Halloween

We broke with tradition this year and/or we started a new tradition this year. Carter chose to spend this Halloween with his friends. We missed trick-or-treating with Cart Cart and Nonna, but we couldn't deny Carter a chance to trick-or-treat with his school pals.

We discovered that Carter is the fastest trick-or-treater on the block. He gets down to business.

Cutest bat you've ever seen, right?

A big thanks to Mama Helen for the amazing costumes!!

We didn't let him wear the teeth until tonight for fear he'd lose them. Surprisingly, he kept up with them all night long!

John seemed okay with Halloween at first, then he wasn't so sure, and finally he resolved that he'd just sleep through it. 

That's a lot of kindergarten boys.

I vant to eat your candy!

Our pumpkins and our punkins!

Random Cute John Pix

Everyone is undefeated in 2012, even the Cubs.

Bumbo sit!

Little cowboy, including jeans and knit boots.

Exercise

I can't recall the exact context of this moment from a few weeks ago, but Carter announced he wanted to do his exercises. He then proceeded to do pushup (singluar) and jumping jacks (plural).

Every Day Sing

Carter goes to a music program after school. It's a really neat concept: the kids get time for recreation and snacks, but they also get private and group music lessons and do other creative activities. The school's philosophy is essentially that music instruction should be comprehensive and holistic. 


Carter is getting private piano lessons, and he has group classes in things like Notation (music literacy), Animation, Rhythm, and a class they call Every Day Sing, where they, well, sing. Every day. Last week, they had an open house where they shared some of the songs they've been learning so far this year. 


Carter is in the first row, on the far right in jeans and a black shirt. I'd like to state, for the record, that he sings these songs at home all the time. Loudly, even. But... well, you'll see. (Click the bottom right of the video to expand to full screen).

More Halloween-ing

It seems like Halloween has been going on forever, and it is still a week away! Here are some pictures from Sunday's adventure at the botanical gardens.

Recent pics

Parades

Yesterday afternoon, Thomas, Carter & John went to the high school homecoming parade. It was VERY exciting because his teacher was driven one of the floats.

Then, today, we were all in the Little 5 Points Halloween parade. His music school had a float and we all participated. We shrouded John's stroller in spiderweb fabric rather than risking spit up on his costume. We're saving that for Halloween. Carter, however, gave his costume a trial run, minus the teeth. Quite a few people expressed surprise when they realized that there was a "real baby!" in our stroller.

Two Months

John is two months old! At his check-up, we discovered that he is pretty much exactly the same size that Carter was at this age. Possibly one quarter of an inch shorter, but not nearly the shorty we imagined him to be. Clearly, our perspective is skewed this time around, with an extra-tall 5 year old on hand for comparisons!

Length: 24.5" (95th)
Weight: 13lbs 2oz (75th)

Here's a quick peek at John's happy personality!

Cute Pix

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Pumpkin Patch

Our pumpkin patch gets more fun every year!

Rachel Visit

Rachel came to visit us last weekend! We cooked, we ate, we walked, we shopped, we relaxed, we held baby, we drank coffee, we wore pajamas, we worked on our laptops, we had mimosas, we played Legos -- it was lovely to have her here.

She noted that it was nice to visit on her own, because she actually got to spend time with Carter and be "Aunt Rachel" for a while. When we all get together, the kids are so involved with each other that we don't get to enjoy each others' kids (not that we're complaining that they get along so well!).

Back to Work

I started back to work last week -- just two days my first week back. The first day, John gave Thomas a pretty hard time, but the second day went much better. That may have had something to do with Rachel arriving halfway through the day, but I'm going to give the credit to Thomas' parenting skills. This week I worked two days in the office and two from home. The office days seemed to go well for Thomas and John. I'm trying to ramp up slowly and work from home when possible, so that I can feed John myself.

I'm not sure how the upcoming week factors into my ramp-up-slowly plan... I'll be in Las Vegas for a conference from Tuesday-Friday. But John will be with me, so I suppose it is just a step towards full-fledged business travel! Granny B is coming to meet us to enjoy some more John time while I'm in meetings.

We've had John's spot in daycare reserved since August. They take babies as early as six weeks, so he can start any day now. He won't go full time, especially now that Thomas is home, but it will be nice to have when he needs a break, and we'll need it when we're both back to work full time. We're actually anxious to get him started soon because he's in a class where several of the babies haven't been born yet (people are just paying to hold their coveted spot). We stopped by his classroom last week to drop off supplies and found that there are currently only two babies attending -- and there are three teachers in the classroom! So it seems like an ideal time to get him acclimated. 

On a break from work earlier this week

Granny B's Visit

Granny B came to meet John in mid-September. Her visit coincided with Carter's fall break, so she spent a lot of time with both boys.  (Our school district has fall, winter, thanksgiving, holiday and spring breaks - 1 week each, except the holiday break, which is 2.5 weeks.) Some pictures of our adventures below.

In less than 2 weeks, Granny B will be meeting up with John and me again in Las Vegas! (where I have a conference)

We took the train downtown

We tried a lot of sodas at World of Coke

And then we hit the aquarium

Baby tigers at the zoo!

Bronwyn's friend Polly is a docent at the zoo...

and she gave us a terrific tour!

We had dinner with the other Fowlkes

Granny B and John got some time together, too!