Halloween Fun

Peter loves his Bamm-Bamm costume. It's almost like being naked in public! He gets to show off all those big muscles he has. Plus he has a handy-dandy club to hit things with!


One of our favorite toy stores had an Halloween Parade this week. A lot of the activities were for older kids, like bobbing for apples or making complex crafts. We decided we would play with all the toys in the toy store instead.


One corner has a mini treehouse. Peter likes to climb up to the second level and play with all the kids up there.


Even John was having fun trying on all kind of different hats. He wants to be KING!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Parade

This week has been filled with all kinds of Halloween activities. We did a costume parade through a nursing home one day. It's so nice to be able to brighten other people's day!

This year Peter is Bamm-Bamm from the Flintstones cartoon.


He loves hitting the ground with his club. Thankfully he would rather have his hands free so we get to reduce property damages. Yay! I do give his club to him for photos or other not so dangerous times.


I tried making Peter's costume from scratch, but I'm just not a handy person when it comes to that. I have NO idea how to sew or design anything. I ended up finding some orange shorts in the clearance section for $0.99 so I got those and just glued black felt triangles to it.


We handed out little craft pages to the residents there, it was neat to see them smile as Peter toddled up and handed them his paper with a bunch of Halloween stickers. He was so proud. Here's the group photo from our nursing home trip. There were about 20 kids all dressed up. Can you find Peter? He's on the left side with his big club.

18 Month Appointment

Peter had his 18 month appointment this week. He is following the growth curve. He weighed in at 23 lbs, 14 oz. Still a lightweight for his age. Height was around 33 inches, tall boy!

He was really good for the doctor. We go to a clinic of about 10 doctors, but I specifically asked for the blonde lady doctor because he gets along best with her. She has a really high pitched voice and sounds like a squeeky mouse when she talks, Peter loves it! Plus she has taken the best care of us and is always on top of things more than the others.

Peter had to get one shot and they kinda snuck it in at the end. Once he realized it had happened it was already over. I have recently learned that a great distraction is STICKERS! I gave him a sticker for his shirt, a sticker for his nose, and a sticker for his hand. He then put a sticker on MY nose and was laughing before we even left the room.

The secret to calming Peter down: Put a sticker on his forehead!

Peter's New Hat

It has been COLD here this week. Last weekend I was getting a sunburn in a tank top but Tuesday the temperature dropped like crazy. The high was in the 50's and nighttime was getting into the 30's! I was caught off guard! I need to go buy Peter some warmer clothes!


The day before the temps were supposed to drop I did go out shopping and picked Peter up a new hat from Old Navy. His baseball cap was just not going to cut it.


He loves his new hat! Especially the poof-ball on top of it!


And it has all kinds of colors on it so hopefully it will "match" whatever he is wearing, including this spiderman jacket I found.


Peter has stayed all toasty warm during this cold spell! Its nice to have some cooler weather, but wow that was a shock to our system! Time to turn the heater on!

Sushi Night

Over the weekend I decided to take John out for sushi to his favorite place as an early anniversary treat. We went early for happy hour. It worked out kinda nice because we usually eat early anyway plus after we were able to walk the mall and visit Peter's favorite toy store.


Peter was excited to be somewhere new. He wanted to eat inside the restaurant though, not on the patio. Inside their lights are big red Japanese-type lanterns aka "balls"!! He was fascinated with the balls hanging from the ceiling. We kept having to try to keep him in his seat. It was beautiful so we wanted to be on the patio but when he is outside he wants to run!


John was happy, he LOVES sushi. I on the other hand struggle to find anything I may want to eat. Since sushi was half price John got 3 orders while I used a coupon to get a free chicken yakatori appetizer and some white rice.

Peter is more sensitive. He generally can't eat anything out in public. I have taken a tip from another mom and started always having a lunch box of "Peter-friendly" food with me. He had carrots & green beans, turkey, and chex mix. We tried introducing him to chopsticks. He was able to stab a few carrots, but other than that he just drummed with them.


I did let Peter try some of my rice. It was authentic sticky rice and he LOVED it. Stuffed his mouth full. He ended up getting sticky rice in his hair, on his neck and even into his diaper somehow! Crazy kid!


It was such beautiful weather! It was probably upper 70's and we were in the shade with a nice breeze. I love patio dining. I really miss eating out. We don't get to do that much anymore. It's a combination of saving money and just trying to contain Peter for an entire meal is tiresome. It's a definite change eating with a child there!


After eating we went for a walk through the mall. They have nice fountains that Peter likes to look at and stick his hand in.


We decided to reward Peter for being such a good boy during dinner by taking him into his favorite toy store, Mildred & Dildred. They are set up for the kids to play with nearly everything. Dad had fun finding hats for Peter to wear. Cowboy Peter found an entire drawer that was FULL of balls. He decided it was his job to throw all the balls onto the floor. Yikes! That kept mom busy for a while.


Here's a few photos for Grandpa Marvin, the train set collector! Peter is starting to get magnetically drawn to the train tables at different playgroups we go to. John found him an engineer's hat and he was off. I think he is even trying to say "choo-choo."


As we were leaving I noticed he was still grasping onto a Thomas the Train engine. I had to run back into the store to return it to the play set. He howled at me for a little bit, but as soon as he saw another fountain he forgot about it and was smiling again.

Gymboree @ 18 months

I was looking through photos this morning and realized I never posted our past 2 Gymboree visits. So thought that I would post the best pictures from our play times!

Peter spends about half the playtime just making baskets. He is super funny when we go to a full size basketball court. He stands on his tip toes and tries to stretch all the way up. He has learned that he needs to give the ball to mom or dad if he wants the ball to go through those hoops.


This is one of Peter's new friends Jameson, he and his twin Austin are Peter's age. It is super cute to watch them all play together.


Peter likes to go across the clackity bridge.


But parachute time is his absolute favorite!


Our visit this month daddy was able to come. He helped Peter climb a big hill.


...and tried to chase him out of a little cubby where he was hiding.


Peter liked having his daddy around when he needed somebody to hold his hand.


Peter decided to gather all the balls around him. His favorite is a giant tennis ball. I think he started liking these at the tennis club BBQ's over the summer, now he is hooked on them.

Pee-pee in the Potty!

This morning Peter went pee-pee in the potty!!! Mommy is SOOO proud of him! I know at this point it is probably a novelty but I am super happy that he learned something new!

It started with him pulling on his diaper again and saying "pee-pee" so I took his diaper off and got his potty out. He sat on it for a while but seemed stuck. Then he went over and grabbed his little pop up tent. I set it up and put the potty inside then went to his room to grab a new diaper...I figured it was a lost cause.

BUT when I came back there was pee-pee in the potty!! I missed it! He just needed some privacy in his tent!


I gave him a huge round of applause and lots of hugs and kisses! We even did a little dance while we flushed it down the big potty. We ran in to tell daddy who was still asleep. Then we got online and looked for somebody on Skype. Oma & Opa were online so we called then and told them of Peter's success! He got another round of applause.

Peter and I clapped our hands a lot this morning. I am so proud of my baby boy! He is growing up!

Halloween Hop

Halloween parties have begun! We went to Pump It Up with the Meetup Moms for bouncing and a pizza party. It was costumes optional which was fun. About half the kids were dressed up. We had pumpkins, turtles, dinosaurs, army men, bumble bees, pirates, and the complete cast of Wizard of Oz.


Peter didn't wear his costume for this event but the day before we had just gotten a package from his great aunt Kim that had some Halloween books and a pumpkin shirt so he wore that to celebrate in. Thanks Aunt Kim!


Peter loved bouncing with his friends. Cam tried to keep up but his costume was slowing him down.


Alicia was having fun giggling with Peter. She is about a year older and has kinda adopted Peter as her brother. She has started holding his hand and pulling him around places.


The big news of the day is that Peter now LOVES the slide. The secret is to go down on his belly. Once he figured this out he spent the rest of our playtime climbing the steps then flying down the slide on his belly. I got dizzy watching him go back and forth so many times!


Here he is at the bottom of the slide. He was so proud of himself! Slides are so much fun!!! It even carried over into the next day. We went to the park the next morning and for the first time ever he went down the curly-cue slide...all on his own! On his belly of course.


At the end of the party we went into the party room for some pizza. Peter raced in there before I could stop him. I get so tense in those situations. With his dairy allergy he can't have things like pizza. Usually the cheese and the crust are both a danger. But he just got up on the bench and sat waiting for me. I gave him a juice pouch and some trail mix I had brought and he was perfectly fine. (Sidenote: I think I need to turn in my mom badge, I can't open those dang juice boxes!!)


It was a fun afternoon. I can't wait for the other Halloween events coming up this week!

Swimming Class

This week we went with some friends to a brand new swimming school that just opened. It was so much fun! They had family changing rooms and little cubbies for us to put our stuff in during class. I took a picture of some of the boys in the locker room. Peter was funny. Whenever us moms got our cameras ready to take a picture he'd lay his belly on the bench and make a silly face. He definitely wanted to be the center of attention.


Peter loved the pool. He was swimming around, kicking his feet and jumping in off the side. He even went under the water a few times. He is a brave boy! John was able to join us, it was really nice to have an extra set of hands. We were even able to help out another mom of twins who had her hands full.


The pool was nice and warm and they had a bunch of toys for the kids to play with. Peter was perfectly happy playing with a bunch of balls that floated. They also did some songs and dances in the water then worked on skills like kicking, floating, and going under the water. Peter was all giggles.


This picture is incredibly blurry because it was fast motion but it totally catches the joy Peter had being thrown in the air. He loved it!


After, Peter cuddled up in towels to stay warm. He had so much fun! He's like a little fish! I kinda regret that I didn't do swim lessons this summer, but he isn't stunted by that at all. He is open to any new adventure. I love that about this kid!!

Making the Bed

I'm gonna help mommy make the bed!


First I climb onto the blankets and give her a BIG smile! I'm such a good helper!


How many monkeys are jumping on the bed? ONE!


Here I go! I love jumping around on mommy and daddy's bed!


I'm gonna help mom by playing peek-a-boo under the blankets. BOO!


What do you mean I'm getting in your way?!?


Alright, I'll get off. You are no fun mom!