Carving Pumpkins and other exciting things

Yesterday night for FHE we finally got around to carving pumpkins. Easton tried to help but it was a little difficult to find something he wanted to do and something we approved of. Nathan carved the family pumpkin (Frankenstein) while I carved Easton's (Elmo). Easton did have fun coloring with a marker on his pumpkin for a while. I'm thinking next year we might just let him paint his pumpkin so that he is involved a little more.

Nathan scooping out the pumpkin.

Easton checking out his Elmo pumpkin.

Blair chilling out while we carve pumpkins.

Dad and Easton with finished pumpkin.

Glowing pumpkins

Dad and EE eating pumpkin seeds.

This morning I babysat Emma. I decided it would be fun to make some Halloween sugar cookies since I have been meaning to do them and haven't gotten around to it. It was a little difficult with two little ones but I think we had fun and they actually turned out relatively well.

EE enjoying his cookie.

So you know the cute little pair of underwear that Easton was modeling for the camera the other day? Yep, those exact pair. Well, they no longer exist. No I haven't given up on the whole potty training thing and no I did not throw them out (even though both were a little tempting after today's episode). So, Easton was supposed to be taking a nap (which is becoming more and more rare these days). I thought he was asleep so I decided to take a nap too since I had to get up early this morning to watch Emma and Blair was actually still asleep. An hour goes by and I hear Easton playing in the blinds in the dining room. I walk out there and ask him why he isn't in his bed sleeping and then the smell hits me. I take Easton to the bathroom to change him and make him clean up his mess. I hand him his underwear to clean in the toliet. Things start out relatively good. He swishes it around and then flushes the toilet. Repeats the same pattern a couple of times. Then he flushes the toilet one last time and accidentally lets go of the underwear. I yell, "grab it, grab it!" as I frantically run towards the toilet to try and grab the underwear out myself. But the cute little cars underwear went around and around and around until it vanished. I was too late. I'm just hoping that the toilet will continue to work and not become clogged. Oh, the joys of toilet training.

Not too long after this incident, Easton walks in on me using the bathroom. He looks in the toilet and sees that I went and yells, "yay mommy! You went potty!" and then hands me one of his prizes he got for using the bathroom a few days earlier. I guess he doesn't understand that I've been doing this now for more than 20 years. I got a good laugh though.


I believe that Blair will be a moving disaster here shortly. I put her on her tummy and have started to put some toys in front of her. She has been trying so hard to get to them. If you notice in the video she will every once in a while try and get on her knees (you can see her put her butt in the air).

I took this video a few minutes later. I didn't move her. She is moving back and around. It won't be long until she figures it out and moves forward.

Also, she is really close to sitting up too. If she could just sit still for a while and not move her legs and arms I think she would have it.

Nathan got back from Tacoma Saturday night. He absolutely loves it there. I believe Tacoma will now be our first pick. Now we just have to wait and hope that the Air Force will let Nathan go to an Army Base to train. If they don't then hopefully we wil end up at our second choice in California. We should find out sometime on Dec. 16th. Wish us luck (or not luck I guess if you are hoping for California).

Here are my two boys wearing the ties that I made for them for Halloween. I need to make a few adjustments to the pattern I made for Nathan's tie but overall I was impressed with the results. Yes, they are wearing the same tie (some people probably think this is cute while others probably think it is stupid). In any case I bought the material for Easton's tie but I had so much material left over I decided to make one for Nathan as well.

Easton's really starting to get into singing. He even composes his own songs sometimes (he's talented I know). I really need to get him to do his latest which sounds like he is almost beatboxing. I have no idea where he picked that up from but it makes me laugh everytime he does it. I've even started to do the boom boom's with him. Here's a video of him kind of singing his ABCs (I sing the ABCs to Easton everyday before nap time). I overheard Easton singing it to Nathan for Nathan's "nap" which he did a really good job at. I came into the room with the camera and asked him to sing it again and this is what I got. Not his best but I was just glad that he actually was willing to sing it (he got a little distracted).

Blair is really starting to enjoy her jumper. Here's a video of her in it.

Revealing the costumes

We went to our first of what will seem like many Halloween parties this year. The student spouses club at Nathan's school does one every year and today was the day. We were about a half hour late because apparently I didn't give us enough time to get ready (I figured an hour and a half would be plenty of time but I think it took more like two hours). Oh well. I almost felt like the party was a little too long even though we got there so late.

It is a little hard to take pictures of your kids when you have a 2 year old who won't hold still and keep his costume on and when you are wearing the other one. We only got a couple pictures that others were nice enough to take. I didn't have time to fix Blair's costume to look half way descent in the pictures above so when we got home I took some pictures of the kids myself. These were the best I could get.

Easton of course refused to wear his costume. I don't exactly blame him since it does seem a little awkward to wear. It was hard to find a box small enough for his body but big enough to fit his head through a hole cut in the top (I blame the head on his dad). However, I was able to get him to wear it for the costume judging contest briefly which sadly he didn't win any awards. He's still the cutest little Lego I've ever seen. Also, he was a trooper and wore his costume around the school to go trick or treating. I told him he wouldn't get any candy unless he wore his costume. It worked until the last stop which was the health clinic. He refused to take the candy and took his costume off. At least he listens to him mommy right? Once he took his costume off he ran to the fish tank, eventually grabbed a book, and sat down in one of the kids' chairs. When I told him it was time to go he grabbed his book and headed straight for the exam room. Apparently we must visit the health clinic too much because he has the whole routine down. He was really upset when we actually left without been seen by anyone.

Blair was also a trooper. She was so tired and I'm guessing pretty hot in her costume (I know I was). Everyone loved her costume and thought she was the cutest little thing. She definitely loved the attention. Blair actually won the best overall costume. She got a prize which Easton quickly claimed the second it was handed to me. I really don't think he understands that it is hers and not his. Oh, well she has a while before she can really enjoy it. In the mean time I guess Easton gets the privilege of playing with it. Isn't she the cutest star gazer lily ever?

Pumpkin Patch

Nathan got home Tuesday afternoon and didn't have to go in for work. We decided to make a trip to the pumpkin patch since Nathan left this morning for an interview in Tacoma, Washington and won't be back until Saturday night.

Picture of the girls with the cow (and Easton too but he was way too scared to get too close to the animals).


Picture of the boys. This is as close as Easton would get. As long as someone was between him and the animals he was fine.

goat. They would walk across the bridge that you had to go under.

Pig. Easton loved the pigs. That was probably because they were the only animals that wouldn't try to jump over the fence to hopefully get some food.

Easton getting a wheel barrow ride from Daddy. He started out like this but ended up like this...



I have no idea why he was laying this way. He does this in the bath tub.

Easton searching for a pumpkin.

Dad and Easton found the family pumpkin.

Easton decided he needed his very own Easton size pumpkin.

Easton ran all over the place. He loved going to the farm.

Silly goat. This is why Easton was so scared. They kept putting their heads out and Easton was afraid they were going to get him.

Easton afraid of the ducks. Of course if you stand behind dad they won't get you.

For some reason the ducks loved Nathan's shoes. That white duck wouldn't stop pecking at them.

This was the nice surprise we got from Blair half way through the pumpkin patch. It got everywhere. I'm considering potty training her too!

Happy as can be now that she isn't all poopy. We didn't have a change of clothes for her so she had to go home in only her diaper (well and a headband too of course).

Newest Project

Whenever Nathan is gone I like to keep myself busy at night while the kids are asleep. Well, as many of you know Nathan was out of town Monday for his second part of his step 2 test in Atlanta, Georgia. I've been wanting to try this out for a while now but with Halloween around the corner I had to get the costumes done first. Well, I got the costumes done Sunday so I definitely had time to experiment Monday night. The pattern I had for the tie was for 4-7 year olds. Obviously Easton doesn't fit in that category so I had to do some adjustments. I think it turned out well and just in time for Halloween. It is hard to see but it is a black tie with orange spider webs. It took a little while but hopefully the next one will go a little fast now that I have one under my belt.

Potty Training

I started potty training Easton almost a week ago. I was going to wait until he was 2 1/2 but then it occurred to me that if I waited until then we would really only have 2 weeks until we took off to visit family for 6 weeks. I'm guessing it would take at least 2 weeks for Easton to be semi potty trained (probably more since he is so dang stubborn) and by then visiting family will most likely throw things off and Easton would probably regress (who knows he still might). Anyways, I figured why wait. The more practice he gets in before then the better right? I think he is ready. Whether or not Easton wants to is another story.

I tried to get a picture of Easton from the front but he kept turning his back and sticking his butt out (I guess he wanted everyone to see his cars). I had someone the other day tell me he should be a model (maybe an underwear model?)

It really hasn't been as hard as I was imagining. Yes, it can be difficult sometimes because he is so stubborn but I really think he is starting to get the hang of it. I mean he only had one (I repeat ONE) accident yesterday. I really can't believe how well he is doing. We still have things to work on like having Easton tell us when he has to go instead of me dragging him to the toilet every 1-2 hours. So far he has told me twice that he has to go but that was after I asked him if he had to go and it was probably to stall so he didn't have to go to bed. Oh, well we got to start somewhere. We also need to work on the dreadful number 2 on the toilet. If I'm in the same room as him I generally catch him and we make it to the bathroom, but if I'm not (well I'm sure you can guess what happens). With the helpful advice of Aunt Jessica I've been having Easton clean up his messes. He really isn't liking that very much so hopefully that will speed things up.

We had to cover our couch for obvious reasons.

We have a chart for Easton. Each time he successfully goes in the toilet he gets to either put up a stamp or a sticker. Once he gets a sticker (going 11 times. It was supposed to be 10 but I messed up) he gets to pick a prize from his surprise box. He is a sneaky little guy. When I'm busy cleaning or feeding Blair he will sneak in the bathroom, climb on the toilet seat, climb onto the counter top, grab the stamp or stickers from the shelf, climb back down, and then proceed to decorate his chart until I catch him.

The second day into his potty training (I was setting the timer for every 20-30 min) I brought him to the bathroom, put him on his chair, and nothing happened. He couldn't go. Not too surprising since he just went 20 min earlier but I wanted him to get used to sitting on the toilet and just trying to go. Anyways, Easton tries to push. Nothing. He pushes harder. Still nothing. Finally he pushes a third time and then looks at me and says, "Mommy, broken."

This morning while he was sitting on the toilet he looks down and sees his pjs (batman) and then he starts singing, "na na na na na na na na na na , batman!" I was laughing so hard that he wouldn't stop singing it for the next 10 minutes (no joke). I had to call Nathan and have Easton sing it to him because I thought Nathan would get a kick out of it since he sings it to Easton anytime he wears those pjs.

Rice Cereal

Last night we started the solids (rice cereal). It is hard to believe that Blair is old enough to be eating solid foods now. She really didn't do too bad with it at first but eventually she didn't care much for it as you can see from the videos. I thought she might like it better the second day, but I think it definitely was worse today. She just kept making a sour face with little head twitches and spitting it out. Eventually she started to cry. Not sure if she absolutely hates it, if it was too cold, and/or not fast enough for her. In any case she doesn't want anything to do with it. Maybe within a week she will at least tolerate it. We shall see.

Video #1 (happy and willing to try)

I like how she is talking and telling me all about it.

Video #2 (not really liking it as before).

On another note. Blair is really trying to sit up. If she is on her back she will try really hard to raise her head up hoping the rest of her body will follow. If she is sitting on your lap she hardly needs any support at all. She loves sitting up in the stroller. I'm wondering if her mouth will find her toes first or if she will sit up first.

Don't forget to check out our trip to the zoo post.

Trip to the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. It was kind of a last minute thing. I had planned on asking others to join us, but I kept putting it off and then it was too late. I checked the weather that morning to see what the rest of the week would look like and yesterday looked like it would be the best day to go for a while. So I got us all ready, packed a lunch and got to the metro by 11 (late start). We got the the zoo around noon. I had so much fun with Easton (Blair was there too but she slept most of the time). I think it was just what Easton and I needed some us time. It was a perfect day to go to the zoo. All the animals were out and about. I got some really cool pictures.

Right when we got there they were feeding the river otters. They came running towards us to get their food. Easton got really excited.

Easton couldn't get enough of all the statues around the zoo. If he saw one he had to get on. After a few I stopped taking pictures.

Easton and the panda. This little boy was really scared of this statue because someone snuck behind and scared him. He kept telling the panda to stop because he didn't want it to scare Easton like it did him.

Easton and the bear.

Easton even got on the little red panda statue. I think Easton should have been giving the red panda a piggy back ride.

My cute little Blair finally awake.

Some of my favorite pictures from the zoo of the animals.

When we got home Easton found his gorilla stuffed animal and brought it around the house the rest of the evening. He kept putting it under his clear bucket (I think he was putting it in a cage). At times I found Easton under there too.

This was probably Easton's favorite (of course). I was actually surprised that he didn't roar like crazy at the lions. He just stared at them in amazement. He got really upset when we left them. Some teenage boy was convinced that these were tigers (not sure if he was joking). The girl with him kept telling him they were lions and then she finally said, "why don't you ask the little boy?" (referring to Easton). Easton looks at the teenagers and gives them his "your dumb/why are you talking to me" look and then proceeds to say, "LION! ROAR!" They thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Some zoo workers were getting things ready for the boo at the zoo. Here are some of the animals all dressed up for Halloween.

Elephant

Lion

Monkey

Don't forget to check out Blair eating rice cereal for the first time.