Carving Pumpkins

*Editor's Note: Please note at the end of this post that I have NOTHING against dentists. I'm glad we have dentists and love all of our friends here going to dental school. It was the fact that this person made me feel like a bad mother that my bear claws came out.

For family night on Monday, I was feeling fun and adventurous, so we decided to make sugar cookies and carve pumpkin. No there is no "s" on the end. We used to have more than one pumpkin to carve, but we found it was rotten and Emerson had stepped in the gunk so it was promptly tossed out. (Remember though how we picked out our pumpkins in complete darkness? Hence the rotten ugly pumpkin.)

E wasn't too sure about the stuff Daddy was pulling out of the pumpkin. Luckily stroller is close by watching over him.

Tell me these two are not the same person.

Daddy let E take a whack at it with our little blunt-edged pumpkin saw

I wish the pumpkin had dangling toes too

He loved spreading the flour on the table

He was pro at pushing down the cookie cutters and even made grunting noises to demonstrate that great effort was being made. There were silly little thumb prints in all the cookies surrounding the ones he cut out.

He was sooo good at transferring the cookies to the cookie sheet

He only smashed like, all of them. :)

And yes, we're horrible parents because we let him eat a cookie at the end. *Gasp!* Not SUGAR! Oh well, it's ok because Ben isn't going to school to become a dentist. Just a doctor. Therefore we don't care if his teeth rot. (Someone actually insinuated that yesterday. Grrr.) And yes, we're also planning to let him eat some of his Halloween candy. I guess I'd better run out and buy a toothbrush finally. (Hope you're catching the thick sarcasm here. We obviously have a toothbrush and wield it daily.)

18 Months

E with his jack-e-lantern

Emerson went to the doctor on Monday for his 18 month appointment. I told him we were going to the doctor, and the closest reference point in his little mind is "tractor" so he immediately started saying "bubububub" (his tractor noise) and was content as could be. He wasn't even really upset when we got there and there was no tractor in sight.

Our little guy is a runt!

He weighs 21 lbs. 13 oz.

He is 31 inches tall.

His head is still in the 50th percentile. He has a very good head.

We love our little Emerson. He is growing and learning so much! Some of his/our favorite things about him are:

He is obsessed with firetrucks, tractors, and semi trucks and has sound effects to describe all of them. He just discovered trains at a friend's house. (hint hint Santa)

He can sign: more, please, thank you, flower, star, moon, banana.

He can say: caR, caRs, beah, beaR, mom, dad, more, outside, piggy, elmo, show, drink (aight aight), nanana (banana), Pa (grandpa), Ama (grandma), Fi (Stephy), Abaya (Bradley), Nay (Natalie), Sott (Scott), Shysh (Ashley), yeah, no no no, hi, teeth, juice, that, there, eye, nose, toes, Jesus, and cheese. (Those last two sound very similar...). Today he's just started saying "what's that?" although it sounds more like "wassah?"

He loves to give and blow kisses and hugs.

He loves to watch his "shows". (Baby Signing Time, Elmo's World, Baby Einstein, Super Why)

He loves to go outside.

He likes to be held when he wakes up from his nap.

He has a good little sense of humor and cracks himself up. He also loves to laugh when Mommy and Daddy are being silly.

He likes to dance to music.

He likes to "color" which means loading and unloading the crayons while sitting at the table with a blank sheet of paper.

He is getting better at minding and following directions.

He loves anything with wheels and calls it a car. He can often be found pulling his wagon or pushing his stroller loaded with blocks, animals, and cars.

He loves reading stories, especially if they have firetrucks, tractors, or cars in them.

He gets excited when Daddy "Da" comes home from school. Yesterday he ran up to him and said enthusiastically "Hi Da!" and gave him a big hug. What a warm welcome.

18 months is a big milestone, mostly because it means one glorious thing...NURSERY! He went for the first time while we were in Utah and only cried a little and asked for "mama" when Grandma came in to do singing time. He's been excited to go in but then cries a little after awhile when he realizes he doesn't know anyone; not enough for them to bring him to us yet though. He loves playing with the toys and enjoys snack time and singing time from what I hear.

Emerson, we're so glad you're in our family! You brighten our day and make us laugh. We love you!

Circleville Pumpkin Festival

For our date night last Friday, Ben and I went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. We felt a little bit like mean parents not taking Emerson since it's supposed to be such a fun thing, but when we got there we were SO glad we didn't have him and the stroller to maneuver around because it was pouring rain. We were waiting for the parade to start and the sky just opened up and dumped on everybody. I felt bad for the people carrying their food and watching it get soaked. Especially the people with nachos.

We watched the little parade and made all sorts of funny comments about the floats and the millions of Freemasons in the parade. It was fun to joke around and flirt with my hubby. It felt like we were dating again or something! We loved the parade. It totally beat the Hilliard 4th of July parade by a landslide, mostly because there were actual floats and not a baseball team in sight.

As for the pumpkiny fallish things we tried, the mini pumpkin donuts were our favorite. Second was definitely the apple cider slush. Sooo good, with a surprisingly strong apple taste. We also tried sugar waffles, had a piece of pumpkin pie, and got some candied almonds for the drive home. Among the things that were pumpkiny that we didn't try was pumpkin fudge, pumpkin chili, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin taffy, and I'm sure there were even more. These all just looked/sounded gross. Then there was the usual fair food and rides, but we just had a good time holding hands and watching people, looking at the pumpkins, and laughing.

It's funny that we look forward to our date nights so much and then when we're on the date we just end up talking about Emerson and what a funny and cute little guy he is. We're always glad to go back at the end of the night to pick him up from the babysitter's house. But don't get me wrong, we wouldn't trade our date nights for anything. It's so nice to be in a babysitting group with 2 other families in the ward because we tend one night and then get 2 nights out. Plus all the kids are so good and so cute and Emerson loves playing with them.

Boo at the Zoo

We went to Boo at the Zoo on Thursday with some girls from the ward. We realized once we got there that our kids were the only ones dressed up...but that was ok because they were the cutest anyway. Plus it's never a bad thing to get some adorable pictures with your son and his best buddy. Every time I tend Tucker and Emerson wakes up in the morning it's like the biggest and best surprise I could give him. I can hardly get him to sit down and eat breakfast. They are so cute together playing peek-a-boo and watching Elmo's World...and of course stealing toys from each other as much as I try to encourage sharing. It's pretty cute when they have to say goodbye too because they are so willing to give hugs to each other. Britni and I can't stop laughing when they keep going back for more. (I think they're both praise junkies and know we like it when they hug.)

So it turns out the actual Boo at the Zoo event is held on weekends with treat stations and such. We ventured over there today with Ben and got E some treats, which he caught onto pretty quickly. I don't think I've ever seen him sign "more" and "please" so much. I took advantage of this and bribed him into learning the sign for "thank you" as well.

Such cute little monsters

And such good friends (They seriously give each other like 8 hugs when Britni picks him up.)

My favorite little beah...I can't decide which picture I love the most.

Emerson decided it was a good idea to sit on the pumpkin we picked up from Circle S the other night...so he did. Very matter-of-factly.

Circle S Farm

We've been in need of some serious fall fun, so we ventured over to Circle S Farm on Wednesday night with a few friends from the ward. Emerson had a great time with all things farm:

Testing out a tractor

Throwing hay

Cracking himself up throwing hay

Gazing longingly at the people getting rides from the tractor

Saying "To heck with this line!" (mentally) and trying to climb the fence to get to the cool tractor

FINALLY getting pulled by the tractor to the pumpkin patch

Miraculously discovering a few pumpkins in the pitch dark and then racing back to the tractor before it left us to be picked up by the next round in 30 minutes or so.

Not to mention the delicious pumpkin donuts and juice.

And we didn't even step in any manure.

A Little Preview...

...of Emerson's Halloween costume.


What could be more fitting than a beah?
And yes, that is a giraffe peeking over his shoulder. :)

California/Utah Trip

We got to visit my sister Natalie in Disneyland while she's doing an internship there for a semester through Utah State. We had a WONDERFUL time. She was a great hostess, knew all the ins and outs of Disneyland, and didn't even crash once on the scary California freeways.

Ben and E and I flew from Columbus straight to Disneyland, and the rest of the fam met us early the next morning. Nat was able to get us in the first night for free so we could watch the fireworks. E was so wired after such a long flight, but he was totally happy and could sense that we were going somewhere magical because he kept letting out random squeals of delight.

We went nonstop for the two days we were there and had a wonderful time. E was such a trooper and even though he showed no emotion on the rides, at least he wasn't crying.

Some highlights:

1. Watching Emerson meet "Beah" was truly magical. I was laughing so hard and I was so cuted out that I was almost crying.

2. Convincing Ben that he should use the extra fast pass on Roger Rabbit by himself since it's his favorite ride and watching him sheepishly get back in line.

3. Planning out our fast pass usage with Dad.

4. Ama riding the train over and over again so Emerson could take a nap while we were at the park. (And watching him pretty much the whole day so we could ride rides.)

5. Taking Emerson on the kiddie rides.

6. Getting soaked to the bone on Splash Mountain and having to waddle around until my underwear dried.

7. Watching Fantasmic and wondering if Steamboat Willie was going to have a heart attack.

8. Averting my eyes from the literally thousands and thousands of gay people that showed up for Gay Days and trying not to hurl from their PDA.

9. Brad realizing that the two people making out next to him were, in fact, 2 guys. Ew.

10. Brad jumping 10 feet in the air at the end of Ghost Galaxy (Space Mountain).

11. The Haunted Mansion. Awesome at Halloween.

12. Natalie doing her 2-fingered point. (It's rude to use just one you know.)

13. Riding Tower of Terror--my favorite ride of all time.

14. Waiting in line for the new Toy Story ride with the whole family and then actually loving the ride.

15. Being delighted by the fact that despite it being UEA weekend, the lines weren't that bad.

On Main Street at Disneyland

E with regular bear and diaper-bag sized bear

The fam

E loved riding on Uncle Brad's (or should I say Abaya's) shoulders and digging his chin into the top of his head...

Ready for naptime. (Refer to my naptime post if you need a reminder of how E sleeps with his little beah.

Pure joy.

The whole fam with beah

Eeyore was also nice

As was Tigger

We had an extra fast pass to this ride, so Ben got to use it all by himself since it's his favorite ride. My favorite part was his maniacal laugh as he spun and spun and spun

After Disneyland, we flew back to Utah to visit. Ben got to stay for 2 days, and I was supposed to stay until the 13th but ended up extending my trip to the 16th because I had a bout with the stomach flu along with most of my family.

The only good thing about getting sick on this vacation was that my mom was there to help me with E. There have been so many times that I've been sick in Columbus and just wished and wished that my mom was there. I guess my wish came true. :) Before and after the sickness we had a good time hanging out, going shopping, and eating out at all my favorite places. But of course I never remember to take pictures of that stuff.

We got to visit Discovery Gateway (formerly the Children's Museum) and we all got in free with my COSI pass!

What a poor, innocent boy...a mere 48 hours before he was down with the stomach flu.

E had a good time trying to figure out how to push/pull 3 toys at once.

He thought the helicopter was cool until it started making noise.

Oh that stomach flu. We were pretty sure E got it from Discovery Gateway because well, how could you NOT get sick from a place like that? I was so sad that he was so miserable and so scared about what was happening, but he was very cuddly with me for a whole day. He was so pathetic asking for more water and "juice" (read: Sprite) because he was so thirsty. He even learned to ask for me ("Mmmmama!") on this trip whereas he usually gets away with grunts and pointing.

So despite the flu, this was a perfect trip. To the fam: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for everything! We had a wonderful time.

Meeting Beah

I'm actually not back from my California/Utah trip yet, but I had to post this adorable video of Emerson meeting his biggest hero, Winnie-the-Pooh. He was in heaven.



He also loved Tigger a fair amount, too.

Oh Yeah

Emerson sometimes gets on this "oh yeah" kick. It cracks us up. Please try to disregard the grotesque bruise in the video.

Shiner

It doesn't show up in the picture as well as I'd hoped, but Emerson has quite the bruise right between his eyes. I know what you're thinking, and no I didn't karate chop him between the eyes when he got out of hand. He was walking like a normal small boy and decided he would fall onto the corner of the dang coffee table (me watching, feeling helpless as it unfolded in slow motion before my very eyes). He screamed bloody murder and I was trying to remain calm so that he would remain calm while thoughts of a one-eyed 18 month old raced through my head. Much to my relief when I was able to examine him, both eyes were intact, not dilated, and he seemed to be able to see through them just fine. And then the goose egg hatched. And it's still kind of taking awhile to go down. It was a lovely greenish yellow color today and I was hoping it would fade a little before we fly to California, but much to my chagrin, Emerson decided to fall off his rocking horse (with me watching and once again seeing it in slow motion and remaining helpless) and re-bruise his bruise. So now there's a nice fresh reddish purple bruise on top of the green. I guess the upside is that it takes the focus away from the original. When Ben got home and I told him about what happened, we looked at each other and the same thought passed between us "Aren't wounds in different stages of healing signs of child abuse!?" As if we weren't feeling bad enough with the looks people give us any time we've ventured out of the house the past 5 days since he got the bruise. Grrr. We might chop up all the wooden things in our house that hurt our child and use them for firewood. Or maybe he should just not fall.

Happy 26th Birthday Ben!

The birthday boy

Benny with his loot

Benny with his requested "Old Swampy" cake

This cake was from my Hello Cupcake book. Can you tell that I love it?

We ended up celebrating Ben's birthday on the 25th this year instead of the 24th because he was studying for a big test. We went to dinner at Olive Garden, enjoying the time we had to talk without having to entertain a certain 17 1/2 month old little boy, although we love him. Then we picked Emerson up at the babysitter's house, opened Ben's presents, and enjoyed some of his alligator cake. Happy Birthday Ben! We love you lots and are so glad to have you. You work so hard all the time and are so great at being a husband and daddy. Good luck on your pharmacology test. :)

Yellow Springs

Us by the mermaid river

Us and Emerson with his tiny jacket.

Taylee loving Emerson

Daddy and Emer

The boyz

I meant to post this a long time ago...like way closer to Labor Day since that's when we took this little excursion, but I just barely got around to it. We went with the Richards to Yellow Springs because it wasn't too far away, and we wanted something fun to do. There were some trails to walk which proved to be a little difficult with strollers and it was raining, but we still had lots of fun. Taylee even spotted Ariel in the river. Lucky girl. We stopped for lunch at Young's Farm and we fed some goats and let the kids sit on the model tractors and cow mannequins. Emerson and Taylee weren't too sure about the nasty goat tongues licking the brown pellets out of their hands, (and neither was I) so we made sure to load up on hand sanitizer afterward. Despite losing Candice and Mathis for awhile on one of the trails, the trip was a success. Taylee had a really good time forcing Emer to hold her hand, and even though he pretended not to, I know he really liked it. Thanks for inviting us Richards! And thanks for the beautiful pictures as well. :)

Untitled

I gave Emerson his breakfast the other morning while I was busy doing my TurboJam and I heard him start to whimper. Apparently he figured out how to pull his shirt over his head but couldn't pull it all the way up or back down. It must be so frustrating to be 17 1/2 months.

I Melt

I love when the special time of day rolls around for a nap. After playing hardcore all morning, reading stories, watching Baby Signing Time, battling through piano lessons with little guy awake, it's just glorious. I love when he's made it through a few bites of lunch as well before falling asleep in the highchair at precisely 12:15 every afternoon. I can't help but melt as we're slowly walking up the stairs with the faint smell of residual peanut butter wafting up from his face and hands, and while sucking his thumb, he lays his head down on my shoulder and goes limp. Then I carefully place him in his crib and he groggily searches around for "beah", hooks his right arm around him, rubs his face on the mattress, settles on his tummy, and re-inserts left thumb with his bum in the air. Then the next 2 1/2-3 hours are ripe with possibilities for Mommy to get things done. :)

Silly Boy Update

Emerson loves to go sit in the cupboard and try to shut the door on himself. He also happens to love when Tucker comes over for a sit in the cupboard and tries to help by shutting the door on him. Don't worry though, I put a stop to it before Emerson smashed Tucker's legs. :) Then he loves to pop out of the cupboard with his expression and giggle that says "Here I am!" (As if we couldn't see his legs dangling out the bottom or his fingers curled around the door which are turning white from straining so hard to shut the door.)

Here is Emerson modeling the letter magnets I made for him also from the Family Fun website. (Did you know that the letter magnets you can buy at the store that are plastic are only for 3+years? I'm not sure why...) He liked it the other day when we went through all the letters and made the sounds. Does he remember anything? Of course not. But "z" and "s" make him laugh.

Musical Instrument

I was feeling super bored the other day and so was Emerson so while he took his nap I did some research on the Family Fun website. Just reading about the projects made me feel like a better mom! I got all inspired and made him some toddler-friendly alphabet fridge magnets and a little musical instrument. Of course we didn't have any plastic cups...so I just used plastic bowls instead. Then I took it one step further and let him decorate it with stickers. He carefully placed all the little circle stickers practically right on top of each other so there was this big blob of stickers in the middle. But boy, was he proud. It was so worth the time it took to make this (around 30 seconds) because he loved it so much.



And since I heart Family Fun now, I added a link on the blog.

Neyack

That's the sound you make when peanut butter gets stuck on the roof of your mouth. My dear little 17-month-old had his first real experience with this today. He was acting really solemn and kept putting his pointer finger in his mouth and wasn't flinging food off his tray like he does when he's finished, so I knew something must be going on. I looked in his mouth and discovered that his bite of peanut butter sandwich had adhered to the whole roof of his mouth. I guess that's what you get when you lick off all the jelly first...like he does EVERY time. I asked him if he wanted help and he said "yeah" (but more monotone than usual) and opened his mouth for me to dig it out. Then he took the soggy little mass from me and tried to eat it again, but I took it and threw it away instead. He was fine with that. He didn't have the energy to fight me because he was too near to falling asleep. It made me giggle.

Then he did it again after his nap with a Nutri-Grain bar.

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

I got all cuted out by Emerson riding his little horsey this morning in his jammies, so I tried to capture it on film, but you know that never works because as soon as they see the camera they start acting all weird. So this first video is just a teaser...and I promise I wasn't crabby even though I sound like it.



In this video he eventually does get on the horse, but there is still little, if no rocking. But it does show that he has a little agenda that he's running through in his mind of all the tasks he must do. He's a very busy boy, even if none of us know what he's trying to accomplish. And I hope that the way he treats his bears is no indication of how he will treat his future children...or more immediately, the other children in nursery. :(

Who Me?

Emerson's new favorite thing to do is grab Ben's wallet, (why he leaves it on the coffee table when he gets home, I don't know...) open it up, and carefully select his American Express card. (Consistently it's the AMEX...maybe he realizes we get reward points for using it?) This usually occurs when Ben is passed out on the couch (or close to it) after a long day at school and he just doesn't have the energy or reflexes to catch the little beastie as he runs screaming and giggling for his life. His safe haven is under the kitchen table. Now where could he have learned to do that? :)