Trick or Treat

For Halloween, I spent a lot of time debating on the boys' costumes. I wanted them to coordinate in some way but they are also a little too young to understand or care about certain character costumes. The weather is always unpredictable and I was afraid to get a heavy animal costume that they would burn up in if it turned out warm. So I found some crayola costumes online that I thought would be perfect. They coordinated, they were light weight, and easy to take on and off. I liked the fact that the hat came separate instead of attached, so if they refused to wear it, you could still see them and know they were crayons. We spent the week leading up to Halloween "practicing" wearing their hats. Jonathan didn't seem to mind having it on, Parker would always take it off. However, much to my surprise they both kept their hats on the whole night of Halloween and never seemed to care!

We first met up with Lilah and went trick or treating with her. Thankfully she let us borrow her wagon so we did not have to carry the boys or take them in and out of the stroller at every house. Parker and Lilah took turns pulling. Parker was not sure what to do at first but by the end of the evening he knew to get a piece of candy for his bag and one for Jonathan's. They had a lot of fun together.



Our next stop was at Aiyah and Grandad's house. We went to a few of their neighbors for candy.

And of course no night would be complete without a visit to the Leach's!
Cindy was ready with fruit snacks and Jason was ready with his camera to take some pics for me.

The girls took them to several houses on their street.
Cindy had recently bought some toys for the boys to play with when they come visit. So after trick or treating the boys spent time playing with their new toys. (notice who still had his hat on)

It was a fun night with the boys!

Boo At The Zoo

We kicked off Halloween weekend with a trip to the zoo for their "Boo At The Zoo" event. They offered an animal show, stations for you to get candy, and an area for kids to play games. We saw some animals, ate a picnic lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing games. The boys seemed to enjoy it.

Jonathan was not interested in the animal show like his brother. He preferred walking around.

Playing some games

My attempt to get a picture of the boys with their costumes, including their hats, before one walked away...
or took his hat off.

Oh well, I tried!

22 Months of Parker

Our little man is growing and changing on a daily basis it seems these days. It feels as if overnight, he started talking up a storm. He is trying to repeat words we say and one of his favorite things to do is look through books and name the things on each page. He continues to be our lovable, laid back little man.

A few of my favorite things Parker is doing:

• He likes to sing. He will do the motions of the wheels on the bus and the horn beeping. His favorite is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." He sings and acts out the "spider", "down", "rain" and "washes" the spider out. You have to sing fast though to keep up with his motions
• He has named his favorite animal, his lamb, "Weee"
• When we go get Jonathan up from his nap or go in his room in the mornings, he always says "Hi J.!"
• He can point/name most of his body parts - ears, nose, belly, toes, hair/head, mouth, and is getting close to identifying his eyes.
• When we drive and we hit a bump or a dip he says "Whoa" or "Wee" only it is a little bit of a delayed reaction which makes it even funnier
• He says "choo choo" every time he hears the whistle of the train that runs near our house. He also likes to point to every train on his pajamas and say "A choo choo" over and over
• He is consumed with trucks. He likes to look for them in his books, clothes, sippy cups etc. When we are out driving he points to every one he sees pass by and says "truck" with his sweet inflection of his voice

What a privilege it is to parent this incredible blessing!

Trip To Boston - Part 2

We spent an afternoon traveling to the Massachusetts state fair. Mark's sister warned us ahead of time that if we lower our expectations from the Texas state fair, we should all have a good time. One thing I love about younger children is that it does not take much to entertain them. They don't have previous experiences to compare things to so it is usually the parents who find themselves more disappointed than the children. This fair offered the same things (minus a few fried foods) just on a smaller scale.

They had a petting zoo

Various "fall" scenes set up for photo ops. (I must point out that at the time we took pictures of the kids, there was no one else around. By the time we finished, there was a crowd of 12-15 people. I believe this is because they had to stop and admire my handsome boys and decided to attempt pictures of their own to meet the standard we set. But again, this is only my opinion!)


There were also carnival games, other livestock, various shows, and of course plenty of food to consume. We had a great time.

On our last day we decided to take the boys to the Boston Common area before our trip to the airport. I would say this is Boston's version of Central Park. There are lots of sidewalks to run and walk. There is a duck pond, a playground, and plenty of hot dog vendors.

What boy doesn't love to run in an open field?

We found the statue of the ducks that represent the famous children's book, Make Way for Ducklings



And finally, no post would be complete without some pics of PB&J's newest cousin, Ilaria, aka "Doodle Bug". She was so patient while the boys showed her affection, pushed her semi gently in her swing, made lots of extra noise, and really messed up her nap times! She was precious and worth the trip!


Oh and we survived the plane ride home. It was a very crowded flight but both boys slept and did great!

Trip To Boston - Part 1

Earlier this month we took a trip up to Boston to visit Mark's sister, her husband, and their new baby Ilaria. An added bonus was also seeing Mark's parents who are currently stateside. I was excited to take the boys to see everyone but very worried about the plane ride. I was not so sure how keeping two busy toddlers confined to sitting in our laps for 3 plus hours was going to happen but surprisingly it went very smooth. Mark ended up on a row all to himself and I had an empty next to me which gave us more room to spread the boys out. Jonathan fell asleep during take off and we never heard any complaints about their ears. All in all we were very proud of them and received many compliments on their behavior and good looks :)

Entertaining themselves while waiting to board. Jonathan wanted to push Parker around.

Parker was content watching the airplanes out the window.

Jonathan enjoying his snack and the window seat view.

Parker finished off my bag of chips as part of his lunch.

Our first full day there we went to the Children's Museum. It was a perfect day to go because it rained all day. The museum was three floors FULL of fun things for kids to do. Parker pitched a fit EVERY time we left a room But as soon as we got to a new activity, he was easily distracted. However, we repeated this same cycle all day. He definitely has a personality that gets very focused on one thing and does not always transition well to a new thing. Jonathan was happy as long as he was on the move walking all over exploring everything.

This was a room full of golf balls and all kinds of ramps.

There was a bubble room full of various wands to make bubbles.

They had a room that was more specific to toddlers and infants. They offered an interactive music class you could participate in. ( Parker loved the shakers ). They also had play equipment, play kitchens, an art space, train tables etc.


It didn't take Parker long to find a push toy which led to anther fit when we had to pry his fingers off in order to go eat lunch.
There was a room of water and sand tables which made Jonathan very happy.
They had a construction room full of bulldozers, trucks, and hard hats.



A big portion of the second floor included scenes from the Arther book series and tv show like the school room and his kitchen. Unfortunately our kids are not very familiar with Arther and Friends to truly appreciate how they had things set up, but Parker had fun climbing up and down the ramp of the airplane from Buster's travel show.


Another room focused on activities to test and increase your balance. They loved the bridge.
The boys wore themselves out playing with everything. We could have spent days there. It was a very fun day for all!

Jonathan's First Hair Cut

Before our trip to Boston, I decided to take Jonathan for his first hair cut. His hair has gotten curly, which I love, but his curls only show when his hair is wet or dirty. So for the most part he was looking pretty shaggy. I was not real sure how he was going to do since he never seems to sit still for long so I tried to be prepared with plenty of snacks. Thankfully we were paired with a very quick and efficient person who is used to wiggly kids moving around. Jonathan did great and walked out looking all grown up (not so sure how I feel about that.)

Before

Parker decided he wanted to sit in a car as well. It served as a great distraction and source of entertainment while we waited for them to finish with Jonathan.

After