Murphy's Law: October 2010

It's been quite a while since I've caught up with things in a long-term kind of way, so I decided to back-track a little bit in order to keep track of our memories. It looked like October was the month where I started to lose hold of recording the days. So I'll start in October and finish up the year in pictures.

Jacob turned 7 at the end of the month. I made his cake again this year and stuck with the baseball theme, but this time I think I got it right. The year before he'd asked for a baseball cake, so I made it in the shape of a giant baseball. Jacob explained to me that when he asked for a baseball cake, he's wanted a baseball themed cake. So I waited a whole year to redeem myself, and this was the result.

We asked again that people not bring presents for Jacob's birthday, but instead could bring a donation for the animal sanctuary. After his birthday we took our annual trip to the sanctuary and turned in our donations. We took a tour and Jacob sponsored a rabbit named Harvey.

For Halloween, Jacob wanted to be Jorge Posada. I found a decently priced jersey at Target, and then had a hell of a time getting the letters and numbers on the back the right way. But it was worth it, I think he looked pretty cool.

I always try to match the kids up somehow for Halloween. Since Jacob was a catcher for the Yankees, Sabine became a baseball. I found a used homemade baseball costume on ebay for six or seven dollars, and it was just the right size. It was a nice, warm outfit for another frigid and rainy Halloween.

My brother and his girlfriend, Katie, got engaged. Congratulations! More family drama to come, I'm sure!

Jacob and Sabine are both still taking gymnastics lessons. Sabine takes a class on her own now (no longer parent and tot). She's awesome; taking classes with four year-olds but doing just as well, or better.

In November we hosted Ace, a black lab puppy, but huge nevertheless. We pet-sat for the better part of a week and it was chaos. Zach and I decided that we were definitely at our max with kids and pets; we were full-up at two kids and six animals. It was just a few days later that I found out I'm pregnant.

We also played host to a number of the kids' fantasies. Little Baby (in the foreground) started joining us at the dinner table on most nights, as well as certain Lucky members of Bob the Builder's crew (Roley, Dizzy, Muck and Party Muck can be seen in the background).

Years after his obsession with his animal friends began, Jacob is still enjoying setting up dinner parties and luncheons for his crew.

Sabine provided me with many photo opportunities. Here she had just gotten into my makeup and discovered the enhancing effect of lipstick.

Just being a ham.

Little Baby got the thrill of her life when she was asked to be a stand-in for Baby Jesus at Christmastime. I find that her pose is actually quite conducive to filling that role.

Sabine got to spend lots of time with her cousins around Christmas. Here she is finally coming out of her shell and warming up to twins, Nicholos and Christopher, respectively.