Dinosaur Roar!

How cute is this nugget?

Watching for the trick-or-treaters with Daddy.

Sick baby, sad dinosaur face.

Reaching for some candy.

Milky Way is Mama's favorite, too!

Playing with our sweet lion neighbor, Will.

Halloween Wuss

Yes, friends, it is that time of year once again.  And I've gotta say...I've never been happier to be without cable.

The airwaves are inundated with scary stuff every October.  When I was young and spry, I used to love this.  I thought it was fun to be scared.  The Exorcist was a Halloween-time staple.  I'd watch AMC's thirty days of scary movies.  For the month of October, I was a horror genre buff. 

Then I got a little older, and suddenly became more of a wuss.  The horror movies gave me nightmares.  I don't like nightmares.  Scary movies became reserved to the evening of Halloween only.  I could handle one a year, right?

Then, if you remember last year, Paranormal Activity happened.  And it almost ruined my life.

(I'm not being dramatic at all...)

I swear to you, I didn't sleep for weeks.  Maybe it was made worse by the crazy pregnancy hormones, but I have never felt such real middle-of-the-night fear.  Every. single. time. I'd get up to use the bathroom or switch positions (both of which were frequent occurrences with my rotund pregnant shape), I'd have a terrible, horrific image in my head that I couldn't get rid of, and I sometimes literally trembled as I tiptoed to the bathroom.  Maybe by the time Christmas rolled around, I could make it through an occasional night without these nightmares.

I'm being serious, yo.

So this year, we are cable free, and I am blissfully unaware of all the scariness on the boob tube.  THANK THE LORD I haven't had to see even one commercial for Paranormal Activity 3.

And yesterday, J and I did have a Halloween movie day...I chose Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters.  Because that is now how I roll.  I've managed to get into the ghosty spirit without scarring myself for life.  Yay for ridiculous ghost movies that make me laugh and not cry!

On a related note...the nugget will be dressing as a dinosaur tonight.  Pictures to follow.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Happy, non-threatening Disney Halloween image.  My favorite.

I Guess It Had to Happen Eventually...

We had our first sick visit to the pediatrician this morning.

We had to sit in the waiting room room to the right, with the other sick kids.  Gone are the days when I smugly entered and sat in the waiting room to the left, with the healthy kids.  My baby is sick.

It's the croup.  The nugget is barking like a dog.  He's coughy and fevery.  And on top of that, the doctor noticed how swollen his top gums are, meaning that those two top teeth are about to break through.  Oy.

But in true Gabriel fashion, other than the barking, you might not even know he's sick.  He slept just fine last night.  (And is sleeping like a fool today.)  He smiled at the doctors and nurses, and didn't even fuss when the doc shoved a tongue depressor in his mouth and pulled a gob of wax out of his ear.  He ate every last bite of his breakfast (of course), then played with his toys like a happy baby.

Love that boy of mine.

Hoping that the bark disappears soon!

Still in his PJ's- doesn't he look miserable?  ;)

To TOMS or Not To TOMS?

Believe it or not, occasionally something uber-trendy comes along, and I just cannot manage to get on board with it.  Try as I might, I just cannot make myself love the newest-coolest-hippest thing (Remember when everyone was wearing Crocs?  Well, I was not.).

For quite some time now, TOMS shoes have been all the rage.  "What?!" I hear you asking.  "A trendy shoe that you don't covet?"  Yes, this is shocking news, I know.  And not only did I not covet these shoes, I just didn't understand them at all!  They're canvas, and they're ugly!  They look like a poor man's slippers.  What is the appeal?

Well, these days, I may be finally coming around.  As I sometimes do.  (Remember when everyone started wearing skinny jeans?  Well, I thought they were too much of an 80's throwback, and I didn't buy any.  Now, however, I wear them all the time.)

What can I say, sometimes trends grow on me.

Are these cute?

What about these?

Only time will tell if these bad boys make it onto the Christmas list.

She's HERE!

'Tis true.  There is always something newer and better and more expensive right around the corner...

Thankfully, I am now the proud owner of the newest, coolest, most expensive iPhone model!  HUZZAH!

Lola arrived in the mail yesterday, and I've just gotta say...she rocks.  She's lots o' fun.  Good times had by all.

J and I spent an hour last night thinking of funny things to ask her.  Yes, yes...exactly like high school freshmen with our dirty words and inappropriate content.  'Cuz that's how we roll.

Anywho, Siri really is pretty amazing.  I dictated text messages, asked her for the weather, added things to my grocery list (my favorite feature!) and found the best Chinese restaurants around.  Truly a remarkable piece of technology.

And in order to help pay for her, Gabe is for sale.  $200 or best offer.

Just kidding.  My old iPhone went up on Craigslist a little bit ago.  Fingers crossed that some poor schmuck wants it!

Well That Didn't Last Long

Remember just yesterday, when I posted pictures of these cute little tootsies in their brand new shoes?

Well, yesterday, J took the day off and we went to the North Carolina State Fair.  Last year was our first time going, and if you remember correctly, I was pregnant, and so looking forward to using that as an excuse to eat every deep fried fair food in sight.  I did draw the line at the Krisy Kreme Burger, but I ate just about everything else.

This year, we thought it would be fun to go back and bring the nugget.

He chilled in his stroller the whole time, sleepily eyeing the sights and not making a peep.  We walked the grounds, ate, looked at some farm animals, ate, and tried to ride the merry-go-round, but stupid rules said no one under 3'6" allowed.  Boo.  Oh, yeah, and then we ate some more.

At some point I looked down on Gabe's little feet kicking, as they always do, and saw something missing.

Yep, the boy was only wearing one shoe.

Who knows when it was lost, but one thing is for sure...that shoe is gone forever.

Thankfully, they were the Wal-Mart variety, and not the baby New Balance that I really wanted to get him.  This month's baby shoe budget is all used up, but maybe next month...

Ah, the fair.

The Boy Wears Shoes

These hardwood floors are tricky for one who wants to pull himself up all the time.  So I got him some shoes, so that he might be able to get a little bit of traction and stop slip-sliding around.  How cute is this?

Gabe- Eight Months

Two-thirds of his first year have already passed.

This is the month that Gabe began to M.O.V.E.  He is officially a crawler, and a pretty fast one at that.  And my shadow- wherever I go, Gabe goes.  And getting the nugget to hold still for this month's photo shoot was next to impossible.

He has also learned how to climb a couple of steps (OH NO!).

He crawls, scoots, and for fun and relaxation, practices yoga.  Downward Dog is his favorite pose.

But this boy is not one to be held down.  Almost immediately after mastering the crawl, he decided that he'd rather be up on his feet.  So the boy pulls himself up on everything.

Walking by Christmas, much?

Some of Gabe's current favaorites:

Eating.  We eat banana oatmeal, rice cereal, PUFFS, teething biscuits, and baby food of every fruit, vegetable, and meat variety.  He's also trying a few things from my plate.  Scrambled eggs, baked beans, mashed potatoes, peas.  And when he's really sad about something, Jason sneaks him a mini chocolate chip from the pantry.  You know, because sugar makes everything better.

Playing.  With everything that isn't his.  His current favorite is the dog bowls.  He likes to push them around, bang on them, and flip them so that they make LOUD clanging metal noises on the tile floor.  He also likes the vacuum cleaner, which is in a perpetual state of being out to play.  It has a home in a closet upstairs, but with a baby and three furry pets, I vacuum so often that I find it a hassle to even bother putting it away.  I DO try and at least wind up the cord, but sometimes he gets to it before me.  Also, he thinks the dog crate isn't a bad place to hang out.

Mama.  He is entering a mama phase.  Last night, he was whiny and fussy for no particular reason that I could gather.  He crawled over to where I was sitting, and tried to pull himself up.  As he is always pulling up on something, I thought that he merely wanted to be up on his feet.  But that didn't stop the whining.  J suggested that he might want to sit with me.  I scoffed at the idea, because the nugget is a mover and a shaker, not a cuddler.  But as my ears were on the verge of bleeding due to the whininess, I gave it a whirl.  And wouldn't ya know it?  The boy stopped crying.  It appears that he just wanted to be with me.  My heart melted a little, even as I realized that I had just caved to a whiner's whim.  But oh, well.  I do what I want.

Laughing.  We are now at the point where we can make him laugh with just a look.  My, oh my.  I adore that sound!  A baby's laugh is quite possibly the sweetest sound on earth.

He may also be an evil genius, hatching evil plans with one eyebrow raised, based on some recent photos.  Time will tell...

Evil genius or not, we'll love him either way.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

This past weekend, we had what I believe may have been our first family outing.  Of course, we've been out as a family before.  We've tackled plenty of restaurants and shopping.  But I think this was the first children-running-amok-mommy-buy-me-stuff type of family outing.

We made like a family, and visited Vollmer Farms.  Our friends Cecie and Neil and our goddaughter Angeline joined us.

J, in his typical childish child-like fashion, renamed the place Voldemort Farms, and hypothesized that the greenhouses on the property were secretly being used as meth labs.  Love that man of mine.

In any case, we introduced Gabe to chickens, goats, pigs, donkeys, and bunnies.  We let him play in a giant box of corn kernels.  He relaxed in the grass (which he clearly did not enjoy...like mother, like son).  We surrounded him with mini-pumpkins.  He went on his first hayride.  He enjoyed the outdoors, the breeze, the activity.

As we left at the end of the day, I just had the best feeling.  Spending the day with my boys and our good friends, doing family stuff, was so wonderful.  I look forward to many more days full of good times like these!

And now for the onslaught of pictures.

The meth labs.

Farm animals stink!

Watching the ducks in the pond.

Playing in the "corn crib."

Sensory delight.

Not really loving how the grass feels beneath his hands.

Breezy, beautiful day.

Angeline and Gabe, sharing pumpkins.