So last weekend was a packed and crazy one!! Auntie Em met me downtown for some major shopping fun…MAC’s first roll-out of their holiday palettes! It is a fall/winter tradition for us and this year did not disappoint. It was so wonderful to have some solid girltime with my SISTER…that’s what she is, in every way. After we bought up the joint (not really, honey, that’s a JOKE), we had a quick lunch and rode the train home together. Here’s a sampling of what I brought home:

Dazzleglass in “Jingle-Jangle” (Thinking about getting another of these, the sparkle is AMAZING!)

Nail Lacquer in “$$$$$ Yes” (My new favorite color!)

Ms. Megan and I were SO excited to take the girls to a pumpkin patch today with our mom’s group. We were all ready to go, dressed and all, when at the last minute the trip got cancelled due to rain. So sad. I had a moment where I thought I might still try to go, but then looked outside and realized that a muddy pumpkin patch probably wouldn’t be the MOST fun. So, we made the best of this rainy day and hung out at her place instead. She introduced me to honeycrisp apples…Um, WHY have I never tried these delicious treats??

The girls did very well with each other…there were only a couple scuffles over snacks. Charlie is just so darn territorial when it comes to snacks and it drives me crazy! If I have to tell her not to push another child one more time…Other than that, they giggled a lot and took a ton of turns down the slide. It’s really fun to listen to she and her friends “talk” to each other and have whole conversations, even if we aren’t sure what they are saying.

I am so bummed about the pumpkin patch, though…this is the second time we’ve been rained out of doing something festive. Maybe Charlie and I will make a trip out to Goebbert’s some day this month if we wake up and have nothing to do and the weather decides to cooperate. Hopefully she’ll get to wear her Halloween “Hanna” (Andersson) dress more than once.

Looks like Daddy will have to be the pumpkin-gatherer this time!!

You can’t tell from this picture, but Charlie is a whirling dervish today. I think if I have to clean up one more mess my head might explode. I often wonder how “together” moms do it. Do any of you feel like you can’t stay on top of everything? I sure do. I also find I’d rather surf the web for Christmas ideas than do laundry. Which might explain why Charlie is out of socks. Sorry, Charlie…

Another Christmas tradition in the Archilla household: new pj’s for Christmas Eve/morning. I’ve been thinking about these from the Chasing Fireflies catalog…

You know that my child is obsessed with penguins, right?? I mean, OBSESSED. “Happy Feet” is her favorite movie. She drags her sad, threadbare “Kenga” around, no matter that it has remnants of avocado on it. There is a candy store near Damen and Belmont that has a huge, human-sized penguin in front of it, to which she screams at every time we drive by, which is a lot.

Did I tell you about our new rule for Christmas? Apparently, Vann mentioned this to me last year but I just don’t remember…but a mom I know told me that they give their kids 3 gifts a piece, just like baby Jesus was given by the Magi. I heard this and thought it was SO cool, and actually selfishly, really good for me, as we all know I struggle with limits when it comes to gift-giving.

So, from here on out, Charlie (and Baby B) will receive 3 gifts from us, not including her “Santa”, of course. We always had Santa and stockings when I was growing up (who am I kidding, we still do, and I’m 31!) so that is a very important tradition to me. I introduced stockings to Vann the first Christmas we were married, and I think he would admit he feels great pressure trying to come up with creative ideas (especially under a $100 budget)…but I LOVE it! It’s so much fun picking out little things and seeing his face when he opens it on Christmas.

At any rate, yes, we’d like to buy a kitchen for Charlie but that will have to wait…we’ll pool money and put it aside and buy it when we have a house to put it in. We still need a “Santa”, however, especially since this is the first year she’ll wake up in her own bed. I ran across this plush penguin on Amazon.com. It came yesterday, and I think it might be too difficult to wrap, so…can you just see her face when she sees this??

Yesterday, Charlie wanted to wear her new “harness”, a backpack/leash that Target sells. We have yet to actually try it out, but her friend Ethan had one when he was her age and I knew at some point we’d need one as well.

This cat is my nemesis.

No, seriously. She is. Of course, I love her, and she’s part of our family, but some days I just want to ship her off to the nearest pound. Vann loves her. They are quite the pair…and she really only has love for him. They like to bond together by nestling in on the couch. It’s really heartwarming.

What is not heartwarming, is what a pill she is. I have to shut her out of the office during Charlie’s naptime because she will either A. knock things off the desk, B. walk back and forth on the desk, swishing her tail in your mouth (and lipgloss, on days that I actually make an effort), or c. gnaw on the mess of computer cords under the desk. She can’t just be low-key like Siena and lay in my lap, or perch somewhere hoping for a scratch on the ear.

Here’s the other thing: she’s the scratcher around here. For some reason, Siena limits hers to the magazine rack and an old clothes hamper in our bedroom. Allie loves our new chair. So much so, that I have shrouded it in afghans TRYING to get her to just. leave. it. alone. The common scenario: She crouches in the corner of the room, pointing her beady little eyes at me. She saunters by the chair, and just when I think she might just pass it by, she pounces on it, digging her claws deep inside the microsuede and freezes, all the while knowing I’m up on my feet and throwing the nearest pillow/stuffed animal/shoe at her.

This picture is of Allie laying in the laundry basket that was full of CLEAN clothes yesterday. You might wonder WHY our pantry is a catch-all for everything and I can’t leave anything out in the open…well, she and Charlie, they are a team, and they seek to drive me bananas.

Now, Siena…there’s nothing you can say that’s negative about that little peanut. God really broke the mold when they made her. She’s practically perfect in every way.

Charlie modeling her glow-in-the-dark Walmart pj’s…