Happy Halloween!

We started out our Halloween by carving our pumpkins. I was fine with leaving them with the marker coloring but Jason was pretty excited to carve them. They actually turned out great (see below), so I'm glad he was leading the charge. Will was not interested in the insides. He touched a few seeds but never stuck his fingers in the gooey. Shortly after we started, he got sleepy, so he went down for a nap and I carved his and my pumpkin in the time it took Jason to do his. :-) Our little monkey ready to go trick-or-treating. The festivities started in our neighborhood around 3:30. We had him dressed up all afternoon, since it was the perfect weather to wear that costume outside while we were raking leaves. He was such a good sport about the costume; he never once pulled on it.

And he's off! First stop at our next door neighbor's. He was very shy. Sitting in our front yard enjoying the pretzels we were handing out.

Our pumpkins!

We were outside in the yard/neighborhood from 2 to 5 and had a steady stream of trick-or-treaters from 3:30-4:30. We just set out treats on the front porch so we could come and go as we wanted. We rang the doorbell at four immediate neighbors' houses. For part of the evening we stood in our neighbor's driveway since they were a designated "rest station" and had chili and beer. We ran out of our treats at 6 p.m. and had to turn the lights off and blow out the candles. Most of the traffic was done as of 5:30 though. We have lots of little kids and the neighborhood newsletter sugggested a pre-dinner trick-or-treating since it's a school night, so it worked out perfectly.

Halloween Preview

This morning we took Will to daycare in his Halloween costume: a monkey! I hope we get some better pictures this weekend, but these are a few of the better ones from this morning - the first time he'd donned the monkey suit. Except for the hand covers, he was pretty darn cooperative.

Rachel checking out the furry competition

Yes, that's a banana in his pocket!

Practicing monkey howls?
Something new to chew on.

When we dropped Will off this morning, he fit right into the jungle. There was already a giraffe, tiger and lion each there, as well as a puppy dog. The only non-animal was a little girl who was either Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood.

Pumpkin Decorating

Not sure when or if we're going to get around to carving our pumpkin patch pumpkins, so I decided to kill a little time on Sunday afternoon that Will and I would decorate our pumpkins with markers! (Jason was en route to the airport, so we left his pumpkin for another time.)

First: an afternoon snack on the back deck to prepare (and, yes, the dog is always that close; especially when food is nearby) Second: keep eating snack; no rush; just keep the animal crackers away from the dog. . . (and, yes, I dress Will in that t-shirt a lot!)

Third: get Mommy to uncap at least two markers at a time in order to maximize pumpkin, deck, and clothing coloring.

Fourth: make additional edits after seeing Mommy's masterpiece! :-)

It was a good way to kill 20 minutes - as was raking leaves in the front yard. We only spent about 20 minutes on that game, too, but I still managed to get a blister! Fun times with my little buddy!

The Little Adult

Ok, doesn't this "kid" look pretty adult (absent the Big Dino Expedition jammies) in this picture? Will has taken to pulling our books off the bookshelf instead of going to the basket full of board books. He really likes this one: Mastering the Competitive Sale. I guess he's going to take after his dad. . . .or he just likes the books that have a book jacket!

Our Little Superhero

We haven't had the camera out much again this week. Jason was traveling for work, and Will and I were busy with "stuff." :-) Jason took this one on his phone before he left and emailed it to me. Super cute superhero!

Saturday was a nice day. I played tennis in the morning while the boys watched sports. Then Ryan came over for playtime and a chili lunch and made Will laugh hysterically! We had one sad baby on our hands when we made him leave Uncle Ryan to take his nap!

We ran some errands and finished the evening with dinner out at a Mexican restaurant. Will was very well behaved and ate and ate and ate.

Sadly, our overnight was exhausting! Jason now has the cough that Will and I thought we had kicked. Will didn't sleep well, and I had (have) a migraine! Oh, we're just a mess, aren't we?! Wishing for better health all around!

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday morning we ventured out to the country to the Jonamac Orchard pumpkin patch/ u-pick apple orchard. Apple picking is all done for the season (and the pumpkin patch was pretty picked over), but we had a great time! The weather was clear and sunny and it was a very comfortable 60 degrees by the time we were out in the field.

Giant rocking chairs just seem to have a place at the pumpkin patches: We all enjoyed playing in the silo full of hulled corn kernals:

As you can see from that grin, William loves any type of driving or wheel:

Surveying the selection that Daddy put together:

Daddy and William with the winners as we waited for the tractor to haul us back to the parking lot:

We had a lot of fun playing in the corn, riding the slide, admiring the petting zoo (but Mommy is way too frightened to get inside the pen), and wandering around everywhere! Will was also very interested in ponies there for the pony rides. Maybe Grandma Hilary will arrange for that someday in the future!

We passed on the "apple cart" concessions and hit up the closest "real" town for Panera, which is one of Will's faves. He was fast asleep in the carseat before we were back to paved roads, but he woke up to devour all of his mac 'n cheese and yogurt.

Finally Some Hair!

It's still light colored, but Will's hair is finally filling in a little more. He's got quite the little rat tail in the back, which we keep debating cutting but haven't yet. We've even had a few mornings where his bed head needed wet down before school. Ironically, Will's daddy takes the bad hair days much more seriously than his mommy, and is usually the one to wet it and fix it. :-)

Getting Better

We seem to have turned the corner towards good health finally! Will got good daycare report cards for the last half of the week, and I felt pretty good today. I went to the doctor yesterday (finally!) and got a prescription for a cough medicine. The doctor said my lungs looked fine, so the cough syrup should help me get some sleep and help my overall health. The meds seemed to help somewhat, but sleeping in until 10 a.m. today helped a lot! Once I woke up, Will and I played in his room. He's been practicing his Trick-or-Treating (although we have only tried on his costume once). He loves to put "stuff" in his pumpkin. Currently his shoes are his favorite thing to carry around in it.

Love to see my happy, happy boy again!

He's taken new interest in his Thomas pillow recently; he even likes to "ride" it - even though it doesn't go anywhere!

We ran some fun errands this afternoon. We hit up Sam's Club for the specific Pampers wipes we like (which they don't have anymore!!) and got to have an afternoon snack of samples. Although they didn't have the one thing we went for, we were able to fill up our cart with other must haves. Will talked me into buying the Panera brand broccoli cheese soup they were sampling (even though the price was no deal). He ate it all up and was looking for more!

Later, we had to go to Target to get the wipes and a few other things Sam's doesn't carry, and Will was pleasant and sociable again. He likes to wave at all the cars that drive by. And sometimes he says "bye bye" to them. He's also saying "up" regularly and "shoe" sometimes.

Worn Out

We've been on a bit of a break from blogging, because we've been on a bit of a break from picture taking. Although in the last two weeks we have gotten one smiling baby picture (see below), most of the time we've had grouchy / tired / teething / sick / WantsMamaRightNow / grumpy / frustrated baby who no one wants to photograph!

Not sure what the problem is besides too much play, too little sleep, and a round of colds (although Will's malaise started earlier than his cold symptoms). Will started the cold two weeks ago and missed a Thursday and Friday from school. I missed last Tuesday and Wednesday from work being sick myself, and then he missed the next two days from school. We spent this past weekend laying on the couch. Literally on Saturday, I was Will's pillow for 10 hours and was happy to be be still. We left the house for a brief, slow stroll around the neighborhood around 5 p.m. Sunday was better for Will but worse for me as my violent coughing led to vomiting (Will had that earlier in the week. . . ). Jason had to be called home from the guys golf trip he was on for his step-dad's birthday, so he could take care of Will while I tried to rest. This week we have been back at school and work, but my co-workers and fellow train riders look afraid to catch whatever it is I may be spreading! And my bloodshot eyes from the coughing and lack of sleep are quite the sight to see! And Will is sleepy and clingy. And looking so sad.

In this picture you can see that the last canine tooth is finally cut through. I thought last month's malaise was due to that tooth, but I really have no idea. I think we all just need a vacation. I came home early last night and we went to the playground. Once there, Will was his old happy, giggling self. Thankfully, although his eating has been sporadic, for the most part he's sleeping well, although not as restfully as he would be without the cough. Same goes for me. The coughing is exhausting!