We had some friends over on Saturday for a toddler Halloween party and had a blast! Parties are so different these days, and in some ways, more wild than they were in college.
We had lots of great food - and several things that were Halloween inspired!
First, pumpkin straws for the kiddos:
Ritz cracker spiders:
Spider web Nachos that Kelli made:
Mummy dogs - they were supposed to have eyes made out of mustard, but we didn't want to use that. I tried ketchup, but it was too hard and the kids were hungry - so they eyeless mummies.
And mummy cupcakes that Laura brought!
We did a craft of sticker pumpkin decorating
Luke loved this craft so much and has made about 6 of them since then.
Everyone's final masterpiece
Before we ate, we tried to get a group shot. It actually went better at this get-together than it usually does. I think it's because we've gotten smarter - we give all of the kids crackers (or candy) and it keeps them happy. Well, maybe not happy enough to get them all to grin - but it keeps them sitting.
Elliott (puppy), Rowan (was an elephant, but here in a cute Charlie Brown pumpkin shirt), Andrew (puppy - and older brother of the smaller puppy), Luke (dinosaur!), Sammy (train conductor), Quinn (little ducky), and Tyson (farmer and older brother of the ducky.)
Time to eat!
Then more playing ...
Luke and Rowan cheezing it up for the camera
Intrigued by piano music ...
A few videos on what a toddler party looks like:
What our living room looked like by the end of the party
And lastly, we got out the bumbo chair for one of the little bitties, and Luke decided that he wanted to sit in it. He kept pointing at it and saying baby, and then decided he was the baby.
We took Luke trick or treating tonight and he had a blast!
He was pretty shy at first, but he would occasionally tell you that a dinosaur says rawr and also say trick or treat.
After going around in my mom's neighborhood to a few houses, we stopped over on Anne and Kyle's street for the famous annual hotdog giveaway. :) Luke tried to pick up a 327lb pumpkin while we were there.
Luke was running around yesterday in overalls, with his hair sticking up in the back, and being a little mischievous. He reminded us of someone and we finally figured it out - maybe he should have gone as Dennis the Menace for Halloween?
Luke loves his dinosaur costume! The first time we put it on him he stood in front of the mirror and just grinned and pointed and said rawr. So adorable!
When we were down in Bloomington last weekend we went to a fun little place called Freeman Farms. Luke got to pick out another pumpkin, and he got to pet and feed several animals!
Luke loves pumpkins, so we had 3 main ones this year. A Mr. Potato Head one, one decorated in stickers (we actually have about 5 of those - it was a great toddler activity), and a Nemo pumpkin!
Age: 20 months - I apologize now for the length of this post :)
Weight: 30 lbs. Length: Taller than 34"
Size: Size 5 diapers, and mostly in 18-24 months clothes
Hair: Just had another haircut, but style is still the same. That is, unless Jason styles it - then it looks like this:
Teeth: 16 teeth - the 2 year molars are the only ones left
Sleeping: 7:30pm -7:15am. Unless it's the weekend - then he's been giving us the wonderful gift of sleeping in. He has made made it until 9am a few morning!
Eating: He continues to be an awful eater, unless it’s crackers, peanut butter, mac & cheese, cereal, pancakes, yogurt, applesauce, or granola. No matter how much we try he just will not eat actual fruit, vegetables – or really anything that we’re having for dinner. I have recently discovered baby food in pouches though. They make these great apple sauce things in pouches that are great on the go that he loves. When I saw the mixed fruit and veggie baby food in pouches, I thought we’d give them a try. It seems a little strange to me that my 20 month old is eating baby food again, but at least it gets some veggies in him while we were on the actual vegetables. It took a huge stress off my shoulders just knowing that. He also gets a Flinestone vitamin after dinner every night.
Movement: When is he not moving? He wants so badly to go up and down the stairs like a big kid. He gets frustrated easily and will just give up and then not even want to crawl up them. I don’t know how many nights he’s stood there with his arms reached up wanting mommy to carry him up the stairs.
Talking: I’m not even going to try and count the amount of words that he says. He’ll repeat so many things, and even though other people may not be able to understand him, Jason and I can have a whole conversation with him.
He can repeat almost the entire alphabet, and recognizes at least the letters O and B (That is probably because of one of our favorite songs “The B Song” sung by the Dixie Chicks on Sesame Street.) Sometimes when I ask him if he can say the alphabet, and I start with A – he’ll follow up with B and C. If he sees a bunch of words written out, he’ll start with the B and then start telling me random letters that he thinks should also be there – O, P, Y, E …. B is his favorite though.
He can also repeat his numbers up to 10. Sometimes he seems to know the order they go in, and if I say one, he’ll say two. One day he fit nine by himself into the sequence at the right point.
His current favorite color (and my current favorite word that he says) is yellow. He’s pretty good at picking out the yellow things and sorting out the yellow colors from the rest.
Dislikes: Like last month, he doesn't like waiting. He has not yet learned that patience is a virtue.
Other cute things about him:
- He loves to dance – especially bobbing his head and raising the roof. When we were at the cabin last weekend, we got these awesome moves on video.
-He has started to sing, which is just about the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard. His favorites are the B song, and also the “oh oh oh oh” part of The Right Stuff, a New Kids on the Block song. If a song on the radio has a chorus with some ooohs and ahhhs or lalalas, or just a repetitive word that he knows (baby for example) he’ll sing along.
- He is such a boy – he loves rocks (throwing them), loves dirt, loves sticks (breaking them) … I was excited when were at the cabin that we collected some rocks and acorns in a bag to bring home. We were lining them up on the front porch back at home and I thought he’d think they were treasures and want to keep them. Nope – he just wanted to throw them in the yard.
- He’s learning to say people’s names. He can say almost everyone in the family. “Grandma” comes out an awful lot like “mama” but it doesn’t bother me so much since I’ve been promoted to “mommy.” He really struggles with the “K” so Karen is a work in progress. He can also say some of his friends name’s at school – his teacher Miss Bobbi, Kate (ate), Josh (osh), Anna (nana), and my favorite, Eleanor (Nanor.) In case you can’t tell, we like to drop off the first letter of the word.
- Nemo (or rather “Momo”) is still his best friend. It’s pretty cute – even his little friends at school know that it’s his momo. The funniest part about that is that he could say it correctly, he just won’t. Jason asked him to say knee the other day – he said knee (which by the way, is one of his favorite body parts to point out.) That was followed up by Jason asking him to repeat “mo” – which he did. Then you tell him to put it together and repeat “Nemo.” The response? Momo!
- Another cute thing that I want to remember – we’ve tried to teach him the phrase and hand motion for touchdown! That is so very confusing for a little kid that is also trying to learn the difference between up and down. Why do you reach “up” when you say touch”down”?
- He thinks it’s funny when Jason gives me a kiss. He’ll laugh and exclaim “Daddy!” like he thinks he's being silly on purpose.
- He likes to play Simon says, play ring around the rosie, wrestle with daddy, and still hide and seek. - He tells us when he poops. Sometimes right before, sometimes during, sometimes after. He'll grab his diaper and say "poop" - He has a great memory. When we were at the cabin last weekend, for breakfast he started pointing at chairs and telling us where to sit. He was pointing at exactly where we sat the night before at dinner - I was amazed that he remembered that!
We went on our now annual trip to Brown County this weekend and had an absolute blast! Lots of good food, good drinks, a hot tub, campfire, pool table, hiking, fishing, collecting rocks, sticks, acorns ... those last few activities equaled heaven for a little boy.
I'll let the pictures do the talking - such a wonderful time!
