Over the weekend we took some video of the kids in the tub. This is a typical bath-time scene in the Wills house… completely chaotic! Harper likes to sing and make as big a mess as possible, and RoRo likes to kick…. REALLY likes to kick. Perhaps he will be the next swimmer in the family?! When he’s older, I’m sure he will hate me for posting this.

Last night we went to Boo at the Zoo with our friends Ryan, Rebecca, Logan and Jett. This was our first year trick-or-treating the zoo and well, it was "a zoo!" It was very, very crowded, but it was still fun to see thousands of little kids screaming through the Zoo from treat station to treat station. The Zoo did an excellent job with the event and we got to see all of our favorite animals plus some special "extras."

Harper and Logan started off the night actually trick-or-treating, but quickly learned that it was much easier for them to just sit in the wagon while one of us trick-or-treated for them and delivered the goods. I’m pretty sure Harper spent the first hour just eating, with the exception of our stop at the Panda habitat where she was, of course, very excited to get out and look at the bears.

There were quite a few special animal events which were very cool to see. Harper’s favorite was watching the elephants stomp on pumpkins (she has been talking about it all day today), and my favorites were getting to see the tiger being fed and the lionesses play with a ball. It was awesome to see them pouncing on the ball, but pretty clear to us that they could jump right out of those habitats if they wanted to!

Harper was so exhausted by the end of the evening that we turned her wagon into a bed and just let her lie down. When we got home, we walked in the door and she politely asked "night night, please!" This morning she woke up and was asking about "baby Jett," "Yogun" (Logan), "elephant pumpkin," and "hippo…water." We’re pretty sure she enjoyed her first Boo at the Zoo!

Roman wore a cow suit but declined trick-or-treating in lieu of sleeping in the Baby Bjorn. He was very cute, but my back was killing me after wearing a baby cow around all night!

We were planning on going to Air and Scare at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum today, but we are all exhausted from last night. I think we’ll just stay in our PJ’s and enjoy the rainy day.

We’ve been so busy this week that I haven’t had a chance to write about our fun fall weekend. We celebrated Ro’s 3-month birthday last weekend with lots of family events. The weather was cool and beautiful and it was nice to spend most of the weekend outside! On Saturday we had a session with a local artist who makes paintings out of kids’ handprints and footprints. RoRo did a footprint (obviously – he still keeps his fists balled up most of the time), which will be painted into a frog prince, and Harper did a handprint, which will be painted into a pink and purple stegosaurus. The paintings won’t be finished for a couple of weeks and I am just dying to see the results! For anyone else in the DC area, here is a link to the artist’s website – That’s Adorable LLC – we had a great experience and I think it is such a neat way to preserve your children’s little hands and feet!

Harper took a record-breaking 4 and a half hour nap on Saturday, so we didn’t hesitate to head into Georgetown and have a later dinner. What we did not know was that it was Georgetown University’s Family Weekend, so it was insanely crowded and more stressful than fun. We still enjoyed some Old Glory BBQ and Haagen Daz, but vowed to never go to Georgetown during the school year again!

On Sunday we went to the Burke Pumpkin Playground (which is a mere mile-and-a-half from our house!) and spent several hours chasing after Harper. She had a gigantic smile on her face the entire time and was shrieking with joy. She even went down the big slides by herself! The slides, animals, and rides were fun, but we’re pretty sure that we could have just stuck her in the pumpkin patch and she would have been just as happy. She is obsessed with pumpkins right now and wanted to touch every single one. The only thing she did not partake in was the pony ride, even though daddy paid for it ahead of time (non-refundable, thanks). She wanted absolutely nothing to do with the real ponies, but wanted to ride the carousel "horsies" over and over again! There are tons more pictures on Smugmug.

We rounded out the weekend with dinner at Lauriol Plaza with Jenn, Dave and Katelyn. We had the perfect table with a long bench backed up against a window-sill that basically formed a playpen for the girls. The girls romped through a two-and-a-half hour dinner and didn’t complain once! Several margaritas later we realized that it was 9 pm and we should probably get them to bed! The "playpen" was pretty destroyed, but "Kiki" and Harper had a blast together… if only they didn’t live in Cincinnati now and we could do this every Sunday!

On the left is a photo that I took today of Ro wearing the exact same outfit that Harper wore last Halloween (at 9 1/2 months old). Harper’s photo from last year is on the right.

It is so hard to believe that Roman turned 3 months old yesterday! The past 3 months have been a blur, but we finally feel like we’ve reached the light at the end of the tunnel. His first 10 weeks were honestly pretty miserable. Roman was up every 2-3 hours at night, and was incredibly gassy and fussed constantly. I was exhausted and not too pleasant to be around! After lots of experimenting with various formulas, medicines, and diet changes (for me), we finally figured out that he has a soy and milk allergy. After just two days on a hypoallergenic formula, he was a completely different baby! I was (and still am) very sad to give up nursing him, but it really is the best choice for him.

I am SO happy to report that he is now only getting up once or twice at night to eat, and he hardly fusses at all! He smiles constantly and even laughs a little bit. He holds his head up incredibly well for his age and tolerates "tummy time" for 5-10 minutes at a time. He is starting to move side-to-side on his back a little bit, which makes me think he will roll over in the next month or so.

Funny story – a few days ago Rachael and Nicole were over to play and their mom mentioned that Nicole (4 months old) is getting really close to rolling over. After they left I put Ro down on his play mat and went to make lunch. After a few minutes I heard him making a funny noise, so I went in the living room and much to my surprise he was on his tummy! I thought, wow, he rolled over! I rolled him onto his back and returned to lunch-preparations, then a few minutes later he made the same noise. He was on his tummy again! At this point I thought my 3-month old was ridiculously advanced and was rolling over, but I decided to try one more time. I put him on his back again, and this time snuck around the corner to watch him. As soon as I left the room, Harper marched right over to him and tugged on his shirt until he rolled over. So much for him being "advanced"

Despite her attempts to teach him to roll over, Harper is doing really well with her baby brother and has learned to be more gentle. His face just lights up when Harper "plays" with him. She gives him very sweet kisses and he just looks at her with awe.

Everyone who knows me well knows that I love schedules and routines, so I am thrilled that we finally have Ro on a bedtime routine. He goes to bed at the same time as Harper (between 6:30 and 7) and wakes up around 1:30 and 5:30 to eat. Ideally he will start to wake up only once to eat, but after what we’ve been through with him, I’ll take what I can get! It took me a while to figure out how to put them both to bed since Portman isn’t usually home for bedtime, but a few weeks ago I found my secret weapon… videos! I was putting Harper down first and letting Ro scream, but that just didn’t work for any of us. Harper was too distracted by the screaming, and he was obviously upset and had a hard time calming down. Now we have dinner, take a bath together, get everyone in pajamas, then Harper watches an episode of "The Little Einsteins" on my bed while I put Ro to sleep. After he is in bed, I can turn my full attention to her and spend lots of time reading and singing.

Ro doesn’t have another checkup until 4 months, but I can tell you that he is a huge baby boy! I think he weighs close to 15 pounds, and he is very long for his age. He has outgrown most of his 3-month clothes already and fits comfortably in the 6-month size. For comparison, I bought a gender-neutral Halloween outfit for Harper last October. She was 9 1/2 months old at the time… and now the outfit almost fits Roman!

Well, it’s looking like a no-shower day since I have one asleep in bed (Harper) and one asleep on the couch (Ro Ro) and therefore in need of supervision, so I figure it’s a great time to write an update! Last weekend I got some much-needed "alone time," and more importantly, a full night’s sleep! Harper, Ro and I headed down to Charlottesville on Friday morning and made it just in time for lunch with Lala, "Yuke," "Yeesha," Charlie and Pop-Pop. After a busy day and typically crazy family dinner, I was excited to sleep. Ro Ro had what I consider a great night and only got up twice to eat, but unfortunately I had to go on a cricket hunt at 2:30am (unsuccessfully), and woke up exhausted on Saturday. But alas, relief was on the way! I headed up to Wintergreen first thing Saturday morning, ALONE, and Harper and Ro stayed behind with Lala and Pop-Pop.

My first order of business was a 3-hour nap (glorious), and when I woke up my friend Rebecca had just arrived and we headed off to Humpback Rock for some hiking. We ended up exploring a new trail and hiked about 6 miles in perfect fall weather. After a little hot-tubing and dinner, we watched a chic-flick, popped a sleeping pill (I wasn’t sure I could actually sleep through the night since it’s been so long), and slept for the next 11 hours straight… without interruption! On Sunday we hiked another 5 miles or so around Wintergreen, then enjoyed an afternoon at the spa. It was the most perfect, relaxing 30 hours that I could ask for!

When we returned from the spa "Yuke" and "Yeesha" were just arriving with Harper. Lala graciously offered to stay behind with Ro Ro for one more night so that I could sleep (thank you!). Harper had been on lots of adventures with her aunt, uncle and cousin, including apple picking at Carter’s Mountain and duck-feeding at Oakencroft Vineyard, but I think she was excited to see me It was nice to spend a day with just Harper, since she doesn’t get much one-on-one time with mommy anymore. We headed back to Cville on Monday and spent the night before coming home. I got a chance to take some photos of Harper exploring the Lawn, although she was exhausted after the weekend and in no mood to smile for me!

Last weekend featured picturesque fall weather in DC, so we took the opportunity to get outside and enjoy our beautiful city. On Friday night we met Uncle Dave, Aunt Jenn and Katelyn at a park in NW for some pre-dinner playtime, then we feasted on margaritas and queso at Cactus Cantina. The girls hadn’t seen each other since our trip to Maine, so Harper was very excited to see her "Kiki!" Also, I’m pretty sure that we were the only actual parents at the park… it was completely overrun with nannies!

On Saturday Portman watched the kids so that I could go to our friend Jess’s baby shower. He did a great job with both of them, but when dinner time rolled around he wasn’t sure what to do, so he walked them to McDonald’s. Harper has never been to McDonald’s before and apparently when they walked into the restaurant, she looked around skeptically then said "hmm, new eat?" Harper enjoyed her first Happy Meal, and I was very proud to hear that Portman stripped off all of the nasty fried breaded part of the chicken before giving it to her. I’ve taught him well!

On Sunday Portman had some work to catch up on in the office, so Harper and Roman and I headed to the National Mall to feed the ducks. Harper burned off lots of energy at the WWII Memorial, then pushed the stroller over to the Reflecting Pool to feed the ducks. She used the "one for me, one for you" method and the ducks seemed very satisfied.

Finally, we didn’t realize that Sunday was the "Army Ten-Miler," so we were very surprised to see literally thousands of people running down the 14th street bridge on our way into DC… 26,000 to be exact! It was a really neat site:

Harper has had a busy social schedule this fall. We have lots of new friends in the neighborhood with kids Harper’s age and Harper wakes up in the morning asking, begging, if she can go to "Rachael’s house! Ellie’s house!" Our first playdate this week was with our dinner group. Several of the other moms in the neighborhood have husbands who work as late as Portman does, so we have a "moms and kids" dinner club once a week or so. We rotate houses and whoever is hosting makes the main dish and everyone else brings sides and deserts. It’s so much fun to have dinner with other adults, and the kids have a great time together. It can get pretty chaotic, but we all agree that it’s "better than eating spaghetti-o’s and watching my toddler throw food on the floor!" This week was our turn to host and Harper spent the entire day repeating "Ellie, Jack, Ellie, Jack, Ellie, Jack."

Yesterday Harper’s friend Colin came over for the afternoon and Harper used her 11-week seniority to bully him through a tea party. For some reason she just didn’t want to share her tea set!

Today’s weather was amazing and we celebrated Fall by going to Clemyjontri park with Harper’s best friend, Rachael. Fun fact – the last time we were at Clemyjontri was the day before Roman was born! Today was apparently toddler day at the park and Harper and Rachael were among 30 or 40 toddlers running crazy up the ramps and slides. They had a great time, and it was interesting trying to keep track of a very active toddler while toting an infant around. More photos on Smugmug.

"Going for a walk" has taken on a new meaning in our house. Harper now insists that she take her baby for a walk… in the baby’s stroller. That’s right, we walk around our neighborhood with Harper pushing a pink and purple plastic stroller with an abused-looking baby doll! I have to run to keep up with her and we catch our breath by stopping to pick up pine cones and smack the baby on its head. Harper has a vivid imagination, and I’m sure there is a good reason she hits her baby over the head with pine cones! I’m just glad she doesn’t do the same to her baby brother.