Catching Up: Thanksgiving Craft

This (last) year we made hand print turkey shirts to celebrate Thanksgiving. Fun stuff. Katie had a lot of fun showing hers off.

 Ethan was really not in the mood to pose. Or stand still in general. That little guy is always on the move.

This was the best I could do.

Catching Up: Katie's Adventures in Potty Training

Just had to share this one. In mid November Katie was having trouble making it all the way inside when she had to go, so I put the little potty out there for her. On this particular day she was just to excited to get back to the table to worry about pulling up those panties and pants.

Finally Catching Up: Vertuccio Farms November '11

 I had almost given up hope that I would get around to catching up on the posts. I thought about just skipping all the backlog stuff and going forward from the present... buuuuuut I just couldn't bring myself to skip the holidays. So here we go. 

In mid November we finally got around to using up the Groupon I had for Vertuccio Farms. Fun stuff I tell ya. Ethan had fun feeding the ducks.

 

And the lion statue in the garden was pretty exciting.

 

 Next we found our way through the hay maze. Katie was pretty proud of herself when she climbed the tower of tires.

Ethan really wanted to join her.

 After that we got to see just how strong Katie was.

 And Ethan was ecstatic that we were taking a ride on the cow "Cho-Cho."

 Big Sister thought it was pretty great that she got to sit and drive by herself.

 She smiled the whole time.

 So did Ethan. And then the ride ended. Oh wow. You would have thought the world was coming to an end.

 We tried to distract him by heading over to see more animals.

 Then, we made sure to take a silly pumpkin head picture.

And finally we posed for a picture with our newly acquired pumpkins. Later that month we made them into homemade puree. Yummmmm.

Little Cutie Ethan Monster

Well, no surprise I didn't get around to posting this past weekend. Didn't see that coming, did ya? Anyway.

I've been having a lot of fun listening to Ethan learn to talk lately. It is so sweet to hear his little voice trying so hard to form words. It makes me cry, though. I want him to be little forever! This stage is so darn cute. One minute he is driving me crazy getting into trouble and in a split second he'll look up at me and attempt to say please, but it sounds like "Pease," and my frustration melts away. I hope he doesn't learn to say too many things correctly for awhile. I want to enjoy the cuteness awhile longer.

"Gi-un wobot," (Giant robot...as in the robot from The Iron Giant. Easily his favorite movie. He requests it every day and even goes up to other moms at the playgrounds and tells them about it. Cracks me up. I love watching other people smile down at him as he tells them about it, then see him trot away to go play.)
"Coo-key," (Cookie. He has quite the sweet tooth, this one.)
"Mah-na," (Banana)
He also says "Pease"and 'Tanks" before and after most requests, unprompted. Makes me so proud.
"Pah-kee," (Pancake)
"Heh, whe Peddy," (Hey, where's Perry? A catch phrase from their favorite TV show, Phineas and Ferb.)
"Poosh." (Push. Unfortunately Katie is not very interested in using words to solve problems these days and he learned to tell on her.)
"Ho be," (Help me.)  So CUTE! I love that he's starting to make sentences with this phrase: "Ho be, Dad-dee." (Help me, Daddy.) "Ho be miwlk." (Help me milk.) "Ho be suck." (Help me stuck.)

Such a cute little guy. I can't believe he's almost 2!

Sorry for the lack of posts...

...but we've been moving. And it totally sucks with a 3.25-yr-old and a 22-month-old. I really hate moving. The disruption in routine is probably my least favorite part. Sometimes I wish I didn't care about being organized and having a clean house, or even about showering everyday. Sure would save me a lot of time. I am hoping to catch up on the blog (or at least post a few fun holiday pictures) this weekend. Until then, this quick recap will have to do:

One of Katie's favorite things to do is walk around holding the boulder from the little dump truck The Lavin's gave Ethan for his birthday, and (using it as a microphone) call out, "Wel-commmme to the new houuuuse!" Hilarious. They both love the stairs. And now Cousin Kiera has figured out  how to climb them. Rats! Ethan has been talking up a storm and other people are actually beginning to understand him. Mommy both loves and hates this.

 

These two have been getting in a lot of Phineas and Ferb marathons while Mommy unpacks.

And 'The Best Cousin Ever' is walking up a storm!

Walkin' in the Rain

 She's her mother's daughter, alright. Katie loved walking in the rain like a big girl. This was the only umbrella we had so Mommy and Daddy were soaked. We didn't mind too much, though. How could we? What a cutie. This was actually the same night we went to see Santa. (See below.)

Visiting Santa

Tonight we thought we'd try visiting Santa real quick. There was literally no line and Katie was really excited when we walked up to him. With very little encouraging she sat in his lap and discussed what she wanted for Christmas. (She wants presents...in case you were wondering.)

Ethan was another story. He held on tight and didn't really want to get too close. He cried the second I started to set him in this very young Santa's lap. (He seriously had the the most youthful voice I've ever heard.)

 I tried to get Daddy in the picture, but he was busy helping the photographer get Ethan to smile. He really wasn't interested in smiling while he was next to Santa. He did give him a low five between takes, though. That's progress, I guess. Don't I look thrilled? And check out the frump on Ethan's face. Too bad because Katie looks so adorable.

Here we are with my arms trying to hold Ethan without being seen so we could get a decent picture. Well, we gave it our best shot. I am very seriously considering submitting these photos to Ellen's Bad Photos with Santa.