Trick-or-Treat

The Halloween fun started first thing at our house and lasted until about a half an hour ago. We had matching engineers (it was a better deal to buy two pairs of overalls at the Oshkosh Outlet).

After hitting the neighbors' houses and a few around the block, CSR checks out his haul. At one house, as they held the bowl of candy out for CSR to pick one out, he took one for himself and then said, "one for my dad, too." What a negotiator.

RTR at 5 Months

Our sweet smiley baby boy is five months old! He must be feeling his age. Today was a sleepy day for him. After sleeping through the night, he woke up to nurse around seven this morning, fell back asleep until after ten, took a little cat nap at noon, snoozed again at three, another siesta at six and then out like a light at bedtime by 7:30. When he was awake, he was such an agreeable little guy... putting up with a little photo session with the pumpkins on the porch and letting me sit him in his little chair while I worked on dinner. Most of the time he won't let me get away with sitting him in one spot for too long. This poor babe is also getting some of that second-born treatment. I have an appointment on Friday to get his THREE month pictures taken. Also, I did his FOUR month footprints today. Hopefully, I'll get caught up soon.

Some five month fun:
Discovering his feet--diaper changing time is prime time to reach out and grab those tootsies!
Working on sitting up--still need a lot of support and can make mama and papa nervous with sudden leaning to the side or front and sliding down
Open mouth, insert _________--loves trying to put anything in his mouth
Give me paper--you need paper slobbered on, crinkled or folded, I'm your man!
Big Brother--always keeping an eye out for that brother who is a great source of entertainment, always working hard for laughs and smiles
Learning to squeal--especially when papa is tickling and talking

Family Adventure

It wasn't the sunny day KING 5's Chris Warren promised, but it still made for a fun day for a family adventure. We set out with a lunch packed in our favorite red cooler and headed to Fort Casey State Park on Whidbey Island http://www.visitwhidbey.com/camp-grounds/Fort-Casey-and-Keystone-State-Parks.html. The park's military roots are evident with the battlements above the beach-- huge ten inch guns to protect the Puget Sound from foreign invaders in the early 1900's. It was really cool to climb up the ladders to get a close up look at the carriage guns and explore all the little passageways and rooms. There's a great driftwood beach too. CSR loves the beach. The more driftwood and logs the better. Someone had built a sort of teepee shaped structure, which CSR thought was awesome. But there was no way to get inside it (which was probably a safe thing). Still it was fun playing on the beach. For CSR, it doesn't take long for a stick, log and bunch of seagrass is instantly a campfire, seat and fishing line.

While trying to get some pictures of the baby, poor RTR took a header onto the rocks... proving that he cannot sit up on his own yet and gravity hurts. What a dumb bunny I was to do that. Of course, I felt awful. He ended up with a little red mark on his forehead. Next time, I will look for a softer surface for photos or anchor him better.

On the wildlife watch, we spotted a sea lion in the water, two deer munching on the grass near one of the battlements, a bald eagle on a pole near the Keystone ferry landing and a blue heron in a pool along Highway 20.

A Pushy Mama

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day...of course, I didn't take any pictures. I never saw a thermometer, but it seemed hot this afternoon. With our ususal childcare arrangement out with a cold, I took CSR to the baby class RTR and I take. The upside was that we got to enjoy the beautiful weather with a walk there... well, I walked, the boys got to ride. I go back and forth on blessing and cursing the inventor of the Sit-n-Stand stroller. Definitely handy on long walks and trips to the zoo but with a lousy turning radius and a forty+ pound four year old who takes full advantage of the sitting option, I am getting to be one "pushy" mama. Coming home was the worst part. It was hot (I was foolishly wearing a long sleeve t-shirt) and included an uphill part. CSR was sweet enough to get off and push the stroller part of the way then.

I am surprised he wasn't hotter. CSR decided to wear his lizard costume--last year's Halloween costume that's now in the dress up bin. I worked too hard sewing it not to get more mileage out of it than just one Halloween. A true "green" costume. I'm on the hunt now for this year's costume for CSR. He wants to be an engineer--the train kind, not civil. I found a hat at Value Village for $2 and now face a trip to the Oshkosh outlet store for striped overalls. At least RTR has an easy costume--the same pumpkin costume CSR wore when he was a baby. However I thought for just a minute of making him a caboose costume to go with CSR's engineer. The picture is of CSR in the lizard costume LAST year.

First Big Boy Field Trip

Today is CSR's first big boy field trip--no mom tagging along and the first time on a real school bus. It's a change for both of us--after two years of co-op preschool field trips where all the kids and parent go together. With our struggles lately to even get to preschool, I was the cheerleader at home, talking up the big field trip... how much fun it will be and how exciting it will be to ride a school bus. Back when the permission slips were passed out more than a month ago, the big attraction wasn't going to the animal farm and pumpkin patch (been there, done that) but riding the bus! I asked him if I could stay and take pictures of him getting on the bus-- could make for a good page in his scrapbook. Now looking at the pictures, I see what a big boy he's getting to be... lining up and walking with his class and climbing aboard. All these four year olds tucked two to a seat. As I stood in the parking lot watching and waving, I loved to see not only my child but other kids waving to me from inside the tinted bus windows. Kids are good wavers. I can't wait to hear CSR tell me all about the trip. I wonder what he'll come home with--he said he wanted to get a ghost pumpkin.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Just when you think your four year old is wearing you to a frazzle, comes this. On Tuesday, I got out of the shower to find RTR crying (instead of napping) in his cradle. I started to talk to him and was about to launch into "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," when CSR who is standing next to the cradle says "no, I'll do it" and starts to sing. At least his version of it-- parts of all four verses all squished together. I thought it was so sweet and also pretty amazing how he picked up all those chunks of words. But then again, CSR has an amazing memory. I swear he would be a great crime witness. As we were getting in the car the other day, a woman stopped her car to ask directions. We got a couple blocks from our house and CSR wanted to know where the woman in the Volvo was going. It knocks me over how he can remember those kinds of things. This summer, we were sitting in the parking lot of a McDonald's in Oregon and he points out a car, saying it was the same kind of loaner car we had when we had the brakes done on our car-- and that was last spring. Maybe he just has a thing for remembering cars. He can identify all kinds of makes and models in traffic.

Oh, and this might not be a news flash, but one of the easiest, yummiest shortcut, almost homemade desserts is two-bite brownies topped with cream cheese frosting (I got this idea from a co-worker). We had a party and my homemade contribution to go along with the food we ordered was brownies from Costco with orange (for Halloween) frosting. Although one of my friends did ask jokingly if that was salmon pate on the top. I had a little trouble with the red food coloring. The cap "popped" and splattered red all over the counter-- like a tiny crime scene. Thankfully, I could use my Clorox Bleach Pen to dab up all the spots on the counter--just like an episode of CSI!

Way Down Yonder in the Pumpkin Patch

October has always been my favorite month. Most of my life it was because of my birthday and that I've been lucky to live in places where the change from summer to fall makes for beautiful scenery. But now it's because of the boys. Today we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We've done it every year since CSR was a baby no matter whether it was raining and muddy or sunny and beautiful. Come to think of it, I don't think it's ever been sunny for one of these trips. Anyway, the pumpkin-pie-slice of farm life is so much fun. We went through our first corn maze. It took us a half an hour to get all confused, turned around and inadvertently back where we started from. We never even made it to the half way point. I have to hand it to the designer of Bob's Corn Maze--it was a tricky one.

The big fun was going through the pumpkin patch. There were pumpkins of all shapes, sizes and colors. It was hard to choose-- a white Ghost pumpkin, a funky Cinderella pumpkin, or the standard orange. CSR found a great one--I'm sure papa will have fun trying to get all the guts cleaned out of it. CSR was so sweet picking a baby one out for RTR.

This also added to the realization in trying to give son #2 similar experiences as #1, he might be getting short-changed. Years from now I will have to explain to him why his big brother has dozens of pictures from his first pumpkin patch trip (or visit to the fair, airplane trip, etc) while he has considerably less--and most include that big brother. I don't expect to be able to give RTR the same-- but I'm trying to be as balanced as possible. At least not everything he wears is a hand-me-down.

What the Heck Happened?

As a parent, do you wonder what the heck happened, where is all the time going? I look back on my pregnancies and think of that time of waiting like walking up hill to reach a mesa... sure there's some effort involved but once you get to the top (give birth) you'll be rewarded with an amazing view. But I now think it wasn't a mesa but a summit and the trail back down is steeper and there's no leisurely pace and these babies are always just a little bit ahead of you. Each day is one more day that sweet babe is a little farther away from you. This picture of RTR is when he was three weeks old--back in June!