this and that

::  It's fall ya'll!  Or so I keep hearing.  My calendar says September, school has started, and yet if feels nothing like fall to me (which I guess it technically isn't until September 22nd, but hey).  That doesn't mean I'm not starting to collect fallish things on pinterest.  And the fall item that is concerning me the most right now?  Halloween costumes of course.  In past years I've had ZERO ideas.  Nothing that sounded fun or cute.  This year?  I just can't decide.  Do I do just sibling costumes (Doc McStuffins and Lambie, butterfly and catepillar, cat and mouse...) or do we go with a family set-up?  Right now I'm leaning towards the latter, and going as a circus troupe (so many options, ring leader, clown, acrobat, strong man, a variety of animals).  But Ryann isn't sold on that.  She keeps telling me she wants to be a unicorn, or a goat (WTF?).  So I'm not sure what to do.  What do you think?

::  TMI Alert, poop talk!  We started purees with Elsie a few weeks ago, and she has taken to it like a champ.  She rarely spits anything out, hasn't rejected anything we've tried and is super excited about it all.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the purees are agreeing with Elsie.  On Sunday it had been a week since she had pooped, so we thought we'd be all smart and feed her prunes for lunch to get something to happen.  She woke herself up from her afternoon nap by throwing up everywhere.  I thought maybe there was just too much in her belly since she had never had lunch before, so I laid her on a towel on the floor and went about cleaning up the mess.  Then she threw up again, and then was screaming in pain trying to poop.  After getting some out she passed out in my arms, only to wake up 10 minutes later throwing up again.  The cycle continued a few times until she just passed out on the floor and slept for over an hour.

It seems like all of the hard stuff has finally passed out of her system, and she is in a much better mood, but now I'm terrified to feed her anything again.  She often goes a long time without pooping (the record is twelve days right now), but they are always soft and fine and it isn't a problem.  This?  This is going to be a problem.  Anyone have any suggestions for how to deal with this?  She loves to eat, and obviously will have to be on solids at some point, so somehow I have to figure out how to make it work with her system.

::  Speaking of Elsie, I regularly get asked if someone has missed her nursery post because they can't find it.  Yeah, um, I still haven't posted everything about it, because I still haven't 'finished' it to my liking.  I need to take the curtains down and wash them to see if I can get them to hang right, I want to get roman shades to go behind the curtains, there needs to be book storage somewhere (more on that below) and the walls feel kind of naked.  I keep telling myself that this will be the weekend that I decide what is going up on the walls, but it never happens.  I'm so indecisive.  Here are a couple peeks at what it looks like right now.  Sorry the quality isn't the best.

::  In terms of book storage, I was thinking I'd really like to do a couple of clear bookshelves (like this) underneath the 'love' print.  But Chris doesn't think it is a good (safe) idea.  I see where he is coming from, but I see tons of rooms with book ledges that are in reach of the kiddos.  So I'm torn.  Thoughts on that one?  Do you like how I always turn to the interwebs when I need to make decisions?  You all are so helpful :o).

::  And speaking of the hubs, he sent me a link to an article this morning that was an interesting read... The Trouble with Bright Girls.

::  Lastly, Ryann napping officially has come to an end.  Well, actually most days she will usually fall asleep, sometimes with zero trouble at all.  But that is because she has been getting up at 5:30 IN THE MORNING.  I mean I get up at 5:30 in the morning, but nobody else has to take care of me.  She also has been telling us she isn't tired, even at 9PM, some nights not falling asleep until almost 10.  So I'm thinking the naps have got to go.  I had planned on putting some quiet bins together a few weeks ago, because that girl is DEFINITELY going to have some quiet time for my sake, but never got around to it because she started napping again.  Now it is time.  Better go get my butt in gear!