Happy Halloween!

Charlie Ross enjoyed his first real Halloween thoroughly - leading up to it he enjoyed seeing all the pumpkin (Oh! Pumpkin!) and ghost (Ghost! Boo!) and monster (Monster! Scary!) decorations everywhere. He had a Halloween party with pizza and got to wear his costume to school on Friday. And he discovered candy corn, which Charlie and I started having to dole out carefully.

But on Halloween night it was on (!), there was the Annual Halloween parade in the neighborhood. We had never gone before, and were surprised at the turn out. The organizers from prior years were ready to pass the baton, and in a move that was totally out of character for me I volunteered to lead up the preparations - which really was not much, everyone loves a parade - the hardest part was navigating through the red tape to be sure the local volunteer Fire Department showed up to lead the parade. But they did and it turned out to be a great parade, we all brought potluck and there was no end to all the cookies and cupcakes CR could eat.

In particular someone made these eyeball pops, which was red velvet cake balls on a stick with white icing and piping to look like eyes. In nearly all of the pictures below that is what he is gobbling up or smiling around.

He was raring to go with all that sugar - he enjoyed climbing and touching the fire truck, and when the parade started he wanted to RUN! FORREST! RUN! (or, in his words, 'I running!!') - he ran over a quarter of the parade route and then walked with Gina, Charlie, David and me, the whole rest of the way, which was pretty impressive. We enjoyed walking the parade and waving at the other neighbors who came outside to see.

Now with every up there's a down and the sugar crash happened not too long after the parade's end, but we were able to get in some trick or treating - about five houses which I thought was not too bad after all that other activity.

It went like this: Charlie, David and CR go knock on the door - making sure CR did not completely assault the Jack-O-Lantern, CR says 'trick or treat' and gets the candy and says 'thank you', the door closes and he melts down on the front porch as though Halloween had just shut down completely, Charlie convinces him there is more trick or treating at the next house, he finally calms down and looks up, sees me, and comes running down the walk saying 'Mommy! Mommy!' to show me what he got. Repeat for four more houses, at the last one, there was barely any convincing him to move on - luckily it was across the street from our house so we trick or treated at our own door - where Aunt Gina was giving out candy. We went in, CR and David dug through their stash, ate some more candy then we had roast beef sandwiches - and then called it a night.

All in all a fun evening - I love Halloween. The best part is Daylight Savings was the next day which means Charlie comes home from work an hour early for the next few months (yea!).

So I am just going to post a bunch of pictures, to give a full view of the night - but all the pictures posted backwards - so the bottom pictures happened fist and so on. Not too many of the actual trick or treating because it got dark. (Oh, CR went again as Darth Vader this year because he really did not get to use the costume last year - I thought he was cute in it and we got him to say 'I scary!').

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Ross

Yesterday Charlie and I went to the craft fair and pumpkin patch at a church nearby - we went on kind of a whim but CR had a really great time in the pumpkin patch, and is enjoying pointing out pumpkins where ever he goes now.

I think his school pics on Wednesday must have been in pumpkins because the first thing he did when he saw them all was to sit on one look at me and say 'cheese!' with a big grin. I am surprised this did not make it into these pictures, but there were tons of other parents and kids taking pictures here, some of them were dressed in costumes - very cute!

The Big News

With 10 of nearly 14 weeks to plan you would think I could come up with a more creative post to announce the big! news! - but until very recently my creativity along with most of my energy has been zapped by our new little peanut Russo, who is due to arrive March 24th, 2010.

Big thank yous to Charlie, my Mom, and Gina, who faced the brunt of my complaints regarding nausea, which seemed incessant to me, and therefore, I suspect, to them.

We will find out the week before CR's birthday whether he will have a little brother or a little sister. If I had to put money on it based on how I feel and look so far (completely identical to when I was pregnant with CR) I would say we are having a boy for sure, we'll see - either way would be just fine with me.

Maw-Maw sent this book for CR (I'm A Big Brother! - thank you!) and the intent was to take a pic of him holding it with the title facing forward, but of all the pics this one turned out the best.

Got to go, CR has pulled his chair out and is DEMANDING pizza - which, unfortunately for him, and probably for me, is not on the menu tonight.

Pool Time!

Here are some pics of Charlie in his pool in the backyard, as mentioned previously, I have taken to making big blocks of ice in Tupperware to put in the pool so it is not just bath water in the Texas sun - CR loves to play with both the ice and the Tupperware. In the middle of July these big blocks would melt so fast, hopefully in September we can use the pool like normal people (no ice).

[I successfully resisted the urge to title this post 'Ice Ice Baby'.]

Ziti (yummy)

Ziti is one of the few dinner options that will make CR come running and climb in his chair (the other is pizza, which he associates directly with apples, if you mention pizza he says 'pizza and apples'). Below is a series of pics of CR enjoying his favorite meal...

Pics

Just a post to add some pictures from when Grammy and Grandpa came to visit - great shots Dad!

(when CR saw these pictures on the computer he said, 'yummy.' )

So much to say...

So much has happened since the last post, I hardly know where to begin.

Swimming lessons went well, particularly the last week when the indoor pool heater was broken (we suspected that in week one when CR shivered in the pool the whole time), he really enjoyed it in the outside pool and got some good skills like being able to hold his breath when he goes under. He is a long way from swimming laps, but enjoys the pool now very much.

After that came 4th of July weekend, the family trip to Canyon Lake for Charlie's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We had a great time, we stopped at two wineries on the way there, we were between San Antonio and Austin, it was a part of Texas I had never seen before and it was beautiful! Charlie Ross loved spending time with his cousin Katie. The house we stayed in was the perfect size and layout for all of us, and it had abundant deer in the backyard that came nearly right up to the sliding glass doors. We went to Sea World one day, and it was a hot day, a little while after CR's nap we let him get his fill of Shamu's splash town which he loved(!) -and we loved watching him - and he was in an incredible mood for the rest of the day (including a long ride home full of laughs with cousin David, and a 2 hour dinner out after that).

Two weekends after my parents came to visit, it was my Mom's 70th Birthday, and I was really happy we could spend it together. One of Charlie's favorite teachers from daycare babysat (he was stunned to see her at the house), and we went out to dinner at Carmelo's (yum!) for Mom's birthday.

Last week Laurie and Bess came to town, Gina organized for us girls to go see a Sherlock Holmes play at the Alley (it was great), and they came over with the Diluzio's and Orgeron's Saturday night and we had dinner and played Mexican Train Dominoes (which has become a quick family favorite over the past several months, very fun).

In between we have been splashing in the blow up pool in the backyard quite a bit, which I got not too long after the water table as it proved to be an exceptionally hot June and July. Besides swimming, or splashing with his favorite pools toys (Tupperware, which he endlessly enjoys filling, and pouring out or into the other containers), his next favorite activity is coloring, it is pretty much the toddler scribble you would expect but he loves it and approaches his coloring with GUSTO! He still will remain completely engrossed in either Dora or Diego, and we are amassing quite a Dora collection of books (he got some new ones from Mom that he cannot get enough of).

And finally on to this week when we had a very big scare, in (way) brief form: CR went to the ER with croup on Monday and we had to stay overnight at the hospital. It was a pretty scary experience for him, lots of breathing treatments, but he handled it like a champ overall. He has recovered significantly this week, but Charlie and I (and Gina who he stayed with later in the week - big thank you!!) are still analyzing everything about every cough he makes.

So that has been our summer so far, hopefully by next weekend we can start finishing up the summer with more fun times, CR seems like he is ready to get back in the action, and it is hard to hold him back.

Just a few pics, because we got a new video camera for Father's Day and a number of summer pics are still on there.

Best Toy Ever

This simple toy has brought literally hours of CR fun to our house since getting it 3 weeks ago - whether it is rearranging the penguin, walrus and bear toy that came with it, splashing in it to squeals of 'Agua!', or sliding the ice down the waterslide contraption - he is having a blast with this water table. Putting the ice in it brought it to a whole other level, as the heat here is rising and it is a great way to stay cool outside.

Our little piece of the Arctic in the Texas heat...

Every day seems like a new adventure with Charlie Ross, and he is certainly ready to embrace his 'twos' both the terrific and terrible sides. He frequently comes up with some new word or gesture that he never did before - from picking up a phone and saying 'Hello! [babble, babble, babble]', to perfecting what I can only term the toddler squeal of frustration at a pitch I did not know was possible.

One funny play event from a few weeks ago - these toys started out at the other side of the room spread out in their train station, within minutes they are all as shown below - banished en masse to coffee table Siberia - this was every figurine I had put out, no rhyme or reason behind it.

Crowded at the edge of nowhere, these toys wait for a train that can never arrive....

It is fun to play with him since he is so curious about everything - this is an awesome age even with the tantrums - some are pretty brutal, they can come in quick and leave just as quickly - but sometimes it as much fun just to watch him play alone, we really like trying to figure out what he is saying when he babbles to himself and his toys.

Storm on the horizon (this one blew over quickly with a hug, most are not so easily subdued)

We just discovered these mole movies on You Tube, and CR took to this particular one below - and requests 'Mole' nearly every time he is by the computer, he gets a big kick at the end when the season changes and the mole pops up from the hole ('Hi mole!', 'Hi Mole!'), and when winter comes back and the the snowman returns and hugs the mole (he pulls up his arms and giggles).

And he got a super kick out of this one the other day, with the water table we have been talking about the penguins alot, and pointing them out wherever we see them, so it should not have come as too much of a surprise that he would like this, but in the middle he just giggles at the penguin and seals' antics uncontrollably, which I had never seen him do before.

Charlie and I are having fun watching the birds and squirrels in the backyard get their fill from the new bird feeder Charlie put up (and keeps well stocked), we have seen a really impressive array of bird species (cardinals, blue jays, doves, and what we think are sparrows), a few of which we had to look up in our field guide (the Internet). We are going to get a hummingbird feeder too, as we had several our first summer here when we had flowering plants in the backyard - and that was a fun sight to see.

We start swimming lessons tomorrow, and I am looking forward to it - CR's first forays into the pool this summer were promising once he got acclimated to the water, and I will feel a bit more comfortable once he has some feel for water safety.

Below are some various pics since our last post....

CR's version of the 'Watermelon Crawl'

Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer!