Tag Archives: costume

November 4, 2018

Trick or Treat! It was a soggy and wet night for Trick or Treat this year, but the boys enjoyed walking around the neighborhood with Abbie and Finn’s classmate Ethan, who joined us this year. Reid made it 3/4 of the way through the neighborhood before heading home to get to bed. Griffin had so much candy that by the last house it was spilling out the top of his pumpkin! I was able to go to Finn’s class party this week. All of the kids were dressed in their costumes and enjoying sweet treats and classroom games. The second group picture is of Mrs. Menary and Mrs. Wilkers classes together as they investigated the differences in the white and orange pumpkins.  Here are some samplings of Griffin’s artwork. The first is a drawing of our family and the second is Finn playing football which still seems to be his all time favorite sport.  Griffin earned his third sticker on his pink booklet this week, learning the words as, an, can, have, was.  And here are some other photos from our week. The boys love playing in the driveway, I made Instant Pot Sesame Chicken which turned out delish (nevermind the look on Finn’s face!), the boys enjoying ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs, and unfortunately the last one is of them at the pediatrician’s office where they were both diagnosed with Croup! Griffin woke up Sunday at 5:30 in the morning and sounded like he was having a really hard time breathing. He kind of freaked himself out and began gagging and drooling (and then began to freak me out). Neither of them seem too bad, though our experience at the pediatric support center (affiliated with our pediatricians office) was less than ideal. The nurse gave Finn his medicine first, but mistakenly gave him Reid’s dose. I asked her if she gave him the wrong syringe as they had a confused look on her face, and she proceeded to ask Finn to open wide as she dispensed more medication from the second syringe into his mouth (down to a certain amount and then stopped). She then had Reid open wide and gave him the remaining portion. I was not happy at all and asked the physician to come back in to the room. He had the personality of a card board box and wasn’t really apologetic much at all. I’ve since voiced my concern and experience to our actual pediatricians office who were quite apologetic that we had such a poor experience. 

October 28, 2018

It’s that time of year again where Kevin finds us fun costumes to wear to our friends Halloween Party! This year we were players from the movie Dodge Ball. Claire and Eric hosted another great party this year. We went over together with our neighbors Brian and Lisa  – and Wyndbend Blvd took home some awards! We won for “Funniest Costume” and Brian and Lisa won “Scariest Costume”. It’s always a fun night. Griffin tagged along with me to the mall for a second time within a week. He’s always excited to play in the play space, wanting me to watch his every move as he happily jumps off the animals and runs at high speeds. Today we also brought home Tracker, his new Beany Boo.  Griffin was so excited that he received the accessories from our Dodgeball uniform outfits. He’s loving the sweatbands for his wrists and head as well as the dodgeball itself.  Hannah did some cute artwork with Reid this week while Finn was at school. So cute! Cole and Cooper will not be with Brian and Lisa for Trick or Treat, and since our tradition is to walk around the neighborhood together we weren’t going to be able to do that. Brian and Lisa invited us over to their house for some pre Trick-or-Treat fun of dinner and decorating cookies. The kids exchanged some candy and had fun playing together.  On Saturday Griffin went to another birthday party for his friend Jonas, who goes to Tyler Run but is in a different class. They play together on the playground and also were classmates at Locker Soccer for soccer lessons. His mom, Laura, sent me the cutest picture from the party which was at Jonas’ house, a small gathering of friends. He had a great time! We celebrated Lily’s 10th birthday on Sunday. Our girl is definitely aging, she has a constant limp from the arthritis she has in many of her joints (elbows, knees, shoulders, ankles). But She’s a tough cookie. And when she’s excited about something or someone arrives home she jumps right up and darts to the door like a young pup, and a loud obnoxious one too! Her alert barking is still very much on point. And she is the best tattle-tale, often barking a signature bark when she is alerting us that Brutus is getting in to something or has something that he shouldn’t. She’s a smart and sassy one. She loves to be cuddled and finds peaces in the smallest and quietest spaces. Happy Birthday sweet Lils!

November 5, 2017 ~ 24 weeks

I woke up on Saturday morning and discovered that Reid has gotten his first tooth! His lower left has just broken through his gums. He is really not bothered but it certainly explains all the drool and the stuffy nose and congestion he’s had over the last week or two.

On Monday I visited Finn at preschool for the Book Character Week Parade. His Monkey class portrayed the raccoon from the book The Kissing Hand. It was fun to surprise him and see the kids all parade around the room and all of the parents gawking at our kids, ha!

On Tuesday, ironically Trick or Treat night, both Griffin and I had dental check ups. He checked out really well with healthy teeth and no cavities. Since it was Halloween all of the office staff were dressed up, even Dr. Bob! I visited a new dental office for my first visit ever to an office that wasn’t my Dad’s! I, on the other hand, had two cavities 🙁  Not too bad I guess for not having had regular check ups over the last several years. Later that evening Jim and Pat came up for our traditional Trick or Treat night. Sam and Debbie stayed for pizza and trick or treating with the rest of our neighborhood crew. Reid wore Finn’s Astronaut costume, which I didn’t even try on him until it was time to put him in it to leave. It happened to fit perfectly – thank goodness. He’s a super cute astronaut to go along with his big brother who was a Storm Trooper. The kids this year were so FAST! They ran from house to house at full speed and we hit each house in our neighborhood in about an hour and a half. A great night of fun. Kevin mentioned to me the next day how much he really enjoyed just walking our neighborhood and watching Griffin have such fun and joy. I couldn’t agree more! He had a fun time.  Debbie snapped this pic of some tummy time this week. Sweet Brutus just loves to be close.  We attended the calling hours and funeral of our friend Chad’s step-dad who passed away after a long fight with cancer. He was a really well known and respected farmer who was heavily involved in different organizations and in the community. The turnout at the calling hours and funeral was incredible, we waited an hour and 45 minutes in line and we didn’t arrive until 7 pm, three hours into the calling hours. The funeral procession also drove through his farm en route to the cemetery where a combine had been placed as well. We certainly have wonderful memories of our visit to their farm in the fall of 2014 when we rode in a combine with Dave. He taught us about farming and showed us much about how the combines work.
Reid now sleeps in only a warm sleeper or a long sleeve onesie and a sleep sack. Since he is no longer being swaddled he definitely prefers to sleep on his belly, just like Griffin. I’m also becoming increasingly aware that I’ve encouraged poor sleep habits. He will not fall asleep without his pacifier and if it pops out and he wakes up he is not able to get himself back to sleep without it (since I’ve long been popping it back in when I hear him wrestle and cry). Having him near me in our room has been great but I’m beginning to think we should have moved him to his own room a month or more ago as he now is very aware when he is alone and he really can’t get himself to sleep on his own at all. If I put him down still awake it always ends in screaming and crying or if I put him down nearly asleep he will often startle and wake up and I’ll have to start over again. Ugh. Much to work on in the coming weeks.  Here are a few others of me trying to snap a pic of his first tooth. He’s too quick so most of these are a bit blurry and it’s pretty hard to see a white spot on his gums! Griffin had school pictures this week too and Kevin snapped this pic in the morning before he left for school. I like putting in pictures of some of his school work so that we can go back and see how much he has improved over time. This week it was all about pumpkins! On Friday we joined my parents and the Bethune’s for dinner at The Spaghetti Warehouse. I didn’t get too many photos other than this one of Finn showing us how he likes to eat his noodles.