Massive Halloween Post of Promised Media

Wow, I took a lot of pictures since Saturday.  This includes 188 takes from our costume photo shoot in the park.  But it's REALLY hard to get a picture of a toddler not staring at the ground and not turning away from you, so I feel justified.

Since I mentioned it, here are the final costume pictures!

Hank Hill

 

Daria

 (Unlike Miranda, I WORE a costume but people didn't realize it until I asked them to guess who I was.)

 And Link from the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker!

Not Robin Hood, not an elf (especially not a "she's so cute!" elf- he must really need a haircut), and not a little green giant (whatever that is).

Da daaaa, dadadada daaaaaaa!

 (Hey, I promised lots of photos, didn't I?  This is down from 188 remember.)

We carved pumpkins with Brian this weekend, as you are already aware (I think I fixed the video).

We also went to a party thrown by the parents of Jack's play buddy, Wolfie.  Wolfie has an awesome toy room.  

Sunday Ben decided we would wear costumes to church.  Those pins are QR codes, that when scanned with your smart phone bring up our costume photos. 

And finally we arrive at tonight, the Big Night.  By a Halloween miracle I got off work a little after 4 and dodged a callback, giving me time to meet Ben and Jack in the middle of their trick-or-treating outing.  I about died when I walked up to this:


More photos and videos:

(Ben's gentle, fatherly pushing in these photos turn my heart to mush)

This sexy nurse at the Chinese Massage store asked for a photo with Jack.  We hope she recognized him. 

People aged 18-30 seemed to get his costume.  The game store people didn't ("Oh, he's a little Zelda!") and Ben will never forgive them.

The only actual trick-or-treating we did was Brian's house, and Jack was too scared of his ghoul bowl to take any.  

Back at home he was excited to light the pumpkins and greet the kids.  I had to put a bowl out after bed time to prevent door bells from waking up Jack.  Overall though, Halloween is so much better with a kid than without.

There is all kinds of sticky in my house now.

Link!

Jack learned the trade of trick-or-treating fast! I met Ben at the mall after work. Jack has a death grip on his candy bucket. He's convinced a few ladies to give him seconds with his nodding + "more" signing. Video and high quality costume photos to come.

Jack-o-lanterns (what else?)

Jack has the process backwards. Brian shares his goop joy.

Spookies

Pumpkin gathering yesterday before the snowstorm today.

More of the same

Lest you think I live a life of leisure, you should know I had to work 8 hours on Sunday.  Blech.  I hate my weekends on call.  The worst of it is the on and off of patient treatments.  It felt like hourly the plan was changing.  I can't stand that.  So just know that I choose to blog about my days off because those are the fun days, the days I live for. 

Like this morning.  Happily I did not have to go back into work last night, despite being paged at 5 AM.  I slept in until the sound of monsters in the living room woke me up.  Jack was running around in his PJs growling and roaring.  I poured myself some cereal and a small bowl for Jack.  I've finally learned that he is a social eater and throws a fit if I'm eating and he's not.  Rather than share my food I try to get a snack size for him.  Once at the table, he demanded I put some entertainment on the computer.  Spoiled? Yes, probably. 




You can watch the video we were watching here on Hulu.

Despite a slight cold I'm going to Zumba this afternoon.  It will be my fourth class.  I went twice in August, then couldn't go back until last week.  Strange that I was scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays as soon as I had a class I wanted to attend.  Last week they gave us coin belts to jingle on our hips and that made it even more fun!  I found one of our routines on youtube, if you still have no idea what I'm talking about. 

Jack's Halloween costume is done.  You all are going to DIE from the cuteness!  I have no idea what I'll be yet.  Motherhood makes you selfless that way ;-)

Fall is the best!

Confession: I watch a reality TV competition that's not about dance.

The Sing-Off is my holiday season guilty pleasure.

I love the colorful, coordinated clothes.  They make me a smile.
I love that it begins in the fall and ends right before Christmas.
I love Ben Folds.  And that they ditched the stupid girl judge for a smart girl judge. 
I'm rooting for Afro-Blue, Urban Method (yay Denver!), and Vocal Point (meh, BYU).

But the best part for me is I can watch it with Jack.  He has started dancing for real - picking up his feet and spinning in circles.  And he LOVES to clap with the audience.  When the DVR hiccups he signs for "more" and nods at the TV until it starts again.
 


I mean, who wouldn't like this?

(PS, I watch these behind schedule, so no spoilers please!)

Friends

What are we doing?

So far today I have:
Ridden in 5 cars
Flown in a plane
Driven in 3 states
Been peed on
Been attacked by a vulture
Ate a hamburger with Canadian bacon
And there's a rifle in my trunk.

A Fall-liscious Sweater

 

 I finished this sweater for Jack in about a month.  Pretty fast!  I'm happy with the fit.  It's a little snug, but is supposed to stretch with wear and washing.  The sleeves are easily rolled back.  The color is great on him.  Not that he cares about that sort of thing.

 

 Yes, he wanted to eat these wormy apples.

Did NOT like sitting in a tree. 

  Dah!

Over the Mountains

 I had three days off in the middle of the week and my folks were kind enough to let me and Jack crash their house!  It was super fun to play with them and their big yard.  Ben had some quiet bachelor time.  I took a lot of pictures and posted the lot of them on Flickr.  I'll just leave you with Jack modeling two outfits my mom made for Andy at this age. 

Baby Talk

We hear about other friends' babies talking and worry that Jack doesn't talk yet.  It's not that we're fretting, but there's a twinge of "oh! why isn't MY kid saying words yet?  So I made a list to make us feel better.  Apparently, speech therapists include signs and animal sounds in their word count.  Jack just turned 16 months old.  And he's still the best, even if he doesn't have many words.


Words
Jack's only, but much repeated, word
Da = dog, dad, cat, animal, baby, . . . thing

Said a few times but not consistently
Buh = ball

Said once
Joo = juice
Nana = banana
Bohk = book
Weeza = weasel 
Kittah = kitty

Animal sounds
Strongly knows with animal name verbalized OR shown picture prompt
Wolf = howls with head back
Tiger = roars with claws (kind of a "raaah")
Monster = growls with claws (more of a "graaaw")
Dog = woof

Knows weakly with verbal sound demonstration AND picture prompts
Monkey = ooo or hah with body bobbing
Owl = haaa
Sheep = bah

Signs
More (which he morphed into "want" and uses when being polite, kind of like "please")
Drink (also morphed to "want" when he strongly wants something)
Sleep
Thank you (with prompting)
Up
All done

 Left: Wolf                                      Right: Monster