Photo Heavy

After nap/quiet time yesterday the boys and I headed into the front yard to play in the leaves. It was breezy...windy actually...and a lot of the leaves had blown away. But it was still a good time and of course there are many pictures:






There are only so many pictures you can take of your 7 month old sitting in the leaves...so I had to change things up a bit with Photoshop...a sepia toned one:


Running...


Tossing...


Crunchy stomping...


Tasting...


Sucking...


Shadowed smiling...


A lot of Dalton's pictures have his face in the shadows, otherwise he made this face:




"Chase me, Mommy!"




And changing it up again with black and white:


Good autumny times.

Last night when Jason got home Easton was a total golden child. He greeted Jason with a big hug and a declaration of, "I luff (love) you, Daddy! I'm glad you home!" He must've gotten that "glad you're home" business from a TV show or something because I don't think we say things that way. Cute.

At one point he was whipping his Cuddles around. That can get dangerous so he was warned and then when he did it again Jason asked, "Now what happens?" and Easton answered (completely calmly), "Time out" and went and sat in his corner after putting Cuddles on the stairs. Even when the time out was over he wasn't allowed to have Cuddles back just yet and he was fine with that. We were so impressed with him. Then he went, "I'm going to get Cuddles because I'm drooling" Hee hee. He needed to wipe off a bit of drool and then put Cuddles back in his off-limits spot. Made us smile.

And I realized that my Easton stories were indeed NOT any funnier/cuter just because I was telling as opposed to typing them. Oh well. And Jason said that my nostril probably looked so enormous because that side of my face was in shadow. Good hubby.

What else? We've tried giving Dalton finger foods lately: Gerber puffs and a grean bean. He can put them in his mouth but then he doesn't like what he's supposed to do with it. He makes some great faces. None of which I have on camera just yet. And then he needs to wash it down with some water:


Dalton had a weird night last night. He was really mad for a bit. Don't know what that was about and it's certainly unlike him. Oh well. Easton had a lovely night, though. He didn't wake up till nearly 8:00 and when he did I went in and he said, "I want to have some quiet time." So I said, "You do?" and got him some books. He said, "I don't want me light on" so I left it dark for him and he had some quiet time. I read my own book in my own room because Dalton was sleeping. Yay! A while later I heard Easton calling, "I want to go pee pee!" so I went in and we went and took care of that.

I've been hesistant to say anything because of how last time went, but this is my journal after all so I want to keep track. Anyway, now that we're back from our road trip we're working with potty training again. And Easton took no time at all once again. With two exceptions: he has yet to poop on the potty again, and he either goes commando or prefers a diaper. No underwear just yet. Hmmmm. But, it's actually quite nice, with him in a diaper I'm less annoying to him in regards to asking/reminding if he needs to go. In fact he has taken almost all the initiative. He has shocked me with when he speaks up about needing to find a potty. Let's hope it takes this time around. With him pushing 3 it seemed like a good goal. We'll see...

Okay, so this morning Easton and I made some muffins in our new pumpkin silicone pan:




Dalton looked on:




When Diddlebug went down for his nap, Easton and I did a craft project:






Dudes, his eyelashes continue to amaze me:


After we were finished with the bucket project Easton moved onto headstands. He is pretty impressive. He can hold the position for about as long as I probably could:




Seriously, you can tell how he's holding the position because there is no blurriness in the photo:


Had he been moving it might've looked something like this one:


And, not to be outdone, Dizz has some new expressions for you. He's been making scrunchy faces lately. He's a goober like his brother:




But cute as ever too:


Whew, that was exhausting with all those pictures. Time to rest:


Till we meet again, my friends...

V. B. T.

It's Video Blog Time again. Yippee, right? I watched this myself and am VERY disgusted by what appears to be very mismatched nostril size on my face. Seriously...I did not know this about myself and I am quite disturbed. I asked Jason, "Do I always have such a big difference in nostril size?" and he thought about it and said (in a very nice way, mind you), "I don't think you're completely symmetrical, but it's not, like, distracting." Well, it's distracting to me. And now that I've said that you will only be able to stare at my poor nose holes and not listen to anything I have to say, right? Oh, and I burp in the middle of it, but hey...that's really me. Sad as it is. I didn't want to record it again, though. But I say excuse me. You know, so I'm not completely rude. Anyhoo...

Here it is:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And here is the "transcript" of the second video clip. But, watch the video first, if you ask me...

J: Easton, what are you going to do at the Halloween house?

E: Yep. Ring the doorbell and dress up like _____ ! (if you can understand him fine, you won't be suprised when you see his pictures)

J: Yeah? And then what happens?

E: And then...

K: You say...

E: Trick or treat!

K: And what do they do?

E: Give candy fo... The people...give candy...to Easton

J: And then what do you say?

E: Thank you

J K: LOL

E: Happy Halloween!

More LOLing

Wednesday

Some bloggers do what is called "Wordless Wednesdays" Now, we all know that's probably not something I could do... :) But, I'll be brief today. How's that?

Dalton under his swing, playing with the speaker wire...Easton loved that as a baby too.


Poor Blitz...Easton just wants to hold him and pick him up:


Do I see some all-fours action going on???


Taking a short break halfway:


"I came all that way just for this??"


"I really hope Diego can figure out how to rescue the pygmy marmosets..."


The end.

So, the whole sleep thing is going downhill...I feel like I'm more well-rested when we're NOT working on sleep stuff. Go figure. Last night wasn't fun. Even naptime just now was hard. Dalton usually goes down for his naps sooooo easily. He bonked the bridge of his nose this morning though and I'm worried now that maybe it's hurting him? I dunno... He hasn't figured out how to go from sitting to his belly so well just yet and he face planted into a toy. Didn't take him too long to recover though, so I'd be a little surprised if that's what's making him so sad. Poor baby. He doesn't get worked up like that too often. Easton was having quiet time in his own room (with Dalton wailing next door) and called to me, "Mama! Mama!" so I left D and went in and Easton said, "Dalton needs to get new shots at the doctor. He's so sad. He bonked his nose on the toy." That's actually what really tipped me off that D's nose might be hurting him too much for sleep. So I said to Easton, "Oh...okay...I'll think about the doctor" and he quickly added, "I want to come!"

Anyway, just have a few videos to share from our morning for you.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pay no attention to the fact that Easton's pajamas don't match. He started off in a different top last night but it was short sleeved. It was bugging him at the time--never bugged him before to have short sleeves but it is getting colder. Anyway, shortly after we left his room he started crying, "It's not working, Mama!" about trying to pull his sleeves down and I had to give him a new top so he'd go right to sleep.

We're having another one of our lazy days today. But that's because Mama's sleepy. Wish I could nap.

No Way!

They won! They keep winning...21 of their last 22 games. Not the Colorado Rockies we used to "know", that's for sure.

Anyway, they're heading to the World Series! The World Series is coming here to Denver! Now we just gotta see if it'll be the Red Sox (Jessica's house are fans) or the Indians.

Oh, I should also mention, I don't particularly follow baseball--they play too darn many games during the regular season. But playoffs can be fun to watch when J's Cubs have been in them. And now it's the Rockies' turn! Wooooot! And they still play too many games. :)

Hello there! So, the problem with my week long re-capping of our travels is that now I have another weeks worth of blogging (and pictures!) to catch y'all up on.

We had a quiet week, not leaving the house much and a busy weekend. We should just go ahead and get started...

Dalton has added both carrots and pears to his repertoire:


And one morning Easton woke up and donned his red hat, of course, and then said that Dalton wanted his Tigger and Pooh hat. I did not know Dalton wanted this but he does seem happy to have it:

Good thing Easton can translate for me sometimes.

We don't use the buckles in the chair just yet and Dalton can find himself quite sideways at times:


Easton then decided Dalton wanted this visor (that we made at Kaleidoscope!). Easton put it on Dizz himself:


Catching up on the mounds of laundry from our vacation. Easton is an awesome helper with laundry especially:


And Dalton has finally gotten the hang of the mesh feeder. So, when he's awake for dinnertime he enjoys sucking on some frozen bananas in the feeder:


Just being cute:


Easton has been a much better eater again now that we're home. Whew:




And check out how Sweet Baby D fell asleep the other day:



No, the sleeping at night is not going any better.

But he does have a new game. He has really become a fan of throw something off the side of the highchair and then see where it goes while he waits for me or Easton to pick it back up:












Easton has had a time out or two this week as well:


Which required apologizing to Dalton--this time for not sharing:


Look how good Dalton's teeth are in now:


Easton was thrilled to get a puffy dinosaur postcard from Gramoo in the mail:


And the boys also got a package from The Alabamaws with some Halloween goodies. Easton's favorite...M&M's!!!


And a festive shirt that says, "Will scare for candy" for Easton:




Dalton's says, "Monster in Training".

Thank you, Maws!

Easton and I made some festive snacks too...Rice Krispie treats but made with Cocoa Pebbles. Mmmm. Sneaking some marshmallows:


Stirring the melting goo, yes I let him do this even though it got pretty warm:


Patting the treats into the pan:


Then we topped them with some Halloween M&M's:

He looked up at me and informed me, "I doing a good job, Mommy." I agreed that he was doing a great job.

The finished product:


He loves Rice Krispie treats that we get at Noodles and he loves to eat Cocoa Pebbles as a breakfast cereal with Daddy when we have it (which is rare). But, for some reason he did not like these treats. So, the whole pan is left for me. Because Jason "doesn't love them" either. As credit to me, there is still some left and it's been 4 days or so. I'm working on 'em. :)

We also pulled out our tote of Halloween decorations the other day. As I mentioned, some of that loot is what enticed Dalton's becoming mobile. Both boys love having new stuff around:






Heck, even the cat likes a particular decoration. He really does love the "straw". And how lucky are we that we already have a Halloween cat?


Our festive socks (courtesy of Target's Dollar Spot!):


Alrighty, so that was all during the week. Then the weekend we were busy, as I said. Saturday morning started out with Easton and I running to buy Dalton's Halloween costume while D napped and J worked on fixing Easton's windowsill some more.

Once D woke up we dressed them in their new Halloween shirts:




And then we went to the nearby dairy's Harvest Festival that we go to every year. Jumping out of the car:


We headed right for the bounce house Easton had spotted from the road on our way to get the costume earlier. $1 for 5 minutes. He had fun:




Dalton looked forward to the day he can join his big bro:


Easton rode on the barrel train again. It went sooooo slow. And he was the only kid on it, probably for a reason:


He got more interested in the dirt and stuff on the bottom of the barrel than he was in the "ride":


Waiting for brother to come back:




The hay maze where all the kids just walk on top of the hay bales as opposed to going through the maze:


And jump off:


Token shot of Daddy and Dizzle again:


My favorite festival treat is always roasted corn on the cob. And Easton likes it too:




I encouraged J to take a self-portrait like I like to do:


Then it was over to their pumpkin pile. Easton wanted to lift one so bad but just kept rolling them all over while he looked for a lighter one:


We've always posed Easton on the pile in the past but it didn't go so well with two this year:




Even D wouldn't look at the camera because he was too interested in the pumpkins:




"Hey, maybe it would be better if you took one of the three of us"


Nope.

Easton finally found some pumpkins he could lift:


Dalton too:


We let Easton pick out three to take home.

Then he went on a pony ride:




By that point he was too cold to have much fun anymore so we went home.

We had Jack's My Gym birthday party that afternoon. Daddy and Dalton stayed home with the LSU game. We haven't been to Gym in over a month and when we walked in Miss Stephanie did an excited, "Look who it is!" and Miss Lynn was like, "Yay! It's Easton!" He wouldn't look at them. He's been doing that lately. Even with me. Or at Paradise Park when he had on a moustache. Anyway...he eventually came around and Miss Steffie gave him a hug. I have two pictures of the back of E's head, E coming down the pole:


And listening on the red circle:


He was a little clingy while we were there and after he rode on the zip line he burst into tears and spent the rest of the party (about 10 more minutes) by my side. What a goob. We plan to start going back to Gym this week. Yay!

Saturday night I went out for dinner with my mommy friend Ember (Ellis's mom). She had a bunch of time to herself and asked if I wanted to join her for dinner. She even came and picked me up and everything so I was more than free to enjoy a margarita with my dinner! Yum. It was a nice time. I like getting some time to myself like that sometimes. Even though we mostly talk about our kids.

On Sunday we took the boys to have their pictures done in their Halloween costumes. Dalton had a blow-out poop in his but the costume kept it all in till we got home. Now I have to wash it, darn it. Hope it holds up okay. And, I don't think I'm going to announce what they're going to be. I think some of you already know what at least one kid'll be, but I like to keep some things a surprise. Even if they're kinda lame surprises. Don't worry...you won't have to wait long. Just till the end of the month!

After pictures we had super fun plans: THE CIRCUS!!! Gramoo came to babysit Dalton (since he wouldn't appreciate it just yet) and we took Lauren with us to the greatest show on earth:


I didn't/couldn't bring my camera to the show but it was all super. Easton did great and loved it. It held his attention very well. In fact, during the intermission I suggested that Jason take him to walk around a bit so he could get any fidgets out before the second half. They didn't get far. Easton wanted to come back, afraid he might miss something! He really seemed to like it and he would dance and clap to the music. During the horse/zebra performance (they were running around inside their rings) Easton said, "The zebras are going round and round and those horses and those horses" (three rings, right?). And then he said, "They're getting so dizzy!" He was slightly bored by these chicks:

It was a little slower at that point. But he asked Jason, "You want to do that, Daddy?" Hee hee!

He got his first bag of cotton candy. Which came with a hat. Good stuff.

On the way home I kept trying to get him to tell me the name of the main clown (Bello) for the camera in exchange for some cotton candy. Silly boy wouldn't do it! He says it so cute, though:




Poor Diddlebug had to miss out:




But he got some extra loving from Auntie Lauren when we got back:


In addition to watching Dalton, Gramoo made dinner, got some festive treats for Easton (check out this cracker, peanut butter, pretzel stick spider):


And decorated Easton's door with Halloweeny streamers:


And made dinner. Wow.

That brings us to today: Monday: doughnut day. We ate like a picnic again and Easton ate three. A new high!!! That's how many I had. And imagine Easton's surprise when Dalton got ahold of the picnic towel and pulled Easton's legs and plate towards him:


While Dizz napped Easton and I went outside to collect some leaves:




They were for our fancy fall collage art project:




Okay, that has us all caught up on pictures since we've been home from vacation. I think. :)

I'm sorry for the overload but most of you don't complain. Good thing I don't think any of you have dial-up, right?

Anyhoo...gonna go now. Baby calls. For milk. Bye!