Happy Halloween!

It was Peanut's first Halloween, and he spent it surrounded by family...and monkeys! :)The first time we ever discussed Halloween, we knew we wanted to dress P up as a peanut, for obvious reasons. However, to our dismay, we couldn't find a peanut costume to fit our little Peanut...well, that's not entirely true. There was a peanut costume out there, but it was fairly intense, as the only part of our Peanut that would have shown through their peanut costume would have been his face. While I'm sure it would have been precious to see those sparkling blue eyes framed by a peanut costume, it just wasn't a possibility for the following reason: our child HATES clothes going over his head. HATES it. While one might assume that this is a learned behavior from having one too many shirts get stuck on his 75th percentile-sized head, I can tell you that I believe it to be an inherited trait, as I used to be terrified of getting stuck in my clothing when I was little and HATED things that had to go over my head, so I can totally empathize with the little guy.

With that being said, we decided that trying to get this full-contact peanut costume on and off P several times as we made our way around the metroplex to see his adoring fans, in addition to him experiencing the sensation of a piece of clothing that just wouldn't fit over his head, could all add up to a nervous breakdown for him...and us. So instead, we took our inspiration for somewhere else.

You may not know this, but I am married to a model. Those blue eyes that my baby inherited from his dad made his dad some money back in the day. That's right. J was a baby model...and a darn cute one at that, and one of the tricks used to get J's attention at photo shoots was a sock monkey. Well, that sock monkey stayed around long after the cameras were gone. I learned of the sock monkey while we were dating, and I even received a necklace for a Christmas present around the neck of this sock monkey 6 months before we got engaged.

So the sock monkey has some history, which I like. So when we decided the peanut costume wasn't going to fly, we opted for the next best thing...but it turned out the next best thing still had a design flaw. There was a hat involved. Never mind that our child wore a hat all the time this summer. For some reason, the hat portion of this costume drove him crazy, and the moment you put the hat on, his little hand would fly up to rip it off. This would not be that big of a deal, except for the fact that the hat really was the costume. Without the hat, our baby was just dressed in a weird bodysuit. The hat was kind of crucial, but P didn't seem to get that memo.

Each time he ripped the hat off it kind of looked like a Broadway move...just replace the monkey-faced beanie with a top hat.

This is right before he turns into a kid wearing a weird bodysuit... sitting on the front porch...surrounded by monkeys.

We started off the evening with a visit from Grandma Judy and Pops (who somehow managed to escape without being photographed with the little monkey/ kid in a weird bodysuit (depending on the timing)).
And while they weren't photographed, they were nice enough to take this picture of our little family. :)

Then we headed over to Aunt KiKi and Uncle Bear's house where we were joined by GiGi and Gramps! I love this picture...what a face! I'm sure he's thinking something like, "Why are you all staring at me? Haven't you ever seen a kid in a weird bodysuit before?"

See? Without the hat, the costume is nondescript. Maybe he could have passed for an astronaut?

Dad's loving hands might also be holding P's arms down for the photo-op...

"Oy! How many of the pictures are you going to take, Mom?"

"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Do you think they can tell I'm not really one of them?"

Stoic sock monkey.

He loved seeing his GiGi and Gramps.

"I know I acted like I didn't want to wear the hat, but now that she has it on, I'm questioning myself..."

You know your Aunt is crazy about you when she'll wear your sock monkey beanie for a picture.

With dad. :)

Then we made our way over to Grammy Share and Gpa Ron's house. In this picture, P is playing with the doorknob, a favorite past-time. I love it because the ghost hanger that is on that doorknob was something that K and I fought over as kids. There was a black cat and a white ghost, and we both wanted the white ghost on our door...thanks, Mom, for always having - and continuing to have!-such fun Halloween decorations.

Hanging out with Grammy Share and Gpa Ron.

The all-important hat.

"You look awfully familiar..."
P is pictured here with the original sock monkey.

Cheese! :)

A happy bunch.
Sweet monkey.

Doing one of his moves where he tilts his head from one side to the other...kind of looks like something a dog would do. :)

The whole family!

This picture was taken to show that the sock monkey costume came complete with a removable tail...but I'm much more entertained by the faces on my dad and J. :)

Very excited about his candy corn balloon. :)

We finally made it home close to 7:45, just in time to get hit up by some trick-or-treaters. :) We were actually doing pretty well until Justin opened two more bags of candy, and then, of course, the knocks on the door ceased. Guess we'll just have to eat Snickers and Reese's PB cups for breakfast. Sigh.

It's weird to think that this time last year, there was no Peanut, and I was looking like I had been eating too much Halloween candy. :) Even without a little person in years past, J and I had some Halloween traditions. For the past 6 years we've always carved a jack-o-lantern, eaten some kind of soup/chili for dinner, and watched Halloween classic movies from our childhood (like Garfield's Halloween and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), but this year was different.

This year we got to dress up a little person and parade him around and take pictures of him and open up his trick-or-treat bag and say "Trick or Treat!" and then eat his candy. :) This year we didn't have time to carve a pumpkin or make soup, but thankfully, mom and dad had carved one so Parker could "experience" it, and Halloween didn't fall on a Sunday this year, so we could eat at Chick-fil-a. :) And to really change things up, we didn't watch our classic movies (although we did watch Hocus Pocus, an old Disney movie I remembered loving...I think my taste may have changed :)). And even though it was different, it was still great, in fact, it was better...because this year we had a little peanut (make that sock monkey/ baby in a weird bodysuit (depending on your timing)) to share it with.

Happy Halloween!!! :)

Two Tooths

Peanut has wasted no time in getting another chomper. :) Upon inspection yesterday, it also looks like we'll be seeing some on the top sooner rather than later. This is right in line with how P has hit some other developmental milestones.

When he was tiny, he didn't want to hold his head up. Any time I put him on his stomach, he would just turn his head to the side...and lay there...defeated...probably wondering why his mother was continuing to put him face-down on the floor. And then all of a sudden one day, out of the blue, he went from 0 to 60, and not only lifted his head way off the ground, but also held it there, looking around like he'd been working on that moment for weeks (and maybe he had been while we were sleeping), so we really shouldn't be surprised that we went from no teeth, to 2 teeth (and seemingly a lot more right around the corner) in such a short amount of time.

Considering that P still isn't crawling, J and I are just waiting for the kid to stand up one day soon and start running...we'll keep you posted.

Going to the Chapel...

My sweet friend Erin got married this weekend, and I was honored to have been able to read scripture in the wedding. She was a stunning bride, and I am so thrilled for her and her new hubby, John!

I am rather ashamed to say that I took zero pictures. I even had the camera with me on the night of the wedding! :( Thankfully my friend Beth snapped a few pictures that I stole off of Facebook. :) Thanks, Beth!

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner at Nobu.

This table was at the reception...see the framed article in the middle of the table? I matted it and framed it and gave it to them for their wedding present! :) Erin and John were set up by a staff member at school where we taught together, and their story was written up in the newspaper. It made me feel so good that she liked it enough to display it at the reception! :)

Here's the article up close...the paper matched their invitation pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. :)

A great picture of two of my favorite people...the beautiful bride and Beth...you can thank her and her camera for the pictures of people in this post. :)

Here's Erin, John, and Kerrie...the person who set them up.

I love this picture...these are the wonderful ladies that I taught with (minus the best 6th grade teaching partner of all time who somehow slipped out before this pict was taken?!?!?)...I LOVE staying home with the Peanut, but being with these fabulous ladies reminded me of why it was such a difficult decision to make!!!

It was a wonderful weekend, and I am grateful to have been a part of it. :) Happy marriage, Erin and John!

Food for Thought...

I go to the grocery store on Mondays. This past Monday wasn't any different. Except for the fact that I hadn't done P's laundry since coming back from Chicago (that post is coming - about the trip to Chicago, not about the laundry). This meant that P had no clean pants to wear. But P's only 9.5 mo. old, so what did I do? I took him to the grocery store without pants on (it was really warm...like 89 degrees warm, so really, the pants would be just for show - or, I suppose, "decency".)

Which got me thinking...can you even imagine showing up somewhere without pants and saying, "Oh, sorry. I haven't done my laundry...no clean pants." (I would probably show up pant-less to places more times than I would like to admit), or, "It's so hot outside today, so I decided to just forgo the pants" (which, for what it's worth, I do believe a lot of teenage girls do, although they don't realize it).

At what point can you no longer get away with not wearing any pants? Considering that it seemed kinda weird to me that P didn't have pants on this past Monday...I'm thinking that we're getting close, but as one of my sister's students said,"He's a baby. He's allowed to be free." Relish your freedom, little man. I'm afraid your pant-less days are numbered.

I Get It From My Dad...

You know that phrase, "If I had a penny for every time..." Well, in all honesty, if I had $5 for every time a person says to me, "Look at those blue eyes," when I'm out with Peanut, I really would be a rich woman.

Blue eyes aren't the only thing that Peanut got from his dad. He ALSO inherited a love of...cheese. :)

Per a recent suggestion by a friend, I gave Parker shredded cheese yesterday (as opposed to cutting it up into tiny pieces), and that kid went to town. I think he really likes feeding himself, which is both great and not so great because it is sometimes really hard for me to feed him now. A lot of times in order to get him to eat what I have for him, I have to give him his own spoon to play with. This tends to occupy him enough to put him on auto-pilot, and he'll just open his mouth as he's in his own little world. :)I love how this picture shows his lack of wrists. :) As I often tell people, he looks like a little marionette - his hands look like they're just stuck onto his arms. :)More cheese...yum.

And this is what happened yesterday when the cheese was gone. I was the world's best mom, and instead of tending to my child, I grabbed the camera and took a picture. :) Bless his heart. What can I say? The kid really loves his cheese...

Thanks to Thomas for his keen editing eye. :)

Are You Going to San Francisco, Pt. 3 (the wedding!!!)

And finally...the WHOLE REASON we were in San Francisco in the first place! :) To celebrate the marriage of my wonderful high school best friend, Justine, to her equally wonderful, now husband, Dave!

Justine and I became fast friends our senior year of high school after most of our close friends who were a year older had graduated. We were in band together and shared a love of science and a lesser-love of math, which landed us in AP Bio together our junior year with lots of seniors and AP Physics our senior year with lots of juniors. :) I also had the honor of helping her put her hair in a ponytail for band on a daily basis after she had surgery on both of her wrists our senior year of high school. She is one of the funniest people I know and has been a constant friend for the past 15 years. I was so excited to be there to support her and celebrate with her.

Here's the happy couple at the rehearsal dinner.

After the rehearsal dinner the girls and guys went separate ways. We ended up at a cool little place called Candybar, which had great desserts and fun drinks, which can be seen above. The best dessert by far was the one on the right...peanut butter and jelly. Yum!

Friday's weather was beautiful. Saturday's weather was not. Saturday's weather was all that San Francisco has to offer in the miserable weather department. As I said to Justine as we literally pushed through the wind walking to the wedding site, "Hey Justine, remember that day you got married and it was cloudy and windy and cold?" :) Bless her heart...some brides would have cried while fighting through the 50 degree temps and ridiculous winds, but she didn't. She was a GREAT sport, although she did lament the fact that when we got to the wedding site at Crissy Field you couldn't see the Golden Gate Bridge, which was one of the main reasons they had the wedding where they did. Thankfully, with the crazy strong winds, the clouds were blown away, and the bridge became a perfect backdrop for their wedding.
I love that both of her parents walked her down the aisle.

You can see how windy it was by the way the Chuppah fabric was blowing. We actually had to hold the poles so it wouldn't blow over, but that allowed us to have a front row seat. :)

See? The bridge made an appearance!

I'm pretty sure we're all laughing here because when asked to exchange their vows, Justine reached into the top of her dress and pulled out a note card. This is fairly classic Justine. This is only one of the reasons I love her.

Dave got everyone choked up as he read his vows (he might have gotten a little choked up himself), but not to worry, Justine saved the day by pulling a Kleenex out of her top...and everyone lost it. :) Again, classic Justine.

Turns out, you can't break a glass by stomping on it on the sand...

A second try on the pole base worked much better. :)

The three bridesmaids were in pretty perfect step...it's 'cause we practiced. :)

The sky after the wedding. It really was beautiful.

Here we are after the wedding.

The guests got to ride a trolley to the wedding! Cold...but fun!

After the ceremony, we went to the Palace of Fine of Arts to take some pictures. Is this a beautiful place, or what!?

The happy couple.

The one picture we got of just the two of us that weekend. Thanks, Dave, for taking the camera from me. :)

At the reception site. I think this is the most pictures we've had taken of the two of us in a really long time.

The super yummy cake with passion fruit filling.

They had dinner after the wedding at Greens, an exceptionally awesome vegetarian restaurant.

Here's a picture of Justine with a dear friend from high school, Mark. It was so fun to reconnect!

So the trip to San Francisco was a great one. We missed our little Peanut, but we knew he was in great hands, which allowed us to relax, wake up on our own terms (gasp!), and enjoy time with one another. Congrats to the bride and groom! :) We're so glad we were able to be a part of your special day.