Trick or Treat!

We had a wonderful (cold and rainy) Halloween. The little booger completed his pre-trick-or-treating warm-up on his scooter.

Then he went up and down a lot of our street with his dad and his Pops.

After that, he helped me hand out candy to other kids. He kept giving the kids his size two pieces while the bigger kids only got one. Hilarious.

And even though poor Sadie was inside and in her crate, she managed to get herself in a bit of a pickle...

(Yup, she put her head through a hole in her blanket. What a ridiculous dog.) All in all, it was a wonderful night. Happy Halloween!

Stinker

I was trying to get a picture of our ridiculous child in his sweatband and hand-me-down camouflage crocs when he did this (for, like, the umpteenth time):

We're going to have to nail down those floor vents.

He's Two!

Here he is at 6:27am (the very moment he turned two):

And here he is enjoying his birthday cake tonight. Yum!

He's come a long way in two years... thanks for sharing it with us.

Copycat

I am a total copycat. His daycare teachers were tracing the little stinker's hand the other day and he was enthralled, so we did hand-tracing tonight at home.

He traced his hand AND mine.

It was a nice way to spend his last evening as a one-year-old. (Unbelievable.)

Little Man

The little booger and I were home alone this evening. Here he is coloring before dinner.

After dinner he asked for Elmo's ducks and then football. Luckily I'd recorded FSU's game from Saturday, so we watched some of the first quarter. The little guy says "They run so FAST!!" during every play and then laughs and says "They fall down!" at the end.

Pre-Halloween Warm Up

There was a huge tricktrunk-or-treating event in town tonight, so we took the little booger to see how he'd handle (a) wearing his costume and (b) seeing other people in costumes. (This is the first Halloween where he'll go around the neighborhood a little.) Anyway, here we are heading off to the end of the huge line. He's a DRAGON!!!

He was a really good sport about waiting, even though he and his dad both had zombie-eyes.

At the first trunk he got a lollipop, and then, in his eyes, his night was complete. He ate the lollipop, got to see a big truck AND a flashing light, and was happy as a clam.

Halloween is going to be fun this year.

Multiple Choice

I couldn't decide what to say about this video, so you can pretend I chose your favorite of the following options:
1. At least we don't have to worry about the little guy running off to join the circus...
2. Our house can be a real circus-- albeit an incredibly untalented one!
3. The little stinker comes by his lack of coordination honestly.
4. Watch out, Barnum & Bailey, here we come! (I needed at least one positive, right?)

Where'd Daddy Go?

That's what the little stinker kept saying while they were playing this fun game:

Daddy's a brave guy-- that blanket smells terrible!

It's, like, close?

The little dude was helping me make chili this evening when he told me the onion was "like an apple" and tried to take a bite out of it. Being a fantastic mother, I said it was only kind of like an apple. Then I took it, washed it, and chopped it up. After the little booger helped me put the chopped onion in a bowl, he said it was "kind of like an apple" and then popped two big hunks of raw white onion right into his mouth. He looked a little confused while chewing, so I told him he didn't have to eat any more of it if he didn't want to. He didn't.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of him playing with some cool foam pieces a friend of ours brought him because they looked like a Jeep.

 He thinks so too!

Vrooom!!!

Educational!

Our new J. Crew catalog came in the mail today. The little booger and I went through every page naming the colors, types of clothing (shirts, jackets, socks, and shoes), and pointing out the hands, feet and beards/chins of the models.

Learning is fun!

Snuggles!

Every once in a while the little dude is willing to snuggle for a couple minutes... 

...and it's usually one of the highlights of my day! (How sad.)

Kitchen Helper!

We can usually get the little dude to stop his temper tantrums if there's something he can help with... so tonight, we made salad together! Yay, salad!

I also recorded the little dude reading us the book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake." He knows it all-- pretty hilarious.

There's no medal for this?

The little booger and I went to our neighborhood's playground while his daddy was out working yesterday. We had a blast!

When we got home, however, I noticed that the poor little stinker had a HUGE splinter in his hand. It was in two pieces, and I couldn't even tell where it had gone in. Yuck.

My dad, a splinter-removal guru, said I could wait for reinforcements or get a needle and dig it out myself. Since I didn't want it to be in there overnight (yikes!) and I didn't want to visit the doctor, I gathered my supplies: a needle, tweezers, foaming neosporin, and Sesame Street on youtube.

After approximately 257 videos, I got it out! The little dude didn't even fuss very much.

Now his hands are sanitized and splinter-free. Phew!

"A lady's imagination...

is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment." Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen.

I was over at our new church space helping set up the sound and video equipment tonight.  The work ran over and I came home to find my wife lying on the couch in very comfy clothes and watching a movie; Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightly version).  This is not all that unusual, though most times the marathon A&E version is the one of choice.  What's awesome is that I had to point out she was wearing this sweatshirt to watch that movie.

...There is also a hardback version on her night stand right now and a travel size in her suit case (le sigh).  

Oh and just so you know, Mr. Darcy would have never walked into the house uninvited like that.  It just wasn't done.

Pizza and Ranch

The little booger is a boy after my own heart. We both agree that pizza (like most other things) is better with ranch dressing....

Pizza, ranch, and raisin bran for dinner. Yum!

Misunderstood?

I took this video tonight to show what a genius the little dude is-- he's starting to learn some of his shapes and colors. Unfortunately, what this video really shows is that I have a hard time understanding the poor little booger when he talks...

He's so misunderstood!

"I Wash My Hands!"

The little booger loves to wash his hands, especially in the kitchen sink.

His face and shirt may be covered with peanut butter, but his hands are clean!

Favorite Places

Sadie has found her new perch in our house. If she sits on the bottom stairs, she can keep an eye on the road without getting scolded for being on the furniture.

The little stinker has found his new favorite spot, too. His toy bin!

Aren't his Elmo pjs the greatest? (Thanks, Aunt H.)

Cool Shoes!

The little stinker is starting to be quite opinionated about what he wears. The other night, he wanted to wear a onesie that doesn't fit him anymore, a hoodie, a diaper, and a pair of flats. He actually wore this outside, but I don't think anyone saw.

What an outfit!

Cheese Banana!

The little stinker ate a banana tonight and was grinning at it right before each bite. I tried to get that on camera and only sort of succeeded... but I did manage to capture his eyebrows and his future as a class clown.

I guess since "Cheese Pizza!" was such a hit, he decided to try it with a banana. Goober.

Great Sorrow

I've been thinking a lot today about the little guys birthday and about our hospital stay when he was brand new.  It was an amazing experience but a little scary as well.  The booger wasn't doing super at first, but rebounded quickly and has grown into a wonderful little joy as chronicled here.

On that first day there were lots of doctors and nurses in and out, but there was one person I was surprised and happy to see.  One of the first doctors to come in and see the kiddo turned out to be a girl I graduated with in high school.  I hadn't seen her for probably 10 years or more, but she was as sweet and kind as ever.  In high school she always had something positive to say and always wore a huge smile no matter what the situation, and that hadn't seemed to have changed. I immediately felt comfortable and was able to get a good grasp on how my brand new baby boy was doing.  She reassured Emily and me that, while he was distressed to begin with, all was fine now and there was nothing to worry about.  It was really great seeing her as she was always simply, purely, and genuinely nice.

I learned late last night that she passed away suddenly this past Sunday.  I'm not sure of the details, but it made me thankful to have run into her and reconnected at such an important point in my life.  When you hear about tragedies such as this, you think about how fragile life is.  I just wanted to go in, pick the boy up, and hold him.

Please say a prayer for her family.

On a lighter note, here is a cute picture from when he was brand new.

Connections

I was reading our little sponge "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" tonight-- it's one of our favorites. In the book, the cat and his owner visit the Hall of Apes. The little guy loves that page. It's a picture of lots of monkeys swinging from branches. He was pointing at the book and saying "Monkeys swinging from trees!" in his largely unintelligible toddler way when he started gesturing wildly. He told me that one of the monkeys fell out of the tree and bumped his head. Then the monkey's mama called the doctor and the doctor said "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."

I about died I was laughing so hard. He fascinates me.

Safety?

Our super-secure baby gates definitely contain the little dude-- but because they are kind of a pain to open, we (the taller members of the family) usually just climb over them. I have to stand on my tiptoes to make it over-- and I almost fell down the stairs last night (so dumb). I didn't learn a thing, though, because here I am setting a bad example for the little guy tonight.

Reunited!

The little dude was a tad clingy today, but I didn't mind. 

In other news, when our friend's parents were leaving our house tonight after Bible study, he called out "Bye Grandma! Bye Pappaw!" *Yikes* Luckily (for everyone), they are already grandparents and were not offended... Phew!

Cheese Pizza!

The little guy was cracking us up at dinner tonight. He was scowling at Eric, but when we asked him "Why the sad face?" he started wiggling his eyebrows and grinning. He's a total clown-- we can't take him anywhere. I tried to get his eyebrow moves on video, but ended up with this instead:

It's good to be home.