Trick or Treat!

Since NJ has postponed Halloween, James has been playing a hybrid trick-or-treat/ hide-and-go-seek with Daddy. He got a bunch of loot going door in the house. Complete with glow stick! As James said, "Trick or treating inside is perfect with the power out because it's dark!"

Snuggle time

I just got back from a little walk/bike with James and found this sweet sight when we got home.

Happy Halloween!

No trick or treating again this year! But we still have the spirit.

Post-storm Update

No power. Won't have it for some time. James enjoyed polishing off the remaining melty Graeter's ice cream after lunch. And Dan made some hot chocolate before the milk spoils. (have I mentioned how great it is to have a gas stove?!)
We get lots of light during the day; one benefit of not having gotten around to making and/or buying many window treatments.
We ventured out to check on Grandma and Grandpa's house. There are trees down all. over. town. We are feeling rather lucky. Looking forward to the sun coming back out on Friday. James is certainly stir crazy already.
Thanks to everyone who has been keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Storm update

Power's out in the entire town. Should be restored in ten(!) days.

James woke us all up this morning requesting a spooky story about a race car. Eventually, Dan obliged, then we got up and dressed in layers.

Dan made pancakes (yea for a gas range!) for breakfast, and we found some AA batteries for the little radio.

All our trees are still standing though many branches of various sizes are down. Basement is dry!

I'm fairly certain our power came back on briefly in the night. Like for less than a minute. Then all I could hear was a beep every ten seconds. I got up and tracked it down to the VIOS box in the basement; no landline.

James is happily playing trains, and I'm trying to get John down for a nap. Going to turn off the phone for a while to save battery power.

Goodnight, storm.

James was asleep on the couch when I got downstairs with John. John then woke up and spent some cuddle time with Daddy while I set up a "bed" for James in our room and moved the Pack and Play up to our room as well. (please forgive that run-on sentence.)
So now all the candles are out, and we're all camped out in the master bedroom.
Here's hoping that I'm awoken in the middle if the night by the power coming back on (a girl can dream, right?). It would also be great if John would go back to sleep.

Frankenstorm Update

Power's out. Went out at 7:10.
Have candles lit, and the family room is cozy and quite pretty actually.
The wind is insane, and it's raining. Every now and then the sky lights up. We've heard branches falling.
When we still had power we heard what sounded like a large tree falling. Couldn't see where it was; it sounded far off.
John's asleep, but I'm going to take him downstairs (we're in the chair in his room) because I don't want to leave him upstairs by himself. Not that I really think anything is going to happen; I just want us to be together.
School was cancelled today and tomorrow, and Dan's work is closed as well (he did work from home for a little while today).
Will update again later.

Three- quarters!!!

John is nine months old today!! (I canNOT believe it.)
We're headed to the dr shortly for his check-up, so I'll update with his stats later. For now, here are some pics of the big guy I took this morning.

Halloween Parade

Today was our town's Halloween parade. Dan and I last went to this parade in either '97 or '98 (when I was up for the marathon). I loved it!! We still remember the amazing Buzz Lightyear costume we saw one kid wearing-- he had a huge plastic jar on his head for the helmet/face mask!! We were talking today about how that kid would now be in his early twenties!!!

So our kids' costumes... James was going to be Peter Pan (with Daddy as Captain Hook), but when we were shopping for the elements to make his costume, we found a bargain skeleton hat and gloves set. Dan bought it for him for fun, and he immediately donned it and wore it around the shopping center enthusiastically scaring strangers. He loooooved it. So we popped into Carter's and got a skeleton shirt (with glowing bones!), and Peter Pan was a thing of the past.

John also had a change in plans. I've planned for him to wear James's penguin costume from when he was a baby, but I couldn't squeeze him into it! It was too short, but cutting holes in the bag for his legs wouldn't have solved it because it was also too tight in the shoulders/neck/arm area.
Solution-- Baby Pirate.

"Next time I will use glue."

Dan asked James if he tried to fix a bush (his "treehouse") today.
James said he did, but it didn't work.

James's "Tree House"

Every day when we get home from school, James goes to his tree house to hang out.

Awesome Day

This morning James, John and I went to the PBA's pumpkin hunt. It's a lot like an egg hunt-- just plastic pumpkins full of treats instead of eggs. And the kids wear costumes. They had face painting (James wasn't interested) and decorations. There was coffee for the adults (nice!), and some "special guests" arrived via police escort. James had fun filling his bag with pumpkins and enjoyed the company of some of his new friends from school. Mommy had fun with some of her new mommy friends too. Added fun-- we walked through the woods to get there, and stopped by a garage sale on the way home. Croquet set (minus one mallet) for five bucks!
We played a quick round after wheeling it home across the street.

James sang me a song during acorn making. It was "Your Personal Penguin" from the Sandra Boynton book, except he changed it to, "I want to be your personal Jamesy," instead. Too cute.

Oh- this morning, John had cut his foot on a random shard of glass (yes, I'll be accepting my Mother-of-the-Year award later). Dan and I cleaned it up, but later in the morning James randomly said to me, "Today is the saddest day ever." When I asked why, he said it was because John got hurt. Sweet big bro.

John and I just finished sweeping and mopping the kitchen (which should now be shard-free). John rode on my back in the Beco. Thanks, Aunt Ali! So comfy for Mommy, and he seemed quite happy as well. Should have made the switch to the back sooner!

James just geared up (goggles and ear protection) to "assist" Daddy with leaf blowing. On the way out he said, "Mommy, when Daddy's done blowing the leaves, let's play croquet. It's my favorite game."

Fall Treats

James and I just finished making a bunch of acorns. Some will be going with me (and Dan) to a progressive dinner tonight (along with some giant chocolate chip cookies). The rest are bound for coffee hour at church tomorrow (accompanied by snicker doodle cookies).
James made a little instructional video which I will try to upload soon! For now, here are some pics.

Big Guys

James has been back into Lego play as of late. (btw, we've enacted a way to deal with Legos-- put out a thin blanket, dump out the Legos onto it and spread them out, pull up the blanket by the corners to gather Legos and dump into bin when finished playing)
Today he's playing an elaborate pretend story about firefighters.

Meanwhile, John is into standing up. He likes to take a lap of the crib when he wakes up (even at 2:30AM, sigh), and is beginning to cruise from ottoman to couch to play table to chair (to floor), etc. in the family room. I also think I may have spotted a white tooth pushing in his lower gums. Aack!! My baby is growing up!!

Portrait

James asked me today, "Does John have a circle belly or a square belly?"

I replied that I thought he had a circle belly.

A bit later, James came over and said, "Look at my picture of John!"

Belly Up

John just crawled with his belly off the ground!!

Exhibit A

John is wearing some non-footie one-piece jammies tonight which are size 9 months. Note the knicker effect:

Eight Months!

As of Saturday, Baby John is 2/3 of a year old! And he's really growing up.

He has been working hard on getting into and out of the seated position. It's so cute to see him prop himself up with his chubby little arm. He can totally sit up all on his own. Sometimes he'll tip over, but all those months of doing "baby crunches" have paid off, for he simply tucks his chin to his chest as he topples. Thus he doesn't bang his head!

Another recent development is that he's starting to pull himself up. I walked into his room one recent evening to find him kneeling (in his sleep sack) at the side of the crib, clutching the rails, and gumming the top rail. Extremely cute, but also a sign that we need to lower the mattress to its lowest setting now.

Here he's rocking...

Standing Up!

Speaking of the crib, John is a mobile sleeper. He usually rolls onto his tummy now to sleep (like, immediately. I put him in on his back, he rolls right over to his side or tummy). Often he'll bang his head on the rails scooting about in his sleep. And he's never where I left him or last saw him (thankful our monitor can pan!).

John hasn't started crawling with his belly up off the floor just yet. However, he creeps quite quickly, often relying on just his upper body and left leg for power. He can get into the all-fours crawling stance and rock back and forth (as if gaining momentum), but then he ends up with his belly back on the ground when he takes off.

Eating is going quite well. He usually eats fruit and cereal for breakfast, fruit and/or veggies for lunch, and the. Veggies and cereal for dinner. He's had apples, bananas, pears, avocado, mango, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, zucchini, and peas.
He's also tried teething biscuits with varying degrees of success (but always with pleasure).

Sleep is going well (knock on wood!). Normally he only nurses once or twice (or sometimes not at all!) in the night. We do have the occasional night of nursing in the chair all night (which may be as much from Mommy falling asleep there as from him wanting/needing it). The past few nights he's woken up around eleven but has gone back to sleep after Daddy soothes him. Nice! Napping is hit or miss at times because of being the second child and subject to James's schedule...

John continues to be super happy. He smiles at everybody! It's fun. His best buddy at church is the dad of three older kids (2nd, 4th, and 6th graders). John just loooooves him and practically leaps into his arms.

I've been trying to be consistent in signing to him, and Dan and I both think we've seen him sign for "milk"! He also seems to say "maMa!" when he wants me/milk. This morning I heard "dada" for the first time, but wasn't sure if it was in context or not.

Speaking of context, John's favorite books seem to be Dear Zoo; Snuggle Puppy; and Happy Birthday, Little Pookie. He tries to operate the flaps in Dear Zoo! And he smiles at Pookie and the puppy. So sweet! There are days, though, when he's too sleepy for books, and will listen to one, but then push it away and doesn't want any more.

Apart from listening to books, one of John's favorite pastimes is playing peekaboo. He laughs and laughs and seems to most enjoy playing it with James. He also enjoys time with peers. Recently he has had a few opportunities to hang out with the neighbor girls (who are just a few months older), and he smiles and laughs with them. He gets super excited. Very cute. At te playground, he's no longer just a passive observer-- he loves the swings!

John also likes to "dance" by bouncing enthusiastically to music. And making his own music-- much like his big brother, John likes playing the keyboard.

Perhaps his most favorite activity of all is bathing!! He splashes SO much and laughs and smiles. He also sits upright in his little tub instead of leaning back. Such a big boy!

No teeth yet, which is fine by me. I'm in no rush to say goodbye to that sweet gummy smile. John weighs over twenty pounds already (!), and seems tall. Footed PJs only are long enough if they're 12mo. or bigger. He's in mostly 9 mo. or 12 mo. clothes; 6 mo. clothes are all too little (and 9 mo pants are getting rather short). We'll be switching carseats soon for certain!

BREAKING NEWS: John just pulled himself to standing at the ottoman! Completely on his own!