Halloween parade, party, & trick or treat

Warning - picture overload. Time is getting away from me! I kept meaning to do the halloween post and now all of a sudden i'm already packing for our Thanksgiving travels! yikes! the kid had a wonderful halloween.... it started off a township halloween parade. I thought there was going to be an actual parade but apparently its a parade of children in their costumes walking thru the park. i took the kid and we walked with his age group. there was the parade, a costume contest, and snack time celebration with to go bags of goods.

waiting in line... making friends with elmo and abby cadabby (sort of... if staring at them intently counts)


Abram preparing for the contest (which i'm still super pissed he didn't win - how could a PIRATE beat my little blue monster!?)


and afterward, getting in some swing time before heading home!


When we arrived at daycare on a friday, i dressed abram quickly in the car and headed in to the party! He always acts strangely when we go and i stay around... and this day he was even more so puzzled because of all the costumes.

THIS is how he stood for the first oh TEN minutes or so after arrival... lol ...


then he relaxed a bit and got comfy with the costumes, ate some treats and played with some of his buddies. here he is with one of his best buds Ryan. they were in the infant room (born two weeks apart) and are now in the toddler room together too!


Then onto trick or treat! It wasn't the best night for trick or treat... we started right at 6pm since the forecast was calling for rain any minute. i first took him in his blue car but then quickly returned to the house and just carried him a good bit. that was actually faster and easier. At first he wasn't sure what was going on, but he was busy looking at the other costumes and kids running around the neighborhood. It only took a few houses for him to get into the routine though. so the last half, he would hold up his hand for his treats, put them in his basket and go ha. the few folks who actually put it in his basket for him - well - that wasn't good enough for abram. he wanted to put it in himself!

Heading out in the car...


got a stranger to take a quick pic of us - my costume? i was a blonde. pretty simple. just a wig:)


back home, checking out the treats!


he spread it all out on his tray and finally picked his treat for that night - a halloween kit kat:) he loved it!


kinda messy...


And the next morning, the first thing he did was run to his pumpkin basket to start organizing his treats all over again... he enjoyed taking it out of the basket, laying it out, and then putting it back in just as much as eating it, if not more!


He had a great halloween and i think next year he'll really be into it!

Exercise...

Obviously exercising is a family event in the sonneborn household ....



Me. Abram. Nelly. Sammy didn't quite make it in this one but he's right there with us...

Milky Way Farms

We hit up Milky Way Farms for their annual hayride and pumpkin patch event... and let me say, next year, we'll definitely NOT wait until the last weekend - ridiculously crowded. but not as bad as highland orchards. we went there first, parked WAY far away, walked up, saw hundreds of people, and walked right back to the car. no way. we then headed straight for milky way farms and though it was crowded - much more pleasant! the above picture was the only one we made at highland orchard - and the only thing we did - ha... i'm back there holding him up:)

Waiting in line to get on the hayride... which took us out to the pumpkin patch


just got off the hayride which was pulled by the john deere tractor shown behind him. you'd think he was really pissed off about being here by the look on his face... but we thought he enjoyed himself ha.


he considered getting this green mini pumpkin...


but was most excited by the rocks which were much easier to pick up, or put in his mouth which is awesome too...


he finally found a pretty darn good one and we took it home!


more halloween pictures of the blue monster to come soon!

chick magnet

Yea, the girls love me... what can i say?

17 months old!!

Wow... 17 months old. I can't believe it... so much changes so quickly once they start walking. being mobile is a whole different world. once they're on their toes, they aren't babies anymore! its sad to me. and fun at the same time. i'm enjoying each stage he's in to be honest. He's talking - saying a lot of words, which only we can understand probably.

he does a lot of signs as well - sock, shoe, all done, more, please, light, help, again, cup, eat, ball, nose, ear, belly, head, mouth, show me, and thats all i can think of right now.

we're bumping up to a size 4 in diapers next time we buy a box. as the kid gets bigger, there's less diapers in a box. What the?!?!

i think i may have a wes on my hands! my cousin wes has been a ketchup addict since he was born i think haha... and abram seems to be following suit! he dips most anything in ketchup - potatoes, sweet potatoes, avocados, tofu, carrots, peas, just to name a few. i'm buying the al natural organic ketchup from trader joes and i'm thinking about stocking up!

he still loves his green smoothies, larabars, fresh fruit, steamed veggies, and carob pudding:) i love cooking up stuff for him. but i've noticed he's starting to have his own opinion about what he wants to try and not try. he has loved this fresh raw applesauce i make out of dates, apples, and cashews for months! this morning - he took one look and shook his head "no". i persist, you LOVE this remember?! No. same thing with hummus. i used to make hummus in huge batches he ate so much of it. the last three attempts, head shake and 'no', 'no', 'no'. Hm. Okay - more smoothies then! he also has taken a liking to our fresh juice we do on the weekends - his favorite combo seems to be carrot, apple, cucumber. he likes oatmeal again too, after a 3 month boycott.

He loves to dance to music and when we're home together we make this an activity at least 3 times a day. He enjoys being chased, throwing things (to you or AT you!), rolling ball, going outside, waving to neighbors, and pointing out the window of the car at trucks.

He's getting into the i want to help stage and the i wanna do it myself stage too! we're figuring out the logistics of this haha...

He loves to try on shoes and hats (a boy after my own heart!) and here's his newest hat i picked up at a local consignment sale!



His hair - still blonde and starting to get long in spots!!



We're just so in love with him we can't stand it !!

the pantry...

He's obsessed with the pantry door...

while cooking i go back and forth, a dozen times over it seems, because i can't ever remember to get it all out on one swoop. since he's been mobile, i always (the goal is always!) shut it behind me so he's not sprinkling snack crackers on the floor, grabbing lara bars and running off while yelling "nak, nak, nak" (snack) or making a dive for all of my glass jars.

his hearing is amazing. he hears that door come open and zoom, he's there!

deep in conversation with husband and trying to hurry through some sort of meal prep for dinner, i realized it was quiet (NOT at all the norm when its dinner time at our house - the kid arrives home starving it seems). Uh Oh. quiet? thats suspicious. very.

i glance around the kitchen wall to see the kid having a ball.



who wouldn't love sprinkling powdered white stuff all over the carpet and their shoes! FUN!



Organic powdered sugar no less ... not cheap. i told him this. he didn't seem to care.



so i figured a few good snapshots before we forced him to abandon to fun!



i do look forward to the day he cleans up his own messes and will maybe stop smearing food in his hair lol ... but until then i'm trying to enjoy everything, even the messy stuff;) and i do!

and no, i haven't forgotten to shut that pantry door one other time since!

tantrums

It's possible we've entered the tantrum phase.

After eating chinese the other night, we walked out onto the sidewalk together as dad finished paying the bill. The kid loves being able to walk himself around and not just be carried or pushed in his stroller. But it wasn't 'stroll through the strip mall' time, it was 'go home' time.

Dad exits, and we start to head toward the car. The kid does not want to go in the car. He wants to run up and down the concrete sidewalk.

Dad reaches for kids hand. Kid yanks hand away, dashes off to the right, and dodges dad's reach. dodges dad to the left. finally as dad gets a good grip, he flattens his body onto the sidewalk, stiff as a board.

Mom is on the cell phone, watching as this 'fit' (is this a fit) takes place, wondering to self, 'is this a tantrum? a fit?' hmm.

Dad pulls him off the ground as the kids body is limp, no help whatsoever. Puts him into the car seat with more protests, no crying but more grunts and fighting to get away. back to the darn sidewalk.

He stiffens his body, lunging his chest out, preventing dad from being able to strap him in. tries to throw himself off to the side, lunging out of the car. dad finally manages to strap him down.

And he was angry about half the ride home. We write this off as a fluke. He was tired.

Next night. Time to brush the teeth. He loves to brush the teeth. I call to him, "lets brush your teeth!!" and he pulls out another puzzle.

He senses its that time, ya know. where he has to go to bed. He ignores me.

"Abram, lets brush your teeth! Come on!" He looks and goes back to his puzzle.

I finally led him into the bathroom, sitting him on his stool. He's mad and decides HE will brush his teeth. Not ME. HIM.

I try to brush them. He attempts to yank the brush away from me, but i win.

"No, I brush. you sit."

Second yanking attempt while he starts crying. He loses. Third yank attempt as he's screaming. He loses.

"Okay, I brush first. Then your turn," I explain as he's thrashing off the stool, turning his head back and forth, and screaming, still wanting to either get the tooth brush or get away!

More tears. More wrestling. More screams.

After I think i managed to somewhat brush them, I let him have his turn. he shoves it into his mouth, chewing on the brush and giving me a look... I let him 'brush' for a moment, then announced "All Done!" and put the toothbrush away, as I always do.

More screams, tears, and yanking at the drawer. I say, "All done, Lets go watch Diego!" and lead him out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind us.

He pounds his feet in place as fast and hard as he can, gets all red faced and was wailing, throwing himself into the wall!!!

I look at husband. He looks back.

"What is going on here?" I asked.

"I think he's having a tantrum?" husband questions.

"I think you're right..... "

My first sentence might have been misleading. It's not just possible we've entered the tantrum phase, I think its official.

teeth update

I took the kid back to his dentist on Oct 20 - this was the followup after the disasterous blow to his teeth 5 weeks ago. Three of Abram's front teeth and a wooden bookshelf at daycare had quite a rough meeting! after some blood and tears, it was confirmed that the three were knocked loose, two of them very loose. For 5 weeks we have watched him like a hawk to ensure he wasn't chewing on anything hard, biting into anything with the front teeth, messing with his teeth, anything with the teeth! And let me say, with a toddler who is still teething - NOT an easy task!! and the daycare workers tried to do their part on this as well (thank you girls!!).

We also invested in several new pairs of shoes for him - the RIGHT size - which by the way, wasn't an easy determination. "Oh he's definitely a wide" to "Oh, no, he's not a wide at all, you would know if he was!" to "nah, probably not a wide". Um okay, so now what?! ha. Needless to say, we have two pairs of wides but now are going with the standard. I've felt around the foot and they seem to fit him just fine. So with a proper fitting good shoe, we hope to experience LESS falls! But with his new 'running' skills, i'm not so sure!

Anyway, the dentist examined the teeth and TWO of them have tightened back up, almost to a perfectly normal state! Yippee!! Great news! The other tooth has tightened back up somewhat (its the one that probably received the most impact) and may continue to tighten up with time. The dentist explained the roots were/are still developing so thats a good thing! He gave us the go ahead to put him back on the regular sippy cup and eat as normal! Yea!

So now we have the kid officially off the bottle and onto his cups. He loves straws and different cups we have for him. He especially loves his klean kanteen sippy cup which looks very similar to mom's big klean kanteen... as i'm drinking from mine, he often goes and grabs his to drink too. so cute. Ah, no more bottle washing!! Course, last night i somehow had four sippy cups to wash so... maybe its not going to be the relief i thought;)

Back to School night ...

Already? i know - yea, back to school night... i guess its the start of a 'new year' at abram's school. call it school, academy, whatever - its daycare. but it is the start of a 'new year' there and they have back to school night for ages 1 and up. so we went up to meet his teachers, review their curriculum, see the 'red robin' and listen to musical performances. Tried to make a few pictures before we headed out and - what can i say, i think we're close to reaching the 'i don't want to cooperate for pictures' stage with the kid? very possible... he wasn't having it...

Getting dressed, got put my shirt on!


Not so happily posed with mom...


Maybe if i throw myself down on the floor we won't make pictures!


Dad, not so happy with my non-cooperation?


Is this good enough? can we go now?


We headed off and I think the kid was a bit puzzled and concerned. Why are we here at night? and you aren't leaving me here again are you? but once we settled in and he saw we were staying, he was running all over, watching the 'red robin' character, listening to and dancing with the music, and eating crackers. I was pleasantly surprised with the toddler room curriculum, i mean, that it even existed haha... they work on songs, numbers, words, animals, names, and have a book they follow. It was kinda nice for me, b/c husband does the usual dropoff and pickups. This was my chance to interact with his teachers and support staff. We've been overall, very please with La Petite Academy! even though they don't serve vegetarian organic meals lol...

Nelly

The kid is starting to chatter and try to say things. He's had a few words on 'his list' for some time but used them very sparingly! words such as mama, dada, and dog. but he's been saying the word 'ball' everyday a bazillion times for what seems like forever haha... but he's adding on to 'his list' now and saying please, again, all done, more, and really enjoys saying 'nelly' too. he points to her and knows exactly who she is. sometimes he hears her bark in the basement and says her name too. thought i'd post a quick little video to show him saying it. i tried to get him to do it a few times but again, its all on his OWN time ha... so i only captured it once on this video, and believe me, it took a few takes!