Halloween excitement

This is Morry again. I didn't write last week because we were in Chicago and now I'm filling in on a big day - Halloween.

I worked from home today because there was a Halloween parade at Evan's school today. I wanted to see him march. When Rachel brought him downstairs after he woke up, he seemed to already have a ton of energy. He was all dressed in his Buzz Lightyear costume. He seemed excited, however, to see that I was home and insisted on sitting on my lap while I show him trailers from Wall-E on my work computer.

Before the parade, Rachel took Evan and Noah to a retirement home to show off the kids in their costumes. A mother in the Circle C Mom's group set it up and a bunch of mom's and their kids went over there.

After that, I met Rachel and the boys at school for the parade. We were a little late so the parade was winding down when we started in there. Then we saw Evan's teacher so we followed her and the MWF kids to their classroom and then went outside with everyone. The teacher and parents were lining the kids up along a fence to take their picture. One of the boys was dressed as Woody and Evan got very excited, so he went over to the boy and faced him - and just stared. We kept trying to get Evan to turn around and move over so pictures could be taken but he didn't want to. He ended up running into the teachers arms and she picked him up. It's nice that he likes his teacher so much.

Next, I took Evan to the vet to pick up Mottel's medicine. For those of you who don't know, Mottel is on Prozac. Real Prozac. So once a month I have to go get medicine for him from the vet. When we went into the office, the women working there were so excited to see Evan all dressed up. The vet office has a fish tank in there. Evan ran over to the tank and very very loudly said "Look! It's a fish tank. Look at all those fish. There are a lot of fish in there!" Everyone thought Evan was just so cute.

Evan was incredibly hyper all day long. He knew today was Halloween and he was going to get candy. Amazingly, he took a nap though. But just before his nap, I told him when he woke up, we'd have dinner and then go trick-or-treating. He screamed "Yeah!". Well, he obviously remembered when he got up because he was running around, talking about candy when he woke up. He saw the bowl of candy that we had gotten ready to put on our front porch while we went out and he wanted some of that candy. He went through the whole bowl. Then he started taking candy out of the bowl and putting it in his Elmo "pumpkin". We told him that he had to go get candy from other houses, not ours.

We ordered pizza for dinner and got Evan his own kid's size black olive pizza. He prefers black olive pizza to just cheese pizza. I'm telling you, this has a larger palette than I do.

We feed Noah before we eat but then give him puffs while we eat. He loves them, although he's not so great, quite yet, at getting all of them in his mouth. When I pulled him out of his high chair, there were puffs all in his lap and in the high chair.

So, finally, we went trick-or-treating. Evan just loved it. We initially started with Sebastian, the little boy who is Evan's age who lives behind us. Sebastian was also dressed as Buzz Lightyear. But Sebastian, does not walk as fast as Evan. Evan didn't want to wait for Sebastian - he was in a rhythm and wanted to hit all the houses. He was asking for candy in between houses and ended up eating some M&Ms. Sebastian didn't make it that long and ended up going home. We had to run home for a little bit because Evan pooped and we had to change him.

After the pit stop, Evan insisted on eating a Tootsie Pop. He held on to it the rest of the way, including after Noah and I went home. When Evan and Rachel finally got back, Evan threw out what was left of the Tootsie Pop and asked for another lollipop. I didn't realize he had done this so I gave him another lollipop. About 2 minutes later, he came up and asked for another lollipop. I asked him what had happened to the one he was eating. He told me he threw it out. I looked in the trash can and there were the last two lollipops. I told him, that you have to finish eating them and can't just throw them out to get a new lollipop.

Just before we took them up to bed, two older boys, maybe around ages 10 or 11. We were outside on the porch and Evan was still in his costume. The first boy said to Evan, "Hey Buzz" and patted Evan on the shoulder. I thought Evan was going to burst with joy. He LOVES hanging out with older kids. He wants to be one of them. And when this kid acknowledged him like that, he was ecstatic. Then the next boy said "Hey Buzz. Come in Star Command." Evan was beaming. He was so happy. He followed the kids away from the house, yelling goodbye to them.

Now, the boys are in bed, and Rachel and I are exhausted. Until next time...

Marshmallows

I drove Evan to school today and then Noah and I went to HEB to do a little grocery shopping. We needed a few things including a little more Halloween candy.

After HEB I did some cleaning around the house and laundry. I usually try to do laundry and light cleaning (vacuum, mop, straighten up) on Thursdays.

I walked to Evan’s school to pick him up. When I got there all the kids were sitting on the floor and they were doing “Going on a Bear Hunt”. Evan was following along and sitting nicely on the floor with the other kids until he saw me. Evan was excited to see Noah and me. We walked home and I put the boys down for a nap.

While they were napping I talked to Leah on the phone. I called to thank her for some gifts she sent us. One was a truck book that Evan has asked us to read over and over. We only got it a few days ago, but he already knows the book so well that we can leave out words and he’ll fill them in.

For dinner we had already cooked rotisserie chicken and matzoh ball soup. After dinner I made rice crispy treats. While they were cooling Evan enjoyed the little marshmallows. We let him have a couple. I think that was his first time eating a marshmallow. Evan said it was “kinda squishy”.

Halloween Party

This morning we woke up to dog barking like usual. We met Yenis and Kevin at the park near their house. Kevin and Evan had a great time playing together. They enjoyed rolling down the hill and chasing each other. Noah enjoyed sitting in the grass and watching. At one point he put a small leaf in his mouth and I had to fish it out. Noah’s getting better at putting small things in his mouth. I really need to watch him now.

Evan didn’t eat very much for lunch. All he ate was tortilla, goldfish, and strawberries.

After naps we went to the Circle C MOMs club Halloween party. We got there about an hour late since Evan and Noah were still napping. There were tons of little kids in costumes running around the backyard. Evan liked seeing all the costumes. There were 2 other Buzz Lightyears. Evan saw a kid in a fireman costume and went up to him and just stared at the kid without saying anything. We stayed at the party for about an hour and then came home.

Morry made chicken and rice for dinner. Again, Evan didn’t eat much. I don’t know why he hasn’t wanted to eat today.

Noah is very close to crawling. He pushed himself up on all fours but didn’t move at all. I think it won't be long until he is able to crawl. We'll see.

Noah had a little bit of cupcake and got some icing on his lips

Brrrrr

It got cold here. The weather man said it got close to freezing here last night. This morning around 9 the temperature was 42 degrees. I still walked Evan to school. It was cold, but at least it was sunny. I bundled the boys in jackets and blankets, and by the time we got to school they didn’t need the blankets anymore.

While Evan was at school I just got stuff done around the house. Noah and I didn’t go anywhere. I fed Noah his usually lunch of cereal. I also gave him some Gerber puffs (little finger food cereal). He’s starting to get better at getting foods to his mouth. He seems to like those little puffs, even though not all of them make it to his mouth.

When I went to pick up Evan at school he was in the corner near the books lying on a pillow and covered with a blanket. He was smiling at me and said, “I tucked myself.” Wendy thought that was funny. He went over to the corner on his own, got the blanket and pillow, and tucked himself in. He must have been pretty tired.

When we got home I tried to put the boys down for a nap. Neither one wanted to sleep. I finally got Noah to sleep around 2:30. When Blanca came at 3 Evan was still up. Through the monitor we heard him say, “I want Blanca.” He must have heard her come in. Evan ended up not napping at all. Noah slept for almost 2 hours.

I got home from tutoring at 7. Morry had made ribs for us. We ate dinner and then put Evan and Noah to bed. Evan scratched his Toy Story CD, so we had to put the Raffi CD on instead. He cried some, but now it sounds like he is asleep. Noah doesn’t seem to mind what he listens to. Right now he has a swing music CD in his player.

Carrots in the nose

So, first I’ll tell you about our day so far and then I’ll summarize our Chicago trip.

Evan and Noah slept well last night and this morning. Evan woke up around 9 and Noah slept until 10. I was so glad. They really needed the sleep.

We went for a walk this morning and then played in the backyard. Our neighbors behind us fixed the fence so that Simon (their dog) can’t come into our yard anymore. Simon is a sweet dog and a good playmate for Lizzy, but it was almost impossible to be outside with him and both boys. He’s not used to kids and doesn’t realize his power. He also chews up Evan’s toys so if Simon is out there we can’t have any toys in the yard. Anyway, it was a great having our backyard back. Evan played on his swing set and with his golf course while Noah watched from the grass.

Then, we came in for lunch. I gave Evan Spiderman mac and cheese and some cut up veggies (frozen veggies). I was busy cleaning Noah up from his lunch and then getting his diaper changed when Evan tells me he has carrots in his nose. I run over and sure enough there are 2 little carrot cubes in his nose. I yelled at Evan and told him to never put anything in his nose. I was able to get one out by gently pressing down and out on the outside of his nose. The other one on the other side was further up. Evan was crying hard at this point because I had yelled at him. I called Morry and as I was on the phone with Morry the other carrot had moved down some and I was able to get it out. I asked Evan if there were any more carrots and he said, “no, just boogers.” I still called our nurse’s line. The nurse said to make sure there weren’t any others by using a flashlight. I didn’t see any others. I can’t believe he did that.

Now, back to Chicago. We left our house around 10am on Friday for what we thought was a 12:15pm flight. We had to wait forever to check in at the airport. There were only 2 people working there and the same 2 groups of people had been up at the counters forever. They finally opened up another counter and we moved though the line quickly after that. We noticed our flight had been changed to a 12:00 departure. Security was a pain. It was tough getting all of our shoes off, the DVD player out, and the stroller though, but the security employees were very nice and even helped bring our stuff over to a bench for us. It was now 11:30. When we finally got to our gate they were just starting to board. At least we didn’t have to wait long at the gate.

We arrived in Chicago around 2:30 and my parents met us near baggage claim with the rented van. Papa/Dad/Lenny and Morry drove somewhere else to put in the car seats and then came back to pick us up. It was nice having a van. It was easy to get in an out and put the boys in the car seats.

We hung out a little in the hotel and then put the boys down for naps. We had to wake up them up to go to the dinner at the synagogue. There was a service before the dinner, but we didn’t make it there in time.

Saturday morning was Jake’s Bar Mitzvah. The service started at 8:50, but they said not to get there until 10 or later. We came around 10:30. Evan and Noah sat for a little of the service and then we took them out and walked around the synagogue. They had a tot Shabbat, but it was too structured. Our boys don’t like structure. :)

They had a nice seated lunch after the service. Evan had a good time running around with the older boys. He was not shy at all. He’s just run up to them and try to join in on the fun.

At the hotel we tried to get Evan and Noah to take naps, but only Noah ended up napping. Morry walked Evan around the hotel. They hung out in parent’s room for a while and saw some other family. Evan loves Uncle Jay. When he saw him in the hallway he ran up to him and wanted Uncle Jay to carry him. We hung out with Ari, Suzanne, and Ava later in the afternoon. Ava had these little cars and buses that Evan loved playing with.

At night they had a casual dinner in the hotel lobby. When we got there the first thing Evan did was run up to Ari and ask to play with the cars again.

The next morning, Dina and Trevor had a brunch at their house. It was a very nice house, but Evan especially loved their basement. Their basement was filled with toys. Evan was down there pretty much the whole time. Evan had a great time with Jake. He really looked up to him and wanted to do everything with him. Jake walked with us to the park near the house. On the way there Evan says, “Look Jake. A fire hydrant.” At one point, Evan didn’t know what else to show or tell him, so he says, “Look Jake. My fingernail.”

Our flight was supposed to be at 5:45, but luckily we checked before we left the hotel. They changed our flight to 5:10. I’m surprised they changed both of our flights and never notified us.

Our flight back ended up being delayed 30 minutes or so. But that was fine. It gave us time to eat dinner (McDonalds). That was only the second time Evan has had McDonalds. We didn’t have many options. We needed something fast and something Evan would likely eat. He didn’t eat very well over the weekend.

We got back around 9:30 last night.

Overall, we had a nice time. It was just kind of tough making such a short trip. We wished we could have stayed a little longer and been able to do some sightseeing as well. Evan saw a commuter train and was very excited. It would have been fun to be able to take him on a train downtown.

To see most of our pictures from the trip click here http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelkbelkin/Chicago?authkey=5mVkLuUM4Lc#

Back from Chicago

We are back now from Chicago. We left on Friday and got back tonight around 9:30pm. We had a nice time. I'll write more tomorrow with details of our trip. We still need to unpack and get the boys to sleep. They are in their rooms, but not asleep yet.

More tomorrow....

Busy Thursday

We had a busy day. Morry worked from home today and took Evan to school as well as picked him up. When Morry dropped Evan off, Wendy (the teacher) told Morry that Evan doesn’t like art, he gets bored with it. He doesn’t like to get his hands messy when he’s doing art. So, Evan came home with an art project today. It looked like a cutout of an acorn, but he had only drawn 3 lines on it.

I took Noah with me to my doctor for my check up. Then, we went to Linens N Things. The one near us is going out of business and they advertised big sales. I went in there and was pretty disappointed. Most things were only marked down 10%. You could see where items had been marked as clearance and they blacked it out and went back to the original price. They wouldn’t even take their store coupons.

This afternoon I had a hair appointment. I made it at 2:15, the time the boys usually nap. I helped put the boys down for their nap before I left and Morry was able to work most of the time.

For dinner we just had our leftovers from last night along with some pasta.

Cranky Day

So, last night was pretty rough. Noah didn’t sleep well. He got a little cold and it was keeping him up. Evan must have heard Noah crying. So, Evan didn’t sleep well either. Both boys were up for the day around 7am.

This morning Evan helped me make pumpkin muffins (http://www.recipezaar.com/6957 ) I also made beer bread (http://www.recipezaar.com/35390 ) since I had all the baking stuff out anyway. I was trying to find a bread recipe and then saw one that used beer. I thought that was great. We have a bunch of beer left over in the fridge from my birthday party in July. We never drink beer so it is a great way to use it up. For the beer bread I used whole wheat flour instead and also added some flax seed meal as one person suggested on the site. Both things were good. Evan liked the muffins so much that he had almost 3 for lunch and another one for dinner. We had the beer bread with dinner tonight and Morry said he liked it too. Morry saw a recipe he thought looked good in the Penzey’s magazine so we tried it out tonight. It was a cracker coated baked fish, but we used chicken instead. That was good also. So, we had a successful day food wise.

Both Evan and Noah were pretty cranky today. It made for a tough day. Noah would cry every time I had to set him down. I was able to make the bread and muffins because he slept in his swing for a little bit.

Walked to school

I walked the boys to Evan’s school this morning. It’s about 2 miles and took about 30 minutes each way. It was such a nice day out and good excuse for exercise.

While Evan was at school I cleaned out the pantry. What fun. We kept getting these little bugs in everything like our flour and cereal. Those bugs have even gotten through Ziploc bags and unopened packages of flour. I hope cleaning out the pantry will help.

Evan had a good day at school though he didn’t eat much of his lunch. When we got home he sat at his little red table, opened his lunch bag himself, and ate more of his lunch.

Both Evan and Noah took a good nap. While they were napping Blanca came over and I left to go tutor. I had 3 students this afternoon and got home around 7.

Morry made pizza for dinner. Morry bought a big box of like 30 dough balls at Sams Club a while ago and we are slowly getting through them. If you have any ideas of other ways to use dough balls let me know. I was thinking I would try a dessert pizza some time.

So, I love those pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and found a recipe for a pumpkin coffee drink. I tried it out today and was not very good. I still feel like I have that taste in my mouth. Basically the recipe has you mix coffee, evaporated milk, pumpkin, and sugar. Maybe it was the taste of the evaporated milk I didn’t like?

Evan and Noah are in bed now quiet, but Evan is at his gate at the door.. Pretty much every night before we go to bed, Morry moves Evan back to his bed.

I voted

Today I took the boys to early voting. We only had to wait in line about 5 to 10 minutes. I asked Evan where he wanted to go after. I gave him a choice of the park or bookstore. He chose the bookstore. He loves to go to Barnes and Noble and play with the train table. It’s nice because it gives me a chance to sit down and order a cup of coffee. Noah enjoyed sitting by the trains and playing with the toys.

Neither Evan nor Noah took a nap today. I tried, but for some reason they wouldn’t nap. I finally got Noah to sleep. He was asleep for a few minutes, but then the neighbor’s dog started barking and woke him up.

Evan, Noah, and I played in the front yard this afternoon. Evan rode his bike and we walked down to the end of the cul-de-sac to look at all the Halloween decorations. We walked back and got popsicles to eat outside. Evan loved it, of course. I gave Noah a little of mine. He kept trying to reach for more. He looked so cute with the red popsicle juice all over his lips. Morry came home while we were outside and we played a little longer.

We made pasta tonight. We needed a quick dinner since I was going to tutor. I left the house at 7 and got back a little before 9.

Noah is now 7 months old. Hard to believe.

Another Sunday

Noah slept until 10am this morning. He’s been sleeping really well lately. He was getting up about once or twice a night and we’d have to go in and give him his pacifier. Now he usually makes it through the night without needed us. Let’s hope this continues.

We were trying to decide what to do this morning, but since we didn’t have much time (the Steelers game was on at 12) we decided to take a walk in the neighborhood. We walked to the elementary school and Evan played on the playground for a little while.

I made scrambled eggs for brunch. Morry ate his in front of the TV. Evan and I ate outside on the upstairs patio. Evan loves to eat outside.

I took Evan to TJ Maxx. He needed a few more long sleeved shirts. The ones we had were a little too big on him. I wanted to just go somewhere cheap and quick.

After naps we went to HEB. We put both Evan and Noah in the cart. Evan always likes to eat something while we are there so I gave him a plum. He ate about half of it and left it in front of the cart. We were in the meat section looking at something and when I looked back at the boys Noah was eating the plum! He had grabbed it and was sucking on it.

So, we think Noah is getting another tooth. He’s been cranky today and we feel a little bump on the top of his mouth.

So, as I’m writing this I hear Morry cracking up. He says I have to come see this video on the internet. Here it is… pretty funny….http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=3710199&l=4418225

A day of orange

This is Morry and I'm back for my weekly posting. A few people noted my dog rant last week and commented that they could actually hear me saying that. I'm glad my true voice comes through. As an update on the dog situation, we have contacted our HOA about the dog. Apparently it's illegal to have a dog barking like that, although, I don't think we're ready to get the police involved yet. If you didn't notice yesterday, there's a video at the bottom of this page showing the dog.

Oh, one other thing before we get to the good stuff, every posting allows for comments. You have to create an account, but that should take a few moments. We love when people leave comments, it lets us know who's reading the blog and who's enjoying it. Feel free to leave comments about your favorite posts.

So today was my day to deal with the boys and let Rachel sleep. Evan kept making us watch some free Fisher-Price DVD called Planet Heroes over and over. We watched it 3 or 4 times in a row.

I dressed both boys in Texas Longhorn gear today. Tonight is a big game for UT as they are #1 during the regular season for the first time in many years. They're playing Missouri, who, until last week, was ranked #3 in the country. I figured the boys should show their burnt orange colors. Tomorrow is the Steelers game and I'm make sure they are decked out in the best colors - black and gold.

After breakfast, we took the boys to a Pumpkin Patch at a church off of S. Congress. That area is a really neat area. Matt, Alissa, Ben and Molly came and met us there. Evan picked out a tiny pumpkin which he carried around and a small pumpkin for the house. Rachel gave Evan the money to pay for the pumpkins so he was happy. At the bottom of this post you can see some pictures of this. Two years ago, when Evan was Noah's age, Rachel came here with some other mothers and their kids. We have similar pictures of Evan at the Pumpkin Patch, including one that's been sitting on our mantle ever since.

From the Pumpkin Patch, we walked a block down to our favorite pizza place in Austin, Home Slice. It's a New York-style pizza place. It's really great. We sat outside in the back. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Evan kept going over to Molly to hug her.

Now, we're back home and everyone is napping except for me. I need to get ready shortly, to go to the Texas game. We have season tickets this year. I'm excited to go as the only other two games I've gone to have been blowouts. I'm looking forward to a well-played football game.

Last night, we went out to dinner. As we were pulling into the parking space, a guy was getting out of the car next to us. Evan said "What is THAT guy doing?" He obviously picked that phrase up from Rachel or me. He said it in a tone of voice that was definitely us. It was very funny. At dinner, Rachel gave Noah her napkin. He wanted to play peek-a-boo. He held the napkin in front of his own face, and when we'd say "where's Noah?", he'd pull it down and smile and giggle. It was so much fun. I remember how much fun this was when Evan started doing it and I'm excited to be at that stage again. Noah really is developing a wonderful personality.

Until next time...

Evan rides his bike, Noah watches

We didn’t do much today. I took the boys in the front yard so Evan could ride his bike. He hasn’t ridden in a while and I thought since the weather was nice, today was a good day to teach him how to use the pedals. I took some video of Evan riding his tricycle on the sidewalk. He was really starting to understand how to use the pedals, but his steering still needs some work.

Of course the neighbor’s dog was barking this morning. I just put the boys down for a nap and the dumb dog started barking again. I actually took video so you can see/hear how annoying this dog is. It is still barking and now Noah started making noise. I tried yelling at the dog, but it won’t stop barking. I’m tired of it waking the boys up all the time.

Yesterday Evan brought home some of his art. He decorated a bat. Below is a picture. He told Morry he made footballs on the bat. Evan’s getting good at making circles. It looks like he even tried to give the bat some eyes, or maybe that’s just a coincidence of where the circles happen to be?

Evan wouln't let me get a picture of him