holiday kick-off

For Thanksgiving we had our friends Megan and Esteban come up to visit us from Baltimore.  I am so glad they made the long bus ride up here!  Megan finally met Matt and it was great to spend more time with Esteban.  I wanted to provide his first American Thanksgiving dinner but alas, he's been to one before.  But we still pulled out all the stops.  

Bo's first Thanksgiving:

After our big old meal, we went on the requisite post-binging walk around the pond.

On Friday my longtime friends (like since I was four) the McMahans came out to see us, I mean BO!  We had fun catching up over lunch and picking out a Christmas tree.  Despite Bo's hysterical tired screaming when we picked them up from the train station, he was a whole different child after his nap and was able to share some love.  

We enjoyed our fair share of leftovers, pie for breakfast, and the wonderful gift of a days without work!  It was SO nice to chill out at home and put up our Christmas decorations.  

31 weeks

little thanksgiving ragamuffin. 

7 months, baby!

(november 20, 2011)

Oh, boy, buddy!!  

Bo is just more fun than ever.  He sleeps like a champ, no teeth peeking through to spoil our fun, just a little buddy to spend my every waking moment with.  We are CLOSE, Bo and I . . . too bad for the nursery volunteers!  Fortunately Bo goes to bed early (like 6:15 early) which makes it easy for Matt and me to sneak out every so often.  Bo LOVES his daddy and lights up when he spots him.  He's not crawling but he loves to stand and is beginning to support himself with only one hand on the toy or chair.  We had to move his crib down and it makes me sad to think of my little baby getting big!

We love that little guy! 

30 weeks

All bundled up for a walk with his girlfriend.  Has he mentioned her before?  Their dates are usually supervised, but we left them alone once.  It didn't go so well.

And here they are as little wee things... I think Malin was just a few weeks old here!  

what to make in the fall

I went through a recent dry spell in the crafty department.  I've since been revived and my dining room/sewing table is a mess of threads and fleece remnants.  (Baby mittens - should be easy, but elastic is so hard!)  Tomorrow is Veterans Day and I'll be home with a bunch of little boys so I'm looking for more "projects" to keep us occupied.  I was home with them several days in September for holidays, and I had more ideas back then:

Rice Krispy treats made to look like apples (with Tootsie Roll stems).  The idea was to do pumpkins but it was a little early in the season so I went for apples.  

We also made this apple banner that weekend which looked pretty cute.  I cut small apples in half and let them paint and stamp.  They drew in stems and seeds later.  Even the three year old could participate.

We made these shirts using clorox in a spray bottle.  I'm anti-scary so even though they were Halloween-ish, the shapes were of a friendly sort.

The black looked pretty good for Halloween because it turns orange when bleached.

 

I found little orange hoodies at Target, perfect for making into a jack-o-lantern.

I made these cupcakes for small group last night because I realized I hadn't made anything fall-ish.  Apple crisp should be coming up soon.  I've totally lost any desire to bake but I'm trying to resurrect in honor of my favorite fall flavors.  

Matt works a lot . . . I've had several Saturdays alone in the past month.  (Although no boo-hoos for me, being home alone is infinitely better than being at the hospital for 24 hours, or 25 if you happen to be on call during the daylight savings switch . . . wop-wop.)  One of those Saturdays I made this random-looking wreath.  That's not what it was supposed to look like, but burlap is messy and I was ready to be done.  I still like it.

Another one of those home-alone Saturdays a bunch of girls from my small group came over and I forced them to make flowers with me.  In the middle of it, one of my friends confessed that she hated crafts and her mom and husband gave her pep-talks before she came!!!  I find that both tragic and hilarious.  This is my childish-looking wool flower I pinned to my new coat.  

So I don't think I can convince the boys to make flowers tomorrow.  If it's not raining, we will be tracking down lovely leaves.  If it is raining... well, it might be a movie day!  

29 weeks

Nothing like daylight savings time to help me realize how MUCH of a schedule we were actually on!  That one hour made a big difference.  Bo's been but at 5:00/5:30 since Sunday, which means the mornings are all screwed up because he wants to take a nap at like 7:30am ?!?! which can not happen.  But we have persisted with a normal bedtime and this morning he slept until after 6:00, which made me so happy.  Hopefully he'll stretch it a little past that.  I think the 'spring forward' is more my style.

Love you, Bo. 

28 weeks

No interest in crawling, but that's ok with mommy! 

It sure is nice to set him down and know he'll still be there.

yo, ho, yo, ho

A pirate's life for me.

My mom sent us a little pirate onesie for Halloween, which was a convenient daytime costume for Bo.  

And where does a six month old show off a costume on Halloween Day?  Well, he fit right in at the doctor's office where he was seen by Dorothy and given shots by the Cowardly Lion.  They seemed unconcerned that my little swashbuckler hadn't gained an ounce in the last month, despite growing half an inch.  He now holds the enviable stats of 90th in height and 10th in weight.  Enviable if you're a girl striving for anorexic supermodel, not for a boy striving to play sports in high school.  Anyway, I guess we've got some time for him to hit the gym before tryouts.  

Captain Skinnypants also made an appearance at the annual Montessori Halloween parade, where my littlest nanny kid made the slow march around the parking lot as Captain America.  

Of course Moosey was in the Halloween spirit and wanted to wear his costume all day.  I couldn't pry that thing off of him.

It was a happy accident that the pirate look coordinated with the shark costume I got for our small group's theme for Trunk or Treat at our church - Under the Sea.

Bo was a very toasty lobster.

The babies looked awesome.  Here Bo is eyeing his little girlfriend, Malin, dressed to the nines in her mermaid outfit.  

And Jeremy can walk and was cracking me up as an octopus, toddling around unassisted on two of his eight legs.

babies.

babies and dogs.

 I love creatures in costume.

Bo was a champ and was so entranced by the activity that he forgot to fuss about missing his bed time.  A successful first Halloween!