Costume Contest

At Garrett's work they hold an annual costume contest on Halloween. Every year the lighting department comes up with a group theme for everyone to follow. This years theme was "dark Disney characters". Garrett went as Peter Pan.

His department won the "best group costume" award again for the third year in a row!

And just for fun, here's an image that someone took of Peter Pan at work:

Trick or Treat!

This  year when we were discussing whether or not Ethan was really old enough to go trick or treating he piped up with "Trick or Treat!". So we decided that maybe he did get the concept after all!



And boy did he. For the month of October everytime we opened a door, even the car door, he would yell "Trick or Treat!"
 

Our neighborhood doesn't have a lot of little trick or treaters probably since our neighborhood is small, doesn't have many kids and is sort of tucked away. So for Ethan's first year of trick or treating we went along with his best bud, Gabi. He loved it. Not sure if he liked the candy or riding in the wagon more.



The kids got the hang of it fast. They had fun running up to the doors and knocking.



They did a good job of remembering their maners too. It was super sweet hearing them say "trick or treat" in their high pitched sweet little 2 year old voices.

Like most two year olds, distraction was a bit of a problem. We came home with a few sticks and leaves in his Halloween bucket.

He also liked to stop and look/touch the decorations and a couple of times he sat down on the front porch to start going through his candy.

About halfway through he started to get a bit tired and I heard him say "The end! The end!". But that didn't stop him from wanting to go to more houses. 

A couple of times Ethan's tried to trick or treat again at the same door. And people thought it was funny so he ended up with a lot of candy. In no time at all his pumpkin was filled up halfway to the top. Ethan started walking funny and grunting saying "It's heavy, its heavy". It was pretty funny how dramatic he was being.

Funny story about his costume. He was going to be a robot but since we ran out of time we figured he could go ahead and wear Rowdy's old dinosaur costume even though its still a little too big. However, Halloween afternoon Ethan decided that he was scared of the dinosaur and wouldn't come near it. I tried coaxing him but he wouldn't even consider putting it on. So we scrapped that idea and decided he would wear his super hero cape, a t-shirt, and pj bottoms like he wore to the Halloween party. However, we were running late with traffic and construction and Ethan got carsick on the way there. So he ended up wearing a spare outfit that we keep in the car along with his cape.

It didn't ruin his enjoyment- the candy was the important part!

Look at those full buckets!

I'd say his first trick or treat experience was a hit!

Pun'kins, Halloween Pun'kins!

 We have been hearing a lot of "Carve Pun'kins!" and "Halloween Pun'kins!" lately around here. We have a 2.75 year old who loves pumpkins and has been beside himself with excitement for Halloween. In fact, one day I caught him with a popscicle stick trying his hardest to carve his pumpkin on his own.



Everyday he asks to see YouTube videos of carved pumpkins so we bought three pumpkins this year. One for for G and I to carve and one for Daddy and Ethan to design/carve together.



We didn't make it out to the pumpkin patch this year so Ethan and G went to Walmart together to buy the pumpkins. Once the pumpkins had been selected,  Ethan wrapped his arms and whole body around one of the pumpkins as if it was very precious and needed to be protected. That earned him some smiles on the way to checkout.



When Landon started to fuss, Ethan rolled all three pumpkins over to Landon's swing and started talking to him about the pumpkins. "See baby? Pun'kins!". It is so sweet how much he loves and cares for his baby brother.

 Ethan wanted his pumpkin to be "Happy" so Garrett drew several designs for Ethan and Ethan picked which one he wanted for his pumpkin.

Looking for the seeds. He also liked putting his face up to the open pumpkin to smell the pumpkin smell.

Ethan's finished pumpkin!

He loves his jack o' lantern so much that he has been giving it kisses. So sweet.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this age?

Trying to blow out the candle before bed! Goodnight Pun'kins!

Halloween party

Ethan had a playgroup Halloween party mid-month. It was my first playgroup outing since I hurt my back so I didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few that show our costumes!

Tummy time with Mom

Child, most photos of you seem to be taken around midnight. Sad but true. One of these days I hope things will calm down enough to get photos of you in daylight!

Your Daddy took these photos of you doing tummy time on my chest while I rested my hurt back. The problem with you doing tummy time on my chest is that you get comfortable pretty fast and end up falling asleep. I love these sweet little moments though!

{Landon at 5 and a half weeks old}

Ethan: 33 Month Update!

Ethan,

At 2 and 3/4 you:

• Weigh 30 lbs
• Wear size 7.5 shoes and size 2T clothing. In pj's you are starting to wear size 3T.
• You still take a nap that usually lasts from about 1.5 hours up to 3 hours long but lately they have been on the shorter side of the range. Lately you have been going to bed at 8:30 pm and waking up around 6:30 am.

You are still an extremely picky eater but lately you have been opening up to trying or at least exploring more things and you have been accepting of more flavors. Specifically, you eat more flavors of fruit squeezies however you are still too shy to eat those fruits and veggies in their non-pureed form. But at least you are getting fruit and veggies! Also you are doing better with your food jags and we've switched your sippy cups to cups with a straw which you have accepted as well.

You love going on walks with your Daddy to "See what you can find". You come back with tales of butterflies, worms, bees, and grasshoppers and your pockets filled with acorns, leaves, and feathers. Your sticks have to stay outside. :-)

You love pumpkins and everything Halloween. You love "special pumpkins" which are the candy corn pumpkins and you have several small real pumpkins which you have been carrying around the house. You also have been carrying around pumpkin shaped paper plates, asking to watch youtube video slideshows of carved pumpkins and playing with Halloween themed cookie cutters. You like to eat "Ghost Toast" which is toast cut with a ghost shaped cookie cutter.

You lost one of your miniature pumpkins in one of my shoes in the closet and when you remembered where you left it weeks later it had started to shrivel. You call it your gross pumpkin.

The other day I drew a series of pumpkin eyes, mouths, and noses as well as cutting out two pumpkins. In my mind I had an idea of which pieces went together so it was so fun to see your take on which pieces went together. I liked your arrangement much better! You decided which pumpkin needed a nose and which one didn't and you placed each piece yourself. 



Your "Monster". I had never seen you get quiet so creative with Mr. Potato Head before. I love it! I have definitely see you become more imaginative over the last few months. On any given day you decide that you are either a kitty or a puppy. One day you decided you were a bird. Most of the time though you are "baby cat". Unfortunately I don't understand puppy, kitty, bird language. ;-)

About a month ago you finally learned the traditional toddler words of "That's mine!" and "Give it back!". One day I heard you yelling these words in the other room and when I came to investigate you were tugging on a plastic ring that was sewn on the hand of a stuffed monkey toy. You decided that his plastic ring was yours and you were trying to bargain for it. On a sweeter note, you have become very generous with your hugs and kisses.

You love rockets and anything rocket, alien, space, robot, or spaceship related. You have a sippy cup that has a rocket on it and you call it your rocket water.

You have figured out how to use a computer mouse. You are able to play toddler games on the internet and you have also figured out how to get videos up on youtube!

Your toddler humor is so funny. You decided that it was funny to call a mouse illustration a "snake" on one of the pages of "Goodnight Moon" and only on that one page do you try to insist that the mouse is a snake. Also you think its funny to call your Dad "Garrett".

You are having trouble leaving our poor kitties alone. You like to run after them yelling "AH AH AHHHHHHH! MEOW MEOW! Shh....(finger in front of lips) ...be nice to cats..." Then you give me a big grin. Apparently you do listen to me but you just don't follow my directions. ;-)

Also along the lines of chasing cats, you recently discovered that we have TWO cats. Bailey hides from you during the day so you must have only seen one cat at a time. Since both cats are tan they must have just looked like tan blurs to you as they ran from you or at least really similar from the back. You always called either cat "Beau-cat" or "Beauregaurd" but it wasn't until now that we realized that you thought that both cats were one cat. You caught Beau and Bailey sitting on our bed together before Bailey ran away and you ecstatically ran up to me telling me that we had TWO cats! You were over the moon excited and went on and on about it.


This picture was taken back in April so its not too recent but for some reason it never made its way onto the blog. You have your own name for Ghost Bear; You call him "Bear-gis". And even though this picture was taken back in April its still just as relevant today. ;-) You love Bear-gis!

I didn't take very many pictures this past quarter so your post is a little light! It was a little hard for mom to get around with the camera during the last month of pregnancy and postpartum with a back injury. Hopefully you're three year post will be better!

Don't blink!

Because this is what happens...

My newborn is getting big way too fast! It blows my mind how fast they change at this phase. I feel like I blinked and missed something between these two photos because I don't know when he grew so fast! Can I blame it on the herniated back?

Landon: 1 month!

Landon,

At 1 month old you:

• Weighed 10 lbs (Now at 5 weeks you already weigh 11 lbs)
• Eats 4 ounces every 3 hours. 
• Still wake every 3 hours to eat but at just 15 days old you slept for a 5 hour stretch of time and at 26 and  28 days old you went 7.5 hours.
• Wear size 1 diapers and size 0-3 month clothing. (you wore size newborn for 3.5 weeks)

Your nicknames at the moment are Squeaker and "little bitty Landon".

You spend a lot more time awake now and you respond to our voices and are following objects with your eyes.

You are also very strong and lift up your head and torso when you are laying on our chests. You are getting good head control. It seems that you are already growing up faster than your brother did.

You still sleep in our room in your pack n' play which is currently right next to our bed. Like clock work you get fussy at 1 hour and 45 minutes after you take a bottle and you want your pacifier. You lose the pacifier several times but then you'll take it and calm down and go to sleep.

You are still an easy baby and pretty laid back. It is so fun to watch you and discover your own personality traits. I can't wait to watch you grow and see who you become. But please don't grow too fast baby boy!