It's 'No'-ing!!!

Easton can't pronounce "snow" so good--sounds like "no" but nevertheless it is snowing today. Little, stupid, wet flurries but he likes it. The first of the season but I doubt any will stick to the ground--it's too warm yet.

We went out to Gymsters this morning. Easton did well again. We played this one game where the teachers swung some bolster mats from the ceiling like a swinging gate on an obstacle course. Then, they called each kids name and they were supposed to run through and go sit on a mat on the other side and wait for their turn to run back. Well, Mr. E decided to run through just fine the first time. Then instead of sitting he climbed on some equipment that was over there. Then I went and helped him sit on the mat which he did for a bit and the kids all looked so cute sitting next to one another like good boys and girls. However, before he got called he decided to run back through and he did it yelling, "Go! Go! Go!". All the adults laughed at him. He was just so excited to play again, I guess. The gym is doing a Halloween party the Friday before Halloween so we're gonna go. You get a half hour block of time for free and he can wear his li'l costume and get treats and play. Yay!

Easton is starting to learn his colors! Yesterday we were playing with one of his train toys that has lots of different colored cars and I could say, "Can I have the blue one?" and he'd bring it! Here's a video of him but he was already starting to get ahead of himself by that point. He did it perfectly for Daddy when J got home from work but after dinner when we tried to get this video he didn't want to play quite as much. Typical.

I was brave enough to let him try self-feeding some yogurt yesterday. He does well with sticky oatmeal and mashed potatoes but this runny yogurt required more bravery on my part. Well, turns out he only wanted 2 bites anyway. D'oh!


Even though it is snowing Easton still likes to strip. So far he has only ever attempted this at home but that could always change. Anyway, this morning I asked him if he was cold and he wrapped his little arms around himself and said a shivery, "Cold". So I gave him a blanket:

For that second picture I asked him, "Can you smile?" while demonstrating a lovely toothy grin but that is the face he made. We would call that a "Tony smile" as my former brother-in-law (Tony) had a hard time smiling properly for pictures.

And...switching gears completely here...for some reason I am very excited about Christmas this year. I have been for awhile already. Don't know what it is about this year. We're already discussing this year's Christmas card too. Here is last year's:

I was rather proud of it as I had just learned PhotoShop. The idea for photographing the nekkid baby with lights and a Santa hat was very popular on the 'Net last year...not my idea...but the rest was pretty much our doing, simple as it was. I'm even such a weirdo that I'm thinking forward to future Christmas card ideas. What is wrong with me?

Okay, that should do it before I embarass myself further. Stay warm wherever you are!

P.S. I changed the "Same Time Last Year" pic and video. The pic is from E's first trip to the Botanic Gardens and the video is of him practicing standing solo.

The Day Went As Planned...

After The E's nap we did indeed make it to the dairy's Fall Fest. Loads of fun. Sort of. Here's pics:




Then we noticed they had one of those barrel trains E rode in at the town's Harvest Fest but upon closer inspection we realized this one had no seatbelts. Instead....E went on his first pony ride!!!:



Easton really liked the horsey ride. Then he and I shared a roasted corn and some bottled water and we all moved on to the pumpkins:

Remind anyone of last year? This next one is of him saying, "Hot":

He put his hand on a pumpkin and said, "hot" and I think we both thought he was crazy. Sure enough, the pumpkins were toasty warm after soaking up the sun all day. I like that he knows "hot" and "cold" now and uses them appropriately. Well, sort of, as "warm" would have been the better choice in that instance. Oh well. He's learning.

More pumpkins...

And, yesterday I told him to say "cheese" for a picture at the birthday party and he did. This is him saying it again:

Little goober.

And picking out a wee white gourd:

And stopping to smell the flowers:

The other day we walked into Wal-Mart and they have a case of bouquets on display. He stopped and stuck his nose in every bunch he could reach and said, "mmmmm" for each one. We could all stand to learn a little something from children, don't you think?

After festivaling we returned home and Jason offered to make our dinner yet again. Woo hoo! Chili rice. Then some more horsey riding:

J is now the Headless Horseman as he was intentionally making the world's most foolish face and wouldn't let me show it. Hello? Does he not know I blog daily and like to include pictures. Goofball. Oh well. After horsing around it was time for the Broncos:

You see? I'm not make the world's most attractive face but I was still willing to share. Anyway, Easton was only up for an hour of the game then it was time to pause the TiVo, do the bedtime routine and watch the Broncos win. I fell asleep before the end too. Oops.

Today is our lazy recovery day...you know...from all the excitement of the weekend. Easton was really missing his Daddy this morning and kept crying for him and wanting to touch pictures of him. Goodness...it's like I'm no fun at all. Those boys do have a blast together, though. Yet again Mr. E decided to strip of his jams again and spent the morning in only a diaper. Because of his cold I'm trying to keep him from being too active because it makes him breathe really hard. So we cuddled a bunch on the couch--me and my nakey boy--he still smells all lavendary from last night's soaping. Mmmmmm. And he's warm and soft. Now he's dressed and having a nap. Oh, and he did get to bust out some Halloween "Blitz" slippers today:

Of course he didn't want to keep those on long either and once he pulled them off he wanted to stick them in both his and my face and say, "Eeeeeew". Good times.

Okay, I'm off to shower. Have a good Monday!

Tagged Again

This time Amanda got me.

Tag Rules: List 5 Weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 Friends and list them. Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don’t forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

1. I can't eat meat on a bone. I simply never learned (thanks Mom!) and have been sort of unwilling to learn now that I'm "grown up".

2. I won't eat wonky looking food: like those deformed Siamese peanut M&M's. Or a potato chip with green or a burn hole on it.

3. I can't sleep without at least a little something covering me. Even if it's sweltering and there's no A/C I still need a light sheet to sleep. I couldn't even snooze on the couch uncovered.

4. I sort of have a "routine" in the shower. I always do everything in the same order. Sometimes I vary it up by which soap/wash I use or if I shave or not. I'm crazy.

5. I really hate long nails on a male. Long (to me) is when I can see a bit of the white part. Ick. Especially disgusting are long toenails on anyone. Gross gross gross! I wish my male felt the same way. :)

I'll tag Britty and Kirsty too (so maybe with Amanda and me tagging you with the same one you'll post).

Li'l Party Go-er

Easton and I went to a little pal's 2nd birthday party today. E still has the sniffles but the party was supposed to be at a park across from their house (it was) and therefore I was less afraid of spreading the germs. So, we went ahead and went after first stopping off at Wal-Mart to pick up a little something. J stayed behind for a little time to himself and to start watching the Saints game in peace.

Here the party go-er toting the gift:

And here is a super-cool present she got. She is great at sharing. Good thing--Easton really wanted to check it out so he'll know to ask Santa for one this year. Plus a helmet--gotta start those good habits early. Anyway...

And seeing if he can reach the pedals:

Since they were really nice and know how hard it is to wait your turn (if you even get a turn because it's their toy and their party and I really didn't expect them to share--even though they did) they were nice and went and brought this for Easton while Lilly rode her new trike.

Easton and I both appreciated it.

Now we're home and the boys re-bonded during half-time and now E is snoozin' away thanks in part to the full morning and the cough syrup. :) He coughed all through his nap yesterday and was still coughing once I fell asleep last night (but he didn't wake me up coughing in the night). That was all with cough syrup. Hmmmm. Must be like the neighbors and their "bark collars"--perhaps both work opposite of what you'd think? Or maybe his cough is just yucky and is actually better than it would be sans syrup. Who knows?

This afternoon will probably be the local dairy's Fall Fest and then the Broncos on TV tonight with some chili rice. Yum. I am a bloggin' fool these days, eh?

Should've Been LAST Sunday's Post

You might remember we went to the train museum last Saturday (free day!). However, we "couldn't" share the pictures because Easton also wore his Halloween costume to the museum and until everyone saw the Halloween pics, we didn't want to share. So, here's the Halloween costume photos:
The wallet size:

A very proud train owner:

The free 8x10 that I really don't love his expression in, why did I pick it?

I kind of like how we've made a "habit" of getting pics done in his costume. Love Target's coupons! We think Target does a good job, this session just happened to be that day I couldn't get him to nap and then we had to wake him after just half an hour for the photo session. Oh well.

So anyway, a handful of lucky family members (aunts and grandparents) got one of these:
A lovely hand-painted and stickered card featuring a wallet-sized photo for a Halloween greeting. I am quite proud of them, see:

I usually am not full of creative ideas. Easton and I both enjoyed making these.

Alrighty then...onto all the train museum pics. There is a bunch!
I really loved this one. He's so small next to the big train!

















Duh, now that I'm done putting all those in there I realize I should have just made one of those slide.com shows with it. Oh well.

Here is a video. And I think that oughta do it!

Halfway (According to Everyone Else)

Well, here I am at 20 weeks now. Here is Easton wishing a "Happy 20 weeks!" to his growing brother:

Fun! The most exciting thing to me so far is that, unlike at this point in Easton's pregnancy, I have had NO unexplained spotting. I began that at 19 weeks last time which was somewhat scary. Later I learned that a lot of women with HELLP have unexplained spotting in their pregnancies. I wonder if it has anything to do with the clotting disorder I have and how it affects the placenta? Anyway...no strange bleeding...let's hope that continues.

Our day today started with Jason driving the new car up to the dealership to get the driver's side seat warmer fixed. First, you don't want to have anything all bus' up on your new car. And second, there is nothing like toasty buns on a cold winter's morn. Our other vehicle is a 2 seater truck (no room for all 3 of us with the carseat) so...Jason brought his 20+ year old bike and rode it the 4 miles (or so) home. Wow.

When Easton woke up I discoverd snot crusted all over his face. Great. Another friggin' cold! I am glad at least Gymsters is ending this month to minimize our germies. Sometimes I wish I was still breastfeeding for all those lovely antibodies for him. Oh well. And to top it all off he ralphed again last night. Blitz is still at zero. This time E gagged on a little too much french fry in his mouth. But here he is cleaning up in the bath:

Fresh as a daisy.

Today Easton stayed in his jammies all day. I did for most of the day till we had to go do the car switch-a-roo. Then I changed into sweats to look more presentable for my walk around the car switching from passenger to driver. Jason picked up a pizza on the way home and we called it a day. But, first, other parts of our day:



And instead of my usual blogging during E's nap today (while Jason gave the yard the final mow of the season) I made this video: click here. My sister in San Antone wanted to see/hear more of Easton talking. And she didn't want a translation. So that's what the video is: a bunch of E's words for her to translate. For the rest of you I will include a translation as the next post. (So don't look below, Auntie Jesh!) And also I went back and re-loaded the pointing out the body parts video from yesterday. I hated that it didn't really showcase his abilities. So, here is the new one. In sync, I believe.

Anyway, that's it for today from our house to yours.

The Eastonese Translation Key

Class Syllabus
The Fam
Mama
Dada
Me
Blitz
Baby
Gramoo
Lauren
Jet (Grandma 'Gette)

Colors
Red
Orange
Yellow
Blue
Purple
Black

Foods and Eating
Eat
Bite
Cold
Hot
Yogurt
Milk
Cheese
Banana
Apple
Fruit snack
Nola (Granola bar)
Cracker
Pop Pop (Corn Pops)
Pasta
Noodle

The Classics
Hello
Please
Thank you
Help
Up
Down
No
Open
Oh no
Uh Oh
Oh no (with added drama from the hands)

Festive Words
Pumpkin
Scarecrow
Witch
Spooky laugh (a la Count von Count)

Getting Dressed
Clothes
Shoe
Sock

Sessie Pals
Ernie
Elmo
Big Bird

Where's Daddy?
Work
Bye bye

Spooky: Friday the 13th

Wooooooooooo! (That's my ghostie sound). Really I should make Freddy sounds--or no...Friday the 13th movies have "Jason", right? Oh well. You get what you pay for here, peeps.

Okay, so the current score: Easton:3 Blitz:0. Yup, that's the current count in the puke off. Let's see...the night before last (at Outback) Easton ralphed up some cooked carrot in my hand. He has a very overactive gag reflex. I think that's the problem. Last night he yakked twice. Once he came over to J and I on the couch (he was two feet away) and he stunk like you-know-what. We never heard him which seems impossible as we were all there hanging out but he had a tiny bit of "substance" on his chin and shirt. Ick. Hate this heightened sense of smell pregnancy brings. Then, in the bath he learned a new trick: blowing bubbles in the water. He did not learn not to suck the water back in as he laughed. So, again...out his nose and mouth. Puke in the tub. That is a common place for him to blow chunks. Gross. He is losing this contest big time which is good for Blitz I guess. Alrighty then, that is more than enough of the hurl talk.

Yesterday after the E-sicle's nap we went to Wal-Mart. We bought something just for Deucily-Doo:

They just looked sweet and soft and fuzzy. Easton liked them. So we bought them so Deuce doesn't have to be a total hand me down receiver.

Eastie also found a special package for himself:

Those Maws sure like to take care of their currently only grandson.

There were all kinds of Halloween tricks and treats inside. Thank you, Alabamaws! I am surprised so much fit in that small package!

And just for fun here is Big E reading a book to himself:

I really really love that he is such a "reader". He only lets us read to him at bedtime. The rest of the day he reads to himself.

Here he is laying on Pablo like a pillow while watching America's Funniest Videos:

Great show to have TiVo for. Easton's favorite part of that show is telling us he wants to see a clip again and again.

Today we had a lazy morning. Not sure what the afternoon holds just yet but here is my little dude showing a trick or two today (that was a link to click, did ya catch it?). When I watched it the video and audio were out of sync. Makes him look less smart. :) Hmmmm...what to do? Is it out of sync for y'all?

And, since it's been awhile...you're in need of a festive montage. Really only the song (Friday the 13th theme) and the shirt is festive. Click here. The "soundtrack" really does add a lot to otherwise innocent videos. Scary!

That's all folks. Have a good weekend!