Frightful!!

If you want to witness a scary Halloween, try a 3 month old with an ear infection! Poor Haley got her second ear infection, following a snotty week for all four of us, right on the eve of fright-night. We knew something was up when we went to the Courser Farm in Warner to view the hundreds of pumpkins they have lit up in the farm fields (very cool) and she cried the whole time we were there.... and then escalated to dead-out shrieks the whole 30 minute car ride home (not cool). Poor little Haley-doo. She has not been a happy girl. Her doctors are already starting to talk about tubes and have lined us up to talk with an ear specialist soon. Otherwise, as the doctor who saw her this weekend said, "it's going to be a long winter..."

Courser Farm pumpkins

Big Bad Brown Bear

A few doses of Amoxicillian later, and the four of us we were ready to hit the streets for Halloween. Aiden and Andy ran in a one-mile "Monster Dash" in the morning (costumes optional) and then we headed over to one a friend's house in the afternoon for some pre-trick-or-treating festivities. Our little Giants player got plenty of sideways glances here in the land of the Patriots, but he hardly noticed. It's hard to notice much when you're hopped up on skittles and blow-pops. Haley was a brown bear (indoors) and a leopard (outdoors)... it was freezing out so we had to keep her in a toasty faux-fur bunting while we wandered through the spooky corn maze and went door to door around New London. I went as a poacher's wife (lots of various faux-animal-furs) and Andy as Ash from Army of Darkness... gratefully (I think) there are no photos of either of our costumes!! There is one of Andy partially garbed in his costume and partially in mine, however... enjoy that one! Happy Halloween!

Aiden and John trick or treating

In the corn maze

Skeptical leopard

Aiden and some of his buds

Classic

Windy Hill Halloween

Up to Parishville

Phoebe and Haley had their first visit to Parishville this month, a Dean family milestone if there ever was one. After a year hiatus, we returned to our annual pilgrimage up north for the opening weekend of musket season. The usual drill goes like this: the boys (sans Aiden) wake up at an ungodly hour, don lots of clothing, slurp down some oatmeal, and trudge out into the woods with their guns to sleep under (or in) a tree for four hours. They then trudge back to the farmhouse right about 9 am, numb-butted and frozen-toed, to find that the ladies have made them a fabulous and hearty dutch oven breakfast and a giant pot of strong black coffee. This scene repeats itself for the three days we're up there, and we all have the routine down really well. Which is why when the boys returned from the woods a mere 20 minutes after they had left the house, they had us all befuddled and confused. It turned out that just after sitting down under his tree, Andy had two deer pass very close by him- he shot one and it dropped like a brick right in front of him. An hour later it was dressed and driven to the butcher to be made into roasts, steaks, and (my favorite) venison sweet sausage. All before dutch-oven breakfast at 9 am.

Safety orange in the woods this time of year

The rest of the weekend we passed with walks in the woods, trips to Birchbark Books (both locations) and hours watching the two baby girls kick and whack each other while sharing a playmat on the floor (so cute). Little Miss Pheebs is the happiest baby on the planet, I think. She had a miserable cough from a daycare cold and was still smiling at anyone and everything. Once in a while we can squeeze a smile out of Haley-doo too! Dad's new sauna was up and running, so most of us gave that a try too- it's pretty sweet to have a sauna with windows looking out on a beautiful view of the farm and poplar covered hill. Aiden even tried it out a few times for quick 5-minute stints. And of course we made some delicious dutch-oven meals- venison roast stuffed with apple and onion dressing, roasted root vegetables, spicy seafood chowder, and a yummy apple crisp. We always eat well in p-ville. And it looks like we'll be eating well this winter too, with a freezer full of venison!

Haley and Phoebe "playing" together

In the sauna with Uncle Micah (not for long with that much clothing on!)

Dutch Oven Apple Crisp

Scenes from the farmhouse...

Peak Week?

Grandma Chris comes up to visit us in NH (or VT before that) every fall. Ususally her aim is to try and hit peak foliage colors up here, but we're learning that's a very fickle buisiness. When to go... Columbus Day weekend? the weekend before? the one after? Last year she hit it right on the head the weekend after Columbus Day and was amazed by the blazing reds, oranges, and yellows of the maple fall spectacular. This year, when she arrived on Columbus Day weekend, it was already about a week and a half past peak. Oh well. She only had about 2 seconds to be disappointed before all focus shifted to the real reason for her visit: the grandkids! They, on the other hand, did not disappoint.

The weather was also gorgeous for the long weekend, so we spent most of it outdoors. We went to a BBQ at Mount Sunapee and rode the chairlift to hike around and enjoy the great views of Lake Sunapee from the summit. We went apple picking (a.k.a. cider donut binging), smoked a chicken and a brisket, and we played lots of football out on the lawn. On Sunday Tim, Becky and Manny Dog came up for the day so Aiden was extra entertained (and entertaining!). If I remember correctly a new sport was invented combining baseball, lacrosse, tennis, football and a bit of golf.

Uncle!

Right after Haley got an ear infection, on a Friday night, our washing machine bit the dust. One of the side effects of antibiotics in an infant is explosive watery poops, so needless to say, this was not a convenient time to lose our washing machine. So we bought and installed a new one the next day... which promptly flooded the house and soaked right through the ceiling to put about 3" of standing water in the basement. In the midst of cleaning all this up and battling with LG to send repair people (an independent plumber confirmed that we had hooked everything up perfectly but they still didn't believe us), Andy had to leave for a 3 day conference...

Aiden tickling his sister

That's when I cried "Uncle!" or more accurately, "MOM!" My parents came down to the rescue to help watch the kids while I was dealing with repair people, flooring restoration guys, etc. The plumber LG finally sent could not figure out why the machine had overflowed, so we are left with a theoretically working machine that we will never trust. I have run 2 loads this week and so far everything has stayed dry except the clothes, which is the desired result. The floor has been dried and carpet replaced and we're almost back to normal now. Just waiting for the evil washer to strike again...

Mom and Haley

At Ben's bday party @ Musterfield Farm

Molly and Aiden

Molly, Ben and Finn

The First...

Little Miss Haley has gotten her first ear infection already. Right on time, about 2 wks after she started going to daycare. She had a high fever and was royally fussy for at least 24 hours but as soon as the infection was diagnosed and she got some antibiotics it didn't take long for her to get back to being her usual, only half-grumpy, self. We're in the middle of the 10 days of Amoxicillan at this point and the worst of it seems to be administering the medication by syringe. We put just a few drops under Haley's tongue at at a time to work through the whole 3/4 tsp and she gacks and gags and spits most of it back out every time. Then she looks at us with a furrowed brow, clearly asking, " WHY, mom? WHY, dad?" It's one of those not-so-fun parenting moments...