Fall Fun: Cox Farm and Halloween

A month ago we decided to get in the spirit of the season and head over to Cox Farms in Centerville, VA. It is about an hour away from where we live so we left early so we could get there around when it opened. Unlike much of this area, the drive to get there was actually really nice! There was so much to do there - a hayride, petting zoo area, corn maze, kiddie zone area, rope swing and slides, slides, slides and more slides. This place had so many slides. We did not go on any this year as we thought Sean was still a little small for them, but we're looking forward to next year when he will be a perfect age to sit in one of our laps. :-) We played in the kiddie zone for a bit. It had a wooden train that Sean enjoyed playing in. I think if he had been walking on his own at that time we would have had to drag him away. We went on a hayride and had a great time. Sean was a little squirmy in the beginning but as soon as he turned to face out of the hayride he seemed to like it. It was fun to go somewhere together as a little family of 3. Brett and I also got to purchase some fun fall foods to bring home (kettle corn for me, apple cider doughnuts for Brett and a gallon of real apple cider to share). Here are several pictures from the trip. Looking forward to next year! 

This picture is not completely accurate since this was on a bit of hill and he was actually taller than that in August at his birthday, but close enough! :-) 

Captain Sean! 

We were thrilled to get this picture; Sean clearly was not!

Snoozing on the trip home. 

Halloween was on a Friday this year which was really nice. I took the day off anyway just to make sure I would be home to take pictures before it got too dark. I wasn't going to send Sean to daycare that day but found out that they were having a little Halloween party and I wanted him to enjoy that. I let him sleep in, dropped him off mid-morning and picked him up after lunch. They told me he cried in his costume (not surprising) but loved the pizza they had for lunch (also not surprising). We did not end up going trick-or-treating with him (people start a bit on the later side here) but took a slew of pictures outside before it got dark. He was Winnie the Pooh. To say that he did not like the costume is an understatement. He did not mind it tooooo much until we put the hood/head on then he would cry and cry and cry. They only reason we got pictures outside is because he forgot he had the hood on! Here are some pictures from our photo shoot. 

This is the test of run of the costume the night before Halloween

Sean loved watching the kids come to the door

Sean also tried candy for the first time! We went with a kit kat. To say he liked it is a huge understatement. See for yourself! 

Looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving this coming week and having a few extra days off to spend together as a family. 

We have a walker!!

I have a few things in the queue that I need to blog about but this one bumps them all. 

Sean has been so close to walking for a while now. He cruises easily with just a little hand on the couch and practically runs when using his walker. He has been taking one step for a little bit - letting go of the couch, taking one step then grabbing onto something else so we don't really count this as walking. For the past week or so he has been standing up on his own without holding onto anything and you can tell he is thinking about making a move but he would either try and walk and fall down or he would just plain sit down without trying. Tonight, after running around like a little wild man with his walker, Brett and I put him in between us and encouraged him to walk. He stood there for a bit looking at both of us then walked 6-7 steps on his own, though not actually to either of us! Of course Brett and I started hooting and hollering but neither had a camera running (which we are very happy about as we really got to take the moment in). After several tries with the camera we caught this on tape. The video starts after he has taken about 6 steps on his own (from where Brett is standing) but I could not get the camera turned on fast enough. He seems very proud of himself, hence the noise he is making. 

We could not be more thrilled, although we know once he gets the hang of it everything will change! Can't believe how fast our little man is growing up! 

October Seanisms

Little man is turning into a little boy more and more everyday. He has started to babble with somewhat real words recently so wanted to get a few of them down before I forgot. Here are a few things that Sean can say right now. 

Dada = Daddy
Booh = Book - basically he can almost say book, but can't figure out getting the k sound on the end
Du = Duck - same as above
Uh Ah = Uh Oh
Baba = Bottle (he also refers to his favorite food Puffs as Baba but we are trying to discourage this - lol)

When I dropped him off at Daycare this morning my arm brushed something hanging on the door and Sean said "Uh Ah"! 

Although he can't say them yet he definitely knows more words. He can find his Jungle Babies book (one of his favorites) even if it is all the way on the other side of the room. All you have to say is "Where is Jungle Babies?" and he will stop what he is doing and start searching around for it. He puts his hands on his head if you ask him where his head is. He will sometimes wave Byebye - although usually it is delayed and he will clap if asked (and if he is in a good mood). He seems to like his chair more, but he still does not sit in it; rather he prefers to stand and bang on the wall or sit on one of the arms that is flush with the wall. Hopefully he will use it as a real chair someday! 

He has also learned a few naughty habbits recently. He will screech when a toy he really likes gets taken away from him (such as when we have to leave for school in the morning). He loves, loves, loves to throw all his toys through the railing in the living room. If he is playing somewhere he shouldn't be and gets moved, he will make his body go limp, which threw us for a loop the first few times and we came close to dropping him. And lastly, he has entered the stage of throwing or, in his case, dropping food on the floor. Typically it is either something he does not like or when he has decided he is finished. 

Of course, no blog post would be complete without some pictures. :-) 

Where's your head? 

 Preferred chair sitting position

Sean's new favorite thing to do - throw toys through the railing

And just because I think he looks like such a little angel here. . Melt my heart baby boy!

Sean loves to dance!

In the past month or so we have noticed that Sean loves to dance. We first noticed that he would dance (shake his arms when music was on) with the mini refrigerator/stove he got for his birthday. Now he will randomly start dancing when he hears music no matter what he is doing. Below are a couple videos of the little man dancing. They make us laugh every time we watch them. We love that he seems to really like music. 

Here he is taking a little dancing break with his walker. 

Happy Friday!!

Sean's First Year in Monthly Pictures

I have posted a few of these before in the blog but wanted to post all 13 (one from the day he was born). We printed these out and had them on the wall at his birthday party. It is really incredible to see him grow through the pictures! At his doctor's appointment the day after his birthday he was in the 99th % for height and 96th % for weight. He has certainly come a long way since when he was born he was so little he was not even on the charts for his age. 

Sean is 1!!

Oh boy - I am a little embarrassed that it is October already and I have not blogged about Sean's birthday and that I did not blog at all in September. Since I am partly doing this for Sean I definitely need to get better about finding time to blog. 

Anyway - - Sean turned 1 on August 21! Mom and Dad both stayed home from work so we could hang with the little man all day. It was a wonderful day. Sean slept in a bit and woke up in a great mood. We opened a few presents. Sean still does not really get the whole "present" thing but seemed pretty excited about some of his new books. Here is a picture of all his loot! 

Sean seems to like his new chair, although he rarely sits in it. He prefers to climb it. Brett snapped this picture and I am still shocked we got it since the pictures that follow it show how Sean looks in the chair 99% of the time! 

It currently sits in a corner so that he can not tip it over when he climbs on it. Hopefully someday he will actually use it as a chair. :-) 

After Sean's nap we took our last set of monthly sticker pictures. I have to say I got a little emotional here! I loved taking those monthly pictures. Here are a couple from this last photoshoot. 

Later on in the afternoon we gave cake a try. I was not overly optimistic that it would go well as Sean did not like to get messy with his food. He would not touch the cupcake. He would not even open his mouth to try it. Finally I stuck his hand in it (2nd picture below) and he was less than thrilled to say the least! 

It was a wonderful day and we are so happy that the three of us got to spend it together. Sean has brought more joy into our lives than we ever thought possible and we love him more and more each day. 

The following Saturday we had a little party at the house. My parents, sister and a few friends came over to celebrate. Major shout out to my sister Kerrigan who drove up from Richmond and hit horrendous traffic. We really appreciated you not giving up and making it to the party. Sean loves his aunt/godmother!! The party was Winnie the Pooh themed and we had a lot of fun picking out decorations, ordering balloons and ordering the cake! The cake again did not go over so well, but that just meant more for the rest of us! :-) 

August Already!

This summer sure is flying by as well as the weeks since our last post. When I first started writing this post it was the first week in August (hence the subject line) but we got a little sidetracked and here we are at the end of August doing a post covering the last month! Sean has done so much developing in the last month that I think this will be a long one. 

In the time since the last post a month ago, Sean learned to pull up. At first he could only do this if he was crawling toward something (like the couch) using his momentum to help propel himself up. Here is a picture from the first time we ever saw him do this. Of course, he used the remote control as his motivator. :-) 

Shortly after he figured out how to pull up from a stationary position so now he pulls up on everything!! This includes the crib. Sean is teething pretty badly right now and one day we noticed some strange marks on the crib rail. After talking it over a bit we decided Sean made the marks with his teeth while standing up. The very next day Brett walked into them room and Sean had just done it again! So, off to the internet I went and bought something to protect the crib rail. So far, it seems to be working. 

The last weekend of July Sean got Baptised by Father Malm at Grace Church. He also married Brett and I so it was extra special that he was able to baptise Sean. It was a nice service although Sean did not want to fully cooperate and cried during the lead up to the actual pouring of the water. The church seemed to find it amusing though and as soon as Sean was put on the ground afterwards he was happy as could be. We don't have many pictures but several are on other cameras so will post some when we get those. 

The second week in August we visited Gemma and Poppa and had a really great visit. Sean had his first experience in a real pool which, once we moved out of the baby pool he seemed to really like. Ironically, we decided that he was too small for the baby pool since he can't walk yet, and crawling would have put his face under the water. We switched over to one of the bigger pools and just held him in the water and motered around with him. He had a ball with this, especially when with his Poppa! We took a ton of pictures so here are just a few. 

I forgot to pack extra clothes to put on to wear on the drive home so in order not to soak the carseat, we changed his diaper and put him in this way. He either did not like to be almost naked in his carseat or he really did not want to leave. Either way, I thought it was mildly amusing and took a picture. 

We had a delicious dinner that night outside. Sean did not participate in the dinner but ate Cheerios and Puffs while we were eating (he had eaten his own dinner earlier). He seemed to enjoy being outside with us. 

Sean sleeps in a pack and play next to us when we visit. This is what we woke up to Sunday morning and how we knew it was definitely time to get up! 

While we were there, we also visited a local park. Sean had a blast. You may remember the first few times we took Sean to the park and tried the swings he was unimpressed and showed zero emotion one way or the other. Well, what a difference a few months makes! Sean loved the swing this time, giving us big smiles both times we put him on it. He also cried and had a death grip on the swing when we tried to take him out. Below is a little video of him swinging for the 2nd time that day followed by some other pictures at the playground. 

Right next to the park is where Brett used to play little league baseball. Of course we had to take some pictures on same field! 

Sean also began "cruising" while we were there or walking while holding onto something. We happened to catch it on video the 2nd time he did it. It is only a few side steps but very exciting for us. Hard to believe he went from barely being able to pull up on something to pulling up on everything and starting to cruise around! 

We had a really great visit and were sad to leave! 

The very next weekend Sean progressed a little more and walked with his walker. Brett and I were both sitting in the room with him and he just stood up and started pushing it (kind of awkward very large steps at first but by the second pass was much smoother). We turned him around and captured a video. He has done it a few more times since then but sometimes he gets lazy and drops to his knees and pushes it at that level. 

Last week Sean turned one and pushed through another new tooth! I think his birthday deserves its very own post so will be posting that soon. 

Here are just a few extra pictures that I think describe Sean right now. 

Being his inquisitive self. . . . 

Playing with his books - although his favorite are lift the flap books 

Be back soon with a post on his birthday!