Our Kind of Halloween

We're not really Halloween people. We'd totally be cool with the idea of the "holiday" completely being wiped off the planet. Remember last year when we were thrilled to discover that Chinese people don't celebrate Halloween. yeah, that was awesome. 

However, this year we find ourselves surrounded by halloweenies. I've never seen so many people get into this crazy day. Houses up the street have those giant inflatable frankenstein's. 4 of them. I'm not kidding. In one lawn. 

So it shouldn't surprise you that we don't do anything to celebrate. BUT, yesterday we were invited to a local church's Harvest festival thing. It was so much fun! Free admission. Free food. Fun toys for Eden. Fun toys for Brandon. Cotton candy for me. All in all...it was great!

Eden didn't quite understand the giant inflatable thingys. That is, until other kids got in there with her and then she was thrilled to run around knocking other kids down. That's my girl.

She LOVED all the cool toys!

And Brandon loved this toy
They had a little area set up for family pictures. Ahhh....how cute.

So it shouldn't surprise you that since we're not very into Halloween, we're also not very into Halloween costumes. It didn't even cross my mind this year to find a costume for Eden. I'm hoping she'll be one of those kids that thinks she's too cool for costumes. Is that bad?

Anyways, after discovering she was literally one of THE ONLY kids at the Harvest Thingy not in a costume, I officially felt like a failure of a parent. Well, ok, not that bad. But maybe I felt like I wasn't doing my duty of making sure she's raised with all the official rights of passage. So today while rummaging through her trunk of grow-into clothes for a winter coat (it was sooo cold today!!) I came across something that could possibly pass as this year's Halloween costume:

Ignoring the bright pink hat that clashes with her "Halloween Costume," all in all...I think it works! :)  It was a gift to her from one of our sweet friends in the Big Chicken and I'm so glad she had a good excuse to wear it today! It was a little tight in her hind end area because it's actually meant to be "split" (ie...the split pant theory...you can ask me later if you're a little behind on the blog). 

So this year for Halloween, Eden is dressing up like one of her long lost BFFs in China.

Eden is Groovy

One of Eden's new favorite things is pushing the radio button on Brandon's fancy shmancy alarm clock. We keep it tuned into the 80's rock station just for these occasions. And yes, that is my hairbrush she's dancing with. :)

Happy Birthday Eden!

Please don't label me as the worst blog-mother ever...I promise I meant to do this a few days ago. But yes, I'm just now getting around to posting a few pics of Eden and her awesomeness on her birthday!

She had a pretty good birthday too! Except for the coughing up of phlem and the occasional booger that escaped her runny nose, all in all it was a great day!!  She's been sick for about a week now and had us pretty worried last night with a 103 fever, but she's currently snoring on Brandon's chest so I think she's ok!

We took some new photos for her birthday...

Here's one at her party with Brandon's balloon animals

She's officially a walker and has been at it for about a week now! She's decided she's too good for baby food and will only eat items (yes rocks too) that she can feed herself. She loves carrying around her new baby doll that she got for her birthday. Her new favorite word is "shoes!" She loves blowing kisses. And she has a strong affinity for 80's music...to which she goes crazy and screams while she dances. (but who doesn't!) a video coming soon!

Meet Chris

2 Posts in one day!? I know. I'm such an overachiever. (scroll down to see this morning's post)

We woke up to a cool, rainy, dreary day. It was nice to have an excuse to just stay inside. Clean. Do laundry. Play. And just all out chill. But apparently when you have an almost one year old...that's tough. So we bundled up and headed the door.

And we saw Chris:

Yes this is Chris from our regular feature "Musings from Chris." He's the inspiration. And as you can see...he is quite that.

Chris is 5. 

Chris is our neighbor.

Chris is a talker.

Chris is a random story teller.

It really wasn't that cold outside. But you know, when you're 5 and have the excuse to wear a ski mask, why not?

Today's musing from Chris goes like this:

Chris: "hey, do you have a grandmother?"

Me: "Sure do. She's in Texas. I miss her a lot."

Chris: "I have two. Nana and Granny. Nana has a pool in her backyard and Granny has a freezer full of ice cream!"

Me (chuckling at the randomness of his stories): "That's awesome! I bet you love to go and visit both of them then!"

Chris: "yeah. But wouldn't it be cooler if I could do both at the same time? have a pool full of ice cream!"

Me (trying not to fall down in hysterical laughter at this point): "That would be great! What flavor would you choose?"

Chris: "Banana shake!! But, really. It wouldn't matter!"

And that, folks, is our neighbor Chris.

The only thing to fear is...nursery workers.

Maybe its the mass hysteria that is innately all church nurseries.

Maybe its the fact that ALL the other babies are crying too. (at first)

Maybe its the fact that Eden is growing increasingly clingy.

Maybe it's because she has to wear a paper diaper instead of a soft fluffy cloth diaper.

Or maybe it's a nasty conglomerate of all of those.

Whatever it is...Eden absolutely hates the church nursery. She cries as soon as we enter the building because she knows of the impending tortuous doom she must face of playing with other babies her own age with new toys and non-stop excitement and music! All of which she loves on any other occasion than Sunday morning.

And I have no answers. 

So the last few Sundays Brandon and I are taking turns making best friends with the nursery workers while the other of us gets to enjoy the service. If we even attempt to leave her for a few minutes we are summoned back only to hear the screams of fear of our only child as she reaches her arms out to us to rescue her from this incredibly terrifying situation of friendly babies and new flashy toys.

So then our presence in the room brings Eden enough peace that she once again feels comfortable rough-housing with the boys, taking snacks from other children, nabbing pacifiers, and running over toes with her walking toy.

And every Sunday we repeat the process.

Enter church. Scream. Fill out paper work. Hand her over. Scream. Walk away from the screams of our child. Sit in Sunday School for 15 minutes barely able to focus because we wonder how she's doing. Summoned back to nursery. She plays for 20 minutes while one of us gets more acquainted with the nursery worker. Escape to hear one or two songs in the service. #564 is flashed up on the big screen summoning us back to the nursery. (we're becoming all too familiar with this number). Play in the nursery for 20 more minutes. Wave bye bye to everyone as they look at Eden's puffy, red, teary eyes and say, "ahhh...poor baby. Maybe next week."

hmmmm. maybe.

Anyway.........

She's making awesome strides in other areas of life. As her first birthday quickly approaches she's beginning to walk all over the house. Just 4 or 5 steps at a time before she gets fed up with it and realizes she could crawl there faster. And she's decided that morning naps are for sissies because she doesn't like those anymore. Which means I'm quickly adjusting to taking showers no longer than a Sesame Street podcast. And she's taking after her daddy, loving anything sour and tart. ie Minute Maid Cherry Lime popsicles. Aren't we awesome parents? Although she makes up for it with green beans, which I'm convinced she'd eat even while sleeping. She LOVES her some green beans.

That's the news from Eden-land...where her BonBon and Pops will soon be visiting for her first birthday. We're excited about their arrival tomorrow!!

Wonderful Little White Box

This is our new best friend:

Just in case you can't tell what that is...it's an Apple Time Capsule. We bought it when we ordered our MacBook and can I just tell you all about it's awesomeness?

I wasn't so into the purchase...I mean, it's a lot of money. But after Brandon's tireless efforts of convincing me that we needed this product, he won me over.  And now I could kiss the man. Well, I did.

Not only is this machine our external hard drive which automatically backs up our computer every time we do anything on it.

But it's our wireless router (and wireless printer access)

Our firewall.

AND

Our time capsule...which enables our computer to literally jump back in time and retrieve any priceless data we might have accidentally deleted. Like say, oh, our newest purchase of PhotoShop CS3. Somehow in the installation of this new software we deleted one of the main components needed for running this program effectively. And even after removing the program and trying to re-install...still no success.

But then we remembered our trusty, not-so-rusty, Time Capsule that jumped back in time and remembered upon command that we installed this missing component of CS3. And with the wave of a wand (or a mouse click) BAMMO! Adobe Bridge of CS3 was back on our dock lickity split. 

That one instance alone has made the purchase of this blessed Time Capsule completely worth it. 

May I suggest you look into getting yourself one?

Yes I may.

Wordle

As if I don't have a million other things I could be doing...I wasted a bunch of time this evening creating a wordle! I totally ganked the idea from Melissa Jill, but it was too cool to pass up. It's a collage made up of our blog...or all the words we use on our blog anyway. How fun is that? Apparently I, like, use the word "like" as much as Eden? That's not good. Have fun creating your own! :)