Trunk-or-Treating

Tonight was a trunk-or-treat with my mom's group. I had been planning on dressing Joseph in the giraffe costume I bought a few weeks ago, but this morning Joe brought up that we didn't have costumes for the both of us. He had been talking about taking Joseph trick or treating as a lobster in a pot forever, but I didn't think we were actually going to do it. This morning, though, it sounded like a fun idea, especially since I could decorate the back of the car (there was apparently going to be a contest).

Instead of getting lots done around the house, the wheels in my head started spinning. I had approximately 8 hours to pull together a whole new costume for Joseph, Joe and me, and car decorations. Hmmm. We ran to a thrift store as soon as Joseph was done with breakfast, and found a red long sleeved and pants sweats outfit, and some fake vegetables. Then we headed home for morning nap, where I scoured the internet for pictures of babies in lobster costumes. I made my shopping list, so when Joseph woke up from his nap and ate lunch, we were off again. This time we headed to Walmart and Jo-Anns and luckily found everything we needed. At this point it was a little after 2pm, and I had 4 hours before we had to be at the park. I frantically started sewing Joseph's lobster costume, decorating items for the car and trying to pull everything together. I ran out of time to execute all of the ideas I had, but ultimately I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

 
Joe and I wore red aprons. I had started to make chef's hats, but ran out of time. Ashley came with us to see all the kids in their costumes, and wore her matching apron too. We ate pizza and cookies with the group, where Joseph was a hit! I'm new to the group, and have only met a handful of moms and their kids so far, but everyone kept coming up to us complimenting us on the idea, costumes and even asking to take our picture!
 

 Joseph nibbled on pieces of cheese and crust from the pizza. Apparently we'll need to teach him how to cover his mouth when he "chews!" I guess it's hard when your claws get in the way. :)

 Joseph was awesome - he spent quite a while content to hang out in the pot/bucket. I think there were enough kids running around to keep him preoccupied.

We even brought Molly along, and she had fun getting loved by all the little kids. I think our car was a hit too - we brought the obligatory bowl of candy, but I also decided to get the party sized tubs of play dough, figuring there would be enough 2 and 3 year olds who really don't need/want candy. It went over really well!

 This is the only picture I have of our "display." We had a little table with the red checked table cloth, play food, a stove with the pot on it, and a sign announcing "Today's Special: fresh lobster, 17 lbs!" Of course, he's only 17 lbs dripping wet and with 3 layers of clothes on, but who cares!

Maybe we'll pull out the giraffee this weekend, and maybe not. I'm awfully proud of the little lobster, and think my first venture into sewing halloween costumes, especially given my lack of time, was great! Joe and I are already scheming about what we'll do next year for the group's trunk or treating.... :)

Silly Sleeper

Now that Joseph can get all around his crib, he doesn't like going down for naps. So he'll sit and play, or stand up, and then fuss. A couple days ago, I heard him playing and watched from the doorway. A few minutes later I checked back, and found him sound asleep, completely bent in half....

Too funny!

First box

Practicing for our costume for trunk or treat tonight. We will post pictures of that costume tomorrow. He isn't as "special" as he looks in this picture. He just likes the tv more than he liked this box.

After he tipped it over, he sat up and took a minute trying to figure it out. He was making these really adorable faces, but my phone is too slow to catch it.

Figured it out.

Baby Proofing

Once we realized how close Joseph was to crawling, we knew it was time to finish baby proofing. I wanted to cover the brick hearth on the fireplace, but wasn't sure the best way to do it. Joe suggested building a wooden cover that I could then upholster, so that's what we did. It only took a few days of working in the evenings for Joe to get the cover perfected, and I spent about an hour and a half covering it with foam, batting and finally a vinyl (read kid & dog friendly since I can wipe it down!) fabric.

Of course, as soon as I wedged it into place, Joseph had to crawl over and test it out for me.

 And wouldn't you know it, it has becomea favorite play space, since he can almost stand up while holding on to it, and it's the only thing short enough for him to crawl up onto! He's definitely learning the word "no" now, as I'll tell him no and shake my head when he starts up on it. His response? He looks over at me when I call his name, shakes his head no while grinning or laughing at me, and frantically tries to crawl faster. Such a stinker! :)

He and Molly are quickly becoming best friends. Well, Molly is happy to let him climb on her and pat pull her fur, in exchange for the copious amounts of food she's starting to get at each meal and snack time.

 He's still obsessed with getting her ball whenever it's in plain sight. I think she's started hiding her balls under the couch though, because she'll randomly pull one out, play with it for a while, and then it disappears after he gets interested.

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday Joe, Ashley, Mikael, Jennifer (who came in town for the weekend) and I took Joseph pumpkin picking! It was an absolutely beautiful day, much warmer than we had anticipated. Joseph had a great time - he took his place at the "how tall are you this fall" sign...

 but definitely has some growing room!

 Then we took a fall family picture.

 And another on the hayride out to the pumpkins! We were being pulled just ahead of another tractor and load of people, and Joseph couldn't stop staring at the tractor and gave it repeated muppet faces - a look he does whenever he's really excited about something.

Then we finally made it out to the field, where Jennifer lead us to the furthest corner, so that we could find the BEST pumpkins. Joseph was pretty happy with all of them.

And of course, he tried to eat each one close enough to mouth on.

Luckily, the patch had plenty of wheelbarrows for patrons to use. Mikael pushed the empty wheelbarrow out in the field, and we all shared one. Ashley and Mikael couldn't decide on which of their half dozen pumpkins were the keepers. Since I had forgotten sunscreen and it was really sunny out, we wanted to get Joseph back to the covered parts of the farm relatively quickly, so I pushed the full wheelbarrow back.

 Jennifer was literally in the very last row of pumpkins in the field!

 We have some fun plans for this particular pumpkin... we were trying to compare Joseph's size to the pumpkin, and he was happy to play on the ground.

 Hanging out in the wheelbarrow filled with our pumpkins. After posing for about 30 pictures, he'd decided he'd had enough of sitting still!

 Back at the farm, Jennifer bought an apple cider slush. It was really good! Even though Joseph had a full sippy cup of water, he decided he wanted some of the slush...

 So, like a good aunt, of course she shared some with him. It was actually one of his first times drinking out of a regular cup, and he did really well!

 Although you can't really tell from this picture, he loved it! I think he had more to drink than Jennifer, but she didn't seem to mind too much. We spent a few hours in total out at the pumpkin patch and had a great time. Now we just have to decide how to carve them this weekend!

Standing Up

 As if learning to sit up on your own and how to crawl weren't enough, Joseph also figured out how to stand up in his crib last week! He hasn't done it more than twice, but man was he pleased with himself on this new trick!

I'm not ready for him to keep learning new skills this quickly!

Pumpkin Patch

We took 7 to his first pumpkin patch on sunday. We were thinking it would be cold so we had him in pants and a sweatshirt but it ended up being hot and sunny. We left a little earlier than we may have otherwise to get him back out of the sun.

This picture is from Costco yesterday. He is holding his sippy cup on his own most of the time now. I guess all of those sample chocolate cheerios were making him thirsty.

Watch Out World, He's Crawling!

I think Lisa jinxed us with her comment yesterday - about how nice it is when babies are content to sit in one place and learn... Because tonight Joseph started crawling! Luckily Joe and I were both home and having a conversation when we realized there was some forward movement from 7... and then grabbed the camera to record it.



It's really kinda cute - he'll only crawl for Molly's ball. She's wonderful with him, and will sit and watch him grab at it, and doesn't do anything aggressive at all. Because we're such proud parents, here's another crawling video:



And one more, for good measure :)



Notice Molly just watching? She's the best dog ever when it comes to how well she acts around Joseph.

We're also working on teaching him how to clap his hands and wave, and after a little prompting, he'll clap...sort of.

Just a cute picture of the little guy after eating a teething biscuit. Apparently, they are the messiest things EVER! He manages to get chunks all over his face, hands, clothes, hair, toys that he's playing with and the floor, although Molly's happy to help clean everything up!

Sitting Up!

Yesterday the little guy figured out how to sit up on his own! He was down for his afternoon nap, and Joe was in the basement working on his workbench. I heard Joseph crying all of a sudden, but by the time I made it into the hallway to his room, he had stopped. I peeked in, and to my surprise (and his!) he was sitting up, staring at the doorway with a bewildered look on his face. It was too cute! And ever since, he's been pulling himself up to a sitting position whenever he rolls onto his belly.

I caught him in the act this morning....



He was busy playing with his kitchen, having figured out the "open/close" aspect of the door and the subsequent "on/off" of the singing refrigerator light. Its so fun to just watch him learn new things each day!



This video is from a few days ago, but I was trying to capture some of his funny faces. He makes one that we call a muppet face - when he gets excited about something, he'll stretch his arms out and hold them rigid while opening his mouth as wide as it gets. It's rather amusing :) He does it briefly before deciding to suck his thumb.



I was trying to capture his "squishy face" in this one - he'll squish up his lips and squint his eyes and huff. Sometimes he even does it at relevant, appropriate times. But usually it'll just appear when he's trying to be funny.
 

And a few fun pictures taken this evening. Joseph has the best time in the tub, and luckily when we bought this sink we knew it would be great for giving little kids a bath. We plan on keeping him in the sink as long as he'll fit because it's just so easy for us!

I caught him just as Joe was letting the water out and the sink was making a funny slurping noise that caught Joseph off guard.

Trying to get a few smiles for the camera.

 No, he isn't peeing! That small green thing off on the right side of the picture is a bath toy in Joe's hand, squirting water at Joseph. Can you believe how big he's getting??

I've been working at getting crafty around the house, as I alluded to in an earlier post. When my parents were in town a few weeks ago, my mom helped recover the seats on our dining room chairs. We hadn't done anything to them when we bought the set off Craigslist 3 years ago, and the old fabric was off white and stained in places. I found a tan/black/blue/white striped indoor/outdoor fabric on clearance this summer and hoped it would look good in the dining room. This picture makes the chairs look lighter than they do in person, but they look really good! And now I don't have to worry about the fabric getting stained when Joseph is big enough to eat at the table!

I also wanted to clean up and organize the family room. We usually keep our laptops on the floor off to the side of the couch, but it leaves a jumbled mess of cords. Joseph LOVES trying to get to the cords and chew on them... not the most ideal teethers. So I decided to try painting an old end table I had gotten a long time ago that was water stained and scratched up.

 I removed the decorative pieces on the ends, sanded it down added a few coats of black paint and varnish to seal it, and it's now found a new life in the living room. My favorite part was realizing there was enough space to attach the power strip we use for the computers up under the top so the cords are all contained nicely behind the table. Ok, maybe my most  favorite part is finally having a place to use the photo coasters we received as a Christmas gift...complete with Joseph's pictures!

So that's what we've been up to. Stay tuned - more crafting is going on this week, along with lots of yard work (preparing for spring planting already) and hopefully a finished work bench too!

Busy Busy

Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated the blog - sorry! We've been really busy lately, and most of it involves trying to spend time outside and working on projects around the house. It's been simply gorgeous here, with sunny warm days and cool evenings. I went ahead and joined a stay-at-home mom's group, and between trying to get to those events, a trip to the zoo, and a furniture painting project I'm working on, things have been really busy this week.

Last Saturday there was a 5k race through our neighborhood, so we decided to wake up and "tailgate." We set up our lawn chairs on the driveway, brought out our wireless speakers to play the Beach Boys, and cheered the runners on. It was really pretty chilly, so we bundled up... and because he had just woken up, Joseph let us put his cute new racoon hat on him!

Speaking of the little guy, he's getting closer and closer to crawling. He'll now get into a plank position, up on his toes and hands, and rock, but hasn't figured out moving forward yet.

 He will scoot around all over though, by pushing himself backwards. It's only a matter of time before he figures out how to go forward, and then it's all over!

Last weekend was also Ashley and Mikael's first anniversary, and they decided to take a trip to NYC. They have these huge windows in their basement, and hadn't ever found curtains, so I pulled out the sewing machine and made these for them as a surprise.

They certainly aren't perfect, but enabled me to spend more time practice sewing... and even my resourcefulness, as Jo-Anns ran out of the tan fabric that I needed for the 5th window. Instead of trying to make a similar curtain with just the striped material, I used a painter's dropcloth - you can't really even tell the difference!

And thanks to the blogs that I follow, I managed to practically steal food this week from our local grocery store. They had a promotion going that, when paired with coupons, allowed me to buy all of this for $9.51! I saved over $56, and was so excited.

I've got cute videos of the baby coming, but need to upload and convert them. I'll post them soon, I promise!