All Decked Out

Brian has dreamed of the day he could spread his holiday decor out into the yard and with this being our first big holiday in our new house we started what is sure to be a yearly tradition that will keep on growing! In addition to our jack-o-lantern carving, which we do every year (can you guess which one is mine?)....

...we also got some cool "ring-around-the-rosie" ghosts that dance around our tiny little tree in the front yard.

We are so ready for trick-or-treaters this year! Bring 'em on!

Breakfast of Champions

What you see here is a Mizzou Pop-Tart. It was in a box of the top 16 college football teams. Completely by chance, I pulled the Mizzou one out of the box last Saturday morning, the day Mizzou played Texas. We thought it was a good sign. It turns out it was a jinx. So this Mizzou Pop-Tart blog post was postponed, due to a Mizzou-induced state of depression that took over our house.

Right now we are sitting in front of the TV watching Mizzou play Colorado and they are winning 41-0 in the 3rd quarter. If they lose now we will know the Mizzou Pop-Tart is a curse.

P.S. Post #3 of the day! I am on a roll here!

Pumpkin Patch

Post #2 of the day....

We just got back from a pumpkin patch where we picked out our pumpkins for carving. We have been putting it off for fear that our jack-o-lanterns would rot on our front porch in the heat if we did it too early. I went into our outing determined to get some cute "fall" pictures of Chase but that boy is impossible to photograph these days. I just can't get him to sit or stand still for any amount of time! So I didn't get many good ones, but the ones I got are now in our Photo Album if you're interested. This one is kinda cute, because apparently even pumpkins need hugs sometimes....

We are missing the fall season down here. It just doesn't feel like Halloween is going to be Friday. We miss the colors, the crisp air....

Ah, well. Come February I guarantee we won't miss the Midwest weather!

It's Potty Time!

Today's milestone: Chase's first poop in the potty!

We haven't been formally potty training, but we have noticed that lately he has started to tell us before he poops, so we decided maybe when he tells us to just put him on the potty and see what happens. So today we were playing in his room and he stopped what he was doing with "that look" on his face and said, "Uh, oh." I asked him if he had to poop and he said, "OK" (his way of saying yes... which I find so hilarious, by the way). So we went to his little potty and I stripped him down and sat him there. I didn't know if he would stay but he sat there for awhile and then started saying, "Uh, oh! Uh, oh!" and peering between his legs. He finally said, "All done" and stood up. I didn't expect to see anything, but lo and behold... a pellet.

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE AHEAD.

Yes, I had to take a picture of it. Did you really think I wouldn't?!?

Anyway, of course I made a HUGE deal out of it and he got so excited he tried to carry the entire potty around the house. He wasn't very happy when I made him put it down, but got over it when he got to flush the poop down the BIG potty.

Ah, our life thrills these days....

Monsters

Chase had a weird night earlier this week. I put him down as usual and then about an hour later he woke up screaming bloody murder. I ran up there and he stood up and reached up for me. I wrapped him up in his blanket and rocked him awhile like he was a little baby again, and when I put him down again he freaked. I walked out (because a lot of times he'll stop when I close the door) but he just kept on screaming. I went back in there after a little while and tried to get him to lay down while I sat by his bed but he wasn't having any of it. I rocked him some more, hoping I could get him to fall asleep, but it became obvious that wasn't going to happen so finally I just put him down and walked away. He screamed for awhile (while I cried!) but finally went to sleep.

It was so bizarre. He just never does that. We weren't sure what was up but the next night I said, "Ready to go upstairs?" and he clung to my legs and just howled. Then he turned around, pointed up the stairs and said, "Monsters."

Monsters? He's old enough to be afraid of monsters?? The only thing we could think of was he had a really scary dream and he's too little know it was just a dream and not real. Brian said he used to have this really scary recurring dream of a monster just standing over his bed. Maybe it was something like that. But I feel so horrible that I can't make him understand it wasn't real, or try to explain it to him or anything like that. Poor guy! He has had a really hard time going to bed every night this week. Luckily he gets over it pretty quickly when I leave, but it's a horrible change from being able to put him down and kiss him goodnight while he smiles up at me.

I hate it! Monsters, go away!!

Fashion Statement

Here is a photo of Chase making a lovely fashion statement. We had lasagna for dinner. I removed his shirt before dinner (bare bellies make better food-catchers than clothed ones do) but his dinner inevitably also fell into his lap as he worked with his spork. When I put him down after dinner he tried to take off running, but those saucy shorts had to GO before he started climbing all over the furniture! I managed to get the shorts off over the shoes but there was no time for shoe/sock removal before he took off across the house. He looks so pleased with himself, doesn't he? That's our boy!

And yes, that is our still-empty dining room behind him. One of these days we'll get some dining room furniture...!

Music Festival Fun!

We went to Austin today for the Austin Family Music Festival. It was so great! They had a ton of bands performing, as well as places for kids to play around with tons of different kinds of instruments. I don't know how Dad ended up teaching Chase how to play all the instruments (well, yes I do... I had the camera!), but he did a stellar job.


Chase's instrument of choice was ultimately the xylophone. He spent a lot of time banging on that thing, and was NOT happy when other kids wanted to play on it, too!

More photos are in our Photo Album if you want to check them out! I also posted a few I took at the Waco Zoo last weekend if you're interested (my camera battery died at the beginning of the day so I think that album wins the award for having the least number of pictures).