A picture is clearly worth a thousand words!

Really, what else could I possibly say???

(Except that maybe the other kids, including Robert, were similarly attired?)

Thanksgiving

Yes, I'm horribly behind on the blog. My apologies!

Bob's mother and step-father came for Thanksgiving this year. We had a really great trip. One day we took a field trip to Anthony's FAVORITE place in the whole world--Hiller Aviation Museum. No pictures, but it was a great outing. Grandma bought him a little skydiver man with a parachute. Its a lot of fun and was an instant hit.

Thanksgiving morning before we really started working on dinner was an excusion to the park. It was pretty crowded, clearly we weren't the only family who wanted to enjoy the fresh air. Anthony pretty much has one word when he "fings", "Higher". Grandpa happily obliged. Good thing there were four of us there as Anthony REALLY likes to fing.

After they left, Anthony spent quite awhile asking about Grandma. We explained that she went hom to Colorado. I need to get video of Anthony saying "Colorado", its priceless.

"Mama, Look at Me!"

I assure you, those aren't actually words you want to hear. What that means is that your child has dreamed up something on their own. As far as I can tell, that's never a good thing.

In this case, it was sharing his cheese with the cat. After she had her licks, he ate the rest. (I was too busy photographing the fun to interfere.) On the bright side, he's gotten much more gentle with her lately and even seems to understand how to pet her properly.

Knock-knock Halloween???

Anthony was home sick a few weeks ago. I was folding laundry, including his Halloween costume. He saw it and wanted to put it on. As it was a lot of work to make, I'm happy to get multiple wearings.

So, he's wearing his costume. He asks for candy. I explain to him that candy is all gone. A few minutes later he reappeared with his goody-bag asking, "Knock doors?" A-ha! A moment of clarity. Then I found myself having to explain that Halloween only comes once a year.

That lesson hasn't completely sunk-in as he has been asking for "Knock-knock Halloween" on a fairly regular basis for about 3 weeks now, maybe even longer.

Candy!

Let's just say that Anthony has become quite fond of candy. (At least he knows how to use a napkin to wipe his hands and face when he's done.)

Poop poop on the potty

No, we are not potty training yet. I don't think Anthony is ready yet. He is, however, fascinated with the idea of using the potty. We bought him one at Target yesterday. No bells and whistles. Certainly no music.

No progress yet, but Anthony really does enjoy sitting on it!

Favorite Toys

Anthony is all about airplanes. His favorite birthday present by far was the Lego cargo plane from Grandpa Vince. He doesn't really use the accessories yet, but he loves flying it around and making it do loop-di-loops. He also loves to "break it" and have Mommy and Daddy put it back together. He mostly rips off the landing gear, sometimes the engines.

Dave and Julie (and cousin Joshua) sent him a rocket ship that arrived on Friday. That may be a close second. (I don't think he understands that a rocket ship is actually different from an airplane.) Hopefully we'll get pictures soon.

Make your own pizza night

Tonight was make your own pizza night. Anthony was an amazing helper, I really mean it. He rolled out his own pizza dough (with help). Then he pushed the buttons on the food processor to grate the cheese. He even ate the olives off Daddy's pizza.

We need to start letting him help cook more often. My mom gave us both of Molly Katzen's children's cookbooks: Pretend Food and ??. I assumed the recipes are better for older kids, but we may need to start early!

I need to get him a higher step-stool though!

A Cow Says MOO

It wasn't THAT long ago that Anthony was very insistent that a cow says Baa. Now he's all into Mooing.

Now I know my ABCs

Of course, I know he doesn't actually understand what he is singing.

Bubble Boy

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Not so into the Peanut Butter Cup

Funny... Peanut Butter Cups have always been one of my favorites. Little dude begged for a piece of candy this afternoon so I gave him one. He looked at it very suspiciously, so I ate one to show him what it was all about.

He licked the bottom of his for awhile until he got through to the peanut butter layer. Then he was done!

Unfortunately, it was a little too used for me to finish it off.

Trick or Treat

We had the most excellent Halloween!

Anthony started off with a pre-breakfast snack of candycorn that he found in his goody-bag from daycare yesterday. (Mommy and Daddy were pretending to sleep and he was keeping himself occupied in our room.)

Lunchtime one of our neighbor's hosted a Halloween party for our block. There are THIRTY kids on our block alone. Twenty boys and ten girls, how's that for balance?? (Not everyone made it to the party but it was quite a crowd.) Anthony had a lot of fun eating the playdough!

After nap Ciaran came over for playtime before trick-or-treat. He stayed for dinner and Robert and his family joined us as well. Then we all went trick-or-treating together. Robert was a fireman (he soundly rejected his lion costume), Claire was an Astronaut and Ciaran was a pumpkin. Anthony, of course, was the scarecrow again. He enjoyed wearing his costume and even wore his hat!

Anthony caught on to trick-or-treat FAST. He walked right up to the door, said "trick treat" and was happy to help himself to candy out of the bowl. He knew EXACTLY what that stuff was. It was a challenge to keep it in the bag the whole night. He was so much fun!

Halloween at Hiller

Tonight we went up to the Hiller Aviation Museum for their annual Halloween party. First up we made a balsa-wood airplane that Anthony had tons of fun flying. We went outside to watch the airplanes come and go for awhile. Then we went back in to enjoy the museum itself. Top picture is Bob giving Anthony a ride in the airplane simulator.

At 6:30 the witch made her grand arrival by helicopter. Bob and Anthony went out early to get a prime spot on the observation platform. The helicopter made a few passes, the witch dropped a pumpkin out on the second one. It went SPLAT!

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but Bob and Anthony were pretty much captivated by the helicopter. When it landed with the witch, everyone else went running to greet her. My boys stayed put to watch the helicopter.

Halloween is coming!

Anthony was SO EXCITED to wear his Halloween costume to daycare today. He pretty much went bonkers when I got him dressed. Pictures don't quite do him justice--he's the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Tomorrow for trick-or-treat he will have straw (raffia) around his waist, too.

Yes, I made his costume myself. Except for the leg patches I'm pretty darn happy with how it came out.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow!

We've been Ghost-ed

The air is cool, the season fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.
With ghosts and goblins, spooks galore,
Trick-or-treaters at the door.

The spooks are after things t do.
In fact, a spook brought this to you.
The treats that came with this short note
are yours to keep. Enjoy them both.

Excitement grows when friends like you
Will copy it and make it two.
Neighbors will have smilin gfaces;
No one can guess who "Ghost-ed" which places.

A day or two to work you spell,
But keep it secret! Hide it well!
Join in the fun; the season's here.
So spread these "Ghosts" and spread the cheer.

Doorbell rang this evening. No one was there but there was a treat bag, some artwork to hang in our window and this note!

I've got two neighbors in mind to pass this on to!

"I push W..."

Little dude did NOT get a very good report card from daycare yesterday. Basically, he would squeeze W really hard and tight and then push him away. Mama was NOT pleased.

At dinner he talked about his friends. Well, he says their names, he doesn't give detailed reports yet. I believe he said that W cried. I asked him if he cried because he was pushed and Anthony didn't confirm.

Today at dinner he said, "I push W." He said that many times. We talked about not pushing, being kind to our friends, etc. Something tells me it will be awhile before that lesson is learned.

In the past Anthony was usually the victim of the pushing/hitting. I think I preferred it that way!

10-29-09

Edited to add:

Little dude had a good report card from school today. He and W played nicely together.

Caramel Apple Party

Today we got together with a bunch of neighbors for a caramel apple making party. We were inspired by our neighbor's tree that was full off apples! The event started off with a mass apple picking. Each person made between 2 and 3 apples. I bought Mercken's caramel for dipping and we went through 7.5 pounds! As you can see from the bottom picture, Kathryn provided a great variety of toppings.

Anthony wasn't too impressed with the caramel at first. I think he just thought it was sticky. It wasn't too long before he was eating every last bit off his plate!

This was pretty much the weekend of parties. Saturday was Jack's (daycare friend) fifth birthday party. Sunday morning was a playdate to celebrate Robert's birthday and then in the afternoon was the caramel apple making party. Halloween weekend will be similarly packed!

Airplane Crazy

Anthony has turned into a little airplane nut. Our plan for the pumpkin patch visit last Saturday was to fly down there as a semi-caravan with the Donahues (who were leaving from a different airport.) We drove to Reid-Hillview and Anthony was SO EXCITED to help Daddy pre-flight the airplane. He helped with the chains, helped chock (and un-chock) the wheels... He pointed at the different parts of the plane that he knows (wing, tail) and was just a little bundle of fun. (Bob was so excited at Anthony's glee, but that's a different story.) Unfortunately, the clouds were coming IN as we were pre-flighting so we decided to scrub the flight and drive instead.

Poor Anthony was pretty much crushed. We encouraged him to say bye-bye to the various airplanes and the airport as we drove away. He still cried, though. Then when we passed the south county airport the crying started up again. I promised him that he and Daddy would have an airplane excursion together soon.