rocking chair to the top of our kitchen table and prepared to climb on for the ride, and I realized...

Nah, I totally got this. 

Dance Party

Just another wild Friday night at the Clark house

Smile

This is Livia's Cheese Face 

Lately, anytime she spots a camera that has even the remotest chance of snapping her picture, this face appears accompanied by an enthusiastic,

"Cheeeeeeeese!" 

It's definitely cute but has also ended any chance of candid shots.

Exhibit A:

I was trying to get a picture of their 2 little booties hiding in the laundry basket.

She heard the flash open and immediately turned to present Cheese Face

Another:

She loves it when Landon is at school because she can get into all his stuff. I pulled out my phone to catch a picture of her stomping around with Landon's Croc on, and out popped
Cheese Face



And another:

I sure do love this little cheese ball!