trick or treat!

Daniel's first trick-or-treating experience was a success! It was a rainy Halloween, but my little turtle couldn't wait to get out there and get some CANDY!  Daddy braved the rain to take him to a few houses down our street. 

Benjamin and I stayed home to greet the trick-or-treaters and to chew on a hammer (Benjamin) and eat too many Butterfingers (me).

Benjamin did get dressed up too, though - here are my bat and my turtle!

Daniel also had a dragon costume, which was very cute and fit him better than the slightly-too-small turtle, but he would have none of it.  We really tried to get him to put the dragon outfit on, even just for a picture, but he threw a tamtrum of epic proportions, crying "MY NO WEAR DAT!" so we gave up.  He's got a little bit of an obsession with turtles. 

Daniel was pretty excited to dig into his stash of candy, so he topped the evening off with a grape Tootsie Pop, or as he prefers to call it, a Lala-pop.

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin carving

This was Daniel's first year to help with pumpkin carving, and boy did he have a good time!  After only slight hesitation, he dug his hands in to help clean out the pumpkins that we had picked out.

Pumpkin goop is fun! 

Unfortunately, Benjamin was not really able to participate in the carving, but he observed from the sidelines. I think he approves!  (Actually, he just thinks anything Daniel does is hilarious.)  I just love this smile!

Messy hands...

Helping Daddy poke the eyes out.

Have I mentioned that Benjamin is teething?  In fact, his first tooth (bottom left) popped through earlier this week!  I'm trying to get a picture of it, but that's easier said than done. It's just barely through the gums, so it's still pretty hard to see.  I'm pretty sure tooth #2 is on the way though, if his constant chewing on anything that comes close to his mouth is any indication. He liked this position for observing the pumpkin carving from his highchair.

Daniel wanted to pose with his handiwork.

The final products, ready and waiting for trick-or-treaters to come tomorrow!

our annual trip to the farm

Two years in a row officially makes it an annual trip! Once again, we visited Cagle's Dairy this year. (To see last year's trip, click here.)

Once again, we did the dairy tour - I wish we had a picture like this one from last year so we could compare, but as you can see Daniel is almost 3 feet tall!

Daniel had so much fun feeding the calves!  They weren't too hungry (I think they get fed quite a bit...) but they were adorable nonetheless.

We managed to get a little family picture thanks to our friendly hayride tour guide!

Something must have been awfully interesting to capture Mike and Benjamin's attention!  Ben had a good time hanging out with Dad for the first half of the day, and Mom for the second half!

Next we got to feed the goats. Unlike the cows, they were more than willing to take food from us!  Daniel got really good at keeping his hand open so they could eat.

A feature of the farm that we didn't try out last year was their jumping pillow.  It's kind of like a big trampoline anchored into the ground.  Daniel has recently learned to jump and actually get his feet off the ground (which is harder than you might think). He was hesitant of the jumping pillow at first, but soon thought it was the most fun he'd ever had!  We finally had to drag him away.  Oh, and this was the little kids' jumping pillow - there was a much larger one for older kids and adults. 

Luckily we did have a way to lure Daniel away from the jumping pillow - a giant hay-bale spider! (Poor tired Benjamin had passed out by this point.)

No, the real lure was PUMPKINS! 

Now the question: what is the easiest way to pick up the pumpkin? (I think the stem eventually won.)

So many pumpkins, so little time...

turtle taw

A conversation a few weeks ago between me, Daniel, and Alyssa, while playing in Daniel's room just before lunchtime.

Jen: Daniel, what do you want for lunch?
Daniel: Turtle.
Jen: Turtle? Hmmm, I'm pretty sure we're fresh out of turtle today.
Alyssa: I really don't think we have any turtle! What else do you want?
Daniel: Turtle taw!

He was pretty insistent, so we headed downstairs to the kitchen. I was hoping I would be able to find him a suitable subsitute for the "turtle" he was craving. But he dragged me to the pantry and pointed at an upper shelf, insisting, "turtle taw!" Finally I lifted him up so he could show me what he wanted. Turns out "turtle taw" is Daniel-speak for "apple sauce".

I pulled out the video camera while he was eating lunch that day so he could tell us about the "turtle taw".



As we have since discovered, "turtle" has a lot of meanings to Daniel, among them apple, potato, and play-dough, as well as other green animals like frogs and lizards. I love trying to figure out how his mind works! It's also amazing just how far his language skills have come since we took this video.

lala

We are very lucky to have my lovely sister, Alyssa, living with us for awhile. Since Daniel refused to say "Aunt Lissy" or any other similar variation (he can be pretty stubborn), we went looking for alternate nicknames. Since he obviously says "Mama" and "Dada" with no problem, we decide to give "Lala" a try. He took to it immediately, so forevermore Aunt Alyssa shall be known as Lala to her nephews.

Daniel positively LOVES his Lala, to the point where I almost can't do anything for him when Lala is around because he wants Lala to do it. Now, this can be really great for me when it's diaper-changing time, however I don't think Alyssa would agree (love you sis!). She'd probably rather stick to reading books, building with blocks, and coloring. But Daniel can be awfully persuasive!
Benjamin's kind of fond of Lala too! Aren't they cute?

first food

Benjamin recently took his first foray into the world of "solid" foods. First up on the menu: oatmeal! (What? Oatmeal instead of rice cereal? I know, we're rebels.)

Doesn't he look tiny in the big highchair?

"I'm not sure what's going on here. Should I open my mouth?"

"What is this slop you're feeding me?"

"Okay, well, maybe it's pretty good after all. Give me more!"

"You're too slow! I'll just have to feed myself!"

pennsylvania (summer vacation part 4)

We had a blast on the next leg of our vacation in the lovely state of Pennsylvania! It was a visit full of family, and we all had a lot of fun.

Benjamin got lots of love and snuggles from everyone - especially his two great-grandmothers! Once or twice I was afraid there might be a tussle over who got to hold him - he definitely got used to napping while snuggled up to his loving grandmas! What a lucky boy.

And at times he was doted on by a grandma and two great-grandmas all at once! Tell me, does it get any better than this?
Ben also had some quality time with Aunt Lissy (and Duke) and Uncle Alex.


Daniel had SO much fun during our visit, mostly playing outside. Daniel thinks the hose is just the absolute best toy in the whole world, so every chance he got, he dragged someone out to play with him. He also managed to shed his clothes just about every time he went outside - must be a guy thing? Anyway, I'd post more pictures, but he's naked in most of them and I just can't do that to him! He tried out the pool, but the hose was more fun.
Wrestling with Uncle Alex was also a lot of fun!
He even managed to drag us outside to play in the rain!

Daniel and his second cousin Samantha got together to play some tunes on Daniel's new guitar.
They were also forced by their moms to hug each other. I'm not sure they were happy about it, but they obliged! It was so much fun seeing them play together and interact with each other!

Of course, Daniel had another birthday party, this one shared with his Aunt Ashley. He got his own personal cake since he couldn't eat the cream cheese frosting on the big cake. He was getting pretty good at blowing out candles by this point! And he also learned to respond, "two!" and hold up two fingers when asked how old he was.


Before we left, we had to snap a couple of group shots! The proud grandparents...
And the whole crew (at least, the part of the crew that was still there when we left).
Finally, just a couple of photos of my sweet boys - Daniel trying to pull Mike up off the ground to play, and Benjamin just hanging out!

Can you tell they had a good time? I'm pretty sure we all did! We are so lucky to have such wonderful families.

traffic (summer vacation part 3)

What would a road trip be without a traffic jam? And really, not just a little slow rush-hour traffic. I mean the kind of traffic jam where people get out of their cars and hang out on the side of the road like this:
The kind of traffic jam where you can stand in the middle of the interstate and take a picture like this:
After we realized we weren't going anywhere in a hurry, Mike and Daniel took a walk, petted a dog, and chatted with a trucker. Meanwhile Benjamin was hungry so I stayed in the car and fed him. Fortunately, traffic started moving again after an hour or so. Mike and Daniel ran back to the car, I strapped Benjamin back in his carseat, and we were on our way once again!

motormouth

Little Benjamin sure has a lot to say these days! Here's a sampling of his chatter - he can go on... and on... and on. He's also demonstrating the newly acquired skill of grabbing his feet. And just so you know, he didn't start out right on the edge of the rug - he's a pro at scooting around the room on his back. I believe he was originally in the middle of the blanket. The kid can really cover some ground!

the joy of cooking

Daniel loves to help me cook, and recently he discovered the best part of baking - licking the bowl! I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.

new york (summer vacation part 2)

After Raleigh, we made the looooong trip up to New York, with a brief stopover in Wilmington. We had a fantastic time with Mike's family, highlighted by a birthday party for all of the July/August birthdays in the family - which I hesitate to list for fear of missing one! This was the first of three birthday celebrations for Daniel, and to say he enjoyed it would be putting it mildly.

"Mmmm, sugar!"

Meanwhile, Mike pretended to be taller than John...
... Joanne, Nana, and Grandpa enjoyed some cake too...
... Benjamin got some love from Aunt Cathy...
... and Daniel convinced Aunt Joanne to give him more dessert.
One of the most fun things about this trip was seeing how much fun Daniel had with his cousins. He absolutely idolized them, and just couldn't get enough time with them. This is one of my favorite pictures of Daniel with his cousins - he just loved being one of the big guys!
And of course we had to get a photo of all of the boys together: Richie, Joey (holding Benjamin), Andy and Daniel.

And Benjamin had a great time hanging out with Aunt Betty while Daniel played with the guys!
Trips like this make me realize how much I miss being closer to family. Can't wait for our next visit!