Halloween Week

Happy Halloween!

Let me just say how much more fun the holidays are when there is a kid around!  And, that goes for all kids, whether related or not, they just make it so much more exciting!  I can only imagine how fun holidays will be for us when Xavier starts talking and really understanding what's going on!

This week, we introduced a few spooky snacks to Xavier, scary ghosts!

Our Trick-or-Treat night was on Thursday.  We had great weather this year, just a little cool, but no rain like last year!  I always enjoy interacting with the little kids.  I was looking forward to a kid topping last year's "Do you have any candy that doesn't have red dye?  I'm allergic to red dye."  Haha!  There were some memorable kids this year.  The kid dressed up as a Minecraft spider princess was really cool!  It was a handmade costume with flashing lights in the headpiece.  I've never been spooked by a trick-or-treater until this year when a kid rang the doorbell, hid behind our porch, and jumped out to SCARE THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME!  I wanted to say to him, "Hey there trick-or-treater.  You're lucky I'm giving you candy."  And then there was the kid who dressed up to take Unicef donations.  I didn't realize there were eight-year-olds out there who were so passionate about giving!  Good for them!

We passed candy out of a witches cauldron that I've been using for several years now.  The Kit-Kat's disappeared in a hot second.  The Reese Cup pumpkins were another big hit.

And then, there were the costumes.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, OH MY!!!

When Xavier got close to my nose, he always reached out his finger to touch it!

We I had the most fun with these costumes!  I wanted to do a fun family costume and this one was perfect.  When I told Steve we were doing a family costume, it wasn't the best received news, but dropping the fact all he had to wear was a t-shirt, that I picked out and bought for him, he was all good!  When I saw that mane on Xavier's lion costume, I couldn't wait to get it on him.  Seeing him bopping around in that thing was a hilarious sight!  He's going to wear it all weekend, for sure :)

"Hi there trick-or-treaters.  Let me get the door for you."

While I passed out candy to the kids, Xavier snuck by me and crawled outside, and threw a fit when I wouldn't let him outside.  He badly wanted to escape, so we grabbed his bucket and let him lead the way.  He crawled down our driveway, across the street and up the neighbor's drive.

It was cute watching him grab candy and put it in his bucket!  I'm obssessed with those old-school plastic, orange pumpkin treat buckets.  Xavier carried one this year, just like the one I had when I was a kid.

 Although he didn't understand how to give kids the candy, he sure understood how to take it out of their buckets and put it into his!

Ok, tomorrow is the first of November, i.e. time to get started on Christmas shopping.  Tonight, I asked Steve, "Do you want to get matching..." before he cut me off with a "Uhhh, this oughta be good.  Not unless it's matching champagne flutes, Gucci shoes."  I wanted to get matching Christmas pajamas for the whole family.  He knows me all too well :)

Our Day in Pictures

This is a typical Saturday for us when we don't have hundreds of errands to run or activities going on.  We stayed home almost the whole day and this documents our most popular activities that fill our days!

7:00 Wake up and hang out in our bed.  Baby Einstein is the only way to keep him still for kisses.

Camp socks // iGuy

8:00am -- We eat breakfast.  I make his food pretty and I pretend he likes it too.

8:30am -- Playtime begins.

10:00am -- He goes down for his first nap.  I grab a snack.  Who says Bloody Marys get to have all the fun?!

10:45am -- Books, screaming contests, and climb over Mama a hundred times.

My First Colors Book:  Let's Learn Them All

12:00pm -- Turkey sticks, peas/spinach mixture, and fruit for lunch.  These meat sticks are a life saver when short on time.

1:30pm -- Down for nap number 2.

1:45pm -- While he sleeps, I paint my nails and catch up on some reading.  Spoiler alert:  I picked lavendar!

4:00 pm -- He wakes up from his nap and I feed him Scary Spiders and Witches Brooms for a snack.

4:15 pm -- We build towers with blocks and tease the dog.  Xavier periodically checks for more festive snacks.

4:30 pm -- I have to get out of the house.  It's 70 degrees at the end of October!  We take a trip to the coffee shop.

6:00pm -- Dinner time!  On the weekends, we reward ourselves by eating out as much as possible (no kitchen clean-up!).  Tonight, Italian!

7:30pm -- Bedtime.  Getting a late start (we usually start at 6:30), so we skip the bath: just jammies and a few minutes on the iPad while he drinks some milk.

7:40pm -- Our evening begins.  We usually watch Mad Men, OITNB, or House of Cards, but they aren't currently in new seasons.  Tonight we watch Frasier reruns!

Hump Day Randoms

Over the weekend, Xavier got a taste of "life beyond the gates" when we opened the back door to see what would happen.  He stared at the step that leads to the back porch for a bit before he crawled down it.  He took it like a champ and crawled down the back walk, onto the driveway, all the way down our driveway, when I finally noticed from inside the house what he was doing.  Steve was watching him the whole time, but wanted to see how far he'd go.  Then Xavier crawled out into the street and up our neighbor's driveway!  It was all safe because Steve was right behind him and our street isn't busy at all.  I only wish I had taken a picture!  Just picture a mini-sized person crawling in the street, moving just a few inches at a time, guiding Dad around the neighborhood.  Haha!

Tonight, we let Xavier paint his pumpkin, toddler-proof style, of course.  Read: no paint got on him, Period.  First, I let him put pieces of painter's tape on the pumpkin.  He picked out his colors, I squirted a few drops into a gallon-sized freezer bag, dropped in the pumpkin, and let Xavier swirl it around.  No mess and a festive pumpkin!

Baby toes!!!

After Xavier went to bed, we made chocolate-chip cookies out of cake mix.  They turned out to be mammoth-sized and totally run into each other.  Guess that's what you get when you make cookies out of cake mix!  But it didn't disrupt the taste, they were to die for!

A quick Xavier update - He is obsessed with closing doors, greets me with a "Hiiiii" when I pick him up at the babysitter, and says the color blue, or "Boo."  He likes to build things with his builders blocks, take the magnets on and off the fridge, and put his blocks in the dog's water dish.  I'm just waiting for him to figure out how to dump that water on his head!  When he's done with his dinner, he throws his next bite on the floor, eyeing us the entire time.  He's bad and he knows it:)  He likes to put things in boxes/containers, close the lid, then take them back out.  

We don't watch much TV, but when I turn Baby Einstein on the YouTube, he's entranced by it.  His favorites are Baby Neptune Discovery Water and Van Gogh's World of Colors.  Purple is my most favorite classical song ever!

We've surpassed some milestones this week that are worth mentioning.  First, after 14 months of life, Xavier has finally outgrown his baby tub.  We just can't stuff him in it anymore and with all the standing up in it he wants to do, it's getting to be too dangerous.  I know you must be thinking, he's still in that thing?!  Yes, we cram him in it every night because he likes the water high on up on his belly, and frankly, it's just easier manage!!  

We also packed away all his bottles.  Ah, so much more free space on the countertops!  Although, we are feeling a little nostalgic since the things we've been using every day since he was born are no longer around.  It's very weird to no longer have these things around.  We've started going through his toys, packing away what he doesn't use anymore.  He's growing up so fast!

A note on calcium - I know some parents really struggle with kids meeting calcium requirements.  When Xavier turned one, his pediatrician told us he needed to be getting no less than 12 ounces of milk a day.  At lunch, he took a couple ounces and at night, we rocked him to sleep with a 9 ounce bottle of warm milk.  But, lately, he's been refusing the bottle at bedtime, which left me panicked.  He doesn't really chug milk during the day so we had to supplement with high-calcium foods.  I asked around and the best tip I got was to feed Xavier the Yotoddler Organic Yogurt.  It's made with whole milk = high calcium content.  There are lots of tips out there, but we found this to be the quickest fix for supplementing food.

If calcium is still a problem, as a last resort our babysitter adds a scoop of instant breakfast to the sippy cups.  It gives the milk a sweet taste, has nutritional value, and kids love it.  After a while, add less and less to the cups to wean them off it.  Xavier hasn't needed this yet, but I thought it was a great tip for the short-term.  I also recommend trying different sippys.  Our sitter did this and found one that Xavier likes to use and hence, is now chugging milk during the day!

The weekend is so close I can smell it.  I'm thinking we need to find Xavier an indoor pool.  With the cool summer we had, we didn't get much pool time and Steve didn't get to show off his perfect cannon balls!

All Boy

We have a boy on our hands.  He likes to stick his hands in his diaper, proudly pull out the poop, and smear it on his face.  Gross.  Gross!  I even think he saves the poo for nap times, so he can play with it and not be bothered.  He engages in screaming matches with his buddies at the babysitter.  But in these matches, after they scream, they start laughing, then do it all over again, over and over.  He teases us by handing us something (a toy, food, anything), then taking it back as soon as we reach for it, which makes him laugh hysterically and try it again.  He's messy, loud, throws fits during diaper changes, and has lately become the biggest tease!!  Fourteen months is by far the most fun age!

He's been up to some fun this week at the babysitter, playing hide-and-seek, making artwork, and painting his nose.

On weeknights, we almost always eat dinner at home.  There just isn't time (as much as I'd love to make someone else clean up that toddler food mess!) to get Xavier fed, bathed, and a few minutes of play time in before it's time for stories and bed.  By Friday, Steve and I are sick of the house and dying to go out!!  Last night, we took Xavier to our neighborhood grocery store for a wine tasting event (which doubled as meal time in the stroller for Xavier!).  Xavier eating out of his stroller tray has opened up a whole new world of possibility when it comes to evening events with X-man.

It hit me today that we only have two weeks left until Halloween!  How has October flown by so quickly?  It seems the weekends blend into the weeks and there hasn't been any slow time lately.  To stay festive, for breakfast this morning, we made Halloween french toast kabobs!

We plan to put the finishing touches on our little pumpkin family today and set them out on the front porch.  We are dressing up our pumpkins with little things that are personal to each of us.  Pics coming soon!

Xavier's Fall Photo Shoot

Over the weekend, we did a little impromptu fall photo shoot in our front yard.  Although I now know why normal people hire photographers (ok, it wasn't that bad, but still!), some of the pics are too adorable not to share.  Be prepared for some cuteness overload!!!

He just came back from the groomers with this adorable bandanna.  I just had too ;)

Bare baby toes and pumpkins?!?!  Perfection.

Sitting on my old rocking chair with his favorite face.

We can't believe how fast this little guy is growing!  We are amazed at the things he can do!  I actually was shocked he could sit in this rocker all by himself!

It's almost Halloween!  Cannot wait for costumes, trick-or-treating, and all the fun that comes with it.  'Tis the season!

Our Favorite Thing... Jams!

Not the kind of jam you eat with a spoon when you're pregnant.  Not even the kinda jam that results in Xavier droppin'-it-like-it's-hot when he jumps on the bed.  We're talking about pajama-jams!  :)  And we have a super obsession with baby jams in our house!  

Which leads me to this... the cutest jams on the block!  :)

Cat mask one-piece // Happy Camper set //  Milk & Cookies // Boom box // Fish bowl // Bear With Glasses // Choo-Choo Train

I love the way Carters & Old Navy pajamas fit and I am so thankful that they have their footie/zip sleepers all the way up to 5T sizes!  And, if you haven't had your baby in KicKee Pants pajamas yet, they are a must.  Especially for newborns, the fabric is softer than you could ever imagine.  I was legitimately SAD the other day browsing the baby section at Target and seeing all of those cute new baby pajamas that only go up to 9 month size.  What a cruel joke.  Especially because "legitimately sad" leads to Oreos.

Now that Xavier has grown in to the 2T size, he's been wearing two-piece sets more often.  There is nothing cuter than walking in to his room at night, and seeing him sleeping with the baby belly poking out.  

I still adore the one pieces.  Look how cute his booty looks in these jammies.

Ok, it's Friday, time for the weekend.  Bottoms up!  XOXO

Our Weekend in Pictures

Our first real Fall weekend... cool weather, chili, pumpkins, and football.  

It started Friday night by getting Xavier from the babysitter.  When I picked him up, I talked a little bit with the sitter about his day, and he hadn't yet realized I was there.  After I walked over to him and said "Hi", he stopped playing, got excited (and showed it by breathing heavily), and speed-crawled around the obstacle that was between us.  Then he crawled up my legs and reached up to me, smiling and laughing.  Aww, so adorable.  Someday, looking back on it, I will miss this... :)

We slept in on Saturday morning.  By "slept in" I only mean 1 hour, but in toddler parenthood, 1 hour is HUGE!!  Saturday was filled with family time, couch snuggles, and a trip to Target.  

Target trips are less dangerous when the husband is there supervising what lands in my basket.  As you can see, only necessities made it to our cart (and Xavier shows no discrimination for what goes in his mouth).

Saturday evening, our street had its annual Block Party.  We made some new friends, stuffed ourselves with chili, and caught up on the neighborhood happenings.  Throw in a Heinekin keg and Kendall Jackson and I'd say it was a win for everyone.

On Sunday, we met up with some friends for brunch (blueberry and chocolate Belgian waffle, if you're curious)

 and I put the finishing "fall-inspired" touches on our back porch.

The caption of this pic should be "the pooch who photo-bombed the blog post!"

Sunday night, while out for dinner, Xavier (once again) made friends with the waitress.  She high-five'd him when they met and the next time she walked by, he threw his arm up, extended his hand, looked straight at her, smiling, waiting for a high-five.  She left him hanging as she raced by to wait on another table.  But all the laughs from the tables around us caught her attention, she ran back to hit it.  Mr. Personality.

Looking back on our weekend, it's the best we've had in about 2 months.  Up til now, Xavier has always used his weekends to catch up on sleep and he was usually in a cranky mood.  When this boy doesn't get his sleep, he is turrible to be around (kinda like his Mama!).  Moving him out of daycare has given us our little guy back!  Looking back on our weekend, Sunday night, Steve says to me:

S:  Ah, it's so nice that Buddy is back to normal.  I really do have a beautiful life.
Me:  Beautiful wife?
S:  ....yes
(good answer! haha)

It was a fabulous (Fall-feeling) weekend!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!!  It's been a bit of a crazy week here with taking Xavier out of daycare and moving him to in-home care.  We decided to take him out of daycare because we wanted him to get more personalized attention.  The girl we found to watch him is so wonderful!  Along with all the little things she does for him, she consistently sends me pictures of Xavier throughout the day, which means so much.  Seeing that smiling face come through on my phone makes me not even second guess that we made the right decision.

Friends!

Now on to some Favorites for your Friday!  I could totally go for some old fashioned TGIF, the way I used to do it back in the day - snuggled up on the couch with freshly popped corn.  Maybe some Full House or Step By Step?!  Who's with me? (haha)

1.  Halloween Books - I was so excited to get out Xavier's Halloween books this year (and to add some new ones to the collection).  They make story times a little more festive.  Some of our favorites are Room on a Broom, Ghosts in the House, and Goodnight Goon.  Of course, Where the Wild Things Are is festive as well!  All of his books are displayed on hanging photo ledges I found at Target.  I'm looking forward to switching his books out with the seasons!

2.  Holiday Garlands and Fall Decor - My favorite burlap garland I found on Etsy made a return to our house again this season.  It's no longer sold by the shop owner, but if you search for fall garlands in Etsy, you will get tons of hits.

3.  I almost did a backflip in the Starbucks at Barnes & Noble the other day when I saw my all-time-favorite Starbucks drink - non-fat, no water, chai tea latte - is now available for purchase in the bag!  Just add frothy milk.  Easy.  I bet to get that "no water" spicier flavor, some additional mix will need to be added.  I'm up for some trial & error!

4.  Apple Pie - We took Xavier on a trip to the apple orchard a couple weeks ago and finally got around to making some delicious apple pie.  It tastes so much better with honey crisp apples right off the tree!  We used this Pillsbury recipe and it hit the spot!

5.  Festive Party Supplies - I just picked up some Halloween and Christmas supplies from Etsy.  I bought paper straws, cupcake holders and toppers, and goodie bags.  I'm thinking we should do an open house party this year complete with friends and board games so I can show this stuff off! Haha

Happy weekend!