TRICK OR TREAT

Happy Halloween! Our little Spiderman was quite the trick or treating expert this year. He would rattle off a cute 'trick or treat' at each door, sometimes even yelling it over and over again as he is running up the driveway! He was even good about saying 'thank you' too. However, we had some issues....like, if people wouldn't open the door fast enough, he would try to open it and just go inside. Oh, and he would dig his little hands into the candy bowls - which didn't go over well with people who are protective of their candy and prefer to hand it to the kids rather than having them dig in. Oh, and did I mention, he even took candy out of an older girl's bucket - hey she was tall, so the bucket was right at eye level for him. He had an absolute blast - and we did too. Our first 'holiday' that he was able to fully enjoy!

We even made a special trip to Spencer to trick or treat with cousins - Matayah and Kendra. Grandpa Rick turned 30 (times 2!) on October 31st, so we dropped in as a surprise and grabbed some extra candy while we were in town!

OCTOBER FUN

Halloween cupcakes for Grandpa Rick's birthday. Ethan looked 'cheeto-stained' after we cleaned him all up! Yep, that's Mommy in the background saying, "NOT IT!"

Ethan - Ewww...gucky puppet (pumpkin). Wait, no, it's scary in there (the jack-o-lantern Daddy marked out).

FALL OR SUMMER?

We continue to experience strange weather patterns - pretty much all of September was hot and dry, but painful for allergies! Then we hit October where it's cold at night and warm during the day - a nightmare for your wardrobe. And now we are nearing the end of October and it finally feels like fall, although, the local news reported tiny little snowflakes in Central Iowa today.

We are just cruisin' on with life - so perfect, organized, well kept - just like a young child playing among the pollen-filled weeds in the front yard....

...and creating a perfect environment for peaceful slumber.

And, well, whatever tomorrow brings.......

RAGWEED, GRASSES, AND HORSES...OH MY!

We went in for another round of allergy testing today. Ethan suffers from severe environmental allergies, for his age. They typically don't start testing until age 5, but we had to get him tested at age 1, and then again here at age 2. We were hoping for some improvement, but no dice. He is allergic to dogs, cats, horses, most trees, all types of grass, certain molds, and especially ragweed. BUT - he is not allergic to dust - thank goodness! We have a medicine plan to keep him comfortable, and hope to hold off on weekly allergy shots until he goes to kindergarten.

Ethan did awesome - not a single cry or whine, just some 'ouch!' and 'no way!'. Also, we got a good weight and height reading today - 38lbs and 39 1/4" tall! Still a big boy!

Some have asked what an allergy test looks like - below is a picture of Ethan's back after the nurse pricked him with the testing pads. It just looks like perfect lines of bug bites. The really red/big ones are his allergies and the tiny ones are just minute or normal. Then we have to let it sit for 10 minutes - which equals f-o-r-e-v-e-r with a 2 year old that wants to itch his back! Thankfully the nurse brought in stickers - and mommy had pens in her purse!

The nurse had to put markings on Ethan's back with a pen, so when I handed Ethan a pen to color with - he went right for his belly! Might as well have pictures on both sides, I even drew a little smiley face above his belly button :)

KLINGE'S VISIT

Our great, awesome friends - Nate, Kelly, Miles - came to visit us in early September. We had an 'architecture' wedding to attend in Ames, so Aunt Jessi came to watch the boys while we re-lived our college days for an evening.

Miles and Ethan are the same age, so they are quite the entertainment. We started the weekend with Ethan being a bit protective of his stuff - anything Miles had, Ethan would throw a fit - acting like he specifically had intentions of playing with that toy even though he hasn't played with it for 2 months. Then he warmed up and they became partners in crime. Ethan would copy everything Miles was doing, and then eventually the tables would turn and Miles would copy everything Ethan was doing.

We hope to soon get to Chicago to visit the Klinge's on their turf and have some city fun!

FALL IS NEAR!

I'll admit, I am pretty picky about when I want to be outside. I need it to be the right temperature - and now that fall is approaching, the weather is PERFECT. We have been eating many meals on the deck and fresh air has been the best ingredient. I really do not want fall to end...ugh, and winter to begin.

Oh, and we still have some sparklers left over from July :)

FAMILY TIME

With August being my super busy time at work (this year has been the worst thus far) - we did some winding down and focused on some just-the-3-of-us family time. We are on the onset of football season, so we had some excitement and preparations for the upcoming season!

Daddy made a bean bag toss game for our ISU tailgate. The complete artist in him traced and hand painted Cy right onto the board. Of course, Ethan wanted to paint too - just like Dad. So I gave him a little paintbrush and some "paint" (water - shhh, don't tell), and he painted on paper. Oooh, was that fun, or what! We may be getting close to watercolor painting! Yikes - I just hate messes that have disaster written all over them!

Now, stickers - harmless and mess free (except when they get super stuck to the floor or get run through the wash on a shirt, but no big deal).

And, Mike thought it was fun and creative to expose Ethan to the world of Mario Kart. Sorry to say, you get quite dizzy watching Ethan play, but it is cute how he reacts to the 'CARS!'. Now, I have never been a fan of kids playing video games - really anyone playing video games. I think I still have a complex because my parents never let me have that beloved Nintendo that I always wanted. But, it's an ok complex to have! I much prefer sleeping or pretend driving around the house.

NEW FAVORITE RECIPE

We really like Breakfast food at our house - any time of the day (well, except mornings...unless its the weekend)! So, we were getting a bit bored with our regular food routine - so I decided to try and make up our own breakfast pizza. Those who know me well know that cooking isn't quite my thing. But, I try, and when I succeed, I am ALL OVER IT! So, I thought I would share in my glory...

Homemade Breakfast Pizza

1 Mama Mary's Thin Crust

4oz. Velveeta cheese

4-6 Sausage links

6-8 Bacon slices

5 eggs

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Milk

Prep the toppings - scramble the eggs, cook the bacon and crumble, cook the sausage and slice. Then prep the cheese sauce - melt the Velveeta with a splash of milk (about 2 min. or so in the microwave) - stir, stir, stir! Spread sauce over the crust before it thickens too much, sprinkle scrambled eggs, sprinkle mozzarella cheese (to your liking!), add the bacon and sausage, then a bit more mozzarella. Voila - Breakfast pizza! Cook for about 10 minutes at 350 - really until the shredded cheese is melted.

Now, it's not going to win any health food awards, but it sure is good! Mike made these for his office breakfast a couple weeks ago - many said it was better than Casey's Breakfast pizza! Heck ya!

ICE CREAM TRUCK

The old fashioned ice cream truck made a surprise visit to our neighborhood over Labor Day weekend, music and all! It was a beautiful day, so we had the windows open in the house - we heard the music and went running! Ethan opted for "Piderman i-keen-cone", which was a lot more fun to look at than actually eat. And, sharing? Yeah right....

ADVENTURES AT THE DINNER TABLE

The ever infamous spaghetti face. I plan to continue taking pictures of him eating spaghetti - even when he is a teenager!

Sooooo sleeeepy. Our first official nap at the table. Either my food is too boring or just too comforting!

Sick baby....we battled a bit of a flu bug at the end of August. I finally got him to agree to eat "sghetti and eatballs", but this is the look he gave me. He did end up eating a good portion and was chipper as could be for the rest of the night!

SWEET CORN HELPER

BBQ

Well, each day Ethan is being more and more grown up. I asked him today if he was a baby - he said, "No, I not baby, I bee-boy (big boy)." Now if I could only channel that attitude with potty training, we would be set (BTW- no progress on that!). Anyways, on to Ethan's latest creativity....We got Ethan a Little Tikes BBQ grill for Christmas, he played with it a bit this winter, but then lost interest. Well, now all of sudden he is totally into it. "Mom! Help me!" - as he brings me the apron and is very still and patient while I put it on him. And he headed to the grill and started cooking! I'd like to say, well at least play BBQ doesn't make a mess - wrong. He is his father's child :)

RANDOM FUN

One thing that we have been enjoying every few weeks is venturing down to the DSM Farmers Market. We get our veggies, bread, popcorn, and the occasional piece of breakfast pizza, but this last time we had an extra stop as we were wandering - the new balloon animal guy. I have never seen balloon animals made like this before, and well, neither has Ethan. We asked for a frog - and Ethan's face was priceless when the guy handed it to him! A jaw-dropping moment for Mr. Ethan. Too bad it happened too fast and we couldn't capture it. This poor frog never stood a chance...

I had about 5 seconds to take a picture of it before Ethan grabbed it back!

Mom! I catch it!

He carried it around in the net most of the time. I showed Ethan how to make the frog hop - and well, that was the end of Mr. Balloon Frog! He did last right around 24 hours...

SUMMER NAP

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

We headed to Ames for our annual tradition of watching the fireworks on the 4th of July. Our good friends, Matt and Mo, joined us this year. Ethan was all about being like Dad - mostly because Dad was in control of lighting the sparklers and such. He even had to sit on the tailgate just like Dad! This kid is just always on the go - until we force him to sit (like in the car seat), then he is out! He slept in until 9:30 the next morning.

The night before we had done some sparklers and snakes out on the deck...what a blast (no pun intended)!

Look Mom! I'm not afraid!

Ooooohhh - 2 at once!

NOOOO! Again! (the sparkler burnt out and he wasn't happy when that happened!)

'cank u' (thank you) - he says

Daddy finally got Ethan to understand that you need to wave it around a little bit - that is until he waved it a little too hard and burned a hole in Dad's shirt! hahaaha! (No one was hurt, so we can laugh)!

We really had to emphasize - NO TOUCHING - so he poked the flaming snakes with his burnt out sparkler. Hey, we are trying to go for 'parents of the year' ok?!

FREE HAIRCUTS

Ethan has been blessed with his parents' thick, fast growing hair...it's ridiculous what we spend on haircuts for a 2 year old! So, Mike - my creative, confident, and spontaneous husband - decided to venture out and buy some clippers so he and Ethan can play 'Barber' in the middle of the living room. And being the prepared father that he is - he bought suckers too!

It turned out well! We will see how this goes in the future.....