the great pumpkin

i generally loathe halloween.  it's stupid.  and it's totally outside my comfort zone to dress up.  oh, and...it's stupid.  but as squirt has gotten older it's become much more fun.  

for weeks he told everyone and their brother and sister that he wanted to be thomas the train.  george was prepared to make a costume and everything (i say george because i love my kids but that is seriously too much work!).  anyway, target had a thomas the train candy bucket i was going to get to match the homemade to-do.  when we got to the aisle though, he changed his mind hard and decided he wanted to be a dinosaur.  good thing, because they were out of the thomas bucket.  

when george got home i told squirt to tell daddy what he was going to be for halloween - he said "a carnivore"!  Smarty-pants.

tonight we carved pumpkins in anticipation of our new found fondness for halloween.

the innocent bystander

ta-da

phases

we're all going through some phases right now.  its just dumb, these phases.  a week ago my baby was perfect, now he's crying every afternoon and evening for no reason.  its terrible.  my toddler is going though this wonderful phase where he is only good when i'm home.  great for me!  but bad for daddy, and any and all attempts at family time.  this last weekend was the worst.  he got about 3 timeouts before we could get out the door...kicking, not putting his shoes on, hitting, all that nonsense.  its the worst!

at least once we left the house we had fun!

george and i are going through our own phases too.  george is still adjusting to his new job.  its going fine but its just a transition period.  comparisons are still being made to the old job, etc.  i'm in a weird phase right now because i'm so happy to have a job and so happy to be home with my boys - its strange, i know.  right now i'm just trying to get through the stacks of paperwork i need to complete in order to work.  that's a phase unto itself!  

at least we have a good family phase going on.  every weekend we are doing fun things (although the boys apparently don't love football sunday!).  there is so much to do here, which is such a change from where we used to live!  its so great to get out and doing stuff together.  weekdays are actually pretty fun, since pinterest has been providing me with some exciting toddler activities lately!

here is a picture of our fort, with everyone enjoying it.

(headphones!)

(homemade play dough, i finally took the plunge)

(football last sunday!)

at least the rest of the our visit with my parents was fun.

squirt was obsessed with going on an airplane to see grandma and pop-mom the second they left.  since he was having a hard time putting into perspective when we would actually get to go on an airplane, we made a calendar as an art project (thank you pinterest!).

And...we out!

fisherman's fall festival

after a long and unexpected hiatus i am ready to give this a shot again.  i'm going to try a little different approach, as i have realized that my writing skills suck!  i'm thinking less narrative and more pictures.  that's what everyone wants anyway right???

we are loving our little life here in our new city.  being unemployed in the summertime has proven to be even more fun than i thought it would be.  today we went to the fisherman's fall festival with grandma and pop-mom.  the squirt-tot really enjoyed it and would have probably stayed all day if allowed.

we waited in line to get his face painted - for the first time ever!  when it was our turn, he refused to tell the lady what he wanted on his face!  he kept saying he didn't want a picture, he wanted paint.  finally we convinced him to get a shark.  the lady suggested he get it on his arm, which was the right choice because he couldn't sit still for more than 3 seconds.

we did an art project - painting sea scallop shells.

lunch consisted of carbs...of course.

the best part was probably the bounce house.  he had a great time.  when it was his time to be done, he seemed a little confused.  he decided he needed to exit the same way he got in, so he climbed up the bouncy slide and back down the bouncy climbing wall.  the volunteers seemed very confused by it!

this week we've also been to the locks, the aquarium, and the market.

we're excited to see what the rest of the weekend holds for us!  

by the by, there's a new addition to this craziness...enjoy.

the modified mr t

I was home alone with my Squirtdaredevil the other night and he needed a haircut...bad.  I normally get George to help me with the haircutting, since toddler boys don't enjoy sitting still very long.  But I decided to take that opportunity to cut Squirt's hair the way I wanted to!  See, we normally disagree over how to cut it.  But not this time!

I decided to experiment with a shorter blade guard...which was a little shorter than I thought!  But it gave me the opportunity to give my son a rockstar haircut!  He's a badass.  Yeah, I said it!  He has this modified Mr. T haircut now.  It's freaking awesome!  These pictures don't do it justice!

 

Speaking of Mr. T, I think my Squirtmuscles has the strength of Mr. T also.  I was taking a shower the other day, so he was unfortunately locked in the bathroom with me.  Squirt is basically ok with being locked in the bathroom while I shower.  He finds little ways to entertain himself.  Mostly he does this by taking every single tampon out from the cabinet and throwing them on the floor (he likes to make it rain tampons!).  His other favorite thing to do is steal George's toothbrush and chew on it (hence they were both sick last week!).  To curb this, I put the childproof locks on really tight!  And they worked, he could not open the cabinets.  Until he used his little muscles to break the freaking lock!  He's very crafty.

So yeah, basically my life is awesome!  I'm so proud of my son and so lucky to have such a wonderful husband!  Here are some of my other recent favorites!  Don't be startled by how beautiful my son is!

gee hive

People, we've got hives!  And I mean bad!

My SquirtTot's Monday Night Fever turned into Mama's Wednesday Unexcused Absence.  Translation: Squirt was siiiiiiick last week.  We went to the doctor and the verdict was bronciolitis and a stomach bug.  Which meant that Mama got to chase the baby around for nebulizer treatments and change a lot of diapers.

While I was in frantic mom mode, and not thinking clearly, I decided that I would give my Squirt antibiotics in order to cover all my daycare bases (they really like to see kids on antibiotics before they come back - blah, blah, blah).  He had a virus, but he continued to have green gunk coming from his nose, so I bit the bullet and gave him the remaining week of antibiotics from a previous prescription we had.  I am my worst nightmare (read: DO NOT DO THIS, IT IS BAD).  But...he got better and went to daycare all this week...until Friday.

Thursday evening I noticed Squirt was starting to develop a rash.  It looked like hives.  I called the doctor's office and they said it sounded like hives.  George came home and also said it looked like hives.  Squirt woke up in the middle of the night (he never does that); we turned the light on, and it still looked like hives.

Friday morning, it was terrible.  All his little bumps were growing.  He was red and swollen.  The hives now looked like giant craters all over his little body.  The red bumps were getting so big that they were meeting up with other bumps and creating huge red, raised, swollen patches.  Friday morning, it no longer looked like hives.

George decided to make workplace history and said he was leave work in the middle of the day to take our SquirtItcher to the pediatrician.  Yeah...that's how bad it looked.

It was hives.

Most likely related to the antibiotics.

So now Squirt has a penicillin allergy, which is also not good.  But he's fine.  A little itchy...but fine.

Let's hope he can stay healthy for at least a whole week.

Friday Morning

  

Friday Evening

(Don't worry, this is fake crying)

Saturday

At least he got to play in the snow, hives and all!

monday night fever

Wanna know how to feel like the worst parent ever?  Take your kid to an indoor playground in the middle of the winter, and then wait 4 hours.  Your child will inevitably become feverish and clingy (and whiny)...and you will feel like crap!

That is precisely what happened on Monday.  We had a lovely family day planned.  No work for Mama.  No work for Daddy.  Just fun.  Daddy felt like the baby was getting cabin fever (side note, I don't think babies get cabin fever) so we ventured out to play in a new location.  There's an indoor playground about 40 minutes away which gets rave reviews.  So we went.

I was ready to leave about 4 minutes after we got there.  George was ready to leave about 15 minutes after we got there.  And Squirt, well Squirt was having a good time playing...the same good time he would have had a home playing.

I'm not joking, there were kids everywhere.  And not in a duh kind of way, I mean everywhere.  It was actually a lot of fun (read: chill with a reasonable number of children) while we were in the toddler area.  The Squirttoddler learned how to climb up the blocks and go down the slide by himself.  It was super cute!  But when he got bored there we went over to the baby area and then it was all over!  There, he just wanted to put things in his mouth and all I could see were little germs crawling all over everything (hence the fever). 

I'm also not so good with having to watch my child share/steel other kids toys.  I want to smack the kids who take his toys and I want to corral my kid when he tries to take other kids' toys.  I mean they're only doing what they're supposed to, I'm just not so hot on standing by quietly!  At least he made a little friend!

Squirt seemed like he had a good time.  He was slightly overwhelmed by the place but overall it was good.  However, it was not good enough to outweigh the looks he was giving us in the evening.

At least it made him slow down long enough to focus on something.  He must be the smartest baby ever!  He can remove and restack the rings!  It's amazing.

We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.  And we hope you're getting back into your routine better than we are!

i should be sleeping but...

I had to tell you that I taught my son to turn the lights off (he thought it was hilarious)!  And he figured out how to use his index finger to flip through pictures on my iPhone.

These must be signs...he's obviously a genius.

 Last Friday

Today

Ok, good night!