Happy Halloween!

Wow, what a fun night! It was almost as fun as being a kid again - eating dinner early, getting Dylan in his costume, taking pictures.

Our pumpkins greeted all the little visitors - and I mean all the little visitors. At one point I looked out into the neighborhood and saw little people at almost every single house. It was so nice to hear all the little voices, and hear the excitement. Most of the kids in our neighborhood are under 10 years old, so it was fun to see them all excited about getting dressed up and going door to door.

Dylan was dressed with a few minutes to spare. He was transferring candy from our give-away cauldron into his little pumpkin bucket. Sneaky...

I stayed home to pass out candy, and Brian pushed Dylan around the neighborhood in his little car. They went with our neighbors the Greenland's. Addison is 2 weeks younger than Dylan, and she rode in her matching car. What a cute pair they were!

The boys were gone for about 45 minutes. I was impressed - I didn't expect Dylan to make it that long. But when they arrived back home the wind had picked up quite a bit and Dylan's hands were ice cold. He was carrying a nearly full pumpkin. He wouldn't wait to eat something! He got to have two suckers tonight. Whoa! I wonder if he'll ever settle down for bed. Well, either that or he'll crash fast because of the trick-or-treating efforts.

After he enjoyed a sucker, he helped me pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters. He was very helpful and generous. He wanted to put a piece of candy in each child's bag. He even kept his costume on for another 45 minutes at home. What a fun night we've had.

IceHogs Home Opener - Coming Soon!

Brian has been working many long hours while the renovations have been taking place at the MetroCenter. Today in the Rockford Registar Star there was an article, with visuals of all the upgrades, and even a picture of Brian. You can click here to read the article, and within the article be sure to click on the words "remodeled 26-year old arena" for a download of more pictures and visuals of all the changes.

Icky Gross!

Here is a video clip of Dylan commenting on what the insides of a pumpkin are like.

Pumpkin Carving

I worked late tonight and didn't get home until close to 7:30, but happily Brian and Dylan were still carving pumpkins. I snapped a few pictures of Dylan's first carving experience. He kept saying "icky" and "gross" when we showed him the insides of the pumpkin. Brian spread out newspapers on the island in the kitchen and said the biggest challenge of the whole process to stopping Dylan from ripping the paper off the counter!

Dylan was feeling the insides of the pumpkin

And here he is, admiring the finished projects. We have a small pumpkin for Dylan, but it is soft and rotten, so we didn't even try to carve it.

I have a video, but it is taking forever to load, so I'll put it in a separate post.

Halloween-Mania

Today after nap time we made Halloween cookies. Dylan had so much fun helping me. We brought his step-stool up to the kitchen island and he helped roll out the dough and used a cookie cutter to cut out some shapes.

Ignore the psychotic look on my face, it really was A LOT of fun (to constantly swat Dylan's hands away from the dough and prevent him from eating it all).


Here he is rolling out the dough

After dinner Daddy frosted the cookies and Dylan and I decorated them. Dylan loved shaking the sprinkler jar. It made such a cool noise and it was a lot of fun to get the end of the jar in the frosting.

After awhile, Dylan gave up on decorating cookies and just sucked right on the end of the sprinkler container. Of course that jar got the kabosh from the decorating table!

And here's a picture we took earlier today of Dylan on our front step.

Scary Lion

Halloween Party

Saturday evening we had the big Halloween party to attend. Our neighbors hosted this year, so we had only to walk up the block. While Dylan napped on Saturday, there were several last minute preparations happening.

I made these chocolate dipped Strawberry ghosts to take.

Brian worked on the belt for his costume...

My mom did some final sewing on Kelly's costume.

The final result of all that hard work: Jess as a German bar maid, Matt the Chef, Kelly the Renaissance woman, me as a cat and Brian as Elvis.

Happy Halloween!

Corn Maze

Oma, Matt and Kelly arrived on Friday afternoon for the weekend. Dylan was very excited to see them all. We have pictures of our immediate families on the fridge and we talk about who each person is and their name. Dylan immediately recognized everyone.

On Saturday we went to a local corn maze. Despite being a very windy day, we had a lot of fun. Dylan loved running up and down the aisles of corn. It was a challenge to keep up with him!

There were 13 checkpoints in the maze - you had to navigate the map and get a special paper-punch at each checkpoint. Everyone took a turn wrangling Dylan.

He loved to see the corn hiding inside the husks. He wanted to eat it, but Oma explained to him that this kind of corn was cow food, not Dylan food.

For some strange reason there was an obstacle course in the middle of this corn field. Dylan enjoyed climbing the steps.

25 Weeks

I'm actually closer to 26 weeks at this point, but my photographer was out of town until last night. :)

This little baby is very active, it seems he's busy all the time. He's much more active than I remember Dylan being. We'll find out what that means for his activity level outside the womb. I've been feeling pretty well, although as I approach the 3rd trimester I can tell I'm getting worn out faster than before. The heartburn has started too. TUMS are my friend.

Dylan's First Halloween Party

It is windy here today! So windy, that Brian's flight in to O'Hare was canceled. The next available flight home from Nashville is tomorrow afternoon. He decided he couldn't wait that long to see us, so he rented a car and is driving home from Nashville, even as I type. We are looking forward to seeing him sometime later tonight!

This morning we ran a few errands. We went to the library, where Dylan played with puzzles and read books. He seems to really enjoy the library. I'm looking forward to taking him to some classes they offer there while I'm on maternity leave. We just need the new baby to cooperate for an hour once a week!

After the library we went grocery shopping. Dylan is a good little shopper. He calls out the names of all his favorite characters, which of course are plastered on every product you can imagine - green beans, cereal, granola bars, fruit snacks, yogurt, etc. No wonder he doesn't mind the grocery store, it's just like watching tv!

He fell asleep on the way home. Normally I don't let him do that, but knowing we had the Halloween party after lunch, I wanted him to have a little catnap. I let him sleep on the couch for a few minutes while I unpacked groceries.

This picture is a first for Dylan - his first big boy nap on the couch.

We had lunch, then set off to Noelle's for the party. I put him in his costume before we left. His seat belt barely closed over the bulk of his costume! Here is how the afternoon started (looks ominous doesn't it?):

Once we arrived and Dylan saw all the other kids in their costumes he completely forgot about wanting to take his off. Either that or he accepted the fact that on some days you just dress up. Here is a picture of Dylan and his little buddy Maddie. They are the two babies at daycare and the bigger kids just adore them.

Here is the whole group. Wow, Noelle has her hands full! 6 of these kids go to school all day (today was a half day), so it's not too terribly crowded during the day, but I know the rest of the kids keep Noelle busy. Maddie and Dominic (the purple ape) are both part-time, and so it's usually Dylan, Bella (the princess) and Nicholas (the dinosaur) during the day with Noelle.

The little one dressed as Spiderman is Kolby and Dylan adores him. He talks about Kolby a lot. Every time a school bus goes by our house Dylan says "Kolby."

The kids all brought treats and gift bags for each other, so Dylan came away with plenty of loot.

The kids played a game where they had to eat a small donut without using their hands. Dylan and Maddie didn't cooperate with that plan, but Dylan still enjoyed his donut. You can see the remains all over his face!

M&M's

Dylan and I have done quite well this week without Brian. Of course we miss him, and are looking forward to his return tomorrow.

Tonight while I was making dinner, Dylan got to watch part of his favorite movie Cars. I thought his tv watching position was picture-worthy. It doesn't look very comfortable to me, but I guess when you love a movie that much, all you need is your thumb to suck and a place to lay down.

After dinner we enjoyed a few M&M's. He calls them treats and shakes with anticipation whenever he sees them. He especially seemed to enjoy the blue ones tonight.

Tomorrow after lunch we are going to the Halloween party at daycare. I'm hoping he'll wear his lion costume for longer than two minutes. We'll see what happens.

Finally...fall!

It finally feels like fall here. We've been enjoying wearing pants and long sleeves during the last week.

This weekend started off our fall frenzy of weekend activities. Yesterday I drove to Hudson, Iowa (near Waterloo) for my friend Angie's baby shower. I was glad to be able to join in the special day. Angie received many great gifts - seeing them all made me feel even more anxious (in a now, now, now kind of way) than I already was about getting our baby stuff out, washing it, getting the baby's room ready, etc. As I said before, we've got quite a few weekends this fall with planned activities, so those tasks will have to wait until early December. With the Metro Center re-opening from renovations in a few short weeks, Brian has been working long hours and the things I need his help with around the house have to wait. The stress...I swear, this nesting thing is stressful.

Today has been a cloudy, rainy day. It's a cozy day to stay inside and color. Dylan spent some time this morning coloring in his giant Sponge Bob coloring book. He colored a few other things too, like the tile floors, the kitchen chair, the living room window, etc but the crayons are washable and I'm not too worried about those things coming clean.

Brian left early this morning for Nashville. He'll be home sometime on Friday. Looking ahead to a whole week without him seems like a long time, although I'm sure the week will go fast. I'll be so busy with everything around here that I'm hoping Friday will be here before I know it.

Halloween Books

Dylan is such a lucky boy! My friend Jean mailed us a package this week, and included in it were two Halloween books for Dylan. He immediately wanted to read them. Nice work Jean!

We are looking forward to Halloween. Dylan is going to dress up as a lion and we'll take him out trick-or-treating (for a brief while I'm sure) with the neighbors. Brian and I are also going to dress up this year, for the neighborhood adults only party on the Saturday before Halloween. Brian wants to be Hugh Hefner, and I am thinking about being a cat. It's hard to come up with a costume for a pregnant belly. My brother, sister and mom are all coming down that weekend too. Oma is going to watch Dylan while the rest of us head off to the party. It should present some fun photo opportunities!

This weekend will be a busy one for us. Tomorrow I am driving over to Cedar Falls, IA for my good friend Angie's baby shower. Brian and Dylan will have a father/son day. Then on Sunday Brian leaves for Nashville for a week. We'll be glad when he's back!

Fall Festival

This afternoon we went to Midway Village, a turn of the century Victorian Village in Rockford. They were having a Fall Festival. It felt strange to be out there admiring the scarecrows and other fall crafts when it was 92 degrees and humid!

Dylan was very interested in feeling the texture of the straw bale he was sitting on. I couldn't get him to look at me for the picture.

Brian and Dylan on the church steps

Brian and Dylan enjoying Sunday afternoon football. Don't be fooled into thinking Dylan actually sits and watches anything but the Disney channel. While this picture was relaxing looking, the moment lasted only a minute and he was off to another activity!

Day Trip to Milwaukee

Today Dylan and I drove up to Port Washington, Wisconsin. It is about 30 miles north of Milwaukee, only about 30 miles south of Sturgeon Bay, WI. My college roommate Jen lives there with her husband Vinnie and their daughter Ellie. Today was Ellie's 2-year birthday party.

It took us about two hours to get there, so we were about 20 minutes late, but the party hadn't fully started yet, so it was okay. Jen had ordered a bouncy-house for the kids, and it was a hit! Dylan loved jumping around in it.

The theme of the party was Finding Nemo and Jen went all out. She had Nemo sippy cups for the kids, little to-go Nemo bowls to fill with goldfish, and, Dylan's first-ever party favor bag! In the bag was a small carton of goldfish, some Nemo stickers, a Nemo straw and a Nemo toothbrush. All very cool things in Dylan's opinion. We had lunch then played for awhile. I thought we had reached meltdown stage with Dylan, but he was fussy for awhile then got over it. We opened presents and had cake and ice cream and then played for a few hours more.

It was fun to hang out with Jen, Sarah (my other college roommate) and Jeni (a friend from college) while our kids played in the bouncy house. The weather was beautiful, as their house is just blocks for Lake Michigan and they usually have a great breeze. We stayed until 4, and headed home (West) into the setting sun. Dylan fell asleep within 3 minutes of being buckled in, but slept only 1 1/2 hours, and woke up crabby with the full setting sun blazing in his face. He asked for a 'snacky', so I passed him his goldfish. He proceeded to yell 'no' and dump the goldfish all over the car. I wasn't impressed. He continued to ask for a 'snacky' but I had nothing left to give him. So he ended up crying the rest of the way home. As annoyed as I was about him dumping the snacks, I felt badly for him that the sun was shining in his face. It's hard going for long drives without another adult in the car. One of us might have been able to convince Dylan to wear his hat or sunglasses. From the drivers seat there wasn't much I could do.

I forgot my camera, but am hoping Jen will e-mail some pictures soon, so I'll post them if/when she does that.

Winter Boots

Dylan was recently the recipient of a big bag of clothes. My cousin Kevin/Jen's son Griffin has grown out of a lot of clothes that are still in great condition. Along with the clothes was a great winter coat and some cool winter boots. Dylan saw the boots by the door last night and wanted to try them on.

He thought the boots were pretty cool and wore them around the house for the evening. Thanks Griffin!

It's been a rather quiet week for us, aside from the fact that I'm experience some pregnancy onset migraines. I've had four in the last seven days. This is not fun, and I have so much empathy for people who are lifelong migraine sufferers. My OB thinks the headaches are hormonal, and I'm seeing my regular doctor tomorrow as a follow-up. It's pretty scary to experience the visual effects for the first time. I was at work and suddenly I couldn't read. The words were all smooshed together without spaces, and then I developed black spots in my vision. I wondered if I was having a stroke, but then realized I was having classic migraine symptoms. So far I've been in safe places that didn't require driving when the headaches have happened, and I hope my luck continues. It's a little worrisome to imagine being out on the road and away from home, with Dylan in the car, etc.

Dylan's Halloween costume arrived yesterday. He is going to be a lion. We tried the costume on him, but he didn't like it at all. Not sure if he was scared or just doesn't like dress-up. Either way, we're going to have to keep introducing him to the costume, but he was simply too adorable to not get a good video of him wearing the costume and roaring.

Mr. Grump

Dylan was a bit of a grump this evening. He had fun playing and giggling with Daddy for awhile, but when I tried to capture it on video, he wasn't happy. Once he realized we were watching him on a video screen, he wanted to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. I just love the way he puts an end to this filming session, it's so funny!

Now that we have the video thing all figured out, we'll post a good one as soon as we get it!