The End of Our Vacation

I was off of work the entire week last week for Thanksgiving.  In the past we always planned vacations, but limited funds this year kept us at home.  It was actually nice to have both Dylan and I home and not have anywhere we had to be for an entire week!  I also loved not having to leave my son for 9 whole days. 

These are from a few weeks ago, but accurately represent what we do on a regular basis.  Kyton loves being outside, and I work on photography projects, but outside with the laptop while Kyton enjoys the fresh air.

  Can you tell what he is using for a “ball?” It’s a green orange. He thinks it’s neat that we have a ball tree.

Only 4 more weeks until Christmas Vacation.

Don’t Tell Daddy!

My husband likes to have everything neat and clean… which he has realized is nearly impossible with a toddler around.  He sees no value to allowing our son to investigate things that may lead to a mess.

I on the other hand feel that is is a huge part of his development to expose him to different feels, smells, textures, sights and sensations. If he wants to try something, as long as he won’t be hurt by it I gladly let him try. Dylan can’t understand when we have such a hard time keeping the house clean as it is, I would let our son intentionally create a mess.

I was completing a survey for a program that was trying to sell an overpriced book on child development, and one of the questions they asked was if he scribbles on paper. The truth is that we had never let him play with paper.

When I realized that the mommy guilt set in big time! The next day I set him in his high chair and we let him color with a pen, markers and crayons.  Dylan was not home so we, really means I.  Dylan does not know.

 

 

One of Kyton’s friends gave him toddler markers for his birthday, along with magic paper that only writes on the paper. Dylan said that we could keep it, but he was not about to use it himself.

He started off by eating the marker, but I figure it is child safe, right?

He had a little help writing his name.

 

He had a blast, and the marker was washable. Any other fun craft ideas for our little one?

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Carving

When I lived in Ohio we would carve our pumpkin toward the beginning of October so that we could enjoy them for a few weeks.  In Florida it is so warm that the pumpkin rots in two days. We actually carved the day before Halloween. 

Dylan wanted to include Kyton in the pumpkin cleaning.  He loves getting messy and touching gross things. 

but he did not want pumpkin guts on his hand, and wanted nothing to do with the cleaning process. 

See the ‘goo’ mid- air in the above photo?

After observing Dylan, Kyton decided that he would help daddy finish cleaning the pumpkin.

Then he decided to play in the goo,

and dump the goo. 

Dylan did all of the real carving.

Here’s Dylan’s finished product. 

What did you carve in your pumpkin?

Our Halloween Costume Fail

I know that Halloween was over a week ago, but I am just taking a look at the photos.  Dylan took all of the photos, so there’s not too many.

We went to Kyton’s friend’s house for a party and trick-or-treating.  Kyton was Mario from the Super Mario Brothers.  He wore blue overalls, a red shirt and we made the little yellow button out of foam. I drew on a mustache.

 

We also made him a foam hat, which really made the costume.  He HATED the hat.  I knew he was not  a fan of hats, but I thought I’d get him to wear it for a little bit.  He would not even pose for one picture with the hat.  If you put the two pictures below together you can see our vision for his costume.

People thought he was a farmer, a baby, not dressed up and I heard one person say, look they dressed their kid as an orphan. 

Kyton still had fun, and really enjoyed getting candy and spending time with his friends. 

Any better ideas for next year?

I Heart Faces: Orange

The theme for I heart Faces this month is Orange.  Given the color of my son’s hair, it was not a theme that I could pass up. 

I love this photo at the pumpkin patch.  He is wearing overalls that belonged to Dylan, my husband when he was a little boy.  My mom joked that we are lucky that we did not lose him in the pumpkin patch.