Halloween & Leaves

Happy Halloween!

Lewis was a surfer this year, and boy did he pull it off well! Norah's Auntie Dawn sent him a wet suit a few months ago. After seeing how cute it was, we knew we had a Halloween costume in the makings. Mom and Dad made a surfboard and perfected slicking up Lewis's hair, and that was about it!

We had a lovely Halloween week with lots of celebrating throughout. Lewis and Mommy attended a Halloween story hour at the library on the Thursday just before Halloween. By the end of it, Lewis had learned how to say trick or treat, and was pretty excited about actually getting treats. So, we were in business! We lucked out with 70 degree weather that day too, which was perfect for our little surfer.

That afternoon we met Daddy in Princeton. We actually thought we were meeting up for the parade, but turns out it was the following day. So, little surfer boy strode around Princeton, and we all went to our favorite Indian restaurant for dinner.

Friday evening we actually did catch the Princeton Halloween parade, complete with a DJ and dance party at the end. Lots of fun! That evening our church did a trunk or treat, and Lewis loved running around with all the other kids.

On Saturday, Lewis got a few more treats at the Philadelphia Children's Museum with Daddy. They loved it! Afterwards they joined Mommy at the Macy's in center city. Norah and some other folks from choir were there to participate in a 680 person flash mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus in the middle of Macy's, accompanied by the largest operational pipe organ in the world! It was tons of fun!!!

Here's a link to the you tube video of the event! You can see Lewis (in purple shirt) on Mike's shoulders (blue shirt). At about 32 seconds, they're in the top right corner, and they end up at top center as the camera pans. It lasts until about 47 seconds. If you have eagle eyes, you can catch Norah's face and arm for one second in there, but she's too short! She's blocked for most of that! But, she's singing the soprano the whole time, so listen in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU

Sunday was the big day!

Lewis and his friend Carter went trick or treating together through the neighborhood. Neither Mom nor Dad wanted to miss out, so we left a bowl of candy by the door, and spent an hour or so visiting all the neighbors. We have such a lovely neighborhood with so many great people, and we feel very lucky! It was fun to see everyone! Sunday was significantly colder, so our little surfer had to turn in early, despite the layers he was wearing under his wet suit. But, he certainly got the hang of trick or treating after a few doors and loved saying "knock, knock". He didn't grace too many people with an actual "trick or treat", but he was pretty good at taking the candy! In fact, he was also pretty good at occasionally making a bit of a scene because he wanted to eat it right away!

I should mention that Lewis now loves dressing up in his costume. He has woken up every morning the past few days asking for his "board" and "hair"! The candy has magically disappeared overnight, and Lewis doesn't seem to remember it was there. Phew!

Lewis learned something else very important this weekend: how to jump in a pile of leaves. Daddy raked the front yard, and the two girls next door came over to show Lewis just how jumping is done! They had a ball. We spent well over an hour jumping in leaves together. A perfect fall afternoon!

Welcome Fall!

I love fall! Apple picking, pumpkin everything, beautiful weather, and putting off raking the leaves! We’ve been excited to do this all with Lewis!

The fall will also be focused on getting ready to welcome...Lewis’s baby brother! That’s right – we found out that it is definitely a boy! We’re very excited! Lewis also seems to be looking forward to meeting the baby. He loves to pat my tummy and say, “Hi Baby!” When he heard the heartbeat at a doctor’s appointment, he immediately yelled, “Baby!” And, when we had our ultrasound, he excitedly pointed to the screen and talked all about the baby. He certainly knows something is up! Thankfully, he also seems to be very interested in babies and very sweet with them. Little baby car seats are one of his favorite things to explore. We even babysat for a friend the other week and took care of her little newborn girl. This picture shows a priceless face, not quite knowing what to think. But, Lewis was actually very sweet with little baby Liana.

September brought another trip for Lewis, as well as a visit with Baba (Norah’s dad). Lewis and I flew out to meet Baba in California and visit Lewis’s Great Auntie Dawn – Peter’s sister. It was so wonderful to see her and get to spend time together. Mommy was a little nervous about the flight. We’ve actually flown quite a lot with Lewis, but this was my first time doing it alone. But, everything went well, and Lewis was a champ. We spent most of our time just chatting together and catching up. Lewis loved running around and around and around the loop between Dawn’s kitchen and living room. Dawn and Greg treated us to a trip to the aquarium, a visit to Huntington Beach, some yummy homemade Indian food, and great frozen yogurt. It was Lewis’s first time seeing big fish, and he quite liked them! We had a funny moment while walking around a street market in Huntington beach. Lewis saw two guys walking along who just had board shorts on – no shirts. Lewis got so excited and started pointing at them and yelling, “Nak! Nak!” (Short for nakey or naked!) This is going to be fun! He now loves identifying when anyone is “nak”!

After getting back home, we spent the weekend with Baba mostly just relaxing and catching up from the trip. Lewis stayed on east coast time while in Cali, so morning came really early...as early as 2:30am!!! As a side note, the only benefit to the 2:30 or 4am wake up calls was that it was so dark and Lewis was still so tired that he actually sort of lay down in bed and kind of even snuggled with Mommy for a few minutes each morning. That’s a first EVER!!! We had dinner with Jake, Mish & girls and had another first for Lewis: Lewis gave his first ever unsolicited hug! It wasn’t to Mommy either – it was to Rachel! What a lucky girl! He did proceed to give some other hugs after hugging Rachel, and I’m happy to report that Lewis does now like to hug when asked. In fact, if one person asks for a hug, he usually gets excited to hug everyone around! Besides his new hugs, Lewis is now remembering names much better, so he knows his cousins’ names and actually talks about them all the time. Wherever we are, he’ll all of a sudden call out “Rachel! Megan! Brie!” I think in his little pretend world, he’s always playing with his cousins!

We were able to visit Terhune Orchards with Baba to enjoy fall festivities and pick some apples. Lewis loved the corn maze. He really liked the live bluegrass music. He loved riding on the mini John Deere tractors and liked the actual, big tractor even better. He was very intrigued by the horses and goats. And, the cider donuts certainly were a hit for everyone. But, the absolute favorite was riding on the wagon, pulled by a big tractor all around the farm. We did one wagon ride at the main farm. Then we went out to the orchards to pick. Well, Daddy ended up riding around on the wagon with Lewis about 4 times while Baba and Mommy picked the apples. Apples are only so cool compared to tractors! Below is Lewis on the wagon, in the corn maze, and riding with Mommy on the tricycle.

Lewis started doing something else kind of funny! He’ll sometimes firmly tell me “bye” when he wants me to go away because he wants to do something he shouldn’t do. It’s mostly funny ;-) Well, the psychology apparently works the other way too. One day I was trying to put him down for a nap. Once I had him in his crib, he frantically started saying, “Hi! Hi! Hi!” What a clever way to try and keep Mommy in the room a little longer to play!

Baba then headed off for meetings in Boston and for a visit with Auntie Zeezee. In the meantime, we were off again! Mike had a couple recruiting events at Darden in Charlottesville, and we were SO excited to take advantage of that and have a family trip down to C-ville. I just love that little city! We drove down on a Thursday night, and came back the next Tuesday morning. We were able to spend time with our dear friends Aidyn and Mike who were expecting a baby. We had a great time catching up, going for walks, and eating yummy food. Lewis made firm friends with Mike who played ball with him up and down the stairs (a game Baba actually taught Lewis!). After dinner one evening, Mike decided to banish the pregnant ladies from the kitchen and asked Lewis if he wanted to help with the dishes. Lewis sort of looked at Mike, obviously not quite sure what it all meant. But, he clearly knew he liked Mike. He sort of sidled up close to Mike and waited to be picked up. He proved to be a great helper, sitting on the counter, handing Mike all of the dishes to be washed! So cute!

We went to the farmer’s market in C-ville on Saturday morning, ate at our favorite brunch spot, attended the Darden tailgate at the football game, and spent lots of time walking on the Downtown mall. Norah even managed to attend her old choir rehearsal. We also drove out to see our dear friends the Givens on Sunday, which was a real treat. But, by far the happiest part of the whole trip was getting to actually meet Aidyn and Mike’s little baby Vera. After a bit of a spicy meal at our favorite South African restaurant on Saturday night, things started moving along for Aidyn! So, on Monday morning, we were able to pop by the hospital to say hello. What a special visit! Mike came out from meeting little Vera, grabbed Lewis, and said, “You! You’re not a baby anymore, are you?!?” It made us even more excited for one more baby in our home.

Once we got home, Baba was back again, and we spent a little more time enjoying his visit. We took a trip to the farm, went to the park a few times, took in a polo match on Saturday, visited the Children's Museum in Philly (picture at bottom) and just enjoyed being together. It was lovely! Baba was also sweet enough to stay home with Lewis a few times so Mommy and Daddy could slip out. In fact, Mike surprised Norah with tickets to the “So You Think You Can Dance Tour”! It was awesome! I was like a giddy middle-school girl! Mike wasn’t too far off! We loved it! Lewis is definitely missing his Baba already, and so are we!

Other notables about our cute little boy...He’s jabbering about everything. Especially first thing in the morning, it’s nonstop chatter, identifying everything around. He’s completely obsessed with trucks, planes, cars, buses, etc. He points out every single truck, bus, or plane we see! In fact, he seems to have amazing hearing, because he always notices the planes well before I do! Right is a picture of him pointing out a plane. He also has started praying for the people in his life. He’ll put on this high little voice and fold his arms and say things like, “Eee Dada, Mama, Gogo, Didi, Rachel, Megan...Amen”. Adorable! His favorite song at the moment is "Popcorn." Sometimes he makes me sing it 5 times in a row because he can't get enough! Below right is him doing Popcorn while he's on the swing. Below left is him driving a real firetruck in Hopewell! Well, he didn't really drive it. But, they did let him get in and pretend! He loved it! What else? Lewis is still totally obsessed with talking on the phone. That was also a highlight of having Baba here...more beeping technology! “Phone! A call!” He never missed pointing out a call! Lewis still loves to talk on the real phone. (And occasionally manages to actually call someone in Mommy’s speed dial when she’s not looking. He has recently called Auntie Mish bright and early, and called Papa John at 5am Boise time...luckily they didn’t hear it!) But, he’ll talk on his toy phones or just on his hand or whatever. Just tonight he put his hand to his cheek and had a conversation that went something like this...“Mike! Mike! Mike! Hi Dada. Good. How are you. Eee Mama. A plane. Balls. It’s hot. Bye!” Oh my cute!!! I feel so lucky to be the mommy of this sweet boy!

And finally, Aunt Cat has requested more videos! So, I'll try to get on that!

Here's one of Lewis playing on the beach at Mike's triathlon. Yes, those weird noises are him. He was in a phase of doing this funny walking. It's disappeared now, so I'm so glad I caught it on video!

And, these two are of Baba playing with Lewis. Songs and ball. Songs and ball. Phone. Phone. Songs and ball. That's how to make Lewis a happy boy!

Closing Out the Summer

We were such lucky fish to have quite a few visitors at the end of the summer.

Norah’s Auntie Tippy came by for a visit. It was so lovely to catch up, and Lewis loved having someone with just as much energy as he has!

Our dear friends Kyler and Melyn also popped up for a visit. We stayed up for a late night chat (which mom and dad never do anymore!), and introduced them to some Bent Spoon before they left.

Then we got to have Gogo stay for a couple weeks. It was such a treat! Lewis took of f with talking just a little while before she came, so he was tons of fun. He’s been chatting about his Gogo ever since. In fact, she’s one of his favorite people to call on the phone! (That is the pretend phone...although we love the real calls too!)

Speaking of phone...here are Mommy’s favorite videos of Lewis talking on the phone!

While Gogo was here, we had lots of outings to the park and to our local, organic farm. We braved the 95 degree weather (that didn’t impress Mommy all summer long) to pick some cherry tomatoes and blackberries. Mmmm! Lewis loved both! On rainy days, we played at the children’s library at Princeton and visited the children’s museum in Philly. We also popped up to northern NJ to go to our cousin Audrey’s 1^st birthday party. It was a pool party, and Lewis had tons of fun splashing and running around.

Norah had a week away herself while Lewis stayed with his Auntie Mish and cousins. It wasn’t a luxurious week, by any means, but it was delightful. I went up to Girls Camp with our young women’s group from church. We had a truly wonderful week filled with lots of fun, laughter, and hugs. It was a spiritually uplifting week for me and for the girls, and I’m so grateful that I could go. If I could have taken my bed with me, it would have been absolutely, positively heavenly!!!

We had a really fun morning down in Medford Lakes, NJ for Mike's...triathlon! It's his first in 4 years, and he was amazing!!! It was a beautiful morning, the lake water was warm, and Mike did really well. He wouldn't let me show a picture of him running in his suit ;-), but here's the athletes starting the swim. Mike's somewhere at the very front, I'm sure!!! :-)

On Labor Day, Mike slipped down to DC for a day to go to a Boise State football game with all of the Wasden guys. He loved getting to spend time with his Papa John and brothers. And, while he’s not normally a big football guy, this was a fabulous game! Yay Boise!

We capped off our summer by returning the babysitting favor and having our nieces to stay for a week. SO FUN! We love cousins!!!

Jake and Michelle slipped away to Puerto Rico and we had lots of fun with Brie, Megan, and Rachel while they were gone. The girls arrived on a Tuesday night, a good while after Lewis had gone to bed. So, when he got up in the morning, he wasn’t even expecting to find them. Once everyone was up, the glee became very clear. We had about a 3 hour chase fest, complete with screams of delight and giddy laughter! It was so funny to see that by the end of the day, Lewis was just so tired from so much excitement that he sort of melted. In fact, every evening was “Mommy hold me” time, because he was just so worn out from all the fun. But, those days were oh-so-fun!

We had some great outings to a couple parks, as well as a lovely trip to pick at the farm. I don’t think I had ever been able to actually pick all of my allotted amount at the farm before, but with the girls to help me, we came home with enough tomatoes to feed an army and flowers to make arrangements for the whole house. We loved it! On the weekend, we visited the Grounds for Sculpture, a fabulous outdoor sculpture garden/museum, and went to the Princeton Jazz-Feast. Then we completed the evening with a fancy, candlelit meal of PB&Js!

Above is Rachel holding Lewis, who just woke up. Lewis at the park, sporting his cool hair-do from his cousins. And, Lewis playing with his friend, Hailey.

We’re sorry to see the summer end, although pregnant Norah is SO relieved to say goodbye to the 95 degree weather!