one and a half

Somehow our tiny little baby has grown up into a hilarious toddler-man.  

He loves to kick and throw a ball.  Every day he begs me to "kick, mommy, kick!" and will not stop until someone is kicking the ball with him.  He likes hitting at balls, too: 

We have spent many hours at the park down the street and in our own backyard.  Since daylight savings it's been getting dark at 4:45 so THAT is a bummer but it has still been warm enough to be out during the afternoon.  

 

We took Bo to a Titans game a few weeks ago . . . which now means he's been to a major league baseball game (in Boston as a baby) and an NFL game.  I'm not recommending you take your infants and wiggly toddlers to ball games, but if somebody is giving away tickets and you're up for an adventure (or your babysitter has plans), it is possible to go with an open mind and have a little fun.  

Bo actually did really well at the Titans game.  He was enthralled by the crowd and the game for a bit, and when he started going wild, the people in front of us took him for a little while.  Complete strangers, but they were grandparents and happier with our kid than we were at the moment. 

Bo has such a special bond with his Daddy.  He goes wild when Matt gets home.  He asks for Daddy first thing every morning and then "Moo, Moo, Moo?" for Moose.

 

 Bo L-O-V-E-S trucks.  It's a wonderful thing to love, because they are everywhere.  Road construction is Bo's favorite thing.  Here he's waiting for the garbage truck to come around the corner:

Bo loves books, too.  Our once-extensive board book collection now seems puny because we have read each one a thousand times.  

Poor Bo . . . that picture was taken one night after dinner when he was tired and I had JUST finished reading the truck book that he wanted me to turn around and read again . . . always on a quest to make sure mommy doesn't get anything done around the house . . . 

After dinner time is tricky for me if Matt isn't here.  Bo eats at 5:00 or 5:30 and when he's done it's dark outside but too early for bath.  One night I tried finger painting.  It was fun for a short amount of time, as you can see:

I hope I don't have a craft hater on my hands. 

Last week we finally cut the wispy duck hair off the top of Bo's head.  I was in favor of the trim until Matt moved toward his little blonde head with the big man trimmer and then there was some drama.  

He just cut a little and Bo really does look more like a big boy. :( 

Bo is getting more verbal and says a bunch of words, but also prattles on in gibberish saying things that no one can understand but him.  He's also become really aware of his surroundings- he'll yell "CHOO-CHOO" when we pull up to the library that has a train table.  He yells "guckins" when we get to his cousins' neighborhood.  It's so funny that he can see things around him and make connections.  

And by the end of the day, we're all pretty happy about bedtime.  

 

halloween

Last weekend my friend Jenny came for a visit.  Jenny and I went to college together, lived together post-college, and both worked at the same school in Kenya.  We picked her up from the airport and a couple hours later took her to a Halloween party, very appropriately dressed as Maasai tribesmen/women.  A costume which only made sense to us, and one which all of the parts had been worn at one time in all seriousness.  Except the giant Maasai necklace, I have never worn that.  And Matt has never worn his homemade earlobes out in public, but I'm proud? to say that the rest of the items were from our carefully curated personal collection.  

Jenny and Bo became fast friends.  Having a third adult in the house was super helpful and Bo was loving the extra attention!  

On Halloween, Jenny and I took Bo to the zoo in the morning.  It was only appropriate that he wear his costume . . . 

We went animal themed this year because Bo actually knows what a monkey is (he's not too familiar with superheroes yet) and loves making monkey noises.  

Watching elephants with Mom.

 

And enjoying a new trick learned from Aunt Jenny - throwing leaves:

After naps we scooted over to see the cousins:

 Are you kidding me with that sideways grin and sweet Hulk smile?  Unfortunately Bo is making his "cheese" face which is more like a grimace. 

And here the boys are being told the candy is not for them . . .

Perhaps my favorite part of Halloween is the Bo + Moose combo . . . this year they went as a monkey and a banana.  Moose's costume was a bit snug but I knew in my heart it was awesome.  Even if we did have to explain it to the neighbors.

The first time trick or treating was super cute . . . and lived up to my expectations.

We had some tweenagers ringing the bell when our candy bowl ran empty . . . which I thought was a little rude, but overall it was good times.  

sunny oklahoma

October 2012 has been a wild and wonderful one.  I have zig-zagged around the country to hit five states (7 if you count layovers).  Every weekend has been an out-of-town adventure.  And every time we get home, the leaves have turned a little more and I think about how good life is and how blessed we are to be here and there.  

So last weekend was a family trip to Oklahoma.  My grandparents came up to see my parents and we flew down to introduce them to Bo, their first great-grandchild.  As my grandma says, there is something special about the first in a new generation.  I have to agree, as I was their first grandchild.  :) They really liked him, which made me happy.  He was on point almost the entire trip.  In some ways he was easier to fly with, because he's more distractible than he was at 13/14 months.  He will play with trucks or read books or watch the iPad.  In other ways it was harder, because he's big and willful and, well, a toddler.  

We picked my brother up during our layover in Houston and my parents had kept his visit a secret, so they surprised my grandparents when he walked in the house.  However, the joke was on them, because Elyse flew in from Pennsylvania and gave the whole family a shock on Friday night!  Surprise visits are the best.  

There are more pictures coming but this is a good intro . . . some of us went to the pumpkin patch and had a great time.  Bo is enamored with tractors and animals and pumpkins and everyone else is enamored with Bo, so it went well. 

friend weekend

For the first weekend in October, several of my college girls met in Chicago for a '10-year-friend-reunion,' marking 10 years since we started college and met in the isolated cornfields of Indiana.  While it seemed really normal at the time, our school might as well have been on a deserted island for all the entertainment the surrounding towns offered.  But that was apparently the perfect atmosphere for good times and forever friendships!  

During our senior year, a group of us moved into a house off-campus together.  However quaint we thought it was, it has since been condemned and torn down.  The memories live on . . . 

This is the oldest pic I could find of us, from senior year. 

You can bet if Groupon existed, we would've had that on a giant canvas in our living room.

Alas, in 2005, when that picture was taken, Groupon had not been born.
Facebook was in its infancy and only for college students.  I remember some of us signing up that year.
Still not everyone had a cell phone.  Remember phone cards?
Phones were not smart, and I don't think I texted at all then.
Email had just been invented.
NO, just kidding, we're not that old!
Instant Messanger was in full swing during our early college years and we had fun remembering each others' screen names.

We had a lot of run reminiscing.  Hilarious professors, classmates, and phrases we used to say all the time were resurrected for the weekend.  I am really glad I have these girls - not just because of the growing we did together or how they just 'get me,' but because they help me remember!  

We spent so much time talking, I forgot to take many pictures.  If I had, they would've been of us curled up on couches.  I do like this one:

Welcoming back our little African princess from three years in Kenya!

And here's a shot of the whole group:

Thank you, friends, for flying and driving across America!  It was so special to be together! 

tough mudder

Last Saturday, Matt and his friends from home ran a Tough Mudder.  I did not run because I am neither tough nor strong.  I took pictures.  

This thing is 11 miles long with 22 obstacles scattered throughout the course.  Their course in Poplar Bluff, MO, was built on a four wheeling site, so they conquered hills and streams along with the man-made obstacles that forced them to swim, crawl, jump over things, and occasionally be electrocuted.  (I may not be tough but I am also no fool.  No thank you.)

Pre-Run, clean and numbered, in front of the very last obstacle.  Some of those long yellow wires are charged.  

The 6,000+ runners were split into many starting heats.  The guys started in the second heat of the day, which was great because they didn't have to get psyched out watching people go through the obstacles (that was my reasoning).  And also the line to the showers got longer later in the afternoon (again, my reasons, not theirs. They're tough, remember.)  Before the race even started they had to hop a wall to get into the holding pen.

And they're off!

And I was off trying to follow my map and catching them at as many obstacles as possible.  

This picture does not do justice to what they all agreed was the worst part of the whole thing: jumping into a dumpster filled with ice water, diving under a barrier, and crawling out the other side.

Ahh, a Saturday afternoon crawling under barbed wire.  My favorite past-time.

I liked that this wasn't really a 'race'- nothing was timed and it was structured to foster teamwork, not just amongst people who signed up together but amongst everyone in the race.  It was nice to see.  It also meant they could stop for a group photo right in the middle of the whole thing.

Log jumping . . .

Wall climbing . . .

Fingertip-dangling . . .

And of course, electrocution.

And lots of mud.  

And many happy faces at the finish line.