Flashback to the Arboretum

It is my belief that a majority of people are frustrated when Christmas decorations go up before we even celebrate Thanksgiving...and understandably so. I mean, Thanksgiving is an important day, too, but I guess businesses just don't profit from this seemingly forgotten holiday that to some is just a roadblock to Christmas.

In fact, I wasn't even able to find an "official" Thanksgiving outfit for Peanut...and it wasn't from a lack of trying. The phone call would go something like this:

Me: "Hi, do you have any Thanksgiving outfits?"

Store clerk: "Ummm...I don't think so...let me check...you said Thanksgiving??? Let me check..."

-A minute passes-

Store clerk: "We have Christmas outfits..."

The stores seemingly jumped from Halloween to Christmas as soon as the last piece of candy was handed out and left moms like me (i.e. ones who are not crafty and able to make a turkey onesie out of ribbons and craft glue, and ones who aren't able to think far enough in advance to order something off etsy...sigh...poor Peanut) out in the cold.

For what it's worth, I'm normally shaking my fist at the people who insist on putting up garland before we cook the bird, although this year I admittedly snuck in a few Christmas tunes before Thanksgiving...which is usually a BIG "no, no" in our house. I shouldn't say usually. It IS a big "no, no" in our house until after Thanksgiving, so I'm not sure what came over me. I was baking cookies and pumpkin bread to take to the ranch for Thanksgiving and before I knew it, I was listening to Christmas music on Pandora. In my defense, it was instrumental...so it's not like I was actually listening to the words...but I might have mindlessly begun to sing along...but that's neither here nor there.

All this is say that skipping over Thanksgiving and fast-forwarding to Christmas is not a popular move...so I'm wondering, now that we're officially in the Christmas season, will people be upset at me for going back in time and writing a post about going to the Arboretum to enjoy the fall decorations? I have decided to ask for forgiveness instead of permission and hope that you will accept these pictures from the 9th of November when we took a little trip to the "Autumn Wonderland" that is the Dallas Arboretum...

The gardens are filled with over 40,000 pumpkins and gourds. It's really a sight to be seen.

The weather was PERFECT when we went. It had been really warm the week before, but a storm came through and cooled things down. It was the perfect sunny, crisp fall day.We began our visit with a picnic. As I've mentioned before, P could probably live outside...as long as we provided him with enough Cheerios, which he can be seen happily inhaling in the picture above.My mom organized our event because she had gotten a deal on Groupon. P enjoyed the great outdoors with his GiGi and Aunt Jan.
Aunt Jan wanted to see the frog fountains...P didn't seem to like that idea so much. :)

Here's one of the awesome pumpkin houses.
And what's a little boy to do when his mom puts him in the doorway of a pumpkin house and tries to get him to look/ smile at the camera? Play with the hay on the ground, of course.
What is this stuff, mom?What a face. :)
I'm appreciative that my mom brought her camera...there's normally no photographic evidence that I even exist because I'm the one taking the picture. See, Peanut...you do have a mom! :)More hay.

And more hay...think he ever tried to eat it? ;)

P loved the pumpkins...here he is showing off a new trick - standing while holding on to something. I won't lie...he might have fallen...more than once...but no worries, the hay cushioned his blow!

All smiles.A happy Peanut.Look at me!

Sweet bubba...in looking at his hair in his picture, I'm realizing how much it's grown in the past few weeks! I know a few Eastburn men who wouldn't mind knowing his secret. ;)
Pretty sure he's smiling at a leaf...sigh...whatever does it for you, little man.

A picture of a picture...

"I love pumpkins, Mom!"
and I love you, little Peanut.

My Grandma's Faster Than Your Grandma

Ok..so it's been a while...or maybe a little more than a while. My apologies. We've just been busy enjoying life, which isn't a bad thing. :) But I know that there are Peanut fans out there, so I apologize for letting you down.

Before I started a new post, I wanted to make sure that I didn't have any "waiting in the wings" that I had forgotten about. Oops. There was one, and it's too good to pass up.

Several weeks ago (on Nov. 12 to be exact), P's Grandma Judy ran in her first 10K, and we went out there to cheer her on.

Here's a picture of P and his Dad waiting for Grandma Judy at the finish line.And here's the gang after the race...Grandma J. came in first place in her age division! :)

P got in on the celebration by managing to swipe a chocolate chip off of his grandma's granola bar. Oh the irony that Judy would give P his first taste of chocolate. ;)

And here they are...you can tell P is proud and thinking,"My grandma is faster than your grandma!"...and he'd be right. She's probably faster than his mom, too. ;)

Way to go Judy! :) We're so proud of you!!!

A friend for the Peanut!

Just a quick blog post to officially welcome P's newest (and we're just sure, bestest!) buddy, Baby Jay to the world! :) He's been a long time coming (just ask his mom ;)), and we are so looking forward to getting to hang out with them!

Here's me with my sweet friend, Jen, and of course, her sweet baby. Is it possible that just 10 months ago our little Peanut was his size?

And here we are holding the sweet little guy.

And just for giggles...this is what J and I looked like the last time we were in the hospital holding a new-born baby:
Sigh. It's amazing what childbirth, no sleep, and losing a good amount of blood will do to a girl. What I've decided is that we're going to put the picture of us with Baby J in Peanut's baby book. I mean come on, wouldn't you? ;)

Welcome to the world, Jay! We are SO glad you're finally here!!!

10 months!

Where has the time gone???

3 months old6 months old10 months old! :)

I failed to mention in the Halloween post that our sweet Peanut turned 10 months old on the 31st. My how time flies! :) Here are some note-worthy 10 month tricks and tidbits...

-P loves to talk. He still doesn't seem to be associating his "words" with their namesakes, but it's sure fun to hear him babble. :) And even though the kid spends his entire day with me, hearing the syllables "ma-ma" are few and far between. Sigh. If my name was only "a-gee-gee-gee-gee," we'd be in business.

-P definitely knows some words including "grooving" (which he responds to be bopping his head back and forth), "cheese", "cheerios", and "smooches" (which he responds to by opening his mouth as wide as it will go and planting it on your cheek). He also knows his name...and "Peanut." Actually, for all this kid knows, Peanut is his real name. We'll need to work on that before he goes to kindergarten.
-He has started clapping (which, as you can see, he takes very seriously. :)) Sometimes he claps when you sing to him, although normally he'll clap when you say, "Yea, Peanut!" For example, the other night he slept really well and didn't wake up in the middle of the night, and when I went into his room and said, "Yea, Peanut! You didn't wake up!," the child clapped for himself. Pretty adorable. He also cracked us up last Sunday morning. We had turned the clocks back, but P didn't get the memo. Still, he woke up about 6:15, which wasn't too horrible. We brought him into our bed, and we sat him up, and he was just staring at us, so I started singing,"We're here to entertain you," (while doing jazz hands), and my child clapped for me. :) It was hilarious, and only encouraged me...I'm sure this won't be happening when he has friends over when he's 7, and instead I'll be hearing, "Mooommmm!" (well, hopefully he'll be calling me "mom" by that point and not "A-gee-gee-gee...")
-He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to be read to and to look at his books. He definitely has his favorites, including any Sandra Boynton book, as well as books with strong cadences and rhythms and bright colors. When he is in the mood, and you have a book in hand that he likes, he will sit very quietly and intently listen to you read, and when it's time to turn the page, he'll reach out and turn it very purposefully. It is so endearing. :) It's also not uncommon for him to pull out his books and turn through the pages and sometimes even babble like he's reading. Sigh...warming his mommy's "teacher's" heart. And don't worry...we're not too advanced around here. P keeps it real by continuing to eat his books.
-P loves to be outside. I mean, loves it. The child squeals when we unlock the door. I think if he could live outside, he would.
-P seemingly loves meat. When we finally introduced meat into his diet, he couldn't get enough of it! There have been a couple of nights recently when he's been able to eat what we've eaten after we pureed it up. It's crazy to think that sooner rather than later, he will be eating what we eat for every meal! Makes me want to put a little more thought into what I make for dinner...
-Right now P's favorite thing to do is to play with the handles on our dresser, which we now refer to as "mission controls." It is hysterical to watch him grab the different handles across and above, all with this serious look on his face. I can just picture him sitting in front of a huge switchboard at NASA or something doing the same thing 35 years from now. He takes his work so seriously. And in case you ever want to get a feel for what it looks like, just ask J. He does a pretty mean impression. :)

-We still only have 2 teeth...but they're beauties. :) Dad brushes them every night, and P seems pretty agreeable to it.
Although I'm sure he's a little confused about what's going on from time to time. :)
-It is important to note that P has some crazy hair. I mean, crazy hair. The back goes between nice, soft little curls to full out wiry, crazy brillow pad. :) I often tell people that I can already picture him going to kindergarten as that kid with the bed-head...and it won't be because his mom didn't try to fix it. :) That hair has a mind of it's own.
-Mr. P. is just about the happiest little guy I've ever met. He is so smiley and so sweet and just loves life. He makes us smile and laugh every day. He is truly a joy to be around! J and I think it's because we're both so happy all the time...you know how genetics work. ;) And for those times when he's not so happy...we'll that's not our fault, of course.

Here he is with his Pops...

-We're still not crawling around here, but P's getting so close. I didn't crawl until I was 11 months, but then started walking about 3 weeks later, and J didn't walk until he was 13 months, so the kid seems to be following his genetic blueprint fairly closely. He's not really pulling up on anything, but he gets a kick out of being able to stand and hold onto things like the coffee table. I see baby-proofing in our near future.

So, happy 10 months, little man! :) We love you!

Mommy's Helper

I feel as though I should start with a true confession (and an apology to both of our mothers). Around our house, clothes don't always make it straight from the laundry room into their assigned drawers or onto their hangers. Sometimes the dryer becomes an extra drawer. Sometimes the clothes get folded but then continue to live in the laundry basket. I'm not proud of it, but it's just the way it is.

Well, last week Peanut's entire wardrobe (and I really don't think this is an overstatement) was in a laundry basket (and it might have been there for a, cough, week or so). I finally was taking the (gasp!) 5 minutes I needed to get his clothes put away. Since it's getting cooler, it was a good time for me to go through his summer clothes that were in his drawer and get those packed away. Well, while I was doing that, P decided to get a better look at the clothes he hadn't seen in quite awhile.

Here he is...taking out his clothes, one piece at a time. He would kind of inspect the item and then lovingly toss it aside and go back to get the next one.

I like his look of, "Can I help you? I'm simply assessing my wardrobe, Mom."

Towards the end...and an empty basket.

I have visions of toy bins, Tupperware cabinets, and sock drawers being emptied in the same manner in the not-so-distant future. :)

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!!! :)