Mommy's Little Pumpkin...

A few days ago, we dressed Evey in her pumpkin outfit from Grandma Nita. This gave Maddox and me the giggles. Too funny...

Speaking of my little pumpkin, the poor thing got her first round of immunizations yesterday. She wailed with each shot - but recovered pretty quickly afterwards. Then about 6 hours later she became very fussy indeed. Maddox never really seemed effected too much by his shots - so I was caught off guard. Once the Tylenol kicked in - she was much better. I'm happy to say that my sweet girl seems to be feeling much better this morning - back to smiling and laughing.


And here is my scary little ghost...


This is his interpretation of a ghost when playing in our curtains. He is very excited about Halloween and all things scary (as long as it is not TOO scary). We were working on his skeleton costume last night.

Maddox story: This morning I made waffles and plated his with bananas to look like a face. When he saw my plate, he asked where my "Halloween face" was. I said, "Oh...I didn't make a face for me. You are special." He thought for a second and replied, "Yeah...and you are fragile." :-) That is what I tell him when he tries to rough house with me. He will tell you that mommy is for "hugs and cuddles" and daddy is for "beatings." Haha

Today's Halloween agenda includes making festive cupcakes and carving pumpkins. We were going to carve the pumpkins last night...but when he came in after playing outside quite a bit and receiving visits from 3 grandparents (PaPa, Grandma Nita, and Grandma Donna) he needed a snack...and apparently a nap. While snacking with droopy eyes he turned and said, "Mommy, I love you" in the drunken manner that signals sleep is but moments away. I then got a hug and after a few more bites of his snack, another hug. But this hug he wanted to give me on my lap. And then he was out. :-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2 Months Today!

I'm never sure whether I am supposed to answer in weeks or months when asked Evey's age. It seems that people tend to measure infancy in weeks. Evey will be 9 weeks this Monday...but she is 2 months old today! We celebrated with yet another photo shoot to create a great picture for the baby book. Here are some of my favorites:

And check out all of her creases and folds. :-)

Here she is in a more restful mood later in the day. How sweet is the bracelet? Love it!!!

And just because...I must include this shot of Maddox. I find him terribly handsome! Though I am slightly biased. ;-)

Enchanted Forest

I've been meaning to post but it has been a busy week!

Last weekend Jay and I took Maddox to the Enchanted Forest at George Owens Nature Park...and waited in line for 2.5 hours. Was it worth it? The votes are in: 2 no, 1 yes. You can probably figure out where the one yes came from. :-) Maddox had a fabulous time and didn't even seem to mind the wait. He didn't complain once. And upon exiting the forest after we finally went through, he announced "Let's do that again!"

I don't mean for the negative votes to indicate that it was not fun - it was very cute and nicely done. It's just that it was a beautiful evening and everyone in town turned out to enjoy it. It was scheduled from 7-9 pm. We got there just before 7 and we were lined up the hill, out the gates, across the street, and down a ways. We headed into the Enchanted Forest right at about 9:30pm. When we left around 10:15, there were still people in line with probably another 45 min to an hour wait. Apparently they have been doing this for 15 years and it was record breaking attendance when we went last Saturday.

They are doing it again this Friday and Saturday, I would suggest anyone who wants to attend arrive by at least 6:30! I don't have any pictures from the actual forest b/c they ask that you not blind the performers with flash. The performances ranged in quality from quite lackluster to surprisingly talented. My favorite was the guy who did Captain Jack Sparrow - he did a dead on impression. Maddox's favorite was when Batman came in on a zip line to save Robin and fight the Riddler. The rather dramatic (fake) fight taking place only 6 feet away had him quite enthralled. I think he also enjoyed the Harry Potter performance. And it's the only time I've ever experienced a hay ride where the finale was a rather speedy ascent up a pretty steep hill.

Anyways...even though I didn't get any forest pics, I am still happy I took my camera. It gave me something to play with while we waited! I got several cool light shots from all of the kids running around in the dark with lights and glow sticks. Here are a couple of my favorites...

And I can't help but to include a couple cute pics of Maddox posing with the wooden jack-o-lanterns...

Growing so fast

Evey is growing so fast - and she has moved on to 3-6 month clothes. I took a few pics of her in this cute little dress a while back because I realized it was probably the last time she would wear it. I love this photo...


And because one is never enough...

I'm actually waiting for her to wake up to get a few pictures of her in another cute outfit she won't be able to wear much longer. I'm having an awfully good time dressing her. I even bought her a little bracelet yesterday - too cute! Her first piece of jewelry. :-) It is so tiny!

Halloween Fun

A few pics of Maddox enjoying the Halloween festivities. Here he is inspecting the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. Anytime he catches a glimpse of them outside - he needs to go out and get a closer look.

He is most fascinated by the "web" that we put out in front of our house. Here he is showing it off for the camera with Grandma Nita.

Even though he knows it's not a real web - he still doesn't want to have any contact with it. I guess just to be safe. He likes to watch people come and go at our house to see if they get caught in the web. Papa got caught several times on the way to his car yesterday. I guess it really is dangerous. :-)

And here is a picture of the two of us where I don't have several chins. :-)))

And finally, here is a picture of him proudly displaying the necklace Grandma Nita gave us. It lights up! Maddox finds this to be super cool. Actually - I just asked him to describe his feelings about the necklace and he says it is "cool and stupid awesome." Stupid for Maddox is a good thing. Kind of like when bad became good. :-) I hate him using that word - but I'm trying to ignore it in hopes it will go away. Seems like the more I frowned on its use - the more he used it. As usual, everything with Maddox is a power struggle. I can't imagine where he got his stubborness.

My little photographer

Earlier today - I sent the entire uncut and unedited version of the latest installment of Maddox photos through winkflash. These are the photos taken with the camera Maddox got for his birthday. I decided to share a couple of my favorites here on the blog as well.

This one appears to have been taken while jumping on the bed - one of Maddox's favorite activites. He also loves jumping on the couch. I know - we are fantastic parents. :-) Anyways - this one makes me smile.

And this one is hilarious. I now remember walking into his room right when he was taking this photo. He was holding the camera out in front of himself taking a self portrait with a cheesy smile (not pictured - I'm sure out of artistic intent - ha) and a thumbs up. I have no idea where he learned this - but it really makes me laugh.

Smiles and Pumpkins

Evey is smiling much more frequently these days. It's so nice to see her cute little smile on a regular basis. Sometimes we are even surprised by a huge grin and a laugh.

Although most of her waking hours are still spent in serious contemplation of the fascinating world around her.

Last week - Maddox chose to learn about pumpkins (inspired I'm sure by our recent trip to the pumpkin patch). Here he proudly displays one of his "jack-o-lantern" projects. He is extremely excited about Halloween this year. Anytime we are in the car we are on "halloween decoration" hunt. He keeps changing his mind on the costume. He was going to be a bat...then a witch...now a skeleton. He is having the same problem with choosing a learning topic for this week. First it was going to be grasshoppers...then he said ants...now he says ghosts. The boy has inherited my indecisiveness. :-)

Wings of Love

Last night we went to a Wings of Love show at our local library. It was really cool - and Maddox had a great time. Here are Maddox and Evey enjoying the show...

Check out that extra chin! Evey requested a walk with PaPa shortly after the show began. She was fascinated by the lights on the ceiling. I guess the light show was better than the bird show in Evey's opinion.

There were birds that rode bicycles and jeeps; some demonstrated talents in bowling and basketball. I think just watching the birds be ornery and misbehave was actually the most entertaining part of the show. Maddox even got to pet one of the little birds. He wanted to pet Swoop the owl - but this was discouraged for obvious reasons.


Swoop is an Eagle Owl and is only 6 months old. He will have a 5 foot wingspan when full grown - and apparently eats goats and deer in his natural habitat (I believe she said Europe, Russia, and Asia). He was by far the most impressive. I will post the rest of the Wings of Love photos on winkflash at some point.

She also had an African Grey Parrot - which reminded me about the recent passing of Alex. I must admit I shed a few tears when I read about Alex's sudden and unexpected death. I have been fascinated by this bird for some time and have always wanted a bird just like him. You can see him in action in Entertaining Parrots (third video down) - a segment from a program I show in my biology classes every year.

Anyways - I recommend Wings of Love. She will have the birds at the Home Show and the American Royal - so if you plan on attending either of those events - make sure you look for these "awesome birds!"


I'm also happy to say that Maddox was just as interested in all of the books at the library as he was in the birds. It was not easy getting him to leave! He wanted PaPa to read him all the books!

Politics

Evey is not happy with the current state of affairs - and she is not afraid to express her views.

While Evey is worn out from worrying about all of the world's suffering and injustices...Maddox is taking things a little less seriously and just enjoying the sheltered little world he knows and loves.

Sorry - couldn't resist. :-)

Caramel Apples

Our first fall adventure...making caramel apples! What ooey gooey yummy fun. Although I do believe Louis was the only kid to actually eat the whole apple! Bryce, Olivia, and Maddox pretty much scraped off caramel and sprinkles. Oh well - made for some cute and festive pics!

Also of note - Olivia has always been quite camera shy. She would see me with the camera and immediately head the other direction. She finally let me take her picture! And I love the result...

SpiderBoy

Maddox's latest learning topic has been spiders...here he proudly (look at that grin) displays a couple of his projects: a spider hat and a spider wreath.

Last week he was stung by a bee (and in it's defense - the bee was provoked) - so now Maddox has chosen bees as the next topic of study. :-)