Halloween was super fun this year. We had our annual party on the 30th, with great friends and family in attendance. Very kid friendly this year! Ah, there were many little ones running around, all very cute in their costumes. Christopher was Superman (he kept yelling "Superfast, superpowers!!" Josh was a dragon, Sam was Batman, Eileen was an adorable kitten and Emily was a cat.
On the big day Christopher woke up and the first thing out of his mouth was "Trick or Treat!" loudly over the monitor... then, "MAMA, let me out!!" He was excited all day long because he knew we were going over to see his friends Beckett and Grason and trick or treat with them. His costume was that of a skeleton and he wanted to wear makeup so I tried... but little boys don't sit very still. We had a great night and lots of fun with the Mitchell's and Stanley's.
Here are a few pics of Christopher.
Checking out his makeup in the mirror. He kept going "rawr" and trying to be scary. It was cute.
Chris being "scary" for the camera.
Christopher's costume meets Adam's costume. He was a hillbilly skeleton. Chris loves wearing those dang teeth.
We've been busy here, running a business, being run by a 2 year old (yes the fun has begun) getting the homestead winter ready and tying up some loose ends. We can't wait for Halloween! Christopher has been practicing saying "Trick or Treat" and is excited to go out with his buddies Beckett and Grason to grab some candy.
We had another fun day at the pumpkin patch this year... and what a difference a year makes. Christopher was much more able to enjoy what the Pasco Country Mercantile at 2 and 1/2 than he was last year; hay maze, corn maze, tractor ride, pumpkin picking, bounce house, hay towers (these were fun) and petting zoo.
We ran around, tasted many yummy goods, bought some cider and fudge, Christopher fell into a couple of rotten pumpkins... stinky, very stinky, hah. Here are some pictures of the fun. Hope you all are enjoying fall as much as we are.
Climbing the tower of hay, as unaided as possible.
Sitting with daddy in the barn.
Smile!
Super fun tractor ride!! Don't you wish you were there.
Christopher is finally getting better after having a very serious fever for five days and a cold/cough and runny nose for many more days than that. I relented and took him to the Dr. on the 6th and sure enough the night before we went in his fever broke. He has a borderline ear infection, meaning he doesn't have one yet but is working on it if his congestion doesn't clear up. So Mucinex is our friend right now. Everyday he's getting better and better, he's not giving any indication that there is an impending ear infection (ear pulling, crying, acting like he can't hear me) so I think we're in the clear and get to avoid antibiotics. I've yet to give him any and I certainly don't want to start now if I don't have to.
Thank you to everybody who was concerned and wishing him well. All that positive energy flowing his way really helped. Lots of love to all of you.
Adam: Where does food go? Christopher: In my mouth. Adam: Then where does it go? Christopher: In my tummy. Adam: Where does it go after that? Christopher: In my shorts.
Me: What do brothers do? Christopher: They walk. Me: What else do brothers do? Christopher: They talk. Me: Do they do anything else? Christopher: Play with toys. Me: What do sisters do? Christopher: They in kitchen.
I love the things he comes up with sometimes, Christopher really makes us laugh. His answers are all unprompted and completely derived on his own, most of the time amazing us with what he comes up with. We can see his little mind working away as he comes up with some of the greatest things. Can't wait to share a little more wisdom from Christopher with you.
Christopher is 2 1/2 now. I can hardly believe it, time has gone by so darn fast. His wit amazes me along with his understanding of the world around him. Most days I can ask him a question that I'm sure he won't have the answer for and low and behold he gives me the cutest right on the nose answer almost every time. We really are blessed to have such a smart, funny, loving little man in our lives.
This summer we went through a lot of stickers. Most of which were stuck to Chris at one point or another.
Christopher enjoyed many an ice cream sandwich with his daddy after dinner. This always results in quite a mess and lots of smiles.
Another breakthrough we've had is that Christopher now "smiles" for the camera. I laugh my butt off every time we try to take a picture of him now as he does it without us asking.
We headed to the fairgrounds Ssaturday, bright and early at 9:00 a.m. in order to beat the heat. Our goals were simple; take Chris to see the animals, get some food, see some booths, and send the little guy down Big Pink. Adam was volunteering in the Elephant Ear booth the rotary club runs at noon so we had three hours which was plenty of time.
I'd forgotten how active the animals are earlier in the day during fair week we always seem to go in the evening and by then they are hot and tired. As we walked through the pig barn more than a couple of pigs were eager to check us out, sniffing and talking as we let Christopher take it all in. He got a little scared when one big snout touched his leg but was enjoying it otherwise. He pet quite a few bunnies, but was much more excited about the chickens. He kept saying we were at the circus. He had fun in Old McDonald's Barn and loved running on the hay barrels that surrounded the duck pond.
After the animals we went through the booths and non-living exhibits rather quickly. I even purchased my first duck ever. The next stop was funnel cake, Christopher's very fist taste of one. It was cute we pretty much had to tear it away from him. He found it very very tasty and was trying to finish it off by himself.
Then we headed over to Big Pink. Christopher loves slides so we had to get him on this one. Adam volunteered to go down with him. Chris loved it and was beaming by the time he got to the bottom of the slide. He even tried to walk back up it, silly boy. Next year we'll try to get him on more rides, he saw the strawberries and really wanted to get in one, however he's a bit short to get on most of them and we were pressed for time.
We meant to get turkey legs however they somehow were forgotten at the end of the day. Twitter saved us however. You see a friend of Adam's was still at the fair, we knew this because of her tweet and she graciously delivered turkey legs to the house, saving the day.
Not much new going on in the Baldwin household. Christopher is 2, and acting every minute of it. While he's exploring his environment and figuring out the workings of his world I'm trying very hard not to scream and hide in my room. It's hard to stay upset at him for all the naughty things; painting my desk with lotion, writing all over the couch, bending a beater beyond recognition, pouring flour all over the floor, and wreaking general havok... when you've got this looking back at you during most of it.
He's very charming when he wants to be and for every bad thing he does he also does something extraordinarily darling or smart. The time out step/corner is getting a lot of extra use right now, which I hope will slow down one of these days.
Adam is very very busy with nGenuity. He was featured as a young professional in the Tri-Cities Journal of Business this month which was a great achievement, here's the article. If you can get the actual print it has a very nice picture of him in it. Our friends Jennifer Mitchell (Account Sense) and Adam Brault (&yet) also were chosen, kudos to you!!
He went to Defcon at the beginning of the month and hacked his way through some fun with the mystery challenge. There are talks and things to learn... but I'm not sure he did any of that. Beer was drank, codes were broken, friends were made.
He's been talking to realtors and is looking to expand into some office space. This is a big and positive step forward. We'll see how this pans out over the next couple of months.
In between those things he's working very hard, he's out and about networking and making sure that he's doing all he can to have nGenuity be successful. While we miss his presence at home sometimes were hoping all the hard work now will enable him to be home/present more later.
