Halloween '12

H-A-double L-O-W-double-E-N spells Halloween! (I think I got Andy hooked on the "danse macabre" song from singing that)

The thing about Graham is that a lot of people live on bigger properties out here.  Apparently they all come to our neighborhood for trick or treat!  There were cars parked allllll along the neighborhood's streets!

We got our first set of people at like 5:15- it was still light out and neither of us would normally be home from work (I got off at 4 today for the holiday though).  We waited for dark and I looked for a costume to wear.  Most of mine are short dresses, which probably wasn't appropriate for kids not to mention it was a little cold out.  I found my brother's old devil cape and decided to be a super hero.  It worked out perfectly because my warm under armor was even superman blue :)

Erik and Destiny came over, we ate a quick dinner, and it was time to go.  Andy was staying back to hand out candy this year, and Destiny was helping me with Sawyer.

Can I just say how awesome my neighborhood is?  Tons of kids everywhere, adults sitting outside drinking beers in lawn chairs, and apparently there was a duel going on with a couple neighbors with their fireworks. The decorations were good, and there were even fog machines. Some of the houses were out of candy by the time we got there.  Sawyer was doing pretty good with the "trick or treat" and "thank you" too.  Our cul-de-sac looked pretty dark since some of the properties are still blank, and even though us, our next door neighbor, and guy across the street were all handing it out, it looked dark so we didn't get the mass of people that the rest of the neighborhood did (thankfully- more for us hehe).  He got a good amount of candy before he started dragging his feet and his bucket got too heavy he made me carry it...even though he insisted he was having fun.  It was about 45 minutes we were out.  We got an ok load though, and of course I bought all my favorites for our bucket so I can eat the extras ;)

I just LOVE Halloween! It is almost 9:30 and we are still getting people (on a school night??).  I miss being young, but it is almost just as fun dressing up and taking your own kids :)

Carving pumpkins

Tonight we finally got around to carving pumpkins!  I like to do it as late as possible because they start to go bad.  Plus, this was the first year Sawyer could actually do his own (kind of).

Here they are!  Andy's was huge.  He got the biggest one in the patch pretty much because it was the only really green one and he wanted to make a ninja turtle.  Unfortunately it turned all orange by now :(

I finally got the top off of mine!

 Daddy helping Sawyer cut his

Taking out the seeds

Andy helped Sawyer make a face.  It was cute.  He asked him questions and Sawyer answered so they could draw the face together:
"What shape do you want the eyes?"  Triangle
"What shape do you want the nose?" Circle
"Do you want him happy, sad, mad, or surprised?"  Sad
"How many teeth should he have?" Three

Andy held his hand while he cut (despite what this picture looks like)

Here's mine, half drawn and partially cut

Andy made his a big simple cyclops.

Mine is done!

Sawyer'sis done! (With a few extra crayon marks)

There they are

Lights off

Outside

Treat!

Today the complex where I work had a trick-or-treat with most of the businesses.  I invited Ashley and Brea, and she asked Michelle and her daughter (Roselynn?) to come too.  Brea's kitty costume was a bit cold so she wore Sawyer's old monkey one (with a tutu so she was a girl monkey).  We had a lot of fun and it was just the right size for the little kids with 16 stores.  It was a little wet, but was mostly misty.  I loved seeing all the other cute kids wandering around too.  I loved handing out the candy last year from my store, and was excited to take Sawyer this year. He got quite a few candies, and the dental office even gave out Spongebob toothpaste.

Tired monster

We came home and Andy had to go get his car from work in Auburn since he drove the work truck home yesterday to bring Ashley a ladder.  By the time he got home, he had to leave again to go bring his brother to the airport (which apparently included the mall).  We barely got to see him today (he had a headache this morning and had to sleep until we had to leave).  It was already a sad night because there is a big halloween party that included my rugby team and Andy's co-workers and we aren't able to go late with Sawyer (not an appropriate toddler scene in the slightest, and I wouldn't want to stay late anyways in my condition.)  Halloween is my favorite holiday and I wish I could dress up...though I'm sure my costume stash would not work with "the bump" as they are all of a hoochie nature.

I decided to cheer us up by making me and Sawyer a mug brownie (soooo good) but I forgot we didn't have milk so it was not as awesome washing it down with orange Hi-C.  I found the easy recipe after a quick google search and it only took like 3 minutes.  It is very fudgy, but that is how I like it- it tasted like eating brownie batter that is safe for a prego!

If you want to know how to make it, it is just 4 tablespoons each of flour and sugar, and 2 tablespoons each of cocoa powder (the real kind, not the drink mix), canola oil, and water.  Oh and a dash of salt.  I also saw a few people used vanilla which I will try next time.  Zap in the microwave for a minute depending on your microwave, but the middle on the top should still look a little wet.  YUM!

Snap, crackle, pop

No, I am not eating rice krispies, but I finally visited the chiropractor.

Let's just say it was a long time coming.  I had issues during last fall's rugby season with my middle back, and have been having issues in my lower back when bending over the last spring season.  They both came back in full effect the past couple weeks and it was getting unbearable.  My mom and dad, as well as Erik and Destiny have been singing Dr. Berry's praises forever and encouraged me to go, but I was just nervous and didn't know what the insurance would cover.  I finally made the call (to his office and insurance) and got in that day.

He tugged me all over asking "does this hurt?" and it was always no.  He did realize that my spine is curved to the side though :(   My body's crooked.  I think I got it from dad because he has one leg longer than the other.  He felt my back, and could immediately tell me exactly where it hurt, dead on.  He put me in weird positions to align both locations and he actually laughed when I popped like a hundred times.  I asked, "Do most people pop like that?"  he said, "not usually that much."  Then he said I could probably get back to 100% if I go twice a week for 3-4 weeks. :)

My upper back is not feeling great yet, but for the first time today I bent over and my lower right back didn't hurt.  He must be doing something right!  I'm not sure what I was so nervous about!

Moving friends and the last soccer game

I guess first I should update on the potty since it is one of the major life events as of now.  I am so proud of my little guy.  He stays nakie (well, grandma makes him wear undies at her house) on the bum whenever we are home or he is at daycare (apart from sleeping).  He goes to his potty by himself and we know if he goes because he will point at it and yell "I did it!"  He has had very few accidents (I think 4 total out of literally dozens of successful uses) and 2 of them were while he was running to his potty to go.  The proud look on his face as he marches his bucket to dump in the toilet is priceless. (Though sometimes he dumps it too aggressively and gets pee on the floor.)  I don't put undies on him because he is not good at pulling them down on his own yet, and I'd rather have him naked than have to sprint to him to help him pull them down whenever I notice him hop on his potty chair.

Saturday we helped my friend Ashley move.  Her husband is deployed to Afghanistan so she needed muscles (like Andy) to help move the big boxes and furniture.  She bought McD's for everyone and it was $67 and they had to bring the food out to us in a box! LOL! I thought the main benefit to buying a new house was getting to pick the colors of cabinets, counters, etc. but apparently it goes beyond that.  They bought a short sale and she has a TON of work to do.  I feel kind of bad that I can't help her do all that painting and cleaning, but the internet says to avoid paint if at all possible...and I don't think it would be a good idea to have her open all the windows in this weather ;)  I am so thankful that all we had to do was literally move in, and anything "wrong" with our house's functionality or appearance we were able to tell the builder and they come fix it for the first year.  He had fun playing with Brea, but I think he liked hitting people with stir sticks even more

These were some of Ashley's friends and they play rough haha

Today we had the Sounders' last home game of the season (besides playoffs.)  We went to Dicks first since it has been awhile- YUM!  We got a close parking spot, no terrible calls, we won 3-1 (so free haircut!) and it was fan appreciation night and our section won free $10 to the concession stands per person (they even gave Sawyer one).  We always sign up for the "designated driver" program each game, which gives you a free beverage as long as you wear a bracelet that says they can't sell you beer.  (At $9/beer I don't see why everyone doesn't do it lol) We ended up with a hot dog, pretzel with cheese, loaded nachos, coke, and 2 hot chocolates for free...and get this...they even gave us $9 worth of cash change because we didn't use all of our voucher money!  The people around us loved playing with Sawyer as usual, and the guy behind us (season ticket buddy) even held him for like 10 minutes while Andy ate his nachos.  It was a ton of fun, and we found out the guy sitting next to us today lives right by us, hah!

Sawyer never looks and my hat is coming off...oops

The haps

Here's another random update of all sorts.

I made another wreath on Tuesday.  It to donate to a fundraiser/silent auction.  Hopefully someone bought it.

The leaves outside my work are really pretty right now!

Yesterday we had a Sounders game.  Sawyer came along again.  It was chilly so we all wore many layers.

Here is Sawyer sad because we told him he could have a juice and banana but we had to get dressed first.  He kept saying he wanted his "bo-nana" since we promised him.

Good to go, and all set with his juice box.

They gave us free hats.

He saw me with the blanket and insisted on doing the "monster" after the game (he likes to look like a ghost)

We put a few more Halloween decorations up.

Ghosts in the little tree (and ghost windsock hanging from our outside light)

My back has been killing me.  I should have went to the Chiro a year ago, then again 7 months ago.  Both of those have flared back up. It is rough because half my job is bending over to count and put things in low drawers and what-not and I feel like an old person whenever I have to bend over.

We made the 20 week ultrasound appointment for Nov. 13th.  It's funny, I am most excited to finally figure out what to do with Sawyer's old clothes, if we can hang all those adorable outfits back up.  Not sure what we're going to do with all that crap if it ends up a girl is in there, since I'm not sure we would need to save them and have more kids if it is.  It would be nice to know if we can get rid of it though!  The piles of clothes are driving me nuts, but I don't want to box them up all nice if they are coming right back out!  I really have zero preference of gender at this point.  I'd like a boy for Sawyer to have a brother and to already have all the stuff we need except diapers, but I would like a girl as much so I know what it is like to have each "kind" without wondering that down the road then having more kids just to see lol. No, I don't have a guess- at this point I still have a hard time picturing a future baby is actually on the way.  I'm hoping the ultrasound actually will set reality in.  It feels so different once you know their gender and can give them a name!

Here is me now (16.5 weeks) Not sure how long these update pics will come because I hate fat pics of me (don't try to convince me it isn't fat when its a baby but maybe if I re-phrase it to say I hate "large" pics of me)  Looks like baby is nearing the size of my butt, which is quite the accomplishment!  I still fit in all my pants at least...well, the skinniest of pants I have to use the rubber band trick on the button and hopefully I don't have to sit too long haha!  Luckily I have some "fat" pants (a size up) to migrate into that are still too big  before I have to bust out the ol' maternity pants...though I am guilty of slipping my small early-pregnancy work pants on a couple times so I can feel like I'm wearing pajamas to work ;)

OK I think that is everything!

Potty Time

This was the weekend.  The weekend we wanted to narrow down the diapers.  I have sworn to never have 2 in diapers (though our total child count may very well end up 2 so this might be the only time I'll have to worry) but I have been getting worried as time passes.

I will start by pointing out that the only potty-ing he has done in his Elmo potty was going #2 twice.  One was a looong time ago (like 18 months ish), and the other, probably a month ago.

I decided we would do full day on Saturday and Sunday.  To get him a little more eased into it, I put him in just undies on Friday night after work.  He got a pair a little wet so I was worried for our carpet this weekend.  Later that night he yelled "POOP" at Andy, who helped him open the potty and helped him pull down his undies, and Sawyer proceeded to pee enough to fill out like a third of it. YAY!!!  He got M&M's.

The next morning, we took the plunge.  We put nothing on his bare bum.  We made sure the potty was left open (he has a hard time opening it) and before we knew it, he had gone both 1 & 2 about four times each...and it wasn't even noon!  I think he was a little tummy sick because he normally does not poop that much in a day...normally just once or twice.  We had a small hiccup in the middle where a very small puddle ended up in the kitchen.

Sawyer discovered his potty is also a step stool, and would try to get in his chair when he was hungry.

At about 4:00 he had used it successfully all day (at least 12 times) and we needed to go out so we put a diaper on him and headed to walmart to get a new carseat.  We then dropped him off at grandma and grandpa's house with all the supplies because we had to leave him for a few hours.

The Buffalo Wild Wings is opening Monday, and they had a trial night Friday and Saturday.  It was invitation only, but the staff had stopped by my work and invited us and gave us tickets to the event.  We knew it would take awhile, but free food is worth it.  They had the Seahawks' Blue Thunder (drum line) and Seagals there.

We got there early, the place ended up completely filling up.   There is Blue thunder.

We could have a free appetizer, one entree each (one must be wings), dessert, and non-alcoholic drinks.  Any alcohol was $3 cash donation to a food back (needless to say, a lot of people left for the ATM across the street.)  It was VERY good, and really fun.  Me and Andy split the wings and split a hamburger.

That beast had pulled pork, lettuce, tomato, onion rings AND a hamburger patty.  The best part was this ENORMOUS dessert.  It was cinnamon sugar fried tortilla thing with 4 full-sized scoops of ice cream on top.  We did not finish it.

We got back to my parents house and found out Sawyer had successfully gone 1&2  two times each.  He did make a puddle on the floor in the kitchen, but my mom felt at fault because she didn't want him to follow her into the garage for a minute so she told him he needed to stay in the kitchen and don't move.  Unfortunately the potty was outside of the kitchen.


This morning was the same routine.

He had a few more successes, but unfortunately had a small accident on our carpet.  We acted very disappointed like they told us to, and explained he had to use his potty.  We made him clean it up.  (We weren't mad or anything because frankly we expected worse for the weekend).

Cleaning up.  We finally get to use the BabyLegs again!

He has used it many times since today, so hopefully those won't be common.  Overall, we are very pleased!  He is so proud of himself- he declares "I DID IT!" every time and looks so proud as he marches his bucket to the bathroom to dump.  We are going to keep with it, and hope Janelle is game to keep it going at her house.  We should be saving a fortune in diapers now that we will only need them at night (or if we go out).  I think I will get pull-ups so he doesn't think they're diapers.

An inconvenient poo.

This is a story about how I am convinced that Sawyer is potty trained, but just finds it easier to let us change him.

Last night I set up the bed for Sawyer to sleep since Andy wasn't coming home.  I had the lights off and he just wanted to watch TV.  I convinced him that it was either bed time or he would have to sleep in his crib.  He finally crawled in, got settled, and I turned off the light.  As we were laying there...

"mommy, poop!"

I felt his diaper.  "No you didn't"

"poop mommy!"

*sigh* "Do you want to sit on the potty?"

"Yes."

This is where I point out that he is normally afraid of the big toilet, and never ever goes in his potty. Ever.  He's gone like twice at home and twice at Janelle's.

I pulled off his diaper and held him on our toilet. I held him there for awhile and said "Ok I don't think you're going, all done."  He goes "NOO!" and then forces with all his might the smallest little poo out.  "See?" he says.  "Yes I see.  Are you all done now?"  "no!"  Repeat above.  "See?"  and repeat this process 2 times more.  I know he just did it to put off bed time!  Then I had to give him candies because he knows the only time he gets them is if he uses the potty, and I didn't want to go back on it.  He's such a little manipulator lol!

Funny thing also at bed time.  I found an old binky on the tv stand and gave it to him to be funny.  It was hilarious trying to watch him talk with it because it kept falling out and he looked ridiculous.  He ended up losing it because it fell out and he couldn't find it again lol.

Anyways, we are going to try to potty train him a little this weekend.  There is a method a ton of people have sworn by for ages 18 mo.-28 mo. that you leave them diaperless/pantsless for a few days (3) and they usually catch on by the end of the first day as they end up going on the floor.  You have to keep a close eye on them and as soon as they start you move them to the potty, and if they end up going on the floor, you have to act very disappointed so they know it is wrong (not hard to act disappointed while cleaning stuff out of your carpet I'm sure).  Anyways, we don't exactly have the chance for 3 days so I'm hoping he will learn something after 2 since for the first time, we don't have anything to do this weekend.  The method also includes no diapers for a few months afterwards at home, but I am hoping since he is older he won't have to resort to that.  I am not expecting a miracle, but hopefully he learns something!

womp womp womp

I don't have any awesome updates, but we went to the doctor yesterday for the 15 week check up (not that it's standard, but you have a first appt at 10-12 weeks, then every 4 weeks.  I think as you get higher it gets to every week, but we never made it that far last time)

Sawyer weighed 31 lbs yesterday.  I don't, nor have I ever looked at the scale.  My doctor will tell me if I gain too fast, so I don't want to depress myself.  Sawyer saw me on the scale and jumped on too.  Next she checked my blood pressure (which I assume is normal now or she would have said something.) Then they bust out the ol' heartbeat machine.  WOMP WOMP WOMP.  As soon as it started making the noise, Sawyer got the biggest smile, then did that open-mouth-super-wide-shocked-smile thing the whole time.  Andy told him it was a baby.  He set him down and he runs over to me and points at my tummy and goes "BABY!"  I was shocked and was like "did you just say that? He never understands when I try to tell him" then Dr. Knowles told him he is going to realize it real soon and is in for a rude awakening ;) Funny!

This is me now (completely full of food btw).  Still look like I've got a beer belly.  You get a peek of a super excited toddler that kept yelling at me "doing mommy?" While I stood on the tub.

In other news, this was the weather today.

  It was foggy and chilly all day!  Fall is here!  It was the first chilly day!  It made me want to go home and put on a sweater, boots, and scarf...but then I remembered how much more comfortable sweats are ;)

I did, however, make a few things today.  Andy had to stay overnight in Burlington again this week and we were on our own.  In spirit of the season, I made some pretty good hot cocoa (dark cocoa powder, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, milk) then I blasted the heat and made some banana ice cream (freeze banana coins for an hour and a half then blend with other toppings- I used peanut butter, cinnamon, and honey and re-freeze a bit and you have perfect ice cream).  We made a frozen pizza for dinner.  I am so domestic.

We watched Cars (per usual), and yo Gabba Gabba, which Sawyer has cleverly deemed "two Gabbas".  I think he is obsessed with the number two since that is his age.  He always has to point out when there is two of something.  We skyped Andy a little, and are about to skype Grandma in CA.  I'd say I pulled off the day OK :)