Happy Halloween!

So after deciding between a monkey, Michael Phelps or a lobster, we finally decided on a lobster for you so that Mommy could play too and work her costume in with yours....

You were the hit of the local Halloween carnival and we were stopped by so many people to take your picture.   So now strangers have you in costume on their digital cameras somewhere. 

I was your chef!  It was quite the hit...

We had so much fun!

You were the sweetest treat of the night!

Pumpkin Patch revisited...

Ok, so after our first miserable attempt at the pumpkin patch we finally decided to load up and try it again with Uncle Dean, Aunt Lori and Austin....

We filled the wagon and although the pumpkins had been picked over, you were in a much better mood....

and played in the hay...(that is your Aunt Lori and Austin in the distance behind you)

Your Uncle Dean propped you up on a pumpkin...

Austin came to sit beside you...

Then he was off like a shot....to run through the pumpkins...but managed to knock you a bit off axis

That is him leaving on the left and your Uncle Dean coming to rescue you on the right from a complete dismount off the pumpkin...

This previous series just makes me giggle.  

Off you went to explore more pumpkins...we then loaded you two up to go check out some other areas and fun things to do...

It was a very fun day.  Much better than our first attempt.

I love you my little pumpkin...

I love AUNT...

These two have quite the time during the day.  Mack loves her sooo very much.  And I dont think she is too shabby either...

The Most Grumpy Pumpkin in the patch

OK, a couple weeks back I awoke to crisp fall air and felt like seeing some pumpkins.  Mack had not had such a good night sleep, but ain't no baby goin' to slow me down....so despite my deep seated feeling this was not going to be such a good thing, Maverick and I headed out about 1/2 hour away to the pumpkin patch.  I don't know what I was thinking...

Oh wait, I do know...I was thinking he would nap all the way out there and that he would awake miraculously happy and ready to play and we would have great fall fun.  That was the plan at least....

Needless to say, he did not nap at all on the way out there. To him, crying seemed a much better option.  The whole way...so when we got there, he reluctantly went with me to see what I had in store. 

This gem was taken right when we got there....just before he took a nose dise off the hay bale and got a small scuff on his forehead....at least he bounced

After the fall...(yes, I took a picture...after I made sure he was ok)

Then I perched him up on some taller pumpkins...

He would not look at me no matter how much of a fool I made of myself trying to get him to give me the slightest little twinge of a grin...soon he dropped down and crawled away.

and tasted his first bite of dirt...and this is how he felt about that...

So I gave him a sip of water and took him for a bit of  a walk and then we ended up at the BIG MAX pumpkin section...I thought we might try again....so I propped him up yet again...and soon after this photo...down he went....I did not get pics that time....that time, he was DONE with  me and my silly idea of going to get some fun fall pictures

However, one last attempt on our way out....and here is how he felt about that...

Oh...I did get one smile....after he was loaded in his car seat to go....and he slept the whole way home.  In fact he was still sleeping at our exit so we decided to continue on to Uncle Dean's house and help him watch UT whip up on Oklahoma...

Here you are helping him with his remote.  As soon as you learn how, I am having you program our TIVO...

We did go back the next weekend for another attempt at pumpkin pics...more on that soon.

Dear Mack - Month Eight

Dear Mack-enstein,

This past weekend you were 8 months old.  Amazing to me that we have come this far in this amazing adventure that I call our life.  

This past weekend I've been sorting through the pictures I have taken of you this month to pick out a few for your letter, and I have to say it was a little frustrating.  This isn't because there weren't plenty of cute photos, but rather, because almost every one I liked was blurry.  A casual observer looking through the photos of you on my hard drive might think that some time around September 2008, I developed a tic that prevented me from holding a camera steady, but that is not it.  So what happened, you may ask?  You started to move.  And when I say that, what I mean is that you never stop moving.  The impact of this on my photos is that any given series starts with you a few feet away, then continues as you get closer and closer to the camera and ends with a blur of your face and hands as you finally reach me and put the camera strap in your mouth.

The effect on the non-photographed portion of our life is that I am spending a lot of time pulling you out from under furniture, fishing pieces of lint and other undesirable objects out of your mouth, and generally using the words "No, sir" a lot more than ever before.  And my powers of distraction are becoming greatly improved as I try to distract you from your initial intent with something less likely to cause bruising or other injury.  It is surprising to me how much you can get into in such a short time now that this crawling business has entered our lives. 

As a result of this new found ability, I am developing a new kind of listening philosophy that I would descibe as "No news is definitely not good news".  Meaning that if you are babbling, laughing or fussing while you go about your business out of my line of vision, things are probably OK.  But the moment I realize I haven't heard you for, say, 20-30 seconds or so, I pretty much know you are into something .... usually power cords or climbing on something or both.  

This audio surveillance technique is in effect at all times, just to warn you.  Last night, when I was in the middle of tidying up after dinner and cleaning up your high chair when it occurred to me that I was doing so in silence.  Sure enough, when I looked around the corner, you were nowhere near the nice little pile of toys I had left for you to amuse yourself with while I was cleaning.  Nope.  You were attempting again to do a detailed inspection of the power cords near the table under the TV while perched up on the lowest shelf of said table under the TV.  Fortunately I caught you before you either electrocuted yourself or landed on your head or both.  OK...I took pictures first, but I was right there!...you would not have fallen...far. 

My baby resource book describes your new independent outlook on life as "self-agency", which seems to boil down to your mission to find and play with, crawl on, or climb up the exact thing in any given room that has the most potential to hurt you.  The problem you currently have is that you have no depth perception, no ability to judge whether or not your body will fit through a given space, and, as you can see from this picture, no idea what the tippy tippy top of your playspot will taste like once you get up there and finally get a mouthful of it.  

Now that you are a bona fide superfast speed crawler, life has some interesting new dimensions. Specifically it involves the phrase "What do you have in your mouth?" a whole lot more than it used to.  I can't always watch your every move, but I can pretty much tell when you have put something in your mouth, because you get this squirrelly look on your face as if to say "Nothing to see here lady, move along."  

And then I have about 5 seconds to fish the unknown object out or spend the next 30 minutes watching to see if you suffer any ill effects from whatever it was you just ate.  It's given me a whole new perspective on things.  For instance, I am relieved now when you put something big in your mouth, like a favorite giraffe toy, because at least that's big enough that I know what it is.

I am actually a tad bit nervous that you are going to progress from crawling pretty quickly.  It appears to have occurred to you lately that if you can move faster than me, you can get to more stuff.    It seems many times as if you have roller skates on your knees you move so fast.  I've moved most everything that would really hurt you in most rooms, but since certain things can't be moved, I've been working on teaching you to leave them alone - most notably, the previously mentioned tangle of cords that exists in almost every room in the house.  I know I am starting to be a bit successful as it seems you are getting a handle on things you are not allowed to touch.  I know this because frequently as you crawl toward the dangerous item, you look at me over your shoulder to see if I am watching.  So you are going to want to work on that poker face a little more if you are trying to convince me that you don't know what you are doing.

On a developmental front, you are still moving forward by leaps and bounds.  You finally sprouted your two TOP teeth this past weekend.  FINALLY!!! I finally had decided a few weeks back to stop looking and wondering when they would finally show up as it has been 3 months since your first teeth with no further teeth arrival and the teething seemed to go on forever.  You continue to astound your friends and family with your eating prowess.  This last month has found you quite fond of sushi (California Rolls), Caprese pasta salad, roasted potatoes, any type of melon, finally liking strawberries and to top off your weird eating baby award, you really love Pomegranate applesauce...which is very tart, but you chow down when it is offered.  You have recently developed this new full faced squinty-eyed smile that cracks me up every time, which is why, I am sure, you keep doing it.  You usually whip it out in the morning or when eating...so cute.

 You love your toys, your cousin, Cheerios, your cousin and Cheerios,

your jumper and all in all seem to be quite a happy little bugger.

Almost daily, my heart nearly explodes with love for you for the millionth time.  It goes beyond measure.  I am so thankful for you in my life and I do try to tell you this at least daily lest you ever wonder how much you are loved.  I don't ever remember being so happy as I am every day now that you are here.  I so look forward to the wonderful adventures the next month will bring.  

I love you,

Mommy