Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week started out kinda rough this year. E came down with a fever and ear infection just before thanksgiving and a couple days later I got a sinus infection. Good news is we both eventually got antibiotics and started feeling better. We spent a couple nights with Grandma W and majority of the week with Grandma K. This trip was hard, however, on E since we hadn't traveled in a while, he wasn't feeling well and also cut a molar. Everyone enjoyed seeing him, but I know he's happy to be home. Thanksgiving day we went to Aunt Kathy's house, ate too much, the boys watched football and the girls helped in the kitchen. Good food and great company made for a wonderful afternoon and dinner. I'm thankful for my amazing family and wonderful friends.

Halloween

Fall is my favorite time of year and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (Dr. M prefers the hot summer weather). Since E is older this year, we were looking forward to a fun costume and possibly his first trick-or-treating adventure. Unfortunately, E goes to bed at 7pm and missed out on the candy. Before he went to bed, however, we strolled around the neighborhood, checked out all the spooky decorations and kids running around in costume and Dr. M and I stayed up to had out candy and watch scary movies after E went to sleep. Fortunately, celebrated Halloween early this year at a friends costume party earlier in the month. E dressed up as a skeleton and I as a tennis player. All of his friends were there, dressed up too. He carried his little orange pumpkin bucket to collect goodies from all the parents and loved it. We had so much fun seeing everyone dressed up and playing. I promise (no matter what time E goes to bed) that we will trick-or-treat, carve pumpkins and eat lots of candy next year ;) Can't wait!

Can you find our little skeleton?

Halloween night in the neighborhood

14 months!

E is 14 months now. He's grown up so much since his first birthday. He's now toddling everywhere. He walks everywhere now. Going to the mall or store can be challenging because he just wants to walk everywhere. We bought him his very first pair of real shoes, Stride Rites. The same brand of shoes Dr.M and I wore as babies (I hear they're the "best"). Another significant change in E this month is that he's officially taking just one nap a day. This is both good and bad for me. It give us a lot of time to do things during the day, but doesn't give me much time to rest. He's also started to get his first molars (yes, two!) on the bottom. Poor little guy. He's been in a lot of pain, but a little tylenol seems to help. He still chats all the time and is expanding his vocabulary (Dr. M says E knows 20+ words). He's also learned to say several words via sign language. He uses the signs for "more" and "milk" and is working on "please" and "thank you" (thought his says all the words while he signs them). He's growing up so much. It's fun to see him acting and looking more and more like a little boy instead of a baby.

Apples

On October 15, the three of us took a family outing to a local farm. They offer all sorts of fruits and veggies to pick year round, but this time of year apples are in season (we picked peaches there when I was still pregnant with E last July). It was a chilly October morning, but we bundled up and headed to the farm. It's only about a 20 minute drive, but E fell asleep on the way there. It was early morning so there weren't many people there. We took the shuttle bus out to the orchard of ripe apples which were fuji and golden crisp. All very sweet and tasty (as we were told we could sample while picking!). We carried E in a baby backpack that was given to us by a family member. This was the first time we actually used it, which was perfect for carrying him around. He even liked it. He could eat his apple and see the orchard at the same time. We ended up with about a dozen apples for Dr. M's lunches and a few to make an apple crisp that night!