Thanksgiving...

I'm way behind here, but E and I got to spend Thanksgiving with the Baumgartner clan.

Creative

Yes, he's riding it like a scoot-bike. What you can't see is the art installation underneath him, consisting of three of his stacking toys. When I found the upside-down stool with a colorful installation about an hour after Ray took this picture, I was very confused as to what the boys had been doing.

Note: this means they left the TV with football playing. Of course I was confused.

Light...

I'm hoping this is a metaphor. Not that the tunnel is particularly long, but if nothing else, I'm ready for some sunnier evenings around here so that we can get out and have fun. E just wants to get back to the playground, which is quite chilly and dark by the time we get home. Thinking of solstice around here!

Yard

Happy.

Scenes from Last Weekend

A lot more concentration on the game than a year ago.
What a ladies' man....is this a preview for 60 years from now?

View

This should have been posted a while ago...this was what greeted us the day we moved in to the new place.
The guys were already at the house and I was driving up. I had to pull over to get a picture (the one above is at the turn into our subdivision) and tell Ray to go upstairs.
Fortunately, they made it. (Side note, check out those eyelashes on E...)
We're right in a common ballooning area. Last Monday morning E was eating his muffin.. "balloon?" - even in cold icky weather, two were out!

Whimper

Last week, E caught one serious cold.
This is my reminder for those days when he has pushed every button and then walked right back over and is starting on the first one again. Pushing buttons=healthy and happy. This kid had no ability to push anything.
He spent a lot of time sacked on the couch, watching Pingu ("Duck?"). The cats tried to help.
There were a few happy moments, but the smile was pretty elusive. Fortunately, three days of sleeping on every available surface and he's back to normal. In fact, I think he's trying to get out all those words that he couldn't while he was sick.

Alternative Costume

Oh, Hi. How are you doing? Yeah, it has been a quiet week here, sorry about that - moving, lab meeting, all that. Just trying to get the house cleaned up so we can post a tour, really...

In the meantime, here's one of Eamon's alternative Halloween costumes. Daycare dresses up all the kids pretty much just for the teachers' amusement, and I had already moved E's costumes to the other house when I realized I needed to send him in on Friday all costumed up. So, he got the first (of probably many) last-minute costume.
 The (German?) tourist. I blame his Aunt Laura for this (or at least my urge to put black socks on him). Ray and I find it hilarious.

Happy Halloween 2010!

The Eamonator costume that Ray's mom made still fits.
And the tail is still too cute.
I told him if he put it on and we went out, he'd get candy.
I never told him that I'd let him eat it.

Actually, at this point he had already had a Reese's. We stopped by Alli and Isaac's (E as a crazed Vikings fan: jersey and a hat one of my ex-students gave me that will be featured here soon), and he ate a whole peanut butter cup. Funny how it takes exactly five minutes and then you can literally see the chocolate hit his brain. We watched the end of the Vikings game (boo) and then got home (yes, to the new house!) just in time to see the entire block worth of kids mustering up. We got our treats together and joined them for a few houses.

E was wide-eyed, between the kids (probably 15 or so between 19 months and 8ish), the crazy decorations (one house had an inflatable haunted tunnel) and the proximity to bedtime. However, I think he had fun. We came home and ate dinner near the front door so he could help hand out candy. All in all, a good halloween. I can't wait till next year when he really knows what's up.

Although we may need a new costume... Laura?