It was another wonderfully rainy day in Vancouver today… The only trouble with rainy days is that you have to be a little more creative when it comes to planning activities for your toddler. After a good long walk in the pouring rain, a visit to our local library, a stop at a children’s play area in a nearby mall, and some fruit and veggie shopping, we decided to do something creative. I had seen this idea on one of the blogs I follow and thought it was a win-win. Foamy paint made with shaving cream and food colouring (both of which we already had), the tub as the painting canvas (no restrictions and easy clean up), and a naked baby (no stained clothes to worry about)… What could go wrong?

I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I love Pinterest, but I really, really do. I love trying new things with Gracen, and when I saw this idea a while back, I knew we had to try it sometime soon.

Fall is in full swing here in Vancouver, and Grae and I have been loving it.

I love nothing more than peeking in on Gracen and seeing what she’s up to while she thinks no one is watching… As I sat folding laundry in the living room this afternoon, I leaned over to find my little lady watching out the dining room window with her feet firmly planted in my shoes.

Recently it’s become very apparent that Grae thinks that there is one especially safe spot to keep her special things…

With the clocks changing tonight, we knew we had to do something with our early-to-bed, early-to-wake little girl’s schedule… So we went against everything we learned when teaching her to put herself to sleep and had her take a late afternoon driving-induced nap.

So there’s really nothing other than mashed potatoes that Gracen won’t eat, but she seems to be absolutely loving quesadillas lately. Put anything in between two grilled tortillas and she’ll be double-fisting your creation for sure. Tonight she gobbled up an adult-sized helping of this one stuffed with chicken, beans, peppers, onions, and cheese, and the other day she was just as thrilled with one crammed full of sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, artichoke hearts, and feta.

Whining and tears are regular, and the only thing that really helps is being held and cuddled by Mama or being out of the house on some sort of adventure.

This afternoon the Tickle Monster had to make an emergency appearance in our house. Gracen had been up since 4:30 a.m. (yes, 4:30!!!) and had a wonderful morning nap, but was unable to put herself down for another nap later in the day. Needless to say, she was running on fumes and things were getting a bit hairy.

Step 1: Strip off all of your clothes so that only your cloth diaper remains.
Step 2: Chuck some of the pillows off of the sofa.
Step 3: Recline yourself and test for comfort.

Because today is a newspaper day! Do other 14 month old toddlers get this excited about flipping through the paper a few times a week?

First thing this morning I began getting our decorations and costumes ready to be packed away. As my pile of Halloween things sat on the butcher block in the kitchen, Gracen repeatedly passed by and begged for her owl hat by saying ‘whooooo’ and then desperately patting her head (her sign for ‘hat’). I guess Miss G’s just not quite ready to let go of Halloween yet…

I’m not sure why, but Gracen carried these three puzzle pieces around all day today…

After some serious pumpkin carving, a midmorning bath, and a good nap, we got Grae dressed and ready for her second ever Halloween day.

‘You want me to whaaat?’