Halloween 2011

Halloween finally came!!!! Here are Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby:

My two favorite monsters:

Before we could trick-or-treat though, we had a neighborhood party/parade:

Teddy with his buddy Phoebe (last year at this time neither could even walk!):

Grandma and Grandpa came too. Grandma helped Teddy stand in line and play one of the games (popping balloons with darts... hmmmm)

Here is Teddy with his friend Lilly. The first time we went to playgroup at her house, Teddy walked over to Lilly and planted a kiss on her face. You can see why he likes her... she is an absolute doll:

Finally finally time to actually trick-or-treat. Don't be frightened by the picture.... the "witch" is just Lilly's grandma:

After going to a few houses, it was time to head home and hand out candy. Teddy was a great helper. Here is our sad candle in our jack-o-lantern. We didn't realize until that night that we didn't have any candles.... we had to use the "4" candle from Shae's most recent birthday!

The scariest part about Halloween though, was learning that Cookie Monster smokes:
And I thought eating cookies was his only unhealthy habit! Oh wait, those are the candy sticks we gave out.... marketed as "Super Hero Sticks" they clearly are candy cigarettes!

Elmo and Elmo wish everyone a happy Halloween!

Teddy wasn't too hyped up on all of the sugar we let him eat....

Halloween Celebration #4

Yes, we did fit in another Halloween celebration before the actual holiday! First though, I have a few random pictures from the weekend. Check out what Shae wore to work on Friday for his "favorite team":

Saturday Shae, my sister, and my dad ran a half marathon. My dad will be 69 this month and this was his first half marathon. He did great and we had fun cheering everyone on:

So on Sunday we decided to go to "Boo at the Zoo." They had all kinds of characters dressed up, trick or treating around the zoo, vendors giving away free things... and animals of course. Teddy was very excited:
Oh and I am pretty sure he understands the concept of this holiday. When I took out the costume and said he was going to wear it, he said, "More candy?" OK, so maybe we did celebrate it too many times this year!

(above) The bees with their favorite honeypot.

(above) Teddy giving Clifford a high five.

(above) We got to watch the mama panda bear eat her lunch... yummy bamboo! When we got home from the zoo, we found out we had been "boo-ed" by a neighbor. Here is Teddy with is new glasses that were among all the treats we found on our doorstep:

We also go to carve the pumpkin. Halloween is so much fun!

My turn (can you believe they gave me a sharp knife?)

NOW we are ready for Halloween!

Teddy is 22 Months Old!

I am not sure what happened to my little baby boy.... but here is my little man! And I really can't believe he is already 22 months old! Two is just 2 months away and I don't know where the time has gone! Or where his baby bear has gone either...

Oh wait. Teddy was just sitting on him.

As you can tell, Teddy continues to grow. He weighs 26 pounds now and actually is getting too tall for his 18 month clothes! This is new because in the past he has always outgrown the waist bands of his clothing long before he became to "tall" for them! Today I tried 3 outfits before I found one that fit him!

I feel like I always write this, but.... Teddy is SO MUCH FUN these days! He is talking even more and his sense of humor is really coming out. He is so outgoing and friendly he always draws attention where ever we go. For example, yesterday I took him to the doctor because he was sick. Although he had an ear infection and was not well, in the waiting room he was named the official "greeter" by the receptionist because Teddy said, "Hi" and "Bye" to every single person who walked in and out of the office as we waited (and we waited a long time). He also made sure to show his new Elmo socks to anyone who made eye contact with him. He calls any other children that he sees his "friends" even if we have never met, often waving and saying, "Hi friend!" His imagination is growing and he loves to pretend. Today not only did he put Elmo in the high chair and feed him imaginary food but then later he told me, "I change Elmo diaper," as he marched off to his room. Coincidentally Teddy also needed a diaper change at the time. Teddy is typically so happy and he brings us joy every single day. He loves music and to dance, and his current favorite children songs include "I'm a Little Tea Pot" and "The Wheels on the Bus." He cracks me up though because he likes a wide variety of songs. Just about daily he asks us to play Mamma Mia (thank you to our clogging teacher- we dance to that song and for some reason Teddy loves it) and "No Cry"... which is Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry. At least our little boy has an eclectic taste in music! So, as you can tell, Teddy keeps me pretty busy. But I am proud of one of my recent projects that is finally complete. Here is a before picture of a cheap piece of furniture I got years ago:

We have been working on converting our basement into a playroom for Teddy. (Until now, it has been a cross between Shae's man-cave and a dumping ground for anything and everything we were not using at the time). I wanted to keep this ugly piece of furniture since I use it to hold all of my craft/scrapbooking supplies in, but I hated the way it looked. So, first I painted the entire thing in magnetic paint:
Then I painted it again, this time with blue chalk board paint. I added the alphabet across the top and numbers across the bottom and now we have a fun piece of furniture Teddy seems to love:

Mommy and Daddy enjoy it too!

So here it is in the playroom (finally!!):

I tried to make a bright and fun space that all three of us can enjoy.

And I think so far it is a success. One of Teddy's favorite things to do is to look at his books, and he seems to love our new play area. I am also loving having a space where I can work on crafts, etc, while still keeping an eye on Teddy.

Have I mentioned how grateful I am for our amazing little 22 month old man?!!! Because I am!

Halloween Celebration #3

Teddy and I have been so excited for all of our Halloween festivities planned this year. Today our playgroup hosted a "Trunk-or-Treat" for the MOMS Club, and all of the children got to dress up in costumes and go from trunk to trunk to get treats (non-candy treat at that!). So this is where the picture of Teddy, dressed up as a honeypot, should go:

Unfortunately Teddy got sick in the middle of the night, so instead of trunk-or-treating, we spend the day in pj's watching Elmo and Curious George! The poor guy was pretty miserable, but I did manage to get him to smile when I pulled out the new Elmo socks I bought him the day before:I can't imagine why these lovely socks were half off (ONLY 50 cents) at Target! Here's a closer look at them:

He liked them so much, he insisted on wearing them to the doctor's office and showed them to everyone he saw in the waiting room! I hate that we weren't able to go to our party but I am very grateful I am able to stay home and take care of Teddy when he is sick. And I also know we are lucky because he has been very healthy overall.

At least we went to a "Pumpkin Patch" over the weekend to pick out our pumpkin.

Searching for the perfect pumpkin:

How about this one?

Or one of these?

Yes, the "pumpkin patch" was actually the front yard of a church down the street. But it was really cute and Teddy seemed to enjoy it. They even had a little maze:

and a very small jumpy:

Best of all, they had balloons!

Such handsome boys:

And speaking of handsome boys....

LOVE this kid!

By the way- it ends up Teddy has an ear infection so he is now on antibiotics and will hopefully be feeling better soon. Again, I realize how blessed we have been. This is the first time he has ever really had a fever and the first time he has thrown up. For that, I know, we are lucky!

CELEBRATION time!

Not only did Teddy want to wish his uncle and cousin a very happy birthday....

but he also wants to send a huge congratulations to Amy, Aunt Stephanie, and Uncle Steve on their new addition to the family. Teddy is thrilled to have another boy cousin! We can't wait to meet Grant!

Halloween Celebration #2

We went to the Halloween Fun Fest at the Rec Center near our house today, so we got to break out Teddy's other costume. Here is my little honey pot:

We are so lucky we get hand me downs. This adorable costume once belonged to Teddy's Gibson cousins.

Here is the honeypot with his Mama Bee!

Teddy had a great time at the festival:

and he got lots of candy!

He was even still smiling when I stuffed him back into the carseat. I couldn't believe he fit, honeypot and all!

One last photo:

Two Halloween celebrations down, only two more to go!