halloween 2010 part I

pete and betsy's pumpkin

we shared another great halloween evening with our squadron friends, i love that this group gets all decked out, even the adults dress up. such fun! jen hosted a wonderful little chili dinner with mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough and baked - so good! and all the tasty sweets you could imagine. the kids had a ball screaming around the house for an hour or so and then they all got wrapped up in their sweet costumes and we headed out into a perfectly still, starry, chilly halloween evening to trick or treat their neighbors.  pete rode along in his red push car which made it easy to keep track of him and helped him last a little longer not having to walk so much (he was sleepy but not so bad as last year) but hop out easily for each trip to the doorbell. he even got the routine down pretty well saying "brit-o bree" and then after getting his candy he'd say thank you and put the candy, wrapper and all, straight into his mouth as he walked back to his car for the ride to the next porch.  betsy was a trooper and after a tiny bit of protest snuggled into her stroller, under her big warm blanket and her blue furry hat and snoozed through the whole thing. looking forward to seeing her in action next year!

pictures will be posted asap tomorrow....i couldn't find my camera so mary ann used hers but we don't have a compatible cable so we have to upload via walgreens store in the morning. sorry!  our costumes were:

petey = thing 1

betsy = thing 2

momma = sam (from green eggs and ham)

grandma = cat in the hat

grandpa = the grinch

pun-too

pete helped me de-goo the pumpkins tonight and really enjoyed the project. he'd get a seed stuck to his hand and say "go away seed" and flail his arm around til it came off. betsy enjoyed watching it from afar, but really truly, she enjoys everything about everything. really miss daddy when we have fun days like today. after pete went to bed, grandpa carved out the artwork and we can light the candle for breakfast tomorrow to show pete how it turned out. he was really REALLY into helping with the knife portion and that help was just a little bit too wild for his safety. he is much better at the scooping help. much better.

wild animal park with grandma and grandpa

we had a great morning at the wild animal park - its aways a great time, but i personally enjoyed it all the more because there were two additional, fun loving adults along to help with the execution. we toured almost the whole park and the kids were amazing troopers! both passed out as soon as they hit the carseats on the way home and continued napping in their own beds most of the afternoon once we got home.  seeing the elephants was a top priority on pete's list which he very much enjoyed. he also saw several awesomely dressed birds, fed the ducks, met an armadillo, saw giraffes and lionsand parrots and meerkats, walked eleventy-nine miles through the park, used ever toilet in the park, waited in line for the tram ride (but it was full and the wait was too long and conflicted with our lunch plans to wait for the next tram - we'll do it next time!), played hard on the playground, downed some lunch, sampled his first root beer during our family picnic, rode the carousel with the proudest grin on his face and gobbled down an ice cream treat. he was a sweet, cooperative boy the entire trip! betsy was also sweet and cooperative given that she didn't take a nap while we were there - just too much for her to see. but she sure did LOVE taking in the action around her.  she enjoyed some breakfast by the tiger look-out and had her second breakfast at the playground, teethed on an apple while bouncing on grandma's knee, watched the ducks swim and frolic and made sure i was steering the stroller the right way the whole day. thanks betsy for being such an awesome side-kick on our crazy trips!

toddler bed: a new challenge!

he was doing this magic trick of turning off the switch when it was a crib. and then hopping out lickety-split whenever he pleased.  so we decided it was wise to make the switch to a toddler bed. at least when getting out of bed we don't have to worry about him ending up with a broken arm as a result of his self-extrication-process.  so here we are. night # 1 of the toddler bed. bedtime was....interesting. terrifying? a little, yes. things are definitely different now.  am hoping he'll be more interested in going to bed/staying in bed in the near future. there was an almost hour-long tug of war. him getting out of bed, slinking to the door, messing with the handle until he finally managed to turn the knob just-so and open the door. and slowly slowly opening the door, peering out to see if anyone was there. (i was watching from just out of sight of the door opening. then he'd stick his head out a little further to see what he could see. all so slowly. and then i'd pick him up and put him back in bed and "tuck" him back in (throw his cover on his body) and leave as quickly as possible to not encourage the bedtime game. at one point when i put him back in i felt a book in his bed. so he had obviously gotten a book from his bookshelf and brought it to his bed (all in the dark, mind you - he doesn't have a night light). his night vision is clearly exceptional. grandma had the good idea to deter the game by standing in the hallway and holding the door knob so it couldn't be turned. he tried twice and then gave up. all is silent since then. we've no idea if he's sleeping on the floor just behind the door or if he went back to bed to snuggle up to sleep. maybe he's in the chair in the corner? i need a night-vision-video-monitor for his room. do those exist? i know the video monitors do and i'm convinced i am going to buy one this weekend to monitor his naptime activities (i am definitely scared that naptime will turn into pete's crazy-hour of play time - but fully intend to continue making him stay in his room for at least one hour at naptime and maybe when the novelty of easy-escape wears off he'll start sleeping again).  anyway, i know at least at bedtime i have the advantage of darkness discouraging his play. i know it'll get better. easier. it has to, right? we'll see. anyone have any tricks of the trade or suggestions for this? i'm just nervous he'll escape in the night and i won't hear him until i hear his trucks racing around the coffee table. so tonight, i sleep on the couch where i can fully monitor his location. tomorrow we are getting a childproof handle to put on the inside of the door in his room. i'd put a baby gate across but as you can see, he is a monkey and can do a high-jump-back-flip over those silly baby gates with ease.

grandparents are here!

'maw-ma' and 'pu-pah" are here! we're having a wonderful time and its more fun every time they visit as pete is a little bit older and "gets it" a little bit more. he absolutely remembers them at this point and if they leave the room he immediately goes in search for the missing grandparent. that's not to say that if i leave the room he isn't worried i am leaving forever, but he's certainly enjoying their company and all the associated extra attention that comes with it. he's been on a few field trips with grandpa to the store and has done lots of chit-chatting and playing with them both. tomorrow we conquer the wild animal park!

megatron last week

we had another visit with our little buddy megatron. he was a doll. kept old man baxter moving and tolerated sweetly all the "affection" pete poured out to him. thank you sweet mt for being such a darling house guest. please come again!

welcome home!

i had the privilege today to attend my first homecoming. the advanced party for our squadron returned home and we went along to share the experience with some of my amazing friends. what magic seeing those women running to their men as they appeared from the door of the bus, one by one. its a sight that evokes deep emotion in anyone who sees it. the stuff that gives you goosebumps just imagining. and frankly, it makes jump up and down with glee imagining OUR homecoming day!

some coming home to babies arriving any day. some coming home and surprising their unsuspecting kids at home later in the day. some coming home to meet their brand new babies for the first time. all of them coming home to loving arms. we're so proud of all of you - and of course those of you still over there! am so thankful i could share in the excitement and show my support for them and the long journey they've been on. and i got to hug some great marines who just a few days earlier were hanging out with my husband, somewhere out there....and seeing them, hugging them...made him feel just a little bit closer to home. can't wait til i get to see my handsome hubby appear from the bus door!

bates nut farm

we love the pumpkin patch and after having such a wonderful time visiting last year, although our group was slightly different (last year there were 2 daddies and no betsy!), we went back again for more fun. its hard to imagine that last year petey wasn't even walking - and this year he was full-speed-ahead.

well, we definitely missed having the big boys there...but a grand time was had by all. we tried to go in the morning but arrived to mud everywhere and rain falling. so jen and i had a meeting and decided to go to the mall and let the boys run and enjoy lunch together. figured we'd just try to come again next week. well, during lunch we looked outside to see the sun working very hard to burst through the clouds and we decided to go on back today. pete and i had been talking the day prior about how we were going to go see pumpkins and horses and tractors and bales of hay and play with his friend ryan and my goodness, did he burst into tears when we left the parking lot earlier in the day without seeing ANY of those things.  on the way back to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon he fell asleep, bless his sweet little heart, and when he woke up, the first things he proclaimed with great joy when he realized where we were: pumpkin! ryan! tractor! play!
and play, we did. thanks so much to our great friends for another great trip to the pumpkin patch. am looking forward to next year already when betsy will be running around and they'll be toting around their second little bundle of joy!

baby food

well, i figured since this year i've tried to incorporate a bunch of more natural, more healthy, more homemade changes into our lifestyle (won't my husband have an interesting homecoming learning that what's new to him is our normal now - i promise, its not that bad babe!), i ought to give homemade baby food a whirl. i mean, i love to cook and i'm decent at that. so it shouldn't be too tough to puree some steamed or baked veggies and keep them on hand, right? why do i feel so much anxiety about it? anyway, tonight i am making the first batch of food for miss betsy: baked, pureed sweet potato and pureed banana. i will try to make a big batch of something new every few days. the plan is to freeze individual portions in ice cube trays and then store in the freezer so i have a big variety of healthy, homemade foods to offer her. i was always disgusted with the sad options available in the baby food aisle, where ARE all the veggies, people - you can't raise a baby on peas and carrots! and why do they offer meat in the starter foods when they don't recommend introducing those until between 9 months and a year? this way, i can introduce the appropriate foods for the stage of development her digestive system is best suited for at her age and have lots more options to get a good variety of foods into her system. with less sodium, no preservatives and no unidentifiable ingredients on the nutrition label on the jar. three cheers for that! not sure how it'll go but it seems like a doable change to add into the mix.  and here we go!

eeyore's lil pumpkin

i know i've mentioned to some of you the "calendar page" project the families of our deployed boys have been doing for them while they are away "playing". think 1st grade classroom - its a big calendar that is put up in one of their main meeting room areas and each of the officers have a day or two dedicated to them.  each date on the calendar is a piece of paper with the date of the month on it. one of the wives, girlfriends, family members, friends decorated the other side of it with pictures from home, funny pictures of the individual, inside jokes, stories, whatever and each day they flip over the number to see what's on the other side. i think they all enjoy seeing their OWN pages but also get a great kick out of seeing some of the other fun things posted for their buddies (like pictures of their skipper when he had hair, for example).  here is the calendar page in action:

i wish i could find the pic of the october pages - jen did an adorable job of decorating them (even though i know the boys do not care, she is always so thoughtful and perfectly creative when sending them love. i told her she is the perfect squadron "room mom".) anyway, this month reid had two pages. the first was his birthday and had some fun old pictures of him like these on it:

i MUST note two things regarding this photo. a) pete looks EXACTLY like this when he is having a tantrum. b) baby reid is holding a truck in his hand, just like my tiny pete religiously totes one with him everywhere he goes. also, unrelated to the photo, pete has a knack for drumming on his plate with his silverware. i think the drumming is genetic (genetic disease???).

the second was/is (its always so hard to remember what day it is there) oct 20th. i hope he loves the picture! i've been keeping it a secret until now so it was a surprise. seems like he always sees the cute pictures of the kids on the blog before he sees them on his calendar pages. so i kept this one special for him. :)

so the pics of the "three" kids didn't go so well. pete was in his little green armchair holding betsy and trying also to hold baxter and it just wasn't working. but it was still fun to capture that moment of chaos!