Holmes Online: Halloween week

The girls had a good Halloween. We had a full house and after dinner as John and I got ready to take the girls out in the wagon the grandparents decided that not trick or treating wasn't an option. John's dad grabbed Emma, my dad grabbed Leah and we all followed as they went door to door with their trick or treat bags (that my mom magically produced...hmm...). The girls thought it was really funny and they weren't shy or scared by some of the more elaborate houses. I took some pics but they are all too dark. When we got home we let them play with their candy while the rest of us rooted through and ate the good stuff. Mean I know but we all know I'm mean by now. The girls had no interest in eating it - they were more interested in hoarding it from each other and putting it back in the pumpkin bag. My parents left for Florida on Tuesday morning. My dad has been itching to go with the cold rainy weather. Of course since he left it's been in the upper teens and dry. It's supposed to rain this weekend so I'll have to call him and tell him how miserable it is up here in the great white north. Speaking of the phone I don't think I ever mentioned that we are fully on Vonage now. We got a nice card from Bell today telling us how much they missed our 75 bucks a month. John's dad has been here this week. On Tuesday he came with us to the speech appointment which was helpful because I got to take one girl in at a time. Leah went first and they videotaped me playing with her. I then got to watch the video and it was quickly apparent that I am a question machine. When encouraging kids to speak you are not supposed to ask a bunch of questions. I knew that I did it but the video really drove it home. Emma was second and I did much better. The therapist was cursing herself for taping over Leah because the difference in me and the girls reaction was really neat to see and she said she could have played it in her workshop (was I ever happy she taped over it!). Emma was much more engaged and spoke quite a few words. I'm supposed to keep on applying what I learned but I still have to go to another workshop in January. If all goes well that will be the last. Yesterday John's dad came to Mother Goose with us. It was much easier having another person there and the girls didn't make anyone cry. In the afternoon I met Alicia and Amelia at Square One while John's dad watched them. After shopping we all came back to our place where John and Jeff met us for our annual Raptors season opener night. After all the girls were fed and put to bed we raided their candy and relaxed. Today the weather was beautiful and we did some work outside and continued organizing the garage so we can fit our car inside. John and I took the girls to swimming tonight - they let us dunk them no problem now. They seem to enjoy swimming except they get cold. Someone called our house at 1:30am last night and it woke Leah up. We tried to get her to settle on her own but she kept on waking up. I gave her a bottle at 3am but she was up with Emma at 7:30am. She was a real grump today and we're all hoping it's just because she didn't sleep well and not because she's coming down with something. She actually wanted me which was what she was like when she had the cold... Here are some Halloween pics. We got the costumes in Vegas. Emma is a cow and Leah is a giraffe. They were very cute.

At the pumpkin patch