Halloween Weekend

I just LOVE Halloween! It is such a fun holiday. I find joy in the creative side of Halloween...the carved pumpkins, the homemade costumes and the parties. It is all a ton of fun! Now that we have Maxim we do not get dressed up and go to parties, but Andy is more than ok with this. Me, on the other hand, I am kind of bummed we do not do that anymore. However, we do have a super cute toddler that I get to dress up now. I do understand that I have limited years where I get to choose his costume before he decides to grow up and tell me what he wants to dress up as. This year I decided to have him be a mummy because it would be super cute, creative and he is a "mummy's" boy. HA HA!

At first I didn't want to do it because I knew it would take forever to make the costume because I do not have a sewing machine, but then Andy talked me into it by telling me how cool the costume would be. Ugh...that sold me. I started making his costume four weeks ago and put many hours of hand sewing into the costume. I spent nap time and after bed time sewing this costume. After week three of sewing I decided that I am bat shit crazy, but at least my son will be the cutest toddler mummy around.

I made the costume out of white pants, white hat, white t-shirt, two white pillow cases, green tea, black shoe polish, many hours and tons of love! I purchased the pants and hat at Hobby Lobby and the shirt at Old Navy. I shredded the pillow cases into strips and soaked in a pot of hot green tea to stain the white so it looked dirty. I then streaked black shoe polish on the wet material. The strips went into an old pillow case and into the dryer to dry and shred the strips. I then spent a ton of time hand sewing each strip onto the clothing. I put the pants and hat onto the big man's Elmo doll to help stretch it out as I sewed. I couldn't sew the strips on too tight because I had to be able to squeeze his diaper butt into the pants when I was done. 

After many hours I have a very cute mummy!

On Halloween we trick or treated at my work where the big man had a good time. People decorated their offices and there was even two mini haunted hallways that he enjoyed. The big man had fun putting candy into his bucket and he giggled and smiled each time. He did have a little candy, but then the rest of his bucket of candy went to daddy. He did get scared by another adult's costume and by one of the "monster's" in one of the offices. I hope this doesn't scare him away from Halloween forever.

After that we went to dinner with uncle Ryan (he was in town for a last minute visit) and then over to the Seifert's for a visit.

We had one tired big man at the end of the night!

On Saturday we hung out with uncle Ryan at the JW Marriott where the big man had a great time splashing in the pool. I did not go in because it is officially Fall here and I believe it was only 77 degrees on Saturday...brrr! Instead I just took pictures.

After the JW Marriott we went to our friend's surprise engagement party and hung out for a few hours. It was a very busy weekend for the big man (Andy and I too) and he held up ok...for the most part. Halloween was a lot of fun this year with the big man being a toddler. I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. I can't believe it's already November!

Pumpkin Festival

On Saturday we took the big man to the Desert Botanical Gardens pumpkin festival. There is not much for the big man to do there because he is still small, but he did get to ride the tractor to pick out his pumpkin.

Once out to the "pumpkin patch" he played in the pumpkins while we took a ton of photos.

We soon realized that he has an allergy to hay. FUN! His eyes got very red, watery and he kept rubbing them with his hands that were directly touching the hay. This mamma quickly picked out a pumpkin and we got out of there.

We took a quick family photo at the exit and then headed home to relieve the big man of his allergies. He did not get these allergies from me because I do not have allergies. Since we were not at the festival long it turned out to be one expensive pumpkin...oh well!

After waking up from his nap, we carved his pumpkin. He wasn't sure about it...and especially did not like getting his hands dirty. He eventually got into it and had pumpkin all over his legs and belly.

After clean up we lit the pumpkin and the big man thought this was pretty cool.

Chillin' At The Park

This past weekend we headed to the park since the weather has been much nicer. We found a shaded area under a tree and put down our blanket and just hung out with the big man while he played with balls, climbed all over us and chased airplanes. The park is in a flight path and every time the big man heard a plane he would look up and chase down the plane. He did this for every plane and now he is very into airplanes.

He also just climbed all over daddy. He certainly is a climber and loves to climb. I have one of those plastic tubs in our hallway filled with small baby clothes that needs to be put away. Max decides to push that around the house and climb it to reach whatever he wants. He also likes to climb his toy chests to reach whatever it is that is on the desk in his play room. This boy climbs!

He enjoyed playing with everything in the baby bag as well as the camera bag.

The big man's favorite toys...balls!

He loves his mamma...and his mamma loves him!

We also did a lot of practicing walking. He did so well that even at one point he was sitting on my lap and stood up on his own and walked to daddy. SO PROUD! No video or photos of that, but I do have a picture of this super cute smiley face instead!

It was a nice afternoon in the park enjoying the weather and getting out of the house. I mean, this mamma is so over the big man playing in my closet and taking down all my shirts on hangers just so I can rehang them so he can sneak back in and take them down again. 

First Steps

In the past couple weeks the big man has been taking a step or two, but I am going to declare tonight the official first step night. He actually went on his own for six steps. I was so excited that I screamed and scared him a bit. Sorry to scare the big man, but this mamma was so proud. 

What caused him to do that you ask? A light switch! He has been into turning the lights on and off and I usually let him do it whenever I leave a room. Tonight he saw daddy flick the light switch off (on accident) and then back on. The big man, of course, wanted to play with the switch so I said "walk to daddy and you can hit the switch." I got him up and walking then let go and for the first time he did not stop. He kept going! Proud moment! Of course there are no pictures or video of this first, but I did capture him with the said light switch that caused him to be so bold and mobile.

Baby In A Box

Who knew an empty Huggies box could be so entertaining? The big man loves it when daddy pushes him around the house in it. He just roars with laughter.